Dragons of War (33 page)

Duxe smiled his wintry grin again. "I have heard, Captain, that the gates of Roland have a mighty spell on them. I would expect the walls to give way before the gates."

Hollein shook his head. "My friend, we shall have to face the trolls before this is over. You know what comes against us."

Duxe shrugged. "All that is only half our problem. The other half, I'm sure you know."

Hollein Kesepton grimaced, "Commander Hodwint."

"A bought commission, Captain. You may have run into this problem before."

Kesepton pursed his lips. Indeed he had, having suffered the consequences during the siege of Ourdh.

"I had breakfast with the commander."

Duxe grinned without mirth. "He don't know what to do, foul himself running or foul himself standing still. The man's a coward and a fool."

Kesepton had to agree. Hodwint was an aristo from Kadein. He had some huge family estate in the Minuend country. He'd bought a commission as commander so as to earn the right to wear legion armor and uniform for his family portrait.

His idea of service in the legions had been to spend a riotous few months in Kadein lurching from tavern to brothel. After some wild late-night run-in with the guard, General Pekel had concluded that the safest place for the boisterous fool was up at the High Pass.

Hodwint would have resigned his commission at once if he hadn't faced ruinous financial penalties. He had tried to use his influence at the court of King Neath to overturn Pekel's order, but without success. At length he had been left high and dry in the barren surroundings of Fort Roland.

Now, faced with an onrushing horde out of some painting of the lower levels of Hell, Commander Hodwint was toying with ordering a general retreat from the High Pass.

As he had informed Hollein Kesepton at breakfast, the only truly safe place now was Cunfshon itself. He was obsessed, he said, with getting himself across to the isles as soon as possible.

The Masters would never subdue Cunfshon, not unless they could win control of the seas, and the sailing folk of Cunfshon were the greatest mariners in the world and had raised the arts of shipbuilding and sailing, and fighting at sea, to the highest levels ever known on Ryetelth.

Commander Hodwint had been very emphatic on this last point. Fortunately, the Hodwints had ancestral lands in Cunfshon and still owned several estates. The Cunfshon side of the family was perhaps backward and narrow-minded, they had roots in Defwode, but they would take in their Argonathi kin. It was better to be a guest at the fireside in Defwode than ground to dust beneath the heel of the dark enemy of Padmasa. That was the stark choice that Commander Hodwint saw and confided to Captain Kesepton.

Duxe took Kesepton's silence for agreement.

"I've discussed it with the sergeants, sir, and they agree. It all depends on you, sir, since you are the senior officer present. Obviously we must be united on it."

"We will be. Of course it means a court-martial if we survive."

"Not much likelihood of that, Captain."

Hollein grimaced, "At least that's one thing we won't have to worry about then, right?"

"Right, sir."

Duxe left to organize the proceedings. Hollein stayed on the battlements to pull together his thoughts.

There really was no choice. Hodwint was a treacherous fool, and would destroy their chances of holding the enemy back at the High Pass. But to break legion discipline and confine the commander would be mutiny, and the high command had always taken a very dim view of mutiny. He might not hang for it, but his career would be effectively destroyed.

He shrugged to himself and stared down at the refugees passing below, into the great gate of Roland. He consoled himself with the thought that Lagdalen and the babe were safe in Marneri. Even if all else failed, the white city on the Long Sound would stand. They would be safe. For a moment he closed his eyes and prayed for the preservation of his little daughter, and his lovely wife. When he opened them, he glanced upward and he caught sight of an eagle soaring down the pass, heading into Kenor and watched it vanish into the wall of cloud.

Lieutenant Duxe was back. Hollein wasn't sure that Liepol Duxe was any easier to deal with as an officer than he'd been as a sergeant, but he was glad the man had taken the examinations at last and moved up. He had been wasting his talents as a sergeant.

Behind Duxe were the sergeants of the small garrison.

"Sergeants Hack, Dulu, and Epwort, sir."

Hollein saluted. "Good morning, gentlemen. You understand the likelihood of a court-martial for all of us in the event that we live through the coming battle. You also know that we have to do this, for we must hold this pass."

They all agreed. The men were behind them.

