Iron Tongue

CHAPTER THREE

" They will be all right. The spider is stronger than he lets on and the man, well, the man is a sorcerer. They can walk through walls. No harm will come to them." Jacy Noratumi placed his hand lightly on Inyx' s shoulder. The woman flinched away.

How could he possibly know how she felt about Lan Martak and the big, ugly, furry, gentle- savage spider?

" I do not wish to see them leave like this. Splitting our forces only invites trouble. Alberto Silvain still patrols the area."

" Silvain, ha!" cried Noratumi, making a flourish in the air with his free hand. " He dares nothing after we so soundly defeated him at the oasis." In a different tone, almost crafty, he asked, " What do you know of this Silvain? Of all Claybore' s assistants, I have never seen him before."

" We chased him along the Road. He had almost complete power on another world, and we drove him off."

" You did?"

She looked sharply at the man, seeking any sign of mockery. She didn' t find it.

" I helped. Much of it was Lan' s doing. For all his protestations, he is becoming a fine mage. Claybore had trapped me between worlds in a ghostly whiteness. Lan rescued me, something others claimed impossible." She didn' t elaborate, telling Noratumi she believed the task had become possible due to her love for Lan reaching out and finding him at the proper instant- and Lan' s love for her powering the spells needed to lever her free of the white nothingness.

" You do battle on a grander scale."

Again she sought even a hint of irony and found nothing but simple statement.

" We have tracked Claybore across three planets. In the Twistings, we defeated him. On top of Mount Tartanius, the victory was a bittersweet one. We prevented his expansion into that world, but he regained torso and heart."

" You' ve seen him?"

" Aye." She shivered in spite of the heat beating down upon her. " When first we crossed swords, he was nothing more than a fleshless skull toted about in a wooden box. Now he has joined head to torso and heart, can travel at will between the worlds, and even has a magically powered mechanical acting as his legs."

" Then the myths contain more truth than any of Bron imagined." Noratumi and Inyx walked side by side, hips brushing. " We have heard how his body was scattered along the Road, but who could give credence to such a wild tale told to amuse and frighten children?"

" It is all too true. It has come down to Lan, Krek, and me to stop him. Somehow, we find ourselves uniquely suited to the task, though none of us really wanted to become involved in such madness."

" It is a dangerous goal. Claybore' s troops overrun this world and have destroyed all but a few small cities. Wurnna- curse all sorcerers!- survives, as does my Bron. But the others? Gone. We were traders. There is no one left to trade with. We mine ores and work the metals. The mines are closed to us by the spiders, except when a Wurnna mage enslaves one of us and forces us into their mines."

" You and the others ought not to fight among yourselves. Unite and fight the common threat, then work out your differences when Claybore is no longer interested in this world."

Noratumi laughed, the bellowing laughter coming from deep inside. He shook his head, wiped at tears and sent rivers of sweat cascading off his sallow face.

" You make it sound so easy. Iron Tongue would torture me with a thousand hideous spells, should he trap me unawares. And the spiders? I' d sooner give myself gladly to Iron Tongue rather than enter their valley. I have no liking for your puppet- mage, but I do not envy him accompanying the spider into those hills." He looked up and away at the rocky ridge toward which Lan and Krek had started.

" He is not my ' puppet- mage,' " she snapped.

" A thousand pardons if I have offended, milady." Noratumi made a courtly bow. This time Inyx detected the sneer in his tone. " I do not gladly suffer any mage in my midst, no matter who accompanies him."

Inyx shook her long, dark hair in a wide- swinging fan pattern. The sunlight caught strands and sent out tiny rainbows of color. She loosened her tunic even more, unlacing the leather front, wishing for cooler climes. This desert didn' t please her, not at all. She had been raised on a more temperate world and preferred those regions closer to the ice and snow than to desert.

Nothing about her apparel was suited for this heat. Her tunic chafed and rubbed her breasts, sweat pouring down the deep canyon between to tickle and torment. Her tight breeches made every step that much closer to agony. Even her boots, those fine fabrications from her home world done by her long- dead husband Reinhardt, seemed intent on making her miserable. Sand accumulated inside, crunching and cutting into her feet. Heat boiled upward through the thick soles and turned the insides to ovens. And worst of all was the sword belt suspended about her middle; she' d sooner die of heat prostration than abandon her sword and belt, but it weighted her down until she knew it had turned into tons of inert steel instead of a single pound and a half.

