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.They would suspect, butit would not wake the sleeping nor raise an alarm.* * *Freddy heard, wakened, got to his feet.Crouching, he shook first Frazier,then Jarvi and his trumpeter."Something's going on out there," he said."We need to be ready."It took the general a moment to clear the sleep from his mind."What?" hesaid."They're signalling back and forth.Making coyote calls.And some of the dutywatch is probably asleep." He was looking through an archery notch now."Andthey've fed their fires again.Behind buildings, but I can see the glows hereand there."Jarvi grunted, got heavily to his feet, and nudged his trumpeter with a boot."Erkki," he growled, "sound 'prepare to repel.' "The young trumpeter had remained curled on his side, hoping against hopenothing would come of this, and he could go back to sleep.Now he got to hisfeet, much more nimbly than his commander."Yessir," he said, and raising hisinstrument, blew a short patter of notes, loud and bright in the darkness.Within a minute or two, in the near distance, braves with torches trottedfrom the shadows of buildings.After the previous assault, numerous smallfires had been laid but not lit in the open, some hundred yards from thestockade.Now the torchmen lit them.By their small light, Freddy could seebraves dip long arrows into the fires, then step aside, a rank of small flamesin the darkness.Then, each nocked arrow tipped with flame, they waited for asignal that must come quickly.Frazier spoke the first order directly to Erkki: "Fire at will!"Another patter of notes, and hundreds of Sotan arrows took flight.Not asaccurately as by day, though the targets were apparent, but braves fellnonetheless.Now the braves began to shoot, flaming arrows arcing over the walls.Stricken livestock bawled and bleated.Human voices screamed with pain.Arrows struck roofs and walls.Commands were shouted.People had slept intheir clothes; now they poured from doorways.Frazier had foreseen this too,and the people had drilled it.A ladder leaned against every building, andboys scrambled up.Voices called "here! here!" and bucket lines formed inresponse, from cisterns to ladders, with the speed of deadly urgency.Meanwhile the fire arrows kept coming, while archers on the walkways shotback.Then tribal horsemen charged out of Kato Town, again with lariats, and thiswas no test.Toward each wall they came by the hundreds, shouting war cries.Some merlons had two lariats over them.The sally ports didn't open; it wouldhave been suicide.Braves yelled war cries.The defenders too were yelling.Sabers cut lariats.Hands, arms, shoulders, heads were sliced, even severed.Hatchets chopped, knives struck.The walkways were quickly slick with blood.Men slipped in it, or stumbled on the fallen.Bodies fell or were thrown from the walkways, some out over the merlons,others inward, into the bailey.And increasingly there were braves who jumped from the walkways into thebailey to extend the violence.But squads of militia had been kept on theground, between buildings, ready, their orders not to involve themselves withfires or bucket lines, nor climb to the walkways unless ordered.Quickly,savagely, they attacked any invader who jumped.Scattered, outnumbered, disoriented, those who jumped could do little but diedefending themselves.Outside, more and more attackers jammed up along the walls, the focus ofPage 135ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlbowmen in the blockhouses.And some, instead of waiting to throw theirlariats, turned back.Watching intently, Mazeppa saw the attack stacking up,but waited, giving it a chance.As more braves turned back, it was clear theassault had spent itself.He snapped an order to two of his next men, and theyseparated, angling toward the stockade at a gallop, one eastward, one west,bellowing "Break off the attack!"It was already foundering.What he'd done was give his braves justification:they quit because they'd been told to.Meanwhile bile rose in Mazeppa'sthroat; it was all he could do to fight it down.* * *Almost at the beginning of the attack, Freddy had seen something totallyunexpected.He'd known Fohanni from the time he'd been selected to theAcademy, where Fohanni made up much of the faculty.And out in the melee he'dseen another, charging the stockade, his white body distinctive.Saw himdumped, bouncing, when his horse had fallen.But the field outside the wallhad teemed with charging tribesmen on horseback.It would have been suicide togo out and investigate.Brief minutes later-it seemed longer-the attackers had withdrawn.NowFreddy slid down a pole to the bailey, ran to the nearby sally port anddemanded to be let out.Reluctantly the sergeant in charge opened for him.A lot more bodies lay strewn on the field than when he'd seen theFohannu dumped from his horse.Some had obviously been trampled.Freddy trotted unerringly to where the Fohannu had stopped rolling, andkneeling, examined him.His aura indicated life, a concussion, and a neckinjury that was not a fracture.With an effort, Freddy hoisted the limp formonto his shoulder and carried it back through the sally port.Helverti, he thought, unless the COB has something going we don't know about,and that he very much doubted.The fort "medical facility" was primitive, but it did have beds-sacks of strawon a plank floor-and he lowered Ench onto one of them.They were filling fast [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]