The Redemption of Althalus (56 page)

“What’s a moat?”

“It’s sort of like a trench that’s filled with water.”

“That
would
sort of make it awful hard to get in, wouldn’t it? We could do that, too, couldn’t we? I mean, Althalus
does
have that spring at the back of the cave, doesn’t he?”

Bheid shook his head. “You’d need a river to fill a moat, Gher,” he explained.

“Hold it for a moment, Brother Bheid,” Althalus said as an idea struck him.

“It’s a very nice little spring, Althalus,” Bheid said, “but it’s hardly a river.”

“It might be—when it grows up. I think I’ll go have a little talk with Khalor.”

“Sometimes you’re almost as bad as Gher is, Althalus.”

“Why, thank you, Brother Bheid.”

“It wasn’t intended as a compliment, Althalus.”

“Maybe not, Bheid, but that’s the way it came out.”

“It’s an interesting notion, Althalus,” Khalor admitted, “but how are we going to explain it to Gebhel? He’s got all his men working on that wall. I don’t think he’ll pull half of them off
that
job to dig a moat.”

“I don’t think I’ll need very much help, Sergeant,” Althalus told him. “I know what a ditch looks like.”

“You’re going to dig it all by yourself?” Chief Albron asked incredulously.

“I
do
have certain advantages, Albron,” Althalus reminded him. “If I say ‘ditch’ in just the right way, there
will
be a ditch in front of Gebhel’s wall.”

“And just how do you plan to explain it to him?”

“I hadn’t really planned to explain it. We’ve all been wasting far too much time explaining things. I think I’ll try something new this time. I’ll just go ahead and do it, and if it makes Gebhel start coming unraveled, that’s just too bad. Ghend and his people are starting to irritate me, so I think it’s about time to show them just how bad an idea that really is.”

Gher came along the ledge at the side of the crag. “I thought the bad people were going to use their doors to get here,” he said.

“I’m sure they are,” Sergeant Khalor replied.

“Then why are they camped way out there on the flat country? I just saw some little fires a long way from here. They’re miles and miles from here.”

“Are you sure?” Albron asked.

“It’s nighttime, Mister Albron, and you can see a fire—even a little one—from a long ways away when it’s dark. Particularly when you’re on top of something as high as this.”

“Show me,” Khalor said shortly. “I don’t really need any more surprises. Come along, my Chief. Let’s take a look.”

“Do you think Dweia might pass the right word to you the way she did last time?” Bheid asked Althalus.

“She won’t have to,” Althalus replied. “I
know
which word I’ll need this time. I’ve got a fair grip on the simpler words. It’s the complex ones that give me trouble. All I need is the word for ‘dig,’ and I’ve used that dozens of times. If I’d used my head, I could have made things much easier for us when you and I and Eliar were opening my private gold mine down in Perquaine.”

“What about expanding your spring? Do you know the right word to increase the amount of water coming from it?”

Althalus shrugged. “I’ll use the same word I used to make the wind blow harder,” he said.

“There’s quite a difference between wind and water, Althalus.”

“Not really. Gher sort of opened my eyes when he suggested that the Book
wants
to help us. Emmy’s the one who’s a stickler for fine details. The Book seems to be quite a bit more tolerant. There
will
be a ditch in front of Gebhel’s wall, Brother Bheid, and it
will
be full of water when Pekhal’s infantry charges. Trust me.”

“I
still
think that’s a couple of armies out there, Mister Khalor,” Gher was saying as the three of them returned. “Those fires are spaced out too even to just be leftovers from the grass fires we set yesterday. Besides,
our
fire went north, and those fires are way out to the east and the west.”

“A big fire generates its own wind, boy,” Khalor explained patiently. “I’ve seen whirlwinds spouting out of the top of a fire, and a whirlwind can carry embers in just about any direction.”

“I’m sorry, but I think you’re wrong.”

“You can think anything you want to, Gher,” Khalor told him. “Just don’t try to grind my face in it.”

The sky to the east was growing lighter as dawn approached, and Althalus grew edgier by the moment. He almost jumped out of his skin when Gher said
“ghre”
from just behind him.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that, Gher,” Althalus scolded.

Gher’s expression was absolutely blank, and his eyes were vacant. He pointed at a scrubby bush.
“Ghre,”
he said again. “Say it, Althalus!” he snapped.