Inyx did not think of herself as a vain woman. She scorned the courtiers of the cities intent only on fine laces and silks and the most enticing of perfumes, but she found herself wishing for just those things. A silk tunic and breeches would be cooler. A lace scarf would keep the sun off her neck while allowing sweat to evaporate. And in place of a nice long, cool, bath to ease the aches, remove the stench of travel and soothe the body, Inyx prayed for even a small bottle of pungent perfume. Any odor, no matter how strong and artificial, had to be better than that she emitted. How long had it been since her last bath? The woman tried to remember and failed.

" In this Iron Tongue I detect the man Claybore would seek out. Tell me of him."

" Man? Iron Tongue? Hardly. He is a demon sent to scourge our world. The empire of Bron and the city- state of Wurnna are pledged to mutual destruction. And of the evil lurking in Wurnna, Iron Tongue represents the worst. I often think he flirts with insanity, sometimes deadly in his logic and rationality and other times totally disconnected from his own tenuous humanity."

Inyx said nothing. Jacy warmed to his topic, building a fine tirade against his enemy.

" He tortures small children. What he does to captured women is even worse, even more unspeakable. Of the men he imprisons, we know but little. They are forced into the power stone mines. None has ever returned, none has escaped."

" How do you know Iron Tongue is so unspeakably evil, then?"

" He is!"

Inyx fell silent. She realized she touched on a matter of faith with the man. Societies built up careful myths to protect themselves from having to deal with too much reality. This perpetual battle between Bron and Wurnna smacked of such an origin.

" He speaks and all listen. It is impossible not to obey. The man is evil."

" Are you personally familiar with this?" Even as she asked, Inyx knew the answer.

" I am. In my younger, more foolish days, I crept into Wurnna thinking to free my brother, ten days lost in a raiding party. I entered the walls undetected, but luck ran with me. All the populace of that foul city had gathered to listen to that necromancer. He spoke and: the air rumbled. I cannot describe it. But the words were repugnant to me and I believed. I actually believed them. He spoke and evil became the pinnacle of goodness. He spoke and I wanted to help slay my very own brother."

" His name. How did Iron Tongue get his name?"

Noratumi shrugged. He obviously did not wish to pursue the topic further. The memory of his brother and his own abortive rescue wore too heavily on him.

" I would not speak of such things. Rather, let us talk of you. Tell me of your life. How did one so lovely come to be a traveler along the Road?"

Inyx began, her words hesitant at first but soon rolling forth with the man' s encouragement. She found him a good listener, an attractive man, someone to unburden herself to now that Lan and Krek were gone. Even the heat became less of a bother as they walked and talked, sharing experiences and remembrances both pleasant and painful.

" When we arrive in Bron, there will be much rejoicing at such a discovery," said Noratumi.

" What discovery?"

" My discovery of a lady so beautiful, so charming. My discovery of you."

Somehow, she didn' t see the need to object when his arm circled her waist and pulled her close.

Five days of heat and footweariness brought them to a valley filled with green growing plants and fragrant pine trees, a cool breeze blowing off crystal- clear streams fed by mountain snows, real dirt instead of sterile sand, and even occasional animals curiously studying them as they passed by burrow and nest.

" This is the southernmost part of my empire," Noratumi said proudly. " This is why we fight. To give up even one tiny lump of its soil is unthinkable."

" It is gorgeous," Inyx agreed, but some small part of her remained wary. For all the apparent tranquility about them, this was not a peaceful holding. She saw no signs of battle or armed troops, but wondered if the images, the shadows, of such remained as a stain on the land.

" Bron sits high atop a rocky spire. Gentle green meadows surround it and-" He was cut off by the return of his scout. The man ran up, out of breath. " Get decent, man," said Noratumi, reaching out and shaking the green- and- brown clad man by the shoulders. " Report."

" Sire, it is terrible!"

