by Robert Adams
Opokomees Eeahnos wept, openly and unashamedly, when he set eyes to Thoheeks Grahvos astride his tall horse. Even after the thoheeks had dismounted and warmly embraced the old man, kissing him on both his scarred cheeks, the tears continued to flow down those furrowed cheeks and the still-powerful body shook with sobs.
But when a brace of log drums began to boom insistently from the palisaded village, the oldster gasped, "Pahteeos, send a galloper to Komos and tell him that our dear lord, Thoheeks Grahvos, has at last returned to his lands and us, his people. He must have seen the warband below, and thought the hold to be under attack again."
"At once, my lord Grandfather." The boy spun on his heel and raced away, the crossguard of the sword slung across his back clanking rhythmically against the nape-piece of his helmet. Both dismay and pride of race sprang up in Grahvos when he saw that the twelve-year-old child already bore the scars and exuded the bearing of a veteran warrior. This boy's youth was yet another thing that greedy, grasping, selfish thoheeksee had robbed and stolen from the land and the people, and it must not ever happen again, he and the others must do all within their power to see that the land never again became ripe for such, nor was Grahvos the only one of the thoheeksee in that party to make similar vows to himself during that terrible journey from Thrahkohnpolis to Mehseepolis.
The detachment of lancers that Grahvos had sent out ahead had delivered his messages, and the way was prepared for the Council before its arrival in the new capital. The Mehseepolis ducal palace was roomy enough for most functions and lodgings, and more room was provided by the adjoining citadel. Grahvos' family and household were already on the way to his alternate seat, well guarded by their retainers and the lancers.
Inside the thick, high walls, the councilors found the steep ways of the city in a riotous tumult of celebration of the return of their thoheeks. If any of the noblemen had before doubted that Gahvos' people loved as well as respected him, such doubts could not have survived all that they saw and heard that afternoon.
By the time that Captain Thoheeks Mahvros and his warband arrived at Mehseepolis in company with the loaned Confederation troops, work had already been begun, on marginal land below the city, on permanent installations to house and otherwise provide for an army of modest proportions. Mahvros made the thirteenth affirmed thoheeks for the new council, but the welcome addition of the trained, well-armed men he had brought with him assured that he would not be the last nobleman to appear at Mehseepolis for affirmation of his titles.
As the months rolled along, a succession of thoheeksee, komeesee, vahrohnohsee, mahrkeeseeohsee and even opokomeesee came from near and from far—from very far, in some cases—all of them with sizable and well-armed retinues in these unsettled times, all of them seeking to ingratiate themselves with this new government and to be granted confirmation or reconfirmation of titles and lands and cities they had inherited or assumed or conquered.
In some cases, there was more than just a single claimant to a few of the richer holdings, and the disputations over these gave more than a few sleepless nights to the Council until, finally, they came up with a formula for most decisions of this nature:
Sons, grandsons, brothers and nephews, in that order, were to have precedence over adopted sons, the husbands of daughters, granddaughters, sisters or nieces, but in any case, no claimant would be confirmed or reconfirmed to any title or holding unless he was willing to accept and to serve the new order (in the case of thoheeksee, swearing most formally to never seek to make himself or any other thoheeks king) so long as he should live. Immediately upon returning to his lands, a confirmed noble must assemble those men whose overlord he was and take from them written, witnessed oaths to the Council and the Confederation, it being made abundantly clear to each that his own confirmation would not be considered as final until Council was in receipt of said oaths.
The wealthier magnates were persuaded by fair means and foul to make "loans" to the new government—in gold, silver, grain, wine or whatever they just then had the most of—the value of which was to be deducted from their future taxes along with the sizable interest.
Thoheeksee were all urged to set their home affairs in order, then return to sit on Council with their peers, that they might be certain that their particular interests and desires were served. They and all of the others, save only those presently threatened severely or the mahrkeesee-ohsee, were urged to send any surplus troops to Mehseepolis to fill out the ranks of the army that Council was building to safeguard them all.
