The Blood-stained Belt (16 page)

One afternoon,
about a week after our arrival at the base, Sharma and I walked to
a rocky promontory that thrust out above the plain like the prow of
a ship. One of the things that we shared was a fondness for high
places. I think that we were both seduced by the almost disembodied
experience of looking out from a high place. There you seemed to be
floating while at the same time the features around you – the hills
and crags to left and right, the plain spreading below, the clouds
above and all around – were clean and sharply defined in the fine
air. Yes, I think that we were both as seduced by high places as we
were by the dream of the kingdom – but, then, the kingdom is a high
place, too, and even more seductive than ridges, crags, and
elevated views over hills and plains.

Sharma wrapped
his arms around his legs and, with his chin on his knees, said
reflectively, ‘Do you remember a place like this when we were
boys?’ I nodded. I knew what he meant. Sharma gave a slow smile and
pointed to the plain below. ‘You said that our flocks had as much
chance of grazing down there as they had of grazing on the
moon.’

I nodded again.
‘It’s still the same. Nothing has changed.’

‘Nothing at
all?’

‘Not that I can
see. The Dornites are still down there and we’re still up here. The
Dornites are still harassing us, treating Keirine like their
private possession, and we’re still struggling to defend
ourselves.’

Sharma grunted
thoughtfully. ‘There’s something else that hasn’t changed as
well.’

‘What’s
that?’

‘The
prophecy.’

‘The one about
Keirine being free when land and people reach the sea? You mean
that one?’

Sharma laid
back, hands behind his head, sucking on a stalk of grass. I did the
same. After a while, Sharma said, ‘It’s either them or us. Since
Gandonda, I see it more clearly than ever before. I don’t just know
it in my head – now I know it in my bones. There can’t be any
compromise. The weaker the Dornites are, the stronger we’ll be.
It’s a matter of them or us, plain and simple.’

I grunted my
agreement. More than ever, I felt as if there was a current running
underneath my daily existence -- a current that ran ever stronger
and straighter towards the goal of subduing the Dornites and
exalting the Kingdom of Keirine. It was a current to which I
willingly submitted, seeking to perfect myself as an instrument
that was worthy of the task.

Sharma rubbed
his chin and said, ‘We shouldn’t wait for the Dornites to come at
us; attack is the best form of defence.’

‘Is it?’

Sharma frowned
at me. ‘Man, Jina, do you have to question everything?’

‘I question
whether we’ve got the resources to attack anybody, no matter who it
might be.’

Sharma leaned
forward and pointed across the plain. He said thoughtfully, ‘We
could attack Asjolorm.’

‘Asjolorm! Are
you crazy?’

Sharma said
easily, ‘Exactly!’

‘Exactly
what?’

‘You think it’s
crazy to attack Asjolorm. Everyone in our unit probably thinks it’s
crazy. In fact, our whole army, including Vaxili, probably thinks
it’s crazy.’

‘So --?’

Sharma asked
easily, ‘What do you think the Dornites down there in Asjolorm
think about us attacking them?’

‘They probably
don’t think about it at all.’

‘Why not?’

‘Damn it,
Sharma, don’t ask stupid questions. You know the answer. Firstly,
they’ve got control of the whole coastal plain. Nobody threatens
them down there. Secondly, down on the plain they can fight in the
best possible conditions for their forces. Thirdly, they know that
we hardly have enough men to defend our own boundaries. How can we
commit forces to fighting in their territory as well?’

‘Yes, all that
is true enough. So you reckon that the Dornites wouldn’t give a
thought to the possibility of us attacking them?’ Sharma gave me a
look that was almost self-satisfied, as if he was going to produce
a trump.

‘If they did
think about it, it would seem so crazy that they would roll about
laughing at the idea.’

Sharma lay
back, pulled out a stalk of grass, and sucked at the juice. With
his eyes closed and his face to the sun, he said, ‘Exactly!’

I thought that
I was beginning to see what Sharma was getting at. I said, ‘So if
everyone thinks it’s crazy …?’

‘Exactly!’

I rolled over
and straddled Sharma’s chest, pinning his arms to the ground. ‘I
swear if you say “exactly” again, I’ll throw you over the ridge,
right into Dornite territory.’

