The Ancient Enemy

by Christopher Rowley

  Graedon was nodding slowly. "Yes, Master Utnapishtim, I also sense some extra hand at the tiller of this engine of destruction. If he lived, then possibly he guides it."

  "We need to know much more." Melidofulo was frowning.

  "This young woman is very well-read. Indeed we are fortunate that her knowledge of her own world is so extensive. We will want to know everything she knows about the history of the empire."

  "Well," Thru began. "She has told me before that the empire began with Kadawak. He was also the High Priest of the Great God. When he died they slew a thousand captive warriors and drenched the stone of his pyramid with their blood...."

  The questioning continued for a while until Thru had passed on everything he had discovered in the last day or so.

  Eventually Thru left the Assenzi and hurried out into the rain. His path took him to the Laughing Fish in search of some of the evening chowder. There, he found Toshak, but both of them were too late for dinner.

  They took mugs of ale and sat together in a corner. Other mots, seeing who they were, left them alone.

  "How is our prisoner?" said Toshak after a moment.

  "She tries very hard. Sometimes I think she despairs, but at other times she is almost happy."

  "It must be difficult for her." Toshak set down his mug. "Well, so it is for all of us. Our army progresses, but by the Spirit we have a long way to go."

  "Can we meet them in battle, when it comes?"

  "I hope so, young Thru, I hope so. If we can face them on favorable ground, perhaps."

  They sipped.

  "It is strange how fate has thrown us together, Thru Gillo. I want you to know that I wish you and Nuza well. Someday I hope you two can wed."

  Thru felt his eyebrows zoom upward at hearing this.

  "Well, I thank you, friend Toshak."

  "And meanwhile we have a war to win."

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Through the night there was a steady rain, and heavy clouds were in motion at dawn. Later they began to clear, but the wind died away to almost nothing, and a thick mist rose from the sea.

  Admiral Heuze decided it was time.

  The ships moved into the bay and began to work their way cautiously shoreward. Six ships were involved in the operation, led by the Anvil. Heuze wanted the glory of this action firmly attached to his own name. Behind Anvil stretched Grampus, Crusher, Growler, Tooth, and at the rear Sword. The mists covered them well, and they were within a mile of the shore before the beacons blazed from the tops of the headlands.

  The ships hove to immediately and set down their boats. Hundreds of men climbed in, and the rowers took up their oars and drove the boats toward the shore. As they came, the warriors chanted a rhythmic war song, seeking strength from sword and spear. Each man swore to the Great God to use them well upon the enemy.

  The boats sliced through the water while the chant went on, its harsh sound designed to terrify the enemy before the soldiers of Shasht even showed themselves upon the field.

  The red tops began to pound their drums, and the boats surged forward, over the last few hundred yards.

  As the boats came in toward the beach, Rukkh noted that it was a remarkably still day. The mist obscured the beach and made the town invisible, though he could see the sand dunes that rose behind the beach as a series of pale yellow curves with no outlines. The alien strand, a curve of sand and pebbles, awaited him.

  He stopped chanting to take war snuff, caressed his snuff-egg, and pressed it back inside his tunic. On his arms and legs he wore leather armor, and in the middle of the chest a small breastplate of steel. These precautions were the result of the previous fighting with the monkeys, who had shown that they could be dangerous with sword and spear. The high command were worried about casualties now. The plague had run a scythe through the ranks of the warriors, so the survivors were unusually precious.

  But Rukkh had fought the monkeys. He knew what they were capable of. Relatively easy meat to kill, compared with men. He still didn't feel he needed this much armor.

  The chanting continued right up to the moment they beached and jumped over the side, while the rowers crouched down to get out of their way.

  The dunes at the top of the beach were more clearly visible. Sandy yellow masses, they were topped with fringes of long grass. For some reason the sight brought up old memories for Rukkh, of the dunes behind the farm where his father fought the dry, ruined land for their living. He was running barefoot on the dunes, making sure to escape his older brother. Scmakkh was not a nice brother to have, especially when he was fourteen and Rukkh was only nine.

