The Elder Gods: Book One of the Dreamers

by Leigh Eddings

  “It’s not quite as bad as I thought, then,” Hook-Beak said with obvious relief. He looked at Longbow. “You said that you had an idea that might keep our enemies penned up in those ruins so that they won’t be able to interfere while we’re running away.”

  “Retreating, Sorgan,” Narasan corrected in a pained tone. “It’s called retreating.”

  “It’s the same thing, isn’t it? What’s this idea of yours, Longbow?”

  “Your armies came up here along those benches on both sides of the ravine, Hook-Beak,” Longbow replied, “and it appears that those imitation villages Red-Beard just pointed out to us were built at about the same time that the stairway at the gap was built, and they were in places where our enemies could watch anyone moving in the ravine. It’s all starting to fit together now. The stairway was built to deceive us. The imitation villages were probably intended to be the places where the enemy’s main attacks would originate. It would seem that this plan has been in the works for centuries, but it would also seem that the idea of people moving along the rims hadn’t occurred to them. The benches are easier and more convenient, but people can move along up on the rims if it’s necessary.”

  “You and your people would know more about that than we would, Longbow,” Commander Narasan said. “We came up along the benches.”

  “And I’m certain that the Vlagh had serpent-people hiding in all those imitation towns high up in the sides of the ravine, watching while you did,” Longbow added. “Now, if a fair number of your men started to go back down the ravine along those benches, the enemy would believe that your entire armies were returning to Lattash by the same route they used to come up here to the head of the ravine, wouldn’t they?”

  “That sounds logical,” Narasan admitted.

  “The imitation towns that conceal the cave mouths are tucked back under overhanging ledges,” Longbow continued, “so Commander Narasan’s men weren’t able to see the ones above them when they came up along the south bench, but Captain Hook-Beak’s men on the north bench could, isn’t that right?”

  “I think I see where you’re going, Longbow,” Commander Narasan said. “Evidently, the enemies who built those forts didn’t realize that eventually we’d develop ways to communicate with each other over long distances. When my people up on the south rim see one of the enemy forts on the north side of the ravine, they can signal Keselo, and when Hook-Beak’s people see one on my side, Keselo can signal me. Even though we won’t be able to see the forts, we’ll know exactly where they are.”

  “Right,” Longbow said. “Now, when Rabbit, Keselo, and I climbed up the north side of the ravine to have a closer look at that first cluster of buildings, we found a spot that was slightly above it and a little way off to one side. We could see almost all of the village from there, and I noticed a similar place over on the other side of the village. If I position well-hidden bowmen on both sides of the ruin, they’ll wait until the enemy charges down the slope to attack your decoy army down on the bench, and then they’ll shower arrows down on them from behind. A few enemies might roll down as far as the bench, but they’ll already be dead, so they won’t cause too many problems.” He paused, tugging thoughtfully at one earlobe. “I think we might want to position a fair number of your soldiers armed with poison-tipped spears between the bowmen and the enemies,” he added. “We wouldn’t want our enemies to interfere with the bowmen while they’re busy. Then, after the bowmen have eliminated most of the enemies, your soldiers can charge into the village from both sides and kill off the rest. Then we can pull down all the imitation buildings and block off the cave so that any enemies hiding back in there won’t be able to come out and cause us any problems.”

  “Remind me never to get involved in a war when you’re on the other side, Longbow,” Commander Narasan said.

  “It’s not really too complicated, Rabbit,” Keselo explained early the following morning as the two of them hurried along the north rim of the ravine in advance of Sorgan’s army. “There are about twenty signals, and most of them are concerned with dangers of one kind or another. If I wave my flag from side to side over my head, it means danger. Then the next signal tells the one who’s reading my signals just exactly where the danger’s located. If I wave the flag up and down on my right side, the enemy force is off to the right, and if I wave it to the left, the danger’s there.”

  “That makes sense,” Rabbit said.

