“You are another Christian war sharf? Another military genius in a red hat? There are so many of you.” Blacktooth found himself unable to avoid echoing Bråm’s sarcastic tone, although he could see that the cardinal was beginning to seethe. “But what will stop the Texark cavalry from riding right straight into the heart of the Valley of the Gleps to take the wagons away from you?”
“Why, we hoped to cross over by night, unknown to them. But you ruined that by warning them. And the treaty between…”
Hadala’s explanation was cut off by a Grasshopper war cry. Someone shouted that a large dust cloud and a probable party of horsemen was seen in the east.
“They’ve decided to come and get you themselves, glep priest,” said Bråm with a savage smile. “Now, we are going to get out of the way. Aren’t you lucky? You can fight them instead of us.”
All Nomads took immediately to horseback, and Blacktooth watched them ride away toward the northwest. He was tempted to mount up and ride after them, but Ulad had threatened to shoot him in the back for desertion if he again broke ranks.
Hadala looked at him for a moment. “Do you have an opinion, Brother Corporal St. George?” he demanded sternly.
“Those riders will be here in a few minutes. That is my opinion, Your Eminence.” Blacktooth turned and broke into a trot toward the wagons. Sorely Nauwhat and the major had been standing there watching the meeting between Bråm and Cardinal Hadala until the shouting started, but Nauwhat had faded from view.
“Cardinal Hadala’s done with you, Private St. George!” Gleaver snapped at him. “Report to Sergeant Ulad. Get your arms buckled on, and get in the saddle.”
Still wearing corporal’s chevrons, Nimmy took note of his reduction in rank without openly acknowledging it. Earlier in the day, the major had been yelling at him about a court-martial and the gallows, so the demotion was a welcome commutation of sentence. When Ulad looked at him, however, he could still see a readiness to kill.
Having observed the Grasshopper withdrawal, the Texark commander halted his advance just beyond rifle range. The troopers dismounted. Some of them began digging.
Demon Light drew up his warriors in a half circle just out of range to the west of the Valanan brigade’s position. Blacktooth had no doubt that they would fight to prevent the guns and ammunition from falling into the hands of the imperial forces, but they would not begin to fight until Hadala and his men were defeated by those forces. The Valanan light horse, untested troops and their spook commanders, were sandwiched between two superior war bands.
It was almost nightfall on Tuesday the 2nd of August. The moon rose an hour after sundown. During that hour, Sorely Nauwhat vanished, never to be seen again west of Texark frontiers.
“There is going to be a mutiny,” Aberlott whispered to Blacktooth at the first opportunity, “unless the glep cardinal quits.”
Nimmy shook his head. “These townsmen could mutiny in Valana, but not out here between two unfriendly armies.”
Chuntar Hadala remained at the head of his command. Sergeant Ulad shot a deserter who made a break for Grasshopper lines during the night. When the body was dragged back to camp, it turned out to be the cardinal’s Grasshopper guide, who was only quitting his job to return to his people.
Blacktooth told Aberlott: “He was the sharf’s man, and here we all are in the sharf’s jurisdiction—so look at the sergeant now.” The monk was remembering how Ulad at their first meeting in Valana had expressed hate for all Nomads. But now that he had killed one, he showed in his face not satisfaction but an astonishing fright.
CHAPTER 24
If a brother who through his own fault
leaves the monastery should wish to return,
let him first promise full reparation for
his having gone away; and then let him be
received in the lowest place, as a test of his humility.
—Saint Benedict’s Rule, Chapter 29
FRIGHT, THE MOTHER OF HATRED, POSSESSED the whole militia, but there was nowhere to run. Behind them, the Grasshopper; in front of them, the Emperor. Prowling among them were Chuntar Hadala, and two willing killers of conscripts: the major and Ulad. The flanks were faced with fires, but it was an unusually windless day. The fires had been set in the night, and no one was sure who set them, but because of the calm air nobody worried about them much. Before dawn, Ulad and three husky townsmen unloaded two cannon from the wagons and dragged them forward to face the foe to the east. Then they unloaded two more and aimed them toward the Nomads. The sharf watched them do it, then broke his forces into two equal groups. He moved one group north and one south; they halted so as to face the Valanans from the southwest and northwest. Ulad rearranged the cannon accordingly, but the Nomad movement spoke of no need for cannon. The way west was wide open, by invitation of the sharf. In Blacktooth’s opinion, acceptance was the only sane thing to do, but Chuntar Cardinal Hadala was adamant.
