Chapter 10

We have nearly completed our meat contract with Oricantha and the time has come for us to consider our next move. I suppose we could stay here at Oricantha, but most of the people want to move on. I'm inclined to do that, too, but I can't help worrying about what the warlord, Imhab, will do. I'm virtually certain that he will shut off the meat supply to Oricantha as soon as we leave. I don't want to be the world's policeman, but I hate to see such nice people being abused by a bully.

Tomorrow, we will be finished with the contract, so I will go see about collecting our money the day after tomorrow. I hope that there's no problem about us being paid, because I would hate to see a war start over such a piddling thing, but the Olgars have such a strong sense of honor, that missing even a penny would move them to war. Of course, 20,000 copper pennies is not such a piddling amount in this day and age.

"Good day, Gentlemen. I am here to collect the 20,000 copper pennies you owe to us for supplying you with the 200 auroch carcasses."

"Dear Sir, we are in a great and terrible strait. Imhab has sent word that he will attack us if we pay you that money. He claims that you stole the meat from his herd, and the money is rightly his. We disagree, but what can we do?"

"That is hardly our problem, Gentlemen. I have a valid contract that I expect you to honor. I can tell you this, if you fail to pay, I will not be able to keep my people from laying siege to Oricantha. That is not a threat, that is a promise!"

"We have a counter offer, Sir. You have defeated Imhab twice, already, so you should find our offer attractive. We will pay you another 20,000 copper pennies if you will fight and defeat Imhab so that he cannot attack Oricantha ever."

"Very well, I will promise you this. Pay us the 20,000 copper pennies you currently owe us, and I will present your proposal to my chief. The odds are even as to what he will decide, but I will counsel him to accept your offer. What do you say to that? Oh, I must remind you of my previous comment about what will happen if you fail to pay us what you owe."

"Please give us some time to discuss your position. We cannot decide on the spur of the moment."

"Very well, then. I will give you one hour to make up your minds. I will also remind you that we are in an excellent position to cut off Oricantha's water supply."

They blanched at that remark, so I was pretty sure what the answer would be when I came back in one hour. I bowed and left the room to visit the nearest tavern while they deliberated. Wogal and his two men drank three mugs of beer while we waited, but I carefully nursed a single mug, since I didn't want muddled thoughts when I went back to face the town fathers.

I was in no hurry to return to the council room as I wanted those old men to sweat a little. We showed up 15 minutes late, and the effect of the delay was obvious. They practically fell all over themselves welcoming me back. To one side of the room was a small cart with four large leather bags on it. I assumed that it was our 20,000 copper pennies. I was right.

They gave me a contract to take with me back to camp. The contract spelled out that they would pay 20,000 copper pennies, or its equivalent, in cash metal coins if we would insure that Imhab would never threaten the town of Oricantha again. Well, this was not exactly the same as our original discussion, and I pointed out that I noticed the difference, but, if it was truly what they wanted, I would present it to Chief Umgallah.

It took all four of us to roll out that cart holding the money, and we had to call for help from the camp to get it safely down the steps. We transferred the money to a wagon from the camp and left the little cart at the bottom of the steps leading to the town hall.

A crew, supervised by Homer, started counting the money as soon as we got back to the camp, and Wogal and I went in to see Chief Umgallah. The poor man was very sick. I was afraid to bother him with the plea from the town fathers, but he asked for a detailed report of everything that had happened. Chief Umgallah laughed at my threat to the town if they did not pay up and nodded his approval of my handling of the situation.

He was a bit less enthusiastic about attacking Imhab, but Wogal was in favor, so he left the question up to me to decide. If I said attack, we attacked. If I said forget it, we forgot it. The situation was as simple as that. Shit! Now what do I do? I thoroughly disliked Imhab on principle, but I did not want to be responsible for people dying unnecessarily. I decided to stall by saying that I wanted more information before deciding. Actually, that was true, but it was also a stall.

It was still early enough in the day that there was time for a little scouting of Imhab's stronghold. I figured that I could get the information I needed by a quick glance at his place and seeing what would be necessary for a siege. If a big siege was going to be required, I was going to back off, because the Olgars were just not emotionally equipped for that kind of fight.

Wogal and I took 10 men and went to look at what we had to work with. My God, this was a formidable stronghold. It was a virtual stone castle standing on a steep hill surrounded by a wide, treeless plain. There was no way anybody was going to sneak up on Imhab!

The castle was surrounded by a low stone wall, about 2.5 m high and about that thick situated at the base of the hill. That meant that an attacker had to breach the wall before getting within 100 m of the castle, itself. Under those circumstances, with current technology, there was no way an attacker could reach the castle without a tremendous expenditure of time and effort getting through that outer wall. On top of that, the castle was about 20 m above the plain, so that the defenders would be shooting down, while the attackers would have an almost impossible angle and distance to shoot up.

The castle was well beyond normal accurate arrow range, and that was the only missile weapon common around here. Siege artillery, such as trebuchets, could reach the castle, but no one around here knew anything about them. I could build one if I could find the raw material, but I wanted that to be a last resort.

OK, we were all impressed, but that was not accomplishing much for us. It looked to me like subterfuge was a better weapon than brute force if we were going to win. In any case, my curiosity was aroused, and I wanted to meet this Imhab character. There was a slight possibility that a compromise could be worked out, so I wanted to test that, first.

What the hell? I was always the impetuous type, so I decided that a visit to the castle might tell us a hell of a lot. Wogal was against it, but I pointed out that I had my gun, and that counted for a lot at a time like this. It looked like nothing the opposition had ever seen before, so they would probably ignore it. I also had a couple of hand grenades with me, so I was feeling kind of cocky. Wogal finally backed down, but he did leave one man outside the wall to ride to camp with word if we did not return in a reasonable time. I figured a couple of hours would be time enough.

We rode up to the main gate and announced that we wanted to visit Imhab to discuss an important matter of state. The sergeant of the guard was impressed by us, so he sent a messenger to the castle with our request. I was amazed at how quickly an answer came back that we were to be admitted.

The road up to the castle had to be close to 1 klick long because of all of the necessary switchbacks. Whoever built this place had done an impressive job of defensive design.

We finally reached the castle entrance, and that was in keeping with the rest of the structure. It looked to me like the whole outer appearance of the structure was meant to awe any visitor. It was doing that job on me! The doors were a good 8 m tall and about 25 cm thick. They were so well balanced, though, that one man could open them once the inertia was overcome.