Frank, Janrae - Wolves Of Nakesht
Page 3
completely, the east side a sloping fragment. Chimquar kicked the filly into a
canter, then a full gallop. Hazier sprang forward with her. Meadusea and Katalla
came a few strides behind. The sudden full flight triggered the actions of heir
pursuers. A high human wail wounded. The wolves answered and came leaping at the
heels of the racing horses. Chimquar drew her sword. The wolves avoided her
blows, concentrating on her horse.
Six beasts splintered from the pack, out-stripping the horses to gain the ground
ahead of them and turn, teeth bared, to halt the flight. Chimquar's filly
plunged into the middle of them. A wolf fixed its teeth in the filly's throat.
Chimquar leaned out to cut it away. The filly stumbled and fell, hamstrung.
Chimquar sprang free a moment before the beasts swarmed over the hapless horse,
landed wrong and stumbled, falling. She lost her grip on the sword and it lay a
yard off. She stretched her hand to reach it and a wolf landed on her. Chimquar
dug her right hand into the folds of skin around its throat, twisting hard. Her
left hand got the dagger from her boot top and with it opened the beast's belly.
It was a naked, gutted man with a golden collar she saw dead. Another wolf,
charged. Chimquar flung herself out of its path, her hand closing on her sword.
She rolled over, the steel blade flashing in the morning sun. The wolf dodged
neatly and came back. Chimquar gained her feet and impaled the lunging beast.
"Heads up!" Meadusea extended her empty sword hand to Chimquar. Chimquar took
the hand, springing up behind the warrior. Meadusea's gelding covered the last
yards swiftly, jumping a small pile of tumbled stone to enter the ruined
dwelling.
Chimquar leaped down, turning to face the wolves with steel. The cries of their
master rose and once more the wolves held back. Then Hazier and Katalla reached
the dubious fortress.
A line of horsemyn drew up twenty spear-lengths from the ruins. One man sat at
their head, his huge body muscled to grotesqueness. A bright, crimson scarf made
a headband holding his black mane from his face. He rode out a few yards and
shouted, "Chimquar!" Surrender and the others go free."
"Lies, Bakran!" I know you too well. "You've already promised them to the
Nakesht!"
A gaunt figure rose at Bakran's feet. His horse shied. Wolves gathered about
their master. Bakran's horse reared. Hecursed, struggling with it, then brought
it back to the Nakesht.
The master raised one hand and dropped it. The wolves surged forward and their
master ran among them, crying them on. The renegades followed.
Meadusea and Katalla took the empty expanse where the south wall had stood.
Chimquar dropped back along the east wall fragments. Some would come that way
and, on foot, she would have a better chance there. Hazier wavered in the
middle. Chimquar gestured sharply at the Sharanis. The youth went to their side
as the men struck.
The wolves circled the ruins with their master. Chimquar listened to the cries
of the battle, scant spear-lengths from her as she watched the wolves. Her
instincts were to aid her companions, yet she waited, knowing the Nakesht would
come. She had to hold the rear when they came. An image of Makajia on the tall
stallion, her neck pressed against his, his pale mane whipping around her narrow
face came into Chimquar's mind. Then the first wolf came over the wall. She
sprangbefore it, her sword impaling it in mid-leap. Another attacked as she
kicked her blade free. Her dagger grazed it ribs and it turned, coming again.
The day-old wound throbbed and hurt, slowing her dagger hand. Teeth closed on
that arm, tearing the wound further. Chimquar cried out in pain and anger,
bringing her sword blade down on the beast's back. Itwrithed, snapping in bloody
circles on the ground. Two more danced around her. Chimquar feinted at one, then
pivoted to meet the charge of its mate. The wolf dodged too slowly and died. It
was easy telling which wolves were truly dead, for even in their death throes
they had turned to men. It was like fighting in an illusion or a dream, slaying
beasts but felling men, but Chimquar had no moment to consider the eeriness of
the battle.
Teeth raked her calf. Chimquar twisted, landing a sword blow on the wolf's head.
