The army had finally arrived.

TWENTY-ONE.

RetributionI he whistles and bells sounded the mob's doom as well I as our salvation, and they and the Tovieti knew it. A A. group of them charged the docks, but were broken against the arrows coming in from the transports and from the welcoming force I'd quickly a.s.sembled.

The riverboats moved to the docks then, and gangplanks dropped and long lines of men snaked across them, carrying their weapons with the ease of long familiarity. They paid no mind to the jeers and chants coming from other parts of the waterfront, but keenly looked about, evaluating a new battlefield, and, as like, what loot might present itself.

There was no singing, no flashing display, and I wanted to grab each of the surviving Helms by the throat and say, "See, this is what soldiers are, not your empty bulls.h.i.t of trumpets, parades, and banners."

General Turbery and Tenedos arrived just as the formation's de facto commander, normally head of the Varan Guard, was disembarking. He was a tall, rawboned man, cleanshaven, with short hair and a scar-seamed face, Domina Myrus Le Balafre. I knew him by reputation, a brawler, a swordsman, a duelist who'd killed more than his share, and a supremely confident and able battle commander.

*He saluted General Turbery.

"I thought you might never come," the general said.

"I thought the same," the domina said. "We should have expected opposition the minute we put out down the river. But we didn't... and paid hard for our confidence. But no matter now.

"Sir. I have the honor to present the relief force for Nicias, thirteen regiments strong, six of horse, seven of foot. We await your orders."

General Turbery hesitated, thinking. Tenedos stepped forward.

"Sir, may I offer a suggestion?"

Domina Le Balafre scowled at him.

"Who the blazes are you, sir, if I might ask?"

"Seer Laish Tenedos, special adviser to the general of the armies. Sir."

The two men stared hard at each other. Domina Le Balafre was the first to lower his gaze, but I felt the clash of wills had just begun. General Turbery turned to the seer.

"Go ahead, sir. You've always been the first with an idea."

"Sir," Tenedos said, "I think we should not wait, not develop a firm plan. Let us move immediately. Put the regiments into the parks, break them down into battle formation, and move them out into the city at first light. The Tovieti will never expect that."

General Turbery blinked, then turned to Le Balafre.

"Can that be done?"

The domina was as startled as the general. Then he considered, and smiled tightly.

"Yes. We can manage that. Yes, indeed. That would be a short, sharp shock for the rabble. Sir, I can guarantee the Varan Guard will be ready, and... let me think... at least half, most likely more of the regiments. Maybe all of them," he thought aloud. "I'd suggest you only hold one of them back. The Seventeenth Ureyan Lancers won't be ready to fight."

My own regiment! Apang touched me. What had happened? Le Balafre went on to explain, and now we found why the army was so late. They'd not been able to move downriver as fast as they should, because the supplies and new driving belts for the TaKIer-type transports "somehow" weren't waiting at dockside as had been arranged. But things had not come to real grief until they entered the great delta, upstream from Nicias, just below the city of Cicognara. They'd encountered dense river fogs that forced them to tie up for days.

"Did you not recognize sorcery, sir?" Tenedos said.

"I pay little heed to magicians," Le Balafre said. "This time, it was my error."

General Veli, the expedition's commander, had realized time was running short, and so, in spite of the weather, had set out once more. The fleet had become lost in the delta, taking dead-ended pa.s.sages or channels that shallowed uselessly. In one long, narrow strait they'd been attacked. The flagship had been hit by huge boulders, catapult-launched, "although how the h.e.l.ls the G.o.ds-d.a.m.ned rebels managed to build them, let alone wrangle them into position in those G.o.ds-d.a.m.ned swamps, is beyond me." The ship lost way, listed, and began sinking, and then archers came from hiding and volleyed arrows into the men trying to swim to sh.o.r.e.

"They killed General Veli then. And that's when the Lancers were crippled. They had their domina, uh..."

"Herstal," I put in, in spite of myself. Le Balafre gave me a dark look-captains don't interrupt dominas-but said nothing.

"Herstal, yes, that's it, plus their adjutant and about half of their senior captains had gone on the flagship for a conference. We only fished a handful of men from the water, none of them officers."

So my old enemy, Captain Lenett, was dead. Oddly, I was disappointed-I had been looking forward to a chance to show him he'd sadly misjudged me. Now, I'd never have the opportunity.

Three other riverboats had been sunk, but the fleet had rescued most of the men. Their attackers vanished into the swamps as rapidly as they'd emerged.

