Analog SFF, April 2010 Read Online Free Page A

beside it, which had been there for a few years, also have disappeared without a trace?
    Sergeant Tyndall made a strangled sound as he looked east. Within a few miles the road entered a broad cultivated and cleared area, running through it, and up to the sealed gates of a city walled in stone which had been built between Spring Creek and Clear Creek. The city was miles east of where Ellsworth or Fort Harker should be, much bigger than either Ellsworth or the fortress to the south that they'd seen in ruins, and it was undisputedly still occupied. “Cap'n, begging your pardon, sir, but what the hell? Where's the fort and where's the town and what's that?"
    "It's not Ellsworth.” Benton leveled his field glasses, making out banners on the top of high walls and some sort of castle or citadel in the center of the city. “There's fighting going on. People on the walls are defending the city against a force encamped before it. See the ladders the attackers are putting up against the walls?"
    Lieutenant Garret nodded, peering through his own field glasses. “Sir, I don't hear any gunshots."
    Neither did he, Benton realized. Nor could he see the impossible to miss clouds of gun smoke that should have veiled the battlefield.
    "What do we do, sir?” Tyndall asked.
    His instructions from the colonel hadn't covered this particular set of circumstances, but they had left him the authority to use his discretion if he encountered something not mentioned in those instructions. “There's a city under attack. That's clear enough. We're to defend Ellsworth and other towns or settlers if they come under attack. That's not Ellsworth, but it's a city. We'll ride that way, evaluate the situation as we get closer, and take appropriate action."
    Tyndall nodded, clearly relieved now that an officer had laid out a familiar and rational course of action.
    Benton rode up close to Garret and spoke softly. “The men know something is wrong, lieutenant. They don't know why any more than we do, but as long as their officers appear to be dealing with events in a calm and controlled way, the men will stay calm and controlled. Don't let the men see anything in you that might feed alarm in them. Understand?"
    Lieutenant Garret nodded, his worried expression smoothing out. “Yes, sir."
    The cavalry rode down from the hills to the river, splashing across and up onto the edge of the open area. The closer the column got to the walled city the more details they could make out. “They're fighting with swords,” Garret announced at one point. “I think they're wearing armor, too."
    Whoever had been attacking the city seemed to have noticed the cavalry company. While infantry continued to climb ladders to assail the walls, many other attackers ran back to their camp where a large herd of horses was visible, mounting up and forming into a mass facing the approaching cavalry. Benton watched the activity through his field glasses, shaking his head at the archaic armor, the brightly colored banners, and the lack of firearms. “Whoever they are, they're not dressed or armed like Indians. Neither are the people on the wall. But the city people aren't settlers like those in Ellsworth, either."
    "The ones attacking the city look more hostile to me, cap'n,” Tyndall commented. “It appears they're aiming to hit us, too."
    "I'd prefer to parley first, but if they want a fight, they'll get it. Bugler, sound form a line.” The sweet notes of the bugle resounded as the troopers in the cavalry column swung out to ride abreast, the two platoons of the company forming two lines, one behind the other, extending across a front facing the oncoming riders.
    Benton halted the cavalry, standing in his stirrups and raising one empty hand high in the universal sign of parley.
    The mass of horsemen facing them, now less than two miles distant, waved swords and lances over their heads as they came riding toward the cavalry without much semblance of a formation.
    Captain Benton