The Ruins Of Kaldac

Chapter 21

Nungor was already half-dressed when Feragga got out of bed. When she was barefoot and he wore boots, the top of his head almost reached her shoulder. She bent down to kiss him, rumpled his hair, then started pulling on her clothes. Through the door of the tent trickled the dawn light and the sounds of the Doimari camp coming awake.

Nungor heard the crackle of wood fires, the bubbling of stewpots, the curses of munfan drivers, and the growls and hisses of the munfans themselves. Sometimes he heard the crack of whips as Kaldakan prisoners were driven to their day's work. Once he even heard the whir and whine as the Seekers tested their new Oltec machine.

Nungor didn't quite know what to think about that machine. On the one hand, without the machine and the Voice equipment it carried, the hundred Fighting Machines the army had with it would not be so strong: This far from home, the Voices from Doimar could hardly get the Fighting Machines to walk straight most of the time, let alone fight well. But on the other hand, Nungor and his infantry had no control over the Carrying Machines, which were claimed by the Seekers. That made the whole affair of the machines eat at Nungor's guts like a meal of rotten meat. But Feragga had said it must be so, and then the best man at handling the machine turned out to be a Seeker! There wasn't much Nungor could do about Feragga even if he wanted to, but he could do something about that cursed Seeker! The man wasn't going to survive more than a single day beyond the last battle of the war, if Nungor had to kill him with his own hands!

Now another question nagged at Nungor. As the Doimari penetrated the frontier of Kaldak, there were few Kaldakans to be seen, let alone taken prisoner. Had Blade returned to Kaldak and told the people to retreat so far, instead of giving battle on the frontiers where the Fighting Machines would be deadly? Maybe he had. Even so, Blade had already lost all chance of victory before leaving Doimar, by showing how the Carrying Machines could be used.

«Think we'll meet them today?» said Feragga's voice behind him. He turned. She was ready for battle, complete with body armor. Since there was no one single set of armor large enough to fit her, she wore two fastened together. Nungor hoped this improvisation would protect her. The thought of losing her to the Kaldakans hurt, though not as much as it would have hurt to lose her to that cursed Blade!

«They have to turn and fight sometime,» said Nungor. «We've chased them three days' march across their own land and burned many of their farms. We're only two days from Kaldak itself. Peython's gambling with his people's loyalty. Or do you suppose this is Blade's doing?»

Feragga shrugged. «Don't underestimate Peython. He's the sort of man to come up with new answers when he faces new problems. I suspect we'll have to beat him not just once but several times before he gives up. Fortunately there won't be many more chiefs like him, so once we've got Kaldak we've got half the Land.»

«Pray that it be so,» said Nungor evenly. He was getting a little tired of Feragga's evading a discussion of Blade. He could understand why she was embarrassed at the treachery of a man she'd so nearly taken to her bed, even at the cost of her long comradeship with the War Captain. What bothered him more was not knowing if her spy network in Kaldak had broken down. If it had, they couldn't know if the Kaldakans were planning any surprises, and it was going to be hard for him to plan more than the simplest battle.

Very well, he would plan a simple battle. He'd keep all the foot fighters together, and the first time the Kaldakans showed themselves he'd hit them with everything he had except the Fighting Machines. The machines would guard the rear while the footmen stamped the Kaldakans into the ground. That would start off the war with a good solid victory and maybe frighten the Kaldakans out of pulling any surprises, Blade or no Blade!

He squeezed Feragga's hand and side by side they went out into the morning to take their place among their soldiers.

The Hovercraft whined through the nearly deserted streets of Kaldak toward the entrance to the waldoes' command center. Kareena was at the controls, with Blade in the other chair and six armed infantrymen behind them in the cabin. Blade and Kareena hadn't spent all their time together in the past month making love. In good weather she could now handle the Hovercraft almost as well as Blade.

Blade looked up at the blue sky. It was a fine autumn day, and gave every sign of staying that way. That was good news. Rain or mist might not hide Blade's surprises from the Doimar, and would certainly make it harder for Peython to command Kaldak's army.

The Hovercraft stopped at a barricade of piled rubble, logs, furniture, and steel beams. The men at the barricade pushed away stones at one end, then Kareena steered the Hovercraft through the gap without hitting the wall more than twice. Building and manning the street barricades was one job given to the Kaldakans who refused to fight with all the new Oltec. Another job was carrying food, beer, munfan fodder, medicines, and other Lawful supplies to the army outside Kaldak.

A few die-hards refused to do anything at all. They said Kaldak was now so far outside the Law that it was morally unfit to survive. «We would rather die than befoul ourselves this way!» they cried. «Very well,» replied Peython. «You shall have your wish.» After the first twenty executions, the rest of the die-hards got the message.

The barricades would probably turn out to be an unnecessary precaution, since the Doimari probably wouldn't get to Kaldak in force until the main Kaldakan army was destroyed. Then the barricades would be useless and the barricade defenders could take to their heels with a clear conscience. Patrols or a few stray waldoes might still slip away from the battlefield and reach the city. Making it hard for these to move freely and giving cover to the men fighting them would save lives. Blade knew this fight was going to be a bloody shambles no matter who won, but he wasn't going to throw lives away.

When they drove up to the entrance to the underground command center, Sidas was standing by the door, wearing only boots and a loincloth. He greeted Blade and Kareena, then winked at them and ordered the six soldiers out of the Hovercraft, to give them privacy for their farewell.

