The Ruins Of Kaldac rb-34

by Джеффри Лорд

  «Forward-march!» again, and the waldoes started off. They jammed together for a nerve-wracking minute at the narrowest part of the path between the hills. Blade froze his waldoes in place and let the other two men sort theirs out. Then the waldoes set off. The ground shook under their feet as nearly three hundred tons of metal accelerated. Dust rose in a fog, and the clanking and squealing of long-unused joints and cables was as loud as the sounds of a battle.

  Most of Bairam's waldoes rapidly pulled ahead, then some began to drop back, joints smoking. The boy was pushing them too fast. When Blade saw two of them literally trip over their own feet and fall, he'd had enough.

  «Bairam! Get out of that chair and stand back. You'll wreck half your waldoes before the battle starts, the way you're going!»

  Bairam looked both rebellious and ready to burst into tears. Then the controller moved quickly in obedience to Blade's hand signal, cutting off the power to Bairam's chair, after switching its frequency to Blade's. Without blinking or missing a step, Blade took over Bairam's waldoes. Bairam muttered a few comments on the sex habits of Blade's parents, then stamped off to join the spectators.

  Halfway to the battlefield now. The smoke from the burning forest was beginning to spread across the landscape. Blade could now hear the sounds of the battle ahead over the din of the waldoes themselves. It was impossible to tell who was doing what to whom, but no mortars were firing. That probably meant the Doimari were doing what he wanted them to do-move across the valley after the Kaldakan advance guard. They'd also have to go around the forest, but that wouldn't spoil Blade's plans.

  Then Sidas's chair suddenly began giving off smoke and sparks. The controller seemed to leap halfway across the room to cut its power, then drag Sidas clear. He was rubbing scorched spots on his arms and legs but otherwise seemed unhurt as he ran toward the next activated chair. Reluctantly Blade froze all the waldoes in position. He didn't want to take the risk of controlling all of them single-handed, not when battle was so close.

  As Sidas ran, Bairam snatched up a bucket of water and emptied it over his comrade. It was just as well for Bairam that Blade could do nothing but curse at this helpful gesture. Throwing water around near a shorted-out chair could have knocked out the whole command center and lost the battle in a second! But there was no time to explain electricity, and probably not much point in explaining it to Bairam at all. At this moment Blade would have promised his right arm to bring the waldoes a mile closer to the battlefield.

  Then Sidas was in his new chair and controlling his waldoes again. A few had fallen when Blade stopped them, but only one stayed down. Eighty-six left now, and only minutes to the battlefield. The smoke was getting so thick that Blade wondered if it would interfere with lasers. It was certainly getting thick enough to interfere with his vision.

  The last bend into the valley was the sharpest, and getting all the waldoes around it was the hardest job yet. They had to slow down almost to a walk, to make sure that a dozen waldoes didn't go down on rough patches of ground. For a minute the waldoes would have been a magnificent mortar target, and Blade found his palms sweating. The smoke he'd feared now came to his rescue. It swirled back and forth across the valley, completely blocking the view of the Doimari.

  The Kaldakan waldoes were almost ready to move again when the first Doimari infantry drifted out of the smoke. They were only a straggling line of scouts, but that was enough for Blade.

  «Sidas! Your lasers!» he shouted, and bit down on the firing button for his own weapons. In his excitement he'd forgotten to turn all of his waldoes directly toward the Doimari, and most of the beams shot wide. That did no harm. The Doimari were too frozen with surprise and fear to react in time. On the second volley, more than fifty laser beams struck the scouts. Blade saw a few smoking bodies fly into the air, but most simply vanished as if they'd been vaporized. Probably some of them were. The rest must have been buried under the mass of smoking earth thrown into the air. From behind the smoke came the screams of men on the edge of the destruction, not too badly burned to cry out.

  The smoke wasn't going to affect the lasers as much as Blade feared. Very well, then let the butchery start. He'd known all along there'd be a gory spectacle but in the first excitement of seeing the enemy at hand he'd forgotten it. Now he remembered, his hands and mouth were dry, and he had to swallow before he could give his next order to Sidas.

  «All right, Sidas. Face yours forward, and fire on my command.»

  «Yes, Blade.»

