Speaking Bones, page 15
“You ask a question that is harder to answer than it may appear at first,” said Théra. “No one is a villain in their own stories, and justifications can always be found to condone killing as being in the service of life. Like the goddesses Rapa and Kana, to die and to live are two aspects of the same Flow.
“I understand your confusion. The Lyucu drove the Agon to the ends of Gondé and invaded Dara under the rallying cry of freedom, and we fight them now, in both Dara and Gondé, also through an appeal to freedom. Cudyu speaks of a better life for the Lyucu under his empire; and Takval speaks of a better life for everyone who isn’t Lyucu with the empire gone.
“I can describe for you the principle of reduction in suffering; I can point you to the words of the Ano sages and the teachings of the gods of two lands; I can offer you a hundred reasons why these causes are different, but a clever mind will also find a hundred arguments for why my explanations are wrong. Good isn’t always accomplished through beneficent means, and Evil isn’t always committed without some sympathetic cause.”
“Then how do you know what is right?” asked Thoryo, tears frozen on her face. “Do you make an appeal to blood? But I am neither Dara nor Agon, whether by birth or marriage. Do you pray for guidance of the gods? But I neither fear nor trust the gods.”
“I can’t tell you the answer,” said Théra, “for conscience is the only scale that can tell truth apart from lies, separate gold from dross. But conscience belongs to you and you alone, and can be calibrated by no philosophy or religion, only experience.”
There was a momentary lull in the storm, and the surface of the sea seemed to crystallize into a sheet of ice, only to shatter into a million fragments with the next rising wave.
“I don’t know what to do,” muttered Thoryo. “I love you, I love Takval, I love the people who have become my tribe, though I know not my origins. But I also know that I will never kill.”
“Then don’t,” said Théra. “You have the right to refuse to fight. I will never ask you to do something that your conscience does not approve of.”
She continued to hold the young woman. Gradually, Thoryo stopped crying. The two of them stood gazing at the sea and the blooming and breaking of ice-foam flowers.
“They are indeed beautiful,” said Thoryo.
“It’s as if we’re seeing the shape of wind in the ice,” said Théra, quoting the Amu poet Nakipo. More ice shards struck against one another, clinking like the distant clang of sword on armor.
Already the princess’s mind had moved on to the immediate needs of their fortress in the distance. The walls were so low that it seemed impossible to imagine that the Lyucu horde would even be slowed down by it, let alone kept at bay.
A look of determination came into Théra’s eyes. “Let’s go back and get warmed up.” Wrapping her arm around the young woman protectively, she began the long walk back with Thoryo.
* * *
Every few miles, another drafted sled dog collapsed from exhaustion, never to get up again. Tovo ignored the pleas of the enslaved drivers, whipping them mercilessly so that they would make their remaining beasts work harder too. Nothing mattered except catching the Agon pékyu and his Dara princess. They would not slip from his grasp again.
No one made Pékyu Cudyu and Thane Tovo look foolish without paying a heavy price.
The Lyucu arrived at the headland on a cold and stormy morning.
Tovo could see the rebels hiding behind their hastily constructed barrier of peat and snow and almost laughed. For a moment, he was sorry that he didn’t have any garinafins with him. He would love to see these slaves trapped inside their hideout, scrabbling and screeching like moonfur rats being roasted alive.
No matter. He would lead his warriors to victory by the strength of their arms alone. It was more satisfying to see the despair in the eyes of one’s enemies up close as they realized how complete their defeat would be.
He gave the order to attack. There was no need for preparation, no need for formations, no need for tactics when the foe put their trust in such flimsy defenses.
Hundreds of Lyucu naros and culeks thundered across the tundra toward the beach fort. The rebels peeked out above the low wall like prairie voles. Tovo imagined that he could see the fear in their eyes even from such a distance. Behind them was the merciless sea, and before them was an even deadlier tide of war clubs and axes. The Agon and Dara slaves had nowhere to run to escape the righteous fury of their indomitable Lyucu masters.
