King Of Zunga rb-12

by Джеффри Лорд

  Possibly the prayers were effective. Possibly also the fact that the Zungan invasion had scared the normal forest population into fleeing north helped. But for whatever reason, natural or otherwise, their luck held all the way south.

  It was on the morning of the fourth day that Blade was scouting ahead across a clearing rank with long, dew-laden grass. He saw dark figures moving in the woods across the clearing, froze, watched, and waited. The mahogany colored skins and spears became visible. His spears too-he recognized the balance weights at the butts. He stepped out into the open, made the Peace Hand, and shouted.

  All the Zungans instantly faded into the undergrowth, except for one who stepped out into the open, made the Peace Hand in reply-and then dropped his spear in astonishment. His mouth sagged open so wide it was awhile before he could choke out the words, «Richard Blade of the English?»

  «Yes. And Princess Aumara escaped with me. She is back there in the forest.» He turned and shouted. «Aumara, we are safe! A Zungan patrol!» Again the Zungan gaped and stared as Aumara stepped out into the open. Finally he managed to get his mouth closed, then opened it again to greet the princess and call his men out from cover.

  Blade noticed that all eighteen of the Zungans were carrying the new spears. He asked about that.

  «Ah, the new fighting art is all over Zunga now,» the warrior replied. «Half our warriors have the Blade-spears, and many hundreds can use them well. The On’ror and the Ulungas grumble, but we have not yet violated the letter of their decision. And the letter of their decision is all that King Afuno will let them enforce.»

  «King Afuno is a wise and great king,» said Blade. «I am glad to be able to make him happy by bringing his daughter back to him. And I do not think the On’ror will be able to enforce anything very much longer.»

  His tone as he said this discouraged questions. The patrol leader nodded and said, «Tell us about what has happened to you.»

  Blade told of his adventures once there in the clearing, twice more on the way back as they met other patrols, and a good half dozen times after they got back to the main camp of the Zungan army that afternoon. By this time he was getting a little weary of the repetition. But that evening King Afuno arrived from a visit to the part of his army that was besieging Kanda. Blade did not mind at all telling the king the story of his capture and escape-and what he learned in Rulam.

  Afuno’s face went dark and hard as stone when Blade told him about the treachery of the On’ror. «Aumara had very nearly convinced me of this before she was captured,» said the king. «But I-after she was captured, I did not… «He shrugged, for the moment too filled with a mixture of emotions to go on.

  Finally he shook his head. «I am glad she is back. In truth I was not sure that I cared whether Zunga lost or won this war after Aumara was captured.» He fixed Blade with his old familiar sharp look. «What does Aumara truly want of you?»

  That was a question it took Blade some time to answer. He wanted to pick and choose his words, and he was too tired for that amount of mental effort. Finally he said, «She would like me to be her husband. I do not know whether she wants me also to be King of Zunga, or whether she is willing to step down from her place in favor of a younger sister. If I were you, Your Majesty-«

  «You are not me, Richard Blade,» said Afuno. «And I will decide whether I will offer a warrior of the English to the Zungans as their king. Certainly I will not ask Aumara to step down from what is her right unless there is nothing else I can do. But I do not know if even what you have done will make my people accept you as king. As a great warrior and the new On’ror, almost certainly. But as king?» He shook his head. «There must be something more you can do to make yourself a name. I wish I could make it something not dangerous, because I think Aumara will pull what hair I have left out by the roots if I send you into any more danger. But the Zungans are a warrior people, so…»

  «I know,» said Blade. «But I think I know a possible answer. Remember what I said about the rivalries among our enemies? Rulam and Kanda have little in common, and Kleptor and Roxala even less. I think there are ways we can take advantage of these divisions. Above all; this will make our fight easier and less costly. There is an English saying that applies here. It is ‘divide and conquer.’ «

  Blade outlined his scheme in a few sentences. Afuno’s eyes widened and gleamed with satisfaction. He practically rubbed his hands.

