Heuze left the ground with a lurch and swiftly ascended. The capstan turned quickly with just his weight on the line. Heuze felt butterflies in his stomach as he contemplated the rock wall whizzing past him. Then the rope spun him around and he saw the seaward view. In the middle distance loomed the Anvil. Farther away, out beyond the headland, he could see the white pyramid of sails of the frigate Cloud, which was on station to ward off any fireships that the monkeys might try to send in against the flagship while she was moored in the bay.
Farther away still, white clouds rimmed the horizon to the south. Weather was blowing up from the sea.
The rope spun him around again. The walls of rock rose to the upper platform. He was almost there. Men were lined up, peering over the precipice at him as he came up on the cable. Heuze chuckled to himself at the figure he was cutting. Troops had to be inspired, and they could only be inspired if they respected their commander.
At the top of the cliff, the cable ran to a twelve-foot crosstrees. Below this was the landing stage and the main platform. The cable came to a halt. A soldier hooked the admiral's loop line and drew him safely across to the landing stage. Heuze stepped off the line onto his peg leg and stumbled, but he did not go down.
Cursing softly under his breath, he got his crutch under his arm and straightened up. A horn was blaring to greet his arrival. The officers saluted, and behind them was a line of men awaiting his inspection.
Heuze saluted back, then stumped along the line, staring into each man's face for a moment. They liked him, and he knew it. He was popular with the ordinary troops, mostly because he'd broken the damned priests, but also because they recognized something of themselves in him. They trusted him in ways they didn't trust their own generals, who they knew were all lapdogs, chosen for their obedience.
The men in the fort were veterans of the Third Regiment. They'd seen action in three battles against the monkeys and taken their share of casualties. As Heuze passed them, they exhibited the faintest of wintry little smiles.
At the end of the line, Heuze spun about on his peg and saluted them. "Looking good, Third Regiment, looking good. A great bunch of grim-faced rogues if ever there was one."
They smiled a little more broadly at that.
General Polluk accompanied him on a tour of the fort. There wasn't much to see. While the sense of airiness and space from the location atop the cliff was very strong, the interior of the fort was mostly dug into the ground. The men had to live in bunkers in almost all the forts, because the monkeys invariably built trebuchets and catapults and threw rocks over the walls. Except for the palisade and towers that blocked the side facing the neck of land, Heuze looked over only the entrances to the dugouts and the reinforced ground shelters.
However, the imperial banner waved above the big gate tower. Heuze smiled at seeing that white flag with the red fist of Shasht, the fist of the Great God, Orbazt Subuus. He didn't give a pin for the Great God, but another banner planted on the enemy shore was a symbol of his own success.
Heuze plunged into the inspections of the underground sick bay, then the kitchens and a scrubbed-down barracks, all dug into the hard ground of the cliff top. At each stop, Heuze exchanged banter with the men. Morale was good, even though they were under siege. The food supply was adequate; there was water and even ale now and again. The monkeys weren't terribly aggressive either, though they were building those siege towers. The soldiers didn't take too much notice of the small rocks; every so often, however, the big trebuchet out in the forest would launch a boulder. Those could be dangerous.
Their spirits had been raised by the strong rumors that they were going to launch a sally into the woods and scupper the machines. Everyone itched for the opportunity to get to grips with the monkeys again.
After seeing the barracks, Polluk accompanied the admiral on a progress along the battlement. The palisade had taken a few hits over the months from the big trebuchet. The wall had been broken here and there and repairs patched in. The parapet and battlement had been shattered on one side of the gate tower. The footway behind the wall was still jury-rigged.
Up on the gate tower, they studied the terrain inland. The ground was broken by small hillocks. Trees covered everything in a deep green mantle. Heuze was always shocked by the fertility of the land here, so unlike his homeland. In the near distant trees he could see the enemy's siege towers. They were still unfinished, but not too far from completion. Something was going to be done about that, swore Heuze, and very soon.
