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want to, and I what the hell s the point in quibbling? I brought them. But damn it My university will be more impor-tant than you know, Rick said. We can change this world. Should we risk all that merely to kill Sarakos? My love, I know there is no other like you, Tylara said. There was no banter in her voice at all. But can not the lady Gwen and the man Warner teach much of what you could? There went my last argument, Rick thought. Oh, damn it. Yes. They can, he said. God help me, she s right. And nobody else can stop Parsons and Sarakos. Can I? Sarakos is no problem. His medium and heavy cavalry don t sound as effective as the Roman heavy troopers, and my pikemen have a lot more confidence now. But I still need massed for-mations, and Parsons has the mortar and at least a dozen riflemen more than enough to scatter the pikes for Sarakos s heavies Skirmishing archers could take Parsons, if we could get him on a decent killing ground. But he s too damn smart to be caught that way. He ll always have enough local cavalry with him to keep the archers at a distance. So how to get the Earth troops separated from the rest of the army You have a plan, she said. I have seen that look before. Something Warner said. Tylara, even if every-thing works properly, a lot of people are going to be killed More than will die if we do nothing? No. Not nearly so many. He sighed and took her in his arms. I could have had my pick of a hundred women, he said. I could have a hundred women. So of course I have to be in love with you. He kissed her. They stood close for a long time. Then she pushed him gently away. In spring, she said. And for now we must send food for Camithon s army before he loses more men and beasts to hunger. Yes. And a thousand other details. Summon the western clansmen and start drilling them in the new tactics. More pikes and arrows. Baggage and grain carts. Politics. Keeping the clans working to-gether was hard enough; now they d have Protector Camithon and the boy king to worry about as well. And more details yet. Patrols to seal the passes and keep secret as long as possible the fact that Tamaerthon was arming for war. A second iron cur-tain so that when file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...20Pournelle%20-%2001%20-%20Janis saries.html (158 of 184) [12/29/2004 12:13:09 AM] JANISSARIES spies inevitably found that the clans were mobilizing they still wouldn t be able to report that they were drilling with pikes. And inside that the greatest secret of all. Why do you smile? Tylara asked. It would take long to explain, Rick said. How could he tell her he d thought of calling his inner circle The Manhattan Project ? But of course he couldn t use that name. It would signal Parsons as clearly as would a report that someone in Tamaer-thon was gathering tons of manure and sulfur. They d need a secure area to leach saltpeter from manure. His scholarship wasn t good enough to make sulfa drugs or penicillin, but something sim-ple like that would be no problem at all. Saltpeter 75 percent, charcoal 15 percent, sulfur 10 percent: fif-teen to three to two, a formula tested in war s cal-dron for centuries. And they d need a gristmill with no metal parts in which to grind it. Page 109 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html And there d be a thousand more details. The bus-iness of war. They sing ballads about heroes, but the details are what win campaigns. Or lose them. PART EIGHT: JANISSARIES 1 Gwen s delivery had been difficult. The baby was large and she was small. She was many hours in difficult labor, and afterwards was laid up for weeks. She remembered few details. One vividly stayed in her mind: the moment when Yanulf laid her baby on her breast. That couldn t have been more than a few seconds after the boy was born. She didn t remember telling Yanulf that the boy was to be called Les, but she didn t regret that. Someday she d be able to tell Les of his father and give him the file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...20Pournelle%20-%2001%20-%20Janis saries.html (159 of 184) [12/29/2004 12:13:09 AM] JANISSARIES message the pilot had left for his child. It took a long time to regain strength. For weeks she could only nurse her son once a day. Fortu-nately two other children had been born a few days before Les, both to robust clanswomen with milk to spare. Later Gwen wondered if this had not been the origin of the ancient custom of godparents; without other women s aid, Les would have died. Gradually she became aware of life outside her lodge. At first she took little [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |