CHAPTER Twenty-One:

Strategies

 

            “When we could not find you on the wind we knew you were either trapped outside the wind, or dead. Good that the first was the case,” Golanka said matter-of-factly as Tyree, Shuyah, Golanka, Konka, Drinda and six other Kodiak warriors ate heartily of caribou ribs, brush hen soup, and warm goat’s milk. They all sat around the fire set between the two huts the Kodiak had erected near the ice cave. “After dispatching the treacherous Chabo, we immediately set out on your trail. It led us here. We were very worried when we came across the Logalla army that was also on your trail,” Golanka said. “The good that’s come of this is that the Logalla are unaware that you have been rescued and that Chabo has been—eliminated.”

            “Chabo had to die for his treason,” Tyree sighed, “but it was probably not his fault.”

            “How so?” a bewildered Golanka blinked.

            “I have seen the Logalla ritual that mesmerizes their captives into steadfast obedience. Chabo was probably captured when the others in his unit were killed. Subjected to their elixir, he would not have been able to resist their order to spy on the Kodiak.”

            “He can resist it now,” Golanka shrugged, and then he tore a huge bite off a caribou rib bone.

            After two day’s rest Tyree and Shuyah were sufficiently recovered to continue their trek. With Golanka and his warriors as outriders, Tyree and Shuyah made the two day journey to the encampment of the Tranca. Here they met with Shuyah’s commanders and set a meeting to take place at a small encampment Golanka’s war party had erected a few views away. There they discussed their plans for a preemptive strike on the Logalla. Konka and Drinda were included as an important part of the discussions.

            First, the Kodiak would make a lightning attack on the main Logalla camp. They would then retreat, drawing out the Logalla army as far away as possible from their reserves in the north. The retreating Kodiak would make for the plains. They would pace their retreat so that there would be time enough for the Logalla to mount their entire force. Somewhere southwest of Verdanta, the Tranca armies would fall upon the main body from three sides. The fleeing Kodiak would turn and attack, closing the trap. By that time the Logalla reserves in the northern twisted forests would be on their way, word no doubt sent to them even before the main armies left the forest in the south. The mounted reserves would ride hard southwest. The force at Verdanta would meet and delay this Forest Regiment, keeping them from flanking the main Tranca armies on the plains. The Tranca armies needed time so that as many Logalla as possible could be killed within the trap.

            Tyree and Shuyah brought their young son, Valaar, with them to the conference. They introduced little Valaar to Golanka, Drinda and Konka for the first time. Golanka was very pleased to find Tyree had named his son after Golanka’s father, Tyree’s grandfather. The boy, young and unblemished by the inherent mistrust between Tranca and Kodiak, knew it was special to have relatives in both clans. He embraced it and asked to be allowed to join his parents in the attack on the Logalla. Tyree and Shuyah smiled with pride. Golanka laughed. A four-year-old was far from ready for the carnage their strategies promised. Tyree and Shuyah had decided that they were not going to allow Valaar to see battle until he was at least twelve.

            Golanka returned to the Kodiak to prepare his troops. Tyree and Shuyah returned to the Tranca camp to do the same. Tyree took trusted Konka and Drinda with him. They would help in training the Verdanta contingent and join Tyree when the time came to lead the Verdanta force against the Logalla reserves. Shuyah would lead the Tranca armies that would encircle the Logalla. Kodiak warriors would scout for the Tranca armies and communicate with each other on the wind.

            Both the Tranca and Kodiak clans would, upon the departure of their warriors, move their citizens to safety in the far north. There, in the extreme cold and constant darkness, they would hide should the war go against them and the Logalla seek revenge upon the innocent.

            The massive Tranca camp moved to the harshest terrain where Tyree could build and train the Verdanta contingent in conditions similar to that in which they would be fighting. Tyree’s female warriors were crucial to the plan, but he was having discipline problems. The Tranca women in Tyree’s charge were strong and smart and agile, but they didn’t like being told what to do by Kodiak dogs (or similar such sentiments). Tyree, they felt, was arrogant and, like all Kodiak, had a hidden agenda. Konka was crude and lacked patience with the Tranca women. Drinda at least seemed to draw their respect. Tyree sensed it was because Drinda was a woman who had killed more than her share of Tranca men.

