This was the place we’d chosen to meet the fighters, whoever they were and however many, that had been sent to harry us and hurt us in the name of a bitter old man whose very name even was a bare-faced lie.
By the time we got there, the shadows were filling up the forest like beer fills up a tankard, and the way ahead of us was thickening with dark as we watched. Elaine had taken Challenger the nearest way through the woods, so we came up beside the path and stopped at last perhaps thirty strides or so from the first choke point.
Catrin joined me in the cockpit while the others clambered down and digged themselves in, checking for any beasts or waked trees that was by. We waited, tense and quiet, while Challenger scanned again. We were come to it now, and probably each one of us was wondering if they were ready. Or maybe I’m only speaking for my own self. The onliest time I had fought before, the fight had come to me so quick and sudden I didn’t have any chance to think about it. I did what was needful to be done, and afterwards was left doubting that it had been me that did it. I was always one to act on a moment’s thought, or no thought at all – to jump before the rope came round, as we’re wont to say – but the things I did at Calder’s ford were not like stealing dried fruit from out of the Underhold or smacking a bigger girl or boy if they seemed to need it. I had walked through arrows and bullets, waked Challenger and brought him into the fight. I admired the Spinner that had done those things, but I didn’t recognise her as a part of me.
And now, here in the deep woods with the night and the Half-Ax tally both coming on us fast, I struggled to find her again.
“They’re close, Sergeant Tanhide,” Challenger said at last. “Less than a mile away.”
“And they’re coming by the right road?” Catrin demanded.
“They seem to be, yes. They’re not yet within visual range but I can track their progress using my sonar grid and thermal imaging systems. When they come, they will come from here.” Of a sudden, the front of the cockpit lit up. A kind of map dropped down that wasn’t there at all. I had seen this map before, the first time I rode in Challenger. I thought of it as a magic mirror like the one in the story of the Snow Wight. It was no mirror, but a mirror was a way of saying it that made some sense to me. If you tried to touch it, your fingers’ tips would go through it and you would feel nothing. The mirror could show you anything you asked for, almost. The way ahead, the way behind, the left hand and the right. It could bring you in close to something that was far off.
For now though, all the mirror was showing was the trees and the shadows under them. The path was there too, but I could barely make it out. From this angle, it was only a place where the trees were clustered a little less thickly.
“How many of them are there?” I asked.
“I count fourteen.”
“And they’re tooled up,” Elaine said. “Just so you know.”
“What does that mean?” Catrin asked. “Are you saying they’ve got tech with them?”
“I read at least six separate devices,” Challenger said.
“Can you tell what kind?”
“I can identify electromagnetic fields. There is no way at this distance to determine what mechanisms they are a part of.”
Catrin leaned in closer to the mirror like she could see through all that dark to where the Half-Ax tally were. “We should get to our places,” she said. “We probably don’t have much time before they get here.”
She went out and joined the others. I stayed inside Challenger. Everyone had got their places to go to and mine was here, away from the fight. If our plan worked, I would not need to do anything at all, only wait with Elaine and bring our tally home again when all was done. And if it didn’t work – if Half-Ax fought back stronger than we feared, and won the day – the rest of the tally would head for Challenger at a dead run. We were not to go onto the path and into the fight by any means, for Challenger was too precious to be risked. We would need him – and the shells he was growing inside himself – if Half-Ax ever managed to bring the fight all the way to our fence.
“You should stay as close as you can,” I said to Catrin when we were putting the plan together. “You can’t run far.”
“I’ll make shift as best I can. And if I’m too slow, you’ll leave me behind. You know I got to be in my place, and you know it can’t be nobody else.”
And I did know that, so I said no more.
The four of them spread out now, as we’d agreed. Jarter went to the two kissing trees that made up the eastern choke point. Lune and Gendel and Jil went to places nearby that they’d already chosen – places that offered good cover. Jarter had the Half-Ax scatter-gun, the others had longbows and Lune a brace of hunting spears besides, slung over his back. Rampart Fire went in the opposite direction with her name-tech in her hand. We had practised this so much, they found their way in the fading light without any trouble. I hoped it would still be that way when the fighting started.
We had set a trap for the Half-Ax fighters, but it would only work if they stayed in the one same place for long enough so we could spring it. And the longer they stayed in that place, the more chance there was that they’d see at least some of our working – or smell it – and have a chance to run from what was coming. So we had first to herd and harry them into our pen and then, if they were good enough to go where they were bid, keep them too busy to think for a minute or two.
In the meantime, there wasn’t a thing we could do except wait for them to come, hoping all the while they wouldn’t decide to step off the path and make all our preparations useless.
I don’t pretend to know much about wars even now I’ve fought one, but there are some things you learn quickly. About plans, you learn this: they’re a needful thing to have, but as soon as the first shot is fired or the first blow struck, cleaving to the plan is like trying to knit a sock in a dark room. Few things go where they should, and even when they do your fingers lose their cunning and you’re left fumbling.
The magic mirror showed me the Half-Ax tally coming around a bend in the path into our view. They were fearsome to look on. I couldn’t count all of them: they were moving too quickly, and the gathering dark halfway hid them. There were a great many more of them than there were of us though, that was certain.
The best news was that they came on foot. We had been somewhat afraid they might have a Challenger of their own, or some other monstrous tech that would let them laugh off our little ambush and ride right on through it. They didn’t have any such, but four of them were carrying a leather bag that hung from straps across all their shoulders. It was longer than a man is tall, this thing, and it weighed more than a man too. I could tell from the way they all leaned hard away from it, as if it was dragging them down and they had to strain to keep their balance.
I wondered what it might be, and what it might do. It must be something they stood in great need of, for them to bring it so far on foot. Maybe it was a ram to knock down our gates, or ladders to scale our fence with. I could have asked Challenger to tell me if the thing was tech or not, but I didn’t think to. I regretted that bitterly afterwards.
But even if I had asked, I probably still would have held back just as I did, because that was how we planned it. The Half-Ax tally would still have used their biggest weapon.