Champions Of The Gods

Chapter Twenty

Moving all the Ganthi south of the Great River meant moving more than fifty thousand people across a hundred miles of jungle and hill. The Great River itself was a mile wide, with many rapids. Then there were the Gudki-the «Hairy People.»

«We know only enough about them to know that they are dangerous,» said Kordu. «They live mostly to the south of the Great River, but some of them cross it to hunt. They are no taller than the Ganthi, but they are much stronger and they have long brown hair all over their bodies. We kill them whenever we see them. They kill us whenever they can. That is not often, for they have only stone spears and axes. But they attack us often enough so that we call them an enemy to consider. They have great skill in laying ambushes.»

Blade nodded. «We will have to think even more about them now. We are going to march all of the Ganthi right into their homeland.»

In the end, Blade decided he would have to lead a scouting party to the south, searching out the best route for the great journey of the Ganthi. There would be no really «safe» route, but certainly some would be better than others.

Blade had enough volunteers for that scouting party to form a small army. He selected forty, including Katerina but not including Kordu. The man was not at all happy about this.

«It is not only my pride as a Hunter of the Ganthi that is hurt, Blade,» he said quietly. «It is that I fear for you.»

«Are the Gudki so dangerous, then?»

«No, but they are not the only enemies you may face. I have continued to listen as I promised you, and I have heard things I do not like. There are those who say that the gods have made the mountains burn because the Ganthi have done wrong to make a Stranger the High Chief.»

«They can say what they please,» replied Blade. «It will not make me less than High Chief, nor will it stop the mountains from burning.»

«That is true,» said Kordu. «But many are not wise. They might decide that the gods will make the mountains sleep again if you do not return from your journey to the south. Certainly that journey will give them an opportunity if they want one. I would be happier to go with you and do what a friend may do to guard your back.»

«I honor you for this,» said Blade, putting both hands on Kordu's shoulders. «But I say to you, and it is no shame to you, that my woman Katerina can do that also. You know well that she fights like a strong warrior.»

«I do,» said Kordu, with a reluctant smile.

«She can guard my back. She cannot do what I want you to do. I want you to stay here in Thessu, speak to all the Ganthi with my voice, tell them what to do and not to do until I return from the south. Will you do these things that Katerina cannot do?»

Kordu made all the gestures of respect and smiled widely. «I shall.» Then he turned and left. Blade watched him go with relief. That was one considerable load off his mind. Kordu would be the best possible leader for the Ganthi while he himself scouted in the south. Besides, if something actually did happen to him-Gudki ambush, treachery, snakebite, fever, or anything else-Kordu would make a magnificent High Chief. The Ganthi would need good leadership to survive in their new homeland, and Kordu seemed like a man who could provide it.

Blade's leg was completely healed by the time the scouting party headed south from Thessu toward the Great River. He and Katerina were able to set a fast pace in the lead. The damp heat, the stinging insects, the vines that tangled and tripped feet were no more pleasant than before, but they didn't slow anyone down.

There seemed to be more wildlife around, though. It ranged from birds and creatures the size and shape of a housecat up to a pair of three-horns nearly as large as the one Blade had killed. Half the animals in the jungle seemed to be on the move, and all of them were heading south.

«Even the animals know what is going to happen in this land,» said Katerina.

More than once the scouts had to stop and fight off monstrous reptiles. After they had lost half a dozen men in these fights, Blade ordered that from now on they would scatter or climb trees, rather than fight. The warriors and Hunters grumbled and muttered at this order. It went against all the traditions of the Ganthi and their own pride. But they obeyed.

About halfway to the Great River they saw their first signs of the Gudki. They practically stumbled over the long-haired, broad-framed corpse sprawled beside the path. It was already swollen and dark with decay, and large chunks of flesh had been slashed or torn out.

«They eat their own dead when they can find no other meat,» said one of the Hunters.

The party moved on, with eyes searching even more carefully a forest that seemed even less friendly than before. When they camped that night Blade doubled the sentries, and they built screens of logs around their campfires to shield them from watching eyes.