  «Marvelous,» he said finally. «It will do all you say, I hope. And at least it will allow us to make the best use of the few really good new-style fighters we have. A great many of our warriors can wave their new spears around marvelously, but all they could do in battle with this spear-waving is to scare off birds. If only we could have dealt with the On’ror beforehand. Ah, well, we shall not have to worry about him again.»

  Blade nodded. «I hope not. As much as the king and queen of Rulam hate each other, I do not think they have stopped hating us even more. I think a Rulami army will be coming soon against us within a few days.»

  Both Afuno’s prediction and Blade’s were accurate. The On’ror vanished from his tent in the dark hours of the next morning and was never seen again.

  And a week later, the northern patrols reported that the army of Rulam was on the march.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  There had been a light rain the night before, so the Rulami army raised no dust clouds to mark its advance. But King Afuno had thrown out a swarm of scouts well to the north of his own army. These formed a broad arc across the Rulami line of advance. He would not be taken by surprise. The Rulami army had hardly broken camp and begun to file out of the forest when the messengers began coming back with their reports from the scouting line.

  King Afuno sat on a hide spread on the ground in the shade of a small tree, listening to the reports as they came in. Beside him stood Blade and Nayung. Both now carried new-style spears adorned with the double tuft of blue feathers that marked Great D’bors.

  «I can think of no two men in all the army of Zunga who deserve the rank more,» Afuno had said the night before as he handed them the spears. «In fact, if there was time to call a meeting of the War Council, I would raise Blade to On’ror in place of that traitor we have now sent to his fate. But there is no time for that. We will be giving battle tomorrow morning at the latest.»

  And now it was tomorrow morning, and it was obvious that they would indeed be giving battle before the sun rose much higher. Afuno nibbled on a piece of bread and swept the crumbs from his lap onto the ground as he listened to the latest report.

  «That makes at least fifteen thousand men facing us,» he said to Blade. «Are there likely to be many more from Rulam?»

  Blade shook his head. «Not impossible, but not likely either, Your Majesty. They have to leave a large force at home to prevent rebellion among their conquered cities and their slaves. And both King Kleptor and Queen Roxala have probably left their best men in Rulam, each to watch the other.»

  «Probably,» said Afuno, sourly. «I hope you are right, Blade. With fifteen thousand men of Rulam, we will be facing twenty thousand or more when the army of Kanda joins them. And we are less than eighteen thousand now. There will be no more coming in before the battle. And we have little or nothing left at home to defend our towns if we lose. We are playing for high stakes in this battle, Blade-will Zunga survive or not? I hope your plan works. More depends on it than whether you become king of Zunga or not. Much more.»

  «I know, Your Majesty,» said Blade. «But it should work. I’ve seen what good fighters with the new spears can do to even the best Rulami soldiers. So have you. And I know what will happen if we behead the enemy’s armies. We will loose intrigue and treachery among them like a plague. They will be too busy fighting civil wars and each other to worry about us in Zunga for many years to come. Consider what would happen to Zunga if you were killed, Your Majesty. Then consider that among our enemies things will be ten times worse.»

  Afuno grunted. Blade wasn’t sure whether t
he king agreed with him or was simply trying to shut him up. Nayung shook his head. «All this is well and good, provided that the Kandans actually unite their army with that of Rulam, so that we get a chance at both leaders.»

  «Indeed,» said Blade. «But I do not think they will have any choice. The only man in Rulam who can speak to the Kandans and be listened to is King Kleptor. And similarly, the only man in Kanda who can be taken seriously and obeyed by the Rulami is the High Priest himself. They will not dare to fight separate battles, for fear of being defeated separately.»

  «Or of being betrayed by their ally,» said Nayung.

  «Or betrayed,» said Blade with a nod.

  Afuno rose. «Enough of this gabble about what may be or must be. Let us go forward and see what is. That is what we must face, and that is what can kill us.» He picked up his two war spears and motioned to his eight guards. They fell in on either side of him. Blade and Nayung brought up the rear, and the whole little group turned north, toward the Zungan battle line.

