Quest for Honour (19 page)

“Not replace them,” Gatus said, “but support them. It’s true our archers can wreak havoc on our enemies, but they can’t carry the battle to them. Exposed archers, with no shields, run the risk of being run down. But supported and protected by spearmen, they will remain a deadly force against our enemy. Remember, nothing scares men more than seeing a wall of spears coming at them, especially with bowmen following behind.”

“So we’ll use a combined force,” Eskkar said. “Heavily armed foot soldiers, lightly armed cavalry and bowmen, and a support force of slingers. With those four groups of fighters, we should be able to face whatever the enemy sends against us.”

“The Sumerians will have as much trouble finding good horses as we will,” Hathor said. “They’ll arm most of their men with swords and shields, and send them into battle. From what everyone has told me about Sumeria, they’ll use many such fighters, what we called light infantry.”

“Where will the gold for all this come from?” Gatus rapped his water cup on the table. “Even Akkad’s nobles and merchants won’t stand for such an expense, and that’s assuming there’s enough gold in the city. Have you figured out how much this is going to cost?”

“Yes,” Eskkar replied. “We’ll begin with King Eridu’s ransom. That should be more than enough to get us started.”

“I think I may have the solution to that, Gatus.” Every eye went to Trella, including Eskkar’s.

“A few months ago, I learned of a place not far from here that might hold a rich deposit of gold and possibly silver. The time has come to examine the site, to see if it can yield sufficient ores to meet part of our needs. If it can, perhaps we can pay not only for the men, but also for the equipment they will need.”

“And no one has found this place?” Eskkar turned to Trella in surprise. “Wouldn’t news of such a discovery be spread far and wide in a matter of days? Why didn’t you tell –?”

Trella touched her husband’s arm to halt the questions. “I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure. Annok-sur brought a woman to me about a month ago. Her name was Calla. Her family had discovered the site and were gathering up surface gold when they were attacked by bandits. Everyone else was killed. Her husband, his brothers, Calla’s two children.
She was raped and left for dead. The bandits took all the gold Calla’s family had found and rode off. She survived and managed to return to Akkad, and told her tale to Annok-sur. We’ve been taking care of her ever since. I gave her a small house, and now she works with Annok-sur. In return, Calla has revealed nothing about the find to anyone else. Now you all must continue to keep the secret, until we can first examine the site and, if it shows promise, claim it for Akkad.”

“And what of the bandits?” Eskkar understood how bandits would react. “If they’re cunning enough, they’ll be returning to the place every few months to do their own digging. They may even have taken all the gold by now. If the gold is on the surface, like nuggets in the river or dust in pockets, the site would be easily depleted with a few days’ work.”

“It’s possible,” Trella agreed. “But Calla thinks the bandits just moved on, satisfied with what they had taken.”

“How do you know so much about gold?” Gatus asked Eskkar. “Something else from your past?”

“Yes.”

The single word told Gatus and Hathor that nothing else about Eskkar’s previous experience with gold would be forthcoming.

Trella returned to her story. “Calla knew she could not claim such a site by herself. I promised her a reward and a secure place of her own if she would keep the secret. Still, we won’t know for sure until we visit the place. If the bandits are there or have returned from time to time, we’ll take it from them.”

“With a gold mine of our own,” Eskkar mused, “we should be able to pay for many new recruits . . . and their weapons.”

“The mine would belong to the King,” Trella said, “to be used to pay for soldiers to defend the city and its people. Even the nobles would not object to that, especially if it would lessen the burden on them. The people will know we are not claiming the gold for ourselves. And the gold will flow through Akkad, helping all of our merchants, craftsmen, and innkeepers.”

“You are looking into this?” Eskkar took Trella by the hand.

“Oh, yes, husband. I’ve already started. In the last few days, I’ve considered each of the goldsmiths in Akkad, to see who would best suit our needs. I wanted someone with quick wits, a man flexible enough to adapt to new ways. I settled on a young goldsmith who can inspect the site, estimate its potential, and develop the mine, if there is one. This morning
we dispatched him north to examine the place, accompanied by a few soldiers. But do not get your hopes raised up just yet. As you say, there may be little or no gold remaining there. Either way, we should know in ten days or so.”