As Tovo and his horde approached the fortress, he realized that the wall wasn’t quite as low as they had first thought. Unlike the typical temporary fortifications built by the ice fleas—barely as tall as a man—the wall of this fort rose to the height of several warriors stacked in a column. Tovo couldn’t fathom how they had been able to build such a structure; he had never seen anything like it.
Still, he couldn’t imagine how packed snow could stop his rampaging warriors. “Faster! Faster!” he shouted. “Whoever captures the barbarian princess will be made a naro-votan on the spot!”
Stones zoomed through the air from the defenders’ slingshots, and a few of the Lyucu warriors in the front screamed and faltered. One fell, his skull smashed by the missile.
Tovo was unconcerned. Even if all the defenders were master marksmen, the Lyucu were closing in so fast that the casualties would be barely felt.
Like the waves crashing against the shore behind the defenders, the Lyucu assault arrived at the base of the wall. As those in the back aimed their slingshots up at the defenders, fighters in front began to scramble up the wall. The defenders ducked back out of the way. The battle was going to be over in minutes.
Except… the Lyucu couldn’t climb up the wall.
What they had thought from afar to be a barrier of loose logs covered in packed snow turned out to be a solid cliff of ice. No matter how much the warriors strained and scrambled, they could gain no purchase against the slippery surface.
“Break the ice!” Tovo shouted. “Make footholds!”
The naros and culeks slammed their axes against the ice wall, hoping to gouge big enough holes to fashion a makeshift ladder. But the bone weapons bounced harmlessly off the stone-hard ice.
“Boost each other!” Tovo shouted. “Get up there no matter what!”
Some of the Lyucu warriors dropped their weapons and tried to form human pyramids to allow their comrades to reach the top of the wall. Since they had such an advantage in numbers, even if they could get only a small proportion of fighters over the barrier, they would surely overwhelm the defenders.
But that was when the defenders peeked out over the wall again. Some held up garinafin-hide shields to deflect the slingshot missiles while others raised skin pots and poured their contents over the outside of the ice wall.
The liquid that spilled from the pots was foul-smelling, golden-brown in color, and boiling hot. As the strange “soup” spilled over the human pyramids, wherever the liquid touched exposed flesh, skin boiled, sizzled, and burst.
Amidst howls of outrage and screams of agony, the human pyramids collapsed. The scalding liquid had spilled into the eyes of a few unlucky fighters, and they rolled around at the foot of the ice wall, cursing, blinded, and helpless.
Those warriors in the back shrank from this scene of carnage. Even as Tovo urged them on, they hesitated. No one wanted to be denied the gaze of the Eye of Cudyufin, wounded and bleating like lambs about to be slaughtered. The Lyucu abandoned such crippled people as useless drains on the tribe’s resources.
Tovo had no choice but to order a retreat. The Lyucu tide, full of bloodlust and confident of victory but minutes earlier, now receded quietly.
The fort held.
* * *
Princess Théra, inspired by Nakipo’s poem, had come up with the idea that the ice tribes could reinforce their fortifications with the most abundant construction material available in the region: ice itself.
By boiling chunks of ice retrieved from the shoreline in skin pots over fire fueled with peat and dung, the defenders soon produced a great quantify of hot water. This they poured over the sides of the fort. The extreme cold quickly froze the water into a slippery, hard shell, as tough as metal.
Tipo Tho, the most experienced Dara fighter in the band, instantly saw the wisdom in the plan and devised improvements to it. By using the ice as a kind of cement, the defenders could build the wall far higher than the traditional method of packed snow and loose logs, adding even more strength to the fortress.
The boiling water also inspired Théra and Tipo Tho to revive an ancient technique from Dara’s long history of warfare centered around city walls, a weapon they unleashed upon the hapless Lyucu trying to build human pyramids.
By boiling water mixed with human and animal excrement, they produced the euphemistically named “golden soup.” Not only did the bubbling liquid injure the attackers, but the stench also had the benefit of psychological intimidation. Furthermore, the foul water left festering wounds in the attackers that were slow to heal and induced diseases, akin to a death sentence, given the harsh climate.
