Dawn of Empire (49 page)

But where Trella was concerned, his eyes had become quick to see and his wits and words just as swift. “Subutai, such a gift cannot be taken by force.

It must be given freely. An enemy cannot capture it, and a friend would never try.”

“May her wisdom guide you, Esk kar,” Mesilim said, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. “You’ll need her help in the coming fight. Now let’s talk about weapons.”

They discussed the weapons and reviewed the plans for the next few days. They were almost finished when laughter coming from the women made all heads turn toward them again.

Trella stood now, holding hands with some of the tribeswomen, as all of them sought to touch her. Finally they released their clasp. Trella bowed to them and walked toward the leaders, passing through most of the warriors, who seemed to pay more attention to her than to their leaders. Mesilim and Subutai again rose to their feet, as did Esk kar and his men a moment later.

Trella stepped between Mesilim and his son and stopped with them close on either side. “Esk kar, some of the children are too weak to travel.

I’ve offered to care for them here until the battle is over.” She looked at Mesilim. “That is, if Clan Leader Mesilim will allow it?”

“My women suggested this?” Mesilim questioned in surprise, as soon as Esk kar finished translating.

Esk kar felt as astonished as Mesilim. He’d never heard of such a thing, to leave children with not only strangers but hereditary enemies. “Trella, there’s danger here as well. They may not understand what they are asking.”

Before Trella could reply, one of the women approached the group, calling out as she did so and slowing down until Subutai waved her forward. The woman spoke softly but rapidly to Subutai, and Esk kar couldn’t keep up with her words, so fast did she speak. Whatever she said, it took a long time and when she finished, she didn’t move away, though custom decreed it.

Subutai turned toward Esk kar. “It is as Honored Trella says. My woman wants to leave the five youngest here, saying they will surely die if we have to travel hard once again. My daughter is among those.” Subutai looked at his father. “We’ll have to speak of this.”

Mesilim nodded thoughtfully, then turned to Trella. “We’ll consider your offer with great care. But our thanks are yours already.”

“Then I will leave you men to your work.” She touched Esk kar on the arm and wished him goodnight. As she started to leave, one of the tribesmen called something out to Mesilim, then added several sentences, and Trella, hearing her name, stopped and waited.

Esk kar heard what the man said but it made no sense. Something about

“touching the gifted one.”

Mesilim turned toward Esk kar. “My men request a great favor, though you’ve already done so much for us … but, if it is permitted, they would like to touch Trella to give them strength and a blessing from the gods.”

Mesilim sounded a little uncomfortable with the request, but did not withdraw it.

Trella came back to Esk kar’s side and looked inquiringly at him. “They want to touch you, for luck or something,” he said. “It may be a custom I don’t remember or something I’ve never seen before. Mesilim seems embarrassed by it but probably thinks it’s a good idea.”

“What should I do? How should I touch them?”

Esk kar thought for a moment. “Touch each man on his upper right arm to give him strength in battle.”

Trella handed her empty basket to Annok - sur, at her side as always, and approached Mesilim. She put out her hand, but not to his arm. Instead, she placed the palm of her hand on his forehead. “May you have the wisdom to lead your people through the coming fight,” she said, then touched his right arm as Esk kar suggested. Turning to Subutai and placing her hand on his forehead, “May you have the wisdom to guide your people in the days ahead when many things will change and all will be sorely tested.”

By the time she finished, a line had formed behind Subutai, some of the men pushing each other to gain a higher place. She went down the line, touching each man on his battle arm, offering them strength for the coming battle. Fashod followed alongside her, translating her words.

The women had gone to the end of the line, and with each of them she clasped hands. When she finished, she retrieved her basket and left without a word, her guards and the women falling in behind her.

They stood there, watching in silence until she passed through the gate and out of sight. Then Esk kar turned to Mesilim. “Rest tonight, Mesilim.

My men will close the gate to keep the curious away, and they’ll keep watch from the walls. I don’t think any will approach you here, but you may want to post your own guard. No man from the village will be outside the walls tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll return and we’ll talk further.”