They went on, and found the main channel, then lost it again.

"It was then I had a bit of an idea," Le Balafre said, smiling grimly. "I'd heard, just rumors, y'know, about these sc.u.m and their strangling cords. They haven't come yet to Varan, where we'll give them a warm welcome.

"But I thought I' d have a peep into the gear of the riverboat pilots and officers. You'll never guess what I discovered in eight of them."

"What did you do with those Tovieti when you'd discovered them?"

"Why, hung them, of course. They made pretty decorations on the boat's cranes, dangling and kicking like pomegranates in a summer wind." He looked hard at Tenedos, probably expecting shock from the civilian.

"Good, sir," Tenedos said warmly. "Very good indeed. I promise you you'll have more strange fruit to admire before you leave Nicias."

Le Balafre nodded approval. "After that, we had no further trouble, and we came on Nicias late last night. We didn't dock because, frankly, we didn't know what our reception was. Glad you were able to hold out."

"Yes," General Turbery said. "Now, let's get the soldiery ash.o.r.e.It'll be a long day preparing for the morrow."

"One thing before we move, sk," Tenedos said. "This matter of the Lancers?"

"Yes?"

"I had the pleasure of having a troop of them guard me when I was in Kait, and-"

"You'rethat Tenedos, eh?" Le Balafre interrupted. "My apologies for being rude before, sir. You did well, sir. Very well indeed."

"I thank you." Tenedos turned back to Turbery. "As I was saying, I found them to be excellent soldiers.

I think it would be a pity to lose their services now."

"You have a suggestion?"

"I do. Name Captain a Cimabue their domina. He's from the regiment, and has served well."

Both the domina and the general gazed at me intently.

"Irregular," General Turbery said. "Most irregular... hmm."

He thought for a moment. "Jumping a man two full grades... that'll not sit well with the army's list keepers, now will it?"

"And the h.e.l.ls with them," Le Balafre snapped. "As if you and I haven't spent most of our careers battling those s.h.i.t-heads, always carrying on about who's senior to whom, and who's in the Upper Half and who's in the Lower Half and who gets to sit ahead of whom at the banquet.

"b.a.l.l.s to them all. I hope the Tovieti killed more than their share down here."

General Turbery smiled a bit. "I'd forgotten how subtle and diplomatic you were in your speech until now, Myrus." Once more he considered. "You know, General Protogeneshad said that, when this emergency was over he wished to reward the captain if he lived."

He looked at me closely. "Captain, do you think you can handle the task?"

"Sir, Iknow I can." And I did. Hadn't I been ordering around, even if indirectly, dominas and regiments lately? Maybe I was arrogant, but I felt a swell of confidence.

"Then, sir, I take great honor in naming you, Captain... ?"

"Damastes, sir."

"Damastesk Cimabue, domina of the Seventeenth Ureyan Lancers. Now, sir, take charge of your regiment!"

I came to attention. Domina Le Balafre looked about. "h.e.l.l of a place to be promoted. No bands, no speeches, no pretty women to kiss. Here, boy." He untied his own sash of rank and tied it about my waist.

And so, on a greasy riverside dock, witnessed by one sorcerer, one general, and one domina, I received my first regimental command.

I was proud... and I was humble, remembering the faith of all those, from my father to the bra.s.s-lunged instructors at the lycee to the lances and warrants who'd taught me how to really soldier, and knew I had to prove to their memory I'd been worm the trouble.

Now I had to justify that faith.

I was determined the Lancers would march out with the rest in the morning if I personally had to be behind them with a whip.

First I found Regimental Guide Evatt, who looked most guilty, remembering the way I'd been set for a fall by the late Captain Lanett back in Nehul. I told him we had no time for the past. I wanted him to take charge of disembarking the horses and making them ready for the morrow. He hesitated, thinking of the enormity of the task, and I told him bluntly if he wished to hold his rank slashes he'd see it was done, no matter how. He had to call on the entire regiment to make sure it was done, especially the men of Sun Bear Troop, the regiment's support element.

I sent messengers to hunt down Legate Yonge, Legate Petre, and Troop Guide Karjan.

I had Troop Guide Bikaner report to me immediately, and informed him I was commissioning him legate. He looked startled, then pleased. At least he wasn't another like Karjan. I told him to take charge of the regiment's enlisted men and see they were marched to the a.s.sembly area I pointed out on the map, just on the sh.o.r.es of one of the lakes in Hyder Park. I told him to clean out any civilians camped in the area, but to do it politely, for they'd almost certainly be n.o.bility, no matter how shabbily dressed, and they'd have good aim at his a.s.s if he lived through the days to come, when normality, civility, and nitpicking returned to the capital.

