Tathea by Anne Perry

Author:Anne Perry [Perry, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-0923-1
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-02-20T21:30:00+00:00

Chapter XIV

AS THEY EMERGED FROM the low line of the hills, they were ambushed, not from the gullies as they expected but from a shallow riverbed invisible even from a few hundred yards away. The Shinabari knew how to mask themselves wearing gray and dun-colored clothing, and they were indistinguishable from the light and shadows on the sand. The fighting was hard and violent, the losses severe on both sides. But the Camassians won because their discipline and morale were better, and when sorely pressed the Shinabari general made a tactical error; he failed to anticipate the regrouping of Camassian forces, and he left his charge too late.

By sundown Tathea once again looked over a blood-soaked field littered with the wounded and dead, but this time the Shinabari forces had not retreated far, and their camp was still in sight. There was nowhere for them to go except to retreat towards Thoth-Moara.

Ra-Nufis came to stand beside her. She noticed with concern that he was limping. She glanced down at his roughly bandaged leg.

“It’s nothing,” he dismissed it. “Only a cut.” He looked at her closely.

She smiled at him. “A few bruises. I shall be black and blue by morning.” She turned to stare across the desert again, towards the Shinabari camp dark on the horizon. “They’ll raise more soldiers from the towns, won’t they,” she said. It was a statement, not a question. She was voicing her anxiety simply to share it.

“Yes,” he replied gravely. “But they’ll be raw, and with no discipline and very little spirit.” His voice was heavy. “They’ll be slaughtered when they hit the battlefield because they are ignorant of challenge or struggle. Years of overprotection have done that to them.”

She did not answer for several minutes. It was bitter knowledge. She gestured towards the Shinabari camp. “Doesn’t he know that?”

“Probably,” Ra-Nufis replied. “Perhaps it has been so gradual it has passed him by. Sometimes one does not see such a decline. There is no steepness in the stairs to hell.”

She looked at him quickly. “Where’s Alexius?”

He pointed behind him to the left.

She thanked him and walked through the groups of soldiers scattered on the sand, close in groups around fires, huddled under blankets and with cloaks pulled tight round their shoulders. Alexius looked up as she came within the circle of the firelight. His face softened when he recognized her, and he made a gesture of invitation for her to sit.

She accepted, glad of the warmth. She had not realized how sharp the air was already, and it was barely dark.

He waited for her to speak, sensing the burden in her.

“Ra-Nufis says the new men they’ll get will be so callow they’ll be slaughtered without even knowing how to fight,” she said quietly, not meeting his eyes. She hated having to admit this in front of a Camassian. These were her own people she was speaking of. She should have defended them, or if she could not then she should at least have kept silent about their weaknesses, but circumstances did not allow, and she resented that.

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