Dark Crusade (10 page)

"Fools! It is my army. My gold buys their allegiance."

"But it is Kane who leads them."

"And Kane obeys my commands."

"But if Kane should disobey?"

"Kane is but one man. He can be replaced."

"Then do so now."

"And who shall lead my army into Sandotneri?"

"Lead them yourself."

"Fools! Does a god concern himself with battles!"

"Kane is dangerous. You dare not trust him."

"Kane is but a sword. He shall slay as I command." "He will turn on you."

"When he does, I shall find another sword."

"You should get rid of Kane now."

"Do you command me? Fools! A god does as he wills."

"But Kane? You dare not trust him."

"Dare not? Waste my time no more with your bleatings.

"Kane is not what he seems."

"I only care that Kane will lead my array against Sandotneri tomorrow."

"And against you on another day."

"That is another day. Kane shall not live to see its dawn."

The room smelled of perfume and spilled wine, caught on a warm breeze from the roses below the open window. Within there was darkness and the soft billowing of gauzy curtains. The night was utterly silent, muffled by the high thin clouds that cloaked the sky. Even the scrape of leather on stone was a sound no louder than a short breath.

He had ordered the guards to another quarter of the garden walls, clambered over the coping as they obeyed. He felt like a cheap sneak-thief and a fool, but he had to talk to her. The spies' reports had been fragmented and sent in a panic, but enough was clear. Kane was returning to Sandotneri, and he was not coming alone.

He climbed the ornate stonework to her balcony with breathless ease. It was a way he had gone on many breathless nights, well remembered for all the months that had intervened. She had told him to wait until she called for him again, but the months had dragged on and dragged on. True, there was great need for discretion--all the more so now that her father lay in his final coma. No hint of dishonor must tarnish her name, he realized that.

Silently he lifted himself to her balcony window. All was quiet within; she was sleeping at this late hour. He would softly call her name, as he had done on those other nights. She would awaken with a smile, dance over to the window and greet him with a lingering kiss that promised...

He knew it was daring to steal upon her like this. She would forgive him, smile at his boldness--just as before. He would be marching north at dawn, riding out to meet Kane. He might never see her again...

But no! He would conquer Kane and whatever army the Satakis sent with him. He would return to Sandotneri, victorious once again. Owrinos clung to life by a spidersilk now; it was a matter of hours. With her smiles to greet him on his triumphant return, he felt certain the choice of Sandotneri's next ruler was assured. But he must talk with her alone...

He craned his head past the dreamily billowing window curtains, formed his lips to call her name. The clouds parted then, threw a pallid splash of moonlight past the swaying curtains onto the scented silks of her bed. His breath caught, and the only sound he made was the shudder of his heart.

She was not yet asleep, but neither she nor her lover had a thought to spare for the frozen mask of pain that stared past the curtains, nor did they hear the dull fall of his body to the garden below, and the blundering footsteps that fled from there.

Kane rides alone through the night.

Where do you ride tonight, Kane?

Tomorrow you lead an army on the road of conquest.

There's no rest for you tonight, Kane.

At night you're haunted by age-old dreams;

There is no refuge for Kane in sleep.

By day you're driven by the curse of your past;

And so you play your games.

Again you'll lead your army on the road to death;

Again you'll smash at cities and reap the red harvest;

Again you'll curse the gods of destiny;

While you shift the fates of kingdoms,

To play at your game.

How many times, Kane?

How many of these nights before the dawn of war?

How many armies have you led?

How many battles have you fought?

How many times have you riven the web of destiny?

And what have you ever won? Ride on through the night, Kane, alone,

Like a comet that comes and destroys,

And drives on.

Play the game to the end, Kane.

Maybe this time.

Marching south from Ingoldi, Kane led his army along the newly completed system of military roads that crossed the Prophet's forested domain. Old roads and market trails had been broadened and straightened, new connecting strips hewn from the forest. While Shapeli's dense forest served as a natural barrier to an invading army, neither was it possible to lead an army out of the forest with any order or dispatch. Taking advantage of the dry season Kane moved his men expeditiously across Shapeli on the new road and to the forest fringe. Beyond the forest there were no roads, only an endless expanse of sun-scorthed veldt.

