Asayaga froze. He saw Tasemu standing behind Fukizama. The sergeant was silent. He could hear the whispers of his men.
He turned and looked over at Hartraft who was standing in front of his men, blocking the enraged Kingdom soldier who was shouting obscenities at Fukizama.
'Your man there,' Dennis announced, pointing towards Fukizama. 'He stole Wilhelm's money-purse in the barracks. Wilhelm just now saw him slipping it into his pouch.'
Asayaga looked over at Fukizama and said nothing. It would be like him to do such a thing, most of his comrades did not trust him in any game of chance. He was crafty, and was part of the group gathered around Sugama.
He could see though that there was no chance of settling this, since Fukizama had already claimed his right to honour.
'It is a duel then,' Asayaga said, his voice cold. 'Your man struck mine first.' He then said the same in Tsurani.
'Damn all to hell,' Dennis snapped. 'The Dark Brothers are breathing down our necks.'
Asayaga turned to face Dennis. 'It is a duel,' he said, 'or we fight, here and now. Which shall it be, Captain?'
Gregory was between the two. His anger barely reined in, Dennis looked at Asayaga, then finally nodded his head in disgust. 'You god-cursed Tsurani. You and your damnable honour.'
Even as he spoke he stepped back.
Asayaga nodded to Fukizama. As he did so his own men stepped back, forming half a circle.
The two had their blades out, the Kingdom soldier a heavy bastard-sword, Fukizama a lighter one-handed weapon. Fukizama assumed the ritual stance, blade drawn back behind his left shoulder, both hands on the hilt.
The Kingdom soldier held his sword with two hands, then charged in, bringing the blade down in a flashing arc. It was over in seconds. Fukizama jumped deftly to one side, holding his footing on the icy ground. Before the Kingdom soldier could recover Fukizama was in on him and with a single blow brought his sword down in a slashing blow, nearly severing the man's head from his shoulders.
The soldier collapsed, dark blood spraying out. A cheer went up from the Tsurani.
Asayaga looked over at the other Kingdom soldiers. Blades were still out, angry mutters echoing. It had been closer to murder than a real fight. Asayaga looked back at his own men and it was all so clear. Fukizama had picked his opponent well, gauged him, looking for someone young, tired and obviously inexperienced and had then provoked him.
Fukizama turned to face the Kingdom troops, a taunt forming.
The Kingdom troops were ready to charge.
'Fukizama!'
The triumphant soldier turned.
'Drop your weapon!' Asayaga shouted.
Tsurani-bred discipline caused instant obedience before the man realized something dire was about to happen to him. 'Force Commander?'
'Tasemu.'
The Strike Leader came forward, tore the pouch from the waist of the motionless man and opened it. He reached inside and pulled out a leather purse and held it up.
'That's Wilhelm's,' one of the Kingdom troops whispered.
Asayaga nodded, took the purse and opened it. There were half a dozen coppers inside - trivial wealth on Midkemia, but a year's earnings on metal-starved Kelewan. He looked at Fukizama and said, 'You dishonour your family and clan. You know the penalty for thieves.'
The man's eyes widened as Tasemu motioned to two other Tsurani who seized the man. Another pulled a rope from a backpack, walked to a tree next to the trail, and threw the rope over a high branch, knocking loose the accumulated snow.
In an instant it was done. The shaking, wide-eyed soldier was lifted and carried by four men, and the noose was placed around his neck. Another half-dozen Tsurani hauled away and Fukizama seemed to spring into the air, as if fetched heavenward by a giant's hand. His neck snapped audibly when the Tsurani let the rope drop a couple of feet then pulled it taut again and even battle-hardened Kingdom soldiers flinched at the sound. He hung twitching for a minute while the rope was tied off.
Asayaga threw the paltry coins on the ground.
'Anyone else?' Asayaga barked, glaring at his men.
No one spoke.
'I will tolerate neither a thief nor a disobedient man. Fukizama was both. Now form ranks.'
He looked back at Dennis. The men behind him stood silent, not sure how to react, startled by the swiftness of Asayaga's kill. He could see the wary looks in their eyes and the shock his actions had created.