Later, when Heuze and Polluk were alone in Polluk's quarters, a dugout about ten feet across, Heuze relaxed and took a mug of ale.
"Safe as houses in here," said the general as he yanked the stopper from a flagon. Heuze cast a glance at the tree trunks that had been laid end to end to form a roof over the dugout.
"Well, General"—Heuze raised his mug—"here's to Fort Aeswiren!"
"To the fort!" Polluk raised his mug, then drained it and poured again.
"And, so, General, you've had a week to get ready. When do you strike?"
Polluk had the look of a capable fellow, tall with a square head and a dueling scar on the right side of his face. He was the last of the generals selected by Nebbeggebben for the expedition. All the others were gone now.
Polluk was looking nervous. This inquisition by the admiral was something he'd been dreading. Perhaps the fate of so many other generals was in his mind.
"Well, Admiral, I think we are finally ready to make an armed sortie against the towers."
"Good news. I have been impatient, General. It's a fault of mine, but this campaign has been a long one, and I wish it were over."
"Yes, Admiral. Everyone looks forward to the day when we have peace."
"Hmmm. The road to peace must be made from our victories, as you know."
"My command is ready. We have massed almost eleven hundred men in the fort. The enemy has not visibly reinforced. We suspect that they may not have seen our reinforcements, who all came in the night as secretly as possible."
"Excellent."
Heuze smelled victory. He had been involved in the planning of this from the beginning. The only way to get anything done well was to do it yourself.
Polluk warmed to his theme. "I intend to attack both siege towers simultaneously. We think the enemy has only a few hundred troops in our area. His patrols are rarely done in strength. We can see the same two or three hundred soldiers in visible positions."
"By the great purple ass! You can tell them apart?"
Polluk colored. It might be dangerous to admit such a thing, but it was the truth.
"Well, yes, Admiral. We have studied them very carefully. There are differences in the faces and ears. The eyebrow tufts are often different, too."
"Peel 'em and fry 'em, that's what I say. They're all the same when they're cooked, eh?"
"Yes, Admiral. Do unto them as they would do unto us, so it shall be."
"Have you been able to scout?" Heuze touched on a difficulty faced by all the fort commanders.
"Not very well. The enemy always seems to spot our men. They hardly ever get back."
Heuze nodded. Like everyone else he wondered what happened to men who were captured by the monkeys. If they behaved the way Heuze and his men customarily did with captive monkeys, then the scouts would have been killed and eaten.
"Horrible to think of being captured. They eat their prisoners, no doubt."
"Disgusting animals, daring to eat human flesh. We must exterminate them."
Heuze chuckled. "May the gods give us strength!"
"Sing the praises of He Who Eats!" General Polluk spoke loudly from the habit of a lifetime of truckling to the goddamn priests.
Heuze sighed and waved a hand. "Yes, yes. But the fact remains you have little information about what lies out there."
"We have seen their camp. Just a few primitive tents. They don't seem to use wood for construction."
"Only one camp?"
"Well, there
are others, but as I've said, our scouts rarely survive to tell us what they've seen."
"A pity. But you're sure that you're seeing the same pack of monkeys day after day?"
"There's only a few hundred of them, it seems."
"Good. So, tell me, General, what are you planning to do when you capture these infernal towers of theirs?"
"Burn them and retire into the fort."
"I see."
Heuze had finished his mug of ale. He held it up for Polluk to refill from the jug on the table. It was poor stuff compared to the wine and rum they'd had when they set out from Shasht, but it would have to serve.
"Here, General, let's drink to victory!"
Relief surfaced on Polluk's simple face. It looked as if he was safe. One could never be sure with the admiral. He had a harsh reputation among the generals of the army.
Heuze was watching him carefully, waiting for just the right moment.
"But, I must say, General Polluk, this plan of yours is not especially ambitious, is it?"