After two more days it was clear that the Gudki were roaming the jungles in greater strength than ever before. They found more corpses-the victims of wild animals, snakes, or fallen trees. They found the ashes of campfires, and once they saw one glowing far off in the twilight. They found bloodstained hide garments, tufts of long gray hair, and half-eaten carcasses with stone spearpoints broken off in their death-wounds. The faces of the Ganthi grew strained and drawn. They had had much experience fighting the Gudki, but this was something new, something unknown. They were not yet ready to confess to being afraid, but they talked more freely to Blade.

«Only a few times have the Gudki come this far north of the Great River,» the Hunters said. «Even when they did, they came only in twos and threes. They did not hunt, they did not build fires, they slipped through the forest unseen, like snakes. Now they must be coming here by the dozen. Many hundreds of them must be north of the river. The gods have chosen to play yet another trick on the Ganthi.»

Blade shook his head. «It is not a new trick, but part of the same trick that makes the mountains burn. The mountains burn, and the animals run to the south. More animals means more meat for the Gudki than ever before. So to hunt this meat more of them come north of the river than ever before. That is all there is to it.»

Blade knew he was right, but after a while he wasn't sure he'd been right to say it. More often than before, he caught the Hunters and warriors looking strangely at him. He and Katerina started taking turns watching and sleeping at night. Early one morning, a spear thudded into a tree near where Blade lay asleep, missing Katerina by inches. It was a Gudki spear, yet there had been no signs of the Gudki all the day before and there were none the day after. Blade kept his mouth shut and his eyes even more wide open than before.

For two more days they marched through jungle that grew thinner by the hour, and at last they came out on the north bank of the Great River. It deserved the name. It stretched a mile from bank to bank, a mile of murky green water that swirled past as a frightening speed.

There were only two ways the Ganthi would get across it. Blade saw that at once. They could cross on rafts, which would take weeks. Or they could find a place where the river was shallow, and ford it. Even that would take time and much care, and they would certainly lose both people and animals. But it would take days rather than weeks.

Fords existed on the river-or so the stories said. Nobody seemed to know where any of them were, however. Blade decided to divide the scouting party in half, sending one group up the river and the other down it. Katerina wondered if it was wise to divide the scouts this way, with the Hairy People roaming the woods in such great numbers.

«Normally I'd agree with you,» said Blade. «But we don't have much time.» He pointed at the sky. Even this far south, the northern horizon was dark with the clouds from the volcanoes. «The ashes may already be falling on Thessu.»

The scouting party camped that night on the north bank of the Great River, sentries out and alert. Three times they saw the faint flickering orange glows of Gudki campfires, far away in the darkness on the south bank. But the jungle around them was quiet.

The next morning the scouts split, and Blade and Katerina led their group down the river. They kept as close as they could to the bank all that day and the next, never losing sight of the water. Every few hundred yards they stopped and tested the depth of the water with poles. They found only one place where it was at all shallow enough, and there the bottom dropped off steeply a few hundred yards out.

They found signs of the Gudki in many places. Blade took care to make camp in places well clear of the trees, and he ordered that a third of the men should always be awake with spears in hand. They obeyed him without complaining. They might think him an offense against the gods, but no one wanted to end up as a meal for the Hairy People by defying him.

All of the third day they marched along a stretch of rapids where the river boiled whitely over great slabs of rock. It was dropping down through a range of heavily wooded hills, and Blade began to wonder if there was any possible crossing place for many days' march ahead. He didn't like the idea. Even if there was a ford far ahead, fifty thousand people could never march far into these hills to reach it.

Luck was with him, though. At about noon on the next day they reached a spot where the river broke its fall in a broad level stretch. The river ran fast there, so fast that the water was white with foam. But it also ran shallow, and the shallows seemed to extend clear across to the opposite bank. Blade waded out several hundred yards without finding water more than waist-deep.

The strong current would be a problem, of course. Just below the shallows an ugly stretch of rapids began. It would mean certain death for anyone swept off his feet and carried away downstream. Children, the old and sick, and the animals would have to be passed across almost from hand to hand. That would not be hard, though, since the bottom was firm.