'My man was wrong. He has paid with his life and I apologize. But Hartraft, tell your men not to come near mine again,' he snarled.
Dennis said nothing, looking down at the body sprawled on the slush-covered ground, then up at the twisting Tsurani. 'Your man stilled two of our swords,' Dennis finally hissed at last.
Asayaga said, 'At least your hothead died a warrior's death, by the blade. Fukizama died a dishonourable death and this is the last time any man of the Kodeko will say that name. His ancestors turn their eyes away from him.'
Dennis continued to look at the corpse in amazement, then at last he said, 'We waste time.'
Gregory stepped between the two leaders and overturned a large jar of stew on the road. 'You're both wasting time.' Tinuva was already dragging away the Kingdom soldier and would cut down the Tsurani. He would leave no signs for the Dark Brothers to know what had occurred here.
Dennis walked away, heading to the front of the men.
The twin columns started to move, Asayaga sprinting to the front of his own line.
They marched for a mile, then came to a small clearing, then halted.
Less than ten minutes later, Gregory came up the trail. He moved past the waiting men and pointed to a barely noticeable side trail leading off to the northwest. 'We must go that way,' he said. He then took a small jar out of his backpack and started splashing a steaming fluid around the clearing.
Dennis threw him a questioning look, and the Natalese Ranger said, 'The men are carrying enough hot food to start a small festival. The moredhel will be able to smell it a mile away. This will make it tough for them to determine which path we've taken.' He motioned for the four Tsurani who had come up the trail with him, behind the main body of men, and indicated they should rejoin their comrades.
'I'll wait here for Tinuva,' he said. 'He should be along shortly and we'll do what we can to mask your tracks.'
Asayaga and Dennis exchanged glances, then without comment both motioned for their men to move up the indicated trail.
The wind was at their backs, the frozen ground beneath their feet crunching. He looked up. The trees lining the tops of the ridges to either flank were swaying, cracking under their icy loads. The snow had ceased, the clouds were blowing away, and the stars were coming out. Moonlight illuminated the mountains and the trail ahead.
They headed north, fleeing into unknown lands.
SIX - Pursuit
Fog cloaked the pass.
Bovai dismounted, handing the reins of his horse to a human.
Like most of his race he had little affection for horses and let the human renegades who brought them north care for them.
The moredhel scouts who had just rushed the stockade parted at his approach. Their uneasy manner and slight shifting of weight from one foot to the other - signs impossible for the human renegades who rode with Bovai to notice - signalled to the moredhel leader that something was dreadfully wrong even before he reached the gates of the fortification. He stopped inside the open gates.
His dark gaze swept the compound, taking in every detail: the bodies of his warriors lying where they had fallen, the stains of blood in the slush, the wisp of smoke still coiling from the chimney of the barracks hall and the fact that the place was empty. The enemy had fled.
The Lesser Chieftain of Clan Raven raised his head and sniffed the air. Nothing: just the scent of the raw wind, smoke, dead bodies, but nothing living, other than his own followers.
He walked to the open gate through which he had just ridden and knelt to examine the neck wounds of
two headless corpses sprawled on the ground.
Clean blows, single strikes, the spray of frozen blood indicating that the killer had decapitated one, swirled around, blood flecking off his blade and then taken the second with a back-handed blow.
Masterful.
The fact that one of the dead was a nephew bothered him not at all. If the youth was so foolish as to be taken in such a manner then he was better off dead; besides, his father was a fool.
He absently nudged the body with the toe of his boot, it was unyielding, beginning to freeze into the icy slush, dead most likely since the evening before.
The troop of wood goblins coming up the road behind him approached the open gate. They slowed to a stop, grounding their spear staffs and battle clubs, heads lowered, eyes averted in fear.
Their primitive minds knew that the moredhel did not take kindly to others seeing the bodies of their fallen.
He ignored them. In the shadowy mist he saw one of his riders coming back from his scouting ride to the far side of the pass, horse breathing heavily, plumes of steamy mist blowing from its nostrils. It was Tancred, his Master of the Hunt and he did not look pleased.