Eskkar knew that Annok-sur had dispatched a handful of soldiers on yet another mission, but he hadn’t asked the reason. “Any quantity of gold we could get . . . it could make a difference.”

“We must all keep this a secret for now,” Trella said. “As soon as I learn anything about the find, we’ll know what to do.”

“Forgetting the gold for a moment,” Bantor said, speaking for the first time, “what are you going to tell our men about all these preparations? They’ll want to know why Akkad is building up its forces.”

“I’m not sure yet,” Eskkar said. “We’ll need to find something to account for it. Maybe we can say that the barbarians are returning into the northern lands. That would explain what we’re doing. And it would please the Sumerians, I’m sure, to know that we face an old enemy.”

Eskkar looked at each of them. “What I’ll need from all of you are ways to make this work. Figure out what you’re going to need, and how much we can tell the rest of the men. For now, we must keep this to ourselves.”

“You’re not going to tell Klexor and the other subcommanders?” Hathor looked uncomfortable about that.

“No, not yet. Trella and Annok-sur think we should tell as few as possible for now. We can keep them busy enough with the training.”

“How much time do we have?” Yavtar settled his elbows on the table. “I mean, if I have to build boats and find crews, it could take months, even years.”

Eskkar smiled at Yavtar’s gradual acceptance of the plan. “We’ll have to assume that Sumer will be capable of attempting another push into the borderlands as early as next year, but more likely the following year. That’s why we need to start preparing as soon as possible.”

“You’re keeping watch on King Eridu?” Bantor asked.

“A boat from Sumer arrived this afternoon with the ransom. The gold is already under guard only a few dozen paces away. Eridu departs at dawn.”

“Then that is settled,” Eskkar said. “Now we know what we need to begin.”

“Maybe more,” Gatus said, “if Eridu has learned his lesson.”

“Or less.” Trella’s voice held a hint of resignation. “It seems wars come suddenly, always catching one side by surprise. Yet Annok-sur and I have already taken measures to get more information from Sumer and its leaders. But we can’t count on that too much.”

“Let’s just hope whoever is advising Eridu isn’t working on new ways to wage war as well,” Yavtar said.

“Then we are agreed,” Eskkar said, satisfaction in his voice. “But it will be up to you four to make this plan work. If you believe we can do this, then the men will believe and accept these new ideas soon enough.”

The commanders glanced at each other, all of them joined together now to face the challenge. Eskkar knew they would already be thinking of how they could begin.

“We’ll start making our plans tomorrow. But now Trella has some more news.”

“I wanted to tell you what Annok-sur and I have been planning,” Trella began. “First, and most important, we will need many spies in Sumer and the other southern cities. We must search for suitable men and women as quickly as possible, so that they can be settled into the Sumerian cities. Once war is imminent, any new arrivals will be viewed with suspicion, so the sooner we can get them in place, the more likely they’ll be able to provide us with information.”

“How will they get information back to Akkad?” Gatus asked. “It’s nearly nine days on horseback to get from Sumer to here. If your spies disappear for days on end, won’t that be noticed?”

“Yes, but Yavtar can help with that. Merchants will use the river as much as ever. Boats come and go, often without anyone noticing. If we place some of our most trusted men among Yavtar’s crews, they can gather information as they travel up and down the two rivers.”

“We’ve talked about using the river for such things before,” Eskkar said.

“I can always use more good river men,” Yavtar said. “Soldiers make good rowers, and I wouldn’t have to pay them. Well, not much, anyway.”

Everyone chuckled at the idea of soldiers laboring to increase Yavtar’s profits.

“At least you won’t be using any of my horsemen for rowers,” Hathor said.

“Have you any advice for us, Hathor?” Trella smiled reassuringly at the Egyptian, knowing that any mention of his past would bring a pang of
sorrow. “You’ve fought battles with large numbers of soldiers on each side, so you must know what will be needed.”

“Well, you will need supplies for the men. The less time the soldiers spend searching for food, the more they can march.”