At Sembrano on the edge of the forest, Kane paused to form his regiments and to allow his baggage train to catch up. There, on the second day, be was joined by twenty regiments of foot, mustered from the Sataki strongholds to the south of Ingoldi. Another ten regiments of foot soldiers had been dispersed along the line of march to secure the road against retreat and pursuit; Kane had no intention of leaving the door to the Prophet's capital standing open. Shapeli itself was held by forty regiments of infantry--the bulk of the Prophet's nonprofessional army--with the poorly armed and accoutred masses to shore them up in the event of siege.

The fate of the Dark Crusade hung on victory for Kane and his newly formed army. If the Sword of Sataki was broken by Sandotneri, Orted knew he would have to withstand punitive countermeasures from the southern kingdoms. Thus the Prophet of Sataki stood fast in his citadel and awaited the outcome of Kane's chevauchee.

Kane came down to Sembrano at the head of his entire mercenary army, including those of the Satakis who had responded to training sufficiently to flesh out his cavalry regiments. This gave Kane a strength of eight regiments of heavy cavalry and twenty-one of light horse, or nearly 35,000 men. Of these, the heavy cavalry were formed almost entirely of the condottieri, who brought with them the essential equippage and training. The ranks of light cavalry were filled with more of the Satakis--untried and unblooded--than Kane felt confident of, and he trusted his core of veterans to hold these regiments together. Included were seven regiments of mounted archers--again mainly comprised of mercenaries, the Satakis being indifferent archers.

This then was the Sword of Sataki, a disparate army of hardened professionals and unblooded recruits. Kane had seen to its forging. Very shortly he would try its temper against the proven edge of Sandotneri steel.

Kane was fully aware that a surprise assault on Sandotneri itself was impossible. By now Jarvo's intelligence would have informed the Sandotneri general of Kane's presence in Shapeli, and that a considerable force of armored cavalry was moving against the frontier. Kane knew that Jarvo would have to bring up his own cavalry to counter the Sataki threat. Kane's intent was straightforward: to engage the Sandotneri army and destroy it--thereby leaving the city vulnerable to siege by the Prophet's masses of foot soldiers, who might march on Sandotneri unmolested.

At the Prophet's insistence, Kane was to be accompanied by the twenty regiments of foot that were drawn from Shapeli's outlying towns, thereby giving Kane an additional paper strength of 24,000 infantry. Kane considered these regiments a liability, inasmuch as they would be an anchor to his mounted advance. Orted argued that they would serve as an occupying force to lay siege to Sandotneri. Kane gave in on the matter. He intended to march upon the city anyway, in order to draw Jarvo into an open battle, and under the circumstances the loss of a few days in cutting across the frontier was of little consequence. Privately Kane intended to abandon the foot soldiers to their fate should their drag imperil his cavalry, and that Orted had withheld his personal forces from the advance suggested the Prophet was willing to sacrifice another contingent of his followers.

Warfare upon the broad savannah was akin to a battle upon the high sea. The open veldt stretched untold without significant natural barriers; there we-re no defensive positions that could be outflanked. Similarly, there was no point in capturing vast tracts of grassland; these could not be held, and only served to overextend the lines of supply and communication. Further, while there was abundant fodder for their mounts, forage for the troops was limited to the agrarian estates of the outflung demesnes. Water was confined to scattered wells and to the treacherous water-meadows that buried the region's rivers and streams.

The savannah was a limitless sea of tall grass, across which the mounted armies swiftly coursed like vast armored fleets. Speed and striking power were all-important. Here, as in a great sea battle, warfare was a lightning-quick, swirling combat between heavily armed and highly mobile troops. The object was to destroy an opponent's fighting force, thereby leaving the enemy kingdom open to the invading army.

Infantry lacked the mobility that such tactics demanded. Nor could the unsupported foot soldiers withstand a charge of heavy cavalry. In the absence of fortifications or natural barriers, an army that could not maneuver with its foe could be quickly outflanked and encircled. The savannah was a lonely expanse of emptiness; it swallowed entire armies as the sea devours whole fleets.

