第34节

An examination of the ground revealed tracks leading away from

the campsite towards the western shore of the lagoon.

Even though they were doomed to fail, the She-Kargo's efforts to avoid

defeat were impressive. Prime-Cut unrolled the map given to him by one

of the Iron Masters' agents on Lake Mi-Shiga and after a few minutes'

intensive study the enemy's intentions became abundantly clear. If

forced to give ground, the main force of the She-Kargo would retreat

across the shallow channel onto the upper sand-bar in an attempt to

seek refuge on the higher ground beyond. The steep bluffs would form a

good line of defence against a frontal assault but it could be quickly

turned from the west.

Prime-Cut also discerned the tactic underlying the midnight retreat of

the baggage trains along the western side of the lagoon. The She-Kargo

faction were obviously reluctant to abandon their valuable merchandise

but, more importantly, they intended to put a considerable body of men

across the first fording point on the river estuary and hold the

northern shore to prevent a pursuing force from crossing over and

blocking the exit from the upper sandbar.

Further examination of the map revealed a second fording point across

the estuary, some three miles further west. This would provide an

alternative route if the first was denied to them. There was also

another point from which an attack could be launched: a spur of land on

the western shore of the lagoon came to within four hundred paces of

the channel separating the upper and lower sandbar. If bowmen were

stationed on the point of the spur they could fire into the left flank

of the retreating colunm while the advancing D'Troit cut their way

through from the rear.

At the urging of Prime-Cut and Judas-Priest the war council quickly

agreed to split its forces. The D'Troit delegations would remain on

the beach ready to move along the sandbar against the main force of

She-Kargo and M'Waukee warriors. The C'Natti would despatch a strong

force of bowmen onto the spur; the remainder of its warriors would

follow the route taken by the fleeing baggage trains and its escort

believed to be the weakling San'Paul stiffened by elements from the two

stronger bloodlines. The C'Natti warriors were to destroy everything

in their path, seize the first fording point then wheel right onto the

upper sandbar, trapping what was left of the She-Kargo and M'Waukee.

Result - total annihilation.

Prime-Cut rubbed his hands jubilantly as the runners departed with the

movement orders - orders that were to be put into effect immediately.

Easier said than done. As the She-Kargo faction had already

discovered, organizing the movement of thousands of combatants and

their assembly into coherent formations is extremely difficult without

a proper chain of command - especially when the orders are conveyed

down the line by word of mouth. And it was an even bigger problem for

the D'Troit faction because they had three times as many warriors to

deal with.

All of which meant that the orders to the C'Natti to leave the beach

and move off along the western side of the lagoon took some while to

get through to the various delegations. The cloying mist slowed the

process even further and the planned manoeuvre almost fell apart when

several groups of warriors, anxious to get into the fray, rushed

offmostly in the wrong direction - without waiting to hear what exactly

it was they were required to do.

Prime-Cut cursed and fretted at the delay and silently berated himself

for making what he now realized was a serious tactical blunder. The

enlarged D'Troit and C'Natti delegations had appeared at the trading

post too soon. Instead of arriving over the two previous days, the

extra delegates and 'journey-men' should have delayed their appearance

- joining their clansmen in the hours just before dawn.

Had they done that, the She-Kargo faction would, as always, have

outnumbered the D'Troit. His verbal attack on Mr Snow might have

caused them some disquiet but they would not have felt threatened.

Secure in their strength, they would have gone to bed, slept soundly

and woken up to find themselves hopelessly outnumbered, with no time to