“All you who repent your sins, I absolve you,” he announced to the assembled troops at dawn, “in nomine patris, filii, et spiritus sancti. And if you die in battle for God’s glory and the Holy Father’s righteous cause, you will attain Heaven without purgatory’s purifying pain. I now bless you…”
“This,” Aberlott whispered, “from a man with the Holy Father’s excommunication in his pocket.”
Surprised that other conscripts were not jeering Hadala, Blacktooth asked, “Didn’t you tell the others what I told you to?”
Aberlott was meekly silent. Nimmy looked him in the eye, then laughed bitterly. Everybody knew that Aberlott was an outrageous liar, not to be believed. Besides, where would he get the courage to accuse a cardinal behind the cardinal’s back when every man would in the end point his finger right at Aberlott and say, “I heard it from him”? Well, Blacktooth would have to spread the word himself, or at least enlist one of the Yellow Guard. It was not easy to get close to them, however. They were close only to Cardinal Hadala, as they had always been to Brownpony.
Water was rationed. The supply of jerky was exhausted, and with no hunting possible, the men ate beans and biscuits. The enemy waited for Hadala to move. Hadala waited for gleps from the Valley to attack the enemy from the rear, but this seemed wishful thinking to Blacktooth. On the third day of the standoff, in plain view of the Valana forces, Sharf Bråm sent a messenger under a flag of truce to the Texark commander. This further traffic with the enemy increased the cardinal’s fury. At Cleaver’s orders, several townsmen shot at the messenger, but he was riding beyond range for accurate rifle fire.
That night before the moon rose, fourteen Grasshopper warriors stole into camp, killed two sentries, and stole or drove away most of the horses. After the rise of the gibbous moon, a detachment of Texark cavalry, which had approached noiselessly in total darkness, mounted and rode through the camp screaming and killing with sabers and horse pistols. Several attackers were killed in turn by the well-armed militiamen. After dawn, eighteen bodies were buried, five of them wearing Texark uniforms. There were seven nonfatal casualties as well. Aberlott had lost his right ear to a Texark saber.
“You never left your bedroll, you bastard,” he said to Nimmy.
“I guess I slept through it,” Blacktooth lied.
The loss of the horses drove the Hadala over the edge. He ordered an infantry attack on the now entrenched Texark position. The cardinal took a cross and proceeded to march proudly with it at the head of the army, his red cap and sash making him a conspicuous target. Major Gleaver shot three men who refused to move out. Three companies of green troops with bayonets fixed to their excellent rifles moved forward behind sporadic covering fire from three cannon. Ulad, furious as usual, led the way behind the cardinal crucifer, but kept looking back to see that the others stayed in line. Terror whitened men’s faces as they came into range and some of them began to fall from a crackle of fire by the enemy. Nimmy kept his eyes half closed and prayed to the Virgin. He was astonished that there was no artillery fire directed at them fro
m the Texark rear.
When they had covered half the distance to the enemy lines, he could see that berms of earth and sod had been thrown up. Imperial troops were firing at them from well-protected positions, and the effect was devastating. About a third of the men had fallen. Twice Ulad ordered the attackers to halt and fire, but each time the enemy’s heads ducked behind the berms.
“Double-time march! Shoot while you run!”
In terms of accuracy, it was a waste of ammunition, but it kept the enemy’s heads down. After five shots, it was necessary to slow to a walk in order to reload. Most men had brought two extra cylinders, already loaded, but while it was faster to change cylinders than to reload individual chambers, it was necessary to stop altogether to avoid dropping the pins. And to stop was to be shot by a spook officer.
“Look! They’re clearing out. Run, damn it, run!”
