Sentry Peak Read online

  The first man he saw was Brigadier Alexander, who had charge of the army’s engines. Alexander was young and cheerful and brighter than he had any business being. With a friendly wave, he asked, “How now, your Excellency?”

  “How now?” James said. “I’ll tell you how now, Brigadier, to the seven hells with me if I don’t.” He relayed everything he’d heard from the scryer, finishing, “That’s how now, by all the gods. The Army of Franklin’s wrecked, the southrons are sending an army of their own after us, and we can’t break into Wesleyton. But for those minor details, all’s well.”

  “He let the southrons storm Proselytizers’ Rise against him?” Alexander said. “By all the gods, sir, an army of dead men could hold Proselytizers’ Rise.”

  “That’s what I thought,” James answered. “In his infinite wisdom, however, the general commanding the Army of Franklin appears to have outdone himself.”

  “He’s also left us in a hells of a pickle,” Alexander remarked.

  “Really?” James said. “I never would have noticed. I’m so grateful to you for pointing that out.”

  “Heh,” Brigadier Alexander said. “What are we going to do, sir?”

  “Try not to get squashed,” James of Broadpath said. “If you’ve got any better answers, I’d be delighted to hear them.”

  “No, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I wish I did, sir,” Alexander said. “How can we defend against the southrons moving on us from Rising Rock and from Whiskery Ambrose at the same time? Ambrose outnumbers us all by himself.”

  “I’m painfully aware of all that, too,” James said. “I confess, I would worry more with, say, Hesmucet in Wesleyton than I do with Whiskery Ambrose. There are worse foes to have.”

  “Yes, the whole business of who one’s opponent is can make a difference,” Brigadier Alexander agreed. “Count Thraxton did rather better against Guildenstern than he did against Bart, for instance.”

  “Bart.” James of Broadpath made a worried noise-had he heard it from another man, he might even have called it a frightened noise-deep in the back of his throat. “I know that man too well. Every day he is in command, he looks for a way to hit us. And he will keep on looking to hit us every single day, wherever he is posted, until this war ends.”

  “With our victory,” Alexander said.

  “Gods grant it be so,” James said. “Meanwhile, back to our present predicament. I intend to hold our lines in front of Wesleyton with some of our force. I don’t think Whiskery Ambrose will venture out into the open field against us.”

  “I’d say that’s a pretty good bet,” Alexander replied. “He’s going to hold on to Wesleyton, and he’s not going to do anything else.” He sniffed. “The man has the imagination of a cherrystone clam.”

  James chuckled. “I won’t say you’re wrong. Even so, though, he does King Avram good and does us and King Geoffrey harm just by staying where he is. There’s no doubt of that. He might do us more harm now if he came out, but he might come to grief, too, so I doubt he will.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant General George,” Brigadier Alexander said with a saucy grin.

  “Doubting George would come out against me, because he’d be confident he could hold the place even if something went wrong,” James said. “Whiskery Ambrose doesn’t believe in himself so much. And he has reason not to, too.” He went back to the business at hand: “Against Ambrose, I won’t need the whole army. The rest I can move east, to try to hold the passes against the southrons when they come.”

  “Whom do you suppose Bart is sending against us?” Alexander asked.

  “Maybe Hesmucet. I hope not-he knows what he’s doing-but maybe.” James stroked his beard. “Or maybe Fighting Joseph. The one thing you always want to do with Fighting Joseph is get him the devils out of your hair.” Count Thraxton must think the same of me, went through James’ mind. Ah, if only I’d had the rank to send him off to Wesleyton. I’d have managed Proselytizers’ Rise better. I could hardly have managed it worse.

  “Yes, Fighting Joseph,” Alexander agreed. “That makes good sense to me.”

  “Bart has always been a sensible fellow,” James said. “And now, if we’re going to be sensible ourselves, we had better get moving, eh?”

