The Tirnano - Book 1 'FINN'

by Peter Emmerson

  As they reached the Runners the young girl suddenly gave a moan and then a long keening wail. Xjang leapt at her and clasped his hand over her mouth, chopping off the sound.

  ‘What’s the matter with her?’ clicked Weesia as she ran to the struggling pair.

  Xjang released his grip on the girl’s mouth and she sobbed as she signed the words, ‘They have found him, they found him, my brother is dead, they have killed him,’ she collapsed in a heap and with her eyes staring, began shaking and throwing herself about moaning and wailing.

  Weesia and Xjang both leapt on the girl to control her fit and to quieten the noise she was making. In a moment she had stopped struggling and lay still, eyes tightly shut and her limbs stiff, the only sign of life was the erratic raising and lowering of her thin bony chest as she quietly sucked in and exhaled each juddering breath.

  41.

  Mira and the Tirnano.

  Tirnano Country

  Weesia became aware of her almost as soon as she materialised, she looked up at the young human woman who stood not three paces from her, she was tall, with dark almost shoulder length hair, she was dressed simply in trousers and jacket with calf length boots, she carried no weapon that could been seen.

  ‘Who are you?’ she demanded, raising her new knife and pointing its sharp tip.

  ‘My name is Mira; I have come in answer to the girl’s cry for help.” She spoke in the human manner but was instantly understood. She looked at the girl for a long moment her eyes seemed misty in the bright moonlight.

  “I grieve with you for your brother, little one,” she said to the girl.

  “She will be fine now, I must speak with Pavel, this foolishness must end now,” her tone, one of obvious command, startled Weesia. She knew refusal would get her nowhere and turned, beckoning to Mira.

  ‘Follow me, - how do you know his name?’ she clicked suddenly after a pause, as she realised what Mira had said. They moved through the grass to where the patrol commander stood planning their next move with his twoicee.

  Tonna appeared with her bow raised and an arrow notched, for she had vibed the stranger’s presence as she had moved silently through the grass with Weesia.

  Suddenly both Bodan and Tonna put their hands to their ears, and fell to the ground almost together. Instantly they jumped up, looked at each other for a moment and turned to Pavel, ‘she’s a friend Boss; she won’t do us no harm unless we start it.’ Bodan clicked.

  ‘We got a fight on our hands already if you aint forgot,’ clicked Pavel, perturbed at his sergeant and corporal’s actions, turning to the young woman he signed brusquely, ‘So, what do you want, and why are you here?’

  “Time enough for questions later,” said Mira, and turning, walked briskly out from behind their covering rock directly towards the oasis. Pavel made to stop her but Tonna stretched out an arm and caught him by the shoulder.

  ‘Let her go Boss,’ she clicked with an authority that surprised him; he froze and looked at her in askance. ‘She’ll be alright, don’t worry.’

  They watched as the young woman strode purposely up to the ring of rocks, suddenly six human soldiers in full armour rushed at her brandishing their long knives. Expecting her to be there to parley, their intent had been to capture Mira and to extract as much information about the attacking force as they could.

  As they came to within a matter of paces from her, they all grasped their heads, fell to the ground and lay still. Five of their long knives flew across the divide and stuck in the ground at a very perplexed Pavel’s feet. Mira had retained one for herself; she spent a moment or two turning it over and over in her hands obviously inspecting it closely.

  She seemed oblivious of her whereabouts. The Chin were taking no further chances and a hail of arrows zinged from the rocks towards her, Pavel’s jaw fell even further when none of them seemed to even come near their intended target. A second flight quickly followed the first and miraculously these too missed by a long margin. The dark haired woman was no more than twenty paces from the Chin position, and should have resembled a very dead pincushion, for she was surely an easy target even in the flickering moonlight.

  Suddenly she raised her hands above her head and disappeared.

  Pavel ran forward to where the girl had been standing, his patrol, astounded at their leader’s impetuous action, rushed after him. Bodan and Tonna looked at each other again for a moment and walked after the others.

  The others quickly caught up with their leader, and were preparing themselves for an attack, expecting any moment to be enveloped by a buzzing swarm of arrows.

  They waited in the lea of the rocks, close to the entrance to the oasis ready for Pavel’s command, whatever it was they would instantly comply.

  Bodan and Tonna walked calmly past them straight into the oasis, ‘C’mon’ clicked Bodan.

  The patrol as one stormed through the gap, following them.

  Of the strange young woman there was no sign, they met no resistance, it seemed as though the oasis was deserted, and it was.

  The patrol walked through the empty area where the Chin had set up their defences, not a word was spoken, they were totally dumbstruck.

  Pavel found his senses first, ‘What the heck is going on?’ he clicked. ‘Fan out, secure the area, and report back ASAP.’ The patrol fanned out, long knives held in front of them in expectation of a sudden attack.

  ‘No need to worry Boss, they all gone.’

  Pavel swung towards Bodan. ‘Explain yourself sergeant,’ he demanded, his nerves and temper shot to pieces.