  That line formed an arc more than a mile from end to end. It was divided into three divisions, each of about five thousand men under a Great D’bor. Of the men in each division, four thousand stood in the main battle formation, nine ranks deep. The rest stood in reserve in the rear of the division, and this thousand included a proportion of men armed and trained with the new spears, about five hundred to a division. Each division formed an independent unit, that could advance or retreat as circumstances demanded. The right-flank division was drawn back a little, since the Kandan army was expected to appear from that direction.

  Except for the presence of the men with the new spears, there was nothing about the arrangement of the three divisions that had not been standard Zungan tactics for many generations. The three divisions included all but about three thousand of the army’s men.

  Behind the main line lay the reserve, all three thousand warriors in it armed and at least somewhat trained with the new spears. That was the army’s secret weapon, its shock troops-and Blade’s. It was the beheading sword he intended to swing at the armies of Rulam and Kanda. With Kleptor and the High Priest dead or possibly captured, there would be chaos in both enemy cities, their alliance would fall apart, and there would be no need to risk the lives of Zungan soldiers killing the Rulami and the Kandans one by one.

  That was the chief reason for Blade’s plan. If there had been no more reason for it than to make him famous among the Zungans, he would never have proposed it. But it also promised a swift, decisive, and long-lasting victory over Zunga’s enemies, perhaps without as long bloody battle that would waste the Zungans as much as their enemies. To defeat their enemies’ armies in the field would be no victory for Zunga if their own ranks were demolished in the process.

  So the Zungan army stood in its battle formation under the rising glare and heat of the sun. Blade noticed many of the warriors looking upward toward the clear blue sky. It was a good omen, to be fighting under a clear sky. The Sky Father could look down upon his people, watch their fighting, see and approve their courage. The good weather was lending the Zungans extra confidence. Blade was glad of that. He himself was a great deal more on edge than he cared to admit, even to Afuno or Nayung.

  The thud of drums and the off-key wailings of flutes off to the right heralded the arrival of the Kandan army. It was more numerous than Blade had expected-the mass of men looked nearly seven thousand strong. Red shields among the black and white ones showed where a fair number of Rulami soldiers had been included in the Kandan ranks, to stiffen them. But still, the Kandans must have stripped their walls almost bare of fighting men to make up their army to such a size. If the Kandan field army died in today’s battle, the city would be a plum ripe for plucking. Blade told himself not to count his victories before they were won, and stared north, watching and waiting for the army of Rulam to appear.

  He did not have to wait long. Within a few minutes he saw the Zungan scouts coming back, sprinting for the safety of their own lines. Then the sun glared on acres of polished armor moving down from the north, and the army of Rulam flowed into view. They were as well trained and disciplined as the Zungans, far more so than the Kandans, and made a fine show. They were also taking formation in three divisions of five thousand soldiers each. But their divisions stood one behind the other. High above the second division rose Kleptor’s own red banner. One of the Zungans’ principal enemies was in the field. Where was the High Priest?

  Then the Kanda flutes broke out again, their discordant wailing setting Blade’s teeth on edge as they broke the silence of the waiting armies. To the left of the Kandan army a small cluster of figures appeared, bearing above them a black banner with the white tower badge of the Priests of the Ivory Tower. The red banner of Rulam started to move, moved toward the Ivory Tower banner. A body of Rulami soldiers broke out of their second division, escorting a litter. Even from where he was standing in front of the Zungan lines, Blade could make out the obese figure of King Kleptor in the litter. The two big fish were swimming into the same pond.

  But not now. Blade had no intention of leading his shock troops straight into the jaws of the enemy’s armies, particularly when those jaws could close so easily. Let the enemy make the opening move, come to the Zungans, and be immobilized. Then would be the time to strike. But would the Rulami attack?