  He laughed bitterly inside at the memories. He had killed his older brother when the time came. He had never regretted it.

  The water was cold around the ankles, but they were soon past that and scrambling up the beach in their hobnailed sandals. When they came out on a level part of the beach the red tops started banging the drums again and the chant for Orbazt Subuus came rolling forth once more and echoed off the face of the dunes.

  The men quickly formed up in companies. Emjex was the new company captain, Cauta having died in the plague. Burok and Hugga were the same sergeants they'd always had. Why was it that so few sergeants had died of the damned plague? If they could have lost anyone else, Rukkh would have nominated Burok for the honor.

  Forjal was on his right, as always, but poor old Hukkit had died in that fight with the monkeys. There were lots of other missing faces, mostly from the plague.

  Burok was shouting for them to close up and get in line. They already were in line, but Burok wasn't looking at them, he was looking to Emjex, making sure the new captain heard old Burok roaring.

  They marched up the beach in files set six feet apart, shields deployed, spears held ready. Burok stomped by, scattering shingle, his heavy shoulders heaving under the dogskin he wore over his helmet.

  Burok roared again, demanding more zest in their step. Rukkh increased his pace and kept abreast of the line as they double-timed up the slope. Behind them more boats were beaching and more sergeants were bellowing as their men formed up.

  Scouts had gone ahead into the dunes. One of them appeared briefly on top of a dune to wave his red semaphore sticks. More orders came immediately.

  The men turned to their left and began to double-time along the beach, parallel to the dunes, through the thick mist. Burok had told them that they were going to capture a big monkey place that day. Opportunities for loot would be plentiful.

  Scouts came running by, bows over their backs, semaphore sticks in their hands. A minute later they heard more orders being relayed down the chain of command. Burok bellowed for the squad to halt and form up ready to receive the enemy from the direction of the dune.

  They turned and dressed themselves right on the new line, six feet between each man in every direction. Burok snarled imprecations at Catlonga, who was slightly out of position. There was nothing new about this, and it was even vaguely comforting to hear the familiar cadences of Burok in full flow.

  The first arrows, looping out of the fog at them, were still a little bit of a shock. It was always the case. Having arrows and rocks directed your way was never a comforting thing.

  The arrows fell among them with a soft collective whistle. Burok's voice roared again, and their shields snapped up at once while they readied their spears.

  Captain Emjex was bellowing about somebody's Goddamned, fornicating, useless sense of position. Lieutenant Chaff relayed the complaints. Sergeant Hugga took them to the source and commenced yelling in the face of Blukubo.

  A few more arrows fell among them, mostly lodging harmlessly in the mud.

  Their own archers were holding fire, not having targets to aim at.

  They remained halted there while scouts loped ahead up into the dunes. They vanished from sight. A little later they reappeared and waved red sticks.

  Orders rang out. They turned left, re-dressed to the original line, and went forward again, shields up, spears
ready. The mists thickened as they moved north along the beach. They crossed a patch where seaweed in considerable quantities had washed ashore and was being dried for harvesting. The stuff crunched and crackled under their hobnails and for a while the smell of it filled their nostrils. Then they were past it and also beyond the end of the dunes.

  Quite suddenly there came a sharp whistle on their right and the scouts could be seen signaling.

  "Prepare to receive enemy from the right flank!"

  They formed up, turning and flexing their lines to be able to receive an assault from the dunes.

  Then they saw monkeys, lots of them, clustering along the top of the dune. Arrows flew in both directions, but considerably more were falling on the men. The top of the dune gave the monkey archers a good position for aiming a plunging fire down on them.

  Rukkh felt an arrow thud into his shield. Another one clipped the edge and caromed past a few inches from his face. He heard a curse behind him as it struck someone.

  More arrows were coming.

