Warriors Of Latan

Chapter 6

The warriors led Awgal's killer back into the cave. Apparently each candidate for cleansing got a fresh beast. Blade would have been happier to fight Awgal's killer, not so much for vengeance but because a Great Hunter slowed down by a heavy meal would be less formidable. Also, he'd rather face a seven-footer than a nine-footer-its reach would be shorter. Little details-but Blade could hardly remember a time wren he hadn't been aware of them and used them in his plans as naturally as he breathed. Being an essentially practical man, he didn't spend much time wondering why this was so; he was alive and healthy because of the habit, and that was enough for him.

Under the Wise One's supervision, a dozen men and women cleaned the pyramid with buckets of water drawn from the hot spring. By the time they'd finished, the whole pit was filled with steam and smelled of sulphur and the herbs the Wise One threw out in handfuls while the others worked. Then the Wise One raised her staff and pointed toward Blade.

Blade rose, and Cheeky jumped up on his shoulder without needing a signal. Blade grinned and sent a picture of him and Cheeky standing beside the corpse of a Great Hunter. This was the first real life-or-death battle he and Cheeky had fought as a team; he hoped it would also be the first of many victories. The sensation of not having everything depend on his own strength; speed, and wits was odd but agreeable.

At the rim of the pit, Blade was solemnly inspected by the warriors for signs of any clothing or weapons not allowed by the rules. They practically ignored Cheeky, and completely ignored the feather-monkey's plastic harness. Blade heard one say, «If he wants his good-luck pet with him… «but nothing else.

Blade went down into the pit so quickly that the guards had to scramble to keep up with him. One of them lost his footing on the slope and slid the rest of the way down on his rump. Murmurs of approval for Blade's confidence mingled with laughter at the guard. A good start, Blade thought.

The Wise One called Blade to the foot of the pyramid and asked him a series of ritual questions, waving her staff and throwing handfuls of herbs about while she did. Blade answered the questions as quickly as he could without seeming disrespectful. As long as he had to look at the Wise One, he couldn't study the floor of the pit and check the footing it offered him.

However, there was always Cheeky, who would know what to look for. If Blade could just send him a brief mental message-very brief-without the Wise One «hearing»… Well, why not try it once?

Blade sent-Cheeky a picture of him jumping down and running around, poking at the gravel and grass, picking up stones and pulling up tufts. Cheeky yeeeped and obeyed the implied order. The Wise One's staff and herb throwing never missed a beat.

Cheeky couldn't have been more thorough if he'd been searching the pit for jewels. He even threw a handful of pebbles into the hot spring to see what would happen. A cloud of steam gushed up, and he jumped back, squeaking indignantly.

At last he finished his inspection, and the Wise One was still asking Blade questions. Was she trying to trip him up in public, make him say something ill-omened so that he would have to be «cleansed» like Awgal? Blade hoped not. He might fight his way out, but he'd have little chance of saving Cheeky. That meant he wasn't going to get out of here at all if the Wise One wanted his blood. He would never leave Cheeky; they were going to live or die together.

Even if the Wise One didn't want his blood, this interrogation was buggering up his survival chances. As long as it went on, Cheeky couldn't report what he'd learned. The Wise One would notice Blade's attention wandering elsewhere, then ask why.

In fact, Blade realized that he couldn't even see Cheeky anymore. He couldn't imagine the feather-monkey running off in fright, but if the Wise One suddenly decided his presence here was against the law and custom…

Then a small feather-crested head appeared over the top of the pyramid, between the Wise One's feet. Blade forced himself to go on talking, but also got ready to move fast. Now Cheeky was up on top of the pyramid, and the Wise One still hadn't noticed him. If anyone else saw him they didn't seem ready to warn her.

Then Cheeky leaped forward. Someone shouted, someone else cursed, but both were too late. Cheeky leaped up-and tweaked the Wise One's pubic hair.

The Wise One let out a shriek and clapped her hands to her groin. This left her completely defenseless against Cheeky, who swarmed up her body as if it were a tree. He planted his hind feet on her breasts, gripped both shoulders with his forepaws-and kissed her on the nose.