When they had walked out of earshot, Jalen made a comment. “That was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. They looked and acted as if Trella were a goddess.”

“Nothing strange about that,” Gatus answered. “Is there, Esk kar?”

“Nothing at all, Gatus,” Esk kar said with a laugh. “Nothing at all.”

20

–-

Two nights later and three hours after sunset, Esk kar led a hundred men through the river gate. It took half the night to ferry them and their equipment across the river. By dawn the soldiers had marched well inland, out of sight of any watchers.

They traveled slowly. Each man carried seventy pounds of equipment: a wooden shield, a bow, two quivers of arrows, plus a sword, food, and water. Gatus informed Esk kar that men on foot could carry no more than sixty pounds at a steady pace. So the fi rst day’s march would be the hardest. The weight would decrease each day.

Esk kar walked with the men. He’d brought only four horses for the scouts, plus two donkeys to carry food and water. They didn’t expect to be gone more than a week; if they were, they’d have to live off the land. On this side of the Tigris, nothing had been put to the torch, and herds of goats and sheep still grazed in the hills.

Gatus insisted on coming. He’d trained the soldiers to fight together and wanted to see his work put into practice. Sisuthros stayed behind to oversee Orak’s defenses. The following night, Jalen would cross with Mesilim and the Ur Nammu, then guide them to Esk kar’s soldiers at the appointed place.

During the march Esk kar thought about his talks with Mesilim and Subutai. The day after the Ur Nammu’s arrival, Esk kar and his commanders had taken Mesilim and his son around the walls. Esk kar went over his battle plan, putting Mesilim in the role of the Alur Meriki war chief. Back and forth they’d ridden, looking at the wall from every angle, searching for weaknesses.

Afterward he took Mesilim inside and showed him the great stores of arms and the preparations for defense. Mesilim’s eyes widened in surprise at the vast quantity of arrows and stones. In the end, he found no flaw in Esk kar’s defenses. “But you must not let them over the wall. Once inside, they will overwhelm your men.”

Esk kar and Gatus had looked at each other in satisfaction. They’d drilled that same message into the men since the fi rst day. The barbarians must be stopped beneath the wall.

Time was running out, for both Esk kar and the Alur Meriki. The great battle would be fought soon enough, and he needed to protect his back by destroying the barbarians sent against them from the west. The men, cattle, and supplies sent across the river must not be lost, or Orak would starve even if its people drove off the attackers.

Esk kar wanted to take more men with him, confident that he could return before the Alur Meriki arrived. But the looks of panic among the families convinced him not to take too many soldiers away from Orak at this late stage.

Mesilim and his men would depart the following night, to give them an extra day’s rest. In the four days since they arrived at Orak, they’d had plenty of food and sleep, and restored much of their strength. Mounted on refreshed horses, they’d easily catch up with Esk kar and his slow -

moving soldiers.

Counting Mesilim, thirty - seven warriors and two boys remained. One warrior had been judged too weak to ride and left behind. He’d been told to guard the women and children staying in Orak.

Esk kar pushed the pace as hard as he could for two days, walking beside the men and carrying his own equipment. He could have ridden, but the horses were better used by the scouts, and this let him stay close to the men.

They’d just made camp at the end of the second day when Mesilim and his men rode up. Esk kar studied them as they arrived. Four days’ rest showed in their faces. The new clothing each man wore replaced their old garments. Many of their weapons were gifts from Orak.

Every lance carried a yellow strip of cloth, another gift from Trella, and each bow dangled a smaller yellow ribbon. Each warrior wore a yellow sash around his waist. The colors were more than simple decoration—in a close - up battle they helped identify friend from foe, something needed even more by his soldiers.

The Ur Nammu’s mounts looked stronger as well, and those that hadn’t fully recovered were replaced by the last of Orak’s horses. Mesilim’s warriors looked confi dent and strong, a far cry from what they had been only days before.

Mesilim swung down from his horse and saluted Esk kar, while Subutai led the riders to their campsite, a few hundred paces away from Esk kar’s.

