Relg and his men moved very quietly to the rail and began to clamber down ropes into the small boats waiting below.
Ce'Nedra watched breathlessly, straining with her eyes to see in the darkness. The very faint starlight briefly showed her several shadows drifting down toward the city. Then the shadows were gone. Behind them there was a faint splash of an oar, followed by an angrily hissed admonition. The princess turned and saw a moving tide of small boats coming downriver from the anchored fleet. The spearhead of the assault slid silently by, following Relg and his Ulgos toward the fortified island city of the Thulls.
"Are you sure there are enough of them?" Anheg whispered to Rhodar.
The rotund King of Drasnia nodded. "All they have to do is secure a landing place for us and hold the gate once the Ulgos get it open," he murmured. "There's enough of them for that."
A faint night breeze rippled the surface of the river, setting the ship to rocking. Unable to bear the suspense any longer, Ce'Nedra lifted her fingertips to the amulet Garion had given her so many months before. As always, a buzz of conversation filled her ears.
"Yaga, for gohek vilta." It was Relg's harsh voice, speaking in a whisper. "Ka tak. feedh."
"Well?" Polgara asked, one eyebrow slightly raised.
"I can't tell what they're saying," Ce'Nedra replied helplessly. "They're talking in Ulgo."
A strangled groan quite suddenly seemed to come from the amulet itself and then was quickly and horribly cut off.
"I - I think they just killed somebody," Ce'Nedra said in a quavering voice.
"It's started then," Anheg said with a certain grim satisfaction. Ce'Nedra pulled her fingertips from the amulet. She could no longer bear to listen to the sound of men dying in the dark.
They waited.
Then someone screamed, a scream filled with a terrible agony.
"That's it!" Barak declared. "That's the signal! Pull the anchor!" he shouted to his men.
Very suddenly beneath the high, dark walls of Thull Mardu, two separate fires flared up, and shadowy figures could be seen moving about them. At the same moment, there was a clanking rattle of heavy chains inside the city and a creaking groan as a broad gate swung ponderously down to form a bridge across the narrow north channel of the river.
"Man your oars!" Barak roared to his crew. He swung his tiller hard over, steering toward the rapidly lowering bridge.
More torches appeared along the tops of the walls, and there were shouts of alarm. Somewhere an iron bell began to clang a note of desperate urgency.
"It worked!" Anheg exclaimed, gleefully pounding Rhodar on the back. "It actually worked!"
"Of course it worked," Rhodar replied, his voice also jubilant. "Don't pound on me so hard, Anheg. I bruise easily."
All need for silence was gone now, and a great roar went up from the massed fleet following in Barak's wake. Torches flared, and the faces of the troops lining the rails were bathed in their ruddy glow.
A great splash suddenly erupted from the river twenty yards to the right of Barak's ship, showering everyone on deck with a deluge of water.
"Catapult!" Barak shouted, pointing at the walls looming ahead. Like a huge, preying insect, the heavy-beamed frame of the siege-engine balanced atop the wall, its long throwing arm already cocking back to cast another boulder at the approaching fleet. Then the arm stopped as a storm of arrows swept the top of the wall clean. A crowd of Drasnians, easily identifiable by the long pikes they carried, overran the position.
"Watch out, down there," one of them roared into the confusion at the base of the wall, and the siege engine ponderously toppled outward and fell with a crash onto the rocks below.
There was a thunder of hoofs across the now-lowered bridge, and the Mimbrate knights crashed into the city.
"As soon as we tie up to the bridge, I want you and the princess and the other ladies to go to the north bank," King Rhodar said tersely to Polgara. "Get back out of harm's way. This will probably take the rest of the night, and there's no point in exposing any of you to any accidents."
"Very well, Rhodar," Polgara agreed. "And don't you do anything foolish, either. You're a rather large target, you know."
"I'll be all right, Polgara - but I'm not going to miss this." He laughed then, a strangely boyish laugh. "I haven't had so much fun in years," he declared.
Polgara gave him a quick look. "Men!" she said in a tone that said everything.