Terror changed to a furious glee as the townsmen realized that the Texark rifle fire from the forward berm had ceased, although there was still shooting in the distance.
“Pope’s children! My people are there!” Hadala was shouting back at them. He kept waving his cross like a club toward the foothills. “They’re attacking from the rear.”
“That explains why cannonballs aren’t raining down,” Nimmy said toward Aberlott’s bandaged ear. The message was not received above the sound of gunfire, but he added, “Maybe the gleps’ cardinal is not as crazy as we thought.”
The Texark army was not at all defeated. Forced by guerrillas from the Valley to defend their rear, they had retreated from the attack out of the west to defend their artillery from an attack out of the east. The retreat was limited. When militiamen climbed the first berm, three of them were shot down as they went over the top.
Gleaver called a halt. Obviously there were defenders of the second berm. But the attackers could use the enemy’s first berm for their own shelter while they ate pocket rations and sipped from canteens.
Nimmy looked up to see Gai-See crawling toward him up a shallow gully. He was not hiding from the enemy, he was hiding from Hadala and the officers.
“Is it true?” asked the Asian warrior monk after taking a careful look around.
“Yes,” Nimmy told him, “if you got it from Aberlott.”
Gai-See nodded grimly and crawled away by the same route.
Now something would happen, he thought, but it did not happen immediately.
The sun was scorching in early August, but by midafternoon a light westerly breeze came up. Blacktooth noticed that the restless Grasshopper had moved again. The Nomads had re-formed and split into three groups, positioned to the north, west, and south of the wagons. They were still out of range, visible against a background of smoke, but the groups to the north and south were in place for a flanking attack against either the Hannegan or the cardinal.
The fires seemed to be moving slowly eastward. They marked the probable confines of the battleground and defined the possible lines of advance or retreat for the Nomad groups who had likely set them.
Soon afterward, during an assault on the second berm, while trying to shoot over a man’s head Nimmy shot him down. Facing Blacktooth, the Texark trooper lay on his back on the sandbank just as he fell when shot. A glep, a glep in Texark uniform, with Hadala’s dappled skin and the rather common hairy ears. He stared up at the former monk, trying to see him against the smoke-blurred orb of the sun. His hands were raised toward his face and they hung limply from the wrists; he looked like a puppy begging for a morsel. Why surrender with a ruined abdomen? He clenched his lids, waiting, hoping to be shot again. But Blacktooth dared not to waste ammunition on pity, or even take time to reload, because Ulad was watching him with deep suspicion. Every time he felt such tension, Wooshin’s face and words came to his mind.
“Life is a dewdrop and a flash of lightning—that’s the way to look at it, Nimmy.”
Touching the point of the bayonet to the man’s throat, Blacktooth severed the carotid artery. A blade of lightning, a drop of red dew. The drop became a spurting stream. He stepped back, looking around. His throat hurt and was dry; it was a hot day and the air was full of smoke from burning grass.
“Each man, each being is a world. There are innumerable worlds, my friend. Each world of this innumerable array contains and inter penetrates all the other worlds throughout the myriad cosmos, for there are no barriers between the worlds.” Metaphysics from an executioner? For the Axe, religion was a martial art. He wanted to talk to Gai-See or Woosoh-Loh about it, but they were always with the cardinal and the officers, and he was made afraid by Gai-See’s crawling to him in a ditch.
It’s just that I have cut my own throat somehow, he thought, looking at the corpse. So murder feels like this to the murderer. Holy Mother of God, forgive me, but I don’t feel very much.
Sergeant Ulad was still watching him from the left, shaking his head. He must be careful not to waver or hesitate. Ulad was suspicious of his piety. He could see two men beyond Ulad. Corporal Victros had climbed to the top of the berm. He motioned the attack party upward.
The sandbank flanked a scythed and well-hoed—but useless— firebreak. Blacktooth climbed the berm and cautiously peered beyond, but the patrol had fled. Why? It was the best place to stop and fight, unless they thought the Valanans’ firepower overwhelming. Or, more likely, they might know that greater safety for them lay ahead, and that the glep guerrillas must be prevented from seizing their artillery. Standing atop the berm, he looked back toward the wagons. What had happened to the men guarding them? He could see Nomads in the distance, but no militiamen with the wagons. Without horses to draw them, they were lost anyway.