For a moment Blade was surrounded by the awesome silence of a thousand people all holding their breaths. He hardly breathed himself, and didn't dare move anything except one hand, in a signal to Cheeky to come back down and join him.

Then the silence fell apart as the thousand people dissolved in laughter. Blade let out his breath in a long whoooosssh. The little bastard had certainly been gambling for high stakes! If the Rutari had taken his antics as a breaking of taboos…

But they hadn't. They'd taken it as a good joke on the Wise One. Her own pride should keep her from ordering Blade killed or sacrificed now. Of course, she might have a few notions about what to do some other day, but Blade believed in living through each day as it came.

Cheeky responded to Blade's mental message, leaping down and hurrying back to his master's shoulder. He left the Wise One to recover her staff and as much of her dignity as she could manage. By the time the laughter died, she'd succeeded, and her acolyte had joined her on top of the pyramid.

Cheeky took advantage of the Wise One's distraction and reported his findings to Blade. The water in the hot spring was more than hot enough. The stones of the gravel were too smooth and fine to hurt Cheeky's paws. The footing was solid. Blade could not be slowed down-but neither would the Great Hunter.

Blade did not much care for the look in the Wise One's eyes as he turned his back on her to face the mouth of the cave. The acolyte, on the other hand-well, if she was still looking at him that way after the cleansing, he might take her up on the offer. He'd be in better shape to enjoy it than Awgal!

Blade's Great Hunter burst out of the cave at a dead run, spraying gravel as it came, its deep-set eyes fixed on Blade. The creature was closing in, and there was no time for analyzing anything. Cheeky jumped down from Blade's shoulder and ran one way. Blade ran the other. Blade was silent, while Cheeky made as much noise as he could. From what he'd overhead among the hunters, Blade knew the Great Hunters traced their prey mostly by sound and scent, not relying much on their poor eyesight. Cheeky was a lot smaller than Blade, but he could make as much noise, or more.

Blade's guess was the right one. The Great Hunter swerved after Cheeky, bending low and reaching forward. It seemed to realize vaguely that its prey was smaller than usual. As the clawed hands opened to scoop up Cheeky, the feather-monkey reversed course and dashed between the Great Hunger's legs. He got clean away, and for a moment the beast was off balance, its back turned to Blade.

Blade came up behind it in a leaping side-kick, driving his left foot into the small of its back. The foot had all of Blade's speed and two hundred and ten pounds behind it. Any human being's spine would have snapped like a matchstick. But the Great Hunter only staggered, then straightened up with an indignant grunt.

Blade felt as if he'd kicked a tree. He was reasonably sure he hadn't broken his foot. He wasn't sure he hadn't bruised it so badly it would swell up before the fight was over and slow him down.

For a moment, though, Blade still had all his speed. As the Great Hunter lurched around to face him, he chopped hard at the nearest wrist. Damaging one of the creature's hands couldn't hurt. Indeed, it couldn't hurt the Great Hunter: Blade had the feeling that he'd tried to chop through an iron bar.

In return, the Great Hunter lashed out with its other hand in a casual gesture, apparently intending to shoo Blade away like a fly rather than to inflict injury. The blow sent Blade flying over backward. If he hadn't known how to fall, he might have landed hard and stayed down until the Great Hunter finished him off. As it was, he landed rolling, made a complete somersault, and came up facing his opponent more or less in one piece. He was fairly sure his ribs weren't broken. He did suspect torn muscles and was sure of torn skin. Three parallel gashes were bleeding freely.

He'd better use his speed to stay out of the Great Hunter's reach for a while. Otherwise there were going to be more bleeding gashes in his skin, and not such neat ones either. He sent this message to Cheeky as well. He suspected that Cheeky would have much less trouble evading than he would. The feather-monkey could practically turn around in his own length, and he was much harder to detect as long as he kept quiet.

