The Witch Goddess

by Robert Adams

  But even so there were endless means of keeping the men and women occupied. There were horses and ponies to be cared for and exercised. There was equipment, weapons and armor, to be mended or cleaned and polished, repaired or replaced. The areas of habitation required daily cleaning. Four times in each twenty-four-hour day a detail of guards had to go out to take its turn on the outer defenses.

  And then there was drill, both unit drill and individual. On the broad stretch of plain between the hall and the lakeside tower keep of Sandee's Cot, mounted units of men and women wheeled and maneuvered, the Ahrmehnee and Moon Maidens learning to recognize and differentiate between the ages-old bugle signals of the lowlanders, while these same lowlanders accustomed their perceptions to the bone whistles that the mountain warriors of both sexes used in place of the horn.

  Various of the officers and the two Freefighter weapons-masters supervised nonstop practice exercises with every weapon available to the force, while the single bowmaster saw to it that none of his archers lacked for practice.

  Moreover, in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the shared dangers, rewards, joys and sorrows, the vastly disparate groups—Kindred and Ehleen and Freefighter, Ahrmehnee warrior and Moon Maiden and born Kuhmbuhluhner—began the process of coalescing into a unit.

  Young Ahrzin Soormehlyuhn, after watching a dozen Freeflghters desultorily chucking darts at circles painted on bales of straw, strolled over and asked if he might participate. From the quiver across his back, he withdrew one of his own Ahrmehnee darts and a peculiar pointless rod. Then, with a practiced flick of his thick wrist, he sped the dart into the center dot of the target, and with such force that it tore completely through the thick bale and flew on for several yards beyond.

  After doing the same with all of his darts, Ahrzin soon was taking orders for hand-whittled Ahrmehnee throwing sticks from every lowland warrior in sight or hearing.

  Dragooning the two blacksmiths resident in Sandee's Cot and shamelessly looting the armories in the tower keep, Bili saw to it that every man, woman and horse was provided with the most complete panoply that could be fashioned or adapted from the materials at hand. Generally, the additions and replacements were gladly accepted. True, a few of the older Ahrmehnee grumbled about the added weights and hindrances to quick movement when Bili insisted that their chainmail hauberks be fitted with plates at certain points, but when weapons practice showed them the added protection of these improvements, they shut up.

  All of this was not, of course, accomplished in a single rest period, but by the time Prince Byruhn of Kuhmbuhluhn was able to make the time to return for a brief inspection visit, Bili was able to show him a formidable force and to detail an impressive list of accomplishments toward the prince's goal of completely ridding his father's lands of the dangerous and unpredictable Ganiks.

  Old Count Steev of Sandeeland, a man of only average size, felt a little like a child among adults at that private meeting which preceded the prince's return to the north. Although Bili was a big, brawny man, Prince Byruhn was bigger, while Pah-Elmuh, the Kleesahk, was bigger than all three true men combined.

  The prince leaned back, bringing a shrill squeak of protest from the sturdy chair set at one end of the conference table. Thrusting out his jackbooted legs beneath the table, he clasped his hairy-backed hands on his flat belly and from beneath the single thick eyebrow that ran luxuriantly from temple to temple he gazed at Bili, who sat at the other end of that table.

  "You have done well, young cousin, as I knew you would, and my report to his majesty, my dear father, will give credit where credit is due. Too bad for New Kuhmbuhluhn and my House that you hold lands and obligations elsewhere, Sir Bili, for a nobleman like you is an invaluable asset to any sovran. Without any doubt, you will rise high in your own kingdom; I feel it safe to predict that your hereditary title is but the least of those you will hold ere death claims you."

  Although he diplomatically kept his silence, Bili knew whence had come the prince's "prediction," for Pah-Elmuh had already told Bili that he would one day bear the same title as Byruhn.

  Lying still on his deathbed in an opulent chamber of his sprawling palace in Karaleenopolis, old Prince Bili of Morguhn silently railed at Pah-Elmuh and at Fate.

  "He knew so much, damn it, so very much of my future. So why did he not, why was he not allowed to know that which would have, might have, saved for a world that would have treasured her, for our little children who needed her, and for me, who so loved her, and has never to this very day of my imminent death ceased to miss her, my dear, ever dearest Rahksahnah?"