  He felt better in the saddle, riding away from Wesleyton on his robust unicorn. The fragment of his force that he left behind was smaller than Whiskery Ambrose’s-how could it be otherwise, when his whole force was smaller than the southron general’s? The fragment he brought with him was bound to be smaller than the enemy detachment moving from Rising Rock against him. Whiskery Ambrose’s inertia warded the part he left behind. The ground would, he hoped, do the same for the part he brought with him.

  Ground was supposed to protect Count Thraxton, too, he thought, and wished he hadn’t. His men were cheerful, at least till it started to rain-and rain, he hoped, would make things even harder for the enemy than it did for him.

  “Stinking southrons can’t whip us,” one of his men said. “We’re the Army of Southern Parthenia, by all the gods, and there ain’t nobody in the whole wide world can whip us.”

  “That’s right,” James of Broadpath said. And so it might be, as long as the men believed it.

  He didn’t believe it himself. The southrons made good soldiers. They’d beaten the Army of Southern Parthenia down at Essoville just a few months before, beaten it badly enough to make Duke Edward fall back into Parthenia and stay there. The soldier who’d been boasting had probably fought at Essoville, and shrugged off the defeat as one of those things. The north probably did have better generals-some of them, anyway. Of course, we also have Thraxton, James thought. He makes up for a lot.

  Brigadier Falayette rode up to him. “Sir,” he said, saluting, “I don’t think we can make a successful resistance against the southrons, not if they oppose us with even a halfway intelligent plan of attack.”

  “For one thing, there’s no guarantee they will,” James replied. “For another, Brigadier, have you got any better ideas? You don’t seem to want to carry out attacks and you don’t seem to want to make a defense, either. What do you have in mind? Shall we surrender?”

  “I didn’t mean that, sir,” Falayette said stiffly.

  “What the hells did you mean, then?” James of Broadpath demanded. “Did you mean you’re sick of the war and you want to go home? By the gods, Brigadier, I’m sick of the war and I want to go home, too. But if you want to leave as badly as that, I can arrange it. I can dismiss you from King Geoffrey’s service and gods-damned well send you home. Is that what you’ve got in mind?”

  “No, sir,” Brigadier Falayette replied, reddening. “I was merely pointing out the difficulties inherent in our position.”

  “I’m painfully aware of them myself, thank you,” James said. “Whining about them doesn’t help. Trying to do something about them possibly may.”

  He waited to see if Falayette had any real suggestions to make. The brigadier tugged on his unicorn’s reins, jerking the animal’s head around, and rode off. He was talking to himself under his breath. Perhaps fortunately, James couldn’t make out what he was saying. Had he been able to, he might have had his friends speak to Falayette’s friends, assuming the gloomy brigadier had any.

  When they got to the pass Lieutenant General James hoped to defend, his own spirits rose, though he wouldn’t have testified as to those of Brigadier Falayette. He summoned Brigadier Alexander and said, “Site your engines where they will bear to best advantage on the enemy.”

  “Yes, sir,” Alexander said enthusiastically. “I hope the southrons do try to gore their way through. We’ll make them pay, and pay plenty.”

  “That’s the idea.” James gave orders to cut down trees and move stones for field fortifications. The men worked steadily, plainly understanding what they needed to do and why they needed to do it. They did sometimes grumble about the rations they got, but James would have been surprised if they hadn’t. Soldiers who had to stay in the field once the roads got muddy had
to make do with short commons more often than not.

  The southrons approached the pass two days later. By then, James of Broadpath had learned from prisoners that Fighting Joseph did command them. He wondered if Joseph would throw the whole southron force at his fieldworks. But the southron commander had apparently learned caution at Viziersville, if he’d learned nothing else. He tapped at the position in front of him, decided it was solid, and then settled down to figure out what to do next.

  James of Broadpath didn’t have time on his side. When Fighting Joseph was careless with a column of supply wagons, James sent out his unicorn-riders, captured the wagons, and brought them back to his own camp. He led a happier force after that. The northerners had done without luxuries such as tea and sugar for a long time, as southron ships held most goods from overseas away from their ports.

