Manly Wade Wellman - Novel 1986 by Cahena (v3.1) Read Free Book Online Page B

Ketriazar, shifting his pitted face in the fireglow. “We’ve beaten the
Moslems with two javelins apiece before this.”
    “If I’m allowed to advise you —” began Wulf.
    “You’re here to advise us,” the Cahena assured
him. “You seem to know various fighting methods.”
    “I say that each man should have several
javelins,” insisted Wulf. “Four, perhaps five.”
    “Five?” repeated Bhakrann. “When we all hit our
marks?”
    “You don’t all hit your marks,” Wulf said flatly.
“Yesterday we fought those scouts. Four of you threw javelins, and only two
went home. That’s only half of you hitting the mark.”
    “Hai!”
cried Bhakrann. It might have been agreement, it might have been embarrassment.
    “It takes time to make a javelin,” put in
Ketriazar. “It needs as much skill to make it as to use it. We can’t make more
just now.” He drank wine. “You say they have bows and arrows. What else?”
    “Swords,” said Wulf. “Good swords.”
    “Here’s a Moslem sword,” said Mallul, baring his
weapon to gleam in the firelight. “We’ve taken a number of their swords.”
    “How well do you use them?” Wulf inquired.
    “None of us as well as you do ,”
answered Bhakrann for them all. “My brothers, this Wulf’s sword strikes like a
snake. I’ve seen him at work.”
    “It will be javelins against swords,” said Wulf.
“Again I say , I wish we had more javelins to strike
them and leave fewer to bring their swords close.”
    “You talk like one of us.” Yaunis smiled. “You’ve
been here just long enough to eat and drink, but you sound Imazighen.”
    “You want to beat the Moslems and so do I,”
returned Wulf. “That makes some kind of kinship.”
    “I’ll vouch for Wulf,” said Bhakrann. “I’ve liked
him from when I first saw him handle weapons and heard him speak. Cahena, let me say that whoever distrusts him does the same
to me.”
    “You don’t have to say that, Bhakrann,” her soft
voice replied. “We need Wulf, to help destroy as much of this advance party as
we can, leave only a few to run back and tell Carthage how badly they were beaten, and give us a chance to gather
our own big army. I’ve already sent messengers to alert the men from everywhere
on Arwa, from Thrysdus south of here, from the towns on the coast. Because the
Moslems think that if they wipe us out, there’ll be no more danger to them.”
    “I was there when Bhakrann killed Okba,” said
Ketriazar, deep in his chest. “I was there when we killed Zoheir. I’ll be there
when we beat them this time.”
    The Cahena’s burning eyes roved around the circle.
“If we’re through eating, I’ll say good night.”
    They got to their feet, Wulf among them.
    “Stay here, Wulf,” she bade him. “I want to talk
more.”
    The others filed out without speaking. The Cahena
motioned for Wulf to sit down again. She leaned intently toward him.
    “Some of those chiefs were slow to believe you,
but I believe you,” she said. “My voices say that you are wise and brave. You’re
right about the javelins, though we can’t get those just now. But tell me about
the Moslem horses.”
    “You know by now that their horses are good,” he
said. “Horses from Arabia , better in most ways than yours. I know that your horses
live hard and can travel, but the Moslems have bigger ones, stronger in a
charge. I got out of Carthage on a captured Arabian horse, and it’s better for war than
any of those in Bhakrann’s party that found me.”
    “What’s the Moslem way of battle?”
    “In the open, they like to form a long line of
horsemen and charge, with more close columns behind, ready to gallop for any
point where they can help the most. They close on the flanks if they can, to
crumple the enemy formation.”
    “We’ll keep them from doing that,” she said.
“We’ll choose the ground this side of the pass and let them ride out to us.”
    “You’re right, Cahena,” said Wulf.
    She smiled at him.