Back | Next
Contents

Fifty-Four

The distance from Theedalit to the defensive positions at the north end of the Isthmus of Kammenak was some three hundred winding miles. Brokols rode for seven days to get there, and it showered on all but one of them. He'd left Reeno behind to look after the production of mines and grenades, and a youthful lieutenant, Gorrvis Vendorrci, had been assigned as Brokols' aide for the trip. Like Eltrienn, Gorrvis was a native of Kammenak.

Much of the distance was over rolling plateaus cut deeply here and there by valleys, mostly narrow. The streams were high in that season, and some of the fords worrisome. The isthmus itself was rugged hills—steep longitudinal ridges separated by canyons—and its streams were creeks that in the dry season, Brokols suspected, would become mere trickles or dry up.

He saw almost no settlement on the isthmus; all the traffic on the rough and rocky roads was wagons with military supplies. The dwellings were mostly huts, according to Gorrvis for herdsmen and the rangy, nipping kiennos that helped move the herds from place to place. Almost all the herds were vehatto; you could hear their plaintive high-pitched cries a mile or more. The land was too steep for decent gleebor pasturage.

The two men were hungry, saddle-weary, and pungent with sweat when they arrived at regional defense headquarters five miles from the Gorrbian border. A sergeant ushered them into the sprawling command tent and presented them to general Doziellos. The general stood up to greet them and shake Brokols' hand, looking him over with interest. "So you're the one responsible for grenades."

"Basically. I was familiar with them—we have them in Almeon—and in a general way I knew their construction. An herbalist solved the key problems."

The general nodded. Brokols wondered what that meant, if anything.

"The report I was given," said the general, "says you've been an army officer in your own country; that you're to look us over and suggest possible changes we might make."

"That's right, General. But don't expect too much. I am not a tactical genius. In fact, I was a rather low-ranking officer of cavalry—a senior lieutenant, the executive officer of a squadron."

Again Doziellos nodded, this time a sharp little nod. "Well," he said, "let's go see how we look to you."

* * *

First they visited an advance ridgetop fort. It was a simple strongpoint, its thick walls of dry-laid rock about fifteen feet tall. In front of it the ridge ended, sloping down to an undulating plain and Djez Gorrbul.

Doziellos and Brokols stood atop a wall, Doziellos pointing. All along the border there were three forts on every ridge top and six in each intervening canyon. Those on the crests were walled on four sides, while those in the canyon bottoms were a single wall across the canyon, with another back about two hundred yards and several more behind that at varying intervals. The canyons were the natural routes up the isthmus. Any attack on the canyon strongpoints would come under fire from one or more of the ridge-top forts. The idea was to deny an invader access up the canyons.

"Why not bigger walls?" Brokols asked.

"It's partly a lack of decent building stone," Doziellos explained, "and the difficulty in storming them as they are. The rock around here is pretty rotten. But mostly it's a matter of policy. The intention is less to stop the enemy here than to cost him dearly."

"How wide is the isthmus?" Brokols asked.

"For most of its length, from five to six miles."

"Even with the long haul for building stone," Brokols said, "I'm surprised you haven't built a wall all the way across down there." Brokols pointed to the plain at the toes of the ridges. "Considering how long you've had troubles with the Gorrbians. You could have done it bit by bit, taken a century if you wanted."

Doziellos grunted. "A thousand years ago we started to. Darrto Pileggri, the principal sage then, warned against it, but he had no military background, and he was ignored. But the Gorrbians didn't like us building it, so before we'd gotten well started, they brought an army and overran it, then drove on up the isthmus. Fifteen weeks later they took Serrnamo, our capital then, and we lived with their heel on our neck for fifty-six years.

"After our war of independence, we developed the system we have now. The ridgetop forts are costly to attack; the Gorrbians learned that the hard way, more than once. And they're hard to bypass, because of the canyon strongpoints, while as you can see, the ridge sides are too steep for kaabors; it's hard enough for a man to walk along them. Our archers and arbalesters can shoot anyone that tries.

"And we have sentries out at night, with kiennos, watching for infiltrators."

Brokols nodded thoughtfully. Archers like those he'd watched could exact a heavy price. He'd seen men shoot five arrows in ten seconds and put all of them in a straw dummy at sixty yards. He'd seen the same thing tried at 150 yards with two hitting the dummy! "But if the Gorrbians do take one of the ridgecrest forts," Brokols said, "they can direct their own archery at your canyon bottom positions from above."

"True. If they capture a ridgecrest position, we'd likely pull out of any bottom strongpoints they could fire on. Back from the forts, we'll use ambush, cavalry strikes—whatever's appropriate to the position and strength of the enemy. We've studied and mapped the entire isthmus from this point of view. The function of the strongpoints is to blunt and slow enemy attacks and make them pay heavily. Your grenades will contribute to that. And the dam you saw below the headquarters? We can open it. There's one in each canyon.

"Yes, we quite expect them to overrun the strongpoints if they have the will."

Brokols nodded slowly. "I presume you've been told that the Gorrbians will probably have cannon, and what those are like."

Doziellos nodded. "Yes, and that if they do use such monstrous things, they can hammer our strongpoints to rubble. We'll have to adjust to that if it happens. It may be necessary to abandon our strongpoints early, and fight on the move, though I hope not."

"Perhaps there's a way to avoid that," Brokols suggested.

"If there is, I want to know about it."

"Well then," Brokols said, "here is what you watch for . . .."

Back | Next
Framed