The Ruins Of Kaldac rb-34

by Джеффри Лорд

  «You are so sure that you know what the Law says, because you are Peython's son! I have better reason to know what the Law says. I have obeyed it in more battles than you have years.»

  «Oh? I didn't know you'd fought that many women.»

  The big man began reciting a list of his battles which Blade found almost impossible to understand. It wasn't the language itself which confused him. The transition into Dimension X had altered the structure of his brain so that he could both speak and understand the local language as if it were English. Why this happened was still a mystery, but Blade didn't mind the alteration going unexplained as long as it didn't stop happening!

  The problem with this conversation was that Blade didn't know what two-thirds of the words used meant. «Oltec,» for example. Blade thought he remembered a tribe of Central American Indians by that name but seriously doubted he'd landed in Central America! Then «Kaldak,» «munfan,» and dozens of others. For all the sense he could make of it, the conversation might as well have been taking place in a language he didn't understand.

  The quarrel between Bairam and Hota came to an abrupt end when a high-pitched, very cold voice spoke from behind Blade.

  «Be quiet, both of you.»

  Blade helped the boy out of the ditch, then turned to face the speaker. He saw a blue-haired young woman with a laser rifle slung across her chest and a short sword in one hand. Her face was dirty and too thin for real beauty, but her eyes were a glorious deep green with flecks of silver. An armored jacket concealed her above the waist, but one leg of her trousers was ripped open to above the knee. The leg exposed had a magnificent tan which didn't come from a bottle and lovely curves which came from firm muscles instead of support hose.

  Right now she sounded too angry to encourage Blade to think how she might look undressed. «I am going to speak to my father about both of you if there is another quarrel like this. Each of you is both right and wrong. Bairam, there were live rats up here, which you could not see. So Hota did not break the Law of Oltec. Hota, you should have let either Bairam or this one have the kill. You were greedy, then you kept the quarrel going after my brother spoke wrongly. You also showed bad sense, in keeping the quarrel alive with this one standing close.» She turned to Blade, brushing hair out of her eyes and looking hard at him. «Who are you, pale man?»

  «He saved my life, Kareena,» said Bairam. «Why do you speak to him that way?»

  Kareena glared at her brother again. «I know who you are.» Then she smiled, making her thin face almost beautiful for a moment, and punched her brother lightly in the shoulder. «I know who you are and what you are. I do not know anything about this man.»

  «I am Richard Blade of England, a land beyond the ocean.»

  «What ocean?» said Kareena abruptly. The point of her sword hovered within inches of Blade's bare stomach.

  «You have not heard of the Gray Ocean?» said Blade, trying to look surprised as he improvised his story. «Then I have come even farther than I imagined. When I fled after killing seven men to avenge my sister's honor, I knew I would have to go far. I did not know I would come to a land where they did not know of the Ocean.»

  «Your sister must have been a poor creature, if she could not avenge her own honor,» said Kareena. But the sword point wavered.

  «Against seven men?» said Bairam. «Kareena, be serious. Even you would find those odds too much!»

  «You're an odd one to tell me about-«Kareena began sharply, then caught herself as she realized she was about to start another quarrel in front of the stranger. She shrugged, then smiled politely at Blade. «Certainly you are not from Kaldak. From your pale skin I would say you are from no city in all the Land. The Sky Masters were said to have skins like yours, but they are all dead. So your story will be interesting, even if it is not as you have told it. Also, you did save Bairam. That puts me in your debt under the Law, and also our father Peython.

  «However, you are not yet within the Law and cannot be until we return to Kaldak. Therefore you cannot bear an Oltec weapon. Will a sword or a spear satisfy your honor as a warrior of England?»

  From that, Blade concluded that «Oltec weapon» must mean one of the laser rifles. He really would have preferred to carry one of them, but the rifles were probably rare. Certainly one of them wouldn't save him if these people turned violently hostile. He could help keep them friendly by following their customs.

