Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass (11 page)

"Wise words that," I agreed. "Let's go check on the supplies, then I think we can have dinner and call it a night."

"Yes, lets."

Ten

Sea of Grass

"Ahhhh, am I glad to be out of there," Rachel sighed as we rode together near the front of the column. We had left Tradeson about an hour ago. The two days there had allowed Rachel to see and be seen, as she had wished, and to make a good impression on the people there. Other than that however, it had mostly just been official tours, official visits, and politicking. Something Rachel excelled at, but which I found rather boring.

"Really, Your Majesty?" Second Carso replied to her comment looking surprised.

"It's a nice city, but it's too flat, and that high wall around it just makes it feel confining," Rachel replied.

"That's your nomadic roots speaking," I said with a laugh.

"Maybe," Rachel agreed, "But walls don't stop armies, just raiders and animals."

"The best defense is a strong offense?" I asked.

Rachel started and gave me a look, "I like that! Where'd you hear it?"

I started; I forgot sometimes that many of the things I thought of, as common wisdom, hadn't been learned here yet.

"It comes from my homeland," I told them. I noticed Second Carso and his aide, Fourth Leto, were both looking at me curiously.

"Any other gems to share?" Rachel asked grinning at me.

"I heard him once say that fixed defenses are monuments to stupidity," Second Carso told her.

Rachel pondered that a moment and then nodded, "I can see where that would be true." She looked at me again, "Any more?"

I thought about that, "Get there fustest with the mostest," I said.

"Well, that's a curious one."

I shrugged, "It was from a famous Cavalry leader many years ago back home. I think the original quote was about always getting their first with the most soldiers."

Rachel nodded, "Is that why you're so hot for the cavalry?"

"That's part of it. Remember, we won Rivervail because we were able to move the entire army a long distance in a very short time. The only reasons we won as easily as we did was because the Mulanders never expected it, and never had time to organize or regroup. It was our speed that did it more than the size of our army that day."

Rachel nodded.

"And of course, here is one of the most important to remember, even if people hate it. ‘He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.'"

That one got me some startled looks from all those around me.

"Sounds like cowardice to me!" Second Carso said, and even Rachel looked a bit shocked.

"When you're losing, and you know you're not going to win, what does fighting to the end do for your queen? Your kingdom?" I said looking at all of them. "When a fight becomes un-winnable, it is your duty as an officer to get your men out of there, save as many as you can, to regroup and try again. Hopefully, with better numbers and a more favorable terrain.

"Remember that you all have a duty, and that duty is to win. Losing is not winning. Fighting to the death may be honorable, and at times it may be necessary. But retreating, rebuilding, and coming back later to win, that is what will keep your women, your families, and your queen safe."

I watched as they all considered that.

"Still, I don't know," Fourth Leto said.

"Back where I come from, there was once a great and powerful army that attacked a weaker neighbor. The weak neighbor knew it could not win, so they engaged in small skirmishes, and retreated, again and again. They did that for almost a year. When winter came, the attacker was stretched out across almost the entire country; they had spread themselves thin, thinking of only the easy victories that they had.

"But the locals, they knew how to fight in the harsh winter of their native lands, and they turned on the attackers then, and using the weather, and having had many months to build their forces up from the many displaced refugees. They not only forced the invaders out, but took many of the invaders' lands and attacked their capitol.

"They retreated, or 'ran away' to buy time and wait for more favorable conditions. In the end, they won the war and the other side lost everything."

Second Carso nodded his head, and even the Fourth seemed to agreed as well. "That must have been a very hard decision for their leader to make," Rachel said.

"I don't doubt that it was," I agreed. "If the Mulanders had the brains to disengage at the start of the battle, when it was clear that they couldn't win against us, they'd still be here. But they took an 'all or nothing' philosophy."

"And ended up with nothing," Fourth Leto said nodding.

"Exactly."

"I must say, I am impressed with your understanding of war," Second Carso said.

I laughed, "My sister is the real expert. She was a professional soldier for years."

"Ah, so did she teach you this?"

"Some," I admitted, "but I've had some other teachers over the years."

"Up until we fought that last battle against the Mulanders," Rachel said, "the largest battle we'd ever been in involved ten thousand soldiers, and that happened when my father was a young man. Most of the fights we've had over the last two decades only involved a thousand soldiers from our side. My army is the biggest it has ever been before and honestly there has been a lot of pressure to reduce the size."

"But, Your Majesty, you are the queen; your word is the law!" Fourth Leto interjected.

"Economics is a law all unto itself, Leto," Rachel said. "That's why I wanted to ride out here with all of you and see how well you did. If what William tells us works, then we can have a smaller standing army."

"How big is the army now, Your Majesty?"

"Close to twenty thousand, but that decreases significantly during the spring planting and the fall harvest. I'd like to get it down to about half that, but until Barassa is dealt with, we really can't afford to."

"How big is their army?"

"We estimate it to be around forty thousand," Second Carso said.

"That much?" Fourth Leto looked shocked.

"King Stivik has made a lot of money dealing in slaves. That has allowed him to keep a very large standing army, and in times of war he can easily afford to call up his own levies and hire mercenaries to double that size."

"And hence your mission," Rachel interrupted. "You starve his markets of slaves, he will have less money to pay for his army, and his army will shrink."

"Don't you think he'll just attack us instead?" Fourth Leto asked.

"He might," I said. "Which is why we need to build up our cavalry, which will give us an edge if he does. Of course we're a long way up river, there are other neighbors of his that are closer, I suspect he'd attack them before he attacked us."

