The Ancient Enemy (47 page)

Heuze smiled unpleasantly. He would attend to Raltt's trial himself. Then he would cure the skin carefully, and have nice little moccasins made of it.

"Ready your men. We will need to move some of the wounded first. We must uphold discipline here."

"Of course, Admiral." General Raltt seethed at the implied insult to his troops. "They are warriors of Shasht; they will hold the line until the end."

"If the monkeys attack while we're doing this, we have to hold them off."

"We will leave their heads on the sand if they attack."

"That'd be good. Because we've left enough of our own."

Raltt bowed his head. There was nothing to be said.

He withdrew and prepared orders for the evacuation. They would begin with the walking wounded and the serious cases that could be moved. Then they would take the lightly wounded, starting with the First Regiment and going through to the Blitzers at the end.

Meanwhile Heuze was waiting impatiently for a barge to take him off. As it came he hummed to himself Kadawak's "Song of Triumph" from Hugel's great opera,
Blood and Iron
.

This was the moment when Kadawak came upon the maidens and captured them for his fire. Heuze was very fond of the scene with its slow-mounting music of triumph as Kadawak stalked across the stage, and the drums began to thunder.

They had taken a licking, no doubt about it. But he, Heuze, would survive, and he would take this lesson to heart. The monkeys were no fools. Whatever the priests said they were, they were smart enough to have learned how to fight somewhere.

At last the barge grounded in the slight surf and Heuze hurried to it. Filek went with him. There was a lot to do to prepare the fleet surgeries for the onslaught of the wounded. Filek was thinking purely about the logistics of lifting the worst wounded out of the boats and down to the surgery. A sling of some sort hung from the main yard might be the best way. The bosun would come up with something ingenious. You could always trust the sailors, they were a remarkably competent group.

Meanwhile, on the tower above the south gate of Dronned, Toshak conferred with the Assenzi.

"Three ships have entered the inner part of the bay. They appear to be the smaller, more maneuverable ships."

"So they're still afraid of the fireship," said Melidofulo.

"That ought to hamper their efforts," murmured Utnapishtim.

Toshak had moved small markers on the map to show where the frigates had anchored.

"We assume they intend to take off their forces in the night. The question is whether we should risk attacking them in the dark or not."

"It would be more merciful to just let them go," Melidofulo said.

"Yes, of course," said Utnapishtim. "But we must carefully evaluate this. The more damage we can inflict on them here, the more likely they will leave and not return."

Old Graedon broke in. "The question might be better phrased, 'What can we do to them?'"

"Exactly. Trust you, old friend, to go to the heart of the matter. What can we do in this situation?"

The Assenzi looked to Toshak, who considered his words carefully.

"We could attack them. But I don't know how well our units would perform in the dark. They have enough trouble keeping a disciplined front in daylight. After the first command they turn into a mob."

"We could bring out the trebuchets and hurry the enemy along," Graedon suggested.

"Yes," said Toshak, "that's what I was leaning toward myself. Too much risk of heavy casualties in a night assault, and we have already taken too many."

"Yes, that is true." Utnapishtim agreed. The day's toll had been awful, more than fifteen hundred dead and another thousand with serious wounds. The only saving grace was that the enemy had suffered as badly. But could there be any grace in a situation with so much bloodshed? Utnapishtim doubted it.

"How long to dismantle them and bring them outside the city?"

"I believe the youngsters who do that job would surprise us all."

Utnapishtim accepted this. "All right, let's do that for now. We've inflicted a strong check on their ambitions; Spirit willing it will be enough."

"The young woman told us that they face starvation unless they can land here."

"Then they will starve somewhere else, for we will not feed them, and they will die if they land here."

"There is more we could do," old Master Graedon spoke again.

Utnapishtim nodded. "It is savage."

"Agreed, but it could be very effective."

Toshak understood, too.

"Yes, we do have the other fireship. We could strike when the ships are loaded down with men. If we can destroy another ship, it will surely drive them away forever."

