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weather-beaten face conveyed the sense of a man of gravitas, and the brown Vallian eyes were partially
hidden by down-drooping lids. He wore a rapier and main gauche. The two mercenaries also wore their
weapons.
And now you feel you are fit to march to the southwest, Kov Vodun?
Yes, majister, with your blessing. Kov Vodun Alloran had lost his kovnate of Kaldi, right in the toe of
southwest Vallia, to that rast Strom Rosil Yasi. Kov Vodun kept up an unceasing barrage of contumely
against our enemies, and lusted after returning and hanging every last one from the tallest tree branches he
could find.
A number of invasions had been launched through his province. We had resisted and now, with Kov
Vodun to prod us into action, we felt the time was ripe for us to return in strength and kick Yasi and his
foul henchmen out of our land. The trouble was, and this trouble explained our experiences afterMancha
of Tlinganden had been wrecked, our army had been forced to march north. The strength left in the
capital was now rather too weak for my liking. But, still and all, that southwest rankled...
If we can clear all the southwest, I said, it will free our hands for the sterner tasks ahead.
Kov Vodun snapped erect. Sterner tasks, majister?
I sighed. Trust me to say the wrong thing.
Only in matters of number, kov; not in anything else.
I see.
A prickly customer, Kov Vodun Alloran. Very popular with the ladies, with his tales of guerrilla action
from the hills. Alloran had done well at the Battle of Kanarsmot, and afterwards in that fraught action to
take the fortress where Inch had rejoined us. Kov Vodun Alloran had been chosen by the Presidio, with
the blessings of Prince Drak and the Lord Farris, to lead the Army of the Southwest to liberate that area
of our land.
Very well, I said. My mind is made up. You have the nucleus of the forces earmarked for you
The most of which were taken away! said Alloran, with a prickly nastiness. He had regained a very
great measure of his own self-esteem since escaping from his kovnate and fighting with us here. I nodded.
That is true. And, no doubt, that is why the Prince Majister contracted to engage paktuns. You will
have a tidy army, Kov Vodun, to lead into your kovnate.
He moved his shoulders under the armor and the polished iron caught the light and glittered. There is
the matter of the Fourth Phalanx, majister. I was promised the Fourth, and one wing was taken from me
and flown north. I now have only one Kerchuri, and it is in my mind I should take a Kerchuri from the
Fifth.
My old blade comrade Nath Nazabhan had been busy, and besides finishing the raising of the Fourth, he
had started the Fifth. Now a phalanx is a wonderful engine of destruction and the pikemen in the files, the
brumbytes, of whom there are 10,368, are flanked by the axe and halberd men, the Hakkodin, of whom
there are 1,728. There are also strong bodies of archers, and lads to strew caltrops and run with chevaux
de frises. A whole lot of men are locked up in a phalanx.
I stirred the piece of paper on my desk. In Drak s handwriting the composition of the proposed Army of
the SW stared me in the face. Drak had written down: One Kerchuri. A Kerchuri is a wing of the
phalanx, one-half. I looked up at Alloran.
Two Kerchuris, kov?
Aye, majister, two.
But the Fifth Phalanx is green raw.
Their Ninth Kerchuri is ready. And, by Vox, by the time I have marched them a sennight or so they ll
smarten up!
You would leave Vondium with only the Tenth Kerchuri?
You need, with your permission, majister, archers to defend city walls.
That was only half true.
I wondered if he was going to bargain his paktun archers, these Undurkers, for the Ninth Kerchuri. It
was, in my view, no bargain at all.
I said, What do your spies report of the strength and composition of Strom Rosil s army?
Scattered, he said at once. He will have time to scrape his men together before I reach him, of
course, after the initial breakthrough battles. He has something of the order of thirty thousand he can
concentrate with reasonable speed.
Give him two of the Moons of the Twins and he will have fifty or more.
I stirred Drak s list again.
If you move with speed, you can catch him before he concentrates his full strength.
That is my plan.