  But there was none to answer that question; there never had been anyone that could.

  Now horse- rather than pony-mounted, provided with plates to supplement their thick, beautifully wrought chainmail, and schooled in the shock tactics of heavy-armed cavalry, the Moon Maidens and Ahrmehnee warriors were easier for Bili to assimilate among his Freefighters, Confederation nobles and Kuhmbuhluhners. And although the Ahrmehnee often complained that the horses were less intelligent, less hardy, less nimble-footed and far less biddable than their familiar ponies, not even they could deny the distinct advantages given them against pony-mounted Ganiks by the bigger, heavier mounts.

  The Maidens, on the other hand, had been horse-mounted to begin with, but their antique-style armor had been both scanty and light of weight since, like the Ahrmehnee, their style of warfare had been of the hit-and-run variety, lightning-fast attacks and speedy withdrawals, such as were the duty of the light cavalry in those organized armies of the east with which Bili and most of his officers were familiar.

  Now they too had been fitted with supplemental plates, their caplike helmets replaced with full helms giving protection to nape and throat and face as well as pate. As was to be expected, there was abundant grousing, but only in the beginning, during the necessary drills, before the Moon Maidens experienced the exhilaration of their new power to easily wreak bloody death at close quarters without the high rate of casualties that must have resulted had they attempted such in only their traditional equipment. Nor was the exchange one-way. Bili witnessed a Maiden lean from her saddle and send her sickle-axe spinning along no more than a bare foot above the ground until it met and tangled agonizingly with the churning legs of a mountain pony aboard which a Ganik was attempting to flee an ambush. With a shrill scream of pain and terror, the pony tumbled in a heap, sending the shaggy rider flying toward the hard ground and a broken neck. Bili made note of that woman, and throughout the days of the next rest period, she and those of her sisters especially adept at this feat were to be found teaching the art to the men, lowlanders and highlanders alike.

  Slowly, gradually, the scattered small bunches were being cleared out by one means or another. Right often now, the wide-ranging cavalry came upon unburned but, nonetheless, deserted, tenantless bunch camps. Roving bands of Ganik marauders, too, were becoming fewer, although those that did materialize were now larger and warier, obviously aware that they were being hunted.

  "Undoubtedly," stated old Count Steev at an officers' meeting on the first night of another rest period at Sandee's Cot, "the bastards have finally recognized the fact that they no longer have the free run of this country, that it no longer is safe for them to live in small bunches in the wildwood. Most likely they're fleeing to the camp of the main bunch, that camp which once was Buhbuh's, before our own beloved Sir Duke's mighty axe rid the world of that monster for good.

  "With them there, we can concentrate for a while on the far less dangerous job of getting the farmer-Ganiks burned out and on their way southwest and out of our hair. As you all know by now, this strange and troublesome race breeds like barn-rats, and without them to provide a constant pool of replacements, the bunches will prove far easier to finally eradicate."

  "But, Sir Count," Acting-captain of Freefighters Frehd Brakit asked diffidently, "why not immediately move against this larger camp of the paramount leader of these bunch-Ganiks? I would think that the longer we
defer that move, the better prepared and stronger will be their defenses."

  Count Steev grimaced. "Their defenses could hardly get stronger, Captain. That camp is going to be a tough nut to crack, our losses will undoubtedly be heavy, barring some miracle, and the Prince wants as much as possible done on other fronts before essaying an assault and, thus, weakening this force."

  "Thank you, my lord." The ever-correct Brakit nodded and resumed his seat.

  And so, at the end of that period of rest and drill, the columns rode out again on their mission of terror. No matter how thoroughly they despoiled and burned and slew stock, they always left uninjured any ponies or draft beasts of the farmer-Ganik families, pointing out, promising, that if the victims rebuilt within the bounds of New Kuhmbuhluhn, they could expect the same or worse.

  On their next return to Sandee's Cot, the prince again was in residence and awaiting them. Nor did the royal personage waste any time in assembling not just Bili and Count Steev, but all the officers, for a meeting to hear a report of his intelligence service.