            Tyree took this problem to Shuyah, whom the women warriors of the Tranca clan idolized beyond goddess status. It was Shuyah, the young daughter of Lord Zorgon, who had talked her father into allowing the training of women warriors. Zorgon and his advisors had considered it over the years. They knew their arch enemy, the Kodiak, had women in armor. But tradition and fear of change always held sway until Lord Zorgon’s little daughter blossomed into a fit and beautiful young woman and took up sword and armor. Shuyah, encouraged from the start by Koleefus, had organized the female force, starting with several girl friends with which she went hunting. Then came training and maneuvers, but no taste of battle. In those days, even Shuyah had yet to see battle. She insisted that she and her female legion needed battle experience to become true warriors.

            Old Lord Zorgon had three sons, and together they couldn’t bring to him the anguish his one daughter did. Lord Zorgon was so fond of her he could deny her nothing. He agreed to let her go into battle, but the process was to be a gradual one.

            “Your women warriors will have to wait to have this honor, but I will arrange for you to go out with war parties—to find and kill the enemy,” Zorgon had said, “but you must always be in the company of experienced warriors. Always under the command of your brother.”

            Shuyah’s brother, Rolak, was the bully that drove her to become tougher and quicker than a Tranca princess should have needed to be. When she began to carry a sword, and had her father’s best instructors marveling at her abilities, older brother Rolak suddenly had become more congenial. Still, when Rolak found he was to take her on missions and train her to be a warrior, he became furious, and refused.

            “You will teach her, you will train her, you will protect her! I want you always at her side!” Zorgon had told his hulking, sulking son.

            “Yes, father,” was all Rolak could say, for his father was a great man, and disobeying the Lord of the Tranca was punishable by execution and, worse, Zorgon’s ire.

            Over the months Shuyah had proved to be a more than able warrior. She killed her first enemy warrior on her second mission. In several clashes with the Logalla she was a driving force in the battles and gradually Rolak felt comfortable with her at his side. Soon, they became a team of near legendary proportions, defeating the Logalla in fight after fight. Their legions were inspired by them, like their father, royalty that didn’t send warriors out, but instead, led them out, and fought at their sides.

            Then one day Shuyah insisted on a mission on her own. She wanted to lead. After much cajoling by his favorite offspring, and the support given her by Koleefus, Lord Zorgon agreed to let Shuyah command her own war party. Lord Zorgon arranged for seven of Rolak’s best men to accompany her. It was on that mission she made the only mistake of her short, but illustrious, military career.

            “We have beaten the Logalla at every turn,” she had told her war party. “It’s time the Tranca forge new armor! Time we killed Kodiak!”

            Her loyal war party heartily, if foolishly, agreed. They set the ambush on the plain that brought Tyree to her. Shuyah saw now that it was not a mistake. It was destiny.

            “I will speak with them,” Shuyah said after Tyree had told her of his discipline problem with the women warriors.

            They mounted and went together immediately to the place where the women were training. From her perch aboard her battle stallion, Shuyah made a powerful speech.

            “Destiny has returned me to the Tranca. Seeing friends and relatives again brings me great joy. Seeing my people rise up from a period of misfortune has also been a joy. But the greatest joy I have seen upon my return has been you, the legion I created many thaws ago. You have maintained your form over my absence. Your arms that hold babies as well as swords are strong; the arrows you loose remain true as does your loyalty to your clan. Yet still you have not been permitted to fight. Now, is your chance. Now, with the Kodiak as our allies, and I as your queen, we will defeat the Logalla for all time!”

            The women warriors cheered like any male warriors would. They raised their weapons on high and for the first time knew they would see battle. It had been promised by their queen. Still, time was running out, and the Tranca women were learning slowly how to set traps and pitfalls. They displayed a keen sense of how to stay downwind of the enemy, how to find their way in the wilderness, and learned to see further to some degree. Beyond that, the Kodiak could add little to Tranca biology. Besides, the girls wanted to fight. They wanted to be warriors, not trap setters, not purveyors of delay tactics and of retreat. Tyree decided that the female warriors needed a challenge. It was time to bring in their partners: the legion of male warriors needed for the Verdanta ploy.

 

LOOK FOR CHAPTER 22: “CHALLENGES”

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