Rebels of Vulvar (Vulvarian Saga Book 2), стр. 27
Emer and I dragged the skeletal remains off the road, rolled them into a ditch on the far side, and covered them with large stones. Then we walked back toward our campsite to a rocky hill some two-hundred meters off the road. Large boulders along the crest of the hill concealed us from the view of anyone traveling on it. With the small telescope, I had excellent observation of the road.
By midday, there had been no traffic. With no trade taking place between Thiva and Nisa since the revolt, I assumed no one needed to travel the way between. Emer and I ate a midday meal of the rations we had carried with us. As dusk fell, we still had seen nothing and left the hill to walk back to our camp. We moved the baacaases to a new patch of grass, rebuilt the fire, and ate our evening rations.
“I hope they come soon,” Emer said. “I am already bored of waiting.”
“Yes, I agree,” I said. “If we see nothing tomorrow, we will ride closer to Nisa to see if we can observe anything.”
Again we shared my blanket when we lay down by the fire to sleep but slept back to back and didn’t speak. I assumed Emer felt embarrassed about weeping and telling me what had happened while the rebels held her captive. I was pleased she had confided in me because it had steeled my resolve. I no longer felt any sympathy for the insurgents and would kill as many of them as necessary to capture their leader.
At midday, the second day of observing the road was like the first. No traffic had moved past us. But, around the ninth hour, as I judged the time from the position of the Vulvarian sun, we heard the tramp of many sandals approaching on the road from the south.
“The army comes,” Emer said.
“Yes,” I said. “We will stay and watch until they pass so we can observe how they have organized the march column.”
As I watched with the telescope to my eye, in the vanguard, officers at the front led many ranks of warriors past us. Three enclosed caravans pulled by teams of veovarks came next. I assumed the Dabar and his senior officers rode in those. More ranks of warriors followed the caravans. The warriors protected the top leaders on the march in front and back. The supply trains, veovark drawn wagons with canvas covers, followed the second echelon of warriors. Behind the trains marched a small rearguard.
“Let’s return to the baacaases,” I said to Emer. “We will stay close enough to the road so we can keep track of the caravans at the center of the column from the sound of their wheels on the road.”
Emer nodded and followed me down the back slope of the hill. Then we jogged back to the stream where we had left the baacaases. Saddling the animals swiftly, we mounted and loped them back toward the road before turning north. In only a few minutes, I heard the caravan wheels rumbling along the stone-covered road. We slowed our mounts to a walk and kept pace with the rebel column for the rest of the day.
As dusk approached, the wheels of the caravans ground to a halt, and I heard officers shouting orders to make camp. Emer and I turned our baacaases and rode west a safe distance away as the rebel army moved off the road to bivouac for the night. As the darkness deepened, lights from campfires and burning torches appeared all along the length of the camp. It seemed the army had gone into the encampment in the same formation as they had marched, which meant the caravans should be roughly straight east from our position. I told Emer to dismount and climbed down from my baacaas.
“What now?” she said.
“We wait until the main body beds down for the night,” I said. “Then, we must encourage the night watch to douse their campfires and extinguish the torches.”
“How do we do that?”
I held up my bow. “With this,” I said.
After securing the baacaases, we ate our evening rations while waiting for the warriors to take to their blankets. Some hours after the army had left the road and made camp, the sound of pots clattering as they had prepared their rations and the buzz of many voices lessened. After a while longer, all was quiet.
“We will wait a few more hours to let the warriors fall deeply asleep,” I said.
Sitting with our backs together, Emer and I dozed on and off while we waited. At one point, she shifted and woke me. Looking up at the stars, I estimated it was past the twentieth hour, roughly the middle of the night on Vulvar.
“Are you awake?” I said.
“Yes,” Emer said.
“Good, let’s go,” I said.
Leading the baacaases, we walked close to the enemy encampment. With the aid of the telescope, I located the caravans.
The drivers of the caravans and those of two other wagons had parked them in a circle. The warriors had erected large tents to the north and south of the circled conveyances. It was a dark night, but by the light of the campfires and torches, I quickly made out the night watch patrolling their posts.
Motioning to Emer to move forward, I led her northwest, so we approached the tents the warriors of the vanguard occupied. I saw an officer walking about, checking on the guards to make sure they were awake and alert. Handing the reins of my baacaas to Emer, I reached back and withdrew an arrow from the quiver.
A warrior on watch leaned his spear against a tree, removed his helmet, and scratched his head with the fingers of