Chapter 10

The invasion of the Hitts was launched at dawn on the tenth day after Blade's arrival on the coast. The west pontoon had been forced, by much blood and sweat, to within a few hundred yards of the Hitt shore. The beach here was shallow and ended abruptly in towering cliffs broken by occasional defiles. Loth Bloodax had five thousand warriors waiting on the beach; his main host, which Blade judged as near to ten thousand, waited in a crescent battle array atop the cliffs. All the previous night fires had blazed on the cliffs and beaches, and the battle songs of the Hitts had blown across the channel to Blade and his men.

Ogier had twenty thousand men, three-quarters of whom were raw recruits. Blade, waiting in the dunes beyond the sunken pontoon, had a bare three thousand men, but they were the best in the Zirnian army. He had three troops of cavalry, six hundred horse in all, and in the first light of dawn he led the first troop out of the dunes and down to the shore. The pontoon, twelve feet wide, was marked by strips of red cloth just visible above the water. The large cove, near half a mile opposite them, appeared deserted. A light breeze from the west bore the sounds of Ogier's battle; he had made a circle of picket boats around the end of the pontoon and was sending off his first transports to effect a landing. Mist still clung to the water and Blade could not see the battle, but the air was filled with the defiant chanting of the Hitts, The sound filled the sky. Yeeeeeee-ahhhhhhh- Yeeeeeee-ahhhhhh.

Blade wore new burnished armor, and a scarlet panache fluttered from his helmet. He bore sword and mace, and a saddle sheath carried three short spears. Thane, riding at his side, was accoutered much the same but for the bronze-horned helmet.

As they rode to the water's edge Thane said a little prayer to the Hitt gods he had forsaken. «Give me the head of Galligantus this day,» he finished, «so the bones of my Trosa may rest in peace.»

Their chargers were skittish and did not want to enter the sea, unknowing of the planks a foot below the already bloodstained water. For the current here set to the east and, even as they forced their horses, the first corpses came bobbing into sight.

Blade put the spurs to his beast and forced it into the water between the red flags. As soon as the animal felt the planks beneath it all was well; it began to move, fetlock deep, out upon the hidden pontoon. Thane came after Blade and they paused for a moment. Blade turned in his saddle and raised an arm and let out a bellow.

«Men of Zir-follow me!»

He and Thane set out across the channel, the horses moving well but cautiously. The far shore loomed through the mist, desolate and forsaken. Nothing moved in the cove that was Blade's first objective. He grinned at Thane and glanced back. The first troop of cavalry was already on the pontoon, crossing in twos, and behind him the foot soldiers were forming in fours.

Thane peered at the far shore. «Not a sign of them. I think we're going to do it, Blade. By the gods, I do. Aha-I shall have wine tonight.»

«We will not count our fortunes until we have made them,» Blade warned. But he felt good. It looked good. They were halfway across.

The mist cleared fast. From half a mile to the west came the iron clamor of battle. From his vantage in the middle of the channel Blade could see great columns of greasy black smoke rising. Fires blazed. Some of Ogier's picket boats were burning. Dozens of leather-men, on their crude wings soared down from the cliffs and dropped stinkfire.

Thane said, «Ogier has bitten off a tough chew.» He pointed to the corpses bobbing near them. «Most of those are Zirnian. See-there is but one Hitt, and she is a woman.»

Blade had been studying the battle upstream. A transport was loading at the end of the pontoon. As he watched, it pulled away and another took its place. The pontoon was a solid mass of troops, four across, as far back as the Zirnian shore where others waited. He counted six of the transport barges already at the beach, three of them wrecked and burning. There was hand-to-hand fighting on the beach now. Ogier had a foothold, precarious as it was.

He turned his attention to the corpse Thane pointed out. It was that of a young woman, clad in leather armor braced with metal, with her yellow hair cropped short. She floated face up, her blue eyes open and staring. A stone or some such missile had taken off the top of her head.

«Even the children will fight,» muttered Thane. «Come. Let us to it.»

They pushed on. Blade looked back again. His cavalry was fifty yards behind, and behind them came the foot like a metal-and-leather centipede. The cove, with its broad beaches, was only a hundred yards distant now. Blade let his steed feel the spurs.

Thane and Blade were within twenty yards of the shore when a leather-man sailed down from the cliffs and dropped stink-fire. It was Blade's first close look at these air warriors with their bat wings and wood frames into which their arms fitted. He reined in and watched as the leather-man dove toward them with a faint hissing of wings. The man was naked but for a loincloth and wore no helmet. In each hand he carried a leather sack. He came so low that Blade could see the snarl, the teeth flashing, the eyes full of hate and fury. The leather-man let go a sack and there was a flash of fire and smoke and a stink filled the air.

«Close,» said Thane. He drew a short spear from his saddle scabbard and stood in the stirrups. He took aim and hurled. The leather-man went fluttering into the channel with the spear through his middle.

Thane laughed, then opened his mouth wide and bellowed the Hitt war cry: Yeeeeee-ahhhhhhhh.

«Leave off,» Blade commanded. «Enough confusion lies ahead. Remember that you are no longer a Hitt.»

«It is in the blood,» said Thane. «And blood cannot be denied. But for those bastards, Bloodax and Galligantus, I would be fighting against you, Blade.»

They were ashore. They rode onto the sands of the cove, the horses curveting and prancing, glad of solid earth again, and reined aside to let the first troop of cavalry land. They cantered past, jungling and shining, with pennons flying, and Blade shouted at their Captain. He was to take them immediately into the ravines and low hills beyond the cove and guard the landing of the foot soldiers.

Hardly had he given the order when the attack came. First the blood-curdling war cries ringing in the crisp morning air, yeeeeee-ahhhhh yeeeeee-ahhhhhhhh-and then they came swarming from concealment. For a moment Blade felt panic and thought he had been ambushed, then saw how few they were. Less than a hundred. Most of them old, some crippled, a motley guard left as a matter of routine. Bloodax had expected no attack here. He had not guessed at the sunken pontoon.

So Blade first saw the mettle of his enemy. They came on and on, yelling and hurling spears and stones-he did not see an archer-and as they were cut down and the corpses piled up, the Hitts behind climbed the piles and still came to death with defiant screams. Blade and Thane stood aside and let the troop of cavalry handle it. Pity and admiration stirred in Blade. He had never seen the like of these men. He gazed at Thane in wonderment. «They do not know the meaning of fear.»

Thane laughed deep in his throat. «I had not told you, Blade, but the word is unknown to them. This I mean in a literal sense-there is no word for fear in Hitt. Nor any for coward. That is because they are stupid barbarians and-«

«Another time.» Blade pulled his horse around. «Now we must hurry. You remain and see the troops safely ashore. I will take the second and third groups of cavalry and ride back into the hills. March after me as soon as you have formed the men. Make haste, Thane, for it is my thought that Ogier is having a hot time of it. He will be watching for our signals with impatience.»