Beneath them, men scurried into the houses and dragged out tables, benches, sleeping pallets, and anything else which could be used to barricade the front gate. On either side of the alley which allowed access into the village, Immanu oversaw the installation of clay pots on the edge of the roof, magic which was the secret knowledge of the gods.
"What hope do we have against lizard demons in sky canoes?" Yadiditum asked, her features wide and fearful.
Pareesa's eyes slid down to the bulge around the voluptuous beauty's midsection. Married only a few weeks after Ninsianna, the young woman showed she carried Tirdard's child.
"You shouldn't be here," Pareesa said softly. "Go back to your house and make sure you keep your baby safe."
"If we lose this battle," Yadiditum said, "there will be no safe place for me to raise my baby. We shall all end up wandering the desert like the Halifians." The young woman seized her hand. "Tirdard must fight those monsters hand-to-hand. The least I can do is provide cover fire so my husband comes home to see the birth of his son!"
Orkedeh touched her shoulder, one of the older archers in their midst.
"Let's sort these arrows by size." Orkedeh pointed to the piles which had been pre-positioned here for general defensive emergencies. "Set the best-fletched ones aside for direct shots and the worst ones for cover fire. And then pick the ones you think will work best for you."
They set aside the arrows with bent sticks, which were poorly weighted, had chipped arrowheads which had been used one too many times, were poorly fletched, or been pieced together by an apprentice who had little idea what they were doing.
"These are all warped," Homa complained.
"Mine are fine," Gisou said.
"That's because you're such a lousy shot," Homa ribbed her friend.
"Focus!" Alalah snapped. Pareesa might be the best shot, but Alalah was the brutal taskmaster who kept them all in line.
They finished sorting the arrows, and then each began to test their length by placing the fletching between their breasts and extending their arms to see which arrows were long enough to reach their fingertips. Lengthy arrows were passed along to archers with longer arms. Short arrows were set aside for the smallest member of the group … her.
"There!" Yadiditum pointed towards the low rise which rose a few leagues south-east. "I see movement over there."
The late winter sun rose south-east, where the river bowed outwards and left the enemy with plenty of cover. Pareesa pulled out the brand-new bow Mikhail had commissioned especially for her, one made not of a single, sturdy branch, but thin slivers of wood stuck together with a glue made of boiled swim bladders from fish and reinforced at the ends with horn. There had been no time to build a second one.
Was this the real reason why Chief Kiyan wanted her assigned to defend the south gate? She prayed she didn't betray his confidence in her abilities.
"Stay low," Pareesa said. "The mud-bricks at the edge of the roof are an inadequate shield against a firestick. Remain invisible, and we shall have a brief window of opportunity in which we shall have the advantage."
"They said Jamin shot down the walls of Nineveh from nearly half a league away," Alalah said.
"And that the wall just crumbled," Kiana said.
"And their best archer was maimed when she fell," Yadiditum said.
"Their weapons can make a direct shot from a breathtaking distance," Pareesa said, "but unlike an arrow or spear, they can only shoot at us in a straight line. We shall have a small window of opportunity to inflict damage while we shall have the advantage, and then we must retreat and fall back to the second ring of rooftops."
Immanu shouted up that they were ready. Alalah and Orkedeh took Homa and Kiana as they gathered their arrows and scurried down the cedar pole to go up the other side. Gisou and Yadiditum stayed with Pareesa. They dragged up the cedar pole so it could not be used to creep up behind them. On the other side of the alley, Alalah and her small team did the same. When they escaped, they would need to do so laterally.
"Why didn't they send more archers here?" Gisou asked.
Pareesa glanced behind her to the second ring of houses. She couldn't see him, but somewhere back there the second best shot in the village, old Behnam, sat with a firepot and a pile of arrows streaked with bitumen tar.
"We're just a distraction," Pareesa said. "The Chief knows we can't hold this position for long. The more of us that are up here, the more likely it is we'll be killed when we fall back."
"Look!" Yadiditum said. "The sunrise!"
