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.Bahn was reminded of a different bereavement, a different loss; the woman whose spirit, in painting these scenes time and time again, the general hoped most of all to recapture.General Creed had been married for thirty-one years when Bahn had first joined his staff as a junior aide.Bahn had met the general’s wife Rose only once at a staff function here in the Ministry; a small bundle of a woman, dignified in carriage and softly spoken.She had talked, briefly, of their vineyard on the southern slopes of the lower Alapolas, and of her wish for her husband to come home and visit her more often there.She had seemed lonely, and out of place in the lesser function hall of the Ministry.Bahn had stayed by her side until he’d managed to gain from her a shy smile, then introduced her to his own wife to take his place.The women had connected like two old friends.Bahn looked away from the painting and saw the general’s sharp blue eyes locked on his own.They flickered towards a chair, and Bahn worked his way around it and sat.‘Gollanse!’ bellowed the general.The doors, still open behind Bahn, admitted the general’s ancient concierge.‘Call a staff meeting, will you? I want everyone here within the hour.’‘Yes, lord,’ replied the old man curtly.To Bahn: ‘Has the council been informed yet?’‘A runner’s been sent.’‘And the League?’‘Not as yet.’The general nodded to Gollanse.‘Dispatch a fast skud to Minos.Carrier birds too.Advise them that recent imperial fleet actions have been a diversion.The real thrust is here, on Khos.We’ll need all the Volunteers they can send us.’‘Yes, lord.Is that all?’‘Aye, and be quick about it now, no dallying for biscuits and chee.’The old man raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as he shuffled from the room.General Creed tilted his head back, calculating.‘Pearl Bay.That’s a good hundred and forty laqs from Bar-Khos, with difficult terrain for the first thirty until they come down onto the Reach.They’ll need to take Tume, they can’t leave it at their backs.But they’ll push hard.Thirteen, fourteen days, maybe, before we start seeing their advance forces here.That’s hardly long enough for League reinforcements to arrive in time.’Thirteen days.I could have Marlee and the children far away from Khos by then.‘We can also expect a renewed campaign against the walls.They’ll press us from every quarter now, hoping to break us in between.’‘General.’ said Bahn, searching for the right words.‘What can we do?’Creed unfolded himself from his chair.He placed his palms on the desk and rose to tower over Bahn, his eyes dancing.‘Do? We must mobilize every man that we can, as quickly as we can do it.Any man who can still march and fight.’‘You want to meet the Mannians in the field?’‘What – you’d have us close the gates I suppose, and hunker down behind the walls to await their arrival?’Yes, that was surely what Bahn would have done.The lesser walls of the city would at least provide them with some advantage against the approaching imperial army.But it was a short-sighted strategy, and Bahn dismissed it even as he thought it.He was merely considering the protection of his family, not any larger picture.This is why I would make such a poor leader, he mused.The general seemed to read his thoughts.‘The lesser walls are hardly the Shield, Bahn.They won’t stand long against modern cannon, and I’m fairly certain they’ve brought a few of those along with them.’Bahn nodded, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck.‘In the meantime, they’d slash and burn all of Khos from under us.If we sit and wait for them, there’ll be nothing left to protect save for this city.’‘But in the field, sir,’ he blurted.‘How can we possibly defeat that many?’‘We don’t need to defeat them, Bahn.All we need to do is buy ourselves some time.’Bahn massaged his tired eyes for a moment.It felt as though he was speaking in a different language to the man.‘But, General,’ he said, as Creed began to pace back and forth before him.‘Even if we mobilize every Khosian reserve that we can, even if we scrape the barrel, we can only put six or seven thousand shields into the field.Our resources of blackpowder have gone to the navy and the defence of the walls.Our field cannon are few.We don’t even have the guns to match them, never mind the men.’The general stopped before the windows, his hands behind his back.In the light, his black hair shone with a near-blue lustre.Whether he was looking at his painting or the silent walls of the Shield, Bahn couldn’t tell.‘It’s a bad stroke they’ve given us, I’ll grant you that.I’d hardly credit the Matriarch with such imagination.And it’s too risky for Sparus to have thought of it.Perhaps old Mokabi has come out of his retirement, then.I sense his flair in this.’Creed paused, and his head tilted towards the window: at the very instant that he had spoken the name of the retired archgeneral – the same man who had led the Imperial Fourth Army to the walls of Bar-Khos – a boom sounded from the direction of the Shield.Another sounded, and then another, until the windows themselves were trembling from the rippling concussions.The Mannian guns had started to fire on the Shield once more [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]