But it was pointed out that the lands were not to be stripped to provide spearmen, for it was considered imperative by Council that an orderly agricultural cycle be reestablished as soon as possible and that all arable land be put back into production, orchards and vineyards be replanted, herds be built back up, towns and villages be rebuilt and made safe for repopulation, outlaws and bandits be exterminated, roads be laid again and maintained.
And slowly, fitfully, it began to come together, after a fashion. Sitheeros, Thoheeks of the triple duchy of Iron Mountain, returned to Mehseepolis with enough troops to scour the countryside along his route for bandits, arriving with sack on sack of decomposing heads and two wainloads of weapons, armor and other assorted loot taken from those bandits so unlucky as to be swept up by him. He also contributed to the army a third elephant cow which had had a modicum of war training, but which had proved difficult to manage since her feelahks had died of a summer fever.
Nor was this service and the elephant the last or even the least of Sitheeros' generosity. He brought for the army a full and fully equipped regiment of pikemen, a half-squadron of lancers, some three thousand keelohee of cornmeal, several wainloads of the famous and fiery Iron Mountain brandy, additional wainloads of cured pork, barrels of pickled vegetables and not a few pipes of a middling wine. To the Council, he presented some twelve pounds of gold and two hundred of minted silver thrahkmehee.
"Ten pounds of the gold, the soldiers and the elephant are my personal contribution, gentlemen," he told the council. "The silver—well, the most of it—the bulk of the corn, the pork and the wine and vegetables are from various of my vassals. The brandy is from my brother-in-law, Ahrkeekomees Kohnyos. All of the folk of Iron Mountain are most pleased that there never will be another kingship to breed squabblings and usurpations and ruinous civil wars. Now, true, save for creating endless and rich market for our manufactories, our farms and the like, the chaos that has so torn this land has had little effect on us, for all of the other combatants rightly considered us too tough a nut to crack, but we would all as lief see and live with a slower, steadier market and a land in peace than with all that has gone before of recent years."
In his retinue, Thoheeks Sitheeros had brought along skilled master weaponsmiths, along with their specialized tools and a goodly amount of semi-worked metal, and these were quickly put to work to properly outfit the army, allowing the long-overworked local smiths to get some sleep and then return to more mundane tasks for the nonmilitary populace of the duchy.
A year after the capitulation of what was by then left of Zastros' host in Karaleenos saw a council of twenty thoheeksee ruling a bit over two thirds of the onetime Kingdom of the southern Ehleenoee, all but the very largest of the bandit and outlaw bands extirpated within the lands under Council's sway, roads being re-laid, towns and villages here and there being rebuilt by their new occupants, crops ripening in reclaimed fields, the ferocious packs of wild dogs mostly eradicated and the cattle rounded up and fattening in reclaimed pasture-lands.
There had been much work for the army, often bloody work—fights, real battles, interdictions and sieges, forcible evictions of squatters and unconfirmed claimants to disputed holdings. But as the army of the Council was now the largest and best equipped still extant in all the land, they had as yet to see a defeat. The most distressing lack was that of a real, first-rate strahteegos or overall commander for this army.
Aside from that troubling matter, however, it w
as beginning to appear that the efforts of Grahvos and the rest would see their desperate gamble actually succeed.
Chapter II
Captain of Elephants Gil Djohnz did not care much or think much of the title that Tomos and the rest had hung upon him, but with no arguments affecting them, he had had to just learn to live with it. He routinely and deliberately ignored officers' calls, and when a runner was sent to summon him, he would brusquely snap that taking proper care of elephants was a full-time job and that, in consequence, he lacked the time or the inclination to sit around a table, guzzle wine or brandy, gossip and listen to some blowhard announce the latest set of asinine pronouncements dreamed up in the feather-stuffed heads of soft-headed captains of desks, up in the citadel of Mehseepolis.
