I was scared out of my wits. Couldn’t move for the life of me, in fact. But when my heart started beating again, and I saw how the bear was breaking into the traps, I knew I was even more terrified of what my father would do if I stood there and did nothing. So I charged at it, tried to frighten it away, if you can imagine that. The most foolish thing I’ve probably ever done in my whole life. And that’s when it grabbed my arm in its jaws and tried to rip it off me. Still, I had the knife in my hand. I fought back with it. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground with the blood pumping out of me, and the bear was gone.
‘I crawled back to the homestead, where they saved my arm. And the next day, my father tracked the bear through the hills, and found it dead a few laqs from the broken traps. It had bled to death from the stab wounds in its throat. I was sorry to hear that. But proud too.’
Creed tilted his head back and looked at them all. ‘And that’s what we shall do here, with these invaders,’ he declared. ‘We will get in close, and we’ll go for their throats while they try to crush the life from our body.’
‘Sir?’ said Bolt, taken aback.
‘We attack. We attack tonight while they sit huddled in their tents waiting for the sun.’
Around Bahn the officers shifted in their stances. Bahn felt his stomach fall away.
‘Colonel Mandalay!’
The cavalry officer stood to attention. ‘Sir.’
‘Your men are to advance on the enemy position. As soon as they spot you, charge the camp, understood?’
‘General,’ acknowledged Mandalay after a pause.
‘Don’t linger. Head straight through the camp until you’re into the baggage train. Destroy as much as possible while you’re there. Look for powder wagons in particular. The quartermaster will furnish you with some firebombs for the task. And if you can, disperse the remainder of their zels too.’
It was a tall order, thought Bahn. The skin of Mandalay’s face had grown tight.
‘Major Bolt. The Specials will follow closely behind the cavalry charge. The enemy will be alerted by the time you reach the camp. We must hope they will still be in some confusion. Your task is to maintain that confusion, and to stop them from easily forming ranks until the main body of infantry can strike.’
Bolt nodded his head, his face impassive. Cool, thought Bahn, for a man just handed a suicide mission.
‘I’d like to leave my medicos with the main force, general,’ Bolt requested. He did not need to explain why.
Creed consented.
‘Nidemes. Reveres.’
The two generals waited at attention.
‘The main body will move in behind these actions in a warhead formation. General Nidemes – if you would, I’d like the Hoo to take the centre. General Reveres – the Red Guard chartassa will take positions on our flanks. We will break through their lines and proceed directly to the imperial standard, wherever it may be flying. That is the throat we must work upon. We’ll be going for the Matriarch herself.
‘Colonel Halahan – we have reports of a mortar position on the ridge along their southern flank. You and a company of your Grey-jackets will be dropped behind the imperial lines. Overrun that ridge and hold it at all cost. I repeat, at all cost. We must have the high ground for ourselves.’
General Creed, Lord Protector of Khos, faced his officers with a sombre intensity. The story he had offered was as close to a rousing battle speech as he would ever make. He wasn’t a man to spoil it now with some glib words of victory and duty, not when asking men to lay down their lives at his command.
‘Questions?’
Bahn waited to see if anyone else would speak. ‘Our cannon,’ he said at last, his tongue a dry slab in his mouth. ‘What of our cannon?’
‘They’ll be of little use to us once battle is joined. And vulnerable too. Better if we send them to Tume along with the rest of our baggage. Anything else?’
Still no one spoke up. By the general’s side, Halahan observed their uneasy silence with a quiet amusement. He hunched slightly over the stick of wood he leaned upon, using his weight to screw the tip of it deep into the snow, then cocked his head a little to one side. ‘Aye, General,’ he said; and he exhaled a puff of smoke from