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Episode 6 of Sergeant Vardan and her patrol during the Pargunese invasion.
Vardan’s troops let them come closer…closer. Then three ravens flew from a tree with loud cries, and the Pargunese looked upward. Vardan signaled, and her five archers took five of the Pargunese crossbowmen, two from one side, three from the other. The other crossbowmen bent to span their bows, but too late–five more arrows and they were all down, wounded at least. The pikes, five ahead and five behind, drew quickly into a circle, pikes out, but were too few, and on uneven ground. The Halverics stepped forward, swords drawn. The Pargunese yelled–for help? Curses?–and again the Halveric archers drew, shot, drew, and shot again. At that range, the Pargunese armor–whatever it was under their winter cloaks–did not protect them, and they fell, dead or wounded, the pikes clattering to the ground.
Vardan watched as her troops finished them, collected the weapons and stripped the corpses. Twenty warm woolen cloaks, heavy knitted tunics, woolen trousers, boots, gloves, helmets…her own people would not go cold now. And they had ornaments–earrings, neck-rings, arm-rings, all in designs Vardan had not seen except on a ship-captain in Immerdzan. Her people glanced back. “Go ahead,” she said. “They owe us.”
The Pargunese had carried packs–hard rounds of bread, dried fish, dried meat, unfamiliar hard orange cheeses, and small stone jars of something that stank like rotting fish. Besides pikes they had short swords with a different shape of blade from the Halveric swords, and some had small axes strapped to their backs under the packs.
“Take it all back to the ranger shelter,” Vardan said. “We can leave something for the rangers, after all.”
By the time they had done that, and hauled the Pargunese corpses farther away, it had begun snowing again and daylight was almost gone. That second night in the ranger shelter felt very different; meeting and killing the Pargunese meant that being where they were had a purpose. The next morning, snow flurries made Vardan decide to stay where they were, as they sorted through everything they’d taken from the Pargunese. Everyone had a warm cloak; they repacked the ones borrowed from the rangers. The Pargunese food seemed wholesome enough, except for the stinking goo in the stone jars. She made sure the ornaments were shared out fairly–they’d all earned the loot–and for herself took an arm-ring and a neck-ring. Though it was against Halveric rules to wear anything but the oath-ring on duty, Vardan decided this was a special case.
Around midday, the sentry on the sunsetting side brought in a hand of Halverics from farther upstream. Vardan recognized them as part of those who had been stationed at Riverwash.
“It’s gone, Sergeant,” their leader said. “Some kind of magical fire. The captain had sent two tensquads of us out to back up the Royal Archers downstream, where the first landings were. We was coming back, when we saw it glaring in the sky, and then it went hurtling past–we saw Riverwash burn.”
“Two tensquads of you–where are the others?”
“Not far behind us–three are wounded. We were trailing some Pargunese. Found some nekkid bodies–”
“We killed them yesterday.” Two tensquads plus her own made nearly four–enough to do something with. “One of you go back–tell them to hurry up here–there’s a big force of Pargunese sunrising of us, headed for Chaya. Rangers are harrying them–we can help.”
In the afternoon the snow stopped, though wind continued to moan in the trees. A line of hard blue showed to the north. With the other Halverics there, the little shelter was far too small, but Vardan felt much happier. After two meals and a rest, with starshine lighting the snow, Vardan decided it was time to go. The wounded swore they could keep up; she sensed their need to be with their comrades. Her sixteen used the Pargunese packs; all of them took as much food as they could stuff into them, and long before the turn of night they were on their way, scouts out ahead, behind, to either side. More than three tensquads felt like much more than a little less than two.
Comment by B Ross Ashley — December 30, 2011 @ 12:19 am
Hope those neckrings etc. aren’t bespelled or anything.
Comment by Caryn — December 30, 2011 @ 12:30 am
I love seeing Vardan find strength and purpose across these scenes.
Comment by RuthB — December 30, 2011 @ 2:58 am
It is sad to see the Halverics being decimated. So far we know of about 65? Halverics killed by the Parganese. Happy to see the survivors hook up and keep in the fight.
I had that same thought about the jewelry. Maybe a way for the Parganese benefactor (the spider woman) to track them?
Comment by Moira — December 30, 2011 @ 3:25 am
Dare I hope for the Twelve Days of Christmas?