  He sounded subdued. Blade hoped he was. He distrusted bloodlust in other people almost as much as he distrusted it in himself.

  Blade bit down on the firing button, saw the laser beams lance the smoke ahead, and heard the screams.

  «Fire!» More of the same, then:

  «Waldoes of Kaldak, charge!»

  Chapter 23

  Rehna tried to peer through the smoke from the burning forest on the north side of the valley. She wanted to see how the battle was going.

  For the moment at least it hardly deserved the name of a battle. The only Kaldakans in sight were the handful of dead they'd left behind on the north slopes. Rehna didn't know if they'd been driven off completely or just driven back to another position. Certainly they were now out of range of either the Doimari infantry in the valley or the Fighting Machines on the hills to the south.

  For the moment the Fighting Machines were staying where they were. Those were Nungor's orders, Rehna had passed them back to the Seekers in the control chairs in Doimar, and so far they seemed to be obeying. Rehna did not like Nungor or trust many of his captains, but she knew that if each part of Doimar's army fought its own battle the Kaldakans might still win.

  Some of the Doimari foot soldiers were going north and some south to get around the fire and renew the attack. Others were going nowhere, either too busy licking their wounds or because they hadn't received any orders. Rehna saw Nungor run past several times, more red-faced and sweating harder each time, shouting orders, trying to get the lazy ones moving. She wished him luck. For now her own part in the battle was so easy that she had time to realize she was hungry. That wasn't surprising, since she hadn't eaten all day.

  She bent over and started to call down the hatch. Then she heard a sudden swelling uproar from the smoke to the west. Screams, the sound of lasers, and a metallic chorus which sounded like Fighting Machines on the move but couldn't possibly be that.

  Then in a moment Rehna knew that the impossible was the truth. A line of Fighting Machines loomed out of the smoke, all marching the same way regardless of the ground underfoot, all swinging blood-stained metal bars in their hands, all with fire-beam tubes glowing like evil eyes in their chests. Behind the first line was a second, behind the second line a third-

  No! Logic, sanity, and common sense all shouted that in her mind. She ignored the shout, because her eyes told her differently. The Kaldakans had live Fighting Machines, and they were coming down the valley against the men of Doimar like Death itself.

  Then the Fighting Machines stopped, and the first row shot their fire-beams. Hundreds of Doimari were already running or lying down, but that didn't save most of them. The fire-beams made a net like a fisherman's in the smoky air, and the Doimari foot soldiers were the fish. Some flew completely into the air, trailing smoke. Others fell, writhing and screaming, their clothes on fire. Still others became puffs of greasy smoke or were torn into bloody rags when the fire-beams set off their hand fire-bombs.

  Some men lived a bit longer, because the beams didn't catch them or because the smoke and dirt thrown up weakened the beams. Many of these died in the next minute, when the Fighting Machines strode forward, swinging their clubs. Rehna was reminded of farmers beating their fields for blue rats. One blow of the steel clubs the Fighting Machines carried could turn a man into pulp from his head down to his chest.

  The Fighting Machines swung clumsily and all together, whether they had a target or not. Rehna saw one smash the arm of the machine next t
o it with its club. It looked as if a few men or perhaps only one man was controlling all the Fighting Machines at once. That was something she knew was possible but which Doimar had never tried. If there was one man controlling all the Kaldakan machines, she though she knew his name.

  Blade of England.

  Suddenly she wasn't quite sure she wanted to bear the child of a man who'd slaughtered so many of her fellow Doimari. However, she was sure he wasn't going to win the battle, in spite of the bloody start he'd made. When the Fighting Machines of Doimar came down into the valley, each one would have a trained Seeker controlling it. Blade's crude tactics and skills could never meet such an attack.

  While she'd been thinking this, the Kaldakans moved a hundred paces forward and used their fire-beams again. This time she felt the heat on her face and clods of earth rattled off the armor of the Carrying Machines. She looked anxiously at the Voice equipment, but it seemed unhurt. They'd still better move back to a safer position.