I am not in love with Kareena, Blade told himself for the hundredth time. He even believed it for the hundredth time. That didn't make it any easier to see her heading off to the battle while he sat safe in a hole in the ground. When her lips were on his and she was obviously trying not to cry, it was even harder than usual.

«Take care of yourself, Kareena,» he said finally. «If you don't, your father surely will.»

She snorted. «He'll be too busy fighting the battle to worry about me.»

«Don't bet on it,» he said, stroking her hair. «Or you may find you're not too old for a spanking.»

«Yes, Blade,» she said with mock humility. Then she kissed him again and signaled to the infantry guards to come back. Blade climbed out and watched while she started the Hovercraft again.

He kept watching until it was out of sight around the corner, on its way back to where Peython and the army of Kaldak waited for the battle. He knew she would probably be safe, whether she wanted to be or not. She was acting as both chief of staff and chauffeur to her father, and in the normal course of things she'd be nowhere near the front lines. However, the «normal course of things» in any battle could suddenly change, and in this battle more easily than most. Which reminded Blade-

«How are our Scouts doing?»

Sidas clenched both fists and punched them together. It was the Kaldakan equivalent of crossing your fingers.

«They haven't failed us yet,» he added, with a grin.

«Food.» The scouting system was one of Blade's inventions. He suspected it would give the Kaldakans an advantage not because it worked so well, but because it was the only thing of its kind in this whole Dimension. At least it was simple enough so that it might work. Several waldoes not fit for combat had been walked to points overlooking possible battle sites. Then their audio and visual pickups were activated and left on. A man in a control chair could watch the countryside simply by switching from one waldo to another. Human scouts filled in the gaps between the waldoes. If they saw something, they would send a messenger to the nearest waldo and have it pass the word.

Once word came to the command center, the problem was getting it back to the Kaldakan army. For that the human scouts had smoke signals and messenger birds. Some of the scout waldoes could fire their lasers in a coded pattern. Blade could even make a waldo write messages in the dirt, if everything else failed, as it probably would-

Blade realized that Sidas was trying to get his attention. «Word from below, Blade. The Doimari are still coming on, all bunched up together.»

«Good.» Either Nungor was underestimating his opponents or he had some plan of his own which meant keeping his army massed. Blade thought the second was more likely, but either way it played into his hands for now. Once battle was joined things might change, though. They might not change too fast for him, but they would probably change too fast for the improvised Kaldakan army. They were long on courage, but still rather short on training.

«Who's in the chair now?» asked Blade.

«Bairam.»

«How is he?»

Sidas shrugged eloquently. He was not going to say anything out loud against his chief's son, but, on the other hand, he wasn't going to hide important truths from Blade. So Bairam was still too excitable for safety. That at least was no surprise. «Let's go down. I'd better take over. We may have to get the waldoes moving fast.»

The Carrying Machine was moving so slowly that Rehna climbed out of the top hatch and sat with her legs dangling down inside. She still moved carefully. She could not be sure yet, but she thought she might be carrying Blade's child. If that was so, she hoped that the coming battle would be the last against Kaldak as well as the first. She wanted to be among the Seekers who proved in battle the value of their work. She also wanted to bear that child, even if it came from the seed of a man who'd betrayed Doimar. A man's seed did not bind his child.

An explosion behind her made her turn around. Smoke rose from the crest of the hill at the mouth of the valley. They must have blown up the Fighting Machine the Kaldakans abandoned there. It always hurt her to see Oltec destroyed, particularly the Fighting Machines, which were the masterpieces of the Tower Builders. However, the Kaldakans had ruined the machine so completely there was nothing else to do with it. They couldn't have got much use out of it, either.

Rehna looked ahead again. The valley was broad enough so that Doimar's army was advancing in three columns. The one on the right moved along the valley floor, closest to the steep, wooded hills on the north side. In the middle moved the Fighting Machines, with the Carrying Machine in the middle of them. Most of the hundred Fighting Machines which started from Doimar were still marching as if they could go on to the end of the Land. Rehna hoped they would, even if she wasn't there to see them. The left-hand column followed the crest of the grassy ridge on the south side of the valley.

The Carrying Machine swung to the right so violently that Rehna nearly lost her balance. As it swung back, it narrowly missed one of the Fighting Machines. Through the open hatch Rehna heard curses. The less experienced of the two drivers was at the controls. He was only good enough for level ground, and the valley floor seemed to be getting rougher the farther they went.

Rehna leaned down through the hatch and shouted, «Get clear of the Fighting Machines and stop. Sutro, you'd better take over.»

«Ah, Rehna, he's half-asleep. He can't-«

«Yes, I can. Sorry about this, but Rehna's right. I'd better get us through the valley.»

The second driver cursed again, but obeyed. The machine settled to the ground, and silence fell so suddenly that it was almost frightening. It was only when the Carrying Machine stopped that you realized how noisy it was.

Then the silence was broken by another explosion. Rehna looked back, saw the smoke there was long gone, heard still another explosion, and realized it came from ahead. When she looked toward the north side of the valley, she saw the little puffs of smoke from hand-thrown fire bombs. Here and there through the smoke fire-beams flickered green, going both uphill and down.

«Sutro, quick! Get us to the hill over there!» She waved frantically to the south. «The Kaldakans are attacking. We have to be where we can carry the Voice. Hurry!»

Then she slid down inside the cabin and pulled the hatch shut behind her. Her mouth was dry, and her stomach was so twisted that she was afraid of vomiting. She couldn't do that, not today, when the Seekers were about to prove beyond any doubt that they held the future of Doimar and its Empire in their hands-or rather, the hands of the Fighting Machines marching around her.