Hours before the attack on the Sem encampment, the Mongauli army had made its preparations, commands flying swiftly among the ranks as they gathered in the darkness.
“Quiet! Don’t make a sound!”
“No talking!”
“Keep the horses silent. Bind their muzzles with cloth so they don’t neigh.”
“Be careful with those swords. Don’t let ’em clang on your armor.”
“Soldiers, see that the wheels of those carts are well-oiled!”
Then, even as the orderlies continued to scurry back and forth with last minute directives, the massive force swung solemnly into motion. Astrias rode at the head of the vanguard, with Pollak at his side. Earlier the young captain had volunteered for scouting duty and had had the good fortune to locate the hiding place of the united Sem tribes. For the first time he had won Amnelis' unqualified praise. Now he was as jumpy as a young colt; he knew, as did every member of the grim army around him, that the coming battle would be the final one—or at least it was sure to lead to a grand confrontation.
We won’t let them escape again.
We will fight to the finish. This day will be remembered as the day the last Sem fell.
When this battle is over, we will be able to return to dear Mongaul, across the waters of the Kes.
Throughout the army each warrior’s thoughts were different, but the mood in the hearts of all was the same. All had heard the orders that outlined the battle plan:
“The entire army will halt before reaching the oasis where the Sem are camped, and separate into two forces. One of the forces will move to the north of the oasis to block the Sem’s retreat, while the main force will attack the Sem’s encampment from the south side. Captain Irrim will command the blocking force, and he will take care to arrange his soldiers in a wide crescent to prevent any Sem from slipping away to the east or the west as well. In the unexpected event that the Sem become aware of our forces before the deployment is complete, a trumpet will sound. In that case the entire army will attack immediately from the south, but Captain Irrim will drive straight through the Sem’s forces, reform his troop, and maneuver to intercept the wildlings’ retreat as originally planned.
“It is of the utmost importance that the Sem are given no chance to prepare themselves for the battle. Once the order to charge is given, all soldiers will advance furiously to attack, and destroy the barbarians completely. None are to be left alive, except for the leopard-headed monster, the traitor Eru of Argon, and the twins of Parros—those four shall be taken captive. But all of the Sem must perish. The very shape of the Sem shall be erased forever from Nospherus!”
The wrathful words simmered with the desire for revenge that burned in Amnelis' heart. Yet for all the fury that drove it, the advancing army moved cautiously, its maneuvers coordinated to maintain the advantage of surprise against the Sem. Astrias' red knights rode at the vanguard, followed by the Alvon red who had lost their commander Leegan. Behind them came the subdued black knights of Talos Keep, with the injured Tangard riding in the rear. Vlon and Lindrot led the white knights, Amnelis' direct command, its gleaming ranks still two thousand strong and almost untouched by the fighting. Lady Amnelis rode in their midst with her two runecasters and their portable shrines, with Feldrik’s handpicked knights as her personal guard. Next came the badly mauled ranks of the footmen, and then finally Irrim’s corps at the rear. These last had to be careful not only to watch out behind them for Sem scouts, but also to be alert for the more monstrous denizens of Nospherus such as the sandworms that were a constant peril.
As the army advanced, the cloth-muffled hooves of the horses raised a dancing haze of dust in the moonless gloom of the desert night. The soldiers marched in silence, afraid lest they make any noise that could draw the attention of wildling sentinels. Like an enormous, mute serpent, the invasion force wended its way through the darkness, trailing a wake of fine sand that hung like a deeper shadow behind them.
Once, the Mongauli troops had formed a mighty army of fifteen thousand, led by eight lord-captains including the renowned Count Marus. But that was before they had left the familiar line of the River Kes and struck deeply into Nospherus, battling strange enemies at every turn. Now Count Marus and Viscount Leegan were dead, and Captain Tangard was wounded, and the army’s numbers had fallen to less than ten thousand. Nonetheless they made a proud army as they began their latest journey.
“Did I underestimate Nospherus?”
“Lady?”
Palanquins conveyed the runecasters on either side of the white horse which Amnelis rode; to her left the curtains of one lifted a little to reveal the dull gleam of eyes. A low voice spoke from within.
“Did you say something, my lady?”
“It is nothing, Gajus. I was talking to myself.”