  A breeze seemed to be carrying the smoke away now. To the north Rehna saw Kaldakan foot soldiers appearing on the ridge again. To the south she could now make out eight or ten of Doimar's Fighting Machines. Any moment now they should start down the hill, to pass through the retreating Doimari foot soldiers and engage the Kaldakans. The battle would be hard and would destroy much Oltec, but it would also prove, even to Nungor, that the Seekers-

  «No!» This time Rehna said the word out loud. Then she screamed it at the top of her lungs, as if screaming loud enough could change what she saw. The Fighting Machines weren't coming down the hill. They were turning away into the smoke and walking off the battlefield. No, not walking-they were starting to run. Rehna's fellow Seekers were more concerned with saving their Fighting Machines than saving their fellow Doimari, or even winning the battle.

  «No,» Rehna said again, and burst into tears. «No!» she shouted, pounding her fists on the armor of the Carrying Machine until she tore open skin and flesh. She went on pounding, as blood made the armor slick under her. «Cowards! Cowards! Cow-«

  Fire-bombs exploded all around her, and something like the metal fist of a Fighting Machine struck her. She flew through the air and landed hard enough to knock the breath out of herself. More explosions crashed out as the Carrying Machine started moving off. The Voice equipment was now leaning drunkenly to one side. She hoped it still lived.

  Rehna knew what was happening. The fire-bomb throwers were shooting at the Kaldakan Fighting Machines, but they didn't know the exact range. They were landing their bombs short, right among the Doimari! «No,» she whimpered.

  Then more explosions, and a rain of metal pieces, human bodies, and broken weapons fell all around her. She tasted blood in her throat, gagged on it, and also felt a pain deep in her belly. Was she losing the child?

  A single fire-beam stabbed through the smoke overhead, from a Kaldakan machine controlled by someone as good as any Seeker. With horrible precision it sought out the Carrying Machine with the Voice equipment. The Voice equipment sagged and started to melt, someone on fire from head to foot jumped out, then the fire-boxes inside gave up all their energy at once. The explosion roiled Rehna over on her side, so she didn't see the red-hot wreckage of the Seekers' proudest achievement. She did see a Kaldakan Machine bring down one foot within inches of her face, the other on top of a Doimari soldier who was mercifully already dead. She didn't see any more clearly, because the pain suddenly struck her all over so that she curled up into a little ball and started whimpering.

  «Mother, mother,» she said, as the Kaldakan Fighting Machines marched past her.

  By the time Kareena brought the Hovercraft and her father down into the valley, the slaughter was over. There were no living Doimari in the valley, or at least no living Doimari it wouldn't be a mercy to kill. The Kaldakan infantry spread out and began to finish the victory the waldoes began.

  To Kareena, there was an even worse sight than the Doimari bodies. Over half the Kaldakan waldoes stood or sprawled useless, their power exhausted, joints frozen or broken, weapons burnt out, killed by lucky grenade or rifle shots from desperate Doimari at short range. Kareena felt sick at the sight of so much ruined Oltec, and even Peython was confused.

  «Did Blade destroy the waldoes deliberately, I wonder?»

  «He would not do that, Father.»

  «I still wonder. Perhaps he wanted to destroy them, so we would not grow weak or evil from the strength of our Oltec as Doimar did.»

  Kareena had no reply to that, and concentrated on steering the Hovercraft through the scattered Kaldakan soldiers. Then she saw something familiar about the body lying on its side fifty paces ahead. A moment later she recognized the bloody face. It was Rehna, the Seeker woman who'd shared Blade's bed the night of the escape from Kaldak.

  Kareena stopped the Hovercraft and leaped out before her father could question her. She knelt by Rehna and looked down into the pain-glazed eyes.

  «Mother…»

  «The Lords of the Law be merciful, Rehna.» She drew her knife and thrust quickly, surely home between Rehna's ribs. When the woman slumped in peaceful death, Kareena pulled the hood of her robe over her face, then stood up and started cleaning the knife.

  As she finished, a waldo loomed out of the smoke. She jumped and nearly screamed out loud. The waldo bent at the knees and started tracing a message in the dirt with the tip of a twisted, blood-spattered club.

  KAREENA. GIVE NEW POWER CELLS TO THIS WALDO. I MUST GO AFTER DOIMARI WALDOES. TRUST SIDAS. THANKS FOR MERCY TO REHNA. BLADE.

  Then the waldo sat down, and the hatch on its back which covered the power cells sprang open. Kareena stared for a moment, then turned and promptly collided with her father.

