At the same time Howler managed to get through to Longshadow. "We do not have the luxury of spending time squabbling among ourselves! The woman could strike any moment. If you're not paying attention... "
Several strong sallies in the same vein led the Shadowmaster to understand that indulging in a fit left him vulnerable to sorcerous attack. And his sidekick could not protect him all the time. He was having a rash of his own screaming fits.
Still shaking, unable to articulate clearly, Longshadow concentrated his attention on Lady.
Lady was just standing there, waiting.
Mogaba tried to get Longshadow's attention. The Shadowmaster remained focused on Lady. Mogaba persisted. He got Longshadow to turn around only after it looked like the crisis had passed. The terror applied by our troops no longer was sufficient to keep the camp followers moving uphill. The Captain's division had withdrawn to its jump-off position. Blade's force had halted two miles west of the battlefield. It was surrounded by our cavalry and the reserve division. The Shadowlanders in the unit were as baffled as everyone else. But they were good soldiers. They carried out their orders.
Mogaba told Longshadow, "We have been deceived, not in any way we anticipated. With one clever stroke Croaker has decimated us. It is now unlikely that I can hold this ground if you won't modify your general orders."
Longshadow grunted an angry interrogative.
Mogaba told him, "Our best hope now is to attack while the Taglians are disorganized and scattered, before our own soldiers realize how suddenly desperate our situation has become."
Longshadow did not see it that way. "Once again you forget that your mission is to carry out my wishes, not to question them. Why must you be so negative?" He stared at Blade's force, only part of which was visible from where he stood. Clearly he was troubled by negative thoughts of his own. "You repelled their attack easily."
Mogaba restrained his anger with difficulty. I wished someone, anyone, had an idea of Longshadow's antecedents. Sometimes the man was as naive as he was powerful.
Mogaba threw an arm up as though indicating Blade. "We were taken in. An entire legion has just been lost because you were so eager to enlist another ranking defector."
Dumb old me, I did not understand what he was saying. I had not made the intuitive leap.
Longshadow did not yet understand that there was a leap to be made. He saw only a triumph in the opening bout of the contest. "How many have we killed? See! The dead fell in windrows. They lie there in veritable hills. Count them in their thousands. These crows will feast for an age to come."
But the man inside was troubled. He continued to stare toward Blade's force.
Mogaba barked, "Maybe one out of a hundred of those dead was a soldier. Those were all camp followers, the thieves and whores and hungry mouths that become parasitic on any army that permits it. They were useless tagalong scum. Croaker used them to keep us occupied while he stole a quarter of our strength and all of our hope. His veterans now outnumber ours significantly. And most of them are fresh." He indicated the heights to his right, where Croaker's special forces continued to gain ground. "They'll soon take the high ground. They came prepared to take it."
"And you aren't prepared to defend it?"
"I anticipated Croaker's effort. Only a fool would ignore those heights. But I didn't anticipate the firebombs he's using."
Those were the finest product of One-Eye's weapons shops back in Taglios, transported here at great cost in treasure and labor, which now looked worthwhile. It was hard to hold your ground in the face of those bombs.
The Captain and his staff were headed for Blade's division. Something was up. I streaked that way.
Blade came outside the wall of his soldiers, faced the Captain across a hundred yards of rocky ground. Our men were posted outside bowshot, relaxed but alert, awaiting developments. They were only slightly less baffled than the traitor's soldiers, who were drawn up as if for review now, not for combat.
Blade and Croaker met midway between. They exchanged a few words. Silly me, I expected the Old Man to settle the feud he had been prosecuting so vigorously for so long. Instead, he threw his arms around Blade and started laughing.
It had been a long time for the Captain. His laughter had a definite mad edge.
They started jumping up and down, holding on to one another.
Then Blade spun away. He bellowed at his soldiers, "Stack your weapons and surrender. Or you'll be exterminated."
I was so dense that only now, as Blade's soldiers began obeying orders, as they had been taught, did I recognize the swindle.
Blade's defection had been staged. Croaker's years-long mad pursuit of him had been cosmetic except where he had used Blade to rid himself of obnoxious religious fanatics.
Nothing like having your enemies do your dirty work for you.
More, Blade had worked hard to make the Shadowmaster unpopular with his subjects. Whole territories had surrendered without even token resistance.
And now Blade had delivered a quarter of the Shadowmaster's finest troops.
Nowhere in the Annals was there a con to match this con. And this one Croaker created for himself. He would laugh up his sleeve for a long time, knowing Mogaba could not have imagined him capable of such an unprecedented move. Mogaba did not think Croaker capable of taking a deep breath without consulting the Annals.
25
I left Smoke. Nobody was anywhere near the wagon except Mother Gota and Thai Dei. I joined them. They said nothing. I ate without speaking myself, drank a lot of water, climbed back into the wagon and took a long nap. I dreamed. The dreams were not pleasant. Soulcatcher was there and she seemed to be having a wonderful time. Messing with us, no doubt, because that is where she found her fun.
I woke up and ate again, barely aware that I was devouring some of Mother Gota's worst cuisine. I swilled water as though this was my first chance in weeks. I was vaguely aware that Thai Dei seemed troubled whenever he looked at me. I tried to figure that out but I could not concentrate.
It was late. The camp itself was quiet. The soldiers were still forward. Night sentries prowled watchfully, warned that there were Stranglers in the enemy camp. They gossiped softly as they paused to warm their hands by the fires. Farther back, some survivors from among the camp followers gathered their pitiful belongings and stole away before they got rounded up and herded forward again.
Vicious fighting continued on the heights. Mogaba intended to contest every foot of ground.
Not all the camp followers had been able to get away. Fires on Lady's flank once again began to mask our camp with smoke. Did the Captain have some new devilment in mind?
I asked him when he turned up a while later. "I hope they think so up there," he said. He could not stop grinning. "For the rest of his life I want Mogaba looking over his shoulder, jumping at shadows, thinking there's another trap about to open under his feet. Maybe there'll be one sometime." He laughed again.
All the senior officers began gathering at a fire laid like a Gunni festival bonfire. Politically neutral priests of all faiths performed rites of thanksgiving. Even Lady came in, accompanied by her officers and admirers. She looked like a demigoddess, more real than any Taglian deity but the dreaded Kina. In the modern era only Kina seemed interested in mundane affairs.
But she had a personal interest.
Hard to tell who among the crowd was most boggled. Blade settled beside the Old Man. He could not stop grinning. He could not stop babbling at his old buddy Swan. Pity Cordy Mather was back home with the Woman. He would have gotten a kick out of this, too.