Sharma lay
there grinning easily. He asked, ‘You think you’ve got me, eh?’

I grinned back
at him, bore my weight down against his chest, and said, ‘For
sure.’ I leaned forward, pinning his arms more firmly against the
ground. Sharma just sucked at the stalk of grass and chuckled. I
said, ‘No more “exactly” – all right?’

Suddenly,
Sharma lifted his body at the waist and moved it sideways. Trapping
one of my legs under his body, he rolled over. In an instant, our
positions were reversed. Sharma chuckled and said, ‘All right, no
more “exactly”. You’ve convinced me.’ He rolled off me and lay on
his back with his arms under his head. Then he said quietly, ‘I got
you when you weren’t expecting it, didn’t I? Do you still think I’m
crazy?’

I said,
‘Everyone thinks it’s crazy so that’s why it might work – is that
what you mean?’

Sharma said,
‘You’ve got the picture.’

While it was
easy enough to talk about a surprise attack, it was another thing
entirely to plan and execute one. When I asked Sharma if he had
thought of a strategy, he looked smug and began to draw a rough
plan of the city on the ground.

Surprised, I
asked, ‘How do you know so much about Asjolorm?’

Sharma gave me
a knowing smile and replied, ‘I got the details from Anagina.’

‘Anagina? What
does he know about Asjolorm?’ Anagina was one of our comrades in
the unit. He was a dreamy young man who played the flute, kept his
own counsel, and had a permanently surprised look on his face as if
he had landed in military life entirely by accident. I couldn't
imagine that Anagina would bother his head with military
strategy.

Sharma said,
‘Anagina lived in Asjolorm until about seven years ago. His father
had a business there, importing goods for sale in Keirine.’

‘Does he still
live there?’

‘No. Anagina
says that some of his father’s commercial rivals in Asjolorm ganged
up against him. They accused him of being a spy.’

‘What happened
to him?’

Sharma grunted
and shrugged. ‘They hanged him. What else can you expect from
Dornites?’

‘That being the
case, I guess that Anagina isn’t well disposed towards Dornites in
general and towards Asjolorm in particular.’

Sharma grunted
again. ‘You’ve got the picture. Anagina says he'll be first up when
they ask for volunteers for an attack on Asjolorm.’

Sharma’s plan
was simple. Tracing a stick over the rough outline on the ground,
he said, ‘This is the eastern side of the city. It’s the poorest
and most crowded sector. That means it has the highest
concentration of thatched roofs and the fewest tiled roofs.’

‘Fire? Is that
what you’re thinking?’

‘Right!
Remember when they attacked Osicedi? We can do the same, only more
thoroughly.' Sharma ran his stick around the edge of the outline
and said grimly, 'Osicedi doesn't have walls so people could escape
in any direction. Asjolorm is fully walled so as the fire spreads,
they'll only be able to escape through the gates – here, here, and
here.’ He pointed to the outline. ‘We can pick them off as they
come through the gates. That would cause further confusion inside
the walls and would hamper attempts to contain the fire.’

Sharma was
making sense. I said, ‘It could work, if we could get close enough
to the city.’

Sharma’s mouth
tightened. ‘You remember what happened that night in Osicedi?’

‘I
remember.’

‘How many
Dornites were involved?’

‘About ten, I
guess.’

Sharma took a
few steps forward and stood on the edge of the ledge with arms
folded looking towards Asjolorm. He said, ‘Imagine what we could do
with about fifty men.’

I joined
Sharma. On the plain below us, Asjolorm rested in remote
peacefulness. However, it no longer looked so secure – not in my
imagination, anyway. Sharma's plan was simple and convincing but I
still had reservations. I asked, ‘Suppose we succeed -- what effect
will it have on the Dornites?’

Sharma grinned
sardonically. ‘They won’t be happy.’

‘True enough.
And then --?’

‘They’ll launch
a counter-attack in retaliation.’

‘The question
is, are we ready for that?’

Sharma sat down
with his legs dangling over the ledge, his hands palm-down on the
rock and his shoulders hunched. He said, ‘Maybe the question is,
Are they ready to attack us?’

‘Why shouldn’t
they be?’