  «Look where you're going, Kareena.»

  «I'm sorry, Father. I–I'm not as calm as I ought to be.»

  Peython looked around at the valley of death now appearing out of the thinning smoke. «No. None of us can be.»

  While the Kaldakans repaired his chosen waldo, Blade climbed out of the control chair and relaxed as much as he could. The last stage of the battle would be as demanding as running a marathon, and it would be almost entirely his job.

  The Seekers' panicking and withdrawing the waldoes had cost Doimar the battle and probably opened an irreparable breach between the infantry and the Seekers. It would also save the waldoes to fight another day if no one chased and destroyed as many of them as possible. That was a job for a single waldo with plenty of power, controlled by the best waldo operator in Kaldak, which meant Blade. He'd smashed the Doimari infantry by using the massed waldoes like a battering ram. Now he was going to finish the day by using a single waldo like a rapier.

  Blade drank some water and listened to the conversation among the technicians. He heard someone mutter, «Why did Kareena give that Seeker bitch a good death?» He was about to turn on the man himself when he heard Bairam's reply.

  «Because she deserved one,» he said coldly. «She fought and died as a brave warrior, though she fought with Oltec as her weapons. Do not say anything against her in my hearing, or Kareena's.»

  «Yes, Bairam.»

  Blade grinned, Bairam was still an odd mixture of man and boy, and it was almost impossible to tell from one hour to the next which one ruled him. If Peython lived long enough, though, Blade knew a man would succeed him as chief of Kaldak. Geyrna would help, too, although it would be a while before she had much thought for anything except her grief over her father's death. There was another man who'd died like a warrior even though he was not one, and indeed had even less duty on the battlefield than Rehna.

  Then it was time for Blade to man the control chair again. The technician and Bairam strapped him in, then turned to Sidas while Blade tested his waldo. If anything went wrong with Blade's chair, Sidas would take over with his until Blade could make a quick shift.

  Everything in the waldo worked, including the laser. Blade discarded the old, battered club and picked up a new one. Then he took a deep breath and put
the waldo into movement, on the trail of the last of Doimar's army.

  When the Fighting Machines marched away, the foot soldiers of Doimar-Nungor's pride-fled in panic like munfans from great-hawks. For an hour or more Nungor tried to rally them, appealing to their courage, their honor, even their hatred of the Seekers. They were deaf to anything except their fear of Blade's raging Fighting Machines, and after a while they started cursing their War Captain. A little while longer, and some of them were firing shots at him. Nungor gave up trying to rally his army and started thinking of saving Feragga. He told himself that he wanted to save her because with her alive the war could still be won even after the lost battle. He knew some might doubt this, but he did not really care what they thought if he could only get Feragga away from this butchery.

  Now he and Feragga were trotting over the hills a good two hours' march east of the battlefield. The air around them was clean, and only a few human stragglers were visible. A dozen or so Fighting Machines were also in sight, some walking steadily, others lurching or sometimes falling down. Some of the Seekers were skilled enough to keep their Fighting Machines moving even after the Voice Machine was dead. But what use was that sort of skill, if they had no courage, no loyalty to their comrades? Apparently the Seekers never asked themselves that question. Well, they would pay for that and everything else they'd done wrong today, even if Feragga cast him out of his office and her bed for it!

  Then far off to the west Nungor heard the ugly sound of a heavy fire-beam in action. It came a second time, then the prolonged hissing of a Fighting Machine exploding. Feragga looked at him.

  «Are those damned Seekers fighting among themselves now?» she asked, in a voice which hinted she was for once ready to believe almost anything about the Seekers.

  «Probably a machine breaking down,» said Nungor. «Or maybe some Kaldakans are catching up with-«He stopped as they both saw the same thing in the same moment. A Fighting Machine of Kaldak, striding over the hills like a giant walking among dwarfs. In one hand it swung a metal club like a boy walking through a field and knocking the heads off thistles with a stick. Its head swiveled, the firebeam stabbed out of its chest, and the arm of one of Doimar's machines flew into the air. The crippled machine turned to face its enemy, and took the second fire-beam squarely in its chest. It fell over backward, and a third beam tore through its lightly protected crotch so that everything inside it vanished in blue flame and billowing smoke.