The Dance of Time

Forty thousand men, then. A force almost twice as large as his own.

Almost all infantry, though. That had been suggested by the earliest reports, and the Pathan scout was able to confirm it. If the man could not tell the difference between five thousand and ten thousand, he could easily distinguish foot soldiers from cavalry. He could do that by the age of four.

"Start burning today?" asked Jaimal.

Belisarius shook his head. "I'd like to, but we can't risk it. The monster could drive its men back across two days' worth of ashes. Even three days' worth, I think."

"With no water?" Jaisal asked skeptically.

"They'll have some. In any event, there are streams here and there, and we can't burn the streams."

"Not much water in those streams," grunted Dasal. "Not in the middle of garam. Still… the monster would lose some men."

"Oh, yes," agreed Belisarius. Then, he shrugged. "But enough? We're outnumbered probably two to one. If we let them get back to the Ganges, they'll be able to cross eventually."

"No fords there. Not anywhere nearby. And we will have burned all the trees they could use for timber."

"Doesn't matter. First of all, because you can't burn all the trees. You know that as well as I do, Jaisal. Not down to the heartwood. And even if you could, what difference would it make? A few days' delay, that's all, while the monster assembled some means to cross. It would manage, eventually. We could hurt them, but not kill them. Not with so great a disparity in numbers. They'd get hungry, but not hungry enough-and they'd have plenty of water. Once they were on the opposite bank of the Ganges, they'd be able to make it to Kausambi. Nothing we could do to stop them."

"By then, Damodara might have taken Kausambi," pointed out Jaimal.

"And he might not, too," said Dasal. The old Rajput king straightened up. "No, I think Belisarius is right. Best to be cautious here."

A day later, three more Pathan scouts came in with reports. Two from the south, one from the north.

"There is another army coming, General," said one of the two scouts in the first party. He pointed a finger to the south. "From Mathura. Most of the garrison, I think. Many men. Mostly foot soldiers. Maybe five thousand cavalry. Some ca

"They're moving very slowly," added the other scout.

Belisarius nodded. "That's good news, actually-although it makes our life more complicated."

Jaisal cocked his head. "Why 'good' news?"

His brother snorted. "Think, youngster. If we've drawn the garrison at Mathura to leave the safety of the city's walls to come up here, we've opened the door to Kausambi for Damodara."

"Oh" Jaisal looked a bit shame-faced.

Belisarius had to fight down a smile. The "youngster" thus admonished had to be somewhere in his mid-seventies.

"Yes," he said. "It makes our life more difficult, of course."

He began to weigh various alternatives in his mind. But once he heard the second report, all those alternatives were discarded.

" Another army?" demanded Dasal. "From the north?"

The scout nodded. "Yes. Maybe two days' march behind the Great Lady's. They're almost at the Ganges. But they move faster than she does. Partly because they're a small army-maybe one-third as big as hers-but mostly because…"

He shook his head, admiringly. "Very fast, they move. Good soldiers."

All the Rajput kings and officers assembled around Belisarius were squinting northward. All of them were frowning deeply.

"From the north? " Dasal repeated. The old king shook his head. "That makes no sense. There is no large Malwa garrison there. No need for one. Not with that great huge army they have in the Punjab. And if they were coming back to the Ganges, they'd be many more of them."

"And why would they bother with the northerly route, at all?" wondere Udai Singh. "They'd simply march through Rajputana. No way we could stop them."

As he listened to their speculations, Belisarius' eyes had widened. Now he whispered, "Son of God."

Dasal's eyes came to him. "What?"

"I can think of one army that could come from that direction. About that size, too-one-third of the monster's. But…"

He shook his head, wonderingly. "Good God, if I'm right-what a great gamble he took."

"Who?"

Belisarius didn't even hear the question.

Of course, he is a great gambler, said Aide.

So he is.

Decisively, Belisarius turned to the Pathan scout. "I need you to return there. At once. Take however many scouts you need. Find out-"

His thoughts stumbled, a moment. Most Pathans were hopelessly insular. They'd have as much trouble telling one set of foreigners from another as they would telling one thousand from two thousand.

He swept off his helmet, and half-bowed. Then, seized his hair and drew it tightly into his fist. "Their hair. Like this. A 'top-knot,' they call it."

"Oh. Kushans." The scout frowned and looked back to the north. "Could be. I didn't get close enough to see. But they move like Kushans, now that I think about it."

He nodded deeply-the closest any Pathan ever got to a "salute"-and turned to his horse. "Two days, general. I will tell you in two days."

"And now what?" asked Jaimal, after the scout was gone.

"Start burning-but only behind them. Leave them a clear path forward."

The Rajput officer nodded. "You want them away from the Ganges."

"Yes. But mostly, I want someone else to see a signal. If it's the Kushans, when they see the great smoke from the burning, they'll know."

"Know what?"

Belisarius gri

The oldest of the kings grunted. "I understand. Good plan. Now we go teach those shits from Mathura that all they're good for is garrison duty."

"Indeed," said Belisarius. "And we move quickly. "

After they began the forced march, Aide spoke uncertainly.

I don't understand. You must be careful! Link is not stupid. When it sees you are only burning behind its army, it will understand that you are trying to lure it further from the river. It will return, then, not come forward.

I know. And by then Kungas will already be there. They will not cross the Ganges against Kungas' will. Not though they outnumbered him ten-to-one.

There was silence, for a bit.

Oh. What you're really doing is keeping Link at the Ganges, not drawing it overland-which gives you time to crush the army coming up from Mathura.

Yes. That's where we'll kill the monster's army. Right on the banks of the holy river, caught between two enemies.

They'll have plenty of water.

Man does not live by water alone. Soon, they'll have nothing to eat-and we have all the time we need to watch them starve. We'll have Link trapped up here-when it needs to be in Kausambi. If Damodara can't do the rest, against Skandagupta alone, he's not the new emperor India needs.

Silence again, for a bit.

What if that new army isn't the Kushans?

Then we're screwed, said Belisarius cheerfully. I'm a pretty good gambler myself, you know-and you can't gamble if you're not willing to take the risk of getting screwed.

That produced a long silence. Eventually, Aide said:

I can remember a time when I wouldn't have understood a word of that. Especially "screwed." How did a proper little crystal fall into such bad company?

You invited yourself to the party. As a matter of fact, as I recall, you started the party.