‘As far as we
know, they haven’t elected a new supreme commander yet. They might
not be as ready as we think they are.’

‘But what if
they do attack? We aren’t much better prepared than we were last
time.’

‘Not if we use
the same tactics.’

‘You have
something else in mind?’

Sharma grunted.
'I’ve been thinking about it. Who hasn't? Everyone knows we can’t
suffer another defeat like the last one. It will be the end of the
army’s confidence, if not the end of the army, period, and most
likely the end of the kingdom.’

‘So --?’

Sharma looked
at me keenly. He asked, ‘How would you go about facing up to the
Dornites?’

I had been
thinking about the matter, just like Sharma. I said, ‘Well, they
destroyed us at Gandonda because they had cavalry and chariots and
we didn’t have them. We need to get on equal terms with them.’

Sharma chuckled
sardonically. ‘Fight fire with fire, eh?’

‘Yes, something
like that.’

Sharma pulled
at an ear and said slowly, ‘How about if we fight them with
something that puts out their fire?’

‘Like
what?’

‘Something like
a wall, maybe.’

‘Oh, you mean
we carry a wall onto the battle field, put it in place, and then
say, Come on Dornites, throw yourself against our wall? And the
Dornites say, All right, just let us know when the wall is ready so
that we can throw ourselves against it. Oh, yes, that should work
just fine!’

Sharma grinned
slowly and said, ‘Yes, something like that.’

‘Oh, man,
that's a great plan! It'll work perfectly – as long as the Dornites
co-operate.’

Still grinning
knowingly, Sharma replied, ‘Well, in the first place, we carry the
wall onto the battlefield. You’ve got that part right. But the wall
isn’t like anything that has been seen before.’

‘What,
then?’

Sketching in
the dust, Sharma explained his idea. The more I listened the more
it made sense. After half an hour, I was convinced. I said, ‘It
might work. But it'll take discipline and training.’

Sharma clicked
his tongue impatiently and asked sardonically, ‘What are we –
soldiers or shepherds?’

We discussed an
attack on Asjolorm with our unit commander, who liked the idea and
passed it on to headquarters where we thought that it would be
turned down because of the risk and because of what Sharma called
‘close-minded conservatism.’ However, to our surprise, the plan was
approved. Later, we heard that although Vaxili disapproved of the
idea at first, Jainar persuaded him that it was viable.

Jainar arrived
at our base to take personal charge of the attack on Asjolorm. It
was the first time that I was able to get a close look at him and
it confirmed my impression that he had the squarest face I ever
saw. It was square from his jaw, which looked as if it had been
planed on a brick, to his jowls, forehead, and flat-lying ears.
Even his nose, asymmetrically off-centre, had been partially
squared off. It looked as if it had been flattened in a fight.
However, even if he hadn’t have been a general you wouldn’t have
asked someone with Jainar’s solid build and stolid countenance
about how his nose got to be that shape.

Jainar got his
fighting experience in skirmishes against Usserdite raiders on the
south-western border where he gained a reputation as a tough and
innovative leader. He had no other military experience, in the
formal sense. But, then, nor did anyone else. We were all learning
on the job. When I sat back and thought about the matter, it scared
me to realise that no one in the whole Keirineian army, generals
included, had any experience of managing an army. Usually it scared
me so much that I tried to put the thought out of my mind as
quickly as possible.

Jainar might
not have had a lot of formal military experience but he did know
how to devise and execute a plan. Within a day of his arrival, he
had finalised the strategy for the attack. The first objective was
to cut communications between the city and the Dornite garrison
that was based halfway between Gandonda pass and Asjolorm by
silencing two guard posts on the highway between the two. If that
move succeeded then the garrison wouldn’t know about the attack
until long after the attacking party had finished its business and
made its escape.

Besides the
unit that would attack the guard posts, there were two other
parties. One would set fire to the houses while the other would
handle the fugitives at the gates. The plan was to kill as many
people as possible until the detachment began to meet resistance.
At that point the men would withdraw, retreating along the same
paths as they used on the approach.

When Jainar
finished his presentation, there was a grumble of dissent. Someone
said, ‘General, your plan means that we will be attacking
civilians.’