Bili beamed a question at Pah-Elmuh but was answered just as silently by the surgeon’s Kleesahk assistant. “Your pardon, Lord Champion, but Pah-Elmuh’s mind is as busy as are his hands, just now. Indeed, his mind it is that is preventing the female’s body from bleeding, for he feels that she already has lost more blood than is good for her.”
When once the uterus was opened, the babe lay exposed, though enclosed in a sack of tissue. Pah-Elmuh carefully lifted it out, sack and all, severed the umbilicus, then waited while his assistant tied off the cord near to the babe with a short length of strong thread.
When the Kleesahk had stripped off the tissue sac, the midwives and wise women all exclaimed at the size and fair shape of the boy babe and waited for the huge humanoid to impart the slap that would shock the infant into breathing in his first breath of air.
But Pah-Elmuh did no such thing; rather he simply regarded the tiny morsel of human flesh resting upon his broad, hairy hand, while his mind instructed the mind of the babe. Drawing in a deep, deep breath, little Djef Morguhn roared out his rage and indignation. Then the Kleesahk gave this newest member of the squadron of Bili, Chief of Morguhn, to the waiting women, while his huge hands went about the task of closing the deep incision in Rahksahnah’s body, that incision still having bled no more than a few drops.
On Djef Morguhn’s eighth day of life, Prince Byruhn rode in from the north, with two of his noblemen and a dozen dragoons. All without exception were bundled to the very ears in furs and woolens against the frigid weather, both the men and their mounts showing the effects of their long, hard joumey through the deep snows from King’s Rest Mountain. Nor, Bili, was quick to note, was that all, for both the prince and the tall, slender nobleman showed new scars, while the short, broad and powerful-looking nobleman walked with a decided limp to which he was clearly not yet accustomed.
While the dragoons proceeded on to the ancient tower keep and Count Steev’s servants bore in the baggage of the noble guests and the prince, those three huddled dangerously close to the blazing hearth, sipping at large containers of hot bran-died cider, while clouds of steam rose up from their sodden woolens and ice-crusted furs.
Having been early alerted telepathically by Lieutenant Kahndoot, whose Moon Maidens manned the outer works and the ponderous gate, Bili had immediately set the servants assigned to him and Rahksahnah to moving mother, babe and all effects to another room, thus freeing the prince suite for Byruhn. He himself had first alerted Count Sandee, then descended to the first floor to greet his employer and temporary overlord.
Draining off the rest of his brandied cider, Prince Byruhn whuffed twice, then began to unwind from about his thick neck a lengthy, silk-lined woolen muffler, remarking with a twinkle in his blue-green eyes, “Come you not too near us three ere we’ve bathed and changed clothing, Cousin Bili, for I trow I’ve as many fleas as my horse has hairs. But wait, come you with us to the bathhouse. I’d know more of your fine campaign, and I’m certain you’d know of mine own.”
“They are a singular people, most singular.” The prince addressed Bili from the huge, sunken, tile-lined tub now full of steaming, herb-scented water. “They are not Ohyohers originally. Their legends say that they came from somewhere beyond the Great Inland Sea, to the north of Ohyoh, and for the last two or three score years they have been slowly moving south through the Ohyoh country, conquering and looting or at least disrupting every demesne through which they passed, but never trying to settle or occupy their conquests for any long period of time.
“Then, some few years back, a very strong leader arose amongst the native Ohyohers. He organized almost all of the small statelets under his banner and has since been pushing these Skohshuns—as the enemy call themselves—hard, endeavoring to hurry them across the river and out of Ohyoh entirely. He is succeeding, to my detriment, alas.”
Bili wrinkled his brow in thought, then interjected, “My lord Byruhn, on my first campaign, in Harzburk, King Gilbuht’s army faced a unit of Freefighters who called themselves by the name of Skohshuns or something very like to it. They were all infantry, as I recall, armed with poleaxes and spears, and lightly armored.”
The prince nodded, flinging droplets of water from beard and mustache. “Then these afflicting our kingdom are likely of the same ilk, young cousin. Precious few of them go or fight as proper horsemen. The bulk of the ones to the north are armed with overlong pikes, poleaxes, long, spiked maces and a few warhammers; only the sparse cavalrymen carry true swords; the only edge weapon of most is an oversize dirk, three fingers in width and some foot and a half in length, but without a guard of any description.
“The horsemen go in panoplies of decent-quality armor—a mixture of mail and plate, mostly—and their steeds are protected with plate, mail, horn and leather. But the only protection afforded the foot is a brimmed cap of steel, a skimpy breastplate, a pair of leather-and-mail gauntlets and, sometimes, a pair of elbow cops.”
The short, broad nobleman, he of the recent leg wound, snorted from his own watery place. “Scant need those bastards have of more armor, Cousin Byruhn, since it’s damned seldom any blade or point can get near enough to them to matter. I trow, I can still see those hedges of steel points in my mind’s eye, waking or sleeping.”
The taller, more slender man, he of the new facial scar, sighed. “Aye, it was a near thing, that sad day. Had our good Kleesahks not clouded the minds of the Skohshuns when they did, all three of us and full many another were dead meat.”
“As you may surmise, Cousin Bili,” said Prince Byruhn grimly, “Ehlyuht and Pehrsee here are referring to the first, last and, to date, only full-scale battle against the invaders. Because the Skohshuns withdrew to the north after the battle, our New Kuhmbuhluhn folk have been hailing it as a victory, but I and all else who lived through that shambles know better. Full half of the Kuhmbuhluhn forces committed to that field were either killed or wounded.”
Bili felt a sinking feeling deep in his gut, knowing without knowing that none of his squadron would be seeing home this year. “Then… my lord prince means that half the warriors of the Kingdom of New Kuhmbuhluhn are dead or incapacitated?”
“No, Steel be thanked.” Byruhn shook his massive head. “Unseasonal heavy rains had delayed most of the eastern contingents and I was compelled to march and fight without them. With what I have left—with the eastern force of Count Wenlahk, my survivors, such force as Count Sandee can raise—and with, I hope, your fine squadron, dear cousin… ?”
Bili arose from his seat and spoke firmly. “My lord prince, we two gentlemen have an agreement between us. I and my folk have fulfilled our end of that agreement to its fullest extent; all of the Ganiks have been slain or driven out of your lands. Now is the time for fulfillment of my lord’s part of the agreement; I and mine, most of us, are not mere vagrant mercenaries—we have homes and lands from which we have been long away and to which we desire to return.”
The young thoheeks thought it politic not to add that with the eastern areas cleared of the last of the outlaw Ganiks, he and his so-called squadron might have ridden east into the Ahrmehnee mountains at any time, with or without Prince Byruhn’s leave. Indeed, it had been his thought to order that very thing when winter had suddenly and early clamped down its hard and merciless grip on Sandee’s Cot and all lands about. He should have marched east months ago, winter or no winter, he belatedly realized, while this devious royal personage was still licking his wounds in the north.