True to the promise of Princess Théra, Thoryo took no part in these death-dealing activities. She did, however, help Adyulek with healing and acted as a nurse to the wounded.
After the Lyucu retreat, Thoryo pleaded to be allowed to attend to some of the wounded Lyucu outside the fort. Adyulek shook her head and muttered that she would not allow her medicines to be used on the Lyucu.
Thoryo went out alone. However, the crippled Lyucu survivors responded to her ministrations by cursing at her, and no matter how the young woman tried to reason with them, they called her a witch and snarled as she got close. Finally, a culek attacked Thoryo when she attempted to bandage her wounds, and Gozofin, watching over the young woman, had no choice but to bash in the skull of the unyielding Lyucu. The other wounded were eventually dispatched similarly as an act of mercy.
Their dying howls would haunt Thoryo for days.
* * *
Unfamiliar with the basics of siege warfare, Tovo adapted slowly.
For the next assault, he ordered his warriors to leave their weapons strapped to their backs and to assemble into teams, each carrying a long piece of bone or a bundle of sticks, obtained by smashing some of the dogsleds. The plan was to charge up to the foot of the fort and to pile the bones and sticks into a ramp to get over the ice wall.
The plan fell apart when the Lyucu warriors, enduring a barrage of slingshot missiles, approached the wall. By now, the foul water that had been poured by the defenders had frozen into slick sheets of ice on the ground, and the attackers, their movements clumsy due to the burden they carried, slipped and fell down. Some of the warriors managed to maintain their footing by shuffling slowly, but this exposed them to more slingshot fire, and others flailing around them knocked them down in the end.
The defenders peered over the wall and poured down yet more boiling golden soup. They concluded the brief battle with a fusillade of hunting spears and whale harpoons.
By the time Tovo ordered another retreat, close to a hundred Lyucu bodies were pinned to the ground or had their skulls crushed.
Despite their success in holding off the siege, Théra’s anxiety grew. Trapped inside the fort, they were running out of food and fuel. Meanwhile, the storm continued to rage over the sea, which showed no signs of freezing over.
* * *
Over the next few days, Tovo launched multiple assaults on the ice fort, each more desperate than the last.
Thinking that the defenders would run out of stones for their slingshots and bone-spears to hurl, Tovo urged his warriors to attack in waves. But the ice fort defenders were ready with ice balls for the slingshots and icicle spears, which could be produced overnight in large quantities. Next, teams of Lyucu, protected by sheets of garinafin hide over their heads, tried to crack the ice wall with battering rams fashioned from the hardest and heaviest whale and dog bones; the defenders responded by dropping blocks of ice on them, crushing some and maiming many. The Lyucu tried to build a fire to melt the ice barrier; the defenders doused the fire with seawater. The Lyucu sought to intimidate the defenders by heaving bloody dog carcasses over the wall; the defenders responded by lobbing back the heads of the dead Lyucu.
It was as if the two sides were recapitulating the evolution of siege warfare in Dara around this little fort. Tovo showed a dogged determination as well as a resourcefulness exceeding his reputation, but Tipo Tho was able to devise counters to all his ideas by drawing on her reservoir of experience in Dara.
“Even your father would have to be impressed,” boasted Tipo to baby Crucru. “I’d like to see him defend a city as well. Maybe he’ll finally admit that submariners aren’t the equal of aviators.” Then she nuzzled the baby and added softly, “But when we see him and your siblings on the other side of the River-on-Which-Nothing-Floats, we’ll be too happy to quarrel, won’t we?”
Tovo’s relentless assaults failed to weaken the fortress. In fact, the ice wall was growing taller and thicker with every passing day, as the defenders poured new pots of water over the side, letting the wintry winds do the work of patching any cracks and dents. The temperature continued to fall.
One morning, as the first rays of the sun lit up the battle-worn landscape, the defenders woke to the sight they had been both hoping for and dreading for weeks: The sea had frozen overnight, and the broad plain of ice extended all the way to Spotted Heifer on the northern horizon.
