Asimov's Science Fiction: April/May 2013 (24 page)

"Emile is an unpredictable person," Harold said. "The analyzers can only look at the possibilities a logical person might choose. Emile could do something just because he feels like it."

"And we sit here and wait until he does it," Jila-Jen said.

The sleds sat in the river for two full days. At dawn on the third day they began moving inland through the forest. At noon the itiji scouts reported that the Drovil army was advancing toward the city.

Harold turned to the First Harmonizer as soon as they got the word. "It's time to get to work."

The First Harmonizer turned his head and murmured half a dozen syllables in one of the itiji languages. A young itiji sitting near the door slipped out of the room. A chorus of itiji voices started crisscrossing the city seconds after he sang his first call. An Eight Leader hurried out the door with another Eight Leader behind him.

For Harold, it was almost a relief. The itiji and the Warriors treated him as if he was their top commander but the itiji had really worked out the plan for the defense of the city. The itiji and the Warriors were moving into positions planned by the Harmonizers and their advisers. He and the Warriors would fight under the instructions of the itiji when the two forces clashed.

The sleds were another matter. On the map, they seemed to be angling toward the mine. But they could turn at any time and reinforce the attack on the city. He still had to make a decision.

"You don't have anyone there who can attack the sleds?" Jila-Jen said. "Aren't there any itiji who are willing to make the attempt?"

"It's the same problem, Jila-Jen. We can't throw a counterattack at the sleds without diverting forces from the defense of the city or the defense of the mine."

"The Drovils are already moving this way. The High Warrior can send a force after the sleds. They can be there in a quarter of a day."

"We have to be patient," the Third Harmonizer said. "We know we can defend the city against the Drovil army. We're confident the High Warrior can defend the mine against the humans."

"And what happens if the humans turn this way? And we have to fight the Drovils
and
the humans?"

"That's one of the threats we have to hold in our minds. We believe it would be best, analyzing all possibilities, if we waited until the humans reveal their intentions."

"Are you sure you've considered all the possibilities? Isn't it possible your human partner doesn't want to attack his own kind?"

Tails thrashed. The three Eight Leaders left in the room edged closer together.

The First Harmonizer settled back on his haunches and raised his right front paw—a placating gesture that reduced his ability to spring without communicating any indication he was engaging in an act of submission.

"The leader of this human group killed Harold's father. Leza Sanvil has supported the story. Golva's experiences in the human base support it. The human leader is a cruel creature who tries to dominate everyone around him. But I can also advise you that Harold's feelings wouldn't change our calculations. Harold is following our advice."

Harold had lowered his head and fixed his eyes on the map. The Harmonizers could handle this better than he could.

"Send a message to the High Warrior," Jila-Jen shrieked. "Tell him I believe he should attack the human sleds with part of his force. Tell him the itiji thinkers oppose the idea. And Jila-Jen thinks they are wrong."

Leza had been patrolling the city observing the preparations. Harold left the meeting to make a tour of his own and Leza joined him on a platform in the upper levels of the city.

"I'm still getting used to the idea there's really going to be a battle," Leza said. "Thousands of intelligent creatures are going to kill each other."

They were standing on the edge of the city, near the end of a long bridge. An itiji crossbow team had taken up a position on a platform in front of them, armored blankets draped across their bodies. An Imeten Eight Leader had arranged his Warriors in the branches above the crossbow team.

The Warriors had fortified Imeten by cutting the branches of the trees on its borders. The city could only be approached, through the trees, along sixteen bridges defended by well placed, mutually reinforcing units. If the Drovils tried to bypass the bridges by attacking on the ground, they would be met by itiji who would be fighting in their own element.

"This is the way you've been living for the last three years," Leza said.

"I've been staying in the background since the Warriors accepted the itiji."

"But it's what you think about. It's always there."

"I had time to get used to it. It started out small. With raids to free itiji slaves. You're being thrown right into it."

"You adapted, Harold. You dropped into this situation and you adapted. Don't you think that's remarkable?"

"We didn't have any choice. I'm not really a soldier. I'd read a lot of stuff about war. It was interesting. It exposed me to possibilities the itiji hadn't thought of. But I'm not a soldier. I'm not a warrior."

Leza smiled. "You seem to have fooled most of the citizens of this city. Four legged and two handed. They all seem to think you're the reason they're going to win."

"And I'm depending on the plans of the itiji."

Joanne agreed with Leza. "She's right, Harold. You underestimate yourself. You stepped into this situation and adapted to it like you'd been trained for it."

"But what if I can't do it anymore? What if I've used up everything I've got?"

"You'll do fine. I know you will. Nobody knows you like I do."

"And what about you? Don't underestimate yourself, Jo. You were in just as much danger as I was."

"You were the one who inspired everybody. You were the one who went into the grid."

"Emile has something planned. He's placed the sleds so he's threatening the city and the mine at the same time. We can't do anything about him until he commits himself."

"The itiji will know what to do."

"And I can stand there and wave my sword and give everybody the illusion they have a leader who knows what he's doing?"

"You won't be the first general to do that, from what you've told me."

The High Warrior rejected Jila-Jen's suggestion. A small group of Warriors couldn't outmaneuver the sleds in the forest, Jemil-Min decreed. They would thrash around uselessly while the sleds avoided them.

The itiji who delivered the message tried to soften it but he couldn't disguise its basic tone. The High Warrior was lecturing Jila-Jen as if he was addressing a child who had to be taught the most elementary lessons.

The Drovil army was still advancing on the city. They would arrive sometime during the night at their present pace but Harold didn't think they would attack right away. If he had been leading them, he would have given them a rest and had them attack just before dawn, so the dark would cover their first rush.

The sleds still hadn't moved when night fell.

