Warriors Of Latan

Chapter 26

«They could not have done better for us if we had asked them ourselves,» murmured Crystal. The Rutari army was tramping along the valley toward the hillside, which was full of scrubby trees and little ravines that were biding the archers. The column of shpugas would be passing within easy bowshot even for the enthusiastic amateur bowmen of the Uchendi.

«One shot by each archer and all the shpugas will be doomed,» she said, grinning in savage triumph. «How could Teindo be so stupid?»

«Keep your voice down,» said Blade sharply. «Sound carries a long way around here.» Crystal looked sulky for a moment but was silent.

«As for Teindo,» Blade went on in a whisper, «I don't think he's being stupid at all. He's done what would be a good job of arranging his men and shpugas if we didn't have the bows.»

«That means he doesn't know about them.»

«True. But it doesn't mean that he won't put up a good fight when the battle starts.»

Crystal kissed him. «Well, so be it. I would rather be with you in my body, but if we are to be Spirits-«

Blade put a finger to his lips for complete silence. The first of the shpugas were passing below now. If the archers could resist the temptation to start shooting at their ancient foes at once, and wait until they could shower the whole line with their arrows…

Blade looked down the valley. A clump of small trees was his mark. When the lead shpuga passed that one, most of the line would be in range. With better archers he could have hit all the shpugas at once, but he had to do the best he could with what he had. It was likely enough that the shpuga-handlers would be too surprised to know what to do with the unhurt ones until it was too late.

A hundred yards to go. Seventy, fifty, forty, thirty-

One of the leading shpugas lifted its head and growled. Then it started looking from side to side, obviously suspicious of what it smelled but not sure what the smell meant.

Blade cursed under his breath. Either one of the shpugas was exceptionally keen-scented and alert, or some of the ambush party had crept too close to the valley floor. It didn't matter. If the attack was to be a surprise, it had to be launched now.

So Blade rose to his feet, nocking an arrow as he did. By the time he was on his feet, the bow was drawn. A moment later, his poisoned arrow was whistling downhill toward the shpuga that offered the best target.

Teindo saw the lead Great Hunter stop and appear to scent prey. Whatever was causing this, Teindo knew he had to find out for himself. The guides of the Great Hunters knew their beasts well-they had to or die-but not enough about other things of war.

He was riding toward the side of the valley when another Great Hunter howled, then a second, then two more. Teindo stared at them. Each one had a thin spear no longer than a man's arm sticking into its hide.

At least that was what his eyes told him. Everything else he knew about war told him that his eyes were lying. Such a small spear could never fly straight enough to hit anything at such a range, let alone drive through the hide of a Great Hunter.

He was looking around wildly when he saw the Uchendi warriors rising from behind bushes and stones on the side of the valley. They were far beyond spear-cast, but each of them held something that looked like a large spear. A moment later small spears showered down about the Great Hunters, hitting several more.

Teindo gathered his wits and reined in his mount. Now he could see that the «spears» the Uchendi warriors were holding were actually curved, and that these curved things hurled the small spears at the Great Hunters.

New spear-throwers. New magic-or perhaps English war craft?

In either case, Blade.

Teindo knew that Blade was behind this, but did not waste time looking for him. The Great Hunters were all howling and screaming now, the hurt ones making the unhurt ones uneasy. All the Great Hunters' cries were making the ezintis jittery.

Teindo tried to control his mount, watch the battlefield, and shout orders all at once. «Bring the Great Hunters back, back into the valley!» he bellowed. «Now! Quickly! Riders, gather to me!» The Great Hunters seemed more angry than hurt, but if the Uchendi charged now they might actually be able to kill some of the beasts with regular spears. No men on foot could charge against ezinti riders in good order, though, and-

A Great Hunter threw back its head and howled in agony. Its eyes were red pits, and yellow foam dripped from its mouth. It cried out again, then sank its claws into its own body, one hand in the chest and the other in the belly. Blood began to flow through the dark fur.

Then another Great Hunter did the same. A third. More-Teindo lost count. Again, the howling of the hurt ones set off the rest. The valley echoed with the mad cries of the Great Hunters until Teindo felt as if he was in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.

His ezinti and many others were prancing frantically, near to bolting. He could still spare some attention from controlling his mount to think of what must be happening and what he should do about it.

Poison.

Poison on the small spears. It didn't matter if they hit a vital spot in the Great Hunters. They would kill it or at least drive it mad no matter where they hit. Probably it was the Rutari's own klida seed poison being used against them.

If it was, the Great Hunters were doomed unless they got out of range and out of the valley. They could not be used again in war until some answer was found to the new spear-throwers. That meant no war at all against the Uchendi. That was a hard thought for Teindo; it would be a harder thing still to tell Ellspa. But the choice was not theirs. Blade had made it for them.

