“I know everything about my rules of engagement, but I take it you are talking about Ventrian warfare?” Swinging his legs from the bed, he sat up. “I’m tired, Druss, so let’s make this conversation brief. I have a meeting in the morning and I need to build up my strength.”
Druss ignored the exaggerated yawn with which Sieben accompanied his words. “I saw hundreds of men wounded today, and scores killed. Yet now, with only a few men on the walls, the enemy sits back and waits for sunrise. Why? Does no one want to win?”
“Someone will win,” answered Sieben. “But this is a civilised land. They have practised warfare for thousands of years. The siege will go on for a few weeks, or a few months, and every day the combatants will count their losses. At some point, if there is no breakthrough, either one or the other will offer terms to the enemy.”
“What do you mean, terms?”
“If the besiegers decide they cannot win, they will withdraw. If the men here decide all is lost, they will desert to the enemy.”
“What about Gorben?”
Sieben shrugged. “His own troops might kill him, or hand him over to the Naashanites.”
“Gods, is there no honour among these Ventrians?”
“Of course there is, but most of the men here are mercenaries from many eastern tribes. They are loyal to whoever pays them the most.”
“If the rules of war here are so civilised,” said Druss, “why have the inhabitants of the city fled? Why not just wait until the fighting is over, and serve whoever wins?”
“They would, at best, be enslaved; at worst, slaughtered. It may be a civilised land, Druss, but it is also a harsh one.”
“Can Gorben win?”
“Not as matters stand, but he may be lucky. Often Ventrian sieges are settled by single combat between champions, though such an event would take place only if both factions were of equal strength, and both had champions they believed were invincible. That won’t happen here, because Gorben is heavily outnumbered. However, now that he has the gold Bodasen brought he will send spies in to the enemy camp to bribe the soldiers to desert to his cause. It’s unlikely to work, but it might. Who knows?”
“Where did you learn all this?” asked Druss.
“I have just spent an informative afternoon with the Princess Asha - Gorben’s sister.”
“What?” stormed Druss. “What is it with you? Did you learn nothing from what happened in Mashrapur? One day! And already you are rutting!”
“I do not rut,” snapped Sieben. “I make love. And what I do is none of your concern.”
“That’s true,” admitted Druss, “and when they take you for disembowelling, or impaling, I shall remind you of that.”
“Ah, Druss!” said Sieben, settling back on the bed. “There are some things worth dying for. And she is very beautiful. By the gods, a man could do worse than marry her.”
Druss stood and turned away to the window. Sieben was instantly contrite. “I am sorry, my friend. I wasn’t thinking.” He approached Druss and laid his hand on his shoulder. “I am sorry about what happened with the priest.”
“It was her voice,” said Druss, swallowing hard and fighting to keep his emotions in check. “She said she was waiting for me. I thought that if I went to the wall I might be killed, and then I’d be with her again. But no one came with the skill or the heart. No one ever will… and I don’t have the courage to do the deed myself.”
“That would not be courage, Druss. And Rowena would not want it. She’d want you to be happy, to marry again.”
“Never!”
“You are not yet twenty, my friend. There are other women.”
“None like her. But she’s gone, and I’ll speak no more of her. I’ll carry her here,” he said, touching his chest, “and I’ll not forget her. Now go back to what you were saying about Eastern warfare.”
Sieben lifted a clay goblet from a shelf by the window, blew the dust from it, and filled it with water which he drained at a single swallow. “Gods, that tastes foul! All right… Eastern warfare. What is it you wish to know now?”
“Well,” said Druss, slowly, “I know that the enemy can attack four times in a day. But why did they only attack one wall? They have the numbers to surround the city and attack in many places at once.”
“They will, Druss, but not in the first month. This is the testing time. Untried new soldiers are judged on their courage during the first few weeks; then they will bring up the siege-engines. That should be the second month. After that perhaps ballistae, hurling huge rocks over the walls. If at the end of the month there has been no success, they will call in the engineers and they will burrow under the walls, seeking to bring them down.”
“And what rules over the besieged?” asked the axeman.
“I don’t understand you?”
“Well, suppose we were to attack them. Could we only do it four times? Can we attack at night? What are the rules?”
“It is not a question of rules, Druss, it’s more a matter for common sense. Gorben is outnumbered by around twenty to one; if he attacked, he’d be wiped out.”
Druss nodded, and lapsed into silence. Finally he spoke. “I’ll ask Oliquar for his book. You can read it to me, then I’ll understand.”