Melidofulo made a grimace of disgust.

"Surely this is the way of our enemy, to attack the wounded, the females, and children?"

"Yes, that is perfectly true," said Toshak. "The question is, should we do this to ensure their complete defeat, and our own safety?"

Melidofulo looked to the heavens for guidance. Red Kemm glared balefully over the southern hills. To condemn so many, now that they were already defeated and driven from the field. Was it not against the will of the Spirit?

"I wonder what Cutshamakim would say," he said at last.

Utnapishtim looked to Graedon; both of them shrugged. The great spiritual leader of the Assenzi was far away in Highnoth.

"In my experience," said Utnapishtim, "Cutshamakim has always stressed practicality. I expect he would see how strong our need is. He would understand the tragic aspects, but I think he would go forward."

"They must be taught a lesson," said Graedon. "And we have already taken too many casualties."

Melidofulo sighed. "If it must be, so be it."

Admiral Heuze and Filek rode off the beach of the damned on the first boat. After them came the worst of the walking wounded, then the nonambulatory wounded who could survive such a trip. Meanwhile, the rest of the wounded, who could not be moved, received the knife of mercy.

The boats kept moving to and fro. The red star set well before moonrise and then the sky filled with clouds as a breeze sprang up from the southwest. The frigates were dimly visible out on the water. On the shore, men waited in lines for evacuation while boats came in and went back out at a steady rate.

Suddenly there came that awful thud of the giant stone-throwing catapult.

"Watch out!" shouted a voice.

And then out of the night sky fell a rock the size of a man, plowing into the beach at the waterline and throwing up a splash of sand and water.

It fell ten feet from the nearest boat, causing no damage. But every man's heart skipped a beat.

There was another thud almost immediately. The motion toward the boats had halted and every eye was looking up into the dark sky.

Rukkh was in the shallow water by then, about to get aboard a boat. Some sixth sense made him jump back a step and the next moment the stone struck the prow of the boat and flipped it up on its endbeams and over, hurling screaming men in all directions.

Rukkh fell over and a wave washed over him. The wounds on his hip and face stung from the salt. The boat was upside down, several men trapped underneath.

Rukkh got back on his feet, pushed forward, and helped turn the boat back over.

The front of the boat was stove in. Some of the oars had been smashed. With cries of disgust the men stood back from the useless thing. Another thud came, and they all looked up. The stone was visible for a fraction of a second, a dark mass poised against the night, and then it fell on the shoreline harmlessly, throwing up a big splash in the shallows.

From then on the evacuation became much more chaotic.

Toshak and Graedon had organized a regiment of donkey carts that ferried rocks from the seapond walls down to the line of trebuchets that had been set up on the plain. Two or three stones a minute rained down on the nervous men inside the shield wall. Most missed, but the occasional hits produced spectacular carnage.

As soon as he was aboard
Perch
, Admiral Heuze took steps to regain control.
Perch
was a swift frigate and her captain, Hujuk, was an able type. The other ships in the bay were
Shark
, another frigate, and
Grampus
, the smallest of the great ships, in the same class as the
Growler
.

Waiting for him was a private message from Pukh. The situation was not quite as good as he had hoped. Captain Kuhgo had mutinied, or something very close to mutiny. On hearing that Heuze was stranded on the beach, he had declared an emergency and taken the big ship
Crusher
out on her own.

There was some sentiment in the fleet in Kuhgo's favor. Nebbeggebben was rumored to be considering siding with Kuhgo.

Meanwhile, aboard
Anvil
Captain Pukh had put Sub-Admiral Geppugo into irons because Geppugo had tried to take control and move the entire fleet back out to sea. Geppugo had declared that they should abandon the attempt to colonize the monkeys' land and go south to the wider oceans and search for easier opportunities.

Heuze's blood boiled when he read all this. That treacherous swine Geppugo would go to the priests at the soonest opportunity, while Kuhgo would hang, as soon as a court-martial could be held.