Suddenly Teindo's mount went completely out of control. He felt himself losing his seat and flung himself clear to control his fall. He came down unarmed save for his knife, with a Great Hunter only yards away. Its eyes were half shut with yellow ooze, and it did not see him. Instead it saw the ezinti and lumbered toward it. The animal reared and galloped off. Teindo saw four of the short spears sticking in it.

The Great Hunter turned back toward him. He got ready to defend himself as well as he could, since to run would be the end of everything.

Then a short spear sank into the Great Hunter's eye, driving deep enough to reach the brain. The beast lived just long enough to claw at the spear, then fell dead. It was so close to Teindo that its blood and other fouler liquids splashed him. He looked down at the body, and saw that the short spear in its eye was longer than the others the Uchendi had used.

He turned away from the body, in time to see Ellspa riding up. She dismounted without speaking to him, and he saw that her eyes held the wide blankness of kerush-magor. She was also naked, and Teindo felt a sudden chill at the knowledge of how far the «Wise One» was likely to be willing to go to save today's victory.

It is beyond saving, he wanted to shout.

He also did not want to be the first victim of Ellspa's mind, so he kept silent.

Blade hadn't expected to save Teindo. He'd simply been trying the range of the wooden arrows and hit the attacking Great Hunter. He didn't mind this unexpected bonus. Teindo's staying alive would make the battle harder, but it would make negotiating a peace easier. The few prisoners the Uchendi had taken all said the same thing: Ellspa was fanatically determined to take vengeance on the Uchendi for every grievance she and her people had. Probably nothing short of the total extermination of the Uchendi would satisfy her. That meant the Uchendi might have to fight until the Rutari were exterminated-unless there was some leader among the enemy saner than Ellspa and not afraid of her.

So far, Teindo seemed to be the only one.

A moment after Teindo hobbled away, Blade regretted shooting the arrow that saved him, because other archers now thought it was time to go man-killing and pulled out their wooden shafts. Most of them fell short or went astray; the Uchendi bows simply weren't strong enough to reach any human targets except the shpuga-handlers.

«The shpugas are the great enemy!» Blade roared loud enough to be heard clear across the valley. «The shpugas! I'll shoot down the next man who hits anything but a shpuga.'' He lent weight to those words by jumping up and nocking a fresh arrow.

Enough of the archers heard Blade to go back to the important work. It took a while, though, and Blade stood in the open, watching until he was sure things were going right. By then Crystal was up beside him, the Idol slung across her back. Of course that meant Cheeky insisted on coming up and joining the fun, too!

In Home Dimension warfare this would have been dangerous. One burst of fire or a single shell could have wiped out the command group. But there were no guns here, and in any case the first part of the battle seemed to be almost over. Dead and dying shpugas littered the ground, surrounded by the corpses of handlers and ezintis they'd torn to pieces in their dying agonies. Archers who'd shot their quivers empty were stalking the dying.

Out in the valley, the surviving shpugas were wandering among the mounted Rutari, disturbing the ezintis. One rider sat his mount a little apart, apparently unafraid of either shpugas or Uchendi archers. Then the rider urged the mount toward the valley side and Blade recognized Ellspa.

She was nude and had her arms crossed over her breasts. She had to be controlling her mount with her knees alone, or perhaps just her mind. She certainly wore a marvelously serene expression, which suggested her mind was somewhere else.

A moment later Blade knew where Ellspa's mind was-entering his. This happened too fast for him to be aware of what was happening until she inside his mind. After that he found he could not keep from listening to her. He heard her voice as if she'd been murmuring into his ear:

(«Blade, come down to me. Come down and find what you have lost. Come down and find happiness you will not find anywhere else. I will give it to you.»)

Blade heard Cheeky protesting and felt a paw on his leg. He kicked backward and heard a yeeep of pain. Cheeky did not offer him happiness. Ellspa did. He took a step, then a second. He wanted to run, because what he saw ahead was Zoe, nude, riding a white horse along a surf-lashed beach. Her blonde hair flew out behind her in the wind like a flag.

A girl-he thought he remembered the name was Crystal Eyes or something like that-was in his path. She was in Zoe's path too, and she was raising a submachine gun to cut Zoe down. Zoe, his beloved-

Something was in front of his feet, then under them, as if the ground itself was betraying him. He was falling. He twisted frantically in midair, but he was so intent on Zoe that his reflexes were slowed. He crashed down on the hard ground. Now it seemed there was a weight on his chest and another on his legs holding him there.

Something was hammering at his head, too. It sounded like pain but also like the submachine gun. He couldn't see any more, but the jealous Crystal Eyes must be shooting at Zoe. He had to get up and save her, he had to stop Crystal Eyes-

Something heavy and solid smashed down on his head. The pain grew much louder, then everything was silent.