Conqueror

and every house and possible shelter torn down or burned. The broken snags of a village showed at the crossroads ahead, tumbled brick and charred timbers, looking even more forlorn than usual under the slash of the rain. The two battalions rode through silently, the hoods of their raw-wool cloaks over their heads. Bridles jingled occasionally as dogs shook their heads in a spray of cold water.

Raj reined in to one side with the two battalion-commanders. The two hundred Skinners with him were jauntily unconcerned with the weather; compared to their native steppes, this was balmy spring. Many of them were bare-chested, not even bothering with their quilt-lined winter jackets of waterproof sauroid hide. The regulars looked stolidly indifferent to the discomfort. Anxious for action, if anything; men who don't like to fight rarely take up the profession of arms, and these troopers hadn't lost a battle in a long time. He had Poplanich's Own with him, and two batteries-eight guns. The other unit was the 2nd Cruisers. No artillery accompanied them, but each man had a train of three remounts, and the dogs carried pack-saddles with loads of ammunition and spare gear. The mounts were sleek and glossy-coated. Fed up to top condition with the offal from Old Residence's slaughterhouses, where the meat from the confiscated livestock was being salted and smoked.

The trumpet sounded and Poplanich's Own swung to a halt. The Skinners straggled to a stop, more or less, which was something of a concession with them. The 2nd Cruisers peeled off to the north, taking a road that straggled off into the hills.

Spirit, but I hate war, Raj thought, looking at the ruined village. It would be a generation or more before this area recovered. If somebody cut down the olive trees and vineyards for firewood, which they probably would, that would be three generations of patient labor gone in an afternoon. Rain dripped from the edge of his cloak's hood. He pushed the wool back, and the drops beat on his helmet like the tears of gods.

Ehwardo was looking after the Cruisers. 'Thought you had something in mind,' he said mildly. 'Even if you didn't say.'

Raj nodded. 'Even the Brigaderos won't neglect to have Old Residence full of spies,' he said. 'No point in making things easy for them.'

'Tear up the railroad before they get here?' Ehwardo asked.

'By no means,' Raj chuckled. 'Ludwig's men will lie low and scout while the Brigade completes their initial movements. Railroads,' he went on, 'are wonderful things, no matter how the provincial autonomists squeal about 'em. The whole Civil Government should go down on its knees and thank the Spirit that His Supremacy Governor Barholm has pushed the Central Rail through all the way to the Drangosh frontier-the fact that the Colony has river-transport there has been a ball and chain around our ankles in every war we've ever fought with them.'

Ehwardo raised his brows.

Raj went on: 'You can do arithmetic, Ehwardo. One hundred thousand Brigaderos. Fifty thousand camp followers, at the least; a lot of them will be bringing their families along. Say, one and a quarter kilos of bread and half a kilo of meat or cheese or beans a day per man, not to mention cooking oil, fuel. . and preserved vegetables or fruit, if you want to avoid scurvy. Plus feeding nearly a hundred thousand dogs, each of them eating the same type of food as the men but five to ten times as much. Plus twenty or thirty thousand oxen for the wagon trains from railhead to camp, all needing fodder. That's over a thousand tons a day, absolute minimum.'

'So we wait for them to get here and then cut the railway,' Ehwardo said. 'Still, there are countermeasures. Hmmm. . I'd station say, twenty or thirty thousand of their cavalry along the line for patrol duty. Easier to feed them, easy to bring them up when needed, and fifty or sixty thousand men would invest the city just as well as a hundred thousand. A hundred thousand's damned unwieldy as a field army anyway.'

Raj smiled unpleasantly. 'Exactly what I'd do. Ingreid, however, is a Brigadero of the old school; he has to take his boots off to count past ten. And not one of his regimental commanders will want to be anywhere but at the fighting front. Furthermore, all the foundries capable of building new locomotives are in Old Residence, and so are the rolling mills capable of turning out new strap-iron to lay on the rails.'

The general turned to the younger commander. Ludwig Bellamy was a barbarian himself, technically-a noble of the Squadron. He looked the part, a finger taller than Raj, yellow-haired and blue-eyed. His father had surrendered to Raj for prudence sake, and because of a grudge against the reigning Admiral of the Squadron. Ludwig had his own reasons for following Raj Whitehall, and he'd managed to turn himself into a very creditable facsimile of a civilized officer.

'Ludwig, this is an important job I'm giving you. Any warrior can charge and die; this needs a soldier's touch, and a damned good soldier at that. It's tricky. Some of Ingreid's subordinates are capable men, from the reports.' For which bless Abdullah, he thought. 'Teodore Welf, for example, and Carstens.'

He laid a hand on Bellamy's shoulder. 'So don't cut the line so badly that it's obviously hopeless. Tease them. Let a trickle get through, enough to keep Ingreid hoping but not enough to feed his army. Step it up gradually, and don't engage the enemy. Run like hell if you spot them anywhere near; they can't be everywhere along eight hundred kilometers of rail-line. Keep the peasants on your side and you'll know exactly where the enemy are and they'll be blind.'

Ludwig Bellamy drew himself up. 'You won't be disappointed in me, Messer Raj,' he said proudly.

The three officers leaned towards each other in the saddle and smacked gauntleted fists in a pyramid. Ehwardo shook his head as Bellamy and his bannerman cantered off along the line of the 2nd Cruisers, still snaking away north into the gray rain.

'I don't think you'll be disappointed in him either,' he murmured. 'You have the ability to bring out abilities in men they didn't seem to have, Whitehall. My great-uncle called it the ruler's gift.'

'Only in soldiers,' Raj said. 'I couldn't get civilians to follow me anywhere but to a free-wine fiesta, except by fear-and fear alone is no basis for anything constructive.'

'You're doing quite well in Old Residence,' Ehwardo pointed out.

'Under martial law. Which is to civil law as military music is to music. I've gotten obedience in Old Residence, with twenty thousand guns at my back, but I could no more rule it in the long term than General Ingreid could understand logistics.' Raj smiled. 'Believe me, I know that I'm really not suited to civil administration. I know it as if the Spirit Itself had told me.'

correct.

Ehwardo grunted skeptically, but changed the subject. 'And now lets get on to that damned railway bridge,' he said. 'I don't feel easy with nobody there but those Stalwart mercenaries.'

Raj nodded. 'Agreed, but there was nobody else to spare before the walls were in order,' he said.

The rail bridge crossed the White River ten kilometers upstream from Old Residence, the easternmost spot not impossibly deep for bridge pilings. Without it, the Brigade armies would have to go upstream to the fords to cross to the north bank-the south bank of the river held only unwalled suburbs-which would delay them a week or two and complicate their supply situation even further. A strong fort at the bridge could be supplied by river from Old Residence, and would give the Civil Government force a potential sally port to the besiegers' rear.

They heeled their dogs forward, the heavy paws splashing in the mud.

Antin M'lewis whistled silently to himself through his teeth and sang under his breath:

When from house t'house yer huntin',

ye must allays work in pairs-

Half t'gain, but twice t'safety ye'll find-

For a single man gits bottled

on them twisty-wisty stairs,

An' a woman comes n' cobs him from be'ind.

Whin ye've turned 'em inside out,

n' it seems beyond a doubt

As there warn't enough to dust a flute,

Befer ye sling yer hook, at t' housetops take a look,

Fer 'tis unnerneath t' tiles they hide t' loot-

The forest ahead was dripping-wet, and the leaf-mould slippery as only slimy-rotten vegetation could be. M'lewis noted proudly how difficult it was to see his men, and how well the gray cloaks blended in with the