‘Cos I’m really enjoying this! 🙂
Comment by Iphinome — December 30, 2011 @ 4:23 am
@ruthb I don’t remember their total number being 650.
Comment by Julia — December 30, 2011 @ 7:42 am
Someone else knows the correct usage of decimate. I thought I was the only one left. I cringe when I hear the word so misused in the media. Deci equal 10 so decimate means 10%. Old Roman army punishment take one in ten and kill them hence decimate.
Comment by elizabeth — December 30, 2011 @ 9:08 am
From Kings, we know that Aliam Halveric had the bulk of the Company with him, and he’s still marching from his steading to Chaya at this point. The Halveric cohort sent earlier to stiffen the inexperienced Royal Archers and the experienced-but-not-in-war forest rangers numbered perhaps a hundred, hundred and twenty at most. In the couple of years they’ve been in the north, they’ve gone back to using longbows, but not all are really proficient with them. (I would not want to stand in front of the least of them and have them try to hit me, however….) Captain Talgan, their cohort commander, chose a middle course between spreading his troops so thin along the river they could be effective as units, and keeping enough together they could…but leaving large gaps. He chose to halve the force, making the new camp (the one that Vardan came from) in the east, downstream, and basing himself in Riverwash. Approximately half of each camp’s troops would be out on patrol at any given time, making regular contact with the Royal Archers in their camps (all between Riverwash and Vardan’s camp).
Their losses have been more than enough to demoralize the cohort survivors and make them ineffective except that the Halverics train leadership right down to the lowest ranking private. Vardan is exceptional, yes, but had she been killed, there were veterans in that patrol who would have taken over. Not as well–certainly not able to think tactically as she does–but in terms of holding the survivors together. Not all militaries train the same way, so some will “break” with fewer losses than others. You see this particularly in Xenophon’s account of the battle that led to the mess the Greek mercenaries found themselves in. The commander, Cyrus, was killed by an arrow. Immediately, most of his troops panicked and fled. The Greeks, however, being a merc unit, had their own commanders (senior and junior) and held together–surrounded, but not slaughtered in flight like the others. Their commanders went to treat for a new contract, but were beheaded. And the Greek (or at least Athenian) training was so deep that Xenophon–who had basically tagged along with a friend, now dead, as an adventure (“Hey, until the Athenians let you come home, why not come watch us kick Persian butt; our guy Cyrus is way smarter and we’re going to win”)–knew what to do and did it: rallied the Greeks, designed an effective retreat through enemy lines, and led them across hostile and unknown country. 8 thousand of 10 thousand made it to the Black Sea, an incredible survival rate for any retreat through hostile terrain. Xenophon was a rich man’s son, trained as a cavalry fighter in Athens, exiled for his politics, went to Sparta and studied their tactics–but as an amateur. And yet: surrounded, threatened with slavery or death, facing dispirited troops who have seen the severed heads of their commanders and are already mourning their own deaths…he gets up and says “What are you doing, weeping and giving up? We are GREEKS! More, we are ATHENIANS! We are ten thousand of the best fighters in the world. We had the battle nearly won until Cyrus was killed, and yes, that was bad and yes, right now we’re surrounded. But we’re GREEKS! Stop this weeping and wailing and panicky stuff, pull up your big boy pants (well, they didn’t wear pants; the Persians did), pick up your weapons and let’s get out of here. Follow me and I will get you home!” Granted, he wrote the book about this, and so he may’ve fancied up his speech…but the fact is that he DID get a lot of them home, because they wrote about it too.
Training your troops so that they all know what to do and how to do it in all the situations you might meet takes time (and money) which is why many militaries depend on something cheaper. And it requires the cultural belief that everyone CAN….do whatever’s needed or you don’t bother to train them. The old Russian military, for instance, considered its lower ranks to be too stupid and incompetent to do anything but follow orders–they didn’t put effort into serious training–so when an officer was killed, that officer’s unit instantly reverted to individuals–untrained individuals useless in battle. The old German military was the opposite: from general to the lowest non-com, they always knew who was in charge when the top guy was killed, and lower levels were taught how to handle unit fragments. You could defeat a Russian unit by knocking off a few officers; to defeat a German unit you had to work a lot harder. Training has to happen before a war (or you’re going to lose a LOT of people–the US military in both World Wars); hurried training can’t possibly develop the kind of leadership skills needed.