  Before Bodan could respond, the remainder of the patrol began to return.

  ‘Ain’t no one here no more Boss,’ clicked Ames, the first to return.

  ‘I don’t understand’ began Pavel.

  ‘They were taken away by Mira, Boss, I’ll explain it all to you soon, but there’s a coupla things I need to get sorted in my head.’

  They searched the oasis for signs of life but there were none, the attackers and the young woman had vanished, however everything that they had with them had seemed to have been abandoned. Armour, bows, arrows and spears tipped with the same substance as the knives, and piles of other equipment such as packs with spare clothing. There were sets of thick, leather jackets which looked as though they could easily resist an arrow, there were helmets made from the same material, boots and other items were strewn all around the empty space.

  The patrol found a number of horses which were tethered in another round of stones; they were unlike their proud plain’s Runners but looked capable of courage and endurance.

  They were half as tall as the Runners, but were almost as broad across the withers; they stood and watched the troopers with gentle but knowing eyes.

  In another enclosed space they came across the bodies of what remained of Albie’s patrol, they had been butchered and hacked in a manner that sickened even the hardest amongst them. There were a number of gagging noises and contents of not a few stomachs ended up being deposited amongst the rocks.

  Those who threw up in the surrounding rocks found the bodies of the young plains children hacked to pieces with no regard for age or sex. The hatred they felt for the Chin was never greater than at that moment.

  ‘We’ll bury them in the morning!’ clicked Pavel his face and eyes as hard as stone.

  ‘It’s morning now Boss,’ Bodan remarked, and almost on cue the snow began to fall.

  ‘Back to the main circle, we make camp, we need a rest then it’s back to the caves as fast as we can, we’ll take those horses with.’

  ‘Boss!’ clicked Mikhai, running up, ‘I found eight of Albie’s troops’ Runners. They seem OK, a bit anxious, four of them have been killed, and they are mourning the deaths of all their riders as well.’

  ‘OK, get them to come and join with ours, that should make them feel a bit better, take those horses and put them with the Runners too, see how they get on. Make sure they don’t get eaten though.’ He turned to Weesia;

&
nbsp; ‘Get a fire going ASAP girl, we need vitals’ like yesterday, get those little devils to help you, earn their keep!’ he pointed at Xjang and his fellows.

  To the rest he clicked; ‘We’re pulling out at last light, gives us the rest of today to get this place cleaned up, last thing we want is a load of Vamps coming down on us like a rock fall. Luie get a couple of the lads and make a start on digging a trench to put what’s left of those poor sods in. I suppose we better bury the enemy dead as well.’

  ‘OK, Boss, will do,’ responded his twoicee.

  It took almost all of the day to complete all the tasks necessary to set the oasis back to some semblance of normality, all the bodies, friend and foe alike were buried with the due dignity accorded to comrades fallen in battle.

  Pavel decided to use the Chin horses as pack animals to carry the equipment which had been left strewn around the oasis.

  The five Runners and the small herd of more than forty of the Chin horses’ were standing in a large enclosure with our own ‘plains Runners’, the Runners obviously had much information to impart to each other, for had immediately formed a loose circle with heads inwards, with much snorting, rumbling and stamping of feet they remained so for almost an hour.

  ‘Council of War,’ joked Mikhai, watching the Runners, for he had never seen the like.

  ‘Don’t josh lad, that’s just what it is,’ signed Anabee who had come up behind him unnoticed. Mikhai blushed to his toes at the close proximity of the object of his undying love. Anabee smiled and turning him to her pulled him close in a hug and kissed his cheek.

  ‘You done well today, I’ve been watching you.’

  Mikhai added another shade of red to his already bright complexion.

  ‘We’ll get together when we’re back at the cave,’ she signed with a cheeky smile, and spinning lightly on her toes walked away from the dumbstruck young trooper, shaking her ass with every step.

  It was later that evening when Bodan sought out Pavel and Tonna. After a moments’ talking in hushed voices they called a patrol meeting. The troopers sat around the fire, the young Plains children amongst them. The dried grasses crackled and smoked, but gave off a pleasant heat and smell.

  Bodan began; ‘Mira has just spoken to me, she took the Chin soldiers and dropped them in the middle of their part of the plains, well back inside their own lands. There were about twenty of them left in here. She says she will visit with us at the cave, when we have returned.’

  The questions came thick and fast at that point, ‘Who is she?’ from Tonna.

  ‘She is a companion of ‘The Watchers’- she is the Purple Queen's rider.’

  ‘I thought those old scribbling’s of ‘Mad John’s were just a load of old cods,’ clicked Weesia.

  ‘No, seems they’re true, every one of them, crazy as it sounds, maybe old Mad John wasn’t so mad after all,’ said Tonna, ‘Mira has the ability to speak mind to mind, she can also move herself from one place to another in an instant, using the power of her mind, and can carry items, such as the Chin warriors with her.’

  ‘How do you both know this?’ asked Ames.

