The Wizard of Anharitte (22 page)

Below the siege line other teams were busy setting up the various engines and devices of Ren’s design and dragging them up the hill to the stations at carefully determined points. The sun set on a deceptively quiet scene, the growing glow of campfires spreading out along the side of the hill like a string of bright beads. In only a few places did activity continue after nightfall. Watchers in Castle Magda could have seen little of these secret details, because the devices were still concealed in dead ground and safely out of sight of the castle.

The first sign of renewed action came when the fires on the hillside facing Firstwater leaped into new life as blocks of pitch and barrels of crude tar were thrown upon them. The lazy breeze from the southwest carried the heavy smoke in the direction of the castle and effectively screened the movements Ren had planned for his secret weapons. These he now deployed forward to occupy positions behind preselected outcrops of rock that would serve to shield them from direct fire. Having relocated the devices to his satisfaction, Ren returned to a safe position to await the coming of first light.

Dawn brought the first skirmish. The defenders of Magda, apparently reluctant until now to show their awareness of the army gathered around them, sent out a reconnaissance party to test the strength of the enemy. The Pointed Tails were ready for them. Although Dion-daizan’s men bore small muskets of a type similar to those favored by the ill-fated Di Guaard, they were no match for the hail of steel shafts from the crossbows of the society armsmen. The reconnaissance party lost two men and retreated quickly back inside the castle gates. The attackers lost no men at all in the incident and achieved a great improvement in morale.

The coming of the early sun brought a slight freshening of the wind, which nevertheless held its prevailing course. This was precisely what Ren had hoped and led naturally into the next phase of his campaign. With the majority of his troops still holding a tight ring around the outer slopes, he again caused certain fires to be made to smoke and, under cover of the dense vapor clouds, he and twenty selected men gained the forward positions where their secret weapons had been sited. The fires were doused at a signal and into the clearing air above the frowning castle a large balloon rose uncertainly, trailing a canister on a rope beneath it.

This first balloon rose too slowly and snagged against a high battlement, its canister dangling against the outer wall. After a time the burning fuse expired and the canister fell outside the wall to explode at its foot. Although the explosive was a native product, its quality was sufficient to make a very creditable bang. In its situation it did no damage, but it was a welcome foretaste of what such a device could do if it fell inside the castle confines.

The next balloon was prepared in recognition of the fate of the first. It rose more swiftly, clearing the battlements with ample margin. The fuse, too, had been altered and made slightly longer and the attackers had the immense satisfaction of seeing the canister plummet from a height and fall squarely inside the castle walls. There was no way to assess what damage the explosion might have caused, but its arrival must certainly have been a trial to the defenders. Much structural damage was not to be expected, but the more sophisticated the defenses, the more they would suffer from casual bombardment.

Eight more balloons were released. The first six all delivered their explosive charges somewhere within the castle confines. Although they were subjected to rapid musket fire from inside Magda, the small balls projected by the weaponry were insufficient to damage the balloon fabric in any way that appreciably foreshortened the flight. The seventh balloon was shot down well before it had covered the distance to the castle.

Ren fancied that a more powerful weapon, such as a Terran rifle, had been brought to bear on this. The eighth balloon was shot to pieces almost immediately upon release, and Ren and his comrades scarcely escaped with their lives as the canister fell back on top of them.

Seeing the growing effectiveness of the defensive measures, Ren decided that the idea had been taken far enough. Under cover of a new wave of smoke he ordered a retreat and made his way back to his now jubilant forces, quite satisfied with the progress he had made. Seven explosive charges had been delivered into Magda and although they would not have caused very much damage to such a massive structure, their effect both physical and psychological on the defenders could not have been negligible. Most gratifyingly, all this had been accomplished without the loss of a single man.

