Thru and Aeswiren sent out a joint statement to the defeated men. They were absolved of blame. They would be given the opportunity to join Aeswiren's army. Those that did not would be shipped back to Shasht but not put down into slavery.
When this had gone out, Thru found a pair of ancient Assenzi waiting to speak with him.
"General, please accept congratulations for your work today," said Utnapishtim, squeezing his arm with joy.
"And mine, General Gillo," said Melidofulo.
"We held on just long enough. Sulmo got here in time. A new age dawns for us."
Utnapishtim held up a bony finger. "It is not quite over. Our great enemy still lives."
Into the night, the victors worked to complete their victory. Scouts and strong skirmishing parties were sent inland to pursue the horsemen and compel their surrender. Of particular concern was the whereabouts of the Old One. He was sought dead or alive, but no trace of him had been reported. Meanwhile, the great mass of prisoners was broken into four groups and marched south toward Dronned. When darkness fell, the prisoners were made to set up tents and crowd inside them. A strong guard of Sulmese mots was set on each group.
The exhausted army of Dronned had reorganized its own camp and was in the process of celebrating the victory. The war was over. Around their fires they danced and sang, though there was no ale and no chance of getting any for days to come.
Here and there among them were parties of Aeswiren's men. Mostly Blitzers and men from the Third Regiment who had fought right alongside the mots and now held radically changed views of their new-found friends.
The rest of Aeswiren's men were celebrating, too, relaxing around the fires or seeking treatment for their wounds at the surgeon's tent. It had been the hardest-fought battle any of them had ever seen, and they had all fought at Dronned in the first summer and remembered that battle very well. This one had lasted three days and taken them to the very brink of defeat. But the monkeys had come through in the end, and the hated Red Tops were going down to defeat on the enemy fleet.
The thought of a couple thousand Red Tops getting their comeuppance was a tremendous boost to the men's celebration. They had found and confiscated a few flasks of brandy from the enemy camp, and that was fueling their good spirits, too.
Thru Gillo had scarcely rested long enough to eat a small meal in the hours since the fighting had ended. There was so much to do. His immediate concern was tracking the fugitive horsemen. Though impotent against an army, they could still wreak havoc in the countryside if they got south of the Dristen. After that came the concern for the prisoners. Though they were disarmed, Thru wanted to get them into a secure camp near Dronned as quickly as possible. Then there were the wounded, of both sides. Three days of battle, with endless attacks and counterattacks, had taken a grim toll. Thousands of wounded had already been sent south to the city, and thousands more were collected in two huge groups north and south of the ruins of the field hospital. Nuza and her staff were struggling to cope. Filek Biswas and his team of surgeons also faced a mountain of desperate needs. More than a thousand mors from Dronned had come north to help. With their strength to call on, the army was able to place the wounded in some degree of proper care.
Finally, there was the need for proper disposal of the dead. Another army of older mots, mors, and children had also marched up from Dronned to dig pits for the enemy dead and graves for the dead of the allies. This work would go on for days. The tally of the dead stood at more than three thousand for the army of Dronned alone, and perhaps two thousand of Aeswiren's men. The enemy had suffered even greater losses, and huge mounds of pyluk corpses were strewn along the eastern margins of Blue Hill.
Thru received a set of scouting reports in the first hour after dusk. The news was mostly good. The pyluk horde continued to flee eastward without any sign of halting. Better yet, the pyluk were moving in small bands once again—their horde behavior had ended.
The horsemen had gone inland then moved north into Shellflower, and were now camped fifteen miles away. They were under constant surveillance, though they did not know it. There had been several arguments and fights among them, and there was no obvious sign of their evil leader.
Thru decided to confer with Aeswiren and his commanders about how best to approach the horsemen. He left his command post, now back on the north side of Blue Hill, and strode the two hundreds yards that separated it from Aeswiren's, which was back where it had been in the evening of the second day, with good views across the country to the north.