To calm himself Heuze bathed, put on clean clothes, and took some dinner with a mug of mulled wine. He sent for Biswas to keep him company.

Biswas came in, also wearing clean clothes and with the blood washed from his face and hair.

"There you are, Filek. Have some wine. Pretty horrible work you've been at I expect."

Filek took the wine eagerly. He had long since become immune to the horrors of his work, but the sheer volume of it on this day had been overwhelming. He had sewed dozens of men back together, three men dying even as he operated on them.

The wine was sweet and warm, and he knocked back a couple of mouthfuls and enjoyed the sensation it produced.

"We have much to thank Captain Pukh for, my friend." The admiral had dropped his voice to his conspiratorial whisper.

Filek leaned forward to listen carefully.

"Geppugo tried to move the fleet south, abandoning us."

Filek swallowed. Such treachery was hard to fathom. "The priests will rip his heart out of his chest."

"Only after they have questioned him for days. It will not be an easy death for Geppugo."

They sipped wine, thinking quietly.

"And what of ourselves. What are we going to do?" Filek wondered.

"Isn't it obvious?"

Filek shook his head. "No. This was a terrible defeat."

"My friend, how many times was Aeswiren defeated before he won the throne?"

"Thrice, of course."

"Well, our men are soldiers of Shasht. They will fight much better next time."

"Next time?"

"We will regain our strength and make another landing. This time we will choose a place that is farther away from a monkey town. We underestimated them. I will not allow us to do that again."

"General Raltt did his best."

"Perhaps." Heuze did not tell Filek what Raltt's fate was to be. "It was Uisbank's fault mostly. The early attack had no subtlety to it. He simply assumed the Blitzers could smash their way in. They killed an ungodly number of monkeys, but they could not break their lines."

"What do you think became of General Uisbank?"

Heuze shrugged and drank off the last of his wine.

"Frankly, I hope they roasted him alive. He was unforgivably stupid."

Heuze made no mention of his own mistake, riding in showily in his barge in full view of the enemy. They had struck at him just as they'd struck at Uisbank, and but for Captain Pukh they might have taken him, too. He had already decided that he would never step foot on this accursed land again until it was pacified and the monkeys were no more.

Filek was secretly appalled at the thought of another battle. They had lost more than a thousand dead and many more would die of their wounds in the next few days. He sipped the wine, but now he scarcely tasted it.

There came a knock, and they heard excited voices on deck. Feet were thundering in the corridors. The door shot open.

"Sir, we have sighting of another fireship. Sir."

"What?" Heuze bolted up out of his chair, sending his mug clattering across the floor.

They ran on deck. Heuze jumped up to the rigging.

"Off the starboard side, coming from the harbor. Same kind as chased out the fleet before."

Heuze stared at the dirty little cog, dimly visible in the moonlight as it came around the end of the mole.

Orders rang out across the three ships, and crews hurried to raise the anchors and set sails. Within ten minutes
Perch
was under way and began to tack out of the inner bay. The cog was slower than the elegant frigate and would never catch them.

The fleet's boats, filled with exhausted men, pulled after them.

Shark
came around quickly, her captain wasting no time, and left the boats in her wake.

Grampus
threw down lines for the nearest boats to take up, then turned and set sail. But she was not a good ship in light winds and was slow in getting under way.

By the time
Grampus
was moving seaward at more than a crawl, the evil little cog with her black-daubed sails was astride the route out of the bay. Captain Fulz ordered
Grampus's
catapults readied, and men with oars stood by to repulse the cog if she came alongside.

On the next tack
Grampus
turned, ahead of the cog, but she was approaching on an intersecting course. Fulz trimmed sail, slowed, turned back. The cog matched his maneuver and, with the wind in her favor, came on quickly.

At the last moment Fulz tacked again, the terrified sailors racing through the changes of sail.

For a long moment it looked as if they had succeeded, but then a puff of wind picked the small ship up and thrust her forward. The sharp ram drove home directly into
Grampus's
bow and the bigger ship shuddered all the way down to her beam ends.