Meanwhile, Catuul Gras had been visiting the township below the castle. He had found the people fully aware of the situation and anxious about their own lives and property. Catuul had struck a bargain with them—he would restrict armed offensives to the vicinity of the castle proper if the townsfolk would agree to attempt no action in support of Dion-daizan. His proposal had been rejected until he pointed out the strength of the attacking force and the indefensibility of the scattered conglomeration of buildings of the township. If defied, he had said, he was quite prepared to raze the town by fire. On this point of understanding he had taken his leave, but had not forgotten to post pickets on all paths out of the town as a reminder to the townsfolk that they were not free agents in this time of war.

Ren was concentrating now on moving his men up close to the castle, so that he could start to use the engines he had brought. The maneuver proved more dangerous than he had calculated. The muskets of Magda proved to have an unexpected range and accuracy—and at least one high-powered rifle, probably with telescopic sights, was being deployed against his men. His losses were mounting, despite all his efforts at caution, and it became obvious that a daylight attack would be suicidal. Reluctantly he retreated to the safety of the siege line and caused his ballistae to be prepared.

He had intended the ballistae to be used at shorter range, but he knew that the smaller missiles could be hurled for considerable distances, though the accuracy of range left much to be desired. Fortunately, knowing the strength of Magda’s walls, he had not intended to try to use brute force to make a breach. Instead he had concentrated primarily on the manufacture of fire bombs. These were earthenware vessels filled with inflammable spirit and ignited by a wick, which would burst and spread a formidable area of flame around the point of impact.

Now Ren rearranged the ballistae for maximum effect at a distance and had the smaller fire bombs segregated ready for loading. The losses his force had sustained earlier in the day weighed heavily on his conscience. With this in mind, he was overcautious about keeping his men well under cover and out of the line of fire. Here he sensed he was failing in his duties as a commander of an aggressive force. He grudgingly acknowledged that he was a merchant concerned with profit and loss rather than life and death and that he placed more faith in the unorthodoxy of his weapons to gain Magda than he did in the power of flesh and bone to storm a castle so well defended.

The ballistae functioned well. About sixty per cent of the projectiles actually fell within the walls of Magda. The effect was difficult to gauge, but the persistence of smoke trails long after the spirit would have naturally burned out was evidence that at least some of the fire bombs had ignited combustibles within the castle. He had a mental picture of the vessels smashing against walls and windows and the torrents of flaming spirit being spattered well into the interior of Magda’s installations. Apart from a direct hit, it was doubtful whether the practice would do much damage to the personnel, but no organization, however structured, could function without stress in the face of rapid and randomly occurring outbreaks of fire.

While he was engaged in pressing this newest mode of attack Ren had a visitor. Di Irons, grim and heavy and rustily bearded, pulled himself up the slopes and was guided to the place where Ren was directing operations. The prefect gave the impression of being tired of his world.

‘If ever a man could name a common cause for all his misfortunes that man is I. And the name of the misfortune is Tito Ren. What are you trying to do, Tito? Set all Anharitte on fire?’

‘Only Castle Magda—at the moment. Did you have something on your mind, Prefect?’

‘The Tyrene attacked again—the first time in over forty years. It’s too much of a coincidence to suspect your hand isn’t behind it. Only a historian could have planned a coup like that. Don’t you agree?’

Ren shrugged blandly. ‘They always told me the Tyrene pirates were a myth. I may be blamed for interfering with your history, but it seems to be taking the point a bit far to include mythology. Perhaps the ghost of Di Guaard has chased them from the cellars of the dead?’

‘I’ll wager it was some more lively spirit,’ said Di Irons heavily. ‘Especially as you canvassed heavily along that shore.’

‘Tell me about their coming,’ asked Ren innocently.

‘T’Ampere lost a fortune. To protect the chateau itself she—had to call back much of the army she had originally sent to the edge of Magda province. They were so late returning that the chateau itself had been overrun in the meantime. The Tyrene took every single thing of value including her considerable treasury, fired the chateau, then retreated to the river. T’Ampere’s men tried to give chase but were balked by the fact that you had already acquired all the available boats. To complete her misfortune Dion’s men followed those she had called back and have occupied several of T’Ampere’s own estates.’

‘Aiee!’ shrieked Ren. ‘And I thought all the action was taking place up here.’

