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must move out on the plains according to the scheme Juchi and I drew up for you."
Toghrul nodded. Arghun Tiliksky, who had also crowded into the kibitka, demanded: "What scheme is
this? Why have I not been told?"
"You didn't need to know," Flandry answered. Blandly: "The warriors of Tebtengri can be moving at top
speed, ready for battle, on five minutes' notice, under any conditions whatsoever. Or so you were
assuring me in a ten-minute speech one evening last week. Very well, move them, noyon."
Arghun bristled. "And then-"
"You will lead the Mangu Tuman varyak division straight south for 500 kilometers," said Toghrul. "There
you will await radio orders. The other tribal forces will be stationed elsewhere; you will doubtless see a
few, but strict radio silence is to be maintained between you. The less mobile vehicles will have to stay in
this general region, with the women and children maneuvering them."
"And the herds," reminded Flandry. "Don't forget, we can cover quite a large area with all the Tebtengri
herds."
"But this is lunacy!" yelped Arghun. "If Oleg knows we're spread out in such a manner, and drives a
wedge through-"
"He won't know," said Flandry. "Or if he does, he won't know why: which is what counts.Now, git!"
For a moment Arghun's eyes clashed with his. Then the noyon slapped gauntlets against one thigh,
whirled, and departed. It was indeed only a few moments before the night grew loud with varyak motors
and lowing battle horns.
When that had faded, Toghrul tugged his beard, looked across the radio, and said to Flandry: "Now can
you tell me just what fetched that Terran spaceship here?"
"Why, to inquire more closely about the reported death of me, a Terran citizen, on Altai," grinned
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Flandry. "At least, if he is not a moron, that is what the captain will tell Oleg. And he will let Oleg
convince him it was all a deplorableaccident, and he'll take off again."
Toghrul stared,then broke into buffalo laughter. Flandry chimed in. For a while the GurKhan of the
Mangu Tuman and the field agent of the Imperial Terrestrial Naval Intelligence Corps danced around the
kibitka singing about the flowers that bloom in the spring.
Presently Flandry left. There wasn't going to be much sleep for anyone in the next few days. Tonight,
though. He rapped eagerly on his own Iurt. Silence answered him, the wind and a distant sad mewing of
the herds. He scowled and opened the door.
A note lay on his bunk.My beloved, the alarm signals have blown. Toghrul gave me weapons and a
new varyak. My father taught me to ride and shoot as well as any man. It is only fitting that the
last of Clan Tumuri go with the warriors.
Flandry stared at the scrawl for a long while. Finally, "Oh, hell and tiddlywinks," he said, and dressed
and went to bed.
XIV
When he woke in the morning, his cart was under way. He emerged to find the whole encampment
grinding across the steppe. Toghrul stood to one side, taking a navigational sight on the rings. He greeted
Flandry with a gruff: "We should be in our own assigned position tomorrow." A messenger dashed up,
something needed thechiefs attention, one of the endless emergencies of so big a group on the move.
Flandry foundhimself alone.
By now he had learned not to offer his own unskilled assistance. He spent the day composing scurrilous
limericks about the superiors who had assigned him to this mission. The trek continued noisily through the
dark. Next morning there was drifted snow to clear before camp could be made. Flandry discovered that
he was at least able to wield a snow shovel. Soon he wished he weren't.
By noon the ordu was settled; not in the compact standardized laagers which offered maximum safety,
but straggling over kilometers in a line which brought mutinous grumbling. Toghrul roared down all
protest and went back to his kibitka to crouch over the radio. After some hours he summoned Flandry.
"Ship departing," he said. "We've just picked up a routine broadcast warning aircraft from the spaceport
area." He frowned. "Can we carry out all our maneuvers while we're still in daylight?"
"It doesn't matter," said Flandry. "Our initial pattern is already set up. Once he spots that from
space-and he's pretty sure to, because it's routine to look as long and hard as possible at any doubtful
planet-the skipper will hang around out there."
His gray eyes went to a map on the desk before him. The positions of all Tebtengri units had now been
radio confirmed. As marked by Toghrul, the ordus lay in a heavy east-and-west line, 500 kilometers long
across the winter-white steppe. The more mobile varyak divisions sprawledtheir bunches to form lines
slanting past either end of the stationary one, meeting in the north. He stroked his mustache and waited.
"Spaceship cleared for take off. Stand by.Rise, spaceship!"
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As the relayed voice trickled weakly from the receiver, Flandry snatched up a pencil and drew another
figure under Toghrul's gaze. "This is the next formation," he said. "Might as well start it now, I think; the
ship will have seen the present one in a few minutes."
The Gur-Khan bent over the microphone and rapped: "Varyak divisions of Clans Munlik, Fyodor,
Kubilai, Tuli, attention! Drive straight west for 100 kilometers.Belgutai, Bagdarin, Chagatai, Kassar, due
east for 100 kilometers. Gleb, Jahangir-"
Flandry rolled his pencil in tightened fingers. As the reports came in, over an endless hour, he marked
where each unit had halted. The whole device began to look pathetically crude.
"I have been thinking," said Toghrul after a period of prolonged silence.
"Nasty habit," said Flandry."Hard to break. Try cold baths and long walks."
"What if Oleg finds out about this?"
"He's pretty sure to discover something is going on. His air scouts will pick up bits of our messages. But
only bits, since these are short-range transmissions. I'm depending on our own air cover to keep the
enemy from getting too good a look at what we're up to. All Oleg will know is, we're maneuvering
around on a large scale." Flandry shrugged. "It would seem most logical to me, if I were him, that the
Tebtengri were practicing formations against the day he attacks."
"Which is not far off." Toghrul drummed the desk top.
Flandry drew a figure on his paper. "This one next," he said.
"Yes." Toghrul gave the orders. Afterward: "We can continue through dark, you know. Light bonfires.
Send airboats loaded with fuel to the varyak men, so they can do the same."
"That would be well."
"Of course,"frowned the chief, "it will consume an unholy amount of fuel. More than we can spare."
"Don't worry about that," said Flandry. "Before the shortage gets acute, your people will be safe, their
needs supplied from outside-or they'll be dead, which is still more economical."
The night wore on. Now and then Flandry dozed. He paid scant heed to the sunrise; he had only half
completed his job. Sometime later a warrior was shown in. "From Juchi Shaman," he reported, with a
clumsy salute." Airscouts watching the Ozero Rurik area report massing of troops, outrider columns
moving northward."
Toghrul smote the desk with one big fist. "Already?" he said.
"It'll take them a few days to get their big push this far," said Flandry, though his guts felt cold at the
news. "Longer, if we harry them from the air. All I need is one more day, I think."
"But when can we expect help?" said Toghrul.
"Not foranother three or four weeks at the very least," said Flandry. "Word has to reach Catawrayannis
Base, its commandant has to patch together a task force which has to get here. Allow a month, plus or
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