“Lieutenant Kahndoot, send an order to gap the main gates enough for one man to get through them. Send a runner—a mindspeaker, with orders to stay at that post for the rest of this watch—over to the barbican. He’ll be safe enough on the drawbridge; it’s not exposed. He’s to pass on to the barbican commander just what I’ve told you. Be wary, but keep low enough to not make a good target for those prod men, and at the first sign of a looming assault, mindcall me, directly.”
The broad-shouldered, thick-bodied woman saluted as Bili and his entourage departed, even while her mind was instructing a telepathic Moon Maiden runner.
After a late planning session with certain of his staff and of the royal council, Bili was just drifting off into much-needed sleep when one of the Kleesahks, Oodehn, mindspoke him.
“Lord Champion, we found the spot where the man lay who slew those upon the wall yesterday. What should we do?”
Bili pondered briefly. “If it appears that he might return, Master Oodehn, erect a cairn nearby as an aiming point for our archers and engineers. I’d liefer have the bastard alive, him and his new-fangled, extra-hard-hitting weapon, but he must be put out of action are we to maintain an effective wall watch.”
The mindlink was broken by the Kleesahk, but before Bili’s own mind could close, there came another beaming, this one from Pah-Elmuh. “Lord Champion, it will please you to know that King Byruhn’s condition seems to have improved a little. His color is better and he seems to at last be taking more benefit from the milk, wine and broths we keep forcing into his belly. But still his mind is closed to me, alas.”
Once again, old Count Sandee was entertaining strange lowlander noblemen at his hall and high table. One of his daily patrols from out the safe glen of Sandee’s Cot had run across this column of invaders from the east, and the leader of the patrol, Phryah the Moon Maiden, had shown herself to them after recognizing sisters she knew among their ranks. When he had heard that this strange Maiden knew the present whereabouts of Thoheeks Bili, the brahbehrnuh and the two missing Ahrmehnee headmen, Sir Geros had not been at all loath to follow her and her patrol back to Sandee’s Cot.
But at the first, Count Steev Sandee had been most loath to allow so large a force of armed invaders within his safe glen and had kept the most of them camped outside the Cot, just beyond its outermost defenses. But as it became clear to him that these men and women harbored no designs upon the glen or any other possession of New Kuhmbuhluhn, he had at last allowed them all entry and lodged the most of them in the huge, commodious tower keep down by the lake, for the Cot itself had room only for the nobles and the captains.
The old Kuhmbuhluhn nobleman spoke his mind bluntly, as had ever been his wont. “Sir knights, you and your force are well come into Kuhmbuhluhn at this time. For at this very moment, our good King Mahrtuhn, his chosen successor, Prince Mahrtuhn Gilbuht, and many another brave warrior of our beleaguered little kingdom lie dead, killed in battle against the northern invaders, the Skohshuns. Our capital, New Kuhmbuhluhnburk, is straitly besieged by this alien host, and King Byruhn, but recently crowned, lies gravely wounded within the city, while its defenses are commanded by that same stark young warrior-duke whom you came to find—Bili of Morguhn, him and all those others you seek after.
“Bare days before my patrol found you all, had I been in contact with the counts of certain other safe glens in these parts of our so-threatened kingdom, that we might form up such forces as we could scrape together to ride over the mountains to try to succor New Kuhmbuhluhnburk, to so sorely hurt the Skohshuns as to break their siege ... or die trying.
“But, stripped as we were months agone to send arms, men, horses and supplies to the north, we could have raised no more than a scant two hundred swords, and too many of those with only mountain ponies to fork. However, now, with you and your hundreds of well-armed and -mounted fighters ... ?”
Sir Geros answered the question readily. “My lord count, since it appears that Thoheeks Morguhn has felt your cause against these northern invaders sufficient to freely pledge him and his to the furtherance of the Kingdom of New Kuhmbuhluhn, how can I—the most humble of his followers—do less? I and my force are your men as of this moment ... uhh, men and women, that is.”
“Me and mine, too,” Sir Djim Bohluh nodded.
Within the hour, Count Sandee had sent messengers galloping to all six of the other, southerly safe glens with the glorious news of the unexpected and most fortuitous reinforcements.
Led by Skinhead Johnny Kilgore and the other Ganik, Merle Bowley, General Corbett’s column marched long and hard and made good time, coming to the environs of the glen wherein Bowley had said Erica and the rest were being held in under two weeks. Then, Corbett took over.
A rocket and two mortar bombs demolished the massive gate to the glen and toppled one of the two flanking towers. Then Corbett sent Merle Bowley in under a flag of truce, threatening to visit worse destruction upon the entire glen and every living soul within it did not Erica and her party come out forthwith and unharmed.
IX
Counter Tremain swallowed as much of Horseface Charley’s boastful bragging as he could stomach, then burst out, “Shitfahr, Horseface, awl you sayin’ is you’s up thar awl the fuckin’ day and you dint kill but three of them Kuhmbuhluhn bugtits, fer shore! By Plooshuhn, I could do thet good, I swanee, and I ain’ nowhars near’s good with a ryfuhl as you is.”
And that, thought Counter morosely, was how he now came to be making his slow, careful way up the mountain to the spot that Horseface had described to take the Ganik marksman’s place on the morrow, to lie almost motionless through all the hours of daylight in a hole scooped out of the rocky soil and shoot at any Kuhmbuhluhner foolish enough after the preceding day to show his head or body as a target.
In answer to Counter’s rebuttal of Horseface’s braggadocio, Erica had answered calmly, “No, he only killed three, but his killing of them served the purpose for which he was there. Even from down here in the camp, we could see that very few figures were visible on the walls, towers or barbican for longer than mere fleeting instants of time after those three were downed. And that is just what the brigadier wants—fewer and less vigilant watchers in those areas.
“As for your suggestion, Counter,” she had smiled, “I do think that one day at a time up there is enough for any of you. Charley has blazed the way now, so you will go up tonight and take the position for tomorrow. If anyone does offer a good target, by all means do your damnedest to hit him, of course. But I doubt if more than one will, probably early on in the day, and when once they learn you’re still shooting at them, they’ll doubtless do a repeat of today—staying low and out of sight as much as possible.
“As I told Charley last night, if you move as little as possible, there’s no way that you can be spotted, not with that silencer-flash-hider on the rifle. When we found that rig back at the landslide, I couldn’t imagine what we’d ever use it for or when, but I’m very glad now that I brought it along anyway.”
“But Ehrkah,” Counter had protested, not in the least relishing the thought of a day lying motionless in a hot, cramped hole under a pile of rocks, “I ain’ nowhars near as good a ryfuhl shooter as ole Horseface is. Chances is, evun if I’s to shoot atairy one them Kuhmbuhluhners, I ain’ gonna hit ’em. Naw, Ehrkah, I thanks Horseface, he awta go back up thar t’naht, not me.”
She had shaken her head of black, glossy hair and replied, “Counter, shooting, hitting, killing the men on those walls and fortifications is unimportant, really. The thing that is of importance is to keep them down and off the higher points altogether, if possible, so it’s of little moment whether you hit them or not. No, you go up tonight and come back after dark tomorrow. Then Charley can do it again.”