I looked all around me. We were running short on trees at this point, and the fires hadn't gotten this far. Both banks seemed empty, but so did the river. Could I have been the only survivor? It didn't seem possible. After all, there had been so many of us when the last march began.
I was half dead with fatigue and my entire body was laced with aches and pains. Every inch of my skin seemed to have been burned, but the waters were so cold that I was shaking and probably blue. I'd have to leave the river soon, if I wanted to live. I felt that I could manage a few more underwater expeditions, and I decided to chance them before departing from the sheltering depths.
Somehow I managed four more laps, and I felt then that I might not come up again if I tried a fifth. So I hung onto a rock and caught my breath. then crawled ashore.
I rolled onto my back and looked all around. I didn't recognize the locale. The fires hadn't reached it yet, though. There was a thick clump of bushes off to my right and I crawled toward it, crawled into it, fell flat on my face and went to sleep.
When I awoke, I wished I hadn't. Every inch of me ached, and I was sick. I lay there for hours, half delirious, and finally managed to stagger back to the river for a long drink of water. Then I headed back for the thicket, made it, and slept again.
I was still sore when consciousness came once more, but a little bit stronger. I walked to the river and back, and by means of my icy Trump found that Bleys was still alive.
“Where are you?” he asked, when I had made the contact.
“Damned if I know,” I replied. “Lucky to be anywhere at all. Near the sea, though. I can hear the waves and I know the smell.”
“You're near the river?”
“Yes.”
“Which bank?”
“Left, as you'd face the sea. North.”
“Then stay put,” he told me, “and I'll send someone after you. I'm assembling our forces now. I've already got over two thousand together, and Julian won't come near us. More keep straggling in every minute,”
“Okay,” I said, and that was it.
I stayed put. I slept as I did so.
I heard them bashing about in the bushes and was alert, I pushed some fronds aside and peered forth.
It was three of the big red guys.
So I straightened my gear and brushed all my garments, ran a hand through my hair, stood erect and swayed, took several deep breaths, and stepped forth,
“I am here,” I announced.
Two of them did double-takes, blades in their hands, as I said it.
But they recovered, smiled, paid me deference, and conducted me back to the camp. It was perhaps two miles distant. I made it without leaning.
Bleys appeared and said, “We've got over three thousand now.” Then he called for a medical officer to take care of me again.
We were undisturbed all through the night, and the rest of our troops straggled in that night and the following day.
We had perhaps five thousand by then. We could see Amber in the distance.
We slept another night and on the following morning we set forth.
By afternoon we had made maybe fifteen miles. We marched along the beach, and there was no sign of Julian anywhere.
The feeling of pain from my burns began to subside. My thigh was healthy, but my shoulder and arm still hurt from here to hell and back again.
We marched on, and soon we were within forty miles of Amber. The weather stayed clement and all of the wood to our left was a desolate, blackened ruin. The fire had destroyed most of the timber in the valley, so for once there was a thing in our favor. Julian nor anybody else could ambush us. We'd see them coming a mile off. We made another ten miles ere the sun fell and we bivouacked on the beach.
The next day, I remembered that Eric's coronation was near at hand and I reminded B!eys. We had almost lost count of the days, but realized we still had a few remaining.
We led a speed-march till noon. then rested. By then, we were twenty-five miles away from the foot of Kolvir. By twilight, the distance was ten.
And we kept on. We marched till midnight and we bivouacked once again. By that time, I was beginning to feel fairly alive once more. I practiced a few cuts with my blade and could almost manage them. The next day, I felt even better.
We marched until we came to the foot of Kolvir, where we were met by all of Julian's forces, combined with many from Caine's fleet who now stood as foot soldiers.
Bleys stood there and called things, like Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville, and we took them.
We bad maybe three thousand men when we had finished off everything Julian had to throw against us. Julian, of course, escaped.
But we had won. There was celebration that night. We had won.
I was very afraid by then, and I made my fears known to Bleys. Three thousand men again Kolvir.
I had lost the fleet, and Bleys had lost over ninety-eight percent of his foot soldiers. I did not look upon these as rejoiceable items.
I didn't like it.
But the next day we began the ascent. There was a stairway, allowing for the men to go two abreast along it. This would narrow soon, however, forcing us to go single file.
We made it a hundred yards up Kolvir, then two, then three.
Then the storm blew in from the sea, and we held tight and were lashed by it.
Afterward, a couple of hundred men were missing.
We struggled on and the rains came down. The way grew steeper, more slippery. A quarter of the way up Kolvir we met with a column of armed men descending. The first of these traded blows with the leaders of our vanguard, and two men fell. Two steps were gained, and another man fell.
This went on for over an hour, and by then we were about a third of the way up and our line was wearing back toward Bleys and myself. It was good that our big red warriors were stronger than Eric's troops. There would come a clash of arms, a cry, and a man would be brought by. Sometimes he would be red, occasionally furry, but more often he wore Eric's colors.
We made it to the halfway point, fighting for every step. Once we reached the top, there would be the broad stair of which the one to Rebma had been but an image. It would lead up to the Great Arch, which was the eastern entranceway to Amber.
Perhaps flrty of our vanguard remained. Then forty, thirty, twenty, ....
We were about two-thirds of the way up by then, and the stair zigged and zagged its way back and forth across the face of Kolvir. The eastern stair is seldom used. It is almost a decoration. Our original plans had been to cut through the now blackened valley and then circle, climbing, and to take the western way over the mountains and enter Amber from behind. The fire and Julian had changed all this. We'd never have made it up and around. It was now a frontal assault or nothing. And it wasn't going to be nothing.
Three more of Eric's warriors fell and we gained four steps. Then our front man made the long descent and we lost one.
The breeze was sharp and cool from off the sea, and birds were collecting at the foot of the mountain. The sun broke through the clouds, as Eric apparently put aside his weather making now that we were engaged with his force.
We gained six steps and lost another man.
It was strange and sad and wild...
Bleys stood before me, and soon his turn would come. Then mine, should he perish.
Six of the vanguard remained,
Ten steps...
Then five remained.
We pushed on, slowly, and there was blood on every step for as far back as I could see. There's a moral there, somewhere.
The fifth man slew four before he fell himself, so bringing us to another zig, or zag, as the case may be.
Onward and upward, our third man fighting with a blade in either hand. It was good that he fought in a holy war, for there was real zeal behind each blow. He took three before he died.