The Treasured One

‘That might work out fairly well,’ Gunda conceded. ‘Trying to fight a war at night wouldn’t be very much fun, anyway.’

The flat black rocks Keselo had identified as ‘basalt’ worked very well, and, since Gunda had the majority of the men in Narasan’s army at work building the wall, it was coming along even faster than they’d hoped. If the snake - bug - bat - whatevers held off for just a few more days, the wall - complete with the towers - would be finished, and the whatevers would be in deep trouble.

Narasan spent most of his time now observing the progress of Gunda’s wall, but he also kept an eye on the progress of the breastworks Padan’s men were building on down the slope that angled up from the floor of the vast desert the natives called ‘the Wasteland’. The breast-works were being erected in the classic half-circles, butted up against the ridge on the right of Gunda’s wall, circling down the slope and then coming back up to rejoin the ridge on the left side. The slope was littered with chunks of basalt, so there was plenty of building material available. The first breast-work was fairly close to Gunda’s wall, and when that one was finished, Padan’s men began to erect the second one. If Padan had enough time, he’d quite probably keep building those breast-works until he reached the desert floor. All in all the breast-works and Gunda’s wall had reproduced a fairly standard defensive position. There were a few local peculiarities as well. Gunda had heard that some Trogite armies included sharpened stakes in front of each breastwork to hold off advancing armies, but Gunda was almost positive that the stakes back home had not been dipped in deadly venom. All in all, Gunda was quite pleased with their project. They had effectively replaced the shattered ridge-line, and they could almost certainly hold their fortifications in the face of whatever the enemy tried to throw at them for the rest of the summer.

Off to one side of the breast-works young Keselo was training the local farmers in the rudiments of the phalanx formation, and Gunda was forced to admit that the boy was really very good. The farmers he was training were almost as good as professional soldiers now. ‘Have you been watching Keselo very closely, Narasan?’ Gunda asked. ‘That boy’s coming right along.’

‘I’ve been watching Keselo for quite some time now, Gunda,’ Narasan replied.

‘He’s good, isn’t he?’

‘Indeed he is. If we can manage to keep him alive, he might go a long way in our army.’

‘All the way to the top, maybe?’

‘It’s not entirely out of the question, Gunda. He’s extremely intelligent, and he’s an excellent teacher. I didn’t really think those farmers would be of much use during this war, but Keselo’s managed to make first-rate soldiers out of them in a very short period of time. Of course, they haven’t actually encountered the enemy yet, but I’m fairly sure they’ll hold their positions when the enemy attacks.’

‘We’ll see,’ Gunda said. ‘This isn’t what I’d call an ordinary war. So I’m not about to make any bets.’

Gunda’s wall was nearly finished when Veltan came up from his encampment near the geyser to advise Narasan that Longbow’s humorous friend Red-Beard had just arrived with several thousand of the archers from the Domain of Lady Zelana. ‘He met with Longbow over on the western ridge,’ Veltan said, ‘and he has quite a bit of information that you and your men should know about, Narasan.’

‘Like just exactly where Longbow’s been lately?’ Padan suggested.

‘He’s been keeping busy,’ Veltan replied.

Red-Beard was speaking with Lady Zelana when Narasan and his officers approached the camp.

‘Just exactly what’s Longbow been up to lately?’ the little Maag called Rabbit asked Red-Beard. ‘He’s been running off into the mountains every time I turn around.’

‘He’s up near the top of the western ridge,’ Red-Beard replied. ‘At least that’s where he was the last time I saw him. I understand that there’s some trouble off to the south.’

‘We’re sort of hoping that Longbow’s taking care of it,’ Commander Narasan said. ‘I detached all the archers in the army to help him hold back that second invasion.’

‘He mentioned that,’ Red-Beard replied. ‘Things might go better for him now that he has archers who know which end of an arrow is which. I wouldn’t offend you for the world, friend Narasan, but your army archers aren’t really very good, you know. Don’t they ever practice?’

‘Army policy seems to get in the way, friend Red-Beard,’ Padan said. ‘Trogite soldiers are required to spend five hours a day marching, and another five hours practicing their swordsmanship. That doesn’t leave them very much time to improve their skills as archers.’

‘Why do they even carry swords?’

‘Tradition,’ Padan replied with a shrug. ‘Army officers - and drill sergeants, of course - view traditions as something holy. Soldiers are supposed to kill each other with their swords. The bow is viewed as an abomination. Killing somebody who’s more than five feet away just isn’t proper.’

Red-Beard looked at Commander Narasan. ‘He’s just making this up, isn’t he?’ he demanded.

‘Not really,’ Narasan replied, sounding a bit embarrassed. ‘Maybe it’s time for us to give some thought to changing a few rules.’

‘Won’t that make the world come to an end?’ Padan asked.

Narasan ignored that. ‘Go on with your story, Red-Beard,’ he said.

‘Longbow told me that he’d had to do most of the work when the people in red clothes came running up one of the narrow gullies. I guess your archers can see the people in red clothes, even if they can’t put an arrow anywhere close to them, so Longbow’s got them watching every gully that comes up here from down below. Things will probably go much better now that he has people who know what they’re doing. I don’t think the people in red clothes will give us much trouble now.’

‘We need those archers here, Red-Beard!’ Gunda protested. ‘Our entire defense here hinges on them.’

‘I’d say that we’ve got an interesting problem, then. We can argue about it if you want, but Longbow’s already got half of the archers I brought in over the mountains, and I don’t think he’s very likely to let them go.’