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.Kalvan never saw whether or not his shots hit; he was thrown back in hissaddle as his horse reared and struck out with its hooves at the attackingwolves.The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and the black wolf wasworrying his left boot.Kalvan tried to pull out his sword, but it was caught in the scabbard nowpinned under his left leg.He found his knife at the same moment the blackwolf realized its prey wasn't dead or stunned.The wolf lunged and Kalvan threw his knife.The blade sank into the wolf'sshoulder, but the oversize beast never even flinched.Suddenly he could smellits carrion-laden breath, stinking like the Hellfire andBrimstone his minister father had so often and so eloquently described.Heclosed his eyes and braced himself for terrible pain.Instead of pain, he heard a deafening explosion.Then the wolf smashed intohim, knocking the wind out of him but thankfully not sinking its teeth intohis flesh.He opened his eyes to the blurred movements of someone throwing off the wolfcarcass.The next thing he saw was the face of Captain Nicomoth, hisaide-de-camp."Your Majesty! Are you hurt?"He looked down and saw bloodstains on his breeches.He quickly felt his legs.No pain or cuts; the blood must be the wolf's.He shook his head, sighing inrelief.The prospect of a bite-wound without reliable antiseptics was badenough, but more than a score of his subjects had died this winter of rabies.That possibility frightened him more than all of Styphon's armies."Sire." Nicomoth stammered."I don't know what to say.I can't understandhow you rode so far ahead of the rest of the party.What will I tell theQueen?""Nothing, Captain.She has a breeding woman's fears, and I want nothing toupset her now."Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlParticularly since I'll be on the sharp end of her tongue, not you!"Understood?""Yes, Sire.""What about our party? Was anyone hurt?""Yes, one.Petty-Captain Vantros.He was badly mauled by one of the wolves.Hewill most likely never use his left leg again."If he survives, thought Kalvan, cursing to himself.One more victim of thehard winter and one less trooper to fight the war that would arrive withspring.Page 16 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Mount up," he ordered.He waited until Vantros had been strapped into hissaddle before giving the order to move out.He examined what the wolves hadleft behind: the body of a heifer calf, dead and already half-eaten in the fewminutes the wolves had been at it.He could also see the fire more clearlynow; it was the thatched roof of a log barn, blazing merrily and quite out ofcontrol.In the glare he saw figures in peasants' clothing darting among theother farm buildings, beating out embers with old sacks or dousing them withbuckets of snow.Two stood guard over what looked like a cow and a couple ofpigs.Half a dozen clipped turkeys ran in circles.No bandits, just an accidental fire and an escaped calf to draw the wolves.They had paid a high price for their half-eaten meal, too.Now what could hedo for the people on the farm? Kalvan dug in his spurs and set his horse atthe slope.He didn't find any surprises at the farm: animals with their ribs showing, afather and two grown sons with eyes too large in thin faces, the plaintive cryof a baby from inside the house.The men stared atKalvan without making the slightest sound or gesture of respect.Was itbecause they didn't know him, or were they too awed by the presence ofDralm-sent Great King Kalvan? Or maybe they just thought their being hungrywas his fault.A big war or a long one in an agricultural society always meant trouble; someparts of Germany took two centuries to recover from the Thirty Years War.Lastyear's war with Styphon's House had been both long and big, with raids allover the place, even when the main armies weren't in the field.There'd alsobeen a high percentage of the peasantry sucked into the poorly trainedmilitia, where casualties were always the highest.Cannon fodder.Crops that weren't burned by the enemy or trampled down by either side rottedin the fields because the harvesters were dead, on campaign or had run away.Hostigos had harvested barely half its normal crops, war-ravaged Nostor stillless.The people of Hostigos were facing a hungry winter even before the snowsbegan and the temperature dropped.It was the worst winter in living memory,so everyone said and Kalvan wasn't about to argue.He hadn't felt cold likethis since Korea.All winter snow had clogged the roads, so there was no carrying food fromplaces that had a surplus to those where rations were short.To fill theirlarders, people went out and hunted; even a winter-thin groundhog could keep afamily from starving
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