The Pargunese structure is based on personal loyalty to a leader, and if one leader falls, they expect to stop and discuss who the next leader should be.
Comment by AJLR — December 30, 2011 @ 11:39 am
Absolutely, yes, about the type of structure and training needed to ensure every member of a unit can function in the temporary (whether long- or short-term) of its leader. And in most instances, it’s extremely expensive in all sorts of ways to let minimally-trained people wander around with weapons!
Thanks again for all the snippets, Elizabeth. I’m really enjoying them. And not long now till ECHOES comes out. 🙂
Comment by Eir de Scania — December 30, 2011 @ 1:24 pm
It’s probably because I’m a undisciplined Northernewr myself, but I can’t help but feeling some sympathy for the Pargunese…
Love all backgroung information, facts as well as stories. Hope you get the time some day in the future to have it organized on the Paksenarrion World Chronicles website.
Happy New Year to all of you from southernmost Sweden!
Comment by B. Ross Ashley — December 30, 2011 @ 1:52 pm
Canadian military trains like that, Elizabeth; I’ve known a few ex-soldiers, who tell me any Private could sub for his Corporal or Sergeant, and on up the chain of command.
Comment by elizabeth — December 31, 2011 @ 12:32 am
I don’t exactly consider the Pargunese undisciplined, but just a very different culture. Like the distinction I make between gnomes and dwarves (based on the book by F.S. Lear on the differences between Roman and Germanic law as exemplified by their concept of treason.) The Pargunese were a sea-faring folk from across the Eastern Ocean–they farmed in one season and fished and traveled by sea in others until they were displaced by another group of refugees from Old Aare, who had gone east instead of north. They went to sea by family groups, with personal loyalty to the captain (chosen from among the adult men.) Although they are now more numerous, their social organization is still based on what works in a boat-sized group of men: one captain per voyage, and very little tolerance for error.
Except that I’m female, I rather like the Pargunese (well, not all of them, of course.) They breed good horses (very different from the Marrakai breed), their craftsmanship is excellent whether in ships or in jewelry, they’re a hardy people. But they can be fooled (and who can’t?) and they are not as resistant to enchantment as those who have some mage or elven blood.
Comment by Ruth — December 31, 2011 @ 1:37 am
Sorry if using “decimate” was confusing. I had calculated two groups of 50 each with 15 remaining in one and 20 in the other to come up with 65 dead. With Elizabeth’s clarification there may have been more like 20 to 25 killed. Still a sobering number. I like the way the Halveric mercs and Keiri’s mercs trained so that even the lowest rank had good survival skills and their strong loyalty to the company is what makes them formidable. Not known for deserters.
Comment by Ed Schoenfeld — December 31, 2011 @ 2:23 pm
Thank you for the additional insight into how philosophical concepts about law influence the way you are writing Dwarves and Gnomes, and the different sources of military discipline.
On the latter I’d like to add the comment that the social structure needs to reinforce the military discipline, too. Those German units benefitted by having a class structure that reserved the officer role for landed gentry — but moved well-educated and successful middle class types into NCO roles. So when the officers get killed the leadership role devolves to some very intelligent and successful people, who often were serving in units recruited for their home towns and who knew that the NCO was a reliable and successful person. The Greeks had a similar advantage — those Athenian officers who got slaughtered had been elected by their troops, but the ranks included plenty more people qualified to replace them.
I say that only to comment that you have set up your world’s society (at least north of the mountains) to provide a lot of the same advantages, what with the influence of the Girdsmen, the percentage of people who have to be ‘retired’ mercenaries, and, in Lyonya, the tradition of serving as rangers for a few years. The Pargunese have the cohesion of ‘ships crews’ following their ‘captain’, but as you say that works out a little differently when the leadership gets killed.
As a reader, it’s really satisfying to read about a setting that hands together so well.
Comment by Ed Schoenfeld — December 31, 2011 @ 2:24 pm
Of course, the last line should read ‘hangs together so well. Aargh!