She whirled back, kicking and striking with sword and dagger. The battle became
a blur; she ceased to think, reacting by reflex. She moved and fought in a sea
of teeth that threatened to overwhelm her. Some wolves got past her. Only the
death of their master could stop them.
The hollow, whistling laughter of the Nakesht Master drew Chimquar. She glimpsed
him half a spear-length beyond the wall watching. Anger and desperation became a
hot, screaming rage within her. All the long bottled and controlled energies
became a violent strength. She broke from the wolves, vaulting a low piece of
wall. "Aroana God! My God!"
The master's note changed. He retreated. His wolves drew together, swarming over
the warrior, clinging to her like ticks. Chimquar cut them away, the force of
her rage making her oblivious to her wounds. The Nakesht retreated again, waving
his arms and crying in his strange, whistling tongue. Bakran appeared, stepping
into Chimquar's path.
"You're a dead man, Chimquar!" He said coldly.
"Man?" Chimquar paused, laughing crazily. "I'm a woman!"
An incredulous expression entered Bakran's face. Chimquar rushed him, her blade
dancing swift and hard about him. He dodged, gave ground. Chimquar moved after
him, breathing raggedly, her strength faltering. Bakran's sword left a bloody
furrow across her ribs. She brought her longer weapon down, biting into his arm.
Bakran lost hand and weapon. Chimquar left her sword standing in his stomach.
She lurched toward the retreating Nakesht, her sword arm pressed against her
ribs. Her rage-born strength drained away as her pain overtook her. She
staggered, went to her knees, then fell on her face. Her left hand lost the
dagger as she fell.
The core of her awareness fought the darkness lapping at it. Clawed hands pulled
at her, turning her over. The mate to her lost dagger slipped from its arm
sheath into her hand. She thrust up into the face of the Nakesht Master. He fell
dead across her.
Chimquar heard horns blowing and many Sharani voices shouting. She tried to get
up, but her body would not answer her will, and she passed out.
A soft voice chanting her name and wet drops falling on her face touched
Chimquar's drifting awareness, disturbing the warm, fuzzy haze enveloping the
warrior. A sweet-sharp fragrance colored the air she inhaled, it cleared her
head as she took a deep lungful of it. Heaven Flower so far from the western
forests? She felt for Makajia. Her fingertips brushed the girl's tear-streaked
face. Chimquar opened her eyes. The outlines of the Euzadi girl's narrow,
creamed-coffee face slowly congealed.
"Chimquar!" Her chant broke off with a fresh, joyful sob. She buried her head
against her guardian's chest. Chimquar stroked her head and shoulder, awkwardly,
her limbs feeling stiff and weak. Chimquar murmured soft, meaningl
ess words to
Makajia, soothing, reassuring.
Light flowed in suddenly. Makajia straightened quickly. Chimquar levered herself
up on her arm. Makajia snatched several pillows, shoving them to her back.
The slender figure standing in the tent's entrance lowered her lamp and limped
in. She placed the lamp on a small tablebeside the dim candles, the moved to
Chimquar and knelt.
Chimquar looked into the unchanged face of her youngest and only surviving
sister, Anaria. After so many years among the lesser races, the imperceptibly
slow aging of her long-lived race startled her.
Anaria raised a flask to her sister's lips and Chimquar drank. It filled her
body with warmth, eased it, clearing the last cobwebs from her mind. Pollonae.
"Anariaâ"
"Shhh, Tomyris. Just listen to me." Her voice was soft, yet stern. "You and your
children are coming home. I am not surprised to find you are Chimquar. I've
suspected it since talking to Aejystrys Rowan several years ago in Vallimrah."
Anaria waved aside Chimquar's attempt to speak. "Not all like that fact. But if
you are not ha'taren enough to face them, you will be of no use to the High
Priest Sonden who sent us after you. Shaurone is growing, changing. Great deeds
are in the offing." Her sternness dissolved into a child-like lostness. "Do I
have to beg you again? Or will you listen this time?"
Chimquar remembered a very young girl crying, pleading, and cursing her on a
moonlit wold. She could not repeat that night's decision. "I want to go home,"
she said, and then smiled.
THE END