"That was kind of them," I said.
"Yes," said Pumpkin.
"Describe to me the course of the battle, as you understand it," I said to thestripped, blond captive, giving her once again my attention.
"Please," she said, "who are these people? They do not even look at me. Am I sougly or repulsive?"
"You are neither ugly nor repulsive," I said. "In a common Gorean market youwould bring a good price for a medium grade slave girl. Accordingly, you arequite beautiful."
"Who are they?" she whispered. "Are they men?"
"They are called Waniyanpi," I said, "which in Dust Leg and Kaiila means "tamecattle. "
"Are they men?" she asked.
"That is an interesting question," I said. "I do not know."
The girl shuddered. Of Gorean birth, she was unfamiliar, in numbers, at least,with such organisms. Had she been of Earth origin, of course, she would havebeen far less I startled, for then creatures would have been much more familiarto her. In the polluted meadows of Earth graze numerous Waniyanpi.
"Begin," I told her.
"We feared nothing," she said. "Our forces, we believed, were invincible. We didnot anticipate trouble. Surely it would be insanity to attack us. Insufficientpickets were put out. Watches were not well kept."
"Go on," I said.
"Ten days ago, today, as I have counted this," she said, "the attack took place.
It began near the eighth Ahn. The wagons had been aligned. The tharlarion wereharnessed. A small group of red savages, mounted, was seen to the southeast.
Alfred, captain of Port Olni, commanding two hundred riders, for sport as muchas anything, rode forth to frighten them away. We climbed on the wagons towatch."
Alfred, of course, should not have personally commanded the excursion. Thatexpedition, if it had been mounted at all, should have been led by a juniorofficer.
"In a moment, then, behind us, suddenly, rising from the grass, on foot,screaming, brandishing weapons, there arose, it seemed, hundreds of savages.
They had crawled to these positions through the grass. The grass seemed alivewith them. They swept through the wagons. The most fearful things, I think,happened with the larger wagons, those with the families, to the west. They werealmost defenseless. My own wagon was with the soldiers. In the southeast, then,rising from the gullies and draws, there suddenly seemed hundreds of riders.
Alfred had been lured into a trap. He, suddenly finding himself disastrouslyoutnumbered, wheeled about and, pursued, fled back to the wagons. I think helost many men. When he reached our camp the wagons to the west were alreadyaflame. He would not rush to their relief. He rallied his men and ordered aretreat to the north. It had been from this direction that the savages hadattacked on foot."
"What of the infantry?" I asked.
"It must fend for itself," she said.
I nodded. it was not difficult to follow Alfred's thinking. The savages on footwould not be able to stop the cavalry, and the pursuers from the south orsoutheast might be detained at the wagons. It was there, of course, that theywould encounter the unsupported infantry.
"Drivers leaped from the wagon boxes, fleeing for their lives," she said. "Icried out. My own driver was nowhere to be seen. The tharlarion, frightened inthe turmoil, hitched up, moved this way and that with the wagons, mostly towardthe east, away from the smoke and noise. I lost my footing. I regained it, inthe wagon. I could not stop the tharlarion. The reins were not in my grasp. Iwas dragged a quarter of a pasang before the wagon stopped, through soldiers,through wagons and other men. I saw one of the infantrymen kill a cavalryman,striking him from behind with his pike, and take his kaiila. Alfred turned hismounted forces to the north, but, to his dismay, he saw that his plan had beenanticipated. From the north, now, and the west, came new swarms of mounted redsavages."
I nodded. Certainly the savages would have anticipated an attempted escape inthe sector where they had appeared to position what, in effect, was theirtemporary infantry. The planning that had gone into the attack revealedintelligent and careful thought. In particular the placement and timing theattacks showed a fine sense for what might be the likely directions and phasesof a battle's development. Tactical instructions in a melee, incidentally, arenormally administered to the red savages, in their units, commonly warriorsocieties, or divisions of such societies, by blasts on a whistle, formed fromthe wing bone of the taloned Herlit, or movements of a long, feathered battlestaff.
"Confused men swept about my wagon. I saw Alfred, turning about, wheeling thisway and that, on his kaiila. I put out my hand to him. I cried out to him. Helooked at me, but then paid me no attention. Infantrymen, here and there, werefighting cavalrymen for their mounts. The cavalrymen, cursing, slashed down atthem. The savages from the south and southeast bad struck against the lines ofinfantrymen with their lances. The lines had held."
I nodded, encouraging her to speak. Gorean infantry, with staggered lines andfixed pikes, their butts anchored in the earth, could usually turn an attack oflight cavalry.
"I cried out again to Alfred, but he paid me no attention," she said.
The red savages, I speculated, would have been surprised that they had beenunable to force their way, through the infantry lines. Such lines, of course,can usually be outflanked.
"Men seemed everywhere," she said. "There was the clash of arms, the squealingof kaiila. The savages now from the north and west swept through the wagons.
Some passed within feet of me. Some were naked, none seemed to wear more thanthe breechclout. They screamed hideously. They were covered with paint, andtheir mounts, too. Feathers were in their hair, and tied, too, in the silkenhair of their beasts. I saw a man's brains struck out not more than a few feetfrom me."
"What of the beasts from your own wagons," I asked, those who can bear arms, whocan go on two feet when they chooserShe looked up at me.
"I know of them," I said. "Speak." I slapped the quirt solidly into my palm. Iwould not have had the least compunction in laying it liberally to the beauty ofmy fair interlocutress.
She seemed frighten.
"How many of them were there?" I asked.
"Seventeen," she said.
"What became of them?" I asked.
"When the battle began they emerged from their wagons,* she said. "Some killedsome of the men about, even our own soldiers, who did not know what they were.
Some fought savages. Some were slain by savages. Some, in a small group,together, made their way northward, through the fighting. The savages seemed, onthe whole, reluctant to attack them."
"How many escaped?" I asked.
"I do not know," she said. "Perhaps seven, perhaps eight."
This report seemed congruent with what I had learned from Pumpkin and theWaniyanpi and with my own conjectures.
"Continue," I said to the girl.
"Taking advantage of the confusion, momentary, among the red savages, followingtheir failure to break the line of the infantry, Alfred ordered his men throughhis own infantry lines, and led them again to the southeast. His actiondisrupted the infantry, trampling soldiers, buffeting them aside the red savagesthen poured through the breached line. Some perhaps pursued the escaping columnbut most, I think, remained to finish their battle with the infantry, with whichthey were then, following the escape of Alfred, much embroiled."
"Too," I said, "they would presumably not wish to give the Infantry a chance toreform, to close, its lines again and set up a solid perimeter."
She shrugged. "Perhaps not," she whispered. "Then it seemed, again, that allabout me were hurtling kaiila and screaming savages, and paint and feathers."
"These were doubtless the concerted forces of the red savages," I said, "beingapplied to the destruction of the infantry" I think so," she said.
"Were there any survivors?" I asked.
"I do not think so," she said.
"Alfred made good his escaper' I asked.