Pirates Of Gohar

Chapter 20

Blade's first instinct was to turn and dive into whatever cover the standing grain offered. Then he realized this would be futile. The horsemen could easily ride them down even in the grain, or circle around and get between them and the forest. There was also the possibility of a lucky shot with their bows.

Then Blade realized that the horsemen were neither Maghri nor Goharan soldiers. They wore the same sort of farmers' and small merchants' clothing he'd been seeing since he landed. All of them had bows, but only one of them had a sword. The others had woodsman's axes or short throwing spears with barbed heads. Rebels?

Blade stood up, waved his arms, held up empty hands, and shouted, «Ho! Hold your fire! We're friends to Riddart and to free Mythor!»

Two of the men reined in their horses and nocked arrows, then the others did the same. Blade wondered if he'd made a mistake that might be his last. Then Khraishamo rose and strode forward to stand beside Blade, roaring at the top of his lungs: «You fools! This is the Man from the Future, Richard Blade of England! Kill him, and nothing will save you from the fury of his people!»

Khraishamo's Sarumi accent was still thick enough so that Blade wasn't entirely sure the riders understood all the words. However, they did understand the anger in his voice and recognized him as a Sarumi. Seeing one of the Pirate Folk in human company this far inland was unusual enough to make them hold their arrows out of sheer curiosity.

Blade used the moment's pause to look at the men again. Yes, they were definitely local men, on the stocky, ugly little horses the Goharans used for back-country riding. Then he spoke.

«I am the Man from the Future, as Khraishamo says. I want to speak to Riddart.»

«Riddart's dead,» said a gray-haired man in the middle. He looked at his comrades. «I'm his brother Gribbon. Any of you ever hear of a-Man from the Future?»

Most shook their heads, but one rider nodded slowly. «Think I did. Heard a story on the waterfront, last time I was in town. Man came out o' the air, onto a ship. Blue Swallow, I think. Fought a bunch of Bloodskins, then went up north to the City.»

Blade smiled. «That's exactly how it happened. I'm the man, and this is Khraishamo, the Sarumi chief I captured in the battle. He can tell you-«

«We'll not hear any damned Bloodskin!» said one man, and others nodded. Khraishamo muttered angrily, until Blade gripped his arm and whispered in his ear.

«Easy, friend. It's not worth a fight and getting killed, at least until we know who these people are.»

Blade himself was rapidly getting into the mood to pick a fight with somebody, so he sympathized with Khraishamo's anger. Ever since he'd fallen into Kloret's hands, he'd been jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, then back again. Now he'd tramped miles in search of friends, to find only a mystery he didn't like. If these people didn't turn out to be rebels, he and his friends might not see another sunrise. Neither would some of the men facing him.

«All right,» said Gribbon. «I give the orders here now. You come on in, both of you, and we'll see what's what.»

«We've got a third one back in the woods,» said Blade. «A woman, a friend of Riddart's. Can I bring her in?»

The man nodded and pointed to three of his riders. «Go with him. Shoot if he gives you a wrong look or isn't telling the truth.» The three men rode toward Blade, who turned and started plodding back toward the forest without waiting for them. He found that it was as hard to lift his feet as if they'd been encased in lead boots.

Blade felt considerably better a few hours later. The hospitality Gribbon showed even to strangers was respectable, almost generous. It was far ahead of anything Blade, Khraishamo, or Rhodina had enjoyed since reaching Shell Island.

They were given stew, bread, dried fruit, and ale-all they could eat and drink. It took more than storms or wars to make a Goharan forget his hospitality to guests. Then they had baths, with hot water and strong-smelling gritty soap, and put on clean clothing.

After that they were separated. Two of the servant girls led Rhodina off to a bed in their quarters, while armed men led Blade and Khraishamo to a store room. The room was more than half filled with sacks of grain and sides of smoked meat. Blade also recalled that he'd seen other well-filled store rooms and sheds around the farm. Gribbon's people had laid in far more food than they could ever use themselves, probably far more than they'd produced themselves.

He pointed at the sacks. «Harvest good?»

The men looked at him sharply, and one nodded. «Best in years,» he said.

Another added: «Lucky, too. We got it all in before the storm.»

Then the men left, locking and barring the door from the outside. Blade and Khraishamo had a candle, a jug of water, a bucket, and nothing to do but wait for their host to make up his mind who they were and what should be done with them.

Blade leaned back against the piled sacks. «Where do we go from here, I wonder?» he said, half to himself.

«To sleep, if you've got the brains of a fish,» said Khraishamo wearily. The pirate was not only tired, the ale he'd taken with dinner had affected him more than Blade. The Sarumi seldom used alcohol.

