Kirs all those years ago, if you'll remember, is because interesting things happen here while all stays stodgy south of the mountains. The way the Emperor's men fought in this campaign had given me little reason to change my view.'
'Except for the forces commanded by this Swerilas the Slippery,' Gerin said. 'He beat us when we were almost down to Cassat, and he did it the same way he did here: he stuck out one force, and then he struck with another one we didn't expect. If bait looks too juicy to be true, my fellow Fox, it likely is.'
'But it didn't look too juicy to be true.' Rihwin angrily kicked at the dirt. 'By the gods, you would have sent in the riders with no more hesitation than I showed. It was a chance encounter, nothing more.'
'No, it seemed a chance encounter-or you wouldn't have been ambushed,' Gerin said. 'He must have set it up by gauging where your detachment was, which way they were headed, and how fast.' He kicked at the dirt, too. 'Which means Swerilas is very slippery indeed.'
'I want another crack at him,' Rihwin said. 'No one does that to me, not without paying for it.'
'Unfortunately, someone did do it to you,' Gerin answered, 'and I don't want you charging after the imperials all wild for revenge. Swerilas will be waiting for something like that.'
For a wonder, he got through to Rihwin. 'Aye, belike you're right,' Rihwin said. 'It's just what a man from the City of Elabon would expect in the northlands-let the locals make fools of themselves, and then count on them to make bigger fools of themselves trying to recover.'
'Of course, odds are he didn't know he was facing another man from south of the High Kirs,' Gerin said.
'Go ahead-rub salt in the throbbing wound.' Rihwin struck a pose of affronted dignity. Then it collapsed, and he chuckled. 'Speaking of men from south of the High Kirs, lord king, did I tell you we've captured my cousin?'
'No.' Gerin raised an eyebrow. 'How did that happen?'
'Usual sort of way,' Rihwin answered. 'He got wounded in the shoulder-doesn't look too bad-fell out of his chariot, and we scooped him up. When I found out his name was Ulfilas Batwin's son, I asked about his family, because my uncle's son Batwin is a man of about my age. And sure enough, we are first cousins, once removed.'
'You've been removed by twenty years and a mountain range, too,' Gerin said. He sighed and put an arm around Rihwin. 'All right. You walked into this one. It's over. Don't do it again.' He laughed. 'I sound as if I'm talking to one of my sons, don't I? One of these days, maybe, just maybe, you'll grow up. One of them has done it, and the second is on the way.'
'I resent the imputation.' Rihwin looked affronted again.
'Go ahead,' Gerin said cheerfully. 'I'll probably have to keep right on lecturing you till they shovel dirt over one of us or the other.'
'You could shut up instead,' Rihwin suggested. They laughed, both knowing that Gerin shutting up was about as likely-or rather, as unlikely-as Rihwin growing up.
**
Ferdulf came flying toward Gerin's main force. 'Here he comes!' the demigod shouted. 'That cursed horse turd of a Swerilas is heading this way, and I don't think he's coming to invite you to take ale with him.'
'Well, I can't say I'm surprised,' Gerin answered. He couldn't say he was truly ready to meet Swerilas' assault, either, but volition didn't play any great role here. 'How far away is he, and how are the horsemen doing at holding him back?'
'He'll be here in a couple of hours' time, maybe less,' Ferdulf answered. 'The riders are doing what they can, but they can't stop the son of a sow all by themselves. He's got too many men. He's got too many chariots, too.'
'I know that,' Gerin said discontentedly. 'He's got too many men and too many chariots for this whole army.'
'Well, what are you going to do about it?' Ferdulf screeched.
'The best I can,' Gerin answered.
'That's not good enough,' Ferdulf said. 'You have to beat him. If you don't beat him, the northlands are ruined.'
'If I don't beat him, I'm ruined,' the Fox said. 'The possibility remains that I may not beat him.' He clicked his tongue between his teeth. 'If I don't, I'll just have to go on from there.'
'You make it sound so easy.' Scorn laced Ferdulf's voice. 'Where will you go on from there, pray tell?'
'I don't know,' Gerin admitted. 'I hope I don't have to find out.' Ferdulf stared at him. A trifle irritably, he went on, 'I'm not a god, Ferdulf. I'm not even related to a god. I don't know what's going to happen next. All I can do is the best I can, and see what happens. I told you that already.'
'What a sloppy arrangement,' Ferdulf said. 'And what, if you would be so generous as to tell me, is the best you can do?'
Gerin had been thinking it over while the demigod carped at him. ' I'm going to keep my men in one compact mass and hit the imperials as hard a blow as I can. I don't dare divide my army against Swerilas. He has too many men and too many brains for me to take the chance. What I hope is that I'll catch him trying to do something fancy and punish him before he can pull all of his forces together.' He brightened a little. 'Go fly off and tell me how he's deploying. That way, I'll have some notion of what I'm up against.'
'You're out of your head,' Ferdulf replied with mournful certainty, but away he flew. Gerin sighed and began shouting orders.
The men formed up as quickly as he could have wanted. None of them showed any particular eagerness for the fight ahead, not even Adiatunnus' Trokmoi. Maybe that meant they were veterans who didn't need to scream like fiends to go out and fight well. Maybe it meant they had no particular hope of victory. Gerin hoped it was the one and not the other.
Far faster than he should have, given where Swerilas' force was, Ferdulf came whizzing back. 'What now?' Gerin asked in alarm. Had the imperial general stolen a march on him?
But Ferdulf answered, 'If you're going to fight in one large, ugly lump, are you fain to have me tell Rihwin bring his horsemen back so they can take their lumps with the rest of you?'
'Oh, by the gods!' Gerin exclaimed, mentally kicking himself for having sent the demigod off too soon. 'Yes, and thank you, Ferdulf. I' m in your debt. I admit it.'
'You're in my debt, you owe your son a promise, you owe the imperials a thrashing-do you think you can deliver on any of these?' Ferdulf flew away before the Fox had a chance to reply.
He sent his men forward, toward that field he'd found that was well suited to the size of his force. As the main force advanced, Rihwin's riders began joining them. Gerin posted the horsemen as a screen in front of the main body of chariotry and on either flank.
'Is that Maeva?' Van pointed off to the right. He answered his own question: 'Aye, it is.' He waved, then muttered in disappointment. ' She didn't see me, curse it.'
Dagref's head was turned in that direction. He nodded. 'It is Maeva, though, and she seems all right.' He was better than he had been a little while before at sounding casual about it.
Gerin looked west down the dirt road that ran through the field. he nodded. Here came the imperials, exchanging arrows with the last of his horsemen. Like his own troops, the men of the Elabonian Empire were already deployed in line of battle, sweeping down the road and along the open country to either side. Catching them in column would have been sweet, but Swerilas, with his sobriquet, was too alert to have let that happen.
'Elabon! Elabon! Elabon!' the imperials shouted. Gerin, for one, was heartily sick of that battle cry. His own men yelled the usual northlands assortment of war cries and insults back at their foes.
'Forward!' Gerin put everything he had into his own shout. He wanted to be moving to receive the imperials' charge, not standing still, waiting to be overrun.
Dagref flicked the reins and cracked the whip above the horses' backs. They went from walk to trot to gallop. One wheel of the car hit a stone. The chariot flew into the air and came back to earth with a crash. Neither Gerin