Foul golden rays reached above the horizon like spears, casting forward a brilliant light which would blind even the sharpest eyes and force them to squint. Pareesa covered her eyebrows with the flat of her hand and wondered if that, perhaps, was the original meaning behind Mikhail's perfect Alliance salute? Pink shadows reflected off the sky. Never had a sunrise looked so vulgar.
"Listen," Gisou said. "Do you hear that? It sounds like they're chanting battle songs."
"Mikhail calls this shock and awe," Pareesa said. "First they send the sky canoes to soften up the enemy, and then they send in their skullcrackers to frighten us and make us fearful enough to surrender."
"Why don't we surrender?" Gisou asked.
Pareesa gave her a disgusted look.
"Hey, I was just asking," Gisou said.
"When they get close enough to see," Pareesa said, "I will creep to the edge and take a direct shot at their commanding officer."
"How will you know which demon is the commander?" Yadiditum asked.
"Mikhail made me memorize the insignia," Pareesa said.
The earth moved on the horizon as though it was a dark shadow. Pareesa squinted, unable to differentiate one dark shadow from the other. They moved in that peculiar motion of one group running forward, and then a second group came up from behind them. Pareesa couldn't help but be impressed at how smoothly the dark, formless shadows leapfrogged one another to move closer, their firesticks aimed at the rooftops. Why couldn't their men move that smoothly? It was a pity she and the other women were the only people to see the lizard demons move.
The enemy dipped down into the small brook they'd used to hide and ambush the mercenaries. Pareesa tightened her bracer and slipped her finger-grip onto her index and middle finger.
"Wait," Pareesa urged her squad mates.
She aimed her bow at the sharp angle which would give her arrow the most height and make it more likely that the lizard demons wouldn't see it coming at them, though they had the advantage due to the direction of the sun. The other archers did the same. She pulled the sinew back to her cheek and waited, her arm shuddering with the tension.
"Let 'em fly!" Pareesa hissed.
She let loose her arrow.
So did the other women.
The arrows whistled through the air.
Several animalistic cries came out from the invading lizard demons. Bolts of lightning slammed into the wall, spraying the women with debris. Gisou shrieked that something had gotten into her eye.
"Shoot at will!"
Gisou recovered and strung her bow along with the others. The indeterminate mound of shadow-lizards paused in a defensive line which was one of the formations which Mikhail had taught to them. The archers let fly another volley. The lizard demons shot lightning back at them, but they seemed to do so one carefully calculated shot at a time, not in the disorganized way they'd hoped they'd do when they first encountered people wielding weapons they considered to be inferior. Had Mikhail miscalculated their tactics? Or perhaps this was a good sign? That the enemy was being careful and therefore they must be low on magic to make the lightning work?
A barrage which disintegrated a chunk of the outer wall answered her question for her. No. They'd simply taken a moment to assess where, exactly, the cover fire was coming from. It was a good thing they hadn't been at the edge of the roof, but had practiced for many weeks now how to fire an arrow to exactly where the lizard demons now crouched.
&nb
sp; "I'm running low on the bad arrows," Gisou complained. "Pretty soon I'll need to start shooting the good ones."
“These things barely shoot straight,” Yadiditum said. She took a stick with crumpled fletching hastily shoved it onto her sinew and shot it upwards into a reasonably decent cover-fire arc.
“They’re not supposed to shoot straight,” Gisou said, ducking down as just lightning erupted on the other side of the rooftop crenellation they were hiding behind. "Just rain down like death."
“Keep your head down!" Pareesa hissed.
“We’re fighting gods who fly through the sky and command lightning. With sticks!” Yadiditum shot another stick at the oncoming enemy and ducked as pieces of gravel from the wall spattered over them. “What kind of chance is that?”
“And a winged creature of legend has come into our midst,” Pareesa said. "And taught us how to fight back against the enemy." She reached back into the pile of ‘expendable’ ammunition to fire another less-than-optimal shot.
“Where is he, by the way?” Gisou let fly another arrow.