  Fighting Joseph tapped at his defenses again a couple of days later, and again failed to break through. He tried once more, harder, the day after that, and did some real damage before deciding he wasn’t going to penetrate James’ line. James was more relieved than not when he gave up not long before sunset; one more hard push might have been enough to do the job.

  Brigadier Falayette thought so. “If he strikes us again, sir, we are ruined-ruined, I tell you!” he cried, striking a melodramatic pose.

  But he’d been crying ruin and striking melodramatic poses ever since James’ detachment moved out from Rising Rock toward Wesleyton, so all James said was, “Oh, quit your carping.” He turned to Brigadier Alexander, whom he trusted to take a more sensible view of things. “What do you think?” he asked the officer in charge of his engines.

  To his dismay, Alexander replied, “I fear my colleague may well be right, sir. If he comes at us with resolution tomorrow, we could find ourselves in some difficulty.”

  “Well, we’ll just have to get ready to receive him in the morning as best we can,” James of Broadpath said-hardly the ringing, inspirational battle cry he’d hoped to give. He rode along the line to encourage his men. All he succeeded in doing was discouraging himself. The soldiers seemed only too well aware that another attack might be too much for them to handle.

  But instead of throwing in another attack the next morning, Fighting Joseph turned his own force around and marched off to the northeast, the direction from which he’d come. “Gods be praised!” Brigadier Alexander exclaimed. “He must have got orders to rejoin General Bart, which means we’re safe for the time being.”

  “So it does,” James of Broadpath agreed. He granted himself the luxury of a sigh of relief, but then unhappily added, “I fear we cannot say the same for the Army of Franklin, however.”

  * * *

  The Army of Franklin had encamped in and around the miserable little town of Borders, near the southeasternmost corner of Peachtree Province. There Count Thraxton labored valiantly to put the blame for the defeat-the disaster-at Sentry Peak and Proselytizers’ Rise on anyone, on everyone, but himself.

  King Geoffrey’s long, stern face peered at him from out of a crystal ball. Geoffrey, Thraxton knew, was his friend. Nevertheless, the king sounded as stern as he looked when he said, “I expected rather better from you, your Grace; I truly did.”

  “I quite understand that, your Majesty,” replied Thraxton, who understood no such thing. “I fear we both erred in the conclusion for me to retain command here after the clamor against me.”

  He still hoped Geoffrey would tell him that had been no error, that no one else could have done as well as he had. But the king gave him only a curt nod. “Yes, that was an error, and now I shall have to find a new commander for the Army of Franklin under harder circumstances than I would have before.”

  Rage boiled up in Thraxton. “By the gods, sir, I would have done better-I would have won that fight, sir-were it not for the bad conduct of veteran troops who had never before failed in any duty.”

  “On what do you blame this failure, your Grace?” King Geoffrey asked.

  “In part, your Majesty, the men on Proselytizers’ Rise could simply see too much,” Thraxton replied. “They watched the swarm of southrons coming toward them and they lost their nerve. And, in part, their demoralization came from the effect produced by the treasonable act of James of Broadpath, Dan of Rabbit Hill, and Leonidas the Priest in sacrificing the army in their effort to degrade and remove me for personal ends.”

  Geoffrey coughed a couple of times. When at last he spoke, he plainly chose his words with care: “I have heard reports to the effect that one reason for our retreat from Proselytizers’ Rise was the failure of our sorcery. How much truth lies in those reports?”

  “Perhaps… some, your Majesty,” Thraxton answered reluctantly. “I intended to cast a spell of terror on the southrons that would have sent them flying back to Rising Rock in rout and ruin.”

  “That did not happen,” Geoffrey said, a truth so painfully obvious that Thraxton couldn’t deny it.

  That being so, he didn’t waste his breath trying. “No, your Majesty, that did not happen, for which you have my profoundest regrets. But I must say, sir, that not a single one of the arrogant little manikins who claim I mistakenly cast the spell upon our own brave and patriotic soldiers has any true knowledge or understanding of the arcane forces at my control.”