A guard of Mimbrate knights escorted the ladies and Errand perhaps a thousand yards upstream to an indented cove on the north bank of the stream, well away from the press of the horsemen rushing toward the beleaguered city. The cove had a gently sloping sand beach and was protected on three sides by steep, grass-covered banks. Durnik the smith and Olban quickly raised a tent for them, built a small fire, and then climbed up the bank to watch the attack.
"It's going according to plan," Durnik reported from his vantage point. "The Cherek ships are lining up side by side across the south channel. As soon as they get the planking in place, the troops on the other side will be able to cross."
"Can you tell if the men inside have taken the south gate yet?" Olban demanded, peering toward the city.
"I can't tell for sure," Durnik replied. "There's fighting going on in that part of the city, though."
"I'd give anything to be there," Olban lamented.
"You stay right where you are, young man," Polgara told him firmly. "You appointed yourself bodyguard to the Rivan Queen, and you're not going to go running off just because things are more interesting someplace else."
"Yes, Lady Polgara," the young Rivan answered, suddenly abashed. "It's just "
"Just what?"
"I wish I knew what was happening, that's all. My father and my brothers are in the middle of the fighting, and I have to stand here and watch."
A sudden great belch of flame shot up from inside the walls to illuminate the river with sooty red light.
Polgara sighed. "Why do they always have to bum things?" she asked sadly.
"It adds to the confusion, I suppose," Durnik replied.
"Perhaps," Polgara said, "but I've seen this happen too many times before. It's always the same. There always has to be a fire. I don't believe I care to watch any more of this." She turned her back on the burning city and walked slowly away from the riverbank.
The night was interminable. Toward dawn, as the stars began to fade from the paling sky, the Princess Ce'Nedra, drawn with fatigue, stood atop a grassy bank near the cove, watching with a kind of sick fascination as the city of Thull Mardu died. Entire districts seemed to be in flames, and great fountains of orange sparks belched toward the sky as roofs caved in and buildings collapsed. What had seemed so stirring, so glorious in her anticipation had turned out to be something quite different in reality, and she was sick at what she had done. She still, nonetheless, brought her fingertips up to touch the amulet at her throat. She had to know what was happening. No matter how horrible the events were in the city, not knowing what was happening was even worse.
"Sort of a nice little fight," she heard King Anheg say. The King of Cherek seemed to be someplace very high - atop the walls of the city perhaps.
"Pretty routine," Barak, Earl of Trellheim, replied. "The Murgo garrison fought pretty well, but the Thulls kept falling all over themselves trying to surrender."
"What did you do with all of them?" King Cho-Hag asked.
"We herded them into the central square," Barak answered. "They've been amusing themselves by killing the Grolims we flushed out of the temple."
Anheg suddenly chuckled, an evil sort of sound. "How's Grodeg?" he asked.
"It looks like he's going to live," Barak said.
"That's a shame. When I saw that axe sticking out of his back, I thought somebody's solved one of my problems for me."
"It was too low," Barak said rather mournfully. "It broke his spine, but it didn't hit anything else significant. He won't be walking any more, but he's still breathing."
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"You can't depend on a Murgo to do anything right," Anheg said in disgust.
"They did thin out the Bear-cult pretty thoroughly," Barak noted cheerfully. "I don't think there are more than two dozen of them left. They fought pretty well, though."
"That's what they were here for. How long do you think it will be before daylight?"
"Half an hour, maybe."
"Where's Rhodar?"
"He and Fulrach are sacking the warehouses," King Cho-Hag replied. "The Murgos had some supply dumps here. Fulrach wants to confiscate them."
"He would," Anheg said. "Maybe we'd better send somebody for them. It's getting on toward the time when we'll want to think about pulling out of here. As soon as it gets light, all this smoke's going to announce what we've done to anyone within twenty leagues. It's about time to start the fleet moving, and it's a long march back to the forts on top of the escarpment."
"How long will it take you to get to the Sea of the East?" Cho-Hag asked.
"A couple of days," Anheg told him. "You can move a ship pretty fast when you've got the current behind you. It will take your army a week at least to get back to the forts, won't it?"
