The Water Road (38 page)

“No more than a mile across at the
widest point. Perhaps fifteen miles long.”

“What else do you know of it?”

“A small river flows out of the lake’s
southern end. The hills are fairly steep on either side, though they are easily
passable. The going would be slow, but possible. What else would you like to
know, jeyn?”

It sounded like it might work
nicely. “Can you lead us to it, Geban?” Antrey asked.

“I believe so,” he said. “I would
first need to know specifically where we are located now. Once I know that, I
can lead the column to the lake.”

“How many days do you think it
would take to reach it?”

“Five days, perhaps six, depending
on the conditions,” he said. Before she had a chance to ask another question,
he said, “Is that close enough, jeyn?”

Antrey nodded. “Yes, I think that
will be fine. We need not be in any great hurry.” None of the others objected
at this point, so Antrey considered the matter settled. “Return to your thek,
Geban. Tell him that you are now a part of my staff. Return here at daybreak.
Is that understood?”

“Yes, jeyn,” he said, his face
brightening. Whether at the chance to get away from Ilan or to work more
closely with her, she could not tell. “Thank you very much.” He turned and left
in a hurry.

Kajtan had remained silent while
Antrey interrogated Geban, but he could keep quiet no longer. “Jeyn Antrey,
would you please tell me what you plan to do with this lake?”

She smiled, enjoying the sensation
of being one step ahead of everyone else for a change.

~~~~~

Five days turned out to be an
optimistic estimate. The entire operation, from Geban’s survey to determine
their original position to the proper array of the column to weaving through
the foothills, took twice that long. To the outside world, Antrey presented
herself as a leader fuming at the incompetence of her underlings at the delay.
In truth, she was pleased to have more time to prepare and hone her plan. Once
she had explained it to her advisors, they were convinced of its promise, if
given to quibble over the details.

The rest of the theks and war
leaders were a more difficult audience, however. For the first time, Antrey
held a war council, sitting down with all seven theks and their war leaders.
They met in a small round tent that allowed Antrey to array them in a circle
around her, while she paced and talked and set forth the plan. Having all eyes
on her the entire time helped focus her mind and choose her words carefully.
Antrey was certain they would do what she asked of them. But she wanted them to
share that certainty, to strengthen their resolve and help them keep their own
warriors in form.

The delay also allowed Antrey to
prepare detailed plans for each part of the trap she was setting for the
Degans. It was by far the most ambitious plan she had ever conceived, requiring
flawless execution by several disparate groups. As best as she could, Antrey
mixed the warriors and commanders to avoid assigning any particular task to any
one particular clan. She thought a mixed force was less likely to run. It also
occurred to her that allowing any one clan the claim to have turned the battle
would make for increased tensions in the long run.

The column would move as one, in
its typical fashion, in full view of the Dagan scouts and spies. A keen eye
might have seen the display as a sign of a trap, but Antrey was counting on the
Dagan commanders to view it through their perception of her as inexperienced
and incapable as a leader. The column would march slowly to the west, around
the northern shore of the lake, and then to the south. It would make a large,
semipermanent camp on the shore about two-thirds down the length of the lake.
The location was picked based on Geban’s memory and for a very precise reason.
It was in a spot that offered little space between the frozen lake and the
steep hills to the west. Equally important, it was close enough to the opposite
shore to be seen with the naked eyes. Antrey hoped the Degans would see it as
an inviting target.

While the column moved south down
the lakeshore openly and notoriously, small groups of warriors would peel off
and disappear into the foothills. It was to be a constant trickle, such that by
the end of the march, several thousand warriors and a large number of cannon
would be hidden in the hills when camp was made.

The hardest part of the plan had
been convincing Hirrek and Naath that Antrey needed to be a part of the camp on
the shore of the lake. The safer place for her, clearly, was in the hills. If
something went wrong, if the whole plan blew up around her, she could be
secretly taken away to safety. But Antrey had convinced them she needed to be
in the main camp, visible to any who were looking in. She was unique amongst
the army, not due to her brilliance or strength, but by virtue of her birth.
From a distance, any one Neldathi warrior looked much like any other of his
clan. But each ranbren was unique. The Degans knew exactly what Antrey looked
like. If they could not see her in camp, they might suspect a trick of some
kind.

If the Degans had any suspicions
about what was going on, they hid it well. The reports from Antrey’s agents, if
accurate, said that the Dagan army trailed their column after they first broke
camp. When they reached the lake, the Dagan army mirrored the column’s movement
from the opposite side of the lake. From the western shore, Antrey could see
the Dagan cook fires across the lake. Surely they could see hers as well.

Now they were waiting. For what,
Antrey could not tell. After the ten days it had taken to maneuver into this
position, they had sat in camp for three more. On that third night, Antrey
wandered through the camp on the shore, making her presence known to friend and
foe alike. The waiting made her tense. The plan was to give the Degans such a
tempting target that they would jump on it once given the chance. The longer
everyone remained in place, the more second thoughts the Degans might have, the
more cautious their war leaders might be about what they were seeing. More than
a thousand warriors and two dozen cannon lay concealed in the hills behind her.
The trap was set perfectly. It would be a shame to put all that effort in for
nothing.

They would wait one more night,
perhaps two. If the Degans did not cross the lake by then, she would need to
think of another option.

~~~~~

The next morning dawned slowly, the
sun struggling to burn through the low mist that clung to the hillsides.
Although the fog did not cover the lake itself, it shrouded the land on either
side, including the column’s camp. It also kept Antrey and her sentries from
seeing what the Degans were doing on the opposite shore.