  Captain Emjex was requesting permission to clear the dunes of the enemy. A few moments later orders came down and Burok sent his men running forward, up the sandy face of the dune. For the first time that day they climbed that hundred feet of sand.

  The drums thundered, and they screamed their war cry.

  Arrows flew among them. Here and there someone stumbled and went down, but the rest kept going. Rukkh had arrows sticking out of his shield, but none had harmed him yet.

  It was tiring work, though, driving up the slope through the loose yellow sand.

  At last they reached the top and found the enemy gone. A shout came from Forjal, who pointed down the far slope. A few figures were still visible taking to their heels into the heather, which was braided by ancient game trails.

  Burok halted them on the top, and they formed up, dressed their lines with habitual efficiency, and waited. Burok was very unwilling to enter the tangled heather on the inland slope of the dunes.

  "Can't keep formation in that!" he pointed out to Lieutenant Braz.

  Officers were conferring. Semaphores were flying, red, then blue sticks.

  They remained in position, holding the top of the dunes at their northern tip. The Blitzers had a fine view of the battlefield.

  The mist was fading by that point. A light breeze from off the bay started clearing the air. The walls of the city appeared, with its towers and steeples within. Rukkh could see that it was a big place, easily as big as the one they'd burned before the plague. Hell, there was a moat, full of water. This city would be harder to take. Rukkh counted three gates on the near side of the city, a small one just above the beach and two larger ones from which came roads. The space in front of the walls was completely clear, right up to the edge of the moat, though farther back, beyond bowshot, the ground was covered in walled-garden allotments and a maze of small paths that connected them to the roads. Inland, to the right of their line of advance, grew a strip of forest, and beyond the forest were small fields, bright green with the burgeoning crop.

  Generals wanted to take a look at all this with their very own eyes, and so they waited there while Uisbank and his retinue climbed the dune. By then the mist had receded almost completely. They could see the organized masses of the enemy marching out of the center gate about a mile away. Rukkh's practiced eye took in the loose, but not completely sloppy formations. Regiments of perhaps a thousand individuals, he judged, marching in column. At the head of each was a trio of officers and a standard-bearer. For standards they used small bright pennons in different color combinations.

  Uisbank watched the monkeys with their amusing little display of disciplined marching. Regiments of the little creatures? It certainly wasn't what he'd expected. At the fight at Tamf, Uisbank had been on the staff of General Ruus. The monkeys had never tried to do more than hold the wall, and they'd been easily outmaneuvered there. Now they thought to imitate men, did they? Hah! He'd soon show them about that.

  Uisbank called his officers together. He planned to use the classic slanted front attack that had won the battle of Kaggenbank and put Aeswiren III on the throne. The army would line up with three regiments in line, facing the monkeys, who were in line along their road. The Blitz Regiment, famous for frontal attacks, would be the closest to the city while the Fourth Regiment would fill in behind it. The remaining Fifth Regiment would be held back in reserve.

  The regiments closest to the wall would move off first, pitching into the monkeys around the gate. If at all possible, they would seize the gate. The other two regiments would advance a little later and thus the line would trail back from the left to the right. The monkeys should be forced away from the wall and then compressed and encircled before being slaughtered.

  The regiments stepped forward to begin the maneuvers. Rukkh's company went downslope to rejoin the regiment, which would be the lead regiment in the coming fight. Often that was all a battle required, a single clean thrust by the Blitzers through the enemy's belly. They were justly famous for the power of their attack.

  The company quick marched down the dune and across the flat ground in front of the walls and took their position in the regiment. They faced inland, with the city walls about two hundred feet to their left. There were monkeys everywhere. A line of them on the walls, keening and wailing, and a great mass of them arrayed along the road near the gate.

  On the dune top, General Uisbank decided against sending a force to clear out the monkeys in the heather. His priority was just to hit the damned monkeys on their right flank and push them away from the gate. Then he could be certain of massacring the lot of them.

