Doom's Break (42 page)

Thru studied the catapult sites and found that the weapons were set on wheeled limbers and could be turned in any direction in a minute or two. Where the ground had interfered with flexibility, Major Heeve had had his mots remove obstructions, level hillocks, and fill in declivities. When Thru looked eastward, he could see down on Norvory's positions with the V of his trenches faintly visible in the dark.

Thru returned to his command post, took some tea, and studied the scouting reports. The enemy horsemen were still active in Lupin Valley, but there had been no sign of the pyluk since they had been pulled off the battlefield in the early morning.

At last, worn to the bone by a day of upheaval, Thru wrapped himself in his blanket and tried to sleep in the small personal tent set up for Toshak. For a while his mind refused to let go, and he continued to fret about the army's positions, but eventually exhaustion overtook him and he fell into a dreamless sleep.

He was awoken hours later by a hand shaking his shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Begging your pardon, sir, but the enemy has started that drumming again."

Thru scrambled out of the tent and pulled on his cheek fur to wake himself. An orderly handed him a mug of steaming hot tea, which did wonders.

"What hour is it?"

"Middle of the night, sir."

Thru heard a single drum booming steadily on the far side of the river. There was something dreadful and malevolent in the sound, especially as they knew now what such drumming could portend.

"Any movements?"

"Some reports, sir. Down by the river, but hard to see from up here."

Thru took the spyglass and studied the far bank of the river.

The moon cast a gentle light across the scene, and its illumination was aided by that of a large fire burning in the center of the enemy camp. He saw the familiar tents and piles of materiel that he had seen many times the day before. But there were also companies of men on the move. The bridge over the Shell was darkened with masses of men. No obvious pattern could be seen from all this activity, however.

"Perhaps he is simply resting some units and moving other units to the front ranks," said Thru, setting down the spyglass. "What about on the right?"

"No reports for a while."

"Send a messenger to the right wing. Tell them to redouble their vigilance."

"Something's happening, sir!" said Captain Blen.

The enemy's bonfire had grown very bright. The pace of the drumming had increased. Dark shapes could be seen flickering across the firelight. In both allied armies, every spyglass available was studying that fire and the activity on the far bank of the river.

Thus they missed the Old One's next little surprise.

Three regiments, his best troops, had been carefully taken from the main body of the army, moved back over the bridge, and then put on boats and ferried around Cormorant Rock to a landing spot on the Rocky Canyon. Mixed in with all the other traffic between the ships and the shore, these boatloads of troops had been missed by Aeswiren's surveillance team.

The Old One himself had gone with them, and by use of subtle magic had confused and baffled the handful of guards that Aeswiren had set out there to keep an eye on the bay and report any fleet movements.

Thus, no one saw the enemy regiments climb the cliff paths and form up in the scrub on the crest of Blue Hill. While Thru and everyone else studied that blazing fire for clues to his intentions, the Old One readied a nasty surprise for Aeswiren's left flank.

When it came, it was devastating. Suddenly, pouring across the top of Blue Hill, the Old One's crack regiments swept over the flank units and raced right into Aeswiren's camp.

It happened so quickly that no one had any time to react.

Aeswiren and his staff were studying the huge bonfire blazing on the far side of the river. The distance was more than a mile. Troop movements had been reported closer at hand, too, on the left side of the line. In the moonlight it was hard to see more than that the regiments there were awake and set out in long lines. Aeswiren had immediately warned the Second and Fourth Regiments, which held the left end of the line, to be alert and ready to respond. A night attack was improbable. The risks and casualties of such an effort would be immense, but Aeswiren knew that their enemy would be increasingly desperate after the failures of his sorcery and repeated attacks the previous day.

And then, from nowhere it seemed, came a flood of enemy troops, streaming down from the crest of the hill into the rear of the Second and Fourth, and right into Aeswiren's command post.

For the second time inside a day, the Emperor himself was caught up in the swirling fighting. But this time the effect of surprise was complete. The Second Regiment, at the far end of the line, was under attack from below and from behind. The line contracted as the regiment broke and fled to the rear of the Fourth Regiment.