I had the regiment's surviving officers a.s.semble, and introduced myself. Most of them remembered me, if just as the young legate who'd supposedly done something uncalled for at a rol match, then redeemed himself in the Border States. My address was simple and short. I told them there would be changes made, some involving promotions over their heads, and they were to keep their resentments hidden until later, or else I'd be most displeased and take the extreme measures these extreme times seemed to warrant.

I told them I'd admired the late Domina Herstal, which was mostly the truth, and hoped to be worthy of commanding the regiment he'd built. I finished by saying there were terrible days ahead, and they'd need all of their courage and intelligence just to survive.

"But survive you must, for I won't be able to finish the task without you. Lead your troops as best you can, gallop always to the sound of clashing steel, and you'll find no disfavor in my eyes.

"Lastly, you'll be facing a cunning, evil, duplicitous enemy. Hold in your mind the skills of our troops. I want you to show the caution of the sambar, the cunning of the tiger, the courage of the lion, the stealth of the leopard, the speed of the cheetah, and, when we're in battle, the tenacity of the sun bear.

"Now, go to your men and lead them as you've done in the past!"

A trifle pompous, perhaps, especially coming from a twenty-two-year-old talking to older men, some in their late forties, but not as bad as some inspirational speeches I've heard... or made, come to think of it. At any rate the officers raised a ragged cheer before they dispersed. But I knew their opinion of me was yet unformed, and would be made the first time we met the enemy.

Liking the comparison to the animals our troops were named after, I used the same a.n.a.logy when I spoke to the regiment, drawn up on the sh.o.r.es of the lake. I told them they must think of me as new to the unit, so I had no grudges, no favorites, as yet Each of them and all of them were given a clean slate and a fresh opportunity.

"Soldier hard, soldier well-and stay alive! Let the other b.a.s.t.a.r.d die for his cause!"

The warrants raised a cheer, and the men set to.

Yonge and Petre had arrived as I was finishing, and I waved them to me.

"Congratulations, my Captain," Yonge said."I said you would become a general one day, and now you are well on the way."

"Thank you, but save your admiration. You're through*guarding the Kalvedons. You're promoted to captain, and I want you to take over Sambar Troop. Their captain drowned coming downriver. They're the regimental scouts, but I'm sure you can teach them things about skulking."

Yonge grinned.

"I cannot argue with that. But how will these Numantians take being led by a despised Man of the Hills?"

"They'll like it," I said shortly. "Because there's always room in the rear rank for hors.e.m.e.n who used to have higher rank."

"Very good, Domina. I shall go and inspect my new command. One thing more, sir. I have a message for you."

"Give it to me."

"I have but to show it." He pointed. Across the park, on the far side of the regimental area, I saw Marn, sitting on a horse. I waved, although I suppose a domina is supposed to be more dignified. She waved back, then turned her horse and galloped back toward the tower. I felt a glow of love and pride; she knew I'd have no time for anything but the Lancers now.

It was Petre's turn. 'Take Tiger Troop," I said briefly. "You should have no troubles-I remember them as the best of the regiment. I'd make you my adjutant, but you're too d.a.m.ned valuable for that. And you're now a captain as well, Mercia."

It was as if I'd given him the throne of Maisir.

"Thank you, Damastes ... I mean, Domina. Now we can show them what we can do, can't we?" We grinned at each other like fellow conspirators who'd just won their cause, then he saluted and hurried off.

Finally, I spotted Troop Guide Karjan. I told him that he'd be serving as my right hand. I couldn't promote him, because there could be but one regimental guide, but expected him to serve in that capacity. I guess he was becoming used to sudden change, because he just grunted, and said he'd be making sure our horses were ready for the morrow.

And so the Seventeenth Lancers set to work on our impossible task.

Three hours before dawn, I was feeling a bit of satisfaction that perhaps we'd be ready as promised, when a messenger came and asked me, with General Turbery's compliments, to report to the tower for briefing.

The large dining room had been cleared of furniture, and large maps of Nicias hung around the walls.

One by one the regimental commanders who'd freshly arrived in the capital reported. Already there were the dominas and captains of the four home regiments, including my former commander in the Golden Helms, Domina Lehar.