The crowd was now silent, their laughter at the Wise One's embarrassment long past. The sight of a man pitted against one of the Great Hunters with nothing but his own strength and wits and perhaps his pet to aid him was nothing to laugh at. The Wise One and her acolyte stood on top of the pyramid, their long hair now lifting to a slight breeze, their faces unreadable. Blade hoped that whatever the Wise One was thinking, she would stop short of giving the Great Hunter telepathic coaching on the fight. Then he and Cheeky settled down to their dance of death with the beast.

Once he'd decided firmly in favor of caution, Blade was able to keep his distance, not without danger but at least without skating along the thin edge of disaster again. The Great Hunter was strong enough to take on six men in a close grapple, and incredibly fast when running in a straight line. It couldn't turn fast, however, and its eyesight was definitely poor. It practically ignored Cheeky, except when Blade told the feather-monkey to make enough noise to draw the beast's attention and give his master a little time to breathe.

Since he'd started with the crowd on his side, Blade knew he had a while before anyone suspected him of being a coward. And as much as he wanted the goodwill of the Rutari, he would go right on keeping his distance from the beast for as long as he had to. He and Cheeky simply didn't dare confront a Great Hunter with its full strength and speed left. One of those clawed hands would connect, and even if it didn't kill Blade outright it would do so much damage that the next blow could finish the job. The goodwill of the Rutari would be of no use to a stone-dead Richard Blade.

The crowd began to buzz with excitement at the show Blade and Cheeky were putting on, circling around the pit. Snatches of conversation he overheard when Cheeky was drawing off the beast led him to believe this Great Hunter was a famous killer, and that he was doing something extraordinary by lasting so long against it.

If this was true, no doubt it would help after the fight-if there was an «after.» By now Blade had more doubts about the outcome of this fight than he'd had about any for years. The Great Hunter seemed to have the endurance of a diesel locomotive, rather than a creature of flesh and blood. Cheeky was definitely tiring, and Blade himself was slowly losing blood from his three cuts. Before much longer he would be weakened or slowed down even without taking any more damage from the Great Hunter.

Before that happened, he would have to strike at least one damaging blow. It wouldn't be wise to use his planned trick with Cheeky this soon, so he would have to think of something else, fast. Having eight feet of sudden death, fanged, clawed, and steel-muscled, thundering at his heels will make any man think faster. Blade's wits now worked like one of Lord Leighton's smaller computers, and came up with a possible solution.

At Blade's order, Cheeky began squeaking and squalling to draw the Great Hunter off as he'd done before. The bait worked as well as ever. The huge beast plunged after Cheeky, who scurried along before it, paws scrabbling frantically on the gravel.

The Great Hunter was only a few feet out of reach when Blade cut across in front of it at a dead run. He had scooped up fistful of gravel from a patch of stones that were large enough to hurt. As the Great Hunter stooped, Blade hurled the gravel into its face. The beast howled so fiercely that several women in the audience screamed in terror. Then the beast clawed at its eyes. It kept after Cheeky, though, so Blade didn't assume it was blinded.

At Blade's signal, Cheeky fell silent and darted sideways. Blade shouted, whooped, and cursed, drawing the Great Hunter after him, toward the hot springs. Cheeky ran on ahead, around the hot springs, and on the far side he started squeaking again. Blade fell silent as he reached the edge of the spring, then flung himself into the air in a running broad jump, hoping it would take him clear across. If it didn't-well, the Great Hunter would dine on boiled meat today.

Blade's gamble on his remaining strength paid off. He landed on his feet, scooped up Cheeky, and kept on running. Behind him the Great Hunter reached the edge of the spring and also jumped. It was longer-legged than Blade, but not built as well for jumping. Also, it was jumping without a good view of the far side. It cleared the spring but landed clumsily on its back, howling with new rage and pain.

When it got up, it seemed to be limping and favoring one arm. The crowd shouted in fierce delight, and some of them stood up to see better. The Wise One waved her staff at these eager ones, and they subsided.

