Stone of Tears

He fumbled with a brass button on his open coat. “I’m Bradley Ryan.” His blue eyes came up. “Captain Bradley Ryan, Mother Confessor.” He quickly glanced away to the man at his right. “This is Lieutenant Nolan Sloan.” He pointed to the other side. “This is Lieutenant Flin Hobson.”

“How many children do you have along with you, Captain Ryan?”

He stiffened a little. “Mother Confessor, we may be younger than you, although not by much, and you may not think highly of us, but we’re soldiers. Good soldiers.”

“Good soldiers.” She was hardly able to keep herself from screaming at him. “If you’re such good soldiers, why was I able to walk, unnoticed, through your line of sentries?” His face reddened and he made a visible effort to remain silent. “And is there a one of these good soldiers, including you three, that is beyond eighteen?” He pressed his lips tighter and shook his head. “Then I repeat, how many children do you have along with you?”

There are four and a half thousand under my command.”

“And do you know, Captain Ryan, that you are about to stumble upon a force ten times your size?”

Captain Ryan lifted an eyebrow, and a little-boy grin grew out of one side of his mouth. “We’re not about to “stumble” upon anyone, Mother Confessor. We’re about to catch them. We’ve been chasing them. I think we’ll have them tomorrow.”

She gritted her teeth anew. “Have them? Tomorrow, if I hadn’t caught up with you, young man, you and all your “men” would die. You have no idea of the army you are about to catch.”

He lifted his chin. “We know what we are chasing. We have scouts, you know. I get reports.”

Kahlan shot to her feet, thrusting her arm to the right and pointing. “There are fifty thousand men around that mountain!”

“Fifty-two thousand, and a few hundred.” He shrugged. “We’re not stupid. We know what we’re doing.”

Her arm dropped as she glared. “Oh you do, do you? And just what were you going to do once you caught them?”

Captain Ryan smiled as he leaned in, sure that he could prove to her that he indeed did know what he was doing. “Well, they’re about to come to a divergence in the pass. I’m going to send a force up there, around them, to come in from each fork. They’ll think they’re being attacked by a large force. We’re going to drive them back this way, where we’re going to be waiting for them, beyond the narrows just ahead.

Then, we’re going to retreat back this way, to the narrows, then split the flank, let them in, until they have nowhere to go. The pikemen will be bunched in the narrowest place; they’re called the Anvil. Archers to the sides will hold the enemy to the center. The force driving them is called the Hammer.” His grin widened. “We’ll crush them in the middle.”

He flicked his hand in a casual manner as he straightened a little. “It’s a classic tactic. It’s called the Hammer and Anvil.”

Dumbfounded, Kahlan stared at him. “I know what it’s called, young man. The Hammer and Anvil is a bold maneuver… under the right conditions. Against a force ten times your size it’s beyond foolhardy. You are a badger trying to swallow an ox whole.”

“We were taught that with good timing, and determination, a small force of good men, in a tight place, like this valley…”

“Good men? You think that’s going to count with the spirits? Is that what your pride and presumption leads you to think!” The captain’s eyes descended to the ground. “You can’t push a boulder with a stick! The only way to move them back this way is to frighten them into moving back.” She thrust her arm out, pointing off toward the enemy again. “Those are experienced, battle-hardened men! They’ve been fighting and killing for a good long time. Do you think they don’t know what a Hammer and Anvil is? Do you think that just because they’re the enemy they are stupid?”

“Well, no, but I think…”

She jabbed a finger at his chest as she cut him off. “do you want me to tell you what’s going to happen, Captain? You don’t have enough men to push them. When you send that detachment around them, they will accommodate you and move a little, and as they do they’ll wing out to let your force in. That’s called a Nutcracker. Guess who the nut is.

“Then they will move. For your Anvil. They will be hounds roused to the scent of blood. After they’ve wiped out your Hammer, there will be nothing to contain them, nothing to keep their flanks from wheeling as they drive in. They have battle experience and know exactly what to do.

“They’ll split your pikemen and their archers, and cut them off from their supporting swordsmen. A flying wedge protected by shields will drive into those pikemen. Crescents to the sides will trap them. Their armored cavalry will come at a full charge and rake down your wings of archers, who will by then have no pikemen to blunt the charge. You will all fight bravely, but you will be outnumbered perhaps twenty to one, because you’ve already sacrificed part of your force to be the Hammer, and they will all be dead by then.