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confess was great relief that he half-turned his shoulder on the priest of Florania. I stood up. I put my
hands flat on the table and my old vosk-skull of a head thrust forward, and I do not doubt that my chin
stuck out like the ram of a swifter.
 I will tell you, priest of Florania, why we will not open our gates except to march out to fight. I do not
like fighting and battles and warfare. I detest and abhor the deaths of fine young men and the wails and
agonies of the young girls and of the mothers. You want to open the gates and offer the radvakkas gold
and silver, corn and oil and flour, all the good things of Therminsax. And when they have taken what you
offer they will laugh. They are illiterate barbarians. But they are not fools. Some of you they will kill at
once, as an object lesson. Some, the less fortunate, they will torment until the city rings with their cries of
agony, until they are only too thankful to reveal where you have hidden the rest of your wealth. And then
they will slay you all, after they have had their sport with you and your women folk. If you want that,
priest of Florania, open the gates and welcome the Iron Riders.
He tried to bluster.  You do not know that! They were resisted by the Hamalese at Cansinsax and
Thiurdsmot and Meersakden. There are many millers and master bakers in my congregation, devout
men, and my power 
 We shall have scant need for millers and bakers before long, I interrupted, uncouthly.  And if you have
had information you should tell us. I know of Cansinsax and Thiurdsmot  what of Meersakden?
This was a fine city of Sakwara, of which I had heard, containing better than seventy thousand souls.
 The Hamalese were routed by two bands of radvakkas. There are two bands outside our walls. You
cannot hope to beat them 
 I do not hope, priest of Florania. Iknow! They will be destroyed, they will be utterly discomfited by the
Phalanx of Therminsax. And, and here I put a great venom and a horrible evil into my voice and face.
 And if you try to play the traitor or speak against the honest burghers of the city, you will be restrained,
placed in irons, and cast down the dungeons beneath the Justicar s deren. Is that clear?
We sat in the council chamber of the deren  the palace  and we all knew that there were noxious
dungeons below. He flushed up. I felt quite sorry for him; but he was wrong, so wrong that if he had his
way he would open the city to death and torment in forms so hideous he could never comprehend them.
But, then, he had had no dealings with the Iron Riders.
The chief priest of Opaz, scratching his cheek, said in a gentle voice:  Sit down, brother, and keep your
peace.
With that out of the way we could go on to plan just how we would fashion the killing instrument of
victory we planned to hurl against the mailed cavalry of the Iron Riders.
Sixteen
In Crimson and Bronze the Brumbytes Form
The days passed. The men sweated and marched and drilled. We had them learning how to march in
file, for the organization would be based on the file. I prefer the line; but in this instance the file seemed to
be the correct procedure.
The pikes were produced from the manufactories. Also the superb springy white wood of the letha tree,
somewhat like ash, was mated to steel heads fashioned with spike, hook and axe, hefty, vicious cutting
weapons, halberds. Leather jerkins were wired and sewn with bronze plates to form corselets, and
shoulder pieces were artfully fixed at the back to be drawn over and fastened on the chest. The same old
arguments went on over shields; but the citizens were not warriors and they were far more pragmatical
about the thorny question of shield and no-shield. They had seen the Hamalese and their shields, and
although the regiments of Hamal had been defeated, still, it struck the citizens as eminently sensible to
have something behind which to stand. The shields, in a very real sense, were to them a continuation of
the city walls and barricades. From chin to thigh, the shields were designed to protect a man. Also,
springy bronze greaves were made for the lower legs. Now, helmets  the manufacturing capability of
the city was fully stretched.
Well, the old vosk-skulls had surged forward under a rain of arrows before; they would do so again.
Vosk-skulls are notoriously hard. Piles and piles of them may be found outside most habitations of men
on Kregen. The Vallians had built water mills and by harnessing the power of rushing streams had built
trip-hammers that, with difficulty, could smash and crush the skulls to form a fine fertilizer. The
vosk-crushing mill had almost burned. Around it were heaped and piled the skulls, hard as iron, waiting
to be processed. We took these skulls, removed the jaws, scoured them out, affixed leather and quilted
linings, riveted straps, added high brims to protect the eyes and grilled or barred face-coverings. For the
nape of the neck overlapping and sliding bronze plates formed the well-known lobster-tail. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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