  “Then, if I want my friends to stop right where they are, I wave the flag back and forth at about the level of my knees. You need to exaggerate quite a bit if you’re some distance away, because once you get more than a half mile off, your friend’s going to have trouble seeing you.”

  “That might be all right in the daytime, Keselo,” Rabbit said, “but after the sun goes down, you’re out of business, aren’t you?”

  Keselo laughed. “Actually, it’s easier at night. We use torches when it’s dark, and torches are very visible. Stay sort of close, Rabbit. I’m sure we’ll be passing a lot of signals back and forth across the ravine, and I’ll translate them for you as we go along.”

  “Isn’t it sort of dangerous to use these signals during a war?” Rabbit asked. “I mean, if the signalers in every army know exactly what each signal means, won’t you be giving things away that you’d rather they didn’t know about?”

  “That’s no problem, Rabbit. There are only so many signals, but each Trogite army has its own set of meanings. I might see an enemy soldier waving a flag, but I’d have no idea at all about what he’s saying, and we usually change the meanings of the signals quite often—particularly during a war.”

  “You Trogites just love complications, don’t you?”

  “It makes life more interesting, Rabbit. Doing things the same way over and over gets sort of boring after a while.”

  4

  A very tall Maag was standing beside the white snag Keselo knew to be just above the enemy’s village. “What are you doing up here, Tree-Top?” Rabbit asked the lanky sailor.

  “The cap’n told me to run on ahead,” Tree-Top replied. “I’m supposed to keep a lookout for Trogite flag-wavers on the other side of the ravine. There’s one over there right now, and he’s flopping that flag back and forth about something. Maybe your young friend here can figure out what he’s trying to tell us.”

  Keselo shaded his eyes with one hand and peered across the ravine. “He’s trying to tell us that the ruins are directly below us,” he explained.

  “We sort of knew that already,” Rabbit said. “That dead tree’s right here.”

  “Yes, I know,” Keselo said, still peering across the ravine, “but we need to know where the edges are.” He raised his flag and pointed inquiringly to the west with it.

  The signalman across the ravine turned to face the west and jabbed a few times with his flag.

  Keselo began to pace off some distance to the west, keeping a close eye on his counterpart across the ravine. When the signalman on the south rim sharply struck the ground with his flag, Keselo stopped. “Mark this spot, Rabbit,” he instructed. Then he went back to the snag and moved east until the signalman on the other side told him to stop.

  “Mark this place too, Rabbit,” he instructed. Then he passed his flag back and forth between his hands.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Rabbit asked.

  “I was thanking him,” Keselo explained. “It’s a way to let him know that I’ve received his message and that I’m ready if he wants to tell me anything else.”

  “You can say a lot more with that flag than I thought you could,” Rabbit observed.

  “That sort of depends on who’s waving the other flag,” Keselo replied. “The man across the ravine was my teacher, Sergeant Grolt. He was a bit rough, but when he teaches, you learn. A few cuffs along the side of your head tend to get your immediate attention.”

  “I can imagine,” Rabbit replied. “Here comes Longbow and the cap’n.”

  Keselo turned and saw the archer
and the pirate coming down the rim of the ravine.

  “Is this it?” Hook-Beak called.

  “This is the place, sir,” Keselo replied. “The eastern edge of the village is directly below this marker, and the western edge is below the marker on past the dead snag.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “The man across the river is, and he can see the village from over there.”

  Sorgan went to the edge of the ravine and peered on down. “I don’t think we’ll be able to go down right here, Longbow,” he said. “It’s too steep. We’ll have to find a place a bit farther back up the rim.”

  Longbow nodded. “See what the man on the other side has to say, Keselo,” he suggested.

  Keselo raised his flag and made several signals. Then he added a sort of circular motion.

  “What’s that one mean?” Rabbit asked.

  “It tells him that I’m asking a question,” Keselo replied. “My teacher over there invented the signal himself, and I always try to use it at least once during every conversation. It doesn’t cost me anything, and it makes him feel good.” Keselo was carefully watching the signals Sergeant Grolt was passing over to him.