Of a day, he was summoned to Sub-strahteegos Tomos Gonsalos' new office in the but recently completed headquarters building. Once he was there, in working clothes devoid of any indication of rank and powerfully redolent of the elephant lines, Tomos greeted him warmly, seated him and, with his own hands, poured him a large mug of fresh, frothy milk—still warm from the cow and yellowish with rich butterfat—then went back to his own chair and goblet of spiced, watered wine.
Gil tasted then drained off the mug gratefully, wiped off his lips with a soiled, sweaty sleeve, refilled the mug from the pitcher, cut himself a hefty chunk of cheese from the small wheel on the officer's desk, then settled back into the chair, smiling.
"Tomos, you should've been Kindred. You don't look like a damned Ehleenee and most times you don't think like one, either. No real Ehleenee would've ever thought of calling me over here for fresh milk and sharp cheese, not ever, for no reason."
He chuckled. "Not that I don't know damned good and well you've got you a damned good reason for doing it; it's that sly, devious Ehleenee part of you coming to the surface.
"So, my sharp-eared friend, what's the reason?"
Tomos squirmed in his chair, then said, "All of you Horseclansmen exercise a disconcerting bluntness that is often difficult for us more effete, civilized Ehleenoee to bear. We'll get to my reasons in a bit, but first, how is our fourth elephant coming along?"
Gil smiled. "Growing like a weed; he's already near to my waist at his withers. And he keeps young Bert Vawn hopping trying to keep up with him, too."
"Has he decided on a name he likes yet? We need one for army records," said Tomos.
The captain just shook his head. "The little scut changes his mind every other day, it seems. Over on the lines, we just call him Tulip's Son . . . when we aren't calling him Bert's Brat or some less complimentary things. He needs to learn discipline, that one."
Tomos looked down into his goblet for a moment then, swirling the purplish liquid about. When he looked up, he said, "Gil, my friend, armies need and must have discipline, too, in order to function, to even exist. Soldiers are not required to like the orders and routines of army life, but they are required to live their lives by those very routines and to never fail in following those orders; to not follow orders, to break routines, these are crimes in any army, crimes known under the general heading of insubordination, and they are and must be dealt with most harshly, lest discipline break down completely and an ordered army become only a mob. Rulers establish armies so as to have a force upon which they can depend to maintain peace and order within their realms, and a trained, tightly disciplined army can always be depended upon by those who raised it and maintain it. A mob, on the other hand, cannot be depended upon to do anything or to be anything other than an ever-constant danger.
"Now, in order for a stringent discipline to work properly and smoothly, it is important that the lower-ranking members of an army be constantly made aware that all those of higher rankings are also bound by the strictures of army discipline and routines and orders. Any soldier, of whatever rank, who makes it clear by his attitudes or actions that he considers himself to be above playing the old army game by the ancient rules immediately becomes a weak, rusting link in the chain that binds the army together; moreover, that rust is very contagious to other links, so it cannot and will not be allowed to remain and spread, it must be eradicated, no matter what the cost."
Pausing for a moment, the overall commander of the Confederation force lifted his goblet and took a draught of the spiced wine before looking Gil dead in the eye and saying, "You, friend Gil, are such a weak link in my army, and therein lies a problem that seems almost insoluble. Were I to send you away, back to Kehnooryos Ehlahs, as I have been advised to do by members of my staff, then I most probably would be well advised to send the elephant Sunshine with you, for I seriously doubt that she would be good for anything here without you.
"On the other hand, however, Gil, I—and we, the army, the staff, the command structure and the Council of Thoheeksee—cannot any longer afford to abide your flagrant insubordination, for although loss of you and thereby Sunshine would weaken our army, loss of discipline would weaken it far worse."
Now become aware of what Tomos was getting at, of why he had sent for the captain of elephants this day, Gil was on the verge of making a reply, but the commander held up a hand, palm outward. "No, I know exactly what you mean to say, Gil. You did not and do not want to be made an officer. Why, Gil, I never could've imagined that a man of the pure water that I know you to be could be guilty of such a form of stubborn and arrogant selfishness."