Meanwhile, unnoticed by anyone, Cheeky had unhooked his harness and handed it to Blade. Blade knew he could never do serious damage to the Great Hunter without some sort of weapon. Now he was about to get one. He quickly took the harness apart and gave Cheeky the section that would harden into an effective dagger, sharp pointed and sharp edged, with a short handle. Cheeky leaped toward the spring to harden the dagger in the hot water, while Blade dashed off in the opposite direction to keep the Great Hunter on his trail.

The beast was definitely slowed, perhaps in pain, and certainly even angrier than before. At intervals it stopped to pound its chest, let out bloodcurdling screams, and hurl gravel at Blade. It never found stones heavy enough to carry far or hurt much if they did hit. They usually didn't; Blade's attack hadn't done the creature's already dim eyesight any good.

However, the Great Hunter still had both arms in working condition and was moving much too fast for Blade's peace of mind. He was glad to see Cheeky darting away from the spring. The feather-monkey held the dagger aloft with his tail curled around the hilt, using all four paws to run. He reached Blade, raised his tail until Blade could take the dagger, then opened the distance between himself and his master.

The audience was completely, almost oppressively silent. The Wise One's face was still a stone mask, but the acolyte was leaning slightly forward, her full lips parted.

Blade and Cheeky darted toward the Great Hunter from opposite sides. As Cheeky approached he cried out. The Great Hunter stopped, undecided on which prey to seize, both arms outstretched. One hairy wrist was in reach of Blade's knife. The Kaldakan plastic, hardened like steel in the hot spring, slashed down. Fur, skin, and flesh gaped open to the bone, blood spurted, and an unearthly cry of rage, pain, and surprise echoed around the pit. Several hundred human voices joined the uproar.

The Great Hunter was still formidable. It turned toward Blade, lunging with its good arm. Blade sprang backward but not far enough. The hand came down on his left shoulder, fortunately without driving the claws in. Blade twisted free, feeling as if his shoulder were dislocated or his left arm out of its socket. Before the Great Hunter could move again, Cheeky closed in.

He swarmed up the creature's hairy back and gripped its neck with his hind legs and tail. Then he brought his forepaws around and clamped them hard over the creatures eyes. The Great Hunter howled again, shook its head in frustration, and raised its good hand to pluck away this annoyance.

That left Blade with a clear path. He lunged in and up with the dagger. The sharp point drove into the creature's right eye. It nearly took off a couple of Cheeky's fingers as it did, but the point drove deep. The Great Hunter lurched, jerking the dagger out of Blade's hand, and Cheeky leaped free. The creature lunged again, and went down on its knees, both hands groping blindly ahead of it, blood pouring from the slashed wrist.

Blade put both hands on the creature's shoulders, vaulted on to its back, got both arms around the massive neck, and jerked with all his strength. His arms nearly came out of their sockets, but the neck snapped with an entirely satisfactory noise. Then the Great Hunter went limp. Blade staggered to his feet, and all the Rutari around the pit started yelling themselves hoarse.

Blade bent down and picked up the dagger, then pulled out a handful of the dead Great Hunter's coarse fur to wipe the sweat and blood off his skin. Then he saw the matted filth in the fur and threw it aside. He stood silently, until blood and sweat together made a puddle in the gravel at his feet and the shouting died. Considering the exhaustion, loss of blood, strained joints, and narrowness of his victory, Blade would much rather have done almost anything else than to have fought the Great Hunter.

Oh, to lie down and be plied with massages and wine by six beautiful girls. He spat to clear the dust from his mouth and brushed the hair out of his eyes. Next time, if I have to choose between fighting a Great Hunter or going for a ride in a cement mixer, I'll take the cement mixer.

Then the acolyte was running toward him, all dignity and ceremony forgotten. She threw her arms around him and kissed him, and he was suddenly very aware of both his nakedness and hers. She was warm in his arms and smelled sweet even under the stink of the herbs and potions.

Fortunately the Wise One came down into the pit before Blade and the girl could forget he was still taboo. The Wise One was smiling now, but it was an odd, enigmatic smile. Blade would almost have preferred a glare of open hatred. Then he would have known where he stood. As it was, the Wise One was as much of a mystery as ever.