“He took out two of the sky boats with a bolt of that lightning stick he said he’s been saving for a rainy day,” Pareesa said. “It finally started raining hard enough for him to use it, I guess.”
Several bolts of lightning erupted from the enemy weapons and blasted dust out of the remainder of the wall. The women squealed as they felt the roof destabilize. The enemy had gotten close enough that it was time to risk taking direct shots.
Pareesa grabbed one of the good arrows. She popped her head up to take a real shot at the enemy, and then dropped back down behind the safety of the wall as soon as she’d let the arrow fly. The wall exploded in a shower of rubble only a half-heartbeat after she got to safety. She lay there, panting, her heart racing at her close call. The enemy had reached the point that the Chief had ordered them to fall back.
She glanced over at the rooftop across the alley. Alalah led the others to scurry down to the place they were supposed to get down.
"Did you kill their leader yet?" Yadiditum asked.
"No," Pareesa said. "The sunrise is making it hard to see.""
"I think maybe that's their point," Yadiditum said.
"We're supposed to retreat now," Gisou said.
“Wait until they get a little closer,” Pareesa said. “Maybe we can risk taking some more direct shots."
"Their numbers are not as large as I'd feared," Yadiditum said. "I count perhaps only threescore men. Why so few?"
"It’s the firesticks which we can’t beat," Pareesa said. "Hold your fire until they get a little closer. Let them think we've already retreated."
“If they get any closer,” Yadiditum said, “they’re going to sit down and have breakfast with us. And why the hell do they have so many of those big ugly pigs?!!!”
“The Catoblepas?” Pareesa said. “Mikhail says they’re mean as hell.”
The enemy was so close she could hear them fart and breathe. It was time to retreat. She glanced back and saw that Alalah and her group had already taken up their position on the second row of rooftops.
“This wall has had about as much as it’s going to take,” Pareesa said. “Grab your arrows and move down to the other corner. I'll be with you in a few seconds.”
"What about you?" Gisou asked.
Pareesa dared a quick peek over the wall at the moving mass of men who had finally gotten close enough that the rising sun no longer cast them into shadow.
"Chief Kiyan gave me one shot to take," Pareesa said. "And I'm going to take it. Or die trying."
They all locked bowstring-fingers, and then her two friends scurried off the roof to safety, leaving her to take her final shot alone.
~ * ~ * ~
Chapter 94
February: 3,389 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
Jamin
Jamin avoided the henchman named Eligor's gaze. Did he know? Did he know that Lucifer was now his lover? And if he did, did he judge him for it as his own people would? A man who lay down with other men? A kadesh?
Those cool, blue eyes studied his reflection off the front windshield of the sky canoe like an owl staring into the darkness, unblinking, perceptive, pretending not to notice things, and yet Jamin could tell that Eligor saw too much. The man's unreadable expression, his unearthly blue eyes, reminded him of Mikhail. The opinion of the dirty-winged Angelic named Zepar did not bother him, for he suspected he was every bit as depraved as Lucifer was. But Eligor? This man, like him, was not completely under Lucifer's control. And yet for some reason, Eligor served him anyways.
Jamin hid his shame the way he'd hidden all inadequacies in his life. He sat up taller and spoke of subjects that men would speak to other men. Real men who liked to hunt and fish and fight and whore. Not a kadesh…
"Sergeant Dahaka set down a company of men just beyond the south gate of the village," Jamin said in the Sata'anic language, for unlike Lucifer who seemed to understand any language, Eligor had difficulty understanding his broken Galactic Standard. "The terrain there is relatively flat, and the rising sun will make it difficult for my people to identify their targets with their arrows."
Rather than answer him, Eligor pretended he hadn't been watching his reflection and spoke into the tiny transmission device which threw voices between the ships like spears.
"Jamaran-1; Jamaran-2," Eligor spoke in the lizard language. "This is Prince of Tyre-1. Do you have the exact coordinates you promised for that house?"
"Prince of Tyre-1, this is Jamaran-2," a voice hissed from the ethers. "The coordinates are north thirty-five degrees, twenty-seven minutes, twenty-four seconds by east forty-three degrees, fifteen minutes and forty-five seconds."