Unless the party going upriver found something better, this was the ford. This was where the Ganthi would cross the Great River to their new homeland. That night Blade and Katerina slept soundly for the first time in several days.

The next morning Blade and Katerina led the scouts down to the bank and into the water. They had to make absolutely sure that the shallow water and the firm bottom extended clear across to the other bank. They were all going, since Blade didn't want to divide the party again.

One by one the warriors and Hunters followed Blade and Katerina into the water. The shorter men staggered as the rushing water rose toward their chests. Their comrades grabbed their hands, their hair, their spears, anything to keep them from being swept away. Good luck and quick work kept anyone from being knocked down and carried off. Slowly but steadily, one cautious step at a time, they pushed across the foaming river toward the far bank.

Blade held one spear out at arm's length, probing the water ahead of him before taking each step. Behind him Katerina followed in his footsteps, spending most of her time looking back along the file of scouts. She watched to see that they kept up, and she also watched for any sort of trouble-a man swept away, or a spear coming at Blade's back.

Nothing happened. The shadows of the trees on the far bank reached slowly out across the water toward Blade. He scanned those trees carefully, searching for any sign of movement. He saw nothing, and once more the line moved forward.

Now the water bubbled and churned around Blade's knees. Then he was out of the main current, pushing through patches of scum and clots of dead leaves whirling slowly in eddies. He felt the bottom under his feet turn from gravel to mud, and he climbed up onto dry land. Katerina was just behind him. They stood back to back, Blade watching the forest, Katerina watching the river and the men climbing out of it. Two, three, four, five men followed them out onto dry land. Blade and Katerina moved a few yards inland, away from the bank.

The next scout was just climbing up onto the bank when a chorus of deep-throated howls split the air. A second later two well-thrown spears skewered the man. He screamed and fell backward into the water, one spear in his chest and another in his belly. The next scout and all those behind him froze where they were.

It was a well-laid ambush by the Gudki. Before Blade could do more than turn around, more than fifty of the Hairy People came swarming out of the jungle. They leaped down from the branches, sprang out from behind trees and under bushes, came running along the bank. The ones who ran along the bank dashed in between Blade and the men still in the water. Clubs thudded, iron and stone spearheads drove into living flesh, cries of rage and agony exploded. Several scouts and a dozen Gudki went down in the first minute, writhing and choking in their own blood. Blade found himself and Katerina and three of the scouts being forced away from the bank, toward the jungle.

That could mean disaster. Surrounded, they could and would be overwhelmed and cut down by sheer weight of numbers. Blade smashed a spear butt into the face of an attacker, shouted to Katerina to guard his back, and turned to shout to the men still in the water. If those men pushed forward through the Gudki, Blade and his group could still make a safe retreat.

The men were not pushing forward, to close with the Gudki or do anything else. They were moving hastily away, out into the river, out of range of Gudki spears and away from any chance of helping Blade.

Blade cursed them at the top of his lungs. If he hadn't needed his spears he would have thrown them at the retreating men. They weren't retreating in panic or fear, either. They were splashing away in good order, spears on their shoulders, not even looking back at the fight on the bank. They were abandoning him and Katerina and their comrades to the Gudki. They were abandoning the High Chief who had brought down the wrath of the gods on the Ganthi.

One of the men looked back, hesitated, then turned as if he wanted to change his mind. Instantly three of his comrades rammed their spears into his stomach. He doubled over, lost his footing, and went bobbing away downriver as the current caught him. A trail of blood followed him. Obviously the men in the water had their story all worked out, about how they had been driven away from the High Chief after a valiant fight. They were ready to kill anyone who might tell a different story. Grimly Blade turned back to fight the Gudki as long as he could stay on his feet.

Another of the scouts had gone down while Blade was watching the men in the river. A second tried to make a break toward the bank, through the Gudki and into the water. He leaped at the enemy, screaming wildly and flourishing both spears until they blurred in the air. Three Gudki went down before him, dead or dying. Half a dozen more stood between him and safety. Five of them scattered, the sixth closed and grappled him, nails like claws digging into his skin. The scout screamed even louder than before, dropped his own spears, and clamped his hands on the enemy's throat. The fighters toppled over, rolled to the bank, and slid into the water with a tremendous splash, still locked together. They rose to the surface once, in a tangle of thrashing limbs, then sank for good.