The First Harmonizer had assigned Harold to the reserve and posted the three humans in the coordination center. Harold arranged himself in a corner as soon as he finished eating and dropped into a haze. His right hand rested on his bow and the long rectangular shield he carried when he knew he could become involved in close combat.
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent...

Leza marveled when she saw Joanne settle into another corner. "We're going to need all the strength we've got," Joanne said. "We don't know when we'll get another chance to sleep."

Harold eyed Leza through the fog descending on his consciousness. "You should try it, Leza."

"I haven't developed that kind of nerve."

Golva had stretched out along a wall. He raised his head and nodded at the bag that held Leza's personal possessions.

"We could play Go, Leza."

"And let you add another win to the lifetime record you're keeping in that overactive head?"

The itiji had developed strategy games they played on fields they visualized in their minds. Leza had become addicted to Go when she was a child and Golva had been intrigued when she told him how it worked. He had immediately realized that the surface simplicity of the Japanese game masked infinite depths and complexities.

Leza shrugged and opened her bag. Golva couldn't manipulate the little stones with his paws but she could lay the leather game board on the floor and place the stones for him.

"Just remember, young man—this game was invented by masters who valued courtesy and emotional self-control."

"Have I ever failed to treat you with the utmost respect,
Doctor
Sanvil?"

The sleds began moving in the middle of the night. They seemed to be making an effort to be quiet, but the itiji scout lurking in the dark picked up the whisper of their motors.

The sleds creep toward the city.... We can follow at a fast walk.... They steer by a dim light we can follow....

The scouts kept their reports to a minimum. Harold stared at the map during the long intervals without a message and tried to limit his emotional responses to the hidden tension in his arms and legs.

"They know we're watching them," Leza said. "They have to know they can't surprise us."

"They don't have to surprise us," the Third Harmonizer said. "They are obviously planning to launch an attack sometime during the battle. They can wait until they think we're developing a weak point and race there with the sleds."

"They can coordinate that well?"

"The Drovils have messengers," Harold said. "They can move through the trees as fast as an itiji can run on the ground."

"But we have the songs of the itiji."

The Third Harmonizer gave Leza her best imitation of a human smile. "And minds that can respond to what the songs tell us."

The High Warrior is advancing toward the city.... He has left a defensive force at the mine.... He will try to bypass the Drovil rear guard and reach the city as fast as he can....

The Drovils came out of the darkness, shrieking battle cries and prayers to their gods, just before dawn as Harold had predicted. He had been afraid they would concentrate on the upper branches, where the small bands of Warriors had to bear most of the fighting, but they were as obvious as they were noisy. They spread their forces over their whole battle front and attacked every area, vertical and horizontal, with the same strength.

The Second Harmonizer sat near the door, eyes closed, and visualized the battle as he received the reports relayed by the five itiji posted around the hut. Golva sat near him, with his tail in constant motion, and passed his own version of the situation to Harold.

The Drovils, as expected, were combining rushes along the bridges with attacks by assault troops who threw ropes equipped with hooks and swung across the gaps in the branches. The itiji crossbows were slow but they could have a demoralizing effect on the Drovil assault parties crowded on the bridges. The Imeten Warriors were holding the upper branches with their usual ferocity. Itiji were fighting tooth and claw with the Drovils who had swung into the lower branches.

The Second Harmonizer had made some minor shifts in the front line. The reserves were still waiting for their first orders.

"The itiji on the ground," Harold said. "What are they doing?"

"They're watching the Drovils on the ground opposite."

"In other words, they're pinned by a threat. And we can't use them where we're actually fighting."

"The Drovils on the ground are pinned, too."

"But they're pinning more itiji, right?"

"I can't tell."

Joanne was still sitting in her corner. She was listening, as he was, to the snatches she could pick from the medley crisscrossing the city.

Darts patter like rain on our armor.... Lolmo ripped them with her claws as she died beneath their hammers.... Our post is surrounded but we still command the bridge.

The sleds had halted about fifteen minutes from the city, watched by two itiji scouts. One of the scouts counted her heartbeats and emitted a one-syllable
no change
signal at an interval that corresponded to approximately twenty minutes.

"The humans could join an attack on the itiji on the ground," Jila-Jen said. "They could add their guns to the attack and open a hole. And come in under the city."

"That's why we have a reserve," the First Harmonizer said.

Leza strolled across the room and eyed the map. "That sounds like something Emile might do, Harold. I'm afraid he isn't the most creative opponent you could take on."

"He's a hoodlum," Joanne said. "Kill him and a couple of other people and this whole thing will be over an hour after they're gone."

Leza smiled. "I'm not sure it's quite that uncomplicated. But it would certainly be a step forward."

Harold didn't have a watch but he had learned to estimate time. He knew something was wrong before he realized what it was.

"We haven't heard from the scouts. From the sleds."

"We're sending a query," Golva said.

Jemil-Min was circling wide, to the south. The Drovil force that had been posted on the road was turning with him, maneuvering to stay between him and the city.

Thirty-seven Drovils lie on our bridge.... Six of our friends and kin lie among them.... We are running out of arrows. We pull them from the dead but we need more arrows.

"The scouts aren't answering," Golva said.

The First Harmonizer lowered his head. Harold reached across the map and touched him on the shoulder.

"They would have answered if they could," the First Harmonizer said.

"The sleds must have stopped where they had Drovils lurking in the trees," Golva said. "So they could ambush the scouts. They could have launched an attack by now, Harold. They must be moving through the forest. Into some kind of attacking position."

Jila-Jen swept his hand across the map. "They're threatening our whole north border. They could come out of the trees anywhere along the north border. You don't know what they're going to do and you can't do anything until they do it. We've got Eights and warbands holding out against swarms of enemies and your reserves are still munching food and staring at their tails."