Nodding, satisfied, Aram looked once more into the west and then turned and went down to join Thaniel and thence across the prairie to spend one last night with Ka’en.
12.
In the cool gray of the next dawn, Aram parted from Ka'en, holding her close. After a long moment, she leaned back and looked up into his face. “Will I see you again before the – before you meet – them?”
Aram shook his head gently. “No, my love. The men march west tomorrow and Thaniel and I must go in front of them, to get a sense of what the enemy intends and where we may meet them to our advantage.”
She put her head to his chest and did not speak for some time. When at last she did, her voice was muffled. “Come back to me, my love.”
He bent his head down and kissed her on the top of her head. “I always will.”
They stood that way for a moment longer and then he held her gently away and looked into her eyes. “I will be back before the end of summer.”
The topaz depths of her eyes darkened and moisture seeped into their corners. “Will you be away so long?”
“I hope that it can be sooner,” he admitted. “But I expect that a single engagement will decide very little. Don't worry; I will return.”
“I will do nothing but worry,” she answered.
He frowned. “But our child needs you to be strong.”
“The child will be fine.”
He pulled her close for several moments more, tightening his embrace, and then he released her, pivoted, and went down the stairway at the western end of the veranda. At the bottom, Thaniel waited, having already been saddled by Arthrus. Aram mounted the great horse's back and looked up. Ka'en stood at the head of the stairs, holding one small white hand up in farewell. Her face was very pale in the dim light of morning. Aram held up his hand as well and sat motionless for a long moment, gazing up. Then Thaniel turned and cantered down the street toward the edge of town. Before going from view, Aram looked back. Ka'en still stood atop the stairs.
At the edge of town, they turned north toward the woods and Arthrus' workshop where he collected both sets of armor, his and Thaniel's, and tied them in two large bundles across the front and rear of the saddle. The bulky bundles made riding a bit awkward but Aram knew that there would be no chance to return to Derosa before the battle. There was, however, no need for either of them to be armored until the time came to face the enemy.
The sun was well up when they arrived at the fortress. Boman, Edwar, and Findaen stood together discussing their plans for getting the army on the move. Across the prairie men scurried here and there, finishing breakfast and packing their belongings. Despite the solemn expressions on the faces of the captains, over the proceedings in general there was an air of great excitement.
Aram paused only for a moment, without dismounting, to make certain that his captains would be ready to move the army westward by the end of the next day. As he was bent down, listening to Findaen's account of the state of things, a soldier from Lamont came near.
“Lord Aram! Are we going to see the garghoul now?”
Aram looked at him, noted his Lamontan uniform, and turned to Edwar with raised eyebrows. The captain grinned sheepishly.
“In Lamont,” he explained, “there is a legend of a giant hairy beast with long teeth that once wandered the wastelands and is still reputed to live among the wild eastern regions of the world. It is called a 'garghoul'. Anyone who is widely traveled or has experienced things of which others can only dream is said to have 'seen the garghoul'.”
Aram looked over. The soldier was still nearby, wiping the shaft of his pike with a rag and watching him expectantly.
“Yes,” Aram replied, smiling, “we are going to see the garghoul.”
The soldier whooped and stuck one fist in the air.
Grinning at the man's enthusiasm, Aram bade his captains farewell. Then he spoke to Thaniel and they turned away and went down the slope toward the Broad. After they crossed and began to move beyond the river, Durlrang, who had been in the green hills to the north angled down across the prairie to join them.
The sun followed them, growing more insistent with its heat as it climbed the sky. The three companions wound around the base of Flat Butte, went up and over the lower slopes of Burning Mountain, across the new flow of shining, looped, and ropy lava and down through the valley of the dry lake. The great orb overtook them and began its long slide into the west before they reached the shores of the lake, which in fact was not dry. At this time of year it still held a good amount of water. Heat waves shimmered off its surface as the sun worked at turning it into a proper representation of its name. Evening had fallen when they came near to the gap that led into Cumberland. Aram turned Thaniel aside and they went southward up into the forested hills.
As they trended up a watercourse, Padrik and two other wolves appeared and ran alongside them until Aram found a small meadow out of sight of the valley and stopped to camp.
Dismounting, he looked down at Padrik. “What news from Elam?”
“The army that left here in the spring went far to the south, beyond the great gates, and has not come back northward, master.”
“Good.” Aram nodded at this bit of welcome news. “And the young man of Elam has not returned either?”
“No, master, all is quiet.”
Aram looked up at the wooded slopes. “How far to the south do your people range?”
“Barcur has gone further south than any of us. He states that there is an abandoned city of stone on the eastern side of the hills three days hard run to the south.”
“I know that place,” Aram responded. “That's good – you are watching much territory. But do not stretch yourselves too thin, Padrik. I will need some of your people to go north with me on the morrow.”
The yellow-white wolf pricked up his ears at this. “I will gladly go, master. How many more will you require?”