  Ceremoniously Blade picked up his empty laser rifle and handed it to Kareena. «A sword or a spear is enough. I have seen many lands, lived with many peoples, and obeyed the Law of each one. That is honor and also wisdom.»

  Bairam smiled. «Kareena, how can you doubt a man who speaks such words?»

  «Because they are no more than words,» said Hota bluntly. «When we know if they are more-«He would have probably started another quarrel, but Kareena was looking ready to strangle both Hota and her brother with her bare hands. She laid the rifle down and turned.

  «Sidas! Bring a spear for the pale man Blade. Then everybody be ready to move. There will be no camping here tonight!»

  That got a murmur of agreement from the rest of the band, who'd finished off the wounded rats and gathered along the edge of the ditch. Blade counted fourteen, five of them women. Under the dirt their skins were all various shades of reddish brown, but only a few of them had the green eyes and bluish hair of Kareena and her brother. Some of them were sorting through bulging leather packs, while others squatted by heavy bags slung below long poles.

  Bairam wanted to march as he was, but Kareena insisted that he sit down and let her bandage his wounds. Blade noticed that she poured some liquid from a leather bottle onto the bandage, then avoided touching the wound with her bare hands. It was always a relief to find a Dimension where the people had some notion about the causes of infection. Otherwise, if you let the local doctors treat you, you risked dying of blood poisoning. If you tried to treat yourself, you risked being burned for sorcery. Either way was an unpleasant and undignified end.

  No one made a move to offer Blade any clothes, so he adjusted his loinguard and sat cross-legged with the spear across his knees until Kareena finished with her brother. Then she pulled out a bone whistle and blew hard. The people with packs strapped them on, those with poles lifted them, and the party moved out. Blade kept toward the front, looking back occasionally for any more signs of the rats. He saw nothing moving, and the hillside soon faded out of sight in the gathering twilight.

  Chapter 4

  The band of warriors kept going until long after nightfall. They moved surely and swiftly, like people who knew exactly where they were going. After darkness hid the city behind them, they started talking more freely. Blade listened as he marched along.

  The warriors were from the city of Kaldak, and Kareena and Bairam were the children of Peython, Kaldak's leader in war and Keeper of the Law. They'd come to Mossev, the city of the towers, to find «Oltec,» and found more than they'd expected. Their enemies, the people called the Doimari, didn't claim Mossev, so hadn't taken much from it.

  The Kaldakans were satisfied, and were getting ready to make camp among the ruined suburbs when the rats attacked. Apparently the rats had never before attacked in such numbers outside the heart of a city.

  Eventually they marched down a steep hillside to the bank of a small stream and made camp. They built an enormous bonfire for warmth and a smaller fire for cooking. Small animals, birds, and even snakes came out of packs, were cut up, then roasted. Someone handed Blade a half-charred bird's wing and a piece of flat hard bread. The bird was gamey and needed salt, and the bread was as hard and tasteless as wood, but Blade was much too hungry to care.

  After eating, the Kaldakans tended each other's wounds. Both the men and the women stripped off their clothes to do this, so casually that Blade assumed the Kaldakans had no nudity taboo. Even Kareena stripped, dressed only in boots and her sword belt, and tended her bother's leg. She was much better looking naked than clothed. Her legs were long an
d powerful, her breasts high, firm, and large-nippled, and all her movements as graceful as a cat's. The triangle of curly hair between her thighs was even bluer than the hair on her head, and the light of the fire brought out the red tinge in her skin. As she moved around the camp, she looked like the bronze statue of a war goddess miraculously brought to life.

  Blade felt a tingle of desire as he watched Kareena, but controlled it firmly. Obviously nudity wasn't a sexual invitation in this Dimension. He wondered what was, suspected he'd find out sooner or later, but doubted he'd find out from Kareena. She was the local equivalent of a princess and not the sort of woman to tumble into a man's bed just because he'd saved her baby brother. If she ever came to him, she would come when she wanted to, for her own reasons.

