The Thunder King (Bell Mountain) by Lee Duigon Read Free Book Online

found in her.”
    He tried to answer. “Nanny, I hardly think God would ask a soldier to desert his post and a general not to do his duty.” But she didn’t hear him.
    “Soldiers’ valor cannot save this city,” she said, “nor will I help those who help the ungodly. I have set my face against this people, for they have made My house a house of merchandise. Will you buy and sell the name of God? Your priests speak lies in My name, but I shall speak their destruction.”
    She stopped when Rhianna came into the room.
    “I just dropped in so you could see I’m all right and know we won our battle,” Gwyll said. “But I have a High Council meeting before I can have my supper.”
    She threw herself into his arms, and they held each other close.
    “You’ve always been a soldier,” she said, “but this is the first time you’ve come home for supper the same day that you fought a battle. I never thought the enemy would ever get this far.”
    “One of their armies, at least, won’t be getting any farther,” Gwyll said. Rhianna kissed him and sent him to his meeting. As he shut the front door behind him, he heard Nanny resume her ranting. For once he was glad he had a council meeting to go to.
     

     
    Even Lord Ruffin was elated by the victory. He grinned and rubbed his hands together.
    “Gave them a good dusting, didn’t we!” he said. “Well done, Lord Gwyll!”
    “Thank you, Governor-general.” Gwyll looked around the council chamber, saw an empty seat at the big table. “Where’s Lord Chutt?”
    The oligarch in charge of revenue, said Ruffin, had gone off on an emergency inspection tour of the northern towns and cities.
    “He ran away,” added Judge Tombo. “We’ll have to replace him.”
    “Which means we’re all here and ready to hear your report, Lord Gwyll,” Ruffin said. “Please be seated. We don’t want to keep you longer than necessary.”
    This was the executive chamber, down the corridor from the oligarchs’ assembly hall in the great, domed building that dominated Government Plaza. The dome, nearly two hundred years old, was sheathed with copper that had turned green. Most of the oligarchs were in the city now, but this meeting was for the ruling council only. It was every oligarch’s dream to sit at the polished hardwood table in this room.
    The council wanted to know how Obann’s troops had performed in the battle, their level of morale and execution of maneuver.
    “They did as well as can be expected, given that some units haven’t yet completed their training,” Gwyll said. “But the cavalry needs work: the Wallekki rode rings around them. Thank God our infantry was strong. The enemy line crumpled as soon as the first rank of our spearmen hit it, and after that, they all lost heart and fled. It was more of a pursuit than a battle.”
    “How did the new crossbow unit do?” Lord Davensay asked. He was in charge of commerce, but took an amateur’s interest in military matters.
    “They’ll do better firing down from the walls with battlements to lean on. Longbows are better for fending off cavalry.”
    “One expects barbarians to fold when they come up against trained and disciplined troops,” Judge Tombo said. Next to him, Lord Reesh sat looking at his own hands folded in his lap. He hadn’t said a word.
    “My lord, they can afford to lose ten men for every man we lose,” Gwyll said. “They mean to put our city to the siege, and be assured that they will do it. They have excellent siege machinery, and plenty of it: too much for the walls of Cardigal. Those machines throw fire. Our whole populace must be organized into fire-fighting districts. This work is in progress, but it is not yet done.”
    “My men will have the people ready in time,” Tombo said.
    “For all our sakes, I hope so,” Gwyll said. “My lords, the army we defeated today arrived too far ahead of the others and was punished for it. We won’t be able to take the field when they outnumber us ten