  Skirmishers on the dunes could be attended to later.

  The regiments lined up in smooth array, watched by the monkeys from a distance of a thousand feet. A few long-ranging arrows came hurtling out from the walls, on their left, but it was a little too far for them. The shafts sank into the soft ground. Rukkh noticed that there were lots of muddy places ahead, where the night's rain had softened the earth.

  The trumpets blew the charge as soon as they'd dressed their lines. Forward at a trot went the men on the left, closest to the wall. At the same moment there came a loud crack from the walls, instantaneously followed by a whining shriek, and a rock as big as a man's head was hurled off the wall to land in the middle of the regiment. By a miracle it simply slammed into a muddy slough and rolled away down the aisle between their lines.

  Unfortunately the second one hit poor Blukubo square in the chest.

  The loud crack-whine sounds kept coming, and with them more rocks. Men went down like skittles as these rocks slammed into them. Without any orders, the pace of their charge was quickened. Arrows from the mass of monkeys ahead began falling among them in drifts. Here and there they brought forth cries of pain and curses. Another rock bounced short, then flew through the squad's ranks at chest height, until it caught Wiggi full on the shield. That wasn't enough protection, and Wiggi was hurled to the ground.

  "Close up that file," screamed Burok, and they stepped over poor old Wiggi and went on.

  At about that moment there came a blast of trumpets behind them. The men didn't look back; that was for officers to do. They kept going forward until new orders came down to them.

  What they didn't see was that the small gate close to the edge of the beach had opened, releasing a force of monkeys that was charging headlong at the rear of the Fourth Regiment, backing up the Blitzers.

  Orders were being bellowed. The last two lines of men in the Fourth were halted, turned about, and set to receive the enemy assault.

  The rest continued the quick-step charge toward the enemy.

  But now the enemy's two other regiments had turned and hustled closer to the one directly ahead. They were shortening their line and deepening it opposite the onrushing assault column.

  Rukkh noted the raggedness of the movements, but the end result was still a dramatic thickening of the line ahead of them. And now there was a threa
t of a force coming in on their right flank as they attacked.

  More trumpets were blowing as General Uisbank made corrections, calling on the other regiments to close up formations and accelerate their approach to keep the fornicating monkeys from falling on the right flank of the attack column. His echelon attack was blurring.

  With a roar and a clatter, the fight behind the Blitzers began as the enemy came up against the rear guard. More rocks whistled into their ranks and bounced on and then they were moving over the last hundred yards, speeding up to a run but keeping their lines straight. The war cry was rising high and the red tops were still hammering away on their drums.

  The enemy gave a great cry of their own and surged forward, and in a moment the forces came together. Rukkh found himself confronted with a row of long spears and behind them oblong shields painted with a number of animal motifs. He tried to deflect the spear ahead, it struck his shield, pulled back, and stabbed at his legs. He cut down with the shield and drove the spearpoint to the ground, but another spear jabbed at him, and he was forced to step sideways.

  The monkeys were keeping a forest of spearpoints in their faces. It was hard to go shield to shield and use one's momentum to smash them back.

  Rukkh thrust with his own spear, its point leaping and flickering as he stabbed at the monkeys in front of him. Rukkh was impressed, despite himself. They were fighting well, much better than they had in the fights he'd taken part in before. He dodged another spear thrust. An arrow clipped the side of his shield and struck him on the breastplate with considerable force. He struggled to get his breath for a moment, and the enemy spears thrust at him from both sides together, forcing him back a step and exposing Forjal, who gave a curse and stepped back, too.

  The whole line of the squad was peeling back, stepping into the men behind them, who cursed them for being weak-willed sons of whores. The regiment was bunching up.

  Meanwhile the pressure on the right was growing intense where the attack was flanked. The monkeys had closed around on that side, taking men on two sides. Inevitably the lines had curved back and knots had formed in their formations.