Several tents had been set up. Some were a bit battered following the vicissitudes of the past days, but with the Emperor's banner flying above on a new pole and with a large fire crackling in the center, there was an atmosphere of celebration here, too. Thru found Aeswiren inside the main tent. Filek Biswas had replaced the bandages and examined the wound. The Emperor was weak but able to speak clearly. By his side was his brother, Mentu.
"Hail, General Gillo!" said the Emperor, who tried to struggle up, but Filek and Simona restrained him.
"Hail, Great King of Shasht. You attacked at just the right time."
"The arrival of your friends from the south is what saved us. That was the key development. We were beaten otherwise."
Thru had come to expect this kind of candor from Aeswiren. "Yes, Lord, it did look that way."
"But now the enemy forces are truly done for. I have had news in the last twenty minutes that the fighting among the fleet is over. The Red Tops have been locked down belowdecks, and all the captains have thrown in their lot with me."
"Wonderful news, Lord. I think we have achieved an end to the war." Thru turned, his eye catching another figure. "Hail to thee, Mentupah! You found your moment of destiny, did you not?"
Mentu embraced Thru. "Exactly the moment that my brother had feared for twenty years, and it turned out to be essential."
"Vital for all our survival, Mentupah, who once called himself the Eccentric."
"Ha, that seems like another life."
"And, Janbur, it is well indeed to find you here."
Janbur had been standing to one side, waiting to greet Thru. "I'm so glad we were able to get here in time to lend a hand. I would never have forgiven myself if we had missed it."
"Never was an arrival better timed, my friend."
"Simona!" Thru embraced her next and then held her close.
"We have won, Thru. We did it."
For a moment, their eyes met and they recalled those desperate days in faraway Shasht, when a pair of fugitives fought for their lives and almost starved to death amid the snow.
"We came back, Simona, and we have defeated our enemy."
Suddenly both were aware of another presence. Thru half turned and found Nuza had arrived. She fell into their arms, so that all three of them were held close together. They stayed that way while tears of happiness ran down their cheeks.
When all had been greeted and hosannas had been sung, it was time to get down to business. Sergeant Rukkh entered the tent under guard. He came forward and, in a brief but moving ceremony, was rewarded with a gold pin from the Emperor in recognition of valor and courage above all expectation.
As Rukkh stepped back from the Emperor's litter, Thru saw a glint of moisture on the sergeant's hard-bitten cheek.
"May I be first to offer my congratulations, Sergeant." Thru shook the man's hand.
"Thank you, General. That was a hard fight we had there."
"But for you and your quick thinking, we'd have lost it."
"Well, sir, your army has done its share of quick thinking. You've come a long way since first we found you."
Thru nodded. "Our lives will never be quite the same."
"And I am sorry for all those who were killed. We should never have come here. But now your people have learned to fight. In the long run, they will be safer."
"That is so, but there are many of us who might wish never to have been stirred from our old lives."
Just then, there came a message for Aeswiren from the troops who were scouring the enemy camp.
"Great heavens!" said the Emperor. "They've found Admiral Heuze, and he's alive."
"The admiral is alive?" Filek Biswas spoke up.
"Yes, Surgeon Biswas, it appears he has survived captivity. They are bringing him here at once."
"Well, thanks be given for that. The admiral was very kind to me. Indeed, without his help, I fear I would long since have been murdered or made a slave."
Soon afterward, six men carried the admiral into the tent on a stretcher. His clothes were reduced to rags, he had no peg for his leg, and he could hardly move because his hands were swollen into red and purple lumps.
Heuze apologized to the Emperor for allowing himself to be captured. He made no excuses.
"Well, Admiral, you appear to have paid a price already. I will not exact more from you."
"Thank you, Lord."
Filek examined the admiral's hands. The infection had gone deep already.
"I was buried under a pile of bodies. The Red Tops thought I was dead, you see, and they just threw my body on the pile."
"I am afraid, Admiral, that I must take off both of your hands and the left arm to the elbow."
Heuze groaned. "By the time you're done with me, Surgeon Biswas, I fear I'll have no limbs at all!"
"That may be, Admiral, but you'll be alive."