  Blade found that he was getting sleepy and decided not to fight it. He had food, warmth, weapons, and a place among people who weren't exactly friends yet but certainly weren't enemies. In some Dimensions he'd started off in prison, as a slave, or wandering in a wilderness filled with dangerous animals. If his travels hadn't taught him anything else, they'd taught him to know when he was well off.

  It was a good thing Blade went to sleep early, because Kareena's whistle woke the camp well before dawn. Bairam dug some clothes for Blade out of a pack, and after much trying Blade was able to get into everything except the boots. By the time there was light in the sky, the party was on the move again.

  They marched all morning without a pause, with scouts carrying laser rifles well out in front. They'd been confident enough last night to build fires and relax, but now they seemed like a patrol moving through enemy territory. Blade wondered if the enemy they feared was human or animal.

  The scouts' rifles didn't go into action that morning. Just before noon they reached a camp of leather tents. There were also more than twenty baggage animals, the munfans, tethered to stakes driven into the ground. The munfans looked like a horse-sized cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo, with long ears and tails and shaggy brown coats with white patches. Their immensely powerful hind legs were armed with long claws, but they seemed docile enough. Each wore a complicated bridle with a long leading rein and a carrying harness dripping with hooks and straps.

  The arrival of Kareena's party was the signal for a burst of activity in the camp. Blade was forgotten as the Kaldakans bustled about, striking the tents, tying the packs and bags to the munfans' harnesses, emptying garbage, putting out the campfires, or simply standing guard. Blade noticed that the sentries all carried bows and arrows and spent most of their time looking at the sky. It was another gray day, with a sky full of low-hanging clouds. Blade had no idea what they expected to see coming out of those clouds and everyone was running about too fast to let him ask.

  Eventually the bustle died away. Blade saw men kneeling beside each munfan, tying long heavy leather hobbles to brass rings around their hind legs to keep them from taking a full stride. That made sense. Judging from the size of those hind legs, a munfan could run much faster than a man. If an unhobbled munfan bolted, there'd be no way of catching it and no way to save its load other than shooting it.

  The last hobbles were being tied into place when Bairam came over to Blade, carrying two laser rifles. He handed one of them to Blade.

  «Blade, you saved my life. My honor demands that you carry Oltec, though not living Oltec.»

  «Your sister-«began Blade, but the boy silenced him with an angry gesture.

  «Kareena takes too much on herself. I am not less than she in war or in knowing the Law.» Blade seriously doubted this, but it would hardly be tactful to say so.

  «This is so,» he said quietly. «But my honor as a warrior of England demands that I not break a promise. I have promised Kareena that I will carry no Oltec. Would you have me break my promise to her and lose honor?» He wished he could speak more bluntly. Bairam was rapidly becoming a brave and well-intentioned young nuisance.

  «You do not have what Kareena can call a weapon if you carry a dead thing of Oltec that has lost its power,» said Bairam insistently. «That is the Law. She can say nothing, yet those who see you will not know that it is dead. This way Kareena's not trusting you will bring you no shame. I cannot have you be shamed. My honor will not let me.»

  Again Blade wanted to answer bluntly, «Your honor will not let you be quiet either, it seems,» but held his tongue. Bairam was going to be stubborn about this, and if Blade argued much longer Kareena or Hota would notice that something was going on. Then there would be another quarrel for everyone. Short of turning Bairam over his knee and spanking him, Blade didn't see there was anything he could do except make the best of a bad situation.

  «I thank you, for your care for my honor. I will take this dead Oltec and care for it as though it lived.» He took the laser rifle and for lack of any better idea went through the British Army's manual of arms with it. Bairam watched, fascinated.

  «Now, I will go to Kareena and explain this,» said Blade, when he'd finished. «She must-«

  «Oh, no. I will tell her myself. If there is to be another quarrel, I must not let you suffer for it. More honor and many kills, Blade of England.» Before Blade could reply, the boy turned and ran off, so fast that Blade couldn't have called to him without letting the whole camp hear. He felt like throwing the rifle to the ground in frustration but knew that would not be a good idea if Oltec really was sacred. At least the damned rifle had a sling, so he could carry it across his chest while he carried the spear on one shoulder.

