Send out your flankers, friend Tikume. Give me some
time to think my way through this.’
“that’s a particularly nasty grin there, friend Kring.
“I’m a particularly nasty fellow sometimes, friend Tikume,’
Cring replied, his grin growing even wider.
“Slavers,’ Mirtai said shortly after she had peered down the rocky
%”)'”;”‘)’) w-“‘”‘”‘””ir'”‘)’)’)’ bward the village clustered around the oasis. The almost instar- hlU at the column creeping slowly across the barren brown gravel
,’n.)S~”‘-)))4″”WHaus change from the humidity of the ArJuni jungle to the
‘))-=–))’)~))”‘md Cynesgan Desert had given Sparhawk a slight headache.
‘ How can you tell at this distance?’ Bevier asked her.
Those hooded black robes,’ she replied peering again over
the boulder which concealed them. ‘Slavers wear them when
they come into Cynesga so that the local authorities won’t interfere
with them. Cynesga’s about the only place left where
slavery’s openly legal. The other kingdoms frown on it.’
There’s a thought, Sparhawk,’ Bevier said. ‘if we could get
our hands on some of those black robes, we’d be able to move
about in the desert without attracting attention.’
we don’t look very much like Arjuni, Bevier,’ Kalten objected.
“We don’t have to,’ Talen told him. ‘From what I heard back
in Beresa, there are bands of raiders out in the desert who
wOrk with the caravans in order to steal the slaves, so the Arjuni
always hire lots of fighting men of all races to help protect the
merchandise.’
“ok,” Kalten said. ‘I wonder where we could lay our hands on black robes.’
“there’s a hundred or so of them right out there,’ Bevier said, pointing
at the caravan.
“Elenes.”‘ Xanetia sighed, rolling her eyes upward.
“You’re even starting to sound like Sephrenia, Anarae,’ Sparhawk
said with a faint smile. ‘What are we overlooking?’
“Robes doubtless may be obtained in Vigayo close by,
any shade or hue will serve, Anakha,’ she explained.
‘They have to be black, Anarae,’ Bevier objected.
‘Color is an aspect of light, Sir Bevier, and I am most
skilled at controlling light.’
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I guess I didn’t think of that.’
‘I had noticed that myself – almost immediately.’
‘Be nice,’ he murmured.
Bergsten’s knights and their Peloi allies crossed the Cynesgan
border on a cloudy, chill afternoon after what seemed to be several
days of hard riding, and rode southeasterly toward the capital
at Cynestra. Peloi scouts ranged out in front, but they encountered
no resistance that day. They made camp, put out guards,
and bedded down early.
It was not long after they had broken camp and set out on
what was ostensibly the next morning that Daiya came riding
back to join Bergsten and Heldin at the head of the column. ‘My
scouts report that there are soldiers massing about a mile ahead,
your Reverence,’ he reported.
‘Cynesgans?’ Bergsten asked quickly.
‘It does not appear so, your Reverence.’
‘Go have a look, Heldin,’ Bergsten ordered.
The Pandion nodded and spurred his horse to the top of a
rocky hill a quarter mile to the front. His face was bleak when he
returned. ‘We’ve got trouble, your Grace,’ he rumbled. ‘They’re
more of those monsters we : came uP against in eastern Zemoch.’
Bergsten muttered a fairly savage oath. ‘I knew things were
going too well.’
‘Domi Tikume has warned us about these foreign soldiers,’
Daiya said. ‘Would it offend your Reverence if I suggested that
you let us deal with them? Domi Tikume and Domi Kring have
devised certain tactics that seem to work.’
‘i’m not offended in the slightest, friend Daiya,’ Bergsten
replied. ‘We didn’t exactly cover ourselves with glory the last time
we encountered those brutes, so I’d be very interested in seeing
something that’s a little more effective than our tactics were.’
Daiya conferred briefly with his clan-chiefs, and then he led
Bergsten, Heldin and several other knights up to the top of the
hill to watch.
Bergsten immediately saw the advantages of light cavalry as
opposed to armored knights mounted on heavy war-horses. The
huge soldiers in their tight-fitting armor seemed baffled by the
|%attacks of the Peloi armed with javelins. They flour,
desperately trying to close with their tormentors,
ted horses of the Peloi were simply too quick. The
o take their toll, and more and more of the hulkfell
in that deadly rain.
to force them to run, your Reverence,’ Daiya
“They’re very dangerous in close quarters, but they
don’t have much endurance, so they aren’t nearly as good in a running fight.’
