"And? Did you discover any reasons?"
"Of course I did, the best of reasons: there's nowhere for them to go."
"I don't follow you."
"You will, if you think about it. We have the only army of its kind in Britain, as far as I'm aware. No?" He nodded slowly, looking bemused. "Well then, what can they aspire to, in terms of supreme command? You're here, and so am I, and we're both young enough yet to have decades ahead of us, barring sickness and accident. We have no wars—or we had none at that time—so the risk of either One of us meeting death in battle has been negligible. So the only route to supremacy for any of diem must lie in fomenting mutiny here in Camulod—and who would follow them, were they to try? Where would any malcontent find cause for general mutiny? When did we last execute a soldier? Our greatest penalty is banishment, and the fear of that alone is sufficient to maintain order in CHIT ranks, because banishment from Camulod means perdition: where is a banished man to go? Will he wait around our borders, living on what he can hunt and trap, in the hope of being joined by others, then raiding us? I think not "And so our soldiers recognize the benefits they enjoy here, and so do our senior officers. The highest rank they can attain, they hold already, and they seem content with that. We alone; Brother, you and I, must face and live with the disadvantages in such a system, which arise only at times like this. When a man—any man—has reached the limits of his progress, he tends to accept those limits and grow comfortable. There is your dilemma. "
"Hmm... " Ambrose had been pacing as he listened, and now he sat down across from me again. "You're absolutely right. And now that we are faced with war again, those expectations will all change. The dilemma will resolve itself as individual field commanders rise to the challenges they meet. "
"Aye, or fail to rise, in which case they will be replaced. Either way, we'll soon have no lack of qualified field commanders. But let's get back to the original point, which was the threat from the northeast, Horsa's Danes. Your hands have been tied in that by your not knowing whom to leave in charge, given the risk of attack from that direction. Now they're untied. I'm here, and so is Dedalus, and Ded, next to you and me, is the best man we have, in terms of possessing the will and the flair for absolute command. You were going to leave two legions here, taking the First with you to Cambria. Why? Why wouldn't you take two into Cambria?"
He held up his hands. "Because of the danger from the northeast—precisely what you were talking about earlier. I had decided that with you away in the northeast, should everything go wrong while I was in Cambria, and Camulod's defenders were essentially left lacking decisive strategic leadership, they ought at least to have sufficient defensive strength to survive until we could provide that leadership. That meant two legions, sufficient to hold and patrol our borders. "
"Good enough. But that's all changed now. I think you have to take two legions into Cambria, less one tenth. "
"/ have to take them? So you've decided not to come. What do you intend to do with the tenth I leave behind, as if I did not already know?"
I nodded. "An expedition in force, into Northumbria. You'll have six thousand men, less my six hundred. That will allow you to win in Cambria, smashing Ironhair, and it will allow me to penetrate to Northumbria in relative safety. I'll have two hundred heavy cavalry, a hundred of your Scouts, and three hundred infantry. That will discourage unwelcome attention. "
"Aye, it should, but you'll have two hundred and more miles to travel, each way, and much of it across rough country. To take the roads would not be worth the risk—people tend to congregate along the open routes. "
"No, you're wrong there, Ambrose. The roads offer the greatest advantage for speedy progress, there and back. There might be people lining the routes on either side, all the way, but we'll be travelling quickly, at the forced march. "
"You'll be tied to the speed of your infantry. The roads are speediest for heavy cavalry and infantry. But the roads also offer endless opportunities for entrapment The news of your coming will precede you at the speed a man can run to pass on word to another runner. On any of diem, your progress and your arrival at any given point will be predictable. You could lose your entire party over the course of a hundred miles, one arrow at a time. "
"True enough, I suppose, if you look only at the bleakest picture. "
"I do, and so do you. That's our responsibility. That's command. "
"Accepted. So are you telling me I should remain here and wait to see what might come down against us from the north?"
"No, not at all. I'm thinking about Cambria, my battleground. Most of it is mountainous, except for the coastal areas, which means that most of it is bad cavalry country. I've been aware of that all along, and I have what I think will be a successful strategy for using our infantry in the hills, supported by our cavalry working from base camps in the valleys beneath. I intend to flush Ironhair's levies the way boys flush out wild game for hunters to kill. One hill, one hill range at a time, I intend to push them back and off the summits, thrusting them down into the valleys beyond and into our cavalry. We can count on the Pendragon warriors and bowmen to join us, and we've trained enough of them in our own ways for us to hope, at the very least, that they'll be able to work with us in concert. Our discipline will win the battles and the war for us. In addition to that, the Scouts should be able to work well in all but the most inaccessible mountain terrain, although not in massive numbers, and that has an effect on you. "
"Very well, now it's my turn to be lost. "
He smiled. "Test this then, for logic. I need every infantry soldier we possess. I also need every individual unit of heavy cavalry. I intend to divide, my force, initially, and to interdict Ironhair's fleet from using the harbours they now hold. To do that, I need cavalry and infantry both, to seal each harbour from the land side and then drive the defenders into the sea. One legion should suffice for that, at the beginning, and I'll be able to reduce that number later, once we hold the harbours.
"In the meantime, I won't need the full complement of Scouts, while you, on the other hand, can use them. I'm suggesting you exchange your force of six hundred mixed troops for Ave hundred Scouts. That will allow you to move more quickly than otherwise possible, and to pick your own route at every stage of your journey. I'd suggest you'll be invulnerable, too, until you decide if and when to stand and fight. No one who doesn't have an army of his own would ever dream of attacking five hundred armed and disciplined mounted men. There's never been a force like that seen outside the bounds of Camulod, Cay."
My heart had begun to pound as he spoke, and now my excitement was unbearable, so that I rose to my feet and began pacing the room. From the corner of my eye, I saw one of the lamps gutter and go out, and so I knew that time had passed quickly. Ambrose was watching, making no attempt to hurry me. I forced myself to stop pacing and faced him.
"No fault in your logic, Brother, none at all. But are you sure you won't have need of the Scouts?"
"Of course I will, but we have a thousand, and I'll need no more than half of them. I'll have two thousand heavy troopers and three thousand infantry to back them up, remember. You won't, but you'll be carrying surprise with you all the way. No one will oppose you on the road to Northumbria. "
"What about spare horses? Do we have enough?"
Ambrose laughed aloud. "Enough? There are more horses in this colony than there are people, Caius. How many will you require?"