‘Far from it. And I’d advise you not to get too close to T’Ampere in the future. She knows well whom to blame for today’s work. Clever you may be, but your ways are rather obvious.’

‘Did you climb all this way just to offer me that advice?’

‘Not really. I was interested in your progress against Dion. You realize, of course, that your continued presence here is not due to your own efforts, but due to some reluctance on the part of Dion to swipe you away as one would a fly.’

‘I doubt the truth of that, but I’d be interested in knowing how you come to that conclusion.’

‘It’s a factor most of us tend to forget, but one brought well to mind by Dion’s occupation of some of T’Ampere’s estates today. To us, soldiers are all freemen, mercenaries or armsmen of societies. But even slaves will fight in the service of Dion-daizan—and today a great many of them fought against T’Ampere. Furthermore, they were both armed and trained. Consider the implication, Tito. Dion can outman your army ten to one any time he chooses and not even feel the strain. And the majority of his men are already outside Castle Magda—they have you surrounded.’

‘There’s been so sign of interference from his men in the province.’

‘Then the fact that he hasn’t called on them must mean either that he considers you no threat or that he’s confident that his garrison here can deal with you adequately on their own. Your prospects don’t look too bright either way.’

Ren surveyed the sky. The sun was already beginning to draw down on the horizon.

‘Did you ever think, my Lord, that the
Imaiz
may not be infallible? When darkness falls I intend to take these ballistae closer so that we can throw even larger jars of flaming spirit inside those walls. No matter how good his defenses, they can’t function if they’re afire. When the garrison is fully occupied putting out blazes, we’ll launch our main attack on the gates. If we can manage to breach even one gate successfully we’ll run whole barrels of spirit inside the walls and fire these also. We have the catapults, we have the ramps and we have more than enough combustibles to fill Magda with a sea of flame. Are you thinking that Dion can withstand even that?’

‘It’s a good plan and a bold one,’ said Di Irons grudgingly. ‘On the face of it, you should succeed. But I’ll wager the
Imaiz
knows every detail of the scheme. If he has not yet moved against you, it’s because he knows your chances of success are quite remote.’

‘On that point we’ll agree to differ. Only the morning will tell which of us was right.’

‘I think you’ll find it a long night. And I wish you welcome to it, Tito. This is one night I’ve no wish to spend on Thirdhill. If I can’t persuade you to your senses, I’ll take my leave. I think tomorrow there’ll be many graves to supervise.’

When the prefect had gone, Ren spared no time in calling together his lieutenants and ensuring that they were all in accord with the details for the coming battle. The ballistae were handed over to teams which had been instructed carefully on both the method and the timing of their use. The general relocation of troops had already begun and every foreseen aspect of the campaign had been fully covered. After a final inspection of the stockpiles of inflammables and the supply lines on which so much of the plan depended, Ren gave the final order to proceed.

Though no one knew it but himself, he had approached his final moment of decision with mixed feelings. Di Irons was a hard-headed realist, whose knowledge of probabilities in Anharitte was not to be dismissed lightly. Di Irons had predicted that the attack would fail. While Ren did not concur, he had to allow that the prefect’s opinion was based on lifelong experience in Anharitte and carried a great deal of weight. Ren was not one to dismiss informed opinion lightly, and to underestimate Dion-daizan could be fatal.

Because he and Catuul were to join the selected armsmen who were to make the attack on the main gates, Ren and the scribe made a circuitous journey first west and then north to a point well below the township where part of the attacking party was mustering. Here were men fresh into the field, having just arrived up the Magda Road where they had been encamped as a reserve. They had completed their journey on time and Catuul was pleased to find that everything was in excellent order.

The close warmth of the early night was beginning to fade as the assembled troop moved off up the ragged road that followed the upward slope between the dark ridges of the hill. The prognosis for the attack was promising. Ren had hand-picked men fresh to the battle and backed them up with small carts carefully laden with more than sufficient inflammables to fire the castle. Even Catuul was beginning to feel that the operation must succeed.