Shadow Games

Chapter Thirty-four: TO GHOJA

It was worse than I thought it would be. The mud seemed bottomless. The first day out of Taglios, after a cheering parade, we made twelve miles. I did not feel desperate. But the road was better nearer the city. After that it got worse. Eleven miles the next day, nine each of the three days following. We made that good a time only because we had the elephants along.

The day I wanted to reach the Ghoja ford I was still thirty miles away.

Then Shifter came, wearing his wolf shape, prancing in out of the wilds.

The rains had ended but the sky remained overcast, so the ground did not dry. The sun was no ally.

Shifter came with a smaller companion. It looked as though his understudy had caught on to shifting.

He spent an hour with Lady before we moved out. Then he galloped away again.

Lady did not look cheerful.

"Bad news?"

"The worst. They've put one over on us, maybe."

I did not betray the sudden tightness in my innards. "What?"

"Recall the map of the Main. Between Numa and Ghoja there's that low area that floods."

I pictured it. For twelve miles the river ran through an area flanked by plains that flooded whenever the river rose more than a few feet. At its highest stage it could be fourteen miles wide there, with most of the flooding on the southern side. That plain became a huge reservoir, and was the reason the Numa ford became crossable before the Ghoja. But the last I'd heard it was mostly drained.

"I know it. What about it?"

"Ever since they took the south bank the Shadowmasters have been building a levee, from the downriver end, right along the normal bank. It's something that's been talked about for ages. The Prahbrindrah wanted to do it, to claim the plain for farming. But he couldn't afford the labor. The Shadowmasters don't have that problem. They have fifty thousand prisoners on it, Taglians who didn't get across the river last year and enemies from their old territories. No one's paid any attention because the project is one of those things that anyone who could would do."

"But?"

"But. They've gotten the levee run out eight miles to the east. That's not as huge a deal as it sounds because it only needs to be about ten feet tall. Every half mile they put in a larger filled area, maybe a hundred fifty yards to a side, like towers along a wall. They keep the prisoners camped there and use the platforms for materials dumps."

"I don't see where you're going."

"Shifter noticed that they'd stopped extending the levee but they were still stockpiling materials. Then he figured it out. They're going to dam the river, partially. Just enough to divert water into the flood plain so they can drop the level at the Ghoja ford sooner than we expect."

I thought about it. It was a cunning bit of business, and entirely practical. The Company had done a trick or two with rivers in its time. All it had to do was give them a day. If they got across unchallenged we were sunk. "The sneaky bastards. Can we get there in time?"

"Maybe. Even probably, considering you didn't wait to leave Taglios. But at the rate we're going it'll be just barely in time and we'll be worn out from fighting the mud."

"Have they started damming yet?"

"They start that this morning, Shifter says. It should take them two days to get the fill in and one more to divert enough water."

"Will it affect Numa?"

"Not for a week. The water will keep dropping there for now. Shifter's guess is they'll cross at Numa the day before they do at Ghoja."

We looked at each other. She saw what I saw. The Shadowmasters had robbed us of what we had in mind for the night before Ghoja. "Damn them!"

"I know. This mud being what it is, I'll have to leave today to get there in time. I probably won't get back to Ghoja. Use Sindawe in our place. That town is a waste, anyway."

"I'll have to move faster, somehow."

"Abandon the wagons."

"But... "

"Leave the engineers and quartermasters behind. Let them make the best time they can. I'll leave them the elephants. They're no good to me anyway. Have each man carry a little extra. Whatever is most practical. Even the wagons might get there in time if they skip stopping at Vejagehdya."

"You're right. Let's get at it." I gathered my people and explained what we were going to do. An hour later I watched Lady and the cavalry file away to the southeast. Mogaba's grumbling infantrymen, each carrying an extra fifteen pounds, started slogging toward Ghoja.

Even the old warlord carried a load.

I was glad I had had the luck or foresight to send out the bulk of the stuff several days early.

I walked with the rest of them. My horse was carrying two hundred pounds of junk and looking humiliated by the experience. One-Eye grumbled along beside me. He had Frogface out scouting for lines of advance where the earth would least resist our passage.

I kept one eye on Lady. I felt hollow, empty. We'd both come to think of the night before the Ghoja battle as the night. And now that would not be.

I suspected it would never be. There would always be something to stand in the way. Maybe there were gods who frowned on our admitting and consummating what we felt inside.

A pox on them and all their illegitimate children.

Someday, damnit. Someday.

But what then? Then we would have to give up a lot of pretense. Then we'd have to face some things, decide some things, examine the possibilities and implications of some commitments.

I did not spend a lot of time thinking about saving Taglios that day.