"Well, I sure hope so," Second Carso said.

"Me too," I muttered softly.

We were met about a mile from where the Glisan summer village was located; I was surprised to see that Chief Rain Walker was leading the group that met us.

"Greetings, William," He said raising his hand and nodding to me when we met them at the head of the column.

"Chief Rain Walker," I said raising my hand in greeting as well, "Allow me to make some introductions," I nodded to Second Carso, "This is Second Carso, the officer in charge of the Cavalry, his Thirds: Sylace and Lokan," I introduced Carso's aide as well because he was there.

"And most important of all, I would like to introduce my wife, Queen Rachel of the Hilands. Your Highness, Chief Rain Walker of the Glisan tribe."

I noticed the chief's eyes widen slightly when I introduced Rachel, while the rest of his party's tails all went straight in shocked surprise.

"You honor us with your presence, Queen Rachel," He said and gave a slight bow from the saddle. "William," He said turning to me. "I don't think our camp has enough room for your group, there is a place not far from here that would be better suited for most of them however."

"How many of our group do you think we could bring to the village?" I inquired. I could understand him not wanting eight hundred or so soldiers that he did not control in his village.

"Twelve would be fine, but no more I would say."

"Oh, I don't think we need that many, do you, Will?" Rachel said smiling. "Second Carso, his aide, Third Sylace, and Sergeant Mikals should be more than enough for any discussions."

I looked at her and smiled, "I would agree, hon."

Rachel smiled back, "Make it so please, Second Carso."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" He said and saluted, then detailed his orders to his officers.

"Who will be leading them to the camp, Sir?" He asked Chief Rain Walker.

A male and female detached themselves from the group and Rain Walker nodded to them.

"Lokan, follow them to the campsite and set the men up to stay a few days."

"Yessir!" Lokan said and saluted.

"Why don't we let them get themselves sorted out, Chief," Rachel said.

Chief Rain Walker nodded, "Come, I would show you my tribe, Your Highness, and please, call me Rain, we are not much for titles among the People."

"Thank you, Rain," Rachel said and nodded. I noticed she did not extend the same courtesy to him, and I honestly didn't expect her to, she ruled a kingdom after all. Few people could get away without acknowledging her position and just call her by name.

As we rode in I pointed out to Rachel the few things I had learned in my time there, the different color pennants that marked the teepees of the important members of the tribe: blue for the chief, black for the war leader, green for the healer, brown for the pack master, red for the hunt leader, white for the herbalist.

When we passed the teepee for Fel's priests, I was surprised to only see Steve. He waved to me, and then did a double take when he saw Rachel there as well, and bowed to her as we rode past.

When we got to the chief's tent, we dismounted and a couple of youngsters led our wolats off after we removed our gear and set it on the ground. Most of Rachel's stuff was packed on another wolat that was with the rest of the soldiers. I hadn't thought to bring it along, if it became a problem I would send for it.

"Please, come inside, and share a meal. I'm sure you must be hungry after riding all day."

I nodded and allowed Rachel to go in first, following her next, with Carso, Sylace, and Leto behind me.

I noticed that there was one less bed inside than there had been before.

"Rees move out?" I asked curious.

"Smoke Dancer has moved her home to be with Rhys. It would seem that my daughter has finally chosen."

I nodded as we all sat at the table, "But not Rees?"

"Oh, he has chosen too, and rather well. His wife shares his bed now."

I nodded and thought about that. These teepees didn't really allow any privacy. Then again, if you grew up with it, it probably wasn't that big a deal.

Rain Walker introduced his wife Serene Rider to Rachel and the others, and then we made general small talk about the tribe while she and Rees's wife, her new daughter-in-law Water, served us.

"So, Queen Rachel," Chief Rain Walker asked after we had finished eating and were now relaxing, "what are your plans for my people?"

Rachel smiled, "What makes you think I have plans for your people?"

Chief Rain Walker returned the smile, "Because you are here. You lead a great many people, you have many responsibilities, but you took time away from them to visit the People. As a leader myself I know you would not have come here if you did not have plans of your own. So I must ask, what are your plans for my people?"

Rachel nodded, "Very astute, though in all fairness, part of why I am here is truly to spend time with my husband," She looked over at me and smiled. I smiled back and was curious as to where this would go. I knew she had plans for the Mowoks, she'd even told me what they were.

"My plans are however fairly simple; I want to be allies, and hopefully friends."

"That is all?" Chief Rain Walker asked shrewdly.

Rachel laughed, "Oh, I'd love to have all of you as members of my kingdom, and your lands as part of it as well. But I don't expect that to happen in my lifetime, if ever. William is fascinated by you and your people. He thinks an alliance would benefit all of us.

"So I have come out here with him to see if it is so."

Chief Rain Walker thought about that a moment and nodded, "We have had a productive trade with Tradeson for many years. They have been good neighbors to the People. I have talked with the other chiefs and of course they would all like to see that stay as it has. But as for any alliance, we would have to spend time discussing that."

Rachel nodded, "I do not expect an answer anytime soon."

"I am surprised that you would be interested in an alliance with the People," Serene Rider said from where she was standing. "You are people of the cities and towns, not riders of the plains."

Rachel nodded, "That is true, now. But my people once roamed the mountains and moved with the seasons as you do. Circumstances in our past made us change our ways and settle where we live now. But not so far in our past that the stories are no longer told and the traditions of those times have not died out.