  Whatever Kareena said to her brother, she didn't bother saying anything to Blade. Her whistle shrilled again, the man leading the first munfan jerked the rein, and once more the Kaldakans were on the move. Blade brought up the rear, along with two men carrying rifles and three more carrying bows and arrows. He noticed that the riflemen carried their weapons at the ready, the archers had their bows strung, and all five were watching the sky. Blade watched the munfans instead.

  Without the hobbles they certainly would have been out of control within minutes and out of sight soon after that. Their hind claws threw up gravel and clods of earth, while their tails flicked back and forth through long arcs, hard enough to break bone if they hit a man. The carrying harnesses creaked and jingled and the heavy packs and bags bounced so that Blade expected at any minute to see one burst open or fall to the ground.

  By mid-afternoon blue sky was showing overhead, but there were still wide patches of gray cloud to hide whatever the Kaldakans feared in the sky. Twice Kareena came back along the caravan but hardly looked at Blade. He began to wish he'd done something to protect his feet. The ground underfoot was getting stony and rough, and even his tough soles were taking punishment.

  Another hour or so, and Kareena's whistle signaled a break. The men leading the munfans led them down to a pond to drink, then turned them loose along the bank to graze on ferns and grass. Blade was watching them munch busily, when he heard someone shout. He turned and saw a sentry pointing up into the sky. Following the man's gesture, Blade saw three hawklike birds circling low over the grazing munfans. They flew gracefully, and as they banked Blade saw golden patches under their wings and on their bellies. Handsome birds, but what was all the excitement about?

  Then one of the birds flew into the clouds, and suddenly Blade realized they weren't flying low at all. He guessed that if they looked so large up near the clouds, their wings must have a spread of twelve feet from tip to tip.

  Blade didn't believe that figure at first, then he watched the birds again and decided that fifteen feet would be a better guess. Of course a bird that size was a theoretical impossibility, but he didn't know enough about this Dimension yet to be sure how much Home Dimension theory applied. There could be mutations, there could have been genetic engineering, the birds might be robots….

  Meanwhile, none of the Kaldakans seemed to be worrying about theory. They were getting ready to meet the birds. Blade saw the archers picking arrows and the riflemen unslinging their weapons. Meanwhile the people with swo
rds and spears were spreading out into a circle around the munfans, to keep them from bolting. Blade started over to join them, since his only usable weapon was his spear. This was going to be a long-range fight.

  Then a rifleman ran up, carrying a second laser under one arm. Blade recognized Sidas, who'd brought him the spear yesterday. «Here, Blade,» said the man. «Your Oltec seems to be dead. Since you can carry one now, you should have a live one.» He pushed the second laser into Blade's hands and hurried off to rejoin his comrades before Blade could either thank him or protest. After a moment's hesitation Blade followed Sidas toward the other riflemen. He certainly wasn't going to waste time arguing with Kareena or Hota now!

  As Blade joined the riflemen, the giant hawks swept low over the caravan with harsh cries. The munfans squealed and some of them danced about as wildly as if the ground under them was red-hot. One tried to break through the circle, but two men drove it back with the butts of their spears.

  The birds came over a second time, and now several archers notched arrows and shot. Blade saw two arrows strike home, but the birds flew steadily on until they were out of range. Blade heard Kareena cursing the archers who'd shot, and he hoped his laser had plenty of power. Those birds were going to take a lot of punishment. He also wondered why some of the riflemen hadn't opened up already. Feathers could burn, even if the laser beam didn't get through to a vital organ.

  Then the three birds were banking in a wide turn, sliding down until they were just above the treetops, and coming back again. They were enormous, and they were coming straight at Blade. He knelt, raising his rifle. Bowstrings thrummed, arrows whistled, and one of the birds let out a harsh screech. Two more panic-stricken munfans charged the men around them. Blade saw the middle bird growing steadily larger, curled his finger around the trigger