[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Tran's raiders. Food could be stolen but concealment could not.
The old sorcerers returned to their commands and prepared for the
thousand-mile march. No one questioned O Sning's wisdom.
M ist's troops met them at the edge of the Mahai. Skirmishing continued
throughout the long march. A third of O Shing's army perished forcing a
crossing of the Taofu at Yaan Chi, in the Tsuyung Hills. For three days the
battle raged. Sorceries murdered the hills, and it seemed, toward the end,
that O Shing would become one with the past, that his gamble had failed.
Tam redoubled his stakes, raising hell creatures few Tervola dared summon.
Mist's army collapsed.
Eyebrows rose behind a hundred hideous masks as the news spread. Chin
defeated? By a child and a woodsman untrained in the arts of war? Six legions
overwhelmed by half-trained peasants scantily backboned by the leavings of
shattered legions?
The Tervola weren't bemused by Yo Hsi's daughter. They didn't enjoy being
ruled by a woman. Quiet little missions penetrated the Mienming. This Tervola
or that offered to slip the moorings of a hasty alliance if O Shing dealt her
another outstanding defeat.
Seizing power wasn't the lodestone of Tarn's life. Survival was the stake he
had on the table. Chin was a tireless hunter.
O Shing was still in hunted-beast mind-set when Wu reentered his life.
Mist's Tervola had coaxed her into invading Escalon. Escalon was no impotent
buffer state. The neutralist Tervola,constituting most of their class, joined
the venture. Expansion was ancient national policy.
They weren't pleased with the war's conduct. Escalon was strong and stubborn.
Mist had no feel for imaginative strategy. Her angry hammer blows consumed
legions.
In Shinsan soldiers weren't, as elsewhere, considered fodder for the Reaper.
Tervola loved spending men like a miser loved squandering his fortune. Two
decades went into preparing a soldier. Quality replacements couldn't be
conjured from beyond the barrier of time.
Divining future trouble, they had begun training enlarged drafts years ago,
but those wouldn't be ready for a decade.
Their wealth and strength were being squandered.
They simmered with rebellious potential.
Wu and Feng wanted to take advantage.
"No!" Tam protested. "I'm not ready."
"We aren't ready," Tran growled. "You'll waste what little we've husbanded."
"It's now or never," Feng snarled.
Page 73
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Lord Wu tried persuasion. And O Shing acquiesced, overawed by Wu's age and
ancient wisdom.
Tran got to choose the time.
Most of Escalon and a tenth of Shinsan lay under the shadow, terror, and
destruction of M ist's assault on the M onitor and Tatarian, Escalon's
capital. Lo led Tran's best fighters through the transfer....
O Shing followed minutes later. Mist had fled. Want it or not, he had
inherited a war. The legions were in disarray. Tervola were demanding orders.
He had no time to think. With Tran's help he battled the Monitor to a draw.
Afterward, Tran muttered, "We haven't gained anything. We're on the bull's-eye
now, Tam." He indicated Wu and Feng, who were celebrating with small cups of
Escalonian wine.
"Drink," Feng urged, offering Tam a cup. The professional grouch was radiant.
"They say it's the world's finest wine."
"Sorry," Tam mumbled. This was the first time he had seen Feng without his
mask. He was as ugly in fact as spirit. At one time fire had ravaged half his
face. He hadn't fixed it. Tam feared that said something about the man within.
"Celebration's premature," Tran grumbled. "Somebody better stay sober."
O Shing's reign lasted a month.
Mist did as she had been done. Her shock troops transferred through during the
height of a battle.
In the Mienming, Tarn sat in the mud craddling Lo's head. The centurion was
almost gone.
"This is the price of our lives," Tam hissed. Wu, maskless, moist of eye,
knelt beside the man who, possibly, had been his one true friend. "Was a month
worth it?"
Wu just held Lo's hand.
The centurion had fought like a trapped tiger. His ferocity had allowed O
Shing, Wu, Feng, and the others to escape.
"No more, Wu," said Tam. He spoke in a tone suited to his title. "I've seen
children more responsible. Amongst the forest people you despise." He
indicated Tran, sitting alone, head between his knees. He and Lo had grown
close.
"What'll satisify you? All our deaths? This time Lo and Kwang. Next time?
Tran? My brother? If you persist, I promise I'll be the last. After you, My
Lord."
Wu met his gaze, recoiled.
Neither he nor Chin seemed able to learn. They bushwhacked one another
repeatedly. Chin finally got the upper hand.
O Shing remained in Mienming nursing his grudge against Tervola.
Page 74
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Mist completed her Escalonian adventure. Success stabilized her position,
though not solidly. Her sex, the casualties, and her failure to capture the
Tear of Mimizan remained liabilities.
O Shing first heard of the Tear from Wu. Wu wasn't sure what it was, just that
it was important. It was the talisman which had made possible the Monitor's
prolonged defense of Tatarian.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]