“Let’s not fence,” snapped Drehkos. ‘Time is the one commodity we all lack. I have always detested you, Myros, and the decadent Ehleen perversions which you embody. But that is neither here nor there. I need your help; it is only incidental that, in order to make use of your help, I must help you to regain your previous station and grant you a degree of power. But be forewarned, Myros, none who were there- Vawnee or Morguhnee-have forgotten that night under the walls of Morguhn Hall or your craven conduct; with or without my order, you’ll be closely watched and every word you utter will be borne back to me.
“I ask your help for but one reason. With your training, you stand to gain more, and more quickly, from these books than can I, and while you are supervising the fortification projects, I can better occupy myself with the multitude of other necessities now weighing upon me. I need an answer now, Myros. Will you say ‘yea’ or ‘nay”?”
CHAPTER X
Midsummer was three weeks gone when the vanguard of the Confederation forces passed the cairns marking the Mor-guhn-Vawn border and trotted southwest along the ascending grade of the traderoad, the force strung out for miles behind them-heavily armed noble cavalry, kahtahfrahktoee, Freenghters, rank upon rank of the various types of infantry, sappers and engineers with their dismantled engines and wag-onloads of other equipment, “flesh tailors” or medical personnel and their wagons, then the seemingly endless baggage and supply train, followed by a strong mounted rearguard and flanked by scattered lancers, Freefighters and the Sanderz clansmen. The great cats had all been left in Morguhn, since their value in static warfare was practically nil and their dietary requirements-fresh meat, many pounds per day per cat-would have placed an added burden on an already harried supply service, but Milo had promised them all that when the time for the intaking of Vawnpolis came they would be speedily fetched.
That night’s camp was pitched among the hills of Vawn, centered about what had been the hall of Vahrohnos Hehrbuht Pehree, now looted and empty, but still habitable. In the high-ceilinged dining chamber were gathered the ahrkeethoheeks, the ten thoheeksee, Milo, Aldora and the siegemaster of the Confederation, just down from Kehnoor-yos Atheenahs.
On the high table about which they stood or sat reposed a huge box of sand containing a representation of Vawnpolis and its immediate environs-the countryside reproduced from army maps and the city layout from the original plans, brought from the capital.
The siegemaster, one Ehdt Gahthwahlt, a Yorkburker veteran of twenty years of campaigning across the length and breadth of the Middle Kingdoms, ere he sold his sword to the High Lord and settled in the Confederation to instruct officers in the arts of siegecraft, had personally constructed the mockup. Scratching at his grizzled, balding head, he said self-deprecatingly, “Of course, noble gentlemen and lady, we were wise to draft but the most superficial plans and stratagems at this time, for, though I followed faithfully the rendering”-he used his pointer to indicate the ceramic miniatures of walls, gates and towers, and the minuscule citadel, from whose highest point jutted a tiny pennon bearing the Ehleen Cross, emblem of the rebels-“the place was founded more than fifty years ago, and cities have a way of changing.”
Thoheeks Skaht raised his winecup. ‘Til drink to that, lord strahteegos. What you have before us could be my very own city of Skahtpolis-as it looks in the old plans and a few paintings. But the city I rule be vastly different.”
“Yes,” nodded Milo. “All the cities of border duchies were laid out from almost the same plan, the one originated by the famous Strahteegos Gabos and refined by others after his time. Even today, border cities are laid out in the same basic manner, allowing for differences in terrain and foemen.”
“At any rate, noble gentlemen and lady,” Gahthwahlt went on, “we may assume that some astute commander, at some time or other, has made compensation for the two most glaring weaknesses in the original defenses.” Again he made use of the pointer. “These two hillocks, either of which would provide perfect mounts for engines to bombard the city or to give deadly effective support to troops storming this low section of wall, have most certainly been either leveled or fortified; and this total absence of advance defenses for the four main gates has without doubt been remedied. Upon their return, our scouts will be able to enlighten us as regards these or other refinements.