Vanion told me about that,’ Bergsten said. ‘Did Domi Tikume
givee you any idea of how long it takes them to run out of breath?’
nothing very specific, your Reverence.’ ~~~.’
Bergsten shrugged. ‘That’s all right, friend Daiya. We’ve got
plenty of open ground, and it’s still morning. We can run them
all day if we have to.’
Stung by the repeated attacks, the huge soldiers began to
lummber forward in a kind of shuffling trot, brandishing their
horrid weapons and bellowing hoarse war-cries.
The Peloi, however, refused those challenges and continued
“”” their slash-and-run tactics.
Then, driven and stung beyond endurance, the creatures
broke into a shambling run.
“it’s feasible,’ Sir Heldin mused in his deep, rumbling basso.
“We’d need different equipment, though. ‘
“What are you talking about, Heldin?’ Bergsten demanded.
“looking to the future, your Grace,’ Heldin replied. ‘if those
Wats become a standard fixture, we’ll have to modify a few
things. It might not be a bad idea to train and equip a few
squadrons of Church Knights to serve as light cavalry.’
“Heldin,’ Bergsten said acidly, ‘if those things become a standard
fixture, do you think there’ll be any Church Knights at that point?’
%’)~1rd fixture, it’ll be because we’ve lost this war. What makes
“They’re breaking off, your Reverence!’
Daiya cried excitedly. They’re running away!’
“bUt where are they running to, Daiya?’ Bergsten demanded.
It’s the air that’s killing them, and the air’s everywhere. Where
can they go, Daiya? Where can they go?’
can they go?’ Kring asked in bafflement as D~l’s soldiers
K from their clumsy pursuit of the Peloi horsemen and
into the desert.
‘Who cares?’ Tikume laughed. ‘Let them run. We’ve still got
those Cyrgai penned up in that gully. We’d better get them to
moving before some clever subaltern in the rear ranks has time
to take his bearings. ‘
The Cyrgai were following a strategy from the dawn of time.
They advanced steadily, marching in step, with their large round
shields protecting their bodies and with their long spears leveled
to the front. As the Peloi slashed in on them, they would stop
and close ranks. The front rank would kneel with overlapping
shields and leveled spears. The ranks behind would close up,
their shields also overlapping and spears also to the front.
It was absolutely beautiful – but it didn’t accomplish anything
at all against cavalry.
‘We have to get them to run, Domi Tikume!’ gring shouted to
his friend as they galloped clear of the massed Cyrgai regiments
again. ‘Pull your children back a little further after the next
attack! This won’t work if those antiques just keep plodding!
Make them run!’
Tikume shouted some orders, and his horsemen altered their
tactics, pulling back several hundred yards and forcing the
Cyrgai to come to them.
A brazen trumpet sounded from the center of one of the
advancing regimental squares, and the Cyrgai broke into a gingling
trot, their ranks still perfectly straight.
‘They look good, don’t they?’ Tikume laughed.
‘They would if this was a parade-ground,’ Kring replied. ‘Let’s
sting them again and then pull back even further.’
‘How far is it to the border?’ Tikume asked.
‘Who knows? Nobody I’ve talked with is really sure. We’re
close, though. Make them run, Tikume make them run!’
Tikume rose in his stirrups. ‘Pass the word!’ he bellowed. ‘Full
retreat!’
The Peloi turned tail and galloped to the east across the rattling
brown gravel. A thin cheer went up from the massed regiments of the
Cyrgai, and the trumpet sounded again. The ancient soldiers,
still in perfect step and with their ranks still perfectly straight
broke into a running charge. Sergeants barked the staccato cadence,
and the sound of the half-boots of the Cyrgai beating on
the barren ground was like the pounding of some huge drum.
And then the full light of a winter midday dimmed as if some
Frit, silent wings had somehow blotted out the sun. A chill
wind swept across the desert, and there was a wailing sound
like the sum of human woe.
The suddenly stricken Cyrgai, rank upon rank, died soundlesly
in mid-stride, falling limply to earth to be trampled by
their blindly advancing comrades, who also fell, astonished, on
top of them.
Kring and Tikume, both pale and trembling, watched in awestruck
wonder as the ancient Styric curse did its dreadful work.
Then, sickened, they wheeled and rode back eastward, turning
their backs on the perfect soldiers rushing blindly into chill,
wailing obliteration.