Gil spluttered, his face darkening with anger, his hand unconsciously seeking the hilt of the dirk he was not just then wearing.
Tomos ignored the appearance and movements of his subordinate and spoke on. "Gil, I hold a county near as large as a duchy, two cities, seven towns and a fine hall. I've not seen my lands or my family save for all too brief snatches in six years, yet when my overlord's new overlord—High Lord Milo Morai—placed the weight of this command upon me and ordered me to march it down here for who knows how long, I did so with as good grace as I could muster and with a smiling face, for it would've been most insubordinate to have behaved otherwise to one of my superiors in both civil and military rank, don't you see.
"I desired this awesome and onerous responsibility, this protracted absence from my personal responsibilities and my family, every bit as much as you desired to become our army's captain of elephants, but I accepted because of loyalty to my overlords, and even if I should never again see my ancestral lands, my home hall or my family, I would do the same again.
"Gil, your three war-elephants are no less an important unit of this army of ours than are Chief Pawl's horse-archers, Komees Portos' lancers, Guhsz Hehluh's heavy foot, Lord Bizahros' light foot or Komees Mahrtios' pioneers and artificers. Because we knew you to be a steady, reliable sort, you were selected to become the officer in command of the war-elephants. Reflect on the facts if you will, Gil. Your own High Lord it was who ordered you to bring Sunshine down
here and serve with her in our army. Not so? He placed you and all the rest under my command; therefore, when you disobey me and my staff, when you openly flaunt your disobedience to my orders, you are actually disobeying the orders of your own High Lord. Understand? I would imagine that High Lord Milo will be most wroth if I do find it necessary to send you and Sunshine back to him, as I must do you not mend your ways immediately and begin to act and comport yourself in the manner of a unit commander.
"Were there an experienced war-eleplant officer about, I would be more than happy to give him the command post and responsibility and let you go back to being what you were, just another feelahks, but we have thus far not discovered any elephant officers who survived that debacle in Karaleenos and no one of our messengers has as yet come back from the source of most war-elephants, the triple duchy of Meelohnhohra. You have my word of honor, Gil: the moment that a trained and experienced elephant officer enters this camp and this army, you will cease to be captain of elephants, but until then, please do me and your High Lord the great favor of cooperating with us and helping to win over this vast, rich land for our Confederation.
&n
bsp; "Will you do that for us, my friend?"
Newgrass, the Iron Mountain elephant, unlike the other two cows, Sunshine and Tulip, had a pair of thick, eighteen-inch tusks. She was as much larger than Tulip as Tulip was larger than Sunshine, yet she unquestion-ingly accepted Sunshine as leader of the small herd. There were enough differences between Newgrass and the others to make Gil certain that they were of two different strains of elephant.
The most readily obvious distinctions were that where Sunshine, Tulip and Tulip's Son customarily carried their heads low so that the arch of their backs was the highest part of them, Newgrass' back was almost
concave from withers to rump and her head was therefore the highest part of her. Nor were the ears the same as those of the other elephants, being significantly larger and rounder; her head did not bulge out into domes at the temples, as did the others, either. And there were other, less readily apparent points of difference, such as Newgrass' total lack of the protective flap of skin over the anal opening.
But the bigger cow's mindspeak was just as good as that of the smaller cows and she seemed to be every bit as intelligent. Her new Horseclansman feelahks, Sami Skaht of Vawn, had never had any trouble or disagreements with her since the first day that Gil had made the introductions between them.
Newgrass had been fully war-trained at Iron Mountain, which state used both bulls and larger cows for such, and watching her perform her maneuvers told Gil what he needed to know about the training of Sunshine and Tulip, whose primary function had always been that of mere draught animals.
When the bright, willing animals had learned all that Newgrass had to show for her training, Gil asked Tomos Gonsalos to seek for him an appointment to speak with Thoheeks Sitheeros of Iron Mountain.