  ‘Because she has told us,’ said Bodan, ‘she has spoken to Tonna and I using her mind.’

  Although some of the patrol was still sceptical, they had the proof of the young twins who spoke mind to mind, without whom they would surely have fallen to the same fate as the ElPee’s. Further proof had been Mira’s incredible ability to tolerate without injury an attack that would have had all of them dead, and the final disappearance of the young woman and the entire remnants of the Chin troop.

  They picked up as many of the spent arrows they could find, the Chin bows and arrows were made from a material of which they had no knowledge, the bows were much longer than their own horn crafted items, and had a range of easily twice as far with the arrows they retrieved. Within days they had achieved accuracy similar to that which they held with their own weapons, but at twice the distance.

  It took them six days to return to the foothills, six days of hard riding. Each evening they practiced with the new weapons, the sound of blade against blade ringing out across the plains. There were a number of small nicks and cuts acquired in the sparring bouts as they gained proficiency, along with a profound respect for the sharp new weapon.

  Geordie suggested that the long knives could be sharpened in the same way as their own bone knives were, by rubbing them with a stone, but all this did was to score the shiny surface with scratches and did nothing to improve the sparring induced dull edges.

  ‘It must have been a problem for them too,’ signed Jojo, ‘Any chance we can go through their bags Boss? See if they have anything that fits the bill.’

  ‘Go ahead, but make sure you pack them tight and well, we will be in the caves day after tomorrow, I don’t want no sloppiness, or a poor show, on our return.’

  Jojo and Geordie set to, carefully unpacking and then repacking the hide satchels, marvelling at some of the items within, trying to work out usage and function, however in each of the sacks they found a hand sized block of hard stone which was wrapped in a piece of soft skin. Unwrapping the skin, revealed marks and scratches, which were clearly made by the long knives.

  Bodan took one and turned it over in his hands a couple of times before squatting cross-legged on the ground with his knife across his knees, instinctively he spat on the stone, and began to run it along the blade, after a few passes he inspected the edge, thumbing it gently.

  ‘Yep, you got it JoJo, this is how they do it,’ he spat on the stone again to lubricate it and continued to sharpen his blade.

  The blocks were passed out amongst the troopers and a quiet hour was spent learning the skills of sharpening and honing the edges of the sharp knives, if anything they were now sharper and brighter than they had been before.

  Slashing at the grass to test the edges didn’t even require them to hold the top of the plant, as they would normally do with their bone knives, the blades cut cleanly through anything in their path.

  ‘Sure glad we didn’t have to face these in a fight,’ signed Mikhai.

  ‘Yeah, but Albie’s patrol did, and we might have to in the future,’ Jojo clicked, they all considered the sobering thought, the memory of the hacked and bloody bodies that they had buried only six days previously was still poignant and sharp in their memories.

  ‘I wonder how they make these knives,’ it was Tonna who posed the question.

  ‘Mira might know, its one of the questions I want to ask her, when or if we ever see her again,’ signed Pavel.

  ‘We will’ clicked Bodan with conviction.

  ‘We’ll see, I’m still not sure,’ signed Pavel, ‘anyway lets get some kip, early start tomorrow, we’ll soon be back in the foothills.’

  They all brightened, the foothills were their country, their domain. Each of them knew the valleys, the rivers and the meadows of thick, shoulder high grasses like the backs of their hands. They also knew that the threat from the Vamps would increase as they approached the mountains where the horrors had their lairs.

  Having to share the mountains with the Vamps was their abiding hate, they all prayed for the day when they could rid the skies of the filthy, evil beasts. The Vamps were obviously of the same mind about them for no love was lost between the two species and the Brosynans’ knew that there would never be peace between them. The hatred on both sides ran too deep.

  42.

  THE VAMP ATTACK

  Tirnano Country.

  Northern Plains.

  They had not been riding for long; the sun had burnt off the early morning mists, the snow melting from under their mount's feet. All was calm when Bodan’s hoot came, followed by his whistled warning as they spun round to see.

  ‘Vamps. Rear. High. Large numbers. Coming fast!’

  The patrol wheeled into their defensive positions, the spare mounts herded the pack horses swiftly into the middle of the loose circle, the young Plains children quickly dropped to ground with sp
ears and knives ready to defend themselves and the horses if necessary, spears were loosened and long knives were drawn from the hide scabbards that the Chin had abandoned. The spare Runners took up fighting positions alongside their mounted kin.

  The first wave of Vamps came straight out of the sun.

  Anabee had been on the left of the diamond shape, she waited, anticipating their swoop. With a single blow she decapitated the leading Vamp, taking its head clean off, then swinging her blade double handed in a return arc she sliced the following Vamp across its stomach spilling the contents of its abdomen across the ground and all around her, it fell screeching in pain. Ignoring it, she was in time to meet the third Vamp with the point of her long knife. It drove deep into the creature’s chest as it crashed into her, knocking her from her steed. Her Runner immediately spun around and stamped on the Vamp’s head, its skull cracked and it lay still.