Hollein marched at once to Commander Hodwint's office in the tower gate. Commander Hodwint looked up in surprise from a large meal of sausages and wheat cakes that he was washing down with a flagon of ale.

"What the hell is this, Captain? Since when do you barge in here without getting permission?"

Kesepton saluted but refused to meet Hodwint's eyes.

"Begging your pardon, sir, but I am forced to inform you that as of this moment, you are no longer in command of this fort."

Hodwint virtually choked and spat shreds of sausage across the table.

"Furthermore," continued Hollein in an implacable tone of voice, "you are to be confined to your quarters. With the backing of the men and the junior officers, I am taking command so that we may present as durable a defense of this position as we can possibly manage."

Hodwint leapt to his feet. "Mutiny! I'll see you hanged, you insolent puppy!"

"You will be released when the engagement is over, and you will be free to do whatever you want then. We all expect a court-martial. However, since you intend a general retreat from this fort, I was left with no choice. I will send to Kadein for fresh orders at once."

"General Pekel will have you strung up on summary judgment."

"Sir, I doubt that. General Pekel will understand why I have to do this. We have to hold this pass. We cannot retreat."

Hodwint stared at him. "You're mad. We have to get out of here today; they're coming, they'll be here soon."

"Sir, please go to your quarters. It would make things easier for all of us."

Hodwint sputtered and screamed and had to be rousted out and dragged away by the sergeants.

Kesepton and Duxe toured the fortifications and made careful preparations. They still had some time. They would make the most of it.

The river Bur lived up to its reputation for difficulty. The weather broke the day after they left Grettons, and a heavy rain began in the afternoon. A fierce wind cut up the surface of the river and tore at the dragon boats threatening to spin them around. Eads ordered a halt, and they turned to the shore.

On the way, Rusp and Jak's boat foundered tossing them into the stream. Rusp was a big-bellied brass and he swam well, but Jak would have been swept away if Manuel and the Purple Green hadn't been right behind. Manuel dove in and fished out the gasping, younger boy while the Purple Green kept the boat steady with huge strokes of his paddle.

On shore, they scavenged for scraps of dry wood and started the cook fires while the tents went up. At last a wet and weary band of soldiers ate a half-cooked meal and went to sleep.

It rained most of the night and finally stopped around dawn. The river had risen to a flood of dirty brown water that was clearly beyond their powers to navigate.

They spent the day drying out. To keep them busy, Eads ordered them to make charcoal to resupply the cooks. Parties scoured the surrounding forest for deadwood, which was brought in and heaped in the sun. Dragonboys turned the wood, drying it out before splitting it and then stacking it in three great piles on the beach. Fires were lit, and around the fires were wet stacks of wood which were left to slowly smolder into charcoal. All night they kept the fires going, busy work for dragonboys and men, working in shifts and cleaning off with dips in the river.

Meanwhile, the smith and the best carpenters were building a new boat for Rusp and Jak. For this they had to work with green wood right out of the forest, but they caulked it with good tar and secured it with iron nails, giving some hope of it lasting for the journey down the river.

By the following morning the river had subsided considerably, and a party of dragons swam out to the spot where the boat had sunk and searched the bottom. At length they found Rusp's great sword "Doceras" about a quarter mile downstream where the torrent had tumbled it. Rusp had been on tenterhooks all night, and was enormously relieved to have the sword back in his hands.

They set out again in the late afternoon and continued as far as the hamlet of Widfields just below the confluence of the Bur and its tributary stream the Kalens. The folk at Widfields, having heard rumors of enemy columns actually coming up the Bur Valley were preparing to flee north to High Lake.

Eads was nonplussed. By his calculations, the enemy could not have passed Fort Redor and even reached the mouth of the Bur by this time.

They passed an anxious night there, and in the morning carried out a portage of the five-mile-long rapids known as the "Lion's Roar." It began to rain again that day, and this made the portage, which was difficult in good conditions, quite horrendous. There were patches of mud along the way that turned into a near liquid after the first few men and dragons had dragged their boats through it. The last few were wading through the stuff knee-deep.