  “He tells me that there’s a place where we can go down the bank about a hundred paces to the east, Captain Hook-Beak,” Keselo advised. “He says that we should be able to slip into position without alerting the enemy.”

  “Why don’t you go on down to the west marker and see if he can spot a good place for our people to go down on that side, too?” Hook-Beak suggested.

  “Right,” Keselo agreed.

  “Rabbit,” Hook-Beak said then, “go on back up the rim a ways and then drop on down to the bench. Tell Ox to hold up. We don’t want him to come into sight until we’re all in place. Then get back up here. I think I’ll need you with us.”

  “Aye, Cap’n,” Rabbit agreed.

  The pirate Hook-Beak led his men down along the narrow creek bed Longbow and his archers were following to reach the position the signalman across the ravine had chosen for them. Keselo stayed close to Hook-Beak and intently watched Sergeant Grolt for further instructions. As he moved along, he realized that the term pirate might not really be appropriate in this particular situation, but all throughout his childhood and early years in Commander Narasan’s army, he’d heard the word pirate in all references to the Maags. Hook-Beak had some rough edges, there was no question about that, but he cared for his men and did all that he could for them. That was the mark of a true leader, as Commander Narasan always said.

  “Let’s hold up here,” Sorgan said quietly. “Let Longbow’s archers get into place first. Then we’ll move into a good position to protect them. Our job here’s to keep the enemy soldiers away from the archers, since they’re the ones who’ll do most of the killing—right at first, anyway. Keselo, I want you, Rabbit, and Longbow to stay close to each other. We’re going to be passing messages back and forth between several groups over here, and probably some from this side of the ravine to Narasan’s flagman over on the other side. So I want you three all in one place where I can find you in a hurry. Ham-Hand’s in charge on the other side of this enemy fort, and we’ll want the arrows to start flying all at the same time. When everything’s ready here, I’ll give you the word and you can wave your flag for our friend across the ravine, and somebody over there will give Ox a toot. Narasan and I worked that out before we started. We don’t want any toots coming from this side until we attack. When Ox hears the horn, he’ll come marching down the bench like he didn’t have a care in the world. That should set off the enemy charge. We’ll let Longbow decide when to start shooting arrows, and if your friend over across the ravine sees any enemies charging in our direction, he can signal you, and we’ll be ready for them. Have you got all that straight?”

  “Aye, Cap’n,” Keselo said in a fair imitation of Rabbit’s usual response to Hook-Beak’s commands.

  Sorgan flashed him a quick grin.

  They all seemed to have lost most of their fear of the poison-fanged servants of That-Called-the-Vlagh for some reason. Their long, poison-tipped spears provided an almost perfect defense, and their growing realization of the severely limited intelligence of the venomous creatures of the Wasteland had given them a growing confidence that this war would turn out to be one of the easy ones.

  Keselo was a bit dubious about that, however. He was almost certain that there might still be a few unpleasant surprises awaiting them.

  Keselo and Rabbit moved ahead to join Longbow at the head of the Dhrall archers quietly moving down the dry streambed, and it wasn’t too long until the flagman across the ravine made a chopping motion with his flag. “This is the place, Longbow,” Keselo whispered.

  Longbow signaled for a halt and then moved quietly up the side of the streambed to look. Then he came back down. “Familiar spot,” he murmured. “We’ve been here before.”

  “You mean it’s the place where we went to have a look last time?” Rabbit asked quietly.

  Longbow nodded. “I’ll move my bowmen up around to the back side of the knoll on the east side of this streambed, where we looked down at the enemy position, and Sorgan and his men can stay hidden here in the streambed. The tall grass up on the knoll should conceal my bowmen, and Sorgan’s men can stay hidden here in this dry wash. We’ll all be out of sight—until Ox comes down the ravine. Then the enemy will start seeing more of us than he was really ready to see. Let’s get into position,” he added. “We still have work to do.”