Dismounting, he approached, eyes as cold as the morning frost.
'They have joined together.' Tancred pointed out the bodies of both Kingdom soldiers and Tsurani warriors.
Bovai nodded. 'That is obvious,' he replied, speaking slowly, his voice barely a whisper, as was his fashion. He inclined his head slightly toward the carnage: thirty-two brothers dead, and only eleven bodies of the humans and the alien Tsurani left behind.
Golun, his second-in-command and leader of the scouts, was silent, arms folded, eyes darting back and forth, watching the exchange between the two. Bovai gave him a quick look, a warning. Golun nodded almost imperceptibly and turned away to continue his examination of the tracks in the slush.
'That they joined and attacked this post is most interesting,' Bovai continued. There was a flicker of a smile on his face. 'Their dread of us overcomes their own petty hatred of one another at the moment.'
'Hartraft is the human leader,' Tancred announced.
He could see several of his followers, standing at a respectful distance, look towards him now with interest. Golun, down on his knees running a fingertip along the edge of a footprint in the ice barely looked up, his intent stare indicating agreement.
'Are you certain?' Bovai asked, attention focused on Tancred.
'I thought I recognized him back at the fort, on the trail when we pursued them.'
'Thought, or know for certain?'
'I am certain, my chieftain. I know his track, his ways on the trail. I followed for nearly five miles.' Tancred nodded back to the crest of the mountain, the road disappearing into the swirling mists.
'They moved on opposite sides of the path, the Tsurani to one side, the Kingdom men to the other. Traps were laid, cunning was shown.'
'Where is Kavala?' Bovai asked, his tone casual. 'He went with you?'
Tancred hesitated.
'Go on.'
'You'll see his body when we renew the pursuit. It was an eledhel arrow that slew him.'
Bovai could sense the injured pride. So even his Master of the Hunt had been surprised and bested. Was there fear in his heart now as well?
He gazed intently at Tancred, probing his thoughts. A hunt leader could not show fear, or let it linger in his stomach, for others would sense it soon enough, taste that fear and become possessed by it. They would hesitate when an order was given, and uncertainty would claim their life as readily as the blade of the enemy.
Golun was behind him, eyes fixed on Tancred, waiting for a response.
'You want revenge, don't you? Your pride is injured because they surprised you and that one was killed.' He avoided using the name of the fallen moredhel.
Tancred nodded.
'Two tracks turned off from the trail and I dismounted to examine them. One was eledhel, the other heavy, I think the track of the dark-skinned companion of Hartraft, a Natalese Ranger. I should have sensed them; how I did not is difficult to understand.'
'And then your companion was killed.'
'If the one aiming at me had shot but a second earlier I would not be here. I swung my mount around. Using it as a shield I was able to escape.'
'So they did surprise you?'
Tancred reluctantly grunted an assertion. 'The mist was heavy and the wind blowing through the trees made it impossible to hear other sounds.'
'I see. And what else did you observe?'
Tancred looked straight ahead, not daring to look into Bovai's eyes. 'I counted the tracks of sixty Kingdom soldiers, perhaps seventy of the aliens. Three, perhaps four wounded being carried, or helped.'
'Curious. Perhaps a soft hearted priest intervened.' Bovai laughed softly.
More of his band came in through the gate: moredhel, these, on foot, bows at the ready. The sight of the carnage within the stockade wall stunned them and several broke ranks to go to the body of a fallen, one drawing a blade, baring his arm to make the ritual cuts of mourning for the death of a father, sprinkling the blood on the eviscerated corpse.
A commander of twenty shouted an order for the bodies to be moved and a prayer-chanter began to sing, his eerie voice high-pitched as he sang to the spirits of the fallen, bidding them to go to the eternal land in the sky.
'You realize,' Bovai whispered, drawing closer to Tancred, 'that this should have been anticipated. Yet you assured me that those we left behind were sufficient in number to hold ten times their number. I left thirty-two of our brothers here to guard this pass while we raided and now they are dead. Kin of many who follow me are dead. This sours all that we have accomplished this last fortnight. The rejoicing over our kills is ended, and our victories will not be sung; instead, this is what will be remembered.'
