‘How will the battle be planned?’
Banouin thought about it. ‘Fifteen thousand men means four Panthers and a wing of cavalry. Each Panther is made up of three thousand fighting foot soldiers. The cavalry will be auxiliaries, tribesmen who are enemies of the Perdii. Jasaray will march into Perdii territory and try to coax the enemy into a mass charge. They will break upon his battle lines like water upon rock.’
‘What if they do not attack him in that way?’
‘Then he will raze their villages and settlements, taking their women and children into slavery. He will destroy their crops and cripple their economy. They will have to fight him.’
Banouin also took the time on the journey to continue teaching Conn more of the Turgon tongue, the language and history of Stone. Defeated in a distant war four hundred years ago, the survivors had fled across the sea to found a new city. They had seen a blazing sign in the sky, a huge rock streaking from the clouds, trailing fire. It struck a wooded hilltop, levelling all the trees. On this newly flattened land they had built a temple, and around it a stockaded town. As the years passed they subdued surrounding tribesmen, and extended their authority. Gradually the wooden town became a stone city, with great walls, and aqueducts, temples and places of learning.
Conn listened intently, but his attention grew more avid only when Banouin talked of wars and strategies, and of the peoples conquered during the last twenty years. Great had been the suffering, said Banouin, and the destruction.
‘I hate them,’ said Conn. ‘What they are doing is evil.’
‘In what way evil?’ asked Banouin, as they led the six pack ponies slowly along the crest of a series of wooded hills.
Conn pointed down to a small settlement along the banks of a river. ‘Those people have their own lives,’ he said, ‘each dependent on the skills of his neighbour. They are a community. They live and thrive. It is a good life. I know this, for it is the same among the Rigante. They care for one another. The Stone people will take away what they have by conquest. Surely that is evil?’
‘The question is much wider than that,’ said Banouin, reining in his pony. ‘Come,’ he said, swinging his mount. ‘We will take a detour to the high country.’
‘Why?’
Banouin smiled. ‘There are sights there you should see.’
They rode through the morning and into the afternoon, ever higher. Both riders unfurled their cloaks, for the wind was colder here. By dusk they had reached a thinly wooded ridge of land and Banouin dismounted, leading the ponies into a shallow cave, where he built a fire and prepared a meal of rich stew. In the firelight Conn saw that the walls of the cave were covered with paintings: deer and bison, lion and bear. Here and there were hand prints in faded red, large hands, with long thumbs.
‘Who made these?’ he asked Banouin.
‘The Old Ones. There are still some of them living in the high country, hiding from the world. Very few now. Perhaps a hundred or so. They are like us – and yet not like us. They are heavy browed, and have huge jaws.’
‘Ah yes,’ said Conn, with a smile, ‘the Ugly Folk. They used to dwell near the Seidh woods. Our legends tell how they stole babies and ate them. They were destroyed by Elagareth hundreds of years ago.’
Banouin shook his head. ‘They ate no babies, Conn. They were
– and are – a primitive folk, with tools of flint. Leaf eaters, root grubbers. Occasionally they would hunt down a deer and devour its meat raw. But they were not cannibals. I have visited their few remaining settlements. They are a gentle people, with no understanding of the savage violence we carry in our hearts.’
‘So you brought me here to see these paintings?’
‘Not just the paintings. I wanted you to think about the people who roamed these lands for thousands of years, living free, without wars. Then, one day, a new race came, with bright swords of bronze, and bows that could send death over a distance. They slaughtered the people, driving them high into the cold country. Even now if one of the people is seen hunting parties will gather to give chase and do murder. These murderous newcomers took the lands of the people, and settled them, building farms and settlements. You understand?’