" What is, dammit? Don' t go on like this."

" The grey- clads. They attack Bron!"

" So what else do you have to report? They were doing that when we left on our little sortie."

Inyx started to ask Noratumi the purpose of his mission into the desert, but he rushed on before she could properly frame the words. She had found that in this society questions had to be phrased in some fashion relating to the questioner' s ranking, that of the interrogated, and some other criteria she had yet to discover. If the question went unheeded, it meant a mis- asking.

" All are within the city' s walls, sire. You know what that means."

" Come, hurry, dammit. Don' t dawdle. We must give what aid we can to our city."

" How can we be of assistance?" Inyx finally asked.

" When cut, they bleed like anyone else. My sword will drink deeply of their scurvy souls this day. I will not tolerate the grey soldiers meddling in my kingdom!"

Their advance slowed as they came to the main road through the valley- spanning empire. Under other circumstances, Inyx might have made a few rude comments about how ill- repaired the road was for such a mighty kingdom. She held all such criticism back, knowing that road repair ranked low on a list of priorities now. Even the smallest of kingdoms deserved better than Claybore' s rule.

" There. See it, Inyx?" Jacy Noratumi pointed. Through the forest, rising above the treetops, surged the rocky pinnacle holding Bron. The stone walls of the city- state wavered as if they were still in the desert; the heated earth distorted sight. " Claybore' s troops will be encamped in that direction, down in Kea Dell. Attacking the camp avails us nothing. We are too few for that to prove successful. But there are other things to do."

" You can' t let them catch us between the main body of troops and their camp," protested Inyx. " There are too few of us to fight both toward and away from Bron."

Jacy Noratumi smiled wickedly.

" These are my forests. The grey interlopers know nothing of them. But come, I shall show you a small part of why they cannot take us as you suggest."

Noratumi gave hasty orders to his second in command, then drifted off as silent as any shadow into the forest. Inyx followed, matching his quiet. At first the man seemed surprised at her ability, then became occupied studying the soft brown loam.

" See? At least fifty mounted soldiers."

Inyx scanned the trees above, the boles and the ground before shaking her head.

" There were more. Notice the congestion of hoofprints here and here. Pieces of grey thread dangle from the bark, showing many rode off the path. Rains have caused some hardening of the earth at those points, but tracks have been left."

" Hmmm," mused Noratumi, " you are right. Very good." He looked at her with renewed admiration. " This path leads directly to Bron. And in that direction, the camp."

Falling silent, they moved on foot through the forests. After the desert, this was paradise for Inyx. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in full odors rather than the abbreviated dryness she' d found on the sands. Here rose life, lush wetness, exciting breezes, real texture. And with it came the faint sounds of human voices.

Jacy unnecessarily motioned her to silence. On their bellies, they moved forward until they sighted the soldiers' camp.

Inyx had seen its ilk before. What worried her was the large number of mounts still tethered. If each one matched a soldier hidden away somewhere in the camp, there were a full hundred in reserve. To attack the other band would be stark foolishness on Noratumi' s part if Claybore could summon up twice that number to take them from the rear.

Noratumi only smiled, then motioned Inyx away. They moved to the east, past a burbling stream and to a small waterfall.

Only under the cover of the rushing water did Jacy speak.

" Up there. Can you make it up on the rocks? They are slippery."

As agile as a mountain goat, Inyx leaped from rock to rock, found the tiniest of hand- and footholds, and scaled the rock face beside the waterfall with contemptuous ease. Noratumi found the going rougher; he was not only heavier, his boot toes were squared off and slipped on the precarious rock face.

Atop, waiting for Jacy, the woman studied the lake that created the waterfall. It stretched out for acres. But what attracted her attention was the cause of the waterfall. Some small aquatic creatures had built a dam across the river, restricting flow to the merest of trickles. The creatures allowed only enough flow over the top to reduce the pressure on their wood- and- mud structure.

" You begin to understand?" asked Noratumi, finally reaching the top. He stood beside Inyx on the lake shore and pointed to the elaborately constructed dam across the mouth of the lake. " That is our secret weapon."

" But how?"