Naath found Antrey as she shared a
cup of bitter tea made from the bark of nearby trees with the old woman who was
tending the pot. She shivered, both against the cold, damp morning and the tea
itself.

“What are you doing here?” she
asked. “Didn’t I tell you and the rest of them to hang back in the hills until
it was safe?”

Naath stopped cold at the sharp
tone of the question. “I was looking for you. We can’t see much through the
fog.”

“You were worried about me,” Antrey
said. “Fine. I appreciate your concern, but…”

He cut her off. “We, the lot of us,
were worried about you. I was dispatched to find you, make sure you were safe,
and relay any new orders.” The old woman gave him a cup of tea. He took it,
obviously surprised to have been offered it.

She smiled in spite of herself. She
knew that Naath would not have set off on his own to allay his concerns about
her, even if she wished he might. She decided to trouble him for it. “So they
sent you, because…” she said, leaving the sentence open-ended.

“Because I’m useless up in the
hills, yes. I appreciate your recognition.”

She chuckled, enough that the old
woman picked up and did the same, even though she could not understand what
they were saying. “There are no new orders, of course,” she said, sipping her
tea. “How could there be? Nothing’s changed.” She nodded back towards the
hills. “How is the visibility up there?”

“Better than down here. At least we
can see up over this bank of fog and out over the lake.”

“So they can see when the Degans
attack this morning?”

“If they do, yes.”

Antrey took another sip and thought
for a moment. “In that case, there are new orders. Maybe ‘clarification’ is a
better word. Under no circumstances are the guns in the hills to open up until
the main body of the Dagan army is engaged on the shore. Assuming they attack
at all, of course. Is that clear?” It must have been, because she saw a look of
concern flash across Naath’s face. “The only way this plan will work is if the
Degans don’t know there are guns and men up in the hills. If they figure that
out, they will just turn and run back to the other shore. We need to suck them
in. Understand?”

He nodded. “I just wish this fog
would lift. At least then you can see what’s coming.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, trying to
be reassuring. “We’ll be fine. Sacrifices will have to be made. But when this
is over, there will be no division among these people.”

Naath smirked. “Among people that
are neither mine nor yours.” He handed the nearly full cup of tea back to the
old woman. “I’ll report back to the others.” He started to walk away, into the
fog, but stopped before he disappeared completely. “Take care of yourself.”

“You, too,” she said, then watched
the fog swallow him whole as he walked back to the hills.

Once Naath was gone, Antrey handed her
empty cup back to the old woman and began walking through the camp, making sure
everyone was awake, alert, and had their weapons at the ready. The rifles were
all in the hills, with the cannon. The warriors on the beach that would meet
the Degans face to face would be wielding a mixture of spears, bows, and axes.
Two groups of musketeers, with weapons secured by Naath and his Islander
contacts, held the flanks. All they needed to do was hold the Degans for a few
moments, if the Degans attacked at all.

An hour later, just as the fog
began to lift, they did.

At first there was an odd rush of
sound. Not footsteps, exactly, given the lake’s frozen surface. But there was
definitely something in the air that preceded the Degans’ shrill battle cry.
When she heard those cries, Antrey did as she promised Hirrek and all the
others. She hid. She had planned to take cover in a clutch of large rocks near
the edge of the camp, but the attack caught her out of position. With
surefooted strides she moved swiftly towards the hills, jumping behind a tree
that had been felled to provide extra cover.

Four warriors with bows were
already there when she vaulted the fallen tree and crouched behind it. “Now is
the time,” she said in her best and most commanding Neldathi, trying to
reassure them. They looked at her nervously, then at each other. Without saying
anything, they peeked over the tree and began to loose arrows at the onrushing
Degans.

From down the shoreline, Antrey could
hear the ragged firing of the musketeers. Instead of furious bursts of massed
shot, they sounded like they were firing in rapid succession, one after the
other. She knew from her reading that massed fire was critical for muskets to
have any impact. Individual aiming was useless, given their limited accuracy
and range. But Neldathi warriors and hunters, raised on bows and, in some
instances, deadly accurate long-range rifles, were not quick to adopt a
strategy that ran counter to their traditions. She would have to do better with
them in the near future, Antrey knew.

The swirl of warriors in battle,
the swinging of blades, and the zip of arrows stirred the fog and made it begin
to thin out. It parted enough that Antrey could see that the Dagan force was
fully engaged. Peering out over her protective cover, she quickly processed
what she was seeing. Unless the Degans were holding back a significant reserve
force, this was the extent of their army. And it was just where Antrey needed
it to be to spring the trap. She turned and looked at the hills behind her and
waited.

The screams of warriors on both
sides, in addition to the arrows that now dug deeply into the tree, made the
fight seem much larger and more visceral than Antrey anticipated. In her mind
she had seen a swift and mostly bloodless affair, any great loss of life being
avoided thanks to her clever plan. That hope had been naive, she realized now.
Now her best hope was that the carnage playing out on the shore would be kept
to a minimum and could be overcome later.

Birkthir and Kajtan must have seen
the same thing Antrey did. Just a few moments later, the deep booming sound of
cannon fire ripped from the hillside. Only after the second round of fire did
Antrey dare step up from behind her hiding place to see if the volleys were
having the desired effect. To her relief, they were. Rather than fire down on
the shore where the fighting was taking place, which would have killed friend
and foe indiscriminately, the cannon had fired over the fray completely. The
cannon balls plunged into the lake behind the Degans, through the ice, without
hitting a single person.