Somewhere to the north the tall grass was burning faster. They had been crosswind of the fire whose smoke veiled the foothills in the northeast, but they were almost downwind now and still the breeze was changing. He began to smell the smoke, and could see to the north distant horseback warriors moving west out of the fire’s path. If the wind kept veering, the wagons would be in danger. He motioned to Ulad that the enemy had fled. They went over the sandbank and continued their cautious advance, camouflaged shadows flitting from knoll to knoll in the great ocean of grass.
Watching from a distance on a hillcrest south of the battle, the Grasshopper sharf could see some of the fight going on around the Texark artillery pieces. Texark was temporarily in trouble, and he was pleased. Demon Light hoped to influence the outcome of the battle by moving warriors about in a menacing way from time to time without actually exposing them to fire. His only intention at the moment was to keep the wagons from being captured by anyone except himself, although if he got them, the Grasshopper had no pressing need for extra ammunition, and the horde’s arsenal was already wealthy in new guns. He was not opposed to giving the gleps guns, if it became possible. Now it seemed it might be possible. It was clear that the Texark force was being harassed from the rear. The fact surprised him as much as it did the Texarki.
Demon Light had warned them of Hadala’s expedition, but they had trusted him only enough to send two companies of cavalry, two of light horse, and a few artillery pieces to the region where he told them the townsmen would try a border crossing. Surprising to Eltür was the fact that many of the Texark troops were gleps, drafted from the Valley. They had not expected a glep attack from the rear, and had not come well prepared. They would regret not having taken him seriously enough. Such regret might incline them to trust him more next time. When he sent them amessage under a white flag, they had listened politely to the messenger as he laid claim to the contents of the wagons, and if this claim were honored, there would be no reason for hostilities. He had also warned the Texark commander that he was about to steal the townsmen’s horses. About the wagons, the commander gave a polite but evasive answer, and he smiled on the horse-theft project. In this situation, Demon Light was reluctant to attack his hereditary enemies except to prevent seizure of munitions.
Nothing prevented his enjoyment of the conflict unfolding bef
ore him except a report by a scout from his southwest detachment that a band of motherless ones had approached but stopped a few minutes’ ride away and occupied a hilltop there. To Bråm, they were a damn nuisance, and they too wanted the guns. He was aware that many of the motherless ones in the south part of the Wilddog lands had been armed by Dion and sent against the enemy in the Province, but these outlaws were far from that battle, and if they were able to get their hands on the new weapons, they were as likely to shoot at his people as at the Texarki, but they were even more likely to sell the fancy guns to the Hannegan, who had been slow in getting them.
Though it would spoil his view of the fight for a time, he decided to withdraw his detachment from the north where the fire was beginning to crowd his rear, then to skirt around the townsmen’s position and join all his forces together again between the militia and the outlaws. It would give other commanders something to wonder about, and the fires had become the Grasshopper’s allies, as the Grasshopper sharf knew they would when he practiced his family motto and set them. As he rode between the Valanans and a group of his own men to the west, he noticed with approval that the horses stolen from the wagoneers were being kept out of sight beyond a ridge. None of his warriors’ mounts were broken as draft horses, so seizing and keeping the grass-eaters’ animals was essential to his plans. He sent a messenger to tell his cousin to the west of him to post enough men to guard the horses and join the rest of the detachment with Eltür’s main force.
Sundown was approaching when the enemy resumed fire, and Cardinal Hadala was among the first to fall. Elswitch Gleaver rushed to his side, inspected his wound, which he seemed to find in the back, and turned to look around at the men. This time Blacktooth saw Gai-See lift his pistol again and shoot Major Gleaver in the forehead. At the same time, a high-pitched scream came from the rear. Ulad’s voice. The blade of Woosoh-Loh’s sword rose bloody into the air and fell again. Junior officers were shouting angrily.
Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman Page 39