"David Drake - Belisarius 6 - The Dance Of Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

"Must have stunk, right afterward," he commented.

The same soldier issued another harsh chuckle. "That it did, sir, that it did. Why God invented flies, the
way I look at it."

Calopodius felt Luke's heavy hand on his shoulder. "Time to go, sir. There'll be a barrage coming, sure
enough."

In times past, Calopodius would have resisted. But he no longer felt any need to prove his courage, and
a part of himтАФa still wondering, eighteen-year-old partтАФunderstood that his safety had become
something his own men cared about. Alive, somewhere in the rear but still on the island, Calopodius
would be a source of strength for his soldiers in the event of another Malwa onslaught. Spiritual strength,
if not physical; a symbol, if nothing else. But menтАФfighting men, perhaps, more than any othersтАФlive by
such symbols.

So he allowed Luke to guide him out of the bastion and down the rough staircase which led to the
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trenches below. On the way, Calopodius gauged the steps with his feet.

"One of those logs is too big," he said, speaking firmly, but trying to keep any critical edge out of the
words. "It's a waste, there. Better to use it for another fake cannon."

He heard Luke suppress a sigh.And will you stop fussing like a hen? was the content of that small
sound. Calopodius suppressed a laugh. Luke, in truth, made a poor "servant."

"We've got enough," replied Luke curtly. "Twenty-odd. Do any more and the Malwa will get suspicious.
We've only got three real ones left to keep up the pretense."

As they moved slowly through the trench, Calopodius considered the problem and decided that Luke
was right. The pretense was probably threadbare by now, anyway. When the Malwa finally launched a
full-scale amphibious assault on the island that was the centerpiece of Calopodius' diversion, they had
overrun half of it before being beaten back. When the survivors returned to the main Malwa army
besieging the city ofSukkur across theIndus , they would have reported to their own top commanders
that several of the "cannons" with which the Romans had apparently festooned their fortified island were
nothing but painted logs.

But how many?That question would still be unclear in the minds of the enemy.

Not all of them, for a certainty. When Belisarius took his main force to outflank the Malwa in thePunjab ,
leaving behind Calopodius and fewer than two thousand men to serve as a diversion, he had also left
some of the field guns and mortars. Those pieces had savaged the Malwa attackers, when they finally
grew suspicious enough to test the real strength of Calopodius' position.

"The truth is," said Luke gruffly, "it doesn't really matter anyway." Again, the heavy hand settled on
Calopodius' slender shoulder, this time giving it a little squeeze of approval. "You've already done what