«If I had the brains of a fish here, I'd eat them,» said Blade. «I was just asking myself, are we among friends or enemies?»

Khraishamo looked up at the ceiling. «I wouldn't shut a friend up in a room like this, myself.» Blade had to agree. There was no window, and the door was made of solid planks several inches thick. The walls were stone, and the ceiling was more planks held up by beams as thick as Blade's body. Short of using dynamite, the only way out of this room was through the locked door.

«On the other hand,» Khraishamo went on, «I wouldn't feed and bathe an enemy like he did.» He shrugged. «Maybe he can't be sure what we are. So he's holding us until somebody comes along to tell him.»

«Either that, or he thinks we're lying but can't do enough harm to be worth worrying about.» Blade rather hoped his guess was the correct one. If Khraishamo was right, the three of them would be well treated but carefully guarded. If they were considered harmless and more or less ignored, they might find a chance to slip away. It would be dangerous here if the Maghri in Kloret's pay did come storming down on the farm. The filled store rooms hinted that the rebels were gathering in force, but they could hardly be strong enough yet to meet the force of Maghri Blade had seen.

If the worst happened, Blade knew he himself could plunge into the wilderness and survive there until it was time to return to Home Dimension. But that would mean leaving Khraishamo and Rhodina behind-so forget that, he told himself. The Three Musketeers of Shell Island would stand together, win, lose, or die. That was one certainty in all the confusion spreading across this Dimension.

Now that he'd settled this in his mind, the best thing was to go to sleep. In one corner of the room was a pile of empty sacks. Blade divided the pile in two and gave half to Khraishamo. Before Blade could spread out his own sacks, the pirate was sprawled on his, snoring like a distant thunderstorm.

When Blade awoke, he thought at first that a real thunderstorm had come to join Khraishamo's snores. Certainly there was a tremendous din from outside, loud enough to penetrate even the solid stone walls. Then he started picking out individual noises. In the next moment he was completely awake and on his feet.

Outside, horses were neighing, fists pounded on doors, feet thudded on the ground, and men and women were shouting, both in Goharan and in another language Blade couldn't make out. A distant rumble growing rapidly louder told of more horsemen riding up at a gallop. Blade found himself listening for the crackle of flames, then realized he'd heard enough already.

The Maghri were attacking the farm, he and Khraishamo might die like trapped rats, and Rhodina was probably already dead. She might be able to convince the Maghri that she'd be worth more as a slave than a corpse, if she got the chance. She probably wouldn't. If the Maghri were in Kloret's pay their orders might be to simply kill everyone who might be a rebel.

Then someone started lifting the bar outside the door. By now Khraishamo was awake. They looked at each other, then picked up a handful of sacks apiece. The sacks wouldn't do much as weapons, but they might serve as shields long enough for them to snatch weapons from the Maghri. After that it would be a short fight, but Blade was determined to make it a bloody one. He saw the same determination in Khraishamo's eyes.

The bar clattered to the floor, the bolt was thrown, the door started to open, and Blade and Khraishamo got ready to fight. Then Rhodina hurried into the room, a short sleeping robe flapping around her knees and a broad smile on her face. She stopped as she saw Blade and Khraishamo.

«Why are you-? Oh, I see. You thought-maybe the Maghri were attacking. They're here, but they're friends! The people here-they're rebels, and they've promised friendship with the Maghri against Gohar.» She seemed ready to start dancing with delight and excitement. «I don't understand it or how it all is, but-«

«I don't understand it either,» said Blade. «But then I don't understand most of what's happening in Gohar these days. At least that explains why the Maghri weren't on their guard. They did expect this would be friendly territory.» Rhodina nodded, took Khraishamo's hand, and led him out the door. Blade followed.

Out in the barnyard the noise struck Blade like a physical blow. There were three or four hundred mounted Maghri in sight, and more coming every few minutes. On top of all the other noises, Blade now heard the rumble of cartwheels on the bricks of the yard. Several men were hauling carts piled high with grain sacks out of the barn. That explained the stored grain-it was intended to feed the men and horses of the rebels' Maghri allies.

For a few minutes the farm people seemed to forget that Blade and his friends existed. It would have been possible to escape in all the confusion, but things had changed now. They weren't in danger of being slaughtered by the Maghri, and if they could persuade the rebels' new allies to take them along when they moved on-Blade began to rehearse arguments to use on the Maghri chiefs.

He didn't need them. A few minutes later Gribbon came up, along with several armed farmhands and three Maghri. One of them carried a bronze-face shield and wore a chief's headdress.

«Blade,» snapped Gribbon. «You and your friends-get ready to mount up. We're moving out.»