Comment by elizabeth — December 31, 2011 @ 4:25 pm
Yes, definitely the society influences the military structure and training…in fact, everything in that culture does. In general, from my reading, competent mercenaries (I emphasize competent–not just brigands claiming merc status in some wars) have always had (have always needed) more depth in leadership ability…everybody has to be really competent to get in, and stay so to be useful. The merc companies hired by the Italian city-states in the early Renaissance/late medieval period were effective because they could depend on competence right down to the bottom. How you get that depth–whether by only hiring experienced people to start with (also easier for mercs) or by training from novice–is also affected by the society. I’ve been reviewing some of my “old” history (stuff I used to know very well) for this new series of books, and also reading more recent publications and sort of puzzle-fitting new bits in. Today, for instance, I was reading an academic paper on the conflict between “Ingeld” and Christianity in the literature up to about 13th c. One of the things it talked about was the contrast between the Song of Roland and the Aeneid in terms of the attitude towards war and killing. Both very culture-centric. But that would be a long discussion, and R- just came in from working fence, so I need to get supper on the table.
Comment by Robert Glaub — January 3, 2012 @ 10:36 pm
When Bernard Montgomery reached command at brigade level and above he required very intensive training for the senior NCOs so that they could take over command of their company or battalion if necessary, and woe betide the commander who neglected such training! This led to a lot of complaining from the upper-class British officers (the Commonwealth units such as the New Zealanders and Canadians and Australians loved it).
The German army after World War One was far more of a democratic institution that the pre-war one. Before WWI, it was not uncommon for privates to be beaten to death by their officers for some trival offense, and the officer would never be held accountable.
The post-WWI Reichswehr under Hans von Seeckt was much different. Officers still tended to come from the upper-classes, but there were a lot more from the middle class, especially in the technical fields. The officers were expected to associate with their men both on and off duty. They still had to maintain a certain distance, but for all practical purposes they worked and played together. It built a sense of camaraderie and unit cohestion that, as long as a unit’s cadre survived, enabled them to keep fighting and to keep coming back over and over again.
Plus the Germans did not hesitate to promote NCOs of ability to officer’s rank when warranted. They had a very good ability to select those who were capable enough. They would send to training to learn how to be an officer and send them back out to the field.
Comment by elizabeth — January 3, 2012 @ 11:29 pm
Granted that D.H. Lawrence was a strange man, his portrait of a German officer (pre-or-during WWI I’ve don’t know) in one of my lit courses (I forget the title) was of this early type–enlisted were serfs, officers were everything. It was interesting to read Rommel’s memoirs of WWI, because you could see both the earlier and the seeds of the later type of German officer developing in one junior officer during the course of the war.
Comment by Kevin McLeod — January 11, 2012 @ 12:47 pm
Having read and re-read Paks novels a number of times it often strikes me that halverics company is more akin to what would be found in military units such as USMC, the Commandos and Parachute Regt in the uk, than a standard ‘line’ infantry unit, in terms of training for command, reliance on self, ability to improvise, adapt and overcome.
Of course some of the ‘free’ companies of the Italian renaissance and units such as Lovats’ Scouts in the Boer war may be a close fit.
Fascinating….and thank you
Comment by elizabeth — January 11, 2012 @ 1:19 pm
The mercenary companies of the Italian renaissance were in fact the main model for the mercs of Aarenis, though with adjustments in weaponry to suit this world’s technological lag (itself due to the existence of effective magery.) The early Paks books (in which I was almost 30 years closer to my history degree) relied heavily on the knowledge and sources retained from those days: mostly ancient, medieval, and early Renaissance. Snippets of legal stuff were taken from Drew’s translations of the Burgundian and Lombard codes that combined Roman and barbarian ideas, and in Surrender None, the development of the Code of Gird relied on what I saw as the thinking behind those and other early legal codes. There were a few (now regrettable, I think) lapses into humor: Siniava’s nickname of “The Honeycat” is merely a translation of “Gattamelata”, the nickname of Erasmo da Narni, the condottiere. It was intended as a clue to the period for those who knew the history, but when the book sold to an Italian publisher, I was worried. The translator wisely (I think) went with “Cat” rather than “Honeycat” for the Italian. There’s a battle stolen from Caesar (one that I did a project on in Latin II in high school) that’s been useful in determining the depth of study of people who claim to be military history experts.