Part 17 (2/2)

”Perhaps,” he said, mock-mournfully, ”I should have attempted similar tactics with our friend the Achim.”

That was the last time I laughed for a long time.

The next day the raiders came back-or perhaps it was a different clan of bandits. They lay concealed on the other side of the riverbank until the cavalry pa.s.sed, then about thirty archers rose from concealment and showered arrows into the front two platoons of foot soldiers. The infantrymen instantly charged; the best way to survive an ambush is to attack the least-expected direction. The archers turned and splashed away through the shallow river without fighting.

On the other side of the road men darted out of their hiding places and ran toward the wagons, screaming war cries. They cut down the thin screen of guards, and in seconds grabbed what they fancied from the wagons and were gone. At the same time a third group struck the civilians. They stole ten Numantians-five women, including two of the KLI's camp followers, a ten-year-old girl, a baby, and three men.

Then there was nothing but the keening of the wind through the rocks and the cries of the wounded and dying. Seven soldiers, six men of the KLI and one of my hillmen, died in that skirmish, and another half dozen were wounded.

We reformed and marched on.

An hour later, we heard screams from the rocks ahead. The Men of the Hills had begun their sport.

Around the next bend, we found the baby. Its brains had been dashed out against a roadside boulder and its tiny corpse left for us to find.

We went on, and eventually the screams were lost in the distance.

An hour later we came on the village where the boy had tried to murder me with his grandfather's bow.

This time there was no one at all in the settlement. It was growing colder, so Tenedos suggested that we send a search party through the huts, to see if there were blankets or other bedding material we might acquire.

I kept the main column outside the village, and sent our searchers in on foot. The first two huts were empty, already stripped bare. The lance leading the search party set foot in the third hut, and a crossbow clacked and he came stumbling out, looking bewildered, and tugging at a small bolt, scarcely big enough to bring down a sparrow, stuck in his chest.

The crossbow had been cleverly rigged so anyone coming through the doorway would trigger it The lance cursed, pulled out the bolt, and tossed it aside, saying it was nothing. He started for the next hut, then screamed in pain, clawing at the tiny hole the shaft had made. He fell to his knees, then on his back, convulsing, biting his tongue almost through. Before anyone reached him, he was dead.

The tiny wound already smelted of putrefaction from the poisoned arrow.

We found only a few things worth taking, but when we went on the village was a sea of flames. I remembered the gift of life I'd given the boy, and grimaced. I'd learned how war was fought in these lands-to the knife, and the knife to the hilt. The Kaiti would learn that Numantia could fight as brutally as anyone.

The next two villages we also put to the torch, the second, after we'd spent the night in it.

Late in the afternoon of the sixth day, we reached the ford where I'd met Tenedos. We'd barely made camp when the long-threatening storm broke, and icy gales lashed over us, driving snow hard into our faces.

Tenedos cautioned us to be doubly alert, for he sensed sorcery swirling around us. I needed no caution, though. This was ideal weather for the hillmen. I put my men on half-alert, and doubled all guard posts.

Captain Mellet set up stoves next to the wagons, and stretched canvas roofs over them. After I'd seen to my men, and those off watch had been fed, Tenedos and I went through the line for our own supper. It was nothing more than rice with some meat in it, and herb tea, but praise the G.o.ddess Shahriya for her gift of fire, it was hot.

One of the servers was the young woman Jacoba. As I thought, she was sporting a wicked black eye.

She looked at me, started to say something, then looked away. I was just as pointlessly embarra.s.sed, and went on without speaking.

The little girl, Allori Pares, came up to me while I ate.

”h.e.l.lo, soldier. Do you remember me?”

I did, and told her to call me Damastes.

'T ve been helping that other soldier with the food.” She pointed to Captain Mellet. ”He said he's got a daughter just my age.”

I knew Captain Mellet was unmarried, and smiled inside myself at the craggy bachelor trying to be nice to the child.

”I like cooking. Maybe ... if I grow up, I'll want to have an inn.”

Ifshe grew up. Part of me wanted to cry, part of me wanted to lay waste to this whole G.o.ds-d.a.m.ned country.

”You'll grow up,” I said finally. ”You and I, we're partners. I'll make sure nothing happens.”

”Is that a promise?” ”That's a promise.”

At midnight, I went the rounds relieving my guards, then thought I could chance a bit of sleep, giving instructions to the commander of the guard to wake me when it was time for the watch to change.

The wind roared even louder, and the snow was drifting on the ground. I found a place to lie, thought wistfully of those civilians who had found sleeping room in or under one of the wagons, wrapped myself in Lucan's saddle blanket and my cloak, and do not remember my head touching the saddlebag I'd set for a pillow.

The air was rich with the scent of orange blossoms and tamarind. I lay back on the silk pillows, wearing only a loincloth, feeling the houseboat move slightly as gentle waves washed under it.

There seemed to be no other craft on the lake, its water echoing the blueness of the sky. A soft summer breeze touched me and was gone.

I felt a touch of thirst, picked up the goblet from the tray beside me, and sipped a cooling punch, its scent a marvelous combination of peaches and strawberries.

Jacoba lay on pillows beside me. She wore nothing but a sleeveless vest and flaring pants of a material thinner than silk.

She leaned toward me, and slowly undid the fastening of my loincloth and it fell away. My c.o.c.k rose to meet her fingers. She bent, and her tongue flicked around its head, then caressed it down to its base, then she took me in her mouth. I felt my pulse hammer.

She came lithely to her feet, and untied the yellow silk cord that held her pants, and stepped out of them as they fell away. Jacoba knelt across my thighs, and as I arched my back her fingers guided me into her. She moaned, and her hands slid across my chest, still holding the cord. She raised herself, came back down, raised once more, and as she did she slipped the cord around my neck, and pulled it taut, twisting it hard, her head going back as she cried in pa.s.sion.

The universe was nothing but my c.o.c.k in her softness and the wonderful feel of that cord as joy rose within me, and I opened my mouth to shout...

...and a child screamed and the face above me was bearded and twisted in evil, silent laughter. The blood crashed against my temples and I was looking at him through a tunnel as I brought my feet up and booted the Tovieti back into the snow. He came to his feet, reaching for a knife at his waist as I dove at him, the back of my fist smas.h.i.+ng into his face, then drove the heel of my hand against the base of his nose. He cried out and fell, spattering blood and cartilage on me as I dropped on him, my rigidly braced forearm crus.h.i.+ng his windpipe. I rolled off as he died, and I had my sword in hand.

The camp was alive with shouts and screams, and I saw the dim form of men running away, into the snowstorm, as torches flared up into life.

The Tovieti's cord still hung around my neck, and now I could feel its red burn.

I ran into the center of the rounded wagons, shouting for full alertness. Tenedos, Lance Karjan behind him, came out of the darkness, blearing awake. But the Tovieti were gone.

Six of my soldiers were slain at their posts. How the Tovieti were able to creep up on paired sentries and slay them without any alarm being given, I do not know. Then they'd crept into the camp and begun their killing.

Ten civilians had been killed, eight of them, including a month-old baby, strangled, the other two knifed in their sleep.

I paid no mind to the wails of fear and mourning, but pulled Tenedos aside.

”What happened to your wards? Didn't you sense anything?”

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