"Probably," Cho-Hag said. "The infantry can't move all that fast. There's Brendig! I'll send him to fetch Rhodar." He shouted down to the Sendar. "Colonel Brendig, see if you can find Rhodar. Ask him to join us."
"What's that?" Barak asked suddenly.
"What's what?" Anheg demanded.
"I thought I saw something out there - way to the south - where you can just start to make out that hilltop."
"I don't see anything."
"It was just a flicker - something moving."
"Probably a Murgo scout creeping in for a look." Anheg laughed shortly. "I don't imagine we'll be able to keep what happened here a secret for very long."
"There it is again," Barak said.
"I saw it that time, too," King Cho-Hag agreed.
There was a long silence as the sky imperceptibly grew lighter. Ce'Nedra held her breath.
"Belar!" Anheg swore in a stunned voice. "They stretch for miles!"
"Lelldorin!" Barak shouted down from the wall. "Brendig's gone to get Rhodar. Go find them and tell them to get up here at once. The plain to the south is covered with Murgos."
Chapter Sixteen
"LADY POLGARA!" CE'NEDRA Cried, jerking back the flap of the tent. "Lady Polgara!"
"What is it, Ce'Nedra?" Polgara's voice came from the darkness inside the tent.
"Barak and Anheg are up on the walls of the city," the princess said in a frightened voice. "They just saw a Murgo army coming up from the south."
Polgara came quickly out into the firelight, holding the sleepy Errand by the hand. "Where's Beldin?" she demanded.
"I haven't seen him since early last night."
Polgara raised her face and closed her eyes. A moment or so later there was a rushing sound of wings, and the large hawk settled to the sand not far from their flickering fire.
Beldin was swearing sulfurously even as he shimmered and blurred back into his natural shape.
"How did they slip past you, Uncle?" Polgara asked him.
"There are Grolims with them," he growled, still sizzling the air around him with oaths. "The Grolims could feel me watching, so the troops moved only at night, and the Grolims shielded them."
"Where did they hide in the daytime?"
"In the Thullish villages, apparently. There are dozens of communities out there. It never occurred to me to pay all that much attention to them." He began to swear again, berating himself savagely for having missed the movement of the Murgo army.
"There's no point in swearing about it, Uncle," Polgara told him coolly. "It's done, now."
"Unfortunately there's a bit more, Pol," the sorcerer told her. "There's another army at least as big coming in from the north - Malloreans, Nadraks, and Thulls. We're caught right between them."
"How long have we got before they reach us?" Polgara asked. Beldin shrugged. "Not long. The Murgos have some rough ground to cross - probably about an hour. The Malloreans will be here in quite a bit less."
Polgara began to curse fervently under her breath. "Go to Rhodar," she told the hunchback. "Tell him that we have to release Anheg's fleet immediately - before the Angaraks can bring up catapults and destroy the ships where they're anchored."
The deformed man nodded and stooped slightly, curving his arms out like wings even as he began to waver and change.
"Olban," Polgara called to the young Rivan, "go find Sir Mandorallen and Lord Hettar. Send them to me at once. Hurry."
Olban gave her one startled look, then ran for his horse.
Durnik the smith came sliding down the grassy bank onto their little beach. His face was grave. "You and the ladies must leave at once, Mistress Pol," he told her. "There's going to be fighting here, and the middle of a battle's no place for any of you."
"I'm not going anywhere, Durnik," she replied with a trace of irritation. "I started all this, and I'm going to see it through."
Ariana had gone back into the tent as soon as the situation became clear to her. She now emerged again, carrying the stout canvas bag in which she kept her medical supplies. "Have I thy permission to leave, Lady Polgara?" she asked with a certain cool professionalism. "In battle men are injured, and I must go make preparations for their care. This spot is somewhat too remote and confined to receive the wounded."
Polgara gave her a quick look. "All right," she agreed. "Just be careful not to get too close to the fighting."
Taiba pulled on her cloak. "I'll go with you," she told Ariana. "I don't know that much about it, but you can teach me as we go along."
