[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

push the border west. What now?"
"Twenty-five hundred infantry, a hundred Ravens. Counting the horses, well over two thousand gallons of
water a day three thousand counting horses pulling wagons with water and supply. I don t see how you
can do it. We could leave part of the army here, but not much; the Oasis doesn t have enough water. Going
back doesn t solve the problem either we still need water to get there. It looks bad; I think I m missing
something."
"Between here and the river isn t no water, just not enough. Ravens can sweep wide, use wells too far west
for the army. A few more tricks; you ll see. Suppose I get the army to the Northflood; what next?"
"That takes care of water, assuming Harald can t stop you from getting to it. He ll have an army by now.
We still need food. Without cavalry as escort, how do we get supply wagons back and forth? Even if he
can t supply an army on our side of the river, he can raid. Use the Ravens as escorts?"
"Not enough and we need them for scouts. I m not planning to leave our cavalry out of the campaign
forever. Think about how I get them to the river once I m there. See you in the morning."
A hundred miles to the south, the Northflood poured deep and fast out of Newvale, spread out, flowed
west. Along the south bank men were digging earthworks. The plain north of the river was scattered with
horses, herds of sheep. South of the river orderly rows of small tents, a short line of covered hammocks,
farther west a Fox clan encampment the host of the Northvales and friends.
"Donal."
He looked up, saw his foster father looking north across the river.
153
"Get mounted. We have guests." Harald whistled; the gray mare stopped grazing and trotted over.
The two men rode their horses through the ford. On the far bank, the first knot of riders had grown easily
forty Westkin. Their leader raised an empty hand to Harald.
"Foreigners our fields fell upon
Force too fell.
Our foes, your foes.
Women, weak children to friends west
Warriors willing
War to wage.
A fool fights alone.
Foe of my foe
Friend."
Harald paused a moment, gave answer.
"Fell to foes
Faith to my folk
First our fields guard.
Fortune favors, foe falls
For his freedom
Far fields of friends
a fair price."
The Eagle chief drew an arrow from his quiver, jabbed himself above the heart, smeared the drop of blood
over the point, handed the arrow to Harald.
"Faith I fail
Against friend s foe
This finds me."
Harald took the arrow, carefully wrapped the point in a scrap of cloth, slid it into his bow case.
"Bow and bolt
Bend and death s bearer
Gold banner s bane."
154
Without dismounting the two men embraced, then set to dealing with details of their alliance. Eagle clan
made camp a safe distance from the Fox encampment, left a few men north of the river to deal with further
arrivals; Harald set in train preparations for a feast.
* * *
Two days south of the Oasis, the Imperial army two legions, five hundred crossbowmen, sixteen
wagons drew to a halt. To their right, the western plains, slightly rolling, low grass, farther west patches
of sand merging to desert. Left, the mountains, rising out of the plains in an irregular line of low cliffs. At
the base of one of them, two men.
"Make camp here. Lagio, a squad to our friends over there. Take down the stone wall they re standing in
front of. If nothing has gone wrong, there are ten barrels of water behind it. Take the water, use it; leave
the barrels. We ll need them again. Kiron, go with him."
Disassembling the dry stone wall exposed a row of barrels against the cliff face, a trickle of water down it,
a tent, a small fire. The two legionaries in charge helped Lagio transfer the contents to smaller containers;
men lugged them out to where the legion s camp was going up.
Later, sitting around a fire outside the staff tent, the commander explained:
"There are streams up in the mountains that come over the edge and vanish not enough water to make a
river. We have four collection points; this is the first. Just a trickle, but they ve been filling those barrels
for two weeks. Tomorrow morning the wall goes back up; makes it less likely rumors get to our friends
south. Kiron here did his sums, worked out by the time we got to Northflood we would all be dead. This,
some wells I know about, are what he left out. No baths till we get to the river, but if nothing goes wrong,
we make it."
For the next two days, nothing went wrong.
The end of the fourth day, tents going up. Kiron saw some of the legionaries pointing west. Horsemen.
Quite a lot of horsemen. Nomads. He turned to Giorgios.
"Ours?"
"Scouts. All of them."
Fintal walked out to talk with the Ravens, came back to the commander.
"They need water. Eagles are holding the wells." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]