Aeswiren had the Third Regiment and a company of remnants from the Blitz Regiment held in reserve, but he had no opportunity to get any orders to them. He and his staff were too busy fighting just to stay alive. Fortunately, these veterans didn't need orders to see what had to be done. They drove into the flank assault and brought it to a halt, at least in the area behind the center of Aeswiren's army.

Alas, the damage was done, for the enemy had now set off a massive night attack directly at the left side of the Emperor's forces. The Second Regiment, flanked, had broken. Now the Fourth Regiment collapsed under impossible pressure. Together with the Second, they flowed to the rear, and Aeswiren and his staff were forced to go with them.

The reserve force, led by the Blitzer remnants, formed a line and slowed the enemy advance over the next few critical minutes. Captain Klutz and Sergeant Rukkh, both old-line Blitzers, acted with furious courage during this crucial period. They bought Aeswiren's army a lifeline.

While they did this, the Emperor and his personal staff were able to fight their way free of the immediate battle. Yet, at this point, after he had survived half an hour of sword and spear fighting at close quarters, Aeswiren was hit. A stray arrow plunged from high above and sank into his shoulder through the gap between his helmet and his shoulder plate.

The arrow went deep, and though the Emperor tried to carry on, it was impossible. He collapsed and was placed on a litter and carried through the last fifty yards of danger to a new command post.

He was alive but weakening from a steady loss of blood. The arrow was too deep for anything but a surgical removal.

His army teetered on the brink of disaster and, with it, the cause of the people of the Land.

Thru was apprised of these events in short order. Even before Aeswiren was wounded, Thru had messengers leaping through his own army. He sent others south, across Blue Hill to warn Nuza at the field hospital.

Within a handful of minutes, he was able to send a regiment, the Sixth, across the hill to bolster Aeswiren's regiments. Soon he added the Eleventh Regiment, a force of country mots from Dristen. The pressure of the Eleventh on the enemy's flank at the extreme left of the line finally brought the attack to a halt. A new allied line was established, snaking across the top of Blue Hill's northern end. The right flank of Thru's army was now almost cut off on the extension of Blue Hill that it occupied. The enemy had pressed to within fifty yards of the only road on the hill, the coastal road that ran down to Bear Hill and Warkeen village and the crossing of the Dristen. Thru sent orders for the catapults to be pulled back at once and sent south to new positions on the northern side of Bear Hill.

When he heard that Aeswiren had been critically wounded, he sent a messenger to fetch Surgeon Biswas then left his own command post and ran at full tilt to find the Emperor. The guards, obviously shaken, bristled at the sight of him, but he reminded them in their own tongue who he was and they let him pass.

Around the Emperor he found a tight knot of staff officers. Aeswiren was propped up on a litter and his normal ruddy face was pale, but he was still alive.

"Lord, how bad is it?" said Thru as he pressed to the fore.

"Ah, General Gillo is here." Aeswiren reached out to take Thru's hand. "Everyone, take note of my words. If I should fail here, you are to listen to this fellow. He is the commander of the army of Dronned, our allies. Listen to him and cooperate to the fullest. It's the only way we'll turn this around. D'you hear me?"

The Emperor stopped talking, too exhausted to continue.

Some of the regimental commanders were gathered to one side.

Thru found himself beside two staff officers. One of them shook his hand. "Hello, I'm Major Balderi. We've met before, of course, but we haven't spoken."

Thru recognized Balderi and the other officer, Soames, who also stretched out a hand.

"We have a problem," said Balderi. "If the men learn that Aeswiren is dying, they will lose heart. You probably don't need us to remind you that this is Aeswiren's army."

"I understand," said Thru as calmly as possible. "I am in the process of extracting my force from the right side of the position. We need to hold this line for now, and then retire to the next hill south."

"This is General Toshak's plan?"

"Yes. General Toshak was extremely thorough. He had worked up a plan for an emergency like this. There are positions there, partly prepared, that we can occupy to deny the enemy access to the bridge at Warkeen."