Althalus stared at him in total bafflement.
“Ghre?”

“Don’t ask, Althalus—say it!”

The tone was so familiar that Althalus suddenly laughed.

“You’re starting to make me cross, Althalus. Look at the bush and say
‘ghre.’ ”

“Whatever you say, Em,” he said, grinning broadly. He waved his hand almost negligently at the bush.
“Ghre.”

The bush instantly sprouted new shoots and leaves as it very visibly became larger and larger, growing on command.

“Now that was
very
sneaky,” Althalus said admiringly.

“What was?” Gher asked, his face puzzled.

“You don’t know what just happened, do you, Gher?”

“Nothing happened, Althalus,” Gher replied. “I just came over here to tell you that I think Mister Khalor’s wrong. What are we talking about here?”

“Nothing all that important, Gher,” Althalus lied. “Just stay sort of close to me this morning. I think I’ll feel a lot better if you’re around.”

The sun had not yet quite risen when the steady barrage of stones from the shepherds’ slings brought a different sound. The clatter of rocks striking rock was replaced by the metallic ring of rocks striking steel. Then a horde of armored men holding shields in front of them came spilling out from behind large boulders scattered across the last fifty yards or so of the slide.

“They’re right on top of us!” Bheid shouted.

Gebhel’s men, however, didn’t appear to be unduly alarmed. Almost casually, they levered loose what had appeared to be their defensive wall of boulders, sending them bounding down the slide directly into the teeth of the charging enemy.

“Fall back!” Gebhel roared, and his army turned and ran up the slope to their defensive wall in front of the cave mouth.

“Oh,
that
was clever,” Khalor said admiringly to his bald friend.

“You didn’t
really
think I’d try to hold that slide, did you, Khalor?” Gebhel said.

“I thought you might
pretend
for a while.”

“I don’t waste men just for show, Khalor. The cave’s where our food and water are. I’ll concentrate on protecting the cave. If our enemies want the top of your silly hill, they’re welcome to it. The only part I want is that crag where the cave is.”

“Why aren’t they doing anything?” Bheid asked about an hour later, when the sun had fully risen and Gebhel’s men were all emplaced behind their defensive wall at the foot of the crag.

“They’re baffled, Bheid,” Khalor explained, “and probably more than a little afraid. Gebhel’s outsmarted them at every turn. He hasn’t once done what they expected him to do. He holds positions when he shouldn’t, and he retreats when there’s no reason for it. They have absolutely no idea of what he’ll do next.”

“Except that whatever it is will probably cost them a lot of their soldiers,” Chief Albron added.

“Use
‘twei,’
Althalus,” Gher, wooden faced and vacant eyed, said in a firm voice.

“I was going to use
‘dhigw,’
Em,” he disagreed. “I don’t think an earthquake’s a very good idea up here on top of this tower.”

“There’s a crack running from east to west about fifty paces to the south of that crag, Althalus,” Gher explained woodenly. “If you widen that crack with an earthquake, it’ll give you the ditch you want.”

“It won’t work, Em. I want the ditch just in front of Gebhel’s fortification. If I put the ditch that far away, Pekhal’s troops will just swim across and continue the attack.”

“You’re going to do this
my
way, Althalus—eventually. Save your breath and do as I tell you.”

He threw his hands in the air. “All right, Em,” he gave up.

“Then use
‘ekwer’
to pour water into the ditch.”

“Yes, dear. I was going to do that anyway, but it’s nice to get some confirmation.”

“Oh, hush!”

The air seemed to shimmer about halfway down the slope from Gebhel’s fortified position, and a huge army of Regwos infantry came charging through Khnom’s door.

“Not yet,” Gher told Althalus.

“Let me do this, Em. I still think the ditch won’t be in the right place, though.”

“Trust me.”

The enemy foot soldiers, howling triumphantly, charged up the slope toward Gebhel’s crude fort, even as archers and shepherds lining the top of the crag showered them with arrows and stones.

“Now, Althalus!” Gher barked.

“Twei!”
Althalus said sharply, pointing at the ground directly in front of the charging army.

A deep, booming rumble came up from the ground, and the entire tower seemed to shiver, almost like a wet dog. There was a hideous cracking sound that ripped from east to west across the tower, and the loose earth fell into a wide gap that suddenly opened directly in front of the enemy. The resulting trench was perhaps twenty feet wide and quite nearly as deep.