Kane left Sembrano before the summer's early dawn, advancing along a line of watering places that led to Sandotneri. He intended to engage Jarvo's army as quickly as possible, and a direct drive on the city was certain to force the encounter. Heavy plate armor was no protection from the broiling sun, and Kane meant to attack before his men were too exhausted to fight.

The Sword of Sataki advanced behind a tight cavalry screen--consisting of six regiments of light horse swinging over a front of some ten miles, with patrols as far as five miles in advance of the contact troops. Another two regiments of light horse were detached as flankers. Behind the screen, the main body advanced in a double column, each of three regiments of fight horse, followed by four of heavy cavalry, then three more of light. Behind them rolled the ponderous baggage train, and, eating dust as tradition befitted, the twenty regiments of foot. A final regiment of light cavalry was spread out as a rearguard.

The order of march was a compact one, for Kane expected Jarvo's attack and intended to keep his forces concentrated for instant deployment once his outriders made contact with the Sandotneri army. He was prepared to sacrifice the baggage train if need be--it was primarily necessitated by the presence of the foot soldiers--and his main concern with the infantry column was to keep it out of the way of his own maneuvering.

The double columns advanced in a well ordered line of about a mile across behind the cavalry screen, with the last of the foot trailing along less than a mile to the rear. Despite loud complaints from the Prophet's newly recruited infantry, Kane brought them a good twenty-five miles the first day, to Charia's Wells. The Sandotneri garrison there was already in Kane's pay, and the small outpost capitulated without a fight. Kane bivouacked there for the night, carefully positioning his pickets and vedettes.

By dawn the next morning the columns were again in motion, disposed along the same order of march. There were a number of desertions among the foot soldiers as the day progressed and the sun grew hotter. Kane ordered the rearguard to sabre any and all stragglers, which discouraged further attempts. While Kane had no use for them, neither did he care to have them fall into Jarvo's hands and tell all they knew of Kane's plans.

Kane drove them another twenty miles that day--a leisurely pace for the cavalry, although the raw foot soldiers were hard pressed to keep up. That night they bivouacked at Tregua Spring, a small village whose few inhabitants fled before them. The night passed without incident, and in the morning the vedettes still reported no contact with Jarvo's force.

The third day's march dragged on uneventfully. Desertions and complaints were fewer. They were well into Sandotneri's lands, and excitement and tension increased as each mile took the army closer to battle. They made another twenty miles that day, and bivouacked at Adesso Wells. There was a fair-sized outpost here, but the advance scouts found it newly deserted when they approached.

Kane doubled his pickets that night, assuming that Jarvo now was informed of his position and had pulled in all frontier garrisons to reinforce his main body. Sandotneri was only some forty miles distant--a day's hard ride for cavalry. Jarvo would have to move very soon.

About midnight excited scouts reported to Kane that Jarvo was encamped about ten miles to the south of their line of march, at the village of Meritavano. The Sandotneri general had been mustering his army within a day's ride of the city; the swiftness of Kane's advance had been unexpected, and he had only this day taken to the field to halt the Sataki drive.

Reports came quickly thereafter. Jarvo was confident of victory, and had good reason to feel so. His army had sustained only trifling casualties in the slaughter of the Sataki horde a year previous. The Sandotneri force this time was of greater strength--reported to be comprised of twenty-four regiments of light horse and six regiments of heavy cavalry.

While Jarvo was aware that Kane led a considerable body of cavalry, it was after all a pieced-together army, untested in battle. Spies had given only vague information as to its strength, and Kane's cavalry screen had effectively concealed the nature of his troops. Jarvo's scouts had seen the straggling line of foot soldiers and the lumbering wagons of impedimenta, giving the impression that the Sataki army was a mass of infantry supported by several dispersed regiments of light cavalry. It was known that Kane had some heavy cavalry under his command, but, hidden as it was within the center of the column, its strength was grossly underestimated. A year ago the Prophet had had no armored force; it stood to reason that he could not have mustered more than a regiment since then at best.