fleet to Argan. Unfortunately, what Hearst had destroyed was only a copy – the original ink had been despatched by ship to Rovac the day before Hearst manifested himself in Runcorn.
Alish had no doubt that the Rovac fleet would arrive in due course. Accordingly, it was vital that, as a minimum, he obtained control of the Greater Teeth and the Harvest Plains, as he had boasted of these conquests as if they had already been made.
The Greater Teeth, those cliff-built islands where the Orfus pirates had their lairs, were too strong for Alish to take without help from a death-stone. So he tried diplomacy.
The chief pirate, Menator, proved ready to negotiate. The capture and control of the island of Stokos had stretched his fleet and his manpower to the limit; an alliance would give him a better chance of making the conquests which his own followers, in turn, had already been promised.
And so it was that an alliance was made between these two- warlords who, between them, commanded lands, harbours, northern strongholds, infantry, a substantial body of cavalry from the Lezconcarnau Plains, and a strong fleet.
Menator and Alish, two sagacious and experienced warriors who had both on occasion been bruised by overconfidence, did not simply launch an onslaught against the enemy. Spies told them Hearst was still in Selzirk, which suggested their best move was to capture a city intact and hold its population hostage.
The city which fell to them was Androlmarphos; the garrison commander and other key officials were bribed, the garrison itself incapacitated by poisoned food, and the city walls commanded by marauders from the sea before the general population had time to realise they were under attack.
Following the capture of the city, an orgy of rape, looting and torture might reasonably have been expected, but nothing of the sort took place. Alish and Menator restrained their men. Apart from their desire not to compromise the hostage-value of the city, they did not want to see it casually destroyed as they were now empire builders in their own right.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Those in the kingmaker's party reined in their horses by the riverbank.
'We can ride no further, unless we care to make the animals swim the river,' said Farfalla. 'But, as you see, there are small boats that will take us on from here.'
'My lady,' said Watashi. it would be dangerous for you to go any further.'
'We're in danger every time we step outdoors,' said Farfalla. 'The sky might fall on us.'
'My lady -'
'But you can run ahead of us and hold it up with a stick, if you're worried,' said Farfalla. And that was the end of that.
They crossed the river in coracles, each of which could hold four people. They dragged the coracles ashore in the narrow end of a 'V made by two diverging branches of the river. A thousand paces to the west was an impressive burial mound; five hundred paces south of the mound was a pyramid, and another five hundred paces south of the pyramid ran the southern branch of the 'V, beyond which was marshland.
'Let's walk to that mound,' said Hearst. it's a long way,' said Watashi, with a glance at Farfalla. it's only half a league,' said Farfalla. 'And I'm not made of butter.'
A battle-line requires, in its front rank, one man for 383 each pace of the frontage. This is one of the unalterable rules of warfare; men placed closer together will not have sufficient room to move, while if they are spaced further apart they will be unable to cover each other's flanks. 'Warfare' in this case, of course, refers to the conflict between the disciplined armies of high civilizations; irregular forces and barbarians tend to be less scientific in their methods.
In the 'V formed by the diverging branches of the river, a north-south battle frontage placed just forward of the pyramid and the burial mound would measure 2500 paces; the burial mound itself, 600 paces long, offered an excellent view of the countryside.
'It's very flat,' said Ohio.
'Yes,' said Farfalla, scrutinising the dusty plains where the network of swamp and river glittered under the sun. 'The highest bit of ground is Tollar Hill, south of Androlmarphos, which rises scarcely two hundred and fifty paces skywards. The pyramid over there is higher than that.'
'Let's sit down,' said Hearst.
'Why?' said Watashi.
'We'll do what he says,' said Farfalla.
They sat. Hearst carefully studied the way the rivers fanned out to the blue immensity of the sea. Three leagues west lay lake Ouija and the city of Androlmarphos. Ships were afloat on Lake Ouija, ready to challenge any of Selzirk's craft which came down the southern branch of the river.
Irrigation ditches lay west of the burial mound, but all were dry, because they needed pumps to feed them; the pumps, worked by people or by animals, were idle; thanks to the invasion, the land was deserted.
'Would those ditches hinder cavalry?' said Hearst.
'Not much,' said one of the cavalrymen. 'They're too narrow, too shallow.'
'Usually you hardly notice them if you're out riding,' said Farfalla.
A group of horsemen was moving over the plains in the distance; dust could be seen rising into the air. it's dry,' said Ohio, licking his lips.
'Yes,' said one cf the young cavalrymen. 'When it's like this it's iron-hard. I wouldn't like to take a fall from a horse when the land's like that.'
'Of course it's different in winter,' said Farfalla. 'The river floods. It's all mud then. In winter they couldn't ride the fields like that. Even in spring the mud can be knee-deep.'
One irrigation ditch ran just in front of the mound. Hearst studied the ground in silence. Thinking, i will command the battle from here,' said Hearst. 'This is no good,' said Watashi. 'Why not?' said Hearst.
'We need plenty of room for the cavalry to manoeuvre,' said Watashi. 'Here, what happens if we have to retreat? Behind us there's less and less room as we move back into the V-shape made by the rivers. I can imagine a disaster if too many horses were forced back into the waiting waters.'
'The pyramid and the mound provide us with two strongpoints,' said Hearst. 'The rest of the countryside is too flat.'
'Strongpoints don't have all that much relevance in a cavalry battle,' said Watashi. 'With a limited frontage like this, how can we manoeuvre? How are we supposed to outflank the enemy? They can spread from one river to the other.'
'What would you do?' said Hearst. i'd move forward,' said Watashi. i'd advance three thousand paces to the west, half-way to Androlmarphos. That's where I'd do battle. There's more room to manoeuvre when you get out there.' i understand what you say,' said Hearst.
For some time Hearst sat there in the sun, watching, listening, thinking. High in the sky overhead, some bird of prey wheeled over the dusty landscape. Hot. Dry.
Hard. The rivers, though wide, ran slow and sluggish under the sun.
'Is there any way to get a lot of cavalry across any branch of these rivers in a hurry?' said Hearst.
'It's a slow business,' said Watashi. 'Anybody will tell you that. You have to swim them across.'
T see,' said Hearst.
He sat in the sun some more, then he said:
T will command the battle from here. From this mound. Now as for that pyramid… what is it, exactly?'
'It's a tomb,' said Farfalla. 'We once had an emperor, a wizard of the order of Ebber, who built that tomb to his own glory. That was two thousand years ago, but we still remember the thousands who died building it. We are sitting on their burial mound. Our people paid a bitter price to raise that monument.'
'Let's go and have a closer look at it,' said Hearst.