Polluk goggled for a moment. The general felt that he was taking a huge risk. He planned to attack both towers at the same time, using surprise as his weapon. That wasn't ambitious enough for the admiral?
Heuze put a hand on the general's shoulder while favoring him with a patronizing smile. "You see, General, if the enemy is as weak as you think, then it may be possible to trick him into a confrontation that we can win without much loss to ourselves."
Polluk stared back, puzzled.
"And if we can kill a lot of them, it will help us take control of this region. We need victories. We need the taste of meat!"
Polluk still stared.
"So we will attack only one tower. Do you see?"
Polluk remained silent, irresolute, fearful of some trickery on the part of the admiral. He remembered Dashun, who'd been hanged after the loss of his fort. "I'm not sure," he finally replied.
"Well, it stands to reason, if we capture one of these towers, the enemy will reinforce the other one."
"Yes?" Polluk was still full of questions.
"So then we will kill more of them when we attack that tower with all our force."
The creases on Polluk's brow vanished.
"Oh, I see," he said. The admiral had a plan! In that case, Polluk would be happy to abandon his own. He preferred executing someone else's orders. Let someone else take the blame if things didn't go right.
"If his numbers are as low as you think, then we may be able to rub out his entire force."
"Yes, yes, an excellent plan!" Polluk nodded his head vigorously in agreement, another trait that had helped his rise through the ranks. "And it is less risky than mine. Because only half our force will be used in the initial attack."
Heuze nodded heavily. The generals were all obsessed with conserving their forces. After the casualties they'd suffered since they'd first arrived, such conservative thinking was inevitable.
"Yes, of course, caution is quite understandable. But when a first-class opportunity comes our way, we must seize it."
Polluk had a question. "What if the enemy is more numerous than we believe at this moment?"
"Then he will have to reveal his strength and we will still destroy one of those damned towers. After that they will have to reinforce the other one more strongly, and that will risk increased losses."
"Yes, yes," said Polluk with enthusiasm.
Heuze took another gulp of the ale. "There is another matter. We aren't going to burn the tower when we capture it."
"Not burn?" Polluk looked so dumbfounded that Heuze had to struggle not to burst out laughing.
"Yes. We're going to dismantle it and take the materials. The monkeys are very good at finishing off beams and planks. Haven't you noticed? Well-sawn planks they make, with even sides and smooth finishes. We can use that sort of quality material on the island."
"Oh, uh, yes, Admiral. Of course."
Heuze sighed inwardly. Really, the general staff was made of poor stuff. That had been very plain on this accursed expedition.
Heuze wondered where his old confidant, Filek Biswas, was at that moment. Filek had gone back to Shasht, with his daughter Simona and that eerie message she'd brought from the monkeys. Filek was in the big city now, at the center of things, completing his research projects. Heuze envied Filek and wished he still had him to hand. It had made for more interesting conversation.
"So we don't burn, we take. Let the monkeys labor for our benefit, eh?"
"Yes, sir."
"Now, I plan to stay ashore tonight. I want to oversee the battle tomorrow and then be back to the ship by tomorrow night. A tight schedule, Polluk. Think you can keep to it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. When is dinner?"
CHAPTER FOUR
The following morning, Admiral Heuze awoke from a sound night's sleep feeling refreshed and unusually clear-headed. Indeed, he was a little surprised that he had slept so well. Usually he slept badly the first few nights on land, missing the familiar motions of his ship. He was, however, itching in a few places. The dugouts were home to a lively population of fleas.
He groped through the underground gloom of the dugout and found the steps up into the light. Outside, dense mist was rising from the river gorge. The sun burned pale and watery beyond the vapors.
A few men were moving about. The cook shack was serving up early breakfasts.
Something in his gut told Heuze that this was the time to attack. Not in two hours, not at noon, as they'd discussed the night before over mugs of ale. If they sallied forth soon enough, they would catch the fornicating monkeys napping, and annihilate them!