"We will hold," said Major Soames. "But if the Emperor dies, we will face a crisis."

Thru nodded. He turned and made his way back to Aeswiren's side. "Lord, can you hear me?"

"Yes, it's Gillo, isn't it? Sorry this had to happen. Enemy really caught us napping. Must have landed a force behind us. Don't know why I wasn't warned."

"We have a new line, and we have stopped his attack. We are not beaten yet."

"That's good news. I'm afraid that I may be beaten, though."

"I have sent for Surgeon Biswas. He was at the field hospital, working with Nuza."

"Nuza?" Aeswiren's eyes lit up for a moment.

"Biswas will save you, if anyone can. But I have another idea: What if Mentu came here and pretended to be you?"

"Mentupah?"

"Yes."

Aeswiren's quick mind was still alert enough to see the possibilities. "Damn me, but it's a chance. Even if I die, if Mentu can convince the men that I'm still alive, they'll fight to the bitter end."

"They will."

"Do it."

Thru wrote out the message. He wanted to take it himself, but Mentu was at least two miles down the coast, and he could not be absent from his command post a minute longer. The fighting might resume at any moment.

He was about to send one of Aeswiren's men when Filek Biswas and Simona came hurrying up out of the dark.

Biswas knelt down beside the Emperor.

"Thru," said Simona as she fell into his arms, weeping.

"Simona. You are just the person I need."

"What is it? What can I do?"

"The Emperor cannot stand. He may not even live through the night. But he must show himself to his men tonight or they will lose heart. The enemy is bound to attack again at dawn. He has come close to victory but is not quite there. I must hold him off until Sulmo comes.

"Until they come, this army must not lose heart. I need Mentu to come here. Mentu must face his destiny."

Simona's eyes widened. The Emperor was obviously not going to rise from that litter this night. Filek was already having the litter moved into a tent, which had been hurriedly set up behind the temporary command post. Officers from all over the army had converged there to get fresh orders. Soames and Balderi were answering questions, but clearly more was needed.

Thru took a deep breath. Simona gripped his hand.

"I will run all the way. Mentu will come. I will tell him he can do it."

"He can do it. The question is whether the army officers will accept it."

"They will listen to you, Thru. They must listen."

Simona left word with her father, then hurried away.

Thru marched over to speak to the knot of senior officers. In a few careful words he explained his plan. They recoiled. Then, after a few moments' reflection, they began to discuss it.

"It is a possible line of action," said Colonel Jejeji of the First Regiment. "Better than giving up."

"If we lose, we all go to the priests. They won't be gentle with us either."

"Well, I for one will die on my feet here, not tied over their fornicating altar."

And so Thru gained the support of the senior officers for his plan.

Inside the tent, he found Filek Biswas engaged in surgery. The Emperor was unconscious, the arrow was out, and Filek was cleaning the wound with spirits of alcohol and sewing it up.

"Will he live?" That was all Thru wanted to know.

"I cannot say. If the wounds do not suppurate, then he should live. He is a strong man, in good health. But this is a deep wound, and the arrow was in the flesh for a long time. Infection is the usual result, and it is often fatal."

Thru could not stay any longer. He left, again at a run, and crossed back to his own command post, where he found his staff frantic with anxiety over his absence.

The catapults and wagons were already in a line, slowly lumbering back over the top of the hill and onto the southward trail. Thru studied the scouting reports that had accumulated in his absence. The position was stretched tight across the top of the hill on a diagonal. He began the process of extracting the right flank from the northeast end of the hill and moving it south to line up on the right side of a new line that would stretch across the hill at its narrowest point. The right flank there would end on a steep slope, with forest all around and Lupin Valley below. The center would rest on open ground on either side of the coast road. And the left, to be held by Aeswiren's army, would be on the coastward side, which was mostly open ground with occasional clumps of trees where some soil had settled into the chalk.

This shorter line was the one that Thru hoped could be held until General Ter-Saab and Aeswiren's fleet arrived from Sulmo. He could only pray he would have enough time. And that Simona could persuade Mentu to go along with his plan.