Below the Lion's Roar they halted, wet and exhausted. Eads saw the condition of the men and ordered the cook fires lit. Now the fresh charcoal came in handy, for the woods around them were soaked and there was little usable fuel.

With everything wet, including the tents, their second night under the rain was much less enjoyable than the first. In the end they slept, however, ignoring damp blankets and cold feet.

By morning, the rain tapered off and left a rising mist on the river to greet them.

Relkin rose early despite having awakened several times in the night. He smelled kalut brewing at the cook fire and headed in that direction at once.

During the night the cooks and their assistants had put up a rough-hewn structure of fallen limbs and hewn uprights to enclose the cooking pits and now this small space was crammed with men, eager to get warm while they drank some hot kalut. Relkin waited in line for the chance to fill a pan. A nudge at his elbow announced the presence of Swane and Tomas.

"Messenger canoe came in early this morning, up from Lake Bur," said Swane.

"Went in with Captain Eads, hasn't come out since."

Relkin frowned. "How do you know, you been watching all night?"

"We did it by turns. They're still in there. It must be important."

Relkin grabbed a sack of hot bread and a pot of akh for the dragon, then took a pan of fresh brewed kalut and returned to the tent.

The dragon, who had just returned from the river dripping wet ate while Relkin packed their gear. Together they dismantled their tent and stowed it in their boat, which they pushed down to the waterline, ready to be off when the order came.

The other dragons soon joined them, forming a neat line. A little farther down were the 66th, also ready. Dragon leader Turrent came by to inspect and could find nothing to berate Relkin about, although he searched long and hard. But Relkin had dried all their belongings by the fire the night before, turning them again and again through the night hours to ensure an even dryness. There was nothing for a sour-faced dragon leader to complain about.

The sun shone, and they relaxed. The dragons sat or went out into the river to cool themselves, leaving their swords in the boats. They waited for the order to set off.

It did not come. Instead Captain Eads appeared, accompanied by a slight fellow in a grey uniform with a back pack and a wide-brimmed hat of cowhide.

Eads had a spyglass out and used it to peer way down the river.

Bazil had returned from a brief dip and was steaming in the sun. Suddenly he nudged Relkin.

"Look, boy, see that man? It is our friend from ship on the Argo, last year, before we went to the land in the south."

"Ton Akalon?"

Relkin looked again. So it was.

Eads put down the glass, spoke to the smaller man beside him, then turned and gave orders to Sergeant Quertin, who was standing at the ready.

Within a few moments they were told to stand down in their positions and to remain at ease.

Eads and his officers disappeared back into the captain's tent. The little man in the big brown hat strolled along the river's edge and approached the dragon boats.

He was carefully studying the new one, built overnight for Rusp while talking with young Jak, when Relkin slipped up behind him.

"And hello to you, Sir Ton," said Relkin.

The little man spun around.

"Well, well," he cried, "Dragoneer Relkin. We meet again."

Ton Akalon, soil surveyor from the Isle of Cunfshon, had changed somewhat in the course of the year since they had first met aboard the riverboat
Tench
on the Middle Argo. He had broadened some and grown very tanned and a little weather-beaten.

Ton Akalon clapped Relkin on the shoulders.

"And you have grown, Dragoneer. I hardly recognize the boy I saw last year."

He caught sight of the dragon, who was standing quietly by, resting his weight on the hilt of his great sword.

"And greeting to you, Sir Bazil the Broketail. I have heard your legend now. I am honored."

Bazil's oddly bent tail twitched slightly.

"Hail to you, Ton Akalon of Cunfshon. Why do we see you here?"

"I have been in every corner of Kenor since last I saw you, Sir Bazil. From the good soils of Tuala to the light calcareae of the Esk Valley, I have examined them all. In the end my survey took me to Bur Lake. There are some worthwhile soils there, even in the midst of the Bur River wilderness."

He sighed. "And thus I came to scout ahead of the folk who are fleeing up this way, and I find you here. So we meet again in strange circumstances." His face grew grave. "Alas, it is a fell time, and I wouldst that it could be different, but the enemy has unleashed his great blow against us. Long have we awaited it, it is said. But not enough preparation was made."