Roaring for Polluk, he turned back into the underground complex. Ensign Combliss tumbled out of his bunk and hurried to Heuze's side.
The general was drinking some hot soup when Heuze found him.
"Polluk! Get the men out now! Give them some bread and get them on their feet and ready to fight. We're going to charge now, right now!"
Polluk goggled, eyes big and round. Before bed, the admiral had been very cautious. They were not to attack until the sun had burned off the treacherous fogs of this coast. They would wait until noon if they had to.
But Polluk had learned not to question the admiral when he was enthused like this. "Yes, Admiral, of course." He gulped down the soup and tore a chunk of bread on his way out the door.
Within a minute, the men were tumbling out of their dugouts, lining up for bread.
Heuze, with Combliss behind him, was ready and waiting as the men began to form up. Of the twelve hundred men in the fort, a thousand were scheduled to take part in the assault on the siege tower.
"Come on, hurry it up!" snapped Heuze at every opportunity. The men, from generals down to the rankers, did their best to look lively. Within half an hour, the assault force was ready.
From the walls they could see little sign of the enemy, other than the tops of the two siege towers projecting among the trees in the near distance.
Heuze waved aside all objections. Polluk gave the orders. The gate swung open, and the ramp was lowered over the ditch. Out marched the assault force, with no drums or trumpets. On the open ground they deployed into a column ten files wide. Immediately they increased their pace to a trot, while a few scouts hurried ahead, bows at the ready.
The mists grew thicker as the trees came closer. Scouts reappeared. All was quiet in the enemy lines, from what little they had seen.
On went the assault formation, eyes fixed on the prize looming in the misty woods.
For a while, they marched inside a bank of thick fog, with nothing but the dim mass of the trees ahead. Each man could see only his immediate neighbors. Admiral Heuze was bringing up the rear, with a party of four guards and Combliss. Polluk had gone forward with his own staff, since he had to keep in direct contact with the force.
The admiral's confidence was high, and he worked hard to keep up a good walking stride. He could not trot with the peg leg, but he could
walk, even though the stump would get sore after a while. But he wanted to stay in touch with the assault force just in case.
The mists were exceedingly thick, muffling sound, trapping each man in a bubble five feet across. Heuze was thankful that the ground was pretty level, covered in grasses and moss.
Suddenly the first loud cries from the enemy lines went up. Spotted!
Scouts came hurrying back to report to Polluk. Arrows started flashing out of the white mists as the enemy archers took ranging shots.
Polluk waited no longer. "Cha-aa-arge!" he bellowed, stepping out in front and waving his sword into the mist.
The men couldn't see him, but they could hear him, and they knew which way to go. They gathered themselves and rushed at the monkey lines. Along the edge of the forest, they found the trenches, just as had been observed from the walls. But what surprised them was the absence of defenders.
A handful of monkeys discharged arrows and then took to their heels, running into the woods.
Polluk dropped back personally to inform Heuze about this.
"Hardly anyone there."
"Must all be working on the siege tower. Press on," said Heuze.
Polluk nodded vigorously and hurried forward. Heuze walked on, ignoring the slight soreness in his stump. Aboard ship he didn't walk that much anymore. The stump wasn't used to this kind of exercise.
Heuze was growing a little anxious. There should have been at least some resistance. Was it some kind of trap? But how could the monkeys have anticipated his attack? He hadn't even decided to attack so early until this very morning. No, he dismissed the idea. It had to be a genuine stroke of luck. He'd caught the fornicating monkeys napping! It wasn't easy to do that.
The men pressed on under the trees. Ahead lay the siege tower. Surely, they would meet some resistance there.
Under the trees, Heuze found the going considerably more difficult since the ground was uneven and tangles of tree roots spread above the soil. He fell at one point and was struggling to get up again when Combliss and a guard helped him up with strong young hands.
Doom's Break Page 5