  A horn sounded from the far side of the ravine to give the burly Ox his marching orders, and Sorgan led his men farther down the dry wash.

  “This is the place, Cap’n,” Rabbit said quietly. “Longbow’s archers are moving around to the backside of this knoll just behind us, and when Ox comes into sight down there on the bench, the enemies are most likely going to charge down the slope to try to kill everybody down there. I don’t think they’ll go very far before Longbow’s arrows start raining down on them, though. Then they’ll see all those archers up on the rise, and they’ll probably change their minds and try to charge Longbow instead of Ox. That’s where we come in. This creek bed’s between the enemies and Longbow’s archers, so the enemies have to get past us before they can get to Longbow.”

  Sorgan grunted, squinting down the wash. “This is a good position,” he observed. “Your friend on the other side of the ravine’s got a good eye for this sort of thing, Keselo.”

  “Sergeant Grolt’s a veteran, Captain,” Keselo replied. “He’s been through more wars than he can even count.”

  Sorgan waved his men on in. “Keep the noise down,” he said quietly to one of the bulky ship captains who led the first detachment. “That enemy fort’s not too far to the west of us, and we don’t want them to know that we’re here.”

  “I know what I’m doing, Hook-Beak,” the Maag replied. “You don’t have to lead me around by the hand.”

  “Then go do what you’re supposed to do and get out from underfoot,” Sorgan told him.

  Keselo suppressed a sudden urge to laugh. Military courtesy seemed to be an alien sort of concept to the Maags.

  “I think you two need to be someplace where you can see what’s happening just a little better,” Sorgan suggested. “I want you to be able to see your friend across the ravine, Keselo, and Rabbit needs to watch the enemy charge. I want to know as soon as they change direction, so sing out.”

  “Aye, Cap’n,” Rabbit replied, squinting at Longbow’s knoll just behind the streambed. “There, I think,” he said, pointing at a rocky outcropping about halfway up the knoll. “What with the tall grass and those boulders, we should be pretty much out of sight, but we’ll still be able to see most everything, and it’s well within shouting distance.”

  Sorgan shrugged. “Whatever works best,” he said.

  Rabbit led Keselo a way back up the creek bed until the rock shelf that loomed out over the enemy fort concealed them, and then they crawled back through the tall grass on the si
de of the knoll until they reached the rocky outcropping that stood midway between Sorgan and Longbow. “What do you think?” Rabbit whispered to Keselo. “Can you see everything you need to?”

  Keselo raised his head slowly up out of the grass. “It looks good,” he replied. “If I need to signal, I can slip around the rocks until I’m out of sight of the enemy.”

  “This is the place, then,” Rabbit said. “All we have to do now is wait.”

  “What else is new and different?” Keselo replied.

  There was a bend in the river at the bottom of the ravine just below the enemy fort, which may have had something to do with the positioning of the decoy village. Ox came striding around the bend on the north bench, and Keselo noted that the Maags trooping along behind him were probably the biggest men in Sorgan’s army and they were all armed with twenty-foot-long spears. There was a certain logic there, but Keselo wasn’t really certain that the servants of the Vlagh would even notice the size of the men they’d been ordered to attack.

  He looked quickly at the enemy fort, but there weren’t any enemies in sight. He was certain that they were watching, but they weren’t making any moves as yet.

  “What’s keeping them?” Rabbit demanded tensely.

  “They’re probably holding back until there are more Maags just below them,” Keselo replied. “They wouldn’t want too many of Hook-Beak’s soldiers to escape.”

  Then Keselo saw some movement back in the shadows under the overhanging rock ledge that concealed the enemy fort. “I think they’re coming out,” he said.

  “Well, it’s about time,” Rabbit replied.

  Then a thunderous roar echoed out from the shadows at the back of the fort, and a mass of small hooded enemies burst out of the shadows, spilled through the ancient ruins, and began to pour through the breaks in the front wall to charge down the steep side of the ravine toward the bench.

  “Longbow!” Rabbit shouted.