CHAPTER XLIX.
PREPARATION FOR WAR.
In less than a week, as measured by the time bells of Kioram, theships began to arrive with troops from various parts of the coast ofAtvatabar, bringing volunteers for either branch of the service of hermajesty. In ten days one hundred thousand volunteers had arrived, andthese were quartered in the city, pending their equipment as waylealsand bockhockids. As might be expected, a great many were desertersfrom the royal army, and these were of great assistance in organizingthe troops, being already skilled in the tactics of aerial warfare.
General Rackiron had turned the entire fortress into an arsenal ofwar. Fires blazed everywhere for forging guns and magnic spears, and athousand hammers were shaping the limbs of bockhockids. The departmentfor making ammunition was busiest of all, furnishing the elements onwhose efficiency depended success or defeat.
A vast quantity of hand mitrailleuses, or gigantic revolvers, weremade, and being of but little weight, these blew showers of bulletsfrom magazines attached to the tubes. Each wayleal carried a thousandcartridges.
The cell in the case of the wayleals had to furnish a double current,viz., the current that moved the wings and the death-dealing currentof the spear. For each bockhockid two powerful cells were necessary,one for the rider and the other to work the bockhockid he rode or flewupon. The strongest cell was contained in the body of the mechanicalbird, which moved both its wings and legs, and also furnished itsclaws with a deadly current, so that when a detachment of bockhockidsdashed into a mass of wayleals, legs foremost, the greatest possiblehavoc could be made with the least possible risk to the mountedriders.
The object of having each cell separate in the case of the bockhockidswas apparent. In case a mounted wayleal got unhorsed he was able tojoin the wayleals, or infantry, having the same equipment as they.
Our superiority in arms when compared with the royal army, whichpossessed only magnic spears and shields, was apparent.
Of course, the enemy also made the legs and claws of the bockhockidsmagnic spears in themselves.
It seemed remarkable that a people so inventive, and who possessed thebest of all means for manufacturing firearms, should not have thoughtof a better device than their naval air guns. It was but a furtherillustration of the fact that the keenest minds are constantlycolor-blind to the simplest combinations visible to lookers-on whilethey are pursuing their elaborate researches.
But the royal army, if inferior in arms, possessed the superiority ofnumbers. It outnumbered us three to one.
Our total forces consisted of 175,000 wayleals and 42,000 bockhockids,making a total of 217,000 troops, which included 5,000 amazons.
We at first expected a much larger army, believing the priests ofinvention, under Grasnagallipas, would certainly espouse the cause ofthe queen, but it was a terrible blow to our enthusiasm when welearned that the priests of invention, making a total of 50,000wayleals, had joined the royal army and would fight against their lategoddess.
Calnogor being the headquarters of the royal army, it would have beenparticularly dangerous for the priests of invention to have espousedour cause, surrounded as they were by the enormously more powerfulenemy. To our loss, they had chosen to continue part of the army ofthe king, which at the lowest computation numbered half a million men.
The king seemed strangely reluctant to begin the attack, although heknew the extent of our forces in Kioram. It was evident the protectiongiven the city by the fleet allowed us to complete the arming anddrilling of our forces without molestation.
Supreme General Hushnoly reported that, thanks to the indefatigableenergy of General Rackiron and his colleagues, Generals Starbottle,Goldrock and Flathootly, assisted by Generals Charka, Yermoul, Pra andNototherboc, he had been able to fully equip the wayleals withmitrailleuses, wings, electric spears and uniforms. The bockhockids,in addition, were mounted on mechanical birds that could either fly,trot or walk with tremendous speed.
I instructed Hushnoly to make his appointment of officers withoutdelay, as we might take the field any moment.
General Rackiron informed us that he was hard at work on a portableterrorite gun for aerial warfare. He hoped to have a battery of theseguns ready in time to decide the war in our favor. I thanked thegeneral for his extraordinary exertions, and informed him I felt sureof his success. With terrorite guns we would be invincible.
Our spies, who had been despatched in all directions, informed us thatthe royal army was in a state of activity not inferior to our own. Adaily review was being held in the air above Calnogor, and it wasdiscovered that Coltonobory was about to make a descent on our ships,particularly to seize the _Polar King_, and by thus silencing herguns, have Kioram and the army of the queen at his mercy. The plan wasapproved of by the king, and might be put in operation at any moment.
This was most important news, and we decided to take the initiative atonce.
"We will attack the enemy even if he is a million strong," I said.
"Everything calls for an immediate advance," said Hushnoly.
We also learned from trusty couriers that Lyone had been broughtbefore the Borodemy, and the legislative assembly in full conclave,after hearing the evidence, had found her guilty of treason, impietyand sacrilege to her faith, of treason to the king, and had, byencouraging insurrection, caused her adherents to take up arms againstboth king and law, thereby endangering the lives and property of theinhabitants of the kingdom. There was no one to recommend Lyone tomercy, and she was condemned to death. The king had already signed herdeath-warrant.
She might be executed any moment!
It was a dreadful crisis to contemplate. Our first duty was to savethe life of our queen at any sacrifice. I at once called a council ofwar to consider this all-important question. We had only assembledwhen a royal courier arrived at the fortress with an importantdespatch addressed, "To His Excellency Lexington White,Commander-in-Chief of the Insurrectionary Army at Kioram."