Khraishamo and Rhodina looked at each other. Then Khraishamo shook his head. «I can't ride,» he said. «None of the Sarumi can. Our bones-«

«Can be left behind if you don't ride,» said Gribbon. «Either come with us and live, or stay here and be part of the soil. We aren't leaving any Bloodskin spies.»

Khraishamo's breath hissed between his teeth. «You're speaking strongly, Gribbon.»

«Yes, and you don't deserve it. I've really no time to speak at all.» He started to turn away. «If you're not ready to ride when your friends are, be ready to tell them farewell.»

«Wait,» said the Maghri chief. His Goharan was so heavily accented that without the computer's work on his brain Blade might not have understood him. The chief looked at Khraishamo, then at Rhodina, then at Gribbon.

«The fishman cannot ride,» he said. «But we have litters, for the sick and the hurt and the old women. I give him one, if he gives me this woman while he is with us.»

Khraishamo and Rhodina started, and Gribbon looked confused. «Yes,» said the Maghri chief. «Fishman-you have good woman. If you are no good to ride, you are not good for her. She needs a man, not-«

That was as far as the chief got. With a scream, Khraishamo lunged at the chief.

«No!» Rhodina's scream was even louder.

Either some last bit of sense or Rhodina's scream held Khraishamo back from killing the chief. Instead his fists smashed into the man's face like twin battering rams. The chief sprawled on the mud and dung-covered bricks, blood running from his nose and mouth.

By now Gribbon had his sword drawn and raised. From the way he was looking at Khraishamo, he would cheerfully have run the pirate through. By now Rhodina was embracing Khraishamo, both consoling him and restraining him. Gribbon couldn't strike at the pirate without hitting the woman.

Slowly the Maghri chief rose to his feet, wiping his nose on a filthy sleeve. He looked at Khraishamo, then drew his knife.

«Back, woman,» he said. «Now you will come to Sigluf's tents and stay. This fishman-he will die for my blood.» He looked at Gribbon, Gribbon nodded, and the chief raised the dagger.

Rhodina screamed again as Khraishamo threw her off and whirled to face his enemy. Gribbon raised his sword to strike. Blade saw that all of Gribbon's men were too busy watching Khraishamo's coming death to hold their weapons ready. He charged.

One of the men was in Blade's path. Blade swept him out of the way with a karate chop, then closed with Gribbon. The man struck clumsily, leaving Blade half a dozen useful openings. He took the best one, disabled Gribbon's sword arm, twisted the sword loose, then pulled Gribbon around in front of him. The edge of the sword was against the man's neck, right over the jugular vein.

«Gribbon,» said Blade quietly. «Order your men to hold back. If one of them so much as blinks an eye, you're a dead man.»

«That fool Bloodskin-«

«Give the order, Gribbon.» The man couldn't see Blade's face, but he heard the ice in his voice.

«Lower your weapons,» he shouted. «Let Blade speak.»

Blade lowered his sword, but didn't let go of Gribbon. He looked at Khraishamo. The pirate had Sigluf disarmed and spread-eagled on the ground. The man was struggling to free his hands, but he might as well have tried to free them from iron shackles. Khraishamo was holding on with all his strength.

«Let him up, Khraishamo,» said Blade. The pirate looked sharply at him. «Let him up, I said.» Blade controlled his voice with care. Privately, he agreed with Gribbon's description of Khraishamo as a fool, but he wasn't going to let anyone else know that. If he and Khraishamo could still work as a team, they might not undo the damage already done, but they could prevent more.

Khraishamo let go of Sigluf and stood back, pocketing the man's knife. The chief seemed too angry to speak coherently, so Blade filled the silence.

«Khraishamo has offered you a mortal insult. Is that true?»

Sigluf nodded.

«Yet I say you gave him an equally great insult first. You said he was no true man, and unworthy of the woman Rhodina. She is far too good for you.»

Sigluf sputtered and hissed, then managed to get out some coherent words. «Who are you, to speak to me about this?»

«I am the sworn blood-brother of Khraishamo,» said Blade. «His enemies are mine, and his honor and woman I will defend as I would my own.»

«You, sworn to a-«began Gribbon. Blade raised the sword again until the rebel leader could see it.

«Gribbon, I didn't ask you to speak.» Blade looked around. A good many of the Maghri were crowding closer, obviously interested but apparently not yet hostile.

«Warriors of the Maghri!» Blade shouted, in a voice intended to be heard all over the farm. He used the Maghri language, and Gribbon and the other Mythorans stared in surprise. So did Khraishamo and Rhodina. He ignored them.

«Warriors of the Maghri.» He pointed at Khraishamo. «This man is my sworn blood-brother. Your chief Sigluf has offered him a mortal insult. Yet my brother Khraishamo cannot fight your chief in the manner of the Maghri, on horseback. The gods so made him that he cannot ride a horse.