Amnelis raised her reins and waved him back. A commander-in-chief should show no doubt or indecisiveness as she rode to a battle, not even to her staff. Such matters could be discussed later, in the privacy of the command pavilion. The lady pulled her visor down and spoke in a bare whisper only she herself could hear.
“This land is as vast as it is barren. Endless sand, and endless stone… It is too vast! If I had more than fifteen thousand —if I had one hundred thousand, or more—it would have been easier. Who could have foreseen such resistance from the Sem? Now little is left of our supplies of food and water. If this desert fighting is prolonged much more by Sem resistance, we will need to fall back to a defensive line. We might even need to consider returning home, but that’s the last thing I want, that would make our work here almost pointless. If we retreat, the Sem are bound to regather their forces and escape to the northern mountains. That would destroy our morale. It would be like building a castle in the sand, to see it blown away in the wind.”
“Gajus,” Amnelis lifted her visor a little bit and pitched her voice softly so it wouldn’t carry far.
“Yes?”
“Gajus, what do you think? Do you think it would be wise to send a small troop under Feldrik back to the river to meet the troops waiting there, and return with the reinforcements which should be at Alvon by now?”
“Well…”
“Or should I instruct them instead to establish a supply line? I don’t want this difficult campaign to drag on. If we are successful in defeating the Sem this time, we can return to our defense line, and I want to start afresh building a fort. To be honest with you, I’m concerned about Torus. And I am anxious, too, about the crystal city. Count Polan was made proxy commander of the Parros occupation suddenly and without preparation. And right before we left the Crystal Palace, I had begun to see signs that the remnants of Parros' soldiery had established a force of partisans to resist the occupation.” Amnelis slipped her hand beneath her helmet and pushed back her blond hair in annoyance. “Yes, all that is making me somewhat anxious.”
“Indeed, my lady,” Gajus said in a flat contemplative voice. “As to your question… Perhaps the fighting here will all be settled by the time any reinforcements could arrive. And if it is not, then I think that even with reinforcements it would be difficult to exterminate the Sem with their forces scattered across this desert.”
“You are saying that it’s not necessary to send for reinforcements yet.”
Amnelis felt somewhat heartened by his words. He seemed to have drawn conclusions similar to her own.
Gajus continued: “My lady, if you wish at least to send the reinforcements at Alvon a message, you must advise them that the situation is always changing; they would need to be prepared to move at any time. It would be difficult to predict where they should meet us.”
“Yes. That’s what I was thinking, also. The running battles we are fighting confuse directions rather quickly. Yet it would be wise, at least, to let the backup force know our current location.” Amnelis spoke as if in deep thought. “As you know, we have come deep into the interior of this country—we can no longer even see a shadow of the Kes River in the distance. Yet this is only one step into the desert. We still haven’t located the valley that Cal Moru speaks of. This wasteland must continue far beyond the stony mountains. Gajus, Nospherus is truly vast.”
“Indeed, it is vast.”
Amnelis seemed on the verge of saying more, but after a moment she reconsidered, and spurred her horse on ahead. Heavy silence enveloped the command group once again.
The advance continued. The desert spread out before the army in gentle undulations, like the calm surface of a dark ocean. Even as the Mongauli neared the oasis that was their goal the land did not appear to change, creating a feeling of unreality for the advancing men that was only broken by an occasional shrill shriek or other disconcerting noise. Once, a soldier screamed as he was grasped and pulled under by the long feeler of a mouth-of-the-desert. Another time, a crashing sound broke the quiet as one of the vanguard thrust his spear through a bigeater that had appeared silently from the darkness; the knight pulled his weapon free only to have the bigeater bite it in half with a dry snap and then disappear as noiselessly as it had come.
“Quiet!”
Every time the silence was broken, the offenders were sharply reprimanded, with little sympathy shown even to those who had fallen victim to some monster of the desert. Without realizing it, the Mongauli had slowly grown accustomed to the ways of Nospherus and the strange deformed creatures that prowled its wastes. And so, steadily, the army marched on, jealously guarding its cocoon of quiet. The only sounds tolerated were the low voices of messengers sent by Amnelis to relay orders. Reports of directions and words of encouragement for the soldiers, these murmured messages made no echo in the desert. A strange stillness, like the calm before a storm, had settled over Nospherus. Nights in the wasteland were usually as quiet as death, but on this night in particular the silence was felt keenly by the Mongauli. It carried with it the menace of the madness of battle that was expected before sunrise.