By this point, Thru's attention had been diverted to another visitor, this time brought in by hesitant guards, obviously uncomfortable with the newcomer.
"Welcome, Utnapishtim," said Thru, taking the ancient's hand.
"It has been a very long time since there was such a momentous day, Thru Gillo, and I have always expected that you would be involved in great events."
Utnapishtim greeted the Emperor and then the others with a quick smile and a clasping of hands.
"I have come to assist the good Surgeon Biswas. Melidofulo is also present, though he was delayed on the way here. He will join us shortly."
"I am glad to have your assistance, ancient Master," said Filek, coming forward to clasp Utnapishtim's hand.
Loud voices were heard outside, and soon there began a round of singing. "What is that?" exclaimed Thru.
"That's the regimental song of the Third Regiment," said Sergeant Rukkh. "I'd know it anywhere."
A guard put in his head to announce that some veterans of the Third had come to sing their congratulations to the Emperor. The voices outside grew louder yet. The singing was loose and ragged.
"Mentu, will you go out and speak to them?" asked the Emperor.
And so, Mentupah went out to impersonate his brother once more, though this time he felt little concern that he would be found out. From the sound of them, these men were well past the state where they could have told the difference between Mentu and his brother, Ge.
The singers had composed a special verse of their song in Aeswiren's honor, and now they bellowed it forth across the hilltop.
When they'd finished, Mentu bid them farewell, commended them for their singing, and came back into the tent. "They're well liquored up, I'm afraid."
"They found some brandy in the enemy camp," said Janbur.
To confirm this there was more noise as some of the veterans objected to being moved on too quickly by the guards. Shouts, cries, even a few blows were heard before the disturbance was over.
"So it is with these fellows after a victory like this one," said the Emperor. "Hard fought, and every man screwed tight to the point where his nerve may fail. Afterward there is a need for boisterousness."
Utnapishtim stood up suddenly and held up a hand.
"What is it, Utnapishtim?" said Thru.
"I felt something, a twinge of the darkness. As if magic were being done here."
Thru laughed. "No one here is capable of that, Utnapishtim."
The Assenzi did not smile, however. He reached for a talisman that he kept in a small bag in his pocket. The stone was glowing. Utnapishtim cast about the tent, studying everyone's face with his huge, serious eyes.
"What can it be, Utnapishtim?"
"I do not know, Thru Gillo, but something stirs."
At that very moment, the admiral started screaming. Everyone turned to look and were rewarded by the sight of Heuze thrashing on the floor of the tent, while terrified shrieks came from his throat.
"Help him, someone," Aeswiren commanded.
Janbur dropped down beside the frantic body. Filek crouched on the other side. As they took hold of the admiral's arms, they were pulled this way and that by his bizarre strength. Even with only one leg and with his hands completely ruined, the man had the strength of five.
Utnapishtim dropped down beside them and held his talisman high while he mumbled verses so quickly they were incomprehensible. Everyone in the room felt a strange pressure in their ears, and then there was a popping sound in the air as if a cork had been pulled from a bottle. A green light flickered all over the admiral.
Heuze's screams stopped at once, and his body subsided to the ground.
"Admiral?" Filek leaned over Heuze and took his pulse.
"How is he?" asked Mentu, crouching down to look.
"His pulse is high but slowing. He is covered with sweat."
"This was sorcery," said Utnapishtim, getting to his feet and trembling a little.
Klek, Aeswiren's loyal bodyguard, had drawn his sword. "We have seen such sorcery before. It is a favorite of our enemy's."
"Indeed," said Aeswiren, who was now sitting up on his litter, damn the pain it caused. "Call the guard. I want the area searched."
Before his order could be sent out, the tent flap opened and one of the guards slipped in. A huge man, whose helmet seemed too tight for him.
Thru sprang to his feet, a shout in his throat.
He was too late, however. The giant man brought a hand up from inside his robe and cast something toward them as if he were tossing dice against a wall.
The huge hand opened, and sparkling dust flickered in the air.