  "Gentlemen, Lady-Lieutenant," he stood before them entirely at his ease, rocking back and forth on his booted feet, "Count Steev, Pah-Elmuh and a few other trusted officers have been aware that I have had tame Ganiks from the northwest of the kingdom posing as outlaws down here for some years. As the smaller bunches have been so masterfully destroyed or driven in to join the main bunch at bay, I recalled all of these operatives I could reach. From their reports, I have some most singular intelligence to impart to you.

  "That there is now a new paramount leader to replace the late, unlamented Buhbuh was to be expected. But all of my tame Ganiks declare that this new leader is a woman, an Ahrmehnee woman, an Ahrmehnee Witchwoman of awesome powers. They all say that her name is Ehrkah, although this is not an Ahrmehnee name, and that she was brought among the Ganiks as a prisoner and attained first to leadership of the small southerly bunch that captured her, then to the leadership of the main bunch, by exercise of these deadly powers.

  "My tame Ganiks attest that she owns an oddly shaped rod or club—they couldn't agree which—of shiny metal which she can use to slay men at some distance with fire and thunder.

  "Now, you all are free to believe this tale or not, as suits you. True, the Ahrmehnee do have Witchwomen, I understand, some of them said to be possessed of mental powers similar in certain ways to those of the Kleesahks, but I hardly think that any real Witchwoman would be captured by Ganiks in the first place, or voluntarily remain with the savages in any case.

  "We all, here, know how hag-ridden and painfully superstitious these ignorant, bestial Ganiks are, and I think that these traits, combined with the fact that they are mostly of unstable mind and have so recently seen their traditional order smashed into red ruin and they, themselves, driven back to the very wall has bred in them some sort of mass hallucination.

  "But be this matter completely false or formed around a kernel of truth, the time is not long before you must strike their main camp. I do not envy you that job, nor can I and my northern forces give you any additional force to do it, for we are even harder pressed by the Ohyohers, these Skohshuns.

  "However, I have great confidence in you, as does my royal father, the king. With Duke Bili and Count Steev to lead and direct such brave and resourceful officers and troops, I can see only continued victory for New Kuhmbuhluhn."

  Chapter Nine

  On the last few patrol sweeps, Captain of Freefighters Sir Fil Tyluh was able to rejoin the lowlander force. His skull had been cracked by the oak-and-stonechip club of a Ganik in the great battle on that plateau which had been called "The Tongue of Soormehlyuhn" and which had been shaken apart in the earthquakes.

  Upon examining his comatose body, Pah-Elmuh had discovered a section of the skull pressing hard upon the brain sac, had surgically excised that bit of bone and then had used his vast and arcane mental abilities to set Tyluh's mind to the task of healing the body. This healing process had taken time, but as he watched Tyluh riding at the head of his column, Bili thought that he looked very fit for a man who, by all rights, should have long since gone to Wind.

  The young thoheeks allowed the captain to retain the services of the man who had been taking his place during his convalescence, Lieutenant Frehd Brakit, for three weeks, then he took Brakit—for whom he had developed a fondness and deep respect—as his personal aide.

  . That was why, of a bright day, Brakit lay beside Bili in a clump of brush atop a hill, whence they and their escort could clearly view the camp of the main bunch of Ganiks, only some half mile from their perch. Twice since they had ensconced themselves here, mounted Ganik patrols had ridden almost over them, but the mental powers of Pah-Elmuh and the other two Kleesahks who had accompanied them out on this highly dangerous but vitally necessary reconnaissance had so clouded the minds of all those Ganiks that the hilltop had appeared to them deserted. It had been by this cunning method that the Teenehdjook—huge, hairy, nonhuman partial progenitors of the Kleesahk, who were actually a hybrid race of Teenehdjook and outsize humans—had for untold eons of time protected themselves from aggressive, murderous mankind.

  But Bili actually had two pairs of eyes available to him for this task, his own, and those of the prairiecat Whitetip, now crouched hidden in the thick growth of conifers on the higher and more rugged and precipitous slope of the mountain only a dozen yards above the place where slope met shelf. A part of Bill's rare mental ability was the knack of meshing his mind with that of the huge feline, thus seeing through his cat eyes, but this was a chancy talent and did not always work, depending upon many variables for success.

  Because he had been careful to choose only mindspeakers for this mission, there was no need for oral communication between Bili