“The exercise,” he said, “seemed to go well, though my eye is not practiced in such matters. What is your view?”
“The men are raw, but eager,” I said. “But they are growing in discipline, and skill.”
“Excellent,” he said.
“I thought you were struck,” I said.
“He who fled will think so, too,” he said.
“I set two aflight on his track,” I said.
“Not a twenty?” he asked.
“Those two would be sufficient,” I said.
“Excellent,” he said.
“Tajima and Pertinax,” I said.
“Pertinax?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “He is becoming a man.”
“Excellent,” said Lord Nishida. “We will need men.”
I did not inquire further into his remark, but I took it that by men, he meant something beyond mere males, that he meant men.
“But I do not think they will overtake him,” I said.
“Let us hope not,” he said. “For I should like others to believe his mission was successful.”
“I see,” I said.
“It is important, of course, that the assailant believes himself to be earnestly pursued.”
“I understand,” I said.
“I have many spies, in many places,” said Lord Nishida.
“One must have maps, one must have eyes,” I said.
The importance of intelligence cannot be overestimated. It is a quiet business, without drums and trumpets, less apparent to the eye than wagons, bellowing tharlarion, the dust of marching columns, trains of cordaged artillery drawn through mud, and such, but I think it not less essential.
Information is essential to war.
The intellect of battle must guide its brawn.
How much of war is mind, how futile without it is its muscle!
It had not been Lord Nishida on the platform, in the white kimono.
Is not deception another name for war?
There are men, and cities, which gold can buy. Thus it is noted in the “Diaries,” usually attributed to Carl Commenius of Argentum. Similar sayings are not unknown. “The sharpest of swords has an edge of gold.” “More gates answer to a key of gold than one of iron.” “What can be purchased with gold need not be bought with blood.” And so on.
There are always jealousies, resentments, hatreds, and factions in cities, and the clever will exploit them to his own advantage.
Much will be sacrificed by many for position and power.
How often are Home Stones betrayed!
I thought of Ar.
Lord Nishida, I did not doubt, was well aware of the nature of men. I wondered if he were well aware of my nature, perhaps more so than I. One stands close to one’s self. How can the eye see itself, and even in water, or burnished plates, or bright mirrors, it sees but an image of itself, and who knows what lies behind it?
“Tarnsmen,” said Lord Nishida, “have been recruited from better than two dozen cities.”
“I do not understand,” I said.
“If the commander of an army had fallen,” said Lord Nishida, “would that not be an ideal time to attack?”
“Surely,” I said, and shuddered.
At that moment, from high above, I heard the war horn of Ichiro, signaling the alarm, and then the signal to mount.
In the distance, far off, coming from the south, it seemed a cloud had formed, obscure, uncertain, at first, and then swift and dark, and then, in a moment or two, it seemed the cloud might be a flight of insects, a dark swarm, a plague of predators.
I did not wait, but raced toward the cavalry. Torgus and Lysander had already marshaled it, and the first birds, in line, were already climbing.
Two tarns, returning, those of Tajima and Pertinax, ahead of the swarm, streaked overhead, and then turned, to take their place in the ascending formation.
Again and again Ichiro sounded the alarm.
I seized the mounting ladder of my tarn, hastened to the saddle, strung the ladder, fastened the safety strap, and yanked back on the one-strap, and, in a moment, the field of the training plaza, with its numerous, riddled targets, was falling away, beneath me.
Behind me the men of Tarncamp sought weapons and took cover.
Many of the slaves would be lashed indoors. If there were time many would be chained to rings, to await, as the lovely beasts they were, as might tarsks or kaiila, other tethered domestic animals, the outcome of the doings of men.
They were properties, and, as women generally, would belong to the victors.
What more desirable as booty than beauty?
Men will kill to possess and collar it.
Too, if one wishes, it sells well.
I looked to the south.
I had never seen so large a tarn cavalry as now approached Tarncamp.
Then I was aflight and to the head of our formation, and issued orders, and the first and second centuries wheeled away, each to flank one side of the coming swarm. It would not be met head on, but, in moments, after it had plowed past, like a torrent between banks, it would be afflicted from the sides, and then, the centuries dividing, now into flights, from behind and above, as well. In the meantime let the rushing swarm spend its bolts and quarrels on the roofs of sheds and barracks.
As Tuchuk cavalry we would close as little as possible.
Our tarns carried less weight, this increasing agility and speed, and we might thus choose our moments of engagement, to strike when, and as, and where, we wished, and to withdraw as we might please, with little fear of being overtaken.
A hundred maneuvers we had planned and practiced on the field of the sky, feints and encirclements, and sallies and lures, massings and dividings, but these maneuvers were untested in battle, and our men were for the most part new to the saddle.
The alarm bars were ringing.
Chapter Seventeen
I had no doubt that the cavalries ranked against us, which would intend to confront us and engage in the traditional modalities of Gor’s aerial warfare, consisted of veteran tarnsmen. The heavy shields and mighty spears borne by them would alone far outweigh the armament and accouterments of my men. Too, the tarns of some were encumbered by armor, and the beak and talons were still shod with steel, turning their mounts into little more than massive, lumbering aerial tanks. Their missile weapons were the short quarrels and the stout, metal bolts of the stirrup and crank-and-ratchet crossbows. I knew the armament and tactics of such forces well, having been trained in them, and I had designed my forces, following the Tuchuk model, to deal with massive infantry and earth-shaking tharlarion charges, now adapted to flight, to deal with them. The infantrymen of the sky would be effective, I