He didn' t answer. She realized the question had been improperly phrased and that the man' s sense of propriety had been violated. Or perhaps he might have simply wanted to remain mysterious for her benefit. She cursed under her breath, wondering which it was. All the while Jacy worked, he spoke not a single word to her. Only slowly did Inyx come to understand the man' s intent.

He lugged a huge fallen log down to the shoreline. Here, using vines, he lofted the log until it swung freely. He tied another vine to the log, then swam across to secure that end to a far tree. This caused the heavy tree trunk to hang suspended over the creatures' dam. If the vine on either side gave way, Inyx saw the destruction that would occur.

The heavy log would smash downward wrecking the dam; the water pressure would finish the destruction; the tiny stream escaping past the dam would become a torrential outpouring.

And the grey- clads' camp was on the stream- which would be turned into a raging river.

" But:" she began to ask again. She clamped her mouth firmly shut. Asking somehow insulted Noratumi. Let him show her, no matter how galled she got at having to wait.

The man vanished into the forest. Inyx sat on her haunches, idly twisting grasses into pulpy strands, discarding them and starting over. She did not have Lan' s patience. Waiting annoyed her; she preferred immediate action to inactivity. But Jacy Noratumi finally returned. As silently as before, he scaled one tree and began smearing honey stolen from a hive onto the vine.

Inyx had to smile when she saw the dark arrow of a line of ants home in on the tasty treat. They went directly up the tree, across the limb, down the vine and began eating the honey, even before Noratumi had finished.

He dropped to the ground and washed his hands in the lake. Only then did he speak.

" Past experience tells me we have only an hour before the hungry beggars chew through enough of the vine to bring down the log. Let us hurry to the attack! We have a battle to win this day!"

They hastened to rejoin Noratumi' s small band, now stripped of their travel gear and arrayed in full battle dress. The horses nervously shuffled and pawed at the earth, aware of the impending fight.

" How much longer before the dam breaks?" Inyx asked, as she slipped into what had been Margora' s padded armor. She started to ask again when she realized that Jacy was ignoring her; the question of their relative rankings had yet to be resolved. Inyx pushed down her irritation at being left in this social limbo. Noratumi enjoyed her company and even sought it out on their trek back to Bron, but she had the feeling of being treated as a diversion rather than a human at times.

And at other times, he had made her think she was nothing less than a princess. Inyx had been among many peoples with different customs. Learning the ways of Bron required time. When she did figure out what the rules were, Noratumi' s behavior wouldn' t seem as odd. She might not approve of it then, but understanding would be hers.

" To the city!" the man called from the front of the pathetic column. Inyx admired his determination, but to attack with such a small group against fully fifty armed and ready soldiers smacked of insanity. However, it was an insanity she could share. Pulling free her sword, she thrust it upward as if to gut the sky. The sun caught the blued steel and sent shafts of brilliance radiating toward Bron.

Noratumi used this as a signal for the attack. Pell mell they thundered toward the meadow road leading to the front gate of the city. Shouting until she was hoarse, Inyx entered the green meadowand the battle.

Immediately came five riders. Something singled her out from the others. She had no time to decide what this might have been. The five attacked. And she charged.

Between them she raced, her horse straining to the utmost. Her blade flashed first left and then right, leaving behind lacerated wrists and cursing riders. She ducked under a heavy battle axe, leaned forward, and stabbed with her sword at the axe- wielder, and was rewarded by a liquid cry of anguish as her blade penetrated the exposed area under the man' s arm. He snorted blood from his nostrils, a sure sign she had punctured not only skin but lung. The man toppled off his horse, sending the animal racing off in confusion.

" Jacy! Do you need help?" she cried, laughing even as she parried a spear- lunge. Jacy Noratumi turned, stared at her with emotionless amber eyes, and shook his head. It was all the answer she expected. Then Inyx found herself engaged with two riders, one of whom carried red officer' s stripes on a sleeve.

Like Lan Martak, she had never been able to decipher the ranking system used by the grey- clads, but the red stripes indicated more than a simple soldier. A deft twist of her wrist disengaged her blade and sent it snaking into the other man' s throat. She faced the leader of Claybore' s troops.

