Death's Sword Book 1: Finding and Seeking

Chapter 16, part 2: Day 23 continued

Nightsend. The orange glow on the horizon became brighter and a sliver of the sun became visible. The guards on the wall signalled the all clear and the third set of gates, set in the curtain wall that spanned the mouth of the valley, swung open. Looking back, Kleymin had a better view of Vartansberg.

The keep, built into the eastern cliffs, overlooked the inner wall which in turn topped the outer wall. The bolt-throwers and trebuchets mounted up there could reach the main gateway to the tuigrahan lands, providing one more problem for any opposing force. The combination of natural and man-made obstacles looked impregnable. The mere sight of the place was enough to make would-be attackers quail and seek an easier route, thought the boy.

The problem was, there was no easier route; not for an army and all its paraphernalia. Vartansberg blocked the main route to the civilized east. It had to be besieged and the curtain wall taken before the tuigrahan could move into the lands they coveted, the lands they had once roamed. It was as simple as that.

Once through the wall, the advance guard cantered off, moving away from the main body and spreading out. Another dozen riders stayed back to form a rearguard. Thus protected, the main party of about eighty riders rode a course a little west of due north. This kept them in the foothills, skirting the great mountains that filled the eastern horizon, and gradually descending.

They moved into a land criss-crossed with riverlets and streams gushing down broad, winding valleys. Stands of a hardy variety of the ever-present kjava lined the banks of the waterways, with coarse grasses and small shrubs on the drier ground. Bare rock could be seen breaking through the thin soil in many places, emphasising the barren nature of the land. A few raven drifted across the sky, making occasional dismal cronking calls to each other.

Kleymin noted how the troop-leader kept his force off the sky-line, keeping the main body on one side or another of any valley they encountered. The inviting-looking valley bottoms were rigorously shunned. The outriders kept a wary eye up-slope, protecting the others from any surprise attack.

For the first hour or so, the troops kept up a steady canter, moving rapidly away from Vartansberg. The advance guard caught a few unwary tuigrahan, members of the smaller sub-races. These were dispatched by the rider's light lances. The cavalry disdained to waste arrows on these lesser foes. They killed perhaps three dozen in the first hour, one dozen in the next and then saw no more.

"Do you often run these patrols?" asked Burrowwold of Oax when the latter dropped back along the line to check everyone. "Yeah," growled the burly swordsman, "most days in spring and summer, 'cept when it's wet. It keeps the men on their toes and prevents any nasty surprises building up out here."

"Do the tuigrahan campaign in winter or summer?" asked Kleymin, riding up on the other side of Oax. "Spring, summer and autumn," answered the warrior, promptly. "The winter nights may be longer, but they're too cold even for the tuigrahan. Or most of them, at least," he added, as an after-thought.

"When do we stop for food?" asked the gnome, as his belly rumbled loudly. Oax grinned, said, "We don't, little fellow. There's no stopping short of daysend on this trip." Seeing the look of horror on Burrowwold's face, the human guffawed and relented, "We eat as we go, gnome. Sweep leader will call rations by section. That way, only a few of us are eating if we run into any trouble." At this, Burrowwold was heard to mutter darkly about 'organization', which set Oax to chuckling once more as he pulled to one side and dropped further back.

It was nearly noon when the flank riders to the right raised a shout. Three spurred off at the gallop, nocking arrows as they went. The duty section instantly moved out from the main body, filling the gap in the screen as more riders vanished into a dip. The sweep leader turned his dorvei's head and led the whole party over to investigate. The two troops of heavy cavalry, mounted on great, shaggy yaks, began to prepare themselves, checking their weaponry. With a mounting rumble of hooves and jingling of harness, the main force reached the edge of the dip and looked down into the hollow.