«l, on the other hand, can ride any horse the Maghri may offer me. I stand in my brother's place, and I offer challenge to Sigluf. Meet me on horseback, at a time and place of your choosing, and prove whether you are fit to call Khraishamo ugly names and claim Khraishamo's woman.

«Warriors of the Maghri, what say you?»

What they said wasn't clear, because all of them were talking at once. What they thought was obvious. Blade had their attention and even some of their sympathy. Perhaps not much, but if he'd got any, his gamble might be a winning one.

Sigluf apparently heard what his men were saying more clearly than Blade, and didn't like it. His face twisted, and his hands gripped his belt until Blade thought the heavy leather would tear like paper. Then he spat on the ground.

«I will spit on your body like that, when we have met and I have cut off your manhood,» he snarled. «Tomorrow, at dawn.»

Gribbon cursed and with a sudden jerk pulled himself free of Blade's grip. He strode over to Sigluf. «No, damn it! We can't afford to wait for you to get your quarrels done. We've got to meet up with the others, and-«

«Blood is between us, and such a quarrel will not wait.»

«It must.»

«It must not. You dishonor not just me but my-«

«Damn your honor. Is there honor in putting all your men as well as mine in danger?»

Gribbon now seemed to be angrier at Sigluf than he'd been at Blade or even at Khraishamo. It looked as though the argument was going to continue for a while, whoever won. Blade motioned his two friends to step aside with him, into the shadow of the back porch of the farmhouse.

Even in the darkness, Blade could see Rhodina was as pale as chalk. Yet she shook off Khraishamo's supporting hand and faced Blade almost defiantly.

«Blade, why'd you do this? Why save me from someone like him? You know what I've been. You know I've had worse in-«

«I do know. That's one reason why I spoke up. You shouldn't have to face any more trouble like that.» Blade's words reduced Rhodina to silence and gave Blade a chance to turn to Khraishamo.

«As for you, my quick-tempered friend-«

The pirate looked on the edge of tears. «Blade, I've put you in danger because I didn't think. What can I say?»

«As little as possible, until we've settled this matter one way or another.»

Khraishamo looked grim. «If he kills you, I'll-«

«Do nothing. We'll have to accept the outcome of the fight, or break up this whole alliance between the Maghri and the rebels. The alliance may not do us much good, but it can shake Gohar's rule over Mythor.

«In any case, I don't think it's my friends who have to worry about this duel. The English ride with foot-straps like the Maghri, and so do many other peoples I've met in different ages. I wasn't boasting about my riding.»

«It was still a gamble, challenging him in the first place,» said Khraishamo.

«Maybe, but I was using my own dice. I don't know much about the Maghri. I do know that people like them are always foolish about duels. Sigluf couldn't refuse my challenge.

«Also, I don't think he's too popular with his own people. A blowhard like that-«

«A what?» said Rhodina.

«Blowhard. You know-a man full of wind, like the storm we went through.» The others laughed. «Anyway, a man like that, who insults total strangers and grabs for every good-looking woman he sees-even his own men might like to see him lose.»

Rhodina let Khraishamo put an arm around her and pull her against him. «I hope you're right,» she said, her mouth muffled against the pirate's broad chest.

Blade hoped so too. He hadn't been lying at any point, but he'd be happier when this quarrel was sorted out. Damn Khraishamo's temper! There'd been a moment when he was almost sorry he'd used the flat of his sword instead of the edge, in the fight aboard Blue Swallow.

Now Gribbon came over to them, looking like a man who'd just swallowed a large dose of life-saving, foul-tasting medicine. «He'll fight after we meet the others,» he growled.

«What others?» said Blade.

Gribbon glared at him. «Don't ask for too much, Man from the Future. Just get yourself ready to move out. I wasn't joking about that.»

«And Khraishamo wasn't joking about not being able to ride,» said Blade sharply. «Are you taking any wagons?»

«Yes.»

«Then Khraishamo can ride in one of them. After what Sigluf said, you can't expect him to use a litter.»

«Blade-«

«Gribbon-Khraishamo rides in a wagon, or I go to Sigluf and tell him we'll fight here, tomorrow morning. Take your choice.»

Gribbon didn't draw his sword, but he looked as if he wasn't sure whether to commit murder or suicide. Then he growled, «All right. Get in the wagon,» and stamped off, muttering to himself.

«You heard him,» said Blade. «I'll get you weapons by daylight, but guard your back until then.»

«You too, Blade.» They gripped shoulders, then Khraishamo and Rhodina moved off toward the barn as Blade turned toward the stables.