His men had little enough experience with barbarians, without getting into some argument or fight with the Ur Nammu over an unexpected or careless insult. Better to keep them apart until the time for battle, when no man would turn down an ally. Neither leader wanted any incidents.

“Your men look fi t, Mesilim,” Esk kar extended his hand in the sign of friendship. On the war trail, formality disappeared. “Any trouble following our path?”

“No. We rested the horses often, else we would have caught up with you hours ago.”

After everyone had eaten, the two leaders stayed by the fire and discussed what the next few days would bring. Much would depend on the ambush site itself, and they wouldn’t know about that until tomorrow. After Mesilim left, Esk kar spread his blanket on the hard ground and fell asleep in moments.

In the morning, Esk kar mounted a horse for the first time. With Jalen and Gatus, he joined Mesilim and Subutai, riding ahead of the men until they reached the site chosen for the ambush, a few miles away from the river and well into the rough hill country. Clumps of pale - green grass still showed on the land, though the hills would turn brown soon enough from the merciless sun.

The small valley chosen for the ambush ran roughly north - south and was surrounded by steeper hills. At the southern entrance some farmers had built a half - dozen mud houses, penned some sheep, goats, and chickens, and tried to farm the land. But as Jalen reported, they were too few for such a task, less than a dozen men, and none used to living by their swords.

They’d have made easy victims for the first band of rogues who came by.

They should have welcomed Esk kar and his men, but they acted sullen and angry at having their land taken over, even temporarily. They calmed down when Esk kar told them a large barbarian force was heading their way, and would undoubtedly slit their throats.

The settlers included several women. Esk kar wanted no women hanging around his men. Women led to rape and fights. He gave the settlers a dozen silver coins to pay for the loss of their houses and corrals and ordered them to head south immediately. When they complained, he offered to take back the coins and turn them into slaves if they preferred. That got them moving, loading their possessions onto three carts and shepherding their flocks before them.

The narrow valley ran fairly straight, rising slightly from south to north.

At the south end, where the settlers established their homes, the opening was ninety paces wide. Once past the entrance, the vale widened quickly to more than twice that. The far end lay more than a mile distant, and that entrance spread about two hundred and twenty paces across. About five hundred paces before the north opening, however, the cliff walls closed in, narrowing the valley at that point to approximately one hundred and twenty paces.

Esk kar approved of the valley walls. Steep and rocky, they offered few places where a horse and rider might, with great care, scramble to the top.

Inside the basin the land was open and flat with no places for concealment or defense. Nevertheless, neither Esk kar nor Mesilim looked satisfied with the location.

Jalen saw the frowns. “Captain, this was the best location I could find.

You wanted something close to the river where they could be closed in.

And it’s nearly on the line of march to Orak.”

“I’m sure it’s the best we could find,” Esk kar said. “But it’s going to be difficult to spring a trap here. We’ll have to split the men, and that means the Alur Meriki will outnumber each half. And the length of the valley means a long run for the men to close up.”

“The canyon is wide here,” Mesilim added. “Our lines will be thin and our enemy can concentrate their forces at any point.” He turned to Eskkar. “Remember, you say we need to kill them all, not just defeat them. If they see the size of our force, they’ll simply turn away and ride south by another route.”

Jalen looked doubtful. “Without a fight?”

“They won’t fight unless they expect to win. They see no dishonor in running away, or shooting arrows at us from a distance for hours or even days.” Esk kar shook his head. “We’ll have to think of something, first to lure them in and then to stop their escaping.”

The group of commanders rode slowly to the north end and inspected the ground there. The entrance proved as wide as Esk kar had feared, though the walls did pinch in before the opening. Esk kar decided he had no choice. This place would have to do. The Alur Meriki might be here any day and he didn’t have time to search for someplace better.

Esk kar, Gatus, Jalen, Mesilim, and Subutai rode back to the center of the valley, close to the east side, dismounted and sat on the ground in a circle. For two hours the fi ve of them went over their options, taking into consideration the capabilities of the bowmen, the Ur Nammu warriors, the ground, and what they thought the enemy would do. Once they had made their decisions, they spent even longer improving the plan, until each knew where and how they would fight.