CHAPTER ELEVEN NALYUFIN’S PASTURE
ACROSS THE CHANNEL FROM SPOTTED HEIFER: THE ELEVENTH MONTH IN THE NINTH YEAR AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF PRINCESS THÉRA FROM DARA FOR UKYU-GONDÉ (SIX MONTHS UNTIL THE LYUCU MUST LAUNCH THEIR NEW INVASION FLEET TO DARA).
“Can we cross?” asked Takval. His lips were blue, and he was shivering uncontrollably. The other defenders weren’t faring much better.
“I don’t recommend it,” answered Kitos. “It may look solid to you, but there will be thin patches that are almost impossible to detect until we’re right on top. Best to wait another few days.”
“We can’t wait another few days,” said Tipo Tho. “With the sea frozen, the Lyucu can bypass the wall and attack us from the other side. As soon as they figure that out, we’re doomed.”
“Even if the Lyucu don’t attack, we may not be able to last much longer,” said Théra. Many of the defenders were wounded, and they were down to their last reserves of food and fuel.
Takval and Théra looked at each other. Escaping over the sea wasn’t a great option—as Kitos pointed out, there would be no food—but it seemed their only choice. If they could shake off the Lyucu, perhaps the gods would show them another way to Taten.
“What do you want to do?” asked Takval.
“Sometimes you have to gamble,” said Théra. “After all the calculations and plans, sometimes you still have to take a leap.”
* * *
Tovo was planning to spend the day recuperating and plotting. Lying in his tent, he imagined building a tower out of bones so that his warriors could shoot down at the defenders over the wall—
The flap of his tent lifted, and a naro rushed in, accompanied by a blast of cold air. “Votan, they’ve escaped!”
Tovo ran to the ice fort. Indeed, the place had been abandoned overnight, and the Lyucu warriors had already gained entry. Tovo went inside the fort and climbed the steps onto the wall to gain a better view. On the horizon, he could see a stream of dogsleds winding its way across the frozen sea.
“After them!”
The drafted ice flea drivers and drudges begged Tovo not to do this. The ice wasn’t strong enough. The foolish rebels were sure to die by falling into some crack.
Tovo bashed in the skull of the loudest complainer and whipped the rest for their insolence. The ice fleas were weaklings and cowards, and like all slaves, they had to understand that the will of the Lyucu was never to be defied.
“We’ve already lost too much time,” he said. “The next one who complains will be harnessed like a dog and added to the teams.”
And so the sleds that hadn’t been torn down to make weapons for the siege were hastily readied, and the Lyucu broke camp. In preparation for a long chase, all the sleds were heavily laden with goods and warriors.
“Form a single column,” ordered Tovo. “That way, the sleds in the back can draft in the wake of the sleds in front. We’ll move faster.”
The conscripted ice flea drivers wanted to object, but the threat from Tovo earlier kept their mouths shut.
Over the endless expanse of the frozen sea, two groups of dogsleds raced north like a few caterpillars chased by a long column of ants.
The ants were closing in.
* * *
While Théra and Kitos led the convoy and scouted for a safe path across, Takval’s sled took up the tail so he could keep an eye on the pursuit.
As his sled glided across the ice, a metal blade was pulled along behind. One of the few Dara weapons that had survived the long trek from Kiri Valley, it was now scoring a deep groove in the ice.
In the featureless icescape, the trail left by the metal blade seemed like a promise. The dogs that pulled the sleds of the pursuers naturally followed it.
The lead driver, a woman with years of experience on the ice, found the unnaturally deep groove suspicious and was reluctant to follow it. But Tovo dismissed her concerns with a slap across the face. Anybody could see that the safest path was to follow the exact course taken by the rebels. Freed from having to gauge the safety of the ice, the Lyucu could concentrate on plunging ahead as speedily as possible. This was how they would catch their prey despite a head start.
In the afternoon, as the weak sun warmed the air slightly, the ice began to groan. As the first sled in the Lyucu convoy passed over a particularly thin patch, the ice bent and buckled, but did not break.