The enemy charge halted immediately.

Then Pekhal came raging out onto the slope directly below that new obstacle. “Attack!” the brute screamed. “Charge! Charge! Kill them all!”

The soldiers who were carrying scaling ladders rushed forward to push the ladders down into the ditch, and Pekhal’s force streamed down into the trench Althalus had just opened.

More and more ladders were pushed down to the men already in the trench, and they were quickly placed against the forward wall so that Pekhal’s army could continue its attack.

“What are you waiting for, Althalus?” Bheid demanded. “They’re still charging!”

“Let’s get as many of them as we can in that trench,” Althalus replied calmly.

“You blundered, Althalus!” Chief Albron exclaimed. “Your ditch runs all the way to the edge of the tower on both sides! Your water’s going to drain out as fast as it comes in! Those men in the ditch won’t even get their feet wet!”

“That sort of depends on how much water I pour into the ditch, doesn’t it?” Althalus replied bleakly. He squinted down the slope. “That looks like most of them,” he observed, watching the rear ranks of Pekhal’s army scrambling down into the ditch. Then he swept his hand down.
“Ekwer!”
he shouted.

The front side of his improvised trench suddenly exploded as a new river burst through into its carefully prepared channel. Unlike most rivers, however, the one Althalus had just created ran both ways, streaming off to the east and to the west, and when those rivers reached the edges of the tower, there were two spectacular waterfalls thundering a thousand feet down to the rocky slopes at the base of the tower.

Pekhal’s army, of course, was caught in the savage current, and they were swept to the brinks of those two thundering waterfalls to plunge shrieking in despair to the rocks far below.

“Dear God!” Bheid exclaimed in horror as he saw Pekhal’s army literally melt away.

“Look!” Chief Albron shouted. “It’s Dreigon! He’s coming out of that cave!”

Althalus spun quickly to look in astonishment at Chief Delur’s silver-haired captain leading the men of his clan out of the cave to join Gebhel’s troops behind the fortifications.

“You didn’t expect that, did you, Althie?” Gher said smugly, his voice almost perfectly matching Dweia’s.

Pekhal was shrieking insanely on the other side of the raging river that had just swept his army away. He lashed out with his sword, blindly killing any of his men unlucky enough to be near him.

And then, to everyone’s stunned disbelief, Eliar emerged out of empty air. The young Arum was fully armed, and he brandished his sword menacingly. “Pekhal!” he roared. “Run now, while you still can! Run, or I’ll kill you right where you stand!”

“But you’re dead!” Pekhal gasped.

“Not quite,” Eliar grated at him. “Choose, Pekhal! Run or die!” And then he started toward the startled savage, his sword held low.

Screaming curses, Pekhal scrambled over the bodies of the men he had just killed, swinging his huge sword.

Althalus shook off his astonishment at this unexpected turn of events to watch very closely as Eliar neatly parried the brute’s first massive blow and then lightly flicked his sword across Pekhal’s cheek.

Pekhal flinched, his face spurting blood.

Eliar swung again, and Pekhal was only barely able to ward off the blow with his shield.

Without so much as a pause, Eliar swung again. The clanging of the swords quickened, and Althalus found it difficult to separate one swing from the next. Eliar was obviously the better swordsman. Pekhal relied almost entirely on brute strength and rage, but he grew more frenzied and desperate as Eliar blocked or parried his every stroke. Eliar continued to lightly flick his blade across Pekhal’s face, drawing blood each time.

Enraged, Pekhal seized his sword hilt in both hands, casting away his shield. He swung a massive overhand blow at Eliar’s head, but it slid harmlessly to one side as Eliar neatly diverted it with his blade.

Then Eliar quite suddenly took the offensive, swinging heavier and heavier blows at Pekhal’s head and shoulders. In a desperate attempt to protect his head, Pekhal raised his sword and held it in a horizontal position to fend off Eliar’s blows.

Then Eliar swung wide, and his sword edge cut smoothly through Pekhal’s wrist, sending his sword and hand spinning away.

“Kill him, Eliar!” Sergeant Khalor shouted.

But to everyone’s startled disbelief, Eliar dropped his sword and drew the Knife from his belt. He raised it to hold the flat of the blade directly in front of Pekhal’s eyes.