The man's suicidal charge drew the Gudki's attention away from Blade and Katerina for a moment giving them and the last scout just time enough to form a triangle, all three facing outward, each with a spear in one hand and a club in the other.

Then the Gudki came at them from all sides, masses of heavy-bodied hairy men. Their howls deafened Blade, the reek of their breath and matted hair stifled him, their spears and clubs whistled at him and around him. All Blade could do was to tell friend from enemy and desperately try to meet each enemy as he came at him.

Club down an arm reaching to grab his belt. Run his spear into a hairy throat in time to make a blow at his head only graze an ear. Draw the spear back and thrust low to pin to the ground an already crippled enemy crawling in to grab him by the ankles. Listen to a hoarse death-scream rise above the uproar and echo around the forest. A spearpoint coming in? Beat it aside with the club, so hard that the spearshaft snaps in two and the stone point flies off like an arrow. But the enemy comes on, raising his shaft like a club. That courage is wasted-a quick thrust takes the attacker in the stomach. He doubles over, trying to hold his own guts inside him, until a club smashes down on his head. Then he kicks out his life at Blade's feet, just in time to let another of the Gudki leap into the attack over the body.

How long it went on, Blade couldn't even guess. All he knew was that it went on and on and on, a steady orgy of killing, with Katerina and the last scout doing their share on either side of him. It went on until suddenly the scout was down, blood spurting from a fatally gashed thigh. Blade braced himself to face a final, overwhelming charge and go down fighting. Then he realized that the way to the rear was open. They were no longer surrounded. He nudged Katerina, and slowly they backed away, blood-caked spears and clubs still raised.

There were still more than fifty of the Gudki in sight. More must have come out of the forest during the fight. Nearly as many lay dead or dying in a wide belt from the edge of the jungle down to the river bank. Their blood turned the earth into red mud and their dying groans and whimpers drowned out the sound of the river. It was a couple of minutes before the Gudki started forward over the bodies of their comrades.

Blade and Katerina backed away before the advancing line of Gudki. As the enemy came on, they stretched to the right, more and more of them slipping between Blade and the river.

Blade fought down a temptation to turn and run for the jungle. His experience told him that the Gudki would charge the moment he and Katerina turned their backs.

The slow retreat down the bank went on. The roar of the river sounded louder. At first Blade thought it was nothing but the silence after the battle that made the river sound louder. Then he realized that they must be approaching the rapids.

Blade began to see mist rising above the bank. The roar grew louder. Slowly the Gudki began to edge away from the bank, closer to Blade. He sensed a moment approaching, a moment when the fragile truce would collapse as the Gudki swept in from both sides.

Instead he heard a sudden hoarse scream. Two of the Gudki waved their long arms desperately, then vanished as a soft portion of the bank crumbled under them. They screamed again as they plunged downward. Blade could just hear the faint splashes above the swelling thunder of the rapids.

The other Gudki along the riverbank scattered as if the earth under their feet had suddenly turned red-hot. They gabbled and growled, waved their spears and gestured to each other. For a moment they seemed to forget that Blade and Katerina existed.

In that moment Blade estimated the distance to the river bank, knew that the two of them could make it, and saw that this was their best chance. Death in the water was likely, but it would be cleaner than certain death under Gudki spears, especially for Katerina. He caught her by one arm, pointed with the other hand toward the bank, and pushed her. She dashed toward the rising wall of mist, with Blade three steps behind her.

They reached the bank almost together. As they did, the Gudki awoke from their shock, realized that their prey was escaping, and let out howls that drowned out the river. If they'd thrown a few spears as well as just howling, they might still have scored. In the moment the Gudki wasted making noise, Blade and Katerina looked down and saw the water boiling past far below in the mist. They could only hope their landing place would be deep enough and free of rocks. Then they threw their weapons aside and plunged out and down into the misty air.