Aram thought for a moment. “Four or five ought to be enough. Durlrang will stay with me, but I will need scouts on either side of me to watch the places that are beyond my sight. The eagles have gone back into the north to observe the approach of the enemy.”
“The enemy comes?”
“Yes,” Aram responded.
Padrik glanced over at a rangy black wolf standing nearby. “Longspur will watch the borders of Elam with our people and I will gather the others to go north this night,” he told Aram.
“Good,” Aram replied. “We leave at daylight. And tell those that remain to always watch for the young prince of Elam.”
“We will obey, master.” Padrik turned and he and his companions melted into the shadows beneath the trees.
After the wolves left, Aram, hearing the greeting from a familiar voice, glanced up at the sky. “Are you there, Lord Alvern?”
The reply came immediately. “Yes, my lord. I have been above you for the last hour.”
“And Kipwing?”
“My grandson is in the north, in the skies above the enemy.”
“Does the enemy keep his pace?”
“They come about the same distance southward day by day,” the eagle answered.
Aram nodded at this. “We will go north in the morning, to find a place to meet them.”
“I will be above you at dawn,” Alvern said, “and go northward at midday to gain a report from Kipwing.”
Early the next morning, Padrik and five other wolves came out of the shadows just as Aram had finished a cold breakfast and was tying the bundled armor onto Thaniel's back. Aram greeted them and then mounted up.
“Let's go,” he said simply.
In the shadows of a small copse of trees at the edge of the valley they waited for Alvern to give the all clear.
“There are several wagons on the plains a few miles north of the gap,” the eagle reported. “They move northward, and nothing comes south. And there is nothing upon the road east of the town by the hills.”
Thaniel moved forward upon hearing this and they went
across the western end of the sandy shores of the lake and picked up the road that ran through the gap. Aram looked down at Padrik. “Let three of your people go east into the hills; the rest of you go west into the woods. Report anything unusual and stay in contact with Durlrang.”
“As you wish, master.”
The road through the gap ran in a nearly straight line, except for a very slight curve to the northwest. In places the hills rose up sharply to either side, with deep ravines that ran back into them. Aram studied each of these narrow canyons as Thaniel passed for a good place to affect an ambush, but in every case there was too little space to attempt a general engagement, which was what he had decided he wanted. The main canyon that contained the road was itself too narrow, with very little room for any sizable company of troops to maneuver. If things went badly for his untested soldiers, in such a place as this they could be separated into small groups and destroyed in detail.
It would be better, he decided, to meet their enemy on flat, relatively open ground, somewhere on the plains ahead. The gap, being to their rear, would create serious difficulties in the event of a necessary retreat, but it would also provide Aram with a narrower piece of ground to defend against large numbers if it came to such a circumstance. He had already decided that he wanted to face the grim lord's army as far away from Derosa as possible. There were three reasons for this. Most importantly, he wanted to impress upon Manon that the borders of the free lands were expanding rather than contracting or remaining static. This would cause the grim lord to alter his thinking in the future and perhaps even convince him that his hold upon the great plains was more tenuous than he thought.
Secondly, he wanted his own troops to think offensively rather than defensively. When facing Manon's beasts for the first time, it might give them an edge, however slight. Lastly, if they were forced to retreat, especially if routed, there would be time – and room – to at least create an opportunity to find a place to stand and reform. In such an event, Aram would have to hinder the army of the enemy while the captains rallied the men. In truth, this third reason prompted some very dark thoughts. He had to admit that one very real purpose of being so far from home in the event of a defeat was to give himself time and space in which to devise a way to protect his fleeing army from destruction.
After a few miles, the hills that defined the right side of the gap began to wind away in a long curve to the northeast while on the west the wooded highlands gradually lost altitude and much of their ruggedness. Shortly afterward, they came out of the gap onto the open prairie. Aram spoke to Thaniel, bringing the horse to a halt.
They were at the southeastern corner of a sizable stretch of open ground, a sort of valley, which was a bit longer north to south than it was wide east to west. To the right, the tall hills turned more sharply toward the east but there was an area of rough, rocky high ground, lower than the hills that stretched away in an almost straight line toward the north. This high ground rose abruptly from the verge of the road, and while not as high as the hills at whose feet it lay, created a formidable hindrance nonetheless to the offensive actions of horse or man, or even lasher.
On their left the wooded hills ended gradually on a line running more or less west, submerging themselves in the flatter soil of the valley. Where these hills ended, the trees failed as well and grass asserted itself. A mile or so away along the line of the hills, another rocky ridge separated itself and ran generally northward, gradually curving back toward the east, effectively defining the western limits of the valley. This ridge turned rather abruptly eastward about a mile to their northwest, and then ended in a sharp drop-off. Through the gap between the end of this ridge and the highlands on the east, they could see northward into the broader flat lands that were the beginnings of the great plains.
Several small, clear streams flowed out of the wooded hills, some barely more than rivulets. All of these tended to meander westward toward the spine of rocky high ground that projected north. Along the base of this spine the small watercourses joined their limited strength together to create a larger stream that flowed northward toward the gap that led into the distant plains.
