and rapids are pretty to look at, but trying to get around them isn’t much fun at all.’
‘I knew it,’ Andar said.
‘Knew what?’
‘Longbow said he’d be waiting for us here, and there he is.’
‘I don’t—’ Gunda started, but then he too saw the leather-clad archer sitting on a log not far from the river-mouth. ‘That’s Longbow, all right,’ he said. ‘If he says he’s going to do something or be someplace, you might as well believe him. I learned never to argue with him during that first war in Lady Zelana’s Domain.’
‘If I was reading Lord Dahlaine’s map right, he had hundreds of miles ahead of him when he led the Malavi and those natives down along that mountain range,’ Andar said, sounding more than a little baffled.
‘The first rule when you’re dealing with Longbow is always to believe him when he tells you something,’ Gunda said with a slight smile. ‘It may not be true when he says it, but it will turn out to be true in the long run. If Lady Zelana doesn’t wiggle her fingers to make things happen, Longbow’s other friend – the one who conjures up tidal waves on dry land or sets fire to a mountain range when she gets irritated – will. Don’t ever cross Longbow if you can possibly avoid it. That’s the best way I know of to stay alive.’
Narasan and the overly clever Keselo came out of the cabin at the stern of the Victory, and they joined Gunda and Andar at the starboard rail. ‘I’d say that we made good time,’ Narasan observed.
‘Not too bad,’ Gunda agreed, ‘but Longbow outdid us. He’s camped on the beach, and he’s probably been waiting for us for a month or so at least.’
‘I see that you’re filling in for Padan in the funny remarks department,’ Narasan said in a sour tone. ‘If you are, you’d better practice just a bit. Padan would have added all sorts of irritating comments to that one.’
‘Give me a little time, Narasan,’ Gunda replied. ‘My sense of humor’s sort of rusty – the weather, no doubt.’
‘Longbow should be able to tell us if the bug-people are coming up out of the Wasteland,’ Keselo said. ‘That’s what we really need to know.’
Gunda squinted at the narrow bay. ‘I was sort of hoping that we’d be able to get closer to the beach,’ he said. ‘If the men have to row ashore from this far out, it’ll take us several days to get everybody on shore.’
‘We won’t be going anywhere for several days anyway, Gunda,’ Narasan said. ‘Half of the army’s still camped on that beach up in Dahlaine country. Sorgan’s scheme should keep Aracia out of my hair, but when he borrowed half of the fleet, he slowed things down for us quite a bit. Let’s go ashore and have a little chat with Longbow. We really need to know if the bugs are moving yet.’
‘How far would you say it is to the top of Long-Pass from here?’ Narasan asked when several Trogites met with the archer.
‘About a hundred and twenty miles, Narasan,’ Longbow replied. ‘Dahlaine’s map was fairly accurate.’
Narasan winced. ‘That’s not exactly good news, Longbow,’ he said. ‘At ten miles a day, that’s twelve days at least.’
‘Is ten miles a day some sort of religious obligation?’ Longbow asked the commander.
‘No, not really,’ Narasan replied. ‘It’s based on reality. One man alone can cover much more ground, but when you’re dealing with an army of a hundred thousand, ten miles a day is about the best you can hope for.’
‘But your fort-builders wouldn’t really have to move that slowly, Narasan,’ Longbow declared. ‘Friend Gunda here is the expert, so he’ll know how many of your men we’ll need to get the job done. If I were to guide – or maybe lead – your fort-builders up the pass, I’m sure that I’d have them up there in four days, and they could have most of the work finished by the time you and the rest of your army reached the top.’
‘It’s just not done like that, Longbow,’ Gunda protested. ‘An army’s not an army if it gets all split up like that.’
‘Don’t be in such a rush, Gunda,’ Andar suggested. ‘It’s very likely that we’re going to need those forts and we’ll definitely need them before the bug-people come charging across the Wasteland. I suppose we could give some thought to blocking them off somewhere about half-way down the pass, but I’d say that blocking them right up at the top of the pass would work better.’
‘He’s got a point there, Gunda,’ Narasan agreed. ‘We’re not fighting an ordinary enemy, and we don’t want them to get into the pass if we can possibly come up with a way to keep them out.’ Then he looked at Longbow. ‘Can you really get the fort crew to the head of the pass in just four days?’ he asked.
‘Not all of them maybe,’ Longbow replied, ‘but enough of them to get started. The Tonthakans, Matans and the Malavi can hold our enemies back for a while, but I’m sure that forts are absolutely essential.’
‘I see your point,’ Narasan agreed. ‘All right, then, take the fort crews on up to the head of the pass as quickly as you possibly can. If we don’t block off Long-Pass, there’s a fair chance that poor old Sorgan will be facing real bug-people instead of assorted imaginary ones.’
Gunda shrugged. ‘If that’s the way you want it, glorious leader, that’s the way we’ll do it.’ Then he squinted at Andar. ‘Are you feeling up to a long hike in short time?’ he asked.
‘That’s up to the commander, Gunda,’ Andar replied. ‘If he wants me to go along, I’ll go, and we could turn it into a race, if you’d like. I can probably run at least as fast as you can.’
Gunda was seriously discontented by Longbow’s scheme to rush the building crews up to the head of the pass. Spreading the army out in potentially hostile territory wasn’t a good idea at all, and he was highly skeptical when Longbow announced that he could march the construction gangs to the top of the pass in a mere four days. Longbow himself probably wouldn’t have any trouble covering that much ground in four days, but Longbow wasn’t familiar with all the delays that can crop up when several thousand men are moving in the same direction. Gunda’s years in Narasan’s army had taught him a fairly simple rule – ‘Always expect the worst, and you’ll seldom be disappointed.’
The grumbling and complaining began before they even started up the pass the following morning. When Longbow said ‘at first light’ he meant it, and that didn’t sit too well with most of the men in the construction crews.
It didn’t take Gunda very long to put his finger on the source of much of their problem. Longbow was a tall man, and Trogites, for the most part, were significantly shorter. Gunda didn’t bother to keep count, but he was almost positive that he had to take two steps for every one of Longbow’s. Most Trogites, it appeared, almost had to run to keep up with the archer.
‘He moves very fast, doesn’t he?’ the farmer Omago suggested.
Gunda wasn’t sure just why Omago had joined them, but he decided not to ask any questions just now. ‘He steps right along,’ he agreed. ‘If somebody happened to take six or eight inches off each one of his legs, things might be a lot more pleasant