"Go help them get set up, Durnik," Polgara told the smith. "Then come back here."
Durnik nodded gravely and helped the two women up the steep bank. Mandorallen thundered up on his charger with Hettar at his side. "You know what's happened?" Polgara demanded.
Mandorallen nodded.
"Is there any possibility of withdrawing before the enemy forces arrive?"
"Nay, my Lady Polgara," the great knight replied. "They are too close. Moreover, our purpose has ever been to gain passage for the ships of Cherek into the Sea of the East. We must buy them time to sail beyond the reach of the siege engines of the Angaraks."
"I didn't want this," Polgara said angrily and she began to mutter curses again.
Brand, the gray-cloaked Rivan Warder, accompanied by General Varana, rode up to join Mandorallen and Hettar at the top of the steep bank. The four of them dismounted and slid down the bank to the sand.
"We've begun evacuating the city," the big Rivan said in his deep voice, "and most of the fleet is pulling anchor. We're holding just enough ships to maintain the bridges across the south channel."
"Is there any possibility of putting the entire army on one bank or the other?" Polgara asked him.
He shook his head. "There isn't time, Polgara."
"We're going to be divided by the river," she pointed out, "and neither force is going to be strong enough to meet the Angaraks coming against it."
"A tactical necessity, my dear Lady Polgara," General Varana told her. "We have to hold both banks until the fleet is clear."
"I think Rhodar misjudged the Angarak intentions," Brand said. "He was so sure that Taur Urgas and 'Zakath would both want to avoid taking casualties that he didn't consider this possibility."
General Varana clasped his muscular hands behind his back and limped back and forth along the little beach, his face creased with thought. "I think I begin to understand the meaning of that Murgo column we destroyed in the uplands," he said.
"Your Grace?" Mandorallen asked, puzzled.
"It was a test of our commitment," Varana explained. "The Angaraks needed to know when we were making our major move. One of the basic rules of war is not to become involved in serious conflicts if what you're doing is merely diversionary. That column was bait. Unfortunately, we took it."
"Y
ou mean we shouldn't have attacked the column?" Hettar asked him.
Varana made a rueful face. "Apparently not. It gave away our intentions - let them know that this expedition was not a diversion. I underestimated Taur Urgas. He threw away a thousand men just to find out what we were up to."
"What now?" Hettar asked.
"We get ready to fight," Varana said. "I wish we had better terrain for it, but I suppose we'll have to make do with what we have."
Hettar looked out across the river, his hawk-face hungry. "I wonder if I've got time to make it over to the south bank," he mused.
"One side or the other," Brand said, looking puzzled. "What's the difference?"
"The Murgos are over there," Hettar replied. "I don't really have anything against Malloreans."
"This isn't a personal fight, Lord Hettar," Varana pointed out.
"It is with me," Hettar said grimly.
"We must needs see to the safety of Lady Polgara and the princess," Mandorallen said. "Mayhap an escort should be provided to convey them back to the forts atop the escarpment."
Brand shook his head. "The region is likely to be patrolled heavily," he disagreed. "It wouldn't be safe."
"He's right, Mandorallen," Polgara told the knight. "Besides, you need every man you've got right here." She looked off toward the northeast. "Then, too, there's that." She pointed toward a heavy cloudbank that had begun to stain the sky just above the horizon. The clouds were an inky black, seething and rolling and illuminated from within by fitful flickers of lightning.
"A storm?" General Varana asked, looking a bit surprised.
"Not at this time of year - and certainly not from that direction," Polgara replied. "The Grolims are up to something, and that's going to be my fight. Deploy your forces, gentlemen. If there's going to be a battle, let's be ready for it."
"The ships are moving," Durnik reported as he and Olban came back to the sheltered little cove, "and the troops are leaving the city."
King Rhodar rode up. His broad face was streaked with soot and perspiration. "Anheg's leaving," he said, swinging down from his saddle with a grunt.
"Where's Fulrach?" Brand asked.
"He's taking the bulk of the troops across to the south bank."
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