Looking west, studying this ground, Aram saw three small dark objects exit the trees and go a short distance out into the valley. Padrik and his companions.
Turning his head slowly, he studied the valley in all directions. The wooded slopes at the southern end would serve as campsites if the northern end proved to be a place to make their stand against Manon's forces. If things went badly, the men would be inclined to retreat through their campsites rather than down the road, keeping that narrow pass from becoming a choking point. Also, Aram and Thaniel could defend the road while those men that were able to rally might find the wooded highlands a suitable place to turn and fight.
After glancing north, he looked down at Durlrang. “Tell the others we're going on.”
The road ran northward along the right-hand side of the valley, next to the small line of crumpled hills that fell away from the higher peaks that turned ever more sharply toward the east. A mile or so north of where the road left the gap, they came to a stream that flowed out of the eastern hills, gurgled under a low stone bridge and then continued on toward the west. Beyond the bridge, the road went up and over a grassy hummock and then angled northwest. After crossing the bridge and reaching the crest of the grassy rise, they halted.
Before them, the plains opened up, rolling away to the north and west beyond the limits of sight. Several miles ahead, Aram knew, there flowed the river that he and his companions had crossed in their journey of exploration one year earlier. The brook that flowed under the bridge behind them probably looped away to the north somewhere further on and eventually emptied itself into that larger stream.
Far off to the northeast, a hundred miles or more away, there was a small dark line of brown hills, barely a smudge on the horizon that rose a bit in height as they trailed eastward. It was from their campsite among those hills a year earlier that he, Thaniel, and Durlrang had first glimpsed the dragons flying against a midnight moon. Perhaps another hundred miles beyond those hills was the valley through which he'd been transported into the east in his youth and near whose outflow onto the plains his enemy was even now marching toward him. In a vast arc, stretching from those distant hills in the northeast all the way down to due west, where other lines of higher ground jutted forward here and there from the wooded hills behind them, there was only the immense open space of the plains.
Turning in the saddle, he studied the valley through which they'd just passed. It looked to be just above a mile long, north-to-south, and slightly less than that wide, although here at the northern reaches, where the western ridge curved back toward the east, it was something less than that. Aram estimated the distance to be just above a half mile from the point where that western ridge fell away and ended at the southern bank of the stream to the edge of the highlands over on the east.
Studying this ground, the feeling grew in him, somber yet oddly thrilling, that this was where he would confront the enemy. Thinking about it, he judged that his men could march through the gap in about a day, no more than two at the most, enabling him to leave the bulk of his supply wagons in the valley of the dry lake. And Bertrain, if he so desired, could bring a few of his surgical wagons through the gap and into the southern end of the valley.
The hills to the south, beyond which lay the land of Cumberland, were not overly steep until they began to rise up toward their crests, but were everywhere fairly thickly wooded. His earlier thoughts of making camp among them clarified further as he looked at them from this vantage. If the need to retreat arose and became desperate, the men could flee into those woods, giving them a bit of cover as they tried to reform, while Aram could maneuver among the enemy in the open valley, hopefully causing delay. Deliberately, he shook his head, to dislodge the grim thoughts of defeat, and decided to concentrate only on judging the strategic advantages of the valley.
If he po
sitioned his troops along the southern edge of the small stream, even though the banks of the watercourse were not more than three feet in height anywhere, it would nonetheless force Manon's forces to attack troops positioned on higher ground. Aram's men were now numerous enough to easily cover the gap between the western ridge and the eastern highlands, leaving room for the reserves to maneuver behind the lines. The cavalry could use the road as a conduit for exploiting opportunities or protecting the right flank once battle was joined.
Forcing himself once again to consider the possibility of things going badly, he looked more closely at the defensive advantages provided by the site. For one thing, it would be difficult for the enemy to flank them on the east because of the rugged higher ground that bordered the valley just beyond the road. Also, by placing the horses there, he would have his strongest, most agile troops defending his right.
The other way, across the gap by the stream that defined the northern end of the valley, there was the rocky ridge that would help to protect the left flank. If Manon's army, no doubt being substantially larger, tried to flank him there, he could send reserves onto the high ground, forcing the enemy troops to fight uphill. And he could place wolves there as well.
Behind the lines, south of the stream, the valley widened out. In the event of a rout, rather than trying to flee through a constricted space, there would be room for his soldiers to maneuver.
He looked down at the back of Thaniel's head. “What do you think of making a stand in that valley?”
The horse had been gazing northward from the top of the grassy rise, out across the vast plains, but now he pivoted to the south and studied the valley. After but a few moments, he said, “I think we should defend the far bank of that stream.”
“And let them come at us?” Aram asked, speaking his own instincts in the form of a question.
“It will be easier for green troops to hold a position in defense than to go on the attack,” the horse answered.
Kelven's Riddle Book Four Page 10