And the composition? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
weather-beaten face conveyed the sense of a man of gravitas, and the brown Vallian eyes were partially
hidden by down-drooping lids. He wore a rapier and main gauche. The two mercenaries also wore their
weapons.
And now you feel you are fit to march to the southwest, Kov Vodun?
Yes, majister, with your blessing. Kov Vodun Alloran had lost his kovnate of Kaldi, right in the toe of
southwest Vallia, to that rast Strom Rosil Yasi. Kov Vodun kept up an unceasing barrage of contumely
against our enemies, and lusted after returning and hanging every last one from the tallest tree branches he
could find.
A number of invasions had been launched through his province. We had resisted and now, with Kov
Vodun to prod us into action, we felt the time was ripe for us to return in strength and kick Yasi and his
foul henchmen out of our land. The trouble was, and this trouble explained our experiences afterMancha
of Tlinganden had been wrecked, our army had been forced to march north. The strength left in the
capital was now rather too weak for my liking. But, still and all, that southwest rankled...
If we can clear all the southwest, I said, it will free our hands for the sterner tasks ahead.
Kov Vodun snapped erect. Sterner tasks, majister?
I sighed. Trust me to say the wrong thing.
Only in matters of number, kov; not in anything else.
I see.
A prickly customer, Kov Vodun Alloran. Very popular with the ladies, with his tales of guerrilla action
from the hills. Alloran had done well at the Battle of Kanarsmot, and afterwards in that fraught action to
take the fortress where Inch had rejoined us. Kov Vodun Alloran had been chosen by the Presidio, with
the blessings of Prince Drak and the Lord Farris, to lead the Army of the Southwest to liberate that area
of our land.
Very well, I said. My mind is made up. You have the nucleus of the forces earmarked for you
The most of which were taken away! said Alloran, with a prickly nastiness. He had regained a very
great measure of his own self-esteem since escaping from his kovnate and fighting with us here. I nodded.
That is true. And, no doubt, that is why the Prince Majister contracted to engage paktuns. You will
have a tidy army, Kov Vodun, to lead into your kovnate.
He moved his shoulders under the armor and the polished iron caught the light and glittered. There is
the matter of the Fourth Phalanx, majister. I was promised the Fourth, and one wing was taken from me
and flown north. I now have only one Kerchuri, and it is in my mind I should take a Kerchuri from the
Fifth.
My old blade comrade Nath Nazabhan had been busy, and besides finishing the raising of the Fourth, he
had started the Fifth. Now a phalanx is a wonderful engine of destruction and the pikemen in the files, the
brumbytes, of whom there are 10,368, are flanked by the axe and halberd men, the Hakkodin, of whom
there are 1,728. There are also strong bodies of archers, and lads to strew caltrops and run with chevaux
de frises. A whole lot of men are locked up in a phalanx.
I stirred the piece of paper on my desk. In Drak s handwriting the composition of the proposed Army of
the SW stared me in the face. Drak had written down: One Kerchuri. A Kerchuri is a wing of the
phalanx, one-half. I looked up at Alloran.
Two Kerchuris, kov?
Aye, majister, two.
But the Fifth Phalanx is green raw.
Their Ninth Kerchuri is ready. And, by Vox, by the time I have marched them a sennight or so they ll
smarten up!
You would leave Vondium with only the Tenth Kerchuri?
You need, with your permission, majister, archers to defend city walls.
That was only half true.
I wondered if he was going to bargain his paktun archers, these Undurkers, for the Ninth Kerchuri. It
was, in my view, no bargain at all.
I said, What do your spies report of the strength and composition of Strom Rosil s army?
Scattered, he said at once. He will have time to scrape his men together before I reach him, of
course, after the initial breakthrough battles. He has something of the order of thirty thousand he can
concentrate with reasonable speed.
Give him two of the Moons of the Twins and he will have fifty or more.
I stirred Drak s list again.
If you move with speed, you can catch him before he concentrates his full strength.
That is my plan.
And the composition? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]