Robert Adams - Trumpets of War

“It required years of effort, after that, and the then-unknown help of the Witchmen to reassemble an army for Zastros to lead against Strahteegos Komees Pahvlos Feelohpohlehmos. That, in the end, we did not have to face him again was an inestimable relief to many a one of us, believe me, my friend.”

“Well, why didn’t you?” asked Pawl Vawn.

Portos shrugged, toying with his winecup. “By that time, all of the ancient royal line was become extinct and Thoheeks Fahrkos, who seized the crown and the capital, had dismissed the strahteegohee, as they all were hostile toward him. Most of the royal army as then remained had chosen that point to march away with their officers, so that all Fahrkos had when we brought him to bay was his own skimpy personal warband.”

“Well, even so,” put in Freefighter Captain Guhsz Hehluh, as he doodled with the tip of a calloused forefinger in and around a pool of spilled wine, “before I’m going to put me and my Keebai boys under the orders of some white-bearded doddard, I’ll know a bit more about him, if you please . . . and even if you don’t, comes to that.

“You Kindred and Ehleenee, you can do what you wants, but if I mislike the sound or the smell of thishere Count Pahvlos, why me and mine, we’ll just shoulder our pikes and hike back up north to Kehnooryos Atheenahs and I’ll tell High Lord Milo to find us some other fights or sell us our contract back.”

But within the space of bare days, Captain Guhsz Hehluh was trumpeting the praises of the newly appointed Grand Strahteegos of the Confederated Thoheekseeahnee of Southern Ehleenohee. Komees Pahvlos and his entourage had ridden out and found the Freefighter pikemen at drill. For almost an hour, he sat his stamping, tail-swishing horse beside Hehluh’s in the hot sun, swatting at flies and knowledgeably discussing the inherent strengths and weaknesses of pike formations and the proper marshaling of infantry. At length, Pahvlos had actually dismounted and hunkered down in the dust of the drill field to sketch with a horny finger the initial positions and movements of an intricate maneuver.

“I’d been led to believe he was lots older than he actually is,” Hehluh declared to his officers. “He’s really not that much older than me, and he’s not one of these hidebound bastards that so many Ehleenees are, either. He flat knows the art of war, by damn! Hell, after only the one meeting, I’ve already learned things from that man.”

The Freefighter captain drained off the dregs of his mug and said, “Frahnzwah, you go find us some more beer or cider or wine to drink. The rest of you, clear off the top of this table and I’ll show you some of the things our new Grand Strahteegos showed me. Never can tell when I might not be around and one of you may have to take over in the middle of a battle.”

After he had watched and evaluated the heterogeneous units which Council had assembled and called its army, Pahvlos closeted himself with Tomos Gonsalos. To begin, he said, “It’s basically a^good unit you command here, Lord Tomos, these northern troops. I’d take you on with them just as they are now were you not a mite shy of infantry and a mite oversupplied with cavalry for good balance. In order to rectify the deficiency, I’ll be brigading your pikemen—Captain Hehluh’s unit—with two more regiments of equal size—all veterans, too, no grass-green peasants and gutter-scrapings more accustomed to pushing plows and brooms than pikes.

“I’m of the opinion that both you and Hehluh will get along well with Lord Captain Bizahros, who commands the reorganized Eighth Foot, from the outset; however, Captain Ahzprinos, leader of the Fifth Foot, also reorganized, is another dish of beans entirely.

“Please understand me, Lord Tomos, Captain Vahrohnos Ahzprinos is a superlative warrior and a fine commander in all ways, else he would not be serving under me in any capacity. But he also is loud, brash, bragadacious and sometimes overbearing to the point of real arrogance. Nonetheless, I can get along with him and I expect my subordinates to do so too.”

And so, in the ensuing weeks that stretched into months, the Confederation troops and the two regiments of once-royal foot of the Kingdomof Southern Ehleenohee drilled and marched, drilled and marched, shouldered pikes, grounded pikes, presented pikes at various heights and angles, sloped pikes. They drilled by squad, by file, by platoon, by company. The regiments formed column, they formed lines of battle of all descriptions, from schiltron to porcupine, propelled always by the roll of the drum and the hoarse, savage shouts of their officers and sergeants. When felt to be ready, they were assembled as brigade in battalion-front line-of-battle and put through even more and more intricate drills under the critical eye of Grand Strahteegos Komees Pahvlos the Warlike himself.

Old Pahvlos had sent, early on, messengers to old friends in the far western lands, requesting that they send fully war-trained elephants, feelahksee and elephant-wise officers, but as yet none of the messengers had returned and no elephants had arrived; therefore, he still was perforce employing the three cows that had been there when he first arrived and took over the army.

Of course, these three were not those huge, looming bull elephants to which he was accustomed and which now were—hopefully—on the march from their western breeding and training grounds, but rather the smaller, usually tuskless beasts that his previous armies always had used only for draught purposes. That the old man had consented to their use in battle at all was a testament to the truly extraordinary control of them exercised by their Horseclansfeelahksee, Captain of Elephants Gil Djohnz and the other two northern barbarians.

The old officer had been astounded at his witnessing of the first drill he ordered for the elephants, that he might judge their degrees of capability. Before his wondering eyes, the three cows rendered performances such as he never before had seen in all his many years of serving with and commanding elephant-equipped armies. Certain of his staff, indeed, had been set to mumbling darkly of sorcery and barbarian witchcraft until he dressed them down in disgust at their unsophisticated superstition.

Still not quite certain that he actually believed that this lot come from off the Sea of Grass by way of Kehnooryos Ehlahs really were capable of mind-reading and telepathy with animals, nonetheless, the komees would freely admit that he was greatly impressed with the Horseclansmen in general, for it had never before been his pleasure to own the services of so splendid and versatile a mounted force as the small squadron of armored horse-archers commanded by Captain Chief Pawl Vawn of Vawn.

Traditionally, Southern Kingdom horse had come in three varieties only—the heavy horsemen who were fully armored, usually noblemen or gentlemen and their personal retainers, and fought with sword or axe or similar edge weapons; light horsemen or lancers, who wore half-armor, carried lances and sabers, and rode smaller, lighter, faster and more nimble horses; and irregular cavalry, who were mostly hired barbarians from the borderlands, who equipped, armed and mounted themselves and had often proven far from effective and dependable, save as horse-archers operating from a distance only.

But he was assured by Tomos Gonsalos and by his own instinctual judgments that these Horseclansmen had been, were and would be both dependable and murderously efficient. True, their horses were notso striking of build as those of the traditional heavy horse, but neither were they as modest of proportions as those of the light horse, either. Both Gonsalos and Hehluh—who had served both with and against these Horseclans cavalry—averred that the short, slight men were noted for both their uncanny accuracy with their short, powerful bows and their ferocity in breast-to-breast encounters with their broad, heavy sabers, their axes and their spears.