“Not only food and water, but weapons as well.” Bantor, Annok-sur’s husband and the most loyal of Eskkar’s leaders, seldom spoke, but when he did, everyone heeded his words. “There are never enough arrows on the battlefield. A good bowman can empty a full quiver of arrows in a few moments. Once they are gone, he’s of little use in a fight, armed only with a short sword.”

“That means we will have to make and store large numbers of arrows, bowstrings, and even bows,” Trella said. “But if Yavtar can bring your men fresh supplies of these things, then our archers will have plenty of shafts to prolong their part in the battle.”

“You’re assuming that all the battles will be fought near a river,” Gatus argued. “Soldiers need to find the right kind of battlefield, and it might be a day or two’s march away from wherever Yavtar can bring his boats.”

“Then I would suggest that all of you stay as close to the river as possible,” Trella said. “The advantage of having two or three ships deliver thousands of arrows or fresh food may be as important or even more so than choosing the right place. If we plan our battles in advance, we can make sure of being close to water. And all the major cities of Sumeria are located near one or the other of the two rivers, and there are dozens of smaller streams.”

“Besides arrows and food,” Bantor continued, “an army needs grain for the horses, torches and oil to light the night, ropes for the corrals, shovels, sharpening stones for the swords, even cooking pots. The more that we can load onto a boat, the less the men will have to carry and the farther they’ll be able to march.”

“That’s another problem,” Hathor said. “Our soldiers will travel different distances each day, depending on the land, whether it’s hilly or sandy or grassland. In Egypt we never knew for certain how many days it would take to march from one village to another.”

“We need to train the soldiers to march at least a certain number of miles per day,” Gatus said. “No matter what the land is like.” The others looked doubtful at that idea.

“Would it be of value to know how far you are from your destinations?” Trella paused for a moment. “We could measure the distances
between here and the southern cities. Then if we knew the soldiers could march so many miles in a day, we would know when they could arrive.”

“How will you measure the distances?” Gatus sounded skeptical, and rightfully so. No one even knew exactly how far it was from Akkad to Larsa, which was the closest city.

“We could train walkers,” Trella said. “Men who would pace off a certain distance with each step. Every hundred steps, he moves a pebble from one hand to the other. That way we could count the steps between Akkad and the southern cities and villages.”

“It would also be good to know when we’ve reached certain places on the journey,” Hathor said, leaning forward on the table. “We should learn the location of every landmark between here and Sumer.”

“And make a few landmarks of our own where there are none,” Eskkar said. “If our walkers marked trees and rocks as they went, or built up piles of stones, we would know how far we’d traveled.”

“That would be useful on the river as well,” Yavtar said. “In time of war, the river is safer at night. If the landmarks could be seen at night, that would be even better. But when there’s no moon, there’s little that can be seen.”

“The best landmark at night is a fire,” Trella said. “It doesn’t have to be a real fire. A candle in an open box, facing the water, can be seen over great distances, I think.”

“You would need help from villagers living in those places up and down the rivers,” Gatus said. “Can that be done?”

“Perhaps. Let Annok-sur and me think about that one. What else will your marching armies need?”

“Maps.” Eskkar remembered the maps they had used to fight the Alur Meriki. “If we had good maps, we could mark our progress against the landmarks, and know how far we’ve traveled, and how far we had to go.”

“Isn’t that a lot to ask?” Bantor said. “Can we show that much information on a piece of cloth?”

“No, not one piece,” Trella said. “But a dozen or more would be enough to show everything. You will need to take a few clerks with you to war, Eskkar. They could keep track of the maps and landmarks, and mark off each day’s progress.”

Eskkar groaned and everyone laughed. Since he’d become Akkad’s ruler, and even before, the clerks of the nobles and Trella’s own people followed him everywhere, marking down every expense on a pottery
shard, a permanent record of every activity. Already the shelves in the storage rooms creaked under the weight.

“Clerks going to war.” Eskkar shook his head at the idea.

“All this is well and good,” Gatus said, “but what happens when we reach Larsa? We’ll have to besiege it, fight our way in. And from what Yavtar tells us, all of Sumeria is building walls around every dung heap, let alone Larsa and Isin and the other large cities.”