Rebels of Gor (13 page)

In that moment there stood at his side, the short, thick figure of Nodachi, a sword in each hand.

He said nothing, he measured those about, selecting who would die.

Then, behind Lord Temmu on the right stood Lord Okimoto, and on the left, Lord Nishida. “Death!” they cried.

At this signal hundreds of hitherto prostrate Pani, armed, sprang up, and began to fall on the looters, many of whom had cast away weapons, that they not be encumbered in bearing away their booty.

At the same time more than a thousand mercenaries streamed forth from the barracks, sheds, ancillary buildings, and the castle itself, crying out a hundred war cries from a hundred cities.

For some moments looters, unapprised of what ensued on the level; continued to hurry upward, and enter the courtyard, but, momentarily, there was confusion at the threshold as terrified men turned to flee back through the opening. But a line of Pani interposed themselves and a dozen others cut men away from the threshold and swung shut the gate.

In moments hundreds of looters were encircled, crowded together, in the center of the courtyard.

Nodachi then, I am told, cleaned his swords and returned them to his sash, and went to the side, where he sat, cross-legged, and silent.

The tarn cavalry, less than a pasang north of the holding, was mounted, and waiting.

“The banner of Temmu is raised!” called Ichiro.

This, by prearrangement, was coordinated with the initiation of the attack on the looters.

“One-strap!” I cried.

I had requested that Tajima be the one to raise the banner, signaling the cavalry. This did not please him, but I did not wish to risk him against the enemy until I was confident he was fully ready, fully recovered from the harrowing rigors and exposure of his isolation in the mountains. I did not doubt but what, the banner flying, he would race to the courtyard, with two swords, but the delay, I hoped, would be sufficient to reduce the numbers of, and the brunt of the resistance of, the enemy.

In moments the remnants of the tarn cavalry, limited now to fifty-one mounts, was streaking through the clouds over the holding, making its way, in formation, though without tarn drum, to the encampment of Yamada, to fire as many tents as possible.

We began with the tents farthest to the south, selecting tents in the kaissa-board fashion, to conserve our incendiary materials, fire jars lit in flight, as this approach is designed to capitalize on the likelihood that a fire consuming one tent may spread to another. We began with the farthest tents to confuse the enemy as to our mission, that he would merely see us pass overhead, and, more importantly, that the enemy in the fore would see fire behind him, and the mountain and holding before him. This is likely to have its effect on morale. What is behind him, and what does it mean? Too, I assumed General Yamada, from what I had learned of this mighty adversary, would more likely be at the front of his troops than in the rear. Accordingly, he would find himself removed from the immediate locus of the attack, this delaying a personal response to it, and, almost certainly, would assure a delay in his apprehension of the situation, its nature and gravity. Uncertainty and confusion are sometimes as effective as the blade and glaive. Action undertaken in such a situation may easily prove inopportune and unwise. On the other hand, in this situation, small purchase would be obtained. Any troubling lacuna in the intelligence available to the shogun would be brief.

“Ho!” I called to Ichiro, not yards from me, to whose supple, tem-wood lance was affixed the commander’s pennon, and about whose shoulder hung the war horn of command. “About!” I called. “The day is done. Two-strap! Into the clouds, to vanish! Home, Fellows, home!”

Ichiro winded his horn, with the piercing note of assembly, and the riders, as one, wheeled their sky mounts toward the mountains.

Below us, some two hundred feet below, there were screaming, running men. But in moments their cries were behind us, as was the smoke rising from burning tents.

As planned, following our raid, we withdrew to our base, the new encampment. It was just as well, for there would be little purpose in bringing the cavalry to the holding, and, in addition, I was reluctant to see the disposition allotted to the trapped looters, many of whom were not even armed, their greed having encouraged them to disburden themselves of the inconvenience and weight of weapons, in particular, the lengthy, long-bladed glaive. I learned later of the slaughter wrought in the courtyard, and the casting of bodies, some bound and living, from the outer parapets to the valley below. It was not customary in the islands to take prisoners.

At the encampment, the tarns cotted and fed, I called my high officers, Torgus and Lysander, to my tent, that a vessel of paga might be shared.

“Tarns have been seen,” said Lysander.

“Some knew of them, from the first encampment,” said Torgus.

“But comparatively few,” said Lysander.

“True,” said Torgus.

“But now matters are quite different,” said Lysander. “There is no longer a point in trying to conceal the existence of tarns.”

“They are still exotic, strange here, at least unfamiliar,” said Torgus. “Better to employ them sparingly.”

“But surely employ them!” said Lysander.

“Yes,” said Torgus. “Yes!”

It had originally been hoped that a major land battle with the forces of Lord Yamada, a battle decisive for the outcome of the war, might have been brought about, a battle which might turn profitably on the unexpected appearance of the tarn cavalry, a military arm new to the islands. It had been hoped that its entry into the battle, aside from what might be its contribution in terms of fire power, might induce consternation into the masses of a largely ignorant and superstitious enemy. Would not the arrival of such monsters most easily be understood in terms of preternatural agencies? Indeed, Lord Temmu, shortly after the great ship of Tersites had been wharfed below the holding, had sowed the seeds of such alarms by means of spies, spreading rumors of terrifying winged beasts, demon birds, dragon birds, alleged to be favorable to the cause of the house of Temmu. But unfortunately this project had failed of fruition. First, no major land battle had occurred. Indeed, after the probable betrayal of, and surely the discovery and decimation of, the exploratory expedition launched by Lord Temmu, the enemy had advanced in force, later managing to invest the holding. Thus had the siege begun. The exploratory force had failed to rouse the countryside against Lord Yamada and had been unable to set the stage for a major confrontation in which the surprise of the tarn cavalry might be decisive. It had been unsuccessful in its mission, both militarily and politically. Indeed, its remnants, in retreat, routed and worn, harried and driven, had been fortunate to reach the shelter of the holding. Second, the location of, and the security devices of, the first encampment had been betrayed. It had been stormed by picked troops, following which the tarn cavalry itself had been considerably reduced, this impairing its effectiveness as an agency not only of intelligence and attack, but of supply.