  “I… see,” King Geoffrey said after another pause. “You are not of the opinion, then, that a sudden burst of sorcerously inspired terror might have caused our men to abandon what should have been an impregnable position?”

  “A sudden burst of sorcerously inspired terror might have done exactly that, your Majesty,” Count Thraxton replied. “But any claim that I caused such a burst of terror among our men would be all the better for proof, of which there is none.” I couldn’t have done such a thing, not this time. And if I couldn’t have done it, why then, I didn’t do it. It’s as simple as that.

  Again, the king coughed. Again, the king paused to choose his words with care. At last, he asked, “If sorcery gone awry did not cause our men to abandon Proselytizers’ Rise, what, in your opinion, did?”

  “I have already alluded to the treacherous, treasonous conduct of officers formerly occupying positions of trust and prominence in the Army of Franklin,” Thraxton said.

  “So you have,” King Geoffrey replied.

  Thraxton didn’t care for his tone. He had the vague feeling this interview wasn’t going so well as he would have liked. Taking a deep breath, he went on. “I might also note that certain officers, Duke Cabell of Broken Ridge among them, are of less use than they might otherwise be, for they take to the bottle at once, and drown their cares by becoming stupid and unfit for any duty. This drunkenness, most flagrant, during the whole three days of our travail, contributed in no small measure to the disaster that befell us.”

  Geoffrey pursed his thin, pale lips. “So you blame your subordinates, both past and current, for the present unfortunate position of your army?”

  “Your Majesty, I do,” Count Thraxton said firmly. Relief washed through him, warm as spring sunshine. He’d been afraid the king didn’t understand, but now he saw he’d been mistaken. Everything might turn out all right after all. Despite what Geoffrey had said before, he might yet hang on to his command.

  But then the king sighed and said, “Yes, I was right before. I am going to name Joseph the Gamecock to replace you as head of the Army of Franklin.”

  “Joseph the Gamecock?” Thraxton said in dismay. “You must be joking, sir! Why, he’s such a bad-tempered little man that no one can get along with him!”

  “I have certainly had my difficulties along those lines,” King Geoffrey said. “But your own judgment as to yourself was accurate; you should not have remained where you were, and you can no longer remain where you are. You have not the confidence of the officers serving under you.”

  “They are all a pack of jackals and jackasses!” Thraxton burst out. “You say I have not their confidence, sir? Well, they have not mine, either. By all the gods, I would dismis
s every one of them were the power in me.”

  “I cannot dismiss every officer serving in the Army of Franklin,” Geoffrey said. “I would not if I could. It would bring even more chaos than that unhappy army has seen up to now. You were in command, my friend, and you must answer for the shortcomings of those you commanded.”

  “Very well,” Thraxton replied, though it was anything but. “Will you do me the courtesy of allowing me to resign the command on my own rather than being summarily dismissed from it?”

  “Of course I will,” the king said. “I will do anything within my power to let you down as easily as I may, but let you down I must.”

  “I was let down,” Thraxton raged, “let down by those who should have done everything in their power to support me.” His stomach twinged agonizingly. The healers had warned him he was liable to start puking blood if that went on. They’d told him to put less of a burden on himself, to demand less of others. But they hadn’t told him how to do that while fighting a war, worse luck. He gathered himself. “How may I best serve the kingdom after leaving this army?”

  As soon as he asked the question, he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. The king was liable to say something like, Go home and never show your face in any public place again. What could he do but obey? But he didn’t want to fade into obscurity. He wanted a higher place than the one he had.

  Instead of relegating him to the shadows, Geoffrey replied, “You know I always value your advice, your Grace. Come to Nonesuch after laying down your command there. Your insights into the struggle will be important to me, and if you serve in an advisory capacity you will no longer, ah, come into difficulties with other officers opposing Avram’s tyranny.”

  “Come into difficulties?” Thraxton said. “Am I at fault if I have the misfortune of being surrounded by idiots?”