The Shasht War Read Online Free PDF

the other to battle before we can join. So we must make him attack our stronger force first. While he engages on your front, the other half of our army must drive in and take him in the rear."
    "You think he will attack?"
    "That is his best option. We have to hold him off, win time to allow us to combine."
    The Meld licked his lips. The terrible weight of responsibility had never seemed so heavy before.
    "And what of Colss?"
    "Send me to Colss, and I can advise him about the situation as you see it."
    "And what if the enemy chooses not to attack us all dug in on Sow's Head?"
    "Then Colss and his army will have to find a way to reach you by going cross-country. There must be hunting trails through Chenna Forest. When we have the entire army together, then we will be strong enough to defeat him."
    "Yes." The Meld clearly liked that idea.
    "And what if the enemy attacks Colss?"
    "Then Colss must move back into the forests quickly and avoid giving battle. He would be outnumbered and outclassed."
    "What should my regiments do in such a case? In your opinion, Brigadier."
    "Hold fast, sir. These regiments are not likely to hold together too well during attacking maneuvers. Use the better trained regiments for maneuver, once the army has been pulled together."
    The Meld was nodding. His six thousand raw youngsters, stiffened with eight hundred veterans of the Guard, could be deployed in a defensive arc on the hill. They could hold a position like that and give a good account of themselves. To ask anything more of them was to risk a loss of cohesion when faced by men with swords in their hands.
    "Go, then. I will write you orders and a message for General Colss. He is to press the enemy hard, but he is to be careful. We cannot afford defeat."
    The Meld gave a series of orders, and shortly thereafter the army turned off the road and marched along narrow trails up onto the flanks of the Sow. Soon they reached the top of her Head and formed a defensive arc. Scouting parties were sent out into the forested slopes of the hill.
    Thru waited for the Meld's sealed orders for Colss. Far down the valley of the Shimp he could see the temple steeple of the village of Shimpli-Dindi. Down there were men and soon there would be war.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Thru and two young mot soldiers, Beerg and Natho, kept to the rocky streambeds, under the hemlock and sycamore forest. They made little sound as they sprang from boulder to boulder, stone shelf to stone shelf.
    They had left Sow Hill far behind and, after cutting down through stands of pine and birch, they'd reached the stream in the late afternoon. Thereafter they'd followed the wild dipping water and then the larger stream to which it soon joined. Somewhere ahead lay Chenna, through which the stream, by then a river, would flow.
    As they traveled, they glimpsed the animals of the forest. Flocks of ducks took wing from a pond. Small groups of deer bounded away at another point. Beaver slapped water in alarm, and a blue heron watched them pass its pool without moving.
    Above, through the trees, they glimpsed a clear blue sky. Under such clear conditions the Meld's army would be plainly visible to the Shasht generals. Thru was sure they would take the bait. The men of Shasht were very confident of their own strength.
    As they moved on down the rocky riverbed, Thru let his thoughts wander. Jumping from rock to rock he chewed at a question he often asked: Why had the men of Shasht chosen this path? Was it something inherent in Man's nature? Was that why he was known to them only as Man the Cruel?
    The Assenzi spoke of an evil force, a personage that lurked somewhere in Shasht. Thru had helped them send a special message to that person. He knew only that the message contained great power, and he hoped it would have the desired effect.
    Bu Thru had fought men on several occasions now. He'd seen the incredible determination that men exhibited, even when badly hurt. There was some elemental drive in men that drove