Lysander and Torgus turned to me.

“The holding may now be regularly supplied,” said Lysander.

“Yes,” I said.

“But the siege has not been lifted,” said Torgus.

“No,” I said.

“Will we not carry the war to the enemy?” said Lysander. “It would be easy to strike behind their lines.”

“We will do so,” I said.

“I am pleased that Lord Temmu has finally authorized the use of the cavalry,” said Lysander.

“He has not done so,” I said.

“I do not understand,” said Torgus.

“Lord Temmu is under the influence of others,” I said.

“What others?” asked Torgus.

“I do not know,” I said.

Chapter Ten

What Occurred on the Road North;

We Will Later Move South,

Having the Business of War in Mind

The fellow below looked up, startled, the shadow of the soaring tarn blotting out the sun.

I wheeled the bird about.

The line of wagons below was long. I think there must have been a hundred or more wagons.

This was the longest train of its sort we had hitherto encountered.

In parts of the line I did not think they were even aware of our presence.

Tarns descended, the forty of the striking arm.

Each wagon was drawn by ten to twelve peasants, rope lines leading to the broad leather belts across their bodies.

As tarns alit several emitted tarn cries, as though to announce their arrival and claim for their own the ground on which, wings snapping, dust in the wind, they stood.

Men fled.

The scream of the tarn is unmistakable, once one has heard it. It is commonly piercing and redolent with challenge and territoriality. The wild tarn will defend its nesting site against larls and sleen. Its hunting strike can break the back of a tarsk, ten hands at the shoulder. Its beak can tear a head from a body and its talons can tear loose the backbone of a larl. I once saw one in Torvaldsland disembowel a Kur, before the ax half severed its head and the Kur began to feed, one paw thrusting its intestines back into its body, holding them in place. Whereas a human being is not the common prey of a wild tarn, the usual objects of its interests being verr and tabuk, the tarn can be dangerous to humans, particularly if a nest is approached. The tarn commonly kills in hunting by breaking the back of its prey, but it can seize a verr and bear it aloft, to drop it to its death, after which it feeds, or carry it to its nest, where fledglings fight for the meat, the swiftest and most aggressive surviving, often at the expense of its siblings. The domestic tarn, on the other hand, like the domestic sleen, is bred for at least the partial tolerance of humans. It does not require live game. There are different varieties of domestic tarns, some bred for war, some for racing, and some for draft purposes, the haulage of tarn baskets, which may contain cargo or passengers, or, in the case of slaves, slave cargo. A tarnster commonly controls the tarn with reins from the basket, unless there is a line of tarns, tied together, which commonly follows a lead tarn, with its own tarnster and basket. The domestic tarn, given the selections involved and their purposes, like the domestic sleen, is usually larger, stronger, faster, and healthier than its wild cousin. It is bred to be such.

I saw men scattering beneath me.

We did not brandish the banners of Temmu but there would be little doubt in whose interest we flew.

For Ihn I scouted the line of wagons, to the end and forward, and then, near the center of the train I brought the bird down.

One commonly commands from the center.

This shortens the lines of communication.

I had seen no guards.

By now I was sure the investing forces of General Yamada were beginning to feel the straits of hunger. It is not only the prisoners of a siege, confined in a holding, who may suffer such an ugly durance, but also their jailers, if no food is brought to them. General Yamada’s lines of encirclement, ample to resist and turn back any likely sallying forth from the holding, were numerous, thick, and deep. He had, in effect, his armies in the field, and largely concentrated in the area of the holding. There was no way that limited area could indefinitely sustain large numbers of men. Forces of that size, in such a location, must be supplied from without. There was no dearth of food in the several territories claimed by Lord Yamada as we had determined, in supplying the holding by air. On the other hand, these supplies, if unable to reach his men in sufficient quantities in a timely manner, might as well, from the point of the besiegers, anchored in place, not exist. Several days ago we had begun to disrupt the supply lines of the enemy, striking at supply trains, frightening away draymen, dealing with guards, overturning and burning wagons, seizing stores, and discarding what we could not carry. Our work was often marked by hundreds of birds alighting on the spilled stores, who would soon compete with returning draymen, who would gather what rice they could and carry it away to their villages, where it might be concealed from the tax collectors of Lord Yamada. We would depart, smoke in our wake, leaving behind us the scramblings of hungry men and the cries of clouds of small birds. Soon, if all went well, the siege must be lifted. Even a will of the might of that of Lord Yamada would be unable, indefinitely, to hold thousands of starving men in place. He would have no alternative but to withdraw.

I looked about myself.

Many of the scattered draymen were visible in the fields, several yards off, watching us. This was not unusual. We had no quarrel with such, no more than if the wagons had been drawn by bosk or tharlarion. Too, so positioned, once we departed, they might hurry forth and rush upon the spilled stores. In recent days, and even from the time of the concealed warehouses, it was not unusual for
fukuros
of rice, in many cases, to find their way back to the very villages of their origin.

I had ordered draymen to be driven from the wagons if necessary, but, insofar as possible, to be left unharmed.