Eligor looked not to him, but to Lucifer.
"They have given us the coordinates, Sir. Just as they promised they would."
Lucifer's eyes were silver this morning; he was back to hiding because Eligor was around, but the way his nostrils flared like a predator sniffing the air for its prey gave Jamin a thrill. His snow-white wings arched forward, a great white eagle about to dive for prey.
"Wait until the other two gunships are lined up to move in" Lucifer said, "and then hit the targets we have reserved unto ourselves."
"Yes, Sir," Eligor stated with no emotion whatsoever.
The sound of Lucifer's voice issuing the kill order was almost adequate to drive Jamin to yet another bout of ecstasy. This was his dream come true. His fantasy. Lucifer had promised to lay this world at his feet and he intended to give it to him.
The sky canoe banked to the right. Lucifer caressed his thigh, an invitation, a promise of things to come.
"Soon, chol beag," Lucifer whispered. "As soon as I have given you back your village, we shall round up the trouble-makers and then we shall teach them a lesson. Eh?"
Pareesa. Cast down upon the ground. Just like he'd done to the women the night before. And other women. Other men. Only the men he'd flay alive. Those who cowered before him and worshipped him would be spared. Everybody else was food for his newfound god.
An odd echo of remorse whispered this was not the way he'd like to take back his village, but Jamin tucked it away, into the treasure box where Lucifer could not pluck it out of his mind.
"The other two gunships are moving into position, Sir," Eligor said.
"Good," Lucifer said. "Get ready to engage."
He unstrapped his safety harness and gestured for Jamin to do the same.
"Come, little chieftain," Lucifer grinned. "We killed the lion your way. This time, we shall do things my way so I don't have to piece you back together."
Jamin stepped up into the cockpit, a place the lizard people had never allowed him to go. Rather than meet Lucifer's gaze, Eligor focused intently on the small, circular instruments which told him things Jamin was only just beginning to fathom, such as how high they were and where they were on a map. On the ground beneath them, the outline of Assur lay in the pre-dawn murkiness so close that
Jamin swore he could climb through the windshield and leap out onto one of the roofs.
"We are in position, Sir," Eligor said.
"Charge the pulse cannon," Lucifer said.
Eligor flipped up a small lid on the dashboard and then flipped up the knobs which sat immediately above a big, red button. As he did, with his other hand he punched in a series of numbers. Something mounted on the underside of the ship whirred. Eligor flipped up another switch. The sky canoe began to hum. The hair stood up on Jamin's arms and on the back of his neck. He'd experienced this sensation before on the lizard people's ships, but it still excited him, the weapons they could bring to bear. Eligor tucked his wings neatly against his back, giving Lucifer access to the large, red button which lay immediately beneath the levers.
"She's ready to fire, Sir."
Lucifer pressed into Jamin's back and nudged him forward to the windshield. He nuzzled his neck and whispered into his ear.
"Look, chol beag. There it is. The house of your enemy. Completely defenseless and unaware. Smite him while he is unwary. For while death in battle is an honorable thing, winning is even sweeter."
Lucifer's erection pressed into his backside. An image danced into his mind of Lucifer mounting him, taking him right in front of his men while Jamin fired the pulse cannon again and again. And oh, gods he wanted it! He wanted to feel that heady feeling again!
"What do I do?" Jamin asked. "How do I make the weapon fire?"
"Just push that red button, little chieftain," Lucifer's voice was husky with desire. "Just push that button, and the ship will do the rest."
Lucifer projected the same images into his brain as he'd done that first day when Lucifer had taught him to shoot. Mikhail's eyes filled with fear. The pulse rifle tearing a hole into Mikhail's chest. Mikhail's body slipping to the ground. The light leaving Mikhail's cold, blue eyes as he recognized it had been Jamin who had killed him.
Jamin invited Lucifer into his mind.
"A gift … for you," Jamin formed the thought so Lucifer could hear it.
Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 94