Robert Adams - Champion of the Last Battle

The few pikemen and shorts left of the “disbanded” unit were parceled out as replacement fillers where needed. As for the remnants of the regiment of the late Colonel Gambel, the brigadier retired that banner, too, and merged the survivors with the regiment of Colonel Taylor. It seemed to him the quickest and simplest answer to the problem, and he was itchy to get the army reorganized and on the march toward New Kuhmbuhluhnburk before the foemen had the time and the leisure to concoct any unpleasant surprises for him and his.

His mounted messengers kept the roads and trails dusty between Twin Hills Camps and the captured glen, while his messages kept the glen and a large number of its inhabitants as busy as so many ants. But the Skohshuns were familiar with this kind of activity. Almost every war season within living memory it had been the same drudgery of preparing their men for war and providing for them whilst they campaigned; the only activities held of more worth were those of agriculture and animal husbandry, and even these were closely related, of course, to the welfare of the troops in the field.

Unsatisfied with reports from various of his subordinates, the brigadier himself took the time to interview, to debrief first the commander, then several of the officers and other ranks of the dragoons who had trailed the defeated army of New Kuhmbuhluhn all the way to the capital. But to a man their observations of the city and its environs made no sense, had little similarity one to the other, yet these men all were trained, experienced scouts.

The brigadier found the whole business to be most unsettling, but he moved on to other affairs, rationalizing that he and all the rest would be there to see the city and countryside soon enough.

When Dr. Schiepficker had completed his oral report and surrendered the microphone to Corbett, the officer said, “If you’re not sitting down, David, I strongly advise that you do so, now.”

“ Erica ... ?” came the hoarse, hesitant whisper. “She ... she’s ... you’ve found her ... her ... ?”

“It would seem, from what a Ganik that Johnny Skinhead brought in had to say, that up to about a month ago, she was alive and the captive of some group or tribe calling themselves Skohshuns. Their lands are well up to the north and the west of here, somewhere close to the south bank of the Ohio River, I’d say, on the basis of current information. Apparently, they are newcomers to these mountains, invading—migrating, really—from north of the river. Instead of relying on cavalry as do most groups hereabouts, they seem to have developed truly effective infantry, along the general lines of the Swiss or German Landesknechten and—”

“Dammit, Jay,” fumed Sternheimer impatiently, “the very last thing I want to hear right now is your assessment of their culture, military or otherwise. The one, the only thing I want you to tell me is when you are going to move to rescue poor Erica.”

Corbett sighed. “David, which is the most important thing to you, to us, to the Center, just now—salvaging our loot from the Hold of the Moon Maidens or marching off God alone knows how far into completely unknown country on a mission which already may be pointless? If it’s the former, which of my Broomtown officers should I leave in charge of the salvage operation while I take a reinforced company north? If it’s the latter, what would you suggest be the provisions made for Dr. Schiepficker and the other civilians while the rest of us go charging to the supposed rescue with the entire battalion?”

“Oh, God damn you, Jay Corbett!” Sternheimer snarled with intense feeling. “Of all people, you know how I feel about Erica. You also know how important, how very vital that salvage mission is to us at the Center, and I—

“Wait! I’ve got the solution. Why not leave Dr. Schiepficker in charge?”

Corbett sighed once more. “David, David, Mike Schiepficker is a gifted zoologist, he’s even a decent rifle shot, but I doubt if he could easily tell the difference between a blasting cap and an increment charge. Whoever remains in charge, in my place up here, must have a good grounding in explosives and blasting, along with a military background and the ability to command. And, David, I can think of but one man down there who meets the explosives qualifications.

“If you want me to go north after Erica, put Dr. Braun’s mind into a decent body and get him and Colonel MacBride from Broomtown up here to me, yesterday. The sooner they are here with us, the sooner I can leave with a special force. You’d better lay on the biggest copter for the job, too, as I’m going to be wanting MacBride to bring along some additional weapons and equipment.”

“No,” Sternheimer began petulantly. “I don’t think Harry Braun should—”

Corbett cut him off brusquely. “David, I don’t think you understood me. Those are my terms; they are non-negotiable. This is not a mission I really want to undertake, you see. I’m doing it for you, as a personal—a very, very personal—favor. I’d much rather complete this project, here, before undertaking anything else, and unless you immediately meet my conditions, I’ll do just that.” He paused, then added, “Do I make myself clear, this time around, David?”

Now it was Center Director Sternheimer who sighed. “Yes, Jay, your meaning is quite clear. I’ll set things in motion, down here. You can make arrangements with Broomtown Base. Out.”

After the good’ laugh they all had had at thoughts of the probable effects on their besiegers of Sir Yoo Folsom’s explosively cathartic beer, Thoheeks Bili, his officers and their entourages left the palace portion of the citadel complex to stroll the full circuit of the walls of the besieged mountain city of New Kuhmbuhluhnburk, of which he was become de facto ruler, king in all save name.

The existing situation failed to please Bili in the least. He entertained no scintilla of desire for suzerainty over this isolated montane pocket kingdom, his overriding ambition being to get himself, his wife and child, and those lowlanders who had followed his banner so valiantly and so long back east into first the Ahrmehnee stahn, then the lands of the Confederation.

But he was become what he was become simply through unavoidable circumstances. Because his father, then-Thoheeks Morguhn, lay ill and hovering near to death, he had been called to return to his patrimonial lands from the court and army of the King of Harzburk, whereat he had dwelt and trained and served from his eighth through his eighteenth years. That he had ridden back to Morguhn a proven warrior, a Knight of the Order of the Blue Bear of Harzburk, was a most fortunate happenstance, for he had ridden his telepathic warhorse into the very epicenter of a social earthquake. His homeland was being ravaged by a blood-soaked rebellion ostensibly organized around and for the purposes of a long-suppressed religion practiced by the previous owners of the lands, the Ehleenee, but actually plotted and orchestrated by Witchmen, agents of an ancient evil far to the south.

After the rebellion had been bloodily put down in Morguhn, the surviving rebels all fled west into the neighboring duchy, where they completely wiped out the Thoheeks of Vawn and all the loyal Kindred through assassinations, treachery and, finally, blatant atrocities. Aroused noblemen and their retainers from all over the vast Confederation had then marched into Vawn with a large segment of the regular army of the Confederation and quashed the rebels there as well.

But barely was the one war over and done than yet another was of direst necessity begun. This one, too, was caused by the Witchmen. At their scarcely needed instigation, the Ahrmehnee tribes—whose ancestors had once held the lands now comprising the western duchies and had been driven out of them and into their present mountains by the Army of the Confederation—and the Maidens of the Moon Goddess—fierce Amazon warriors who were distantly related to the Ahrmehnee—were massing in previously unheard-of numbers, assembling about the village of their chief of chiefs, the nahkhahrah, for a raid in force against the already devastated western lands of the Confederation.