When this new and very different Dr. Harry Braun tried to thank Corbett for persuading the vindictive David Sternheimer to release him from the torturous imprisonment in that suffering, slowly dying body, he began to weep and, in the end, could only gasp “Thank you” over and over again between shuddering sobs. Embarrassed at the display of—in his mind, unmanly—emotion, Corbett left the tent as soon as he decently could, thankful that none of his men had witnessed it, giving as excuse the many and most urgent matters to be discussed in a very circumscribed time with Colonel MacBride, which was all true enough.
Pat MacBride, at least, was unchanged, still being the same man that duty and Corbett had long ago shaped. Not too different from what his father had been, and his grandfather before, thought Corbett. Jay had trained and worked closely with all of them, as well as with still more ancient MacBrides who preceded them, for Pat was the fifth generation of MacBrides who had soldiered for Broomtown and the Center. Nor was he the last, for his eldest son, Rory, was a captain in Gumpner’s regiment, two of his younger sons were sergeants and his youngest was presently in the training unit at Broomtown Base.
When he returned to his tent, it was to find the grizzled, prematurely gray officer, a cold pipe clenched between yellow teeth, studying Corbett’s handwritten list of the personnel and equipment for the northbound expeditionary force which he was calling Operation Erica.
Looking up at Corbett from beneath brows still coal-black, the big-boned man asked bluntly, “Why no long- or intermediate-range transceivers, sir? Those handhelds will be useless for anything more than twenty miles away, even the new type.”
Corbett shrugged and sank onto his cot, the only other place to sit in the spartanly furnished tent. “For what purpose, Pat? We’re going to be burdened with a long enough mule train, as matters stand—the heavy weapons and their ammo, extra ammo for the rifles and the grenade launchers, rations, grain for the animals, medical supplies, those explosives and pyrotechnics, and so on. I just cannot see burdening another mule or two ponies with one of the big transceivers.”
“But what if you get into big trouble, sir?” MacBride continued. “Admittedly, your reinforced company has the firepower of a battalion, or better, but you still could run onto more than even that could handle. You’ve always told officer trainees to keep at least one ace up the sleeve. Where’s yours, sir?”
Corbett grinned wolfishly. “Throwing my own words back at me, eh, Pat? Well, never you worry, old friend, my aces are in place when needed, and you and this contingent down here are not one of them.
“Your orders, as I said back down the trail, are simple and direct to the point: retrieve every bit of material you can of those buried packloads, repack them and get them started south to Broomtown with a reasonable guard under command of a reliable officer of your choice, with Dr. Schiepficker as a supernumerary.”
“You and the remainder of the troops are to stay up here with Harry Braun for a maximum time of three months. If I’m not back by then, I won’t be, ever.
“As regards Dr. Braun, he seems a changed man, but I am disinclined to accept him at face value. Watch him carefully. If he should snap back into his bad old ways, just recall that he has no authority of any description. You are the sole commander of this operation in my absence. Dr. Braun’s only function is that of explosives expert, aside from the fact that he and Dr. Schiepficker are expected to aid in evaluation of devices and parts for them that you get from under those rocks. If he causes you too much trouble, you’ll have written authority from me to either confine him or to shoot and kill him. Okay? And don’t worry about what the Council might say about it, Pat. David Sternheimer hates the doctor’s guts. If you have any personal qualms, just recall how Braun cold-bloodedly murdered Cabell, last year. He was a nephew of yours, wasn’t he?”
MacBride just nodded, his lips set in a grim line, a steely glint in the depths of his brown eyes.
Corbett went on, “I mentioned in passing those long, wormlike things. Well, Schiepficker’s principal reason for being up here is to study them, so cooperate with him insofar as you can, without getting any men hurt or killed in the process. If he tells you he’s got to have one alive, tell him where to go and precisely what to do with himself when he gets there. There is simply no way that that could be done safely. Those creatures are strong, incredibly hard to kill, and as vicious as a rabid wolf; their jaws easily lop off fingers and toes and their bite is invariably septic. Oh, and don’t get any of that slimy mucus they’re covered with in your eyes, either; it seems akin to the secretions of poison toads.
“Well, Pat.” Corbett stood up. “You might as well have your gear brought into this tent. It’s where you’ll be living in my absence. My force will be moving fast and as lightly as is possible, all things considered, so a tent and a camp bed will be luxuries I can’t afford. There’s room enough for us both to sack in here tonight. Gumpner and the force and I’ll be off at dawn.”
More than a month before that morning when General Jay Corbett led his force out of the camp by the landslide, another, considerably larger mounted force had crossed the ill-defined border from the southernmost reaches of the Ahrmehnee stahn into the unmapped, unknown and sinister lands to the west. This column was as heterogeneous as was the condotta of Bili of Morguhn. Middle Kingdoms Freefighters rode with petty nobility of the Confederation, with fierce Ahrmehnee warriors on their bred-up mountain ponies, with Maidens of the Silver Lady in their antique-pattern armor.
The Maidens were led by a woman who had been one of the missing brahbehrnuh’s lieutenants, one Rehvkah, who bore the scars of the serious wounds she had taken during the great battle against the Muhkohee on the Tongue of Soormehlyuhn. The Freefighters followed two renowned officers of their own ilk, Captains Djeri Guhntuh and Pawl Raikuh, this last him who had commanded the famous Morguhn Company of Freefighters throughout the hotly fought campaigns in the duchies of Vawn and Morguhn, then into the bitter invasion of the southern portions of the Ahrmehnee stahn.
Because the dehrehbeh of the Behdrozyuhn Tribe of the Ahrmehnee had been at long last persuaded to stay at home and restore order and prosperity to his twice-invaded, twice-shattered, extensively fought-over tribal lands, those of his tribesmen who rode with this column and the several hundred Ahrmehnee warriors from other tribes had chosen several of the more experienced and famous of their number to act as the Ahrmehnee lieutenants for him who was leader of the entire column.
Two knights rode in the lead, followed closely by their bannermen and attendants, who led the sumpter mules which bore their arms and armor. They jogged along side by side, the elder forking an iron-gray gelding spotted on the rump with darker gray, the younger on a big red-bay mare. They were engaged in the very same argument that had occupied them from almost the moment they and their two units had joined at the Behdrozyuhn village nearly a week agone.
“And I says horse turds, Sir Geros!” growled the elder from the deep chest of his big-boned, thick-shouldered, rolling-muscled body. “Don’t matter diddly what kinda he-cow thang thet Pitzburker hung awn me, I’m jest whut I alius was: Big Djim Bohluh, the meanest, drinkin’est, cussin’est, fightin’est, fuckin’est soljuh the Army of the Confederation evuh had an—”
“Yes, you see, Sir Djim,” the younger, slenderer, flat-muscled man put in eagerly, “that’s just what I mean. You are an experienced soldier, a veteran of many years with the army. You know what orders to give and just when and how to give them. Me, I needs must be watched over and prompted by Pawl Raikuh, else I often would be lost in matters of a military nature; but you, now, you would know it all. That’s why I think you should be the paramount leader of this force, not I. Why can’t you agree?”