'It is unheard of that forces of the Kingdom should ally with Tsurani,' Tancred replied hurriedly. He gazed warily at Bovai. 'You said that we would be able to play against their mutual hatred,' he retorted at last, 'to use it to our advantage.' His tone was accusatory.
Bovai could see his followers looking away, nervous. Tancred was speaking within his rights as a brother. He could not challenge him on that and besides, what he said was truth, which at this moment was dangerous. A seed of doubt was being planted and Bovai had to crush it before it grew.
'Things change. That is part of the reason we came here: to observe, to learn -' he paused '- and to kill them. You should have thought of it as well,' Bovai continued, dropping his voice to a faint whisper. 'You are the Master of the Hunt. What has happened here is a fiasco. What of those back there, what will they now say of seeing so many of our brothers dead? Soon, our Master will call the councils into meeting - less than a year from now if all goes as planned - and if we are to forge a grand alliance, we must not be weak, or we bring discredit to him.'
He paused as he considered the grand plan being forged up at the ancient city of Sar-Sargoth. While the moredhel chieftain knew two or three years more would pass before the plan took form, he felt a sense of urgency. Any mistake laid at his feet could prove disastrous.
He looked at Tancred.
'Clans that have not seen one another in centuries gather soon on the Plane of Sar-Sargoth - word has reached us Liallan and her Snow Leopards will attend, and that she and her husband Delekhan would bear the sight of one another without a fight between them is significant.'
For a brief instant, Bovai remembered the almost-painful marriage ceremony when blood enemies wed to seal a truce neither side wished for. Delekhan and Liallan would happily cut the hearts out of one another, yet they were husband and wife. Then for an even briefer instant, Bovai admitted he'd prefer it to be Liallan who won that contest, as that would remove a rival Lesser Chieftain from Clan Counsel, and put himself that much closer to Murad, Grand Chieftain of the Clan. Murad himself was unassailable, now that he was Chosen of the Master, but should he fall . . .
Bovai forced hi
s thoughts back to the present as he confronted Tancred. 'I hear that even Gorath will bring his Ardanien down from the icy mountains in the far north to see if these rumours about the Master's return are true.'
The Master had first revealed himself to a shaman during a ritual of vision one night when the man was alone upon a mountain top, appearing out of the gloom and stepping into the fire. He had borne the sacred mark and knew the secret ceremonies, and had fasted and chanted with the shaman for three days and nights. The shaman had reported the Master had said, 'I will return, soon,' then had vanished in smoke and flame. Word had spread like a prairie fire that the shaman had had a prophetic vision, hailing the return of the moredhel's greatest hero.
A month later the Master came to Murad, and in a dark and bloody ceremony had bound him to his service. As a pledge, Murad had cut out his own tongue, so that he would never forswear his oath to the Master. The Master had appeared before the Clan Raven Council of Chieftains with Murad at his side, and took the paramount seat, with Murad at his right hand, and a strange, robed creature with scaled hands and burning eyes at his left.
Now word was spreading that there was to be a huge gathering of clans the next Midsummer's Day, and the matter of a grand alliance to drive the humans out of the Kingdom was to be discussed under the holiest of truces.
Bovai kept his voice low. 'No, this shall be a gathering not seen in many lifetimes and if we fail here, Murad will not permit either of us to sit at the first circle of chieftains around the council fires; when the war against the humans comes, we shall be relegated to guarding baggage trains and herding goblins.'
He nodded back through the open gate to the column of wood goblins. They were obviously afraid, uneasy. What had been promised as an easy raid with plentiful booty had been marred. They were simple creatures, and their thoughts were filled with barely-suppressed terror. If they had been back in their homelands the column would be melting away, deserters running off to hide and spread word of this humiliation.
Bovai added, 'Assuming he lets us live. If we do not stop this fear growing within us, no honours will come to our families, no glory for our band, no sharing of spoils. We shall be forced to remain content to glean what we can from the debris left behind by those in the van, those selected to stand with the Master and Murad.'
Legends 1 - Honoured Enemy Page 12