“Then the komees deliberately set his horse to roiling the sediments of the bottom, clouding the water, while he did the same with the butt of his lance. He dropped a sheathed, jeweled sword upon me, and when I brought my face up to where 1 could see him, he tossed me a small, heavy bag and said, ‘You may well be the last of your House, after this day, young Vikos. There is a bit of gold and a good sword. Wait until full dark and then head northwest; what’s left of the rebel army is withdrawing south and southeast. If you can make it up to Iron Mountain, you’ll be safe. And the next time you choose a warleader, try to choose one with at least a fighting chance to win. God keep you now.’ ”

Thoheeks Grahvos nodded. “Yes, it sounds of a piece with all else 1 know of the man. For all his ferocity and expertise in the waging of war for the three kings he served in his long career, still was he ever noted to be just and, when possible, merciful. Strange, I’d assumed him dead, legally murdered by Zast'ros as were the most of his peers. It’s good to know that at least this one of the better sort survived the long bloodletting. Who was his overlord, anyway? If he’ll take the proper oaths, Komees Pahvlos the Warlike would make us a good thoheeks, say I.”

“And so,” concluded old Komees Pahvlos, “when it was become obvious that these usurping scum were determined to not only deny young Ahramos here his lawful patrimonies, but to take his very life as well, had they the chance, I knew that stronger measures were required, my lords.

“Could but a single warrior do it alone, it were done already. Old, I assuredly am—close to seventy years old— but I still am tough and the hilt of my good sword has not become a stranger to my hand. But a disciplined, well-armed and -led force will be necessary to dislodge this foul kakistoc-racy that presently squat in Ahramos’ principal city and control his rightful lands. And due to reverses, I no longer own the wherewithal to hire on fighting men, equip and mount and supply them with the necessities of warfare.”

“But I will wager, Strahteegos Komees Pahvlos,” said Thoheeks Grahvos, “that nothing has robbed you of your old abilities to lead armies, plan winning battles and improvise stunning tactics on the spur of the moment: 1 had meant to ask you to take oaths to this council and the Confederation, then assume one of the still-vacant thoheekseeahnee, but if you’ll indeed take those oaths, 1 have a better, far more useful task in mind for you, now.”

Chief Pawl Vawn of Vawn sat at a table in a tent in the camp of Seentahgmahrtees Tomos Gonsalos, senior officer of those Confederation forces sent south to aid the thoheeksee in securing and maintaining peace. With them at table sat Ahnteeseentahgmahrtees of Infantry Guhsz Hehluh, and Thoheeks Portos, figurehead commander of these alien troops deep in the heart of the former Southern Kingdom.

A meal had been eaten while the men talked, and now, while a bottle of sweet wine circulated, the Horseclansman asked, “If this Pahvlos is such a slambang strahteegos and all, how come he didn’t tromp you all proper for his king and end it all before it got started?”

“Oh, he did, he did, my good Pawl,” said Portos, “in the beginning, years ago. I was a part of that rebel army, then, 1 know. It required years and the—then unknown—help of the Witchmen to put Zastros' army back together in a shape fit to once more face Komees Pahvlos; and that, finally, we did not have to face him was a great relief to full many a one of us, believe me. By that time, all of the ancient royal line was extinct and Thoheeks Fahrkos, who had seized the crown and the capital, had dismissed the royal strahteegoee. Most of the remaining royal troops—the only regular forces the kingdom had had—deserted, then marched away with their officers, so all Fahrkos had when we brought him to bay was his personal warband, such as it was.”

“Even so,” put in the greying Freefighter officer, Guhsz Hehluh, “before I put me and my Keebai boys under the orders of some whitebeard doddard, I’ll know a bit more about him. You Kindred and Ehleenee can do what you wants, but if I mislike the sound or the smell of this Count Pahvlos, why me and mine we’ll just hike back up to Kehnooryos Ahtheenahs and tell High Lord Milo to find us other fights or sell us back our contract.”

But within bare days, Guhsz Hehluh was trumpeting the praises of the new Grand Strahteegos who, with his small entourage, had ridden out and found the Freefighters at drill. After sitting his horse by Hehluh’s in the hot sun, swatting at flies and knowledgeably discussing the strengths and weaknesses of pike formations and the proper marshaling of infantry, Pahvlos had actually dismounted and hunkered in the dust of the drill field to sketch with a homy forefinger positions and movements of an intricate maneuver.

To Tomos Gonsalos, Pahvlos remarked, “It’s basically a good unit you command, here, Colonel. I’d take you and them just as they are now, were you not a mite shy of infantry and a mite over supplied with cavalry. To rectify that situation, I’ll be brigading your regiment with two more, all infantry, all veterans, too, no grassgreen plowboys.

“I think that both you and your other officers will get along well with Colonel Bizahros, who commands the Eighth Foot, from the outset; but Colonel Ahzprinos, commander of the reorganized Fifth Foot, is another matter entirely.

“Understand me, Lord Tomos, Ahzprinos is a good warrior, a fine commander in all ways, else I’d not choose him to serve under me. But he also is loud, brash and sometimes overbearing to the point of arrogance. Nonetheless, 1 can get along with him and I’ll be expecting my subordinates to do so too.”

And so, in the weeks that followed, the Confederation troops and the two regiments of former Southern Kingdom foot drilled and marched and drilled some more under the critical eye of Komees Pahvlos, while all awaited the arrival of the war-elephants from the far-western thoheekseeahnee where they had been bred and trained for centuries, making do in the meantime with the three beasts that had survived King Zastros’ disastrous march north.

These three survivors were not the huge, fully war-trained bull elephants now on the march from the west, but rather the smaller, more docile cow elephants, mostly utilized for draught purposes. That they were used by Komees Pahvlos at all was a testament to the extraordinary control of them exercised by the Horseclansman Gil Djohnz, who could get out of the three cows performances of an order that the old strahteegos had never before seen in all his long years of service with elephant-equipped armies. Watching Djohnz and his two

Horseclansmen assistants put the trio of elephants through their paces had reduced native Ehleenoee feelahksee to a state of despair and set them to mumbling darkly of sorcery and witchcraft.

The old commander was greatly impressed with Horseclansmen, in general, for never before had it been his pleasure to own such a splendid and versatile mounted force as the squadron of medium-heavy horse under Chief Pawl of Vawn. Southern Kingdom horse traditionally came in three varieties— light horse or lancers, heavy horse, most of whom were noblemen, and irregulars, who frequently were archers and usually recruited from the barbarian mountain tribes and were often undependable, to say the least.

But these nothem horsemen were very dependable; moreover, they could fulfill the functions of at least two of the three—they could lay down a heavy and accurate arrow storm, then case their bows and deliver a hard, effective charge against the unit their arrows had weakened and disorganized. Serving in conjunction with such troops, Pahvlos could easily ken just how they and their forefathers had so readily rolled over the armies of Kehnooryos Ehlahs, Karaleenos and assorted far-northern barbarian principalities.