  The Rulami did not attack, but orders must have gone to the Kandan army. In a few minutes it began sidling slowly around toward the Zungan right, with a great uproar of drums and flutes and shrill war cries. Its commander was moving it as a single mass, not trying to divide it for greater flexibility. Considering the quality of Kandan soldiers, that was probably wise-dividing the army might have caused chaos rather than improved flexibility. But it made a formidable body of men slipping toward the Zungan flank.

  Afuno barked an order, and messengers dashed off. The Great D’bor of the right-wing Zungan division in his turn snapped orders, and the division began to wheel toward the right, facing the Kandans. if they had planned a flank attack, they abandoned it when they saw the wheeling movement. Once again the three armies stood in their places under the hot sun. The silence was broken only by occasional shouted orders and the murmur of voices among the less-disciplined Kandans.

  Afuno came shouldering his way through the Zungan line and moved up to stand beside Blade. His guards followed him and took formation around him. They were plainly unhappy about having the king standing out here in plain sight of more than twenty thousand enemies. Blade felt much the same way.

  «Your Majesty, don’t you think you should get to the rear?»

  «Why? Those bastards over there look like they’re going to stand and look at us until the carrion birds think they’re dead and come down to nibble on their ears and noses.»

  «Maybe. But I think they will attack soon.»

  «Perhaps you are right. Do you want to take command of your force now?»

  «With Your Majesty’s permission.»

  «You have it.»

  Blade turned and dashed back through the Zungan lines, to where the three thousand shock troops waited. They would not be committed to the head-on collision of the two battle lines that Blade expected. Rulami tactics would probably take them straight to the Zungan center, planning to break through there and then wheel to the left and the right with the following divisions. In such a mob scene the Zungans’ discipline would make their traditional fighting style effective enough for a while, as long as they held formation. And the enemy’s massed ranks would in any case be less vulnerable to the new Zungan techniques. But once either side broke its formations open…

  Blade ran up to Nayung. «The king has said we can move.»

  «Good. Where do you want us to go?» By royal command Blade had absolute control over the shock troops and could move them at will.

  «The king and the High Priest are on their left.»

  «So is the whole Kandan army, Blade.»

  «I know.»

  Nayung looked
sharply at him. «Blade, are you sure you are not too concerned with vengeance on the High Priest? Vengeance for a girl you knew for barely an hour?»

  «Nayung, I am not such a fool. The High Priest is the weak spot of all Kanda. I would be aiming for him if his life was as blameless as a maid’s.»

  Nayung shrugged. Whether or not he was convinced, he was obviously prepared to obey. «Then-«

  Before Nayung could get his suggestion out of his mouth, the trumpets and drums of the Rulami sounded in a hideous, thundering brazen chorus. Following hard on their heels came a series of harshly bellowed orders. Then the sunlight flashed again as the lead division of the Rulami began to move forward.

  They came down against the Zungans at a walk that soon became a run. Their swords struck fire into Blade’s eyes as they flashed in the air, and the repeated blasts of their trumpets drowned out even the thunder of ten thousand marching feet. They struck the Zungan center with a hideous metallic crash and a chorus of screams as spears and swords took their first victims. Blade saw the Zungan center reel bodily backward several yards, then steady itself as its D’bors hurled threats, curses, and encouragements at their men. A forest of waving spears sprouted above it as all of the first three ranks went into action.

  Blade turned to Nayung. «They’ve committed themselves to the attack on the center. At least for now. We’ll never get a better chance.» He did not mention his fears that King Afuno had been unwilling to retreat behind his warriors before the Rulami charge hit the Zungan line. The whole plan depended on cutting off the heads of the enemy’s force-it would be sheer folly to lose the Zungan’s own leader.

  But it was a folly that Blade could do nothing about now. He gave his orders and a thousand of the shock-troop spearmen wheeled about and broke into a run, heading for the extreme right flank of their own army. To take the whole force would be foolish-and hopefully unnecessary. The men of the right-hand Zungan division waved and cheered as Blade’s men pounded past. Then the thousand were out in the open, curving around toward the north again, toward the Kandan army.