They hacked and hammered at one another until Inyx' s arm turned to lead. Knowing that she could not fight in this fashion much longer, Inyx changed tactics. Allowing her sword to be knocked aside, she made no effort to return to line. Instead, she rose up in her stirrups and hurled herself onto her opponent. Both tumbled to the ground in a kicking, swearing pile.

The officer rolled free and came to her feet. She tossed back her helm, allowing a flow of medium- length blonde hair to catch the wind. A sneer marked her already- scarred face.

“ So you are the one Claybore seeks," she said, the sibilance of her voice so great she hissed like a snake. " Promotion shall be mine when I deliver you to our leader."

Inyx laughed harshly, reaching to her belt and pulling forth her dagger.

" It' ll take more than words, bitch."

Inyx tried to stop the woman from making a quick signal to another grey- clad at the edge of the meadow; then she had to smile. That signal could mean only one thing: the reserves had been summoned from the camp. It was only a matter of moments before Noratumi' s carefully wrought trap was sprung, bringing watery death to all downhill.

" Laugh if you will," came the words laden with scorn. " Claybore will place your head on a pike outside his palace. I will be made ruler of this entire planet."

" Not if he doesn' t regain his tongue," said Inyx.

The expression on the other woman' s face was worth the effort. The surprise momentarily froze her opponent; Inyx lunged forward, dagger tip leading the way. She pinked the officer' s left arm. Not a serious wound, but enough to produce a slowing. Then would come death.

" You know nothing!" shrieked Claybore' s commander. She rushed forward, batted Inyx' s knife out of the way, and locked arms around the woman' s back, pinning her arms to her side. Inyx grunted as the woman applied pressure to the bear hug. Kick as she might, Inyx found herself unable to break free; Bending backwards, her breath gusting from her lungs, Inyx felt her spine cracking and her consciousness fleeing.

Again surprise came to her rescue. A loud roaring followed by anguished cries of death echoed up from the forests. For the barest instant, Claybore' s commander hesitated. Inyx butted her head directly into the nose. She felt a gush of warm red coppery- smelling blood as cartilage broke. The woman screamed in pain and rage and Inyx kicked free.

The officer held her broken nose as she looked from Inyx to the torrential outpourings raging through the forest. She watched her reserves washed away, their armor too heavy for easy escape. That very armor protecting from sword and arrow now weighed them down to a watery death.

" It' s not as easy as you thought, is it?"

" Slut!" screamed the officer.

Rage worked against her. She lost her ability to think; Inyx sidestepped quickly and plunged her dagger deep into her opponent' s groin, the tip finding the nerve center in the hypogastrium. The blonde gasped, stiffened, then fell forward as if a woodsman' s axe had felled the largest tree in the forest. Panting, covered with blood- from her opponents- Inyx stepped back and surveyed the course of the battle.

To her astonishment, Noratumi had not underestimated the fighting prowess of his tiny band. They had met and defeated Claybore' s larger company.

" Not a bad day' s work," crowed Jacy Noratumi, riding up. " Most were killed here in the meadow, totally routed down in the forest. It' ll be a week before the dam is in place again, but that' s small loss. Come, join me." A brawny arm reached down for Inyx to take. She twisted up behind Noratumi, who spurred toward the gates leading into Bron.

" Your people fight well. I' d thought this would be suicidal."

" You fight magnificently yourself. The feast this evening in your honor will be:." Noratumi' s words trailed off as the survivors reformed into a single- file line.

Inyx leaned around the man and stared up the road. The shimmering she had noted from a distance grew worse. The stone walls protecting Bron rippled and danced like reflections in a pond. A thin line of dust on the road held her attention. Not only was the dust pulled up into tiny whirlwinds, the motes trapped in the cones of wind sparkled with a deadly inner light.

" Jacy, don' t," she said, but he had already seen the danger.

The lead rider had been too eager to return home. Whipping his horse to a gallop, he had ridden full into that barely visible barrier- and had flashed out of existence. Not bone, not hair, nothing remained to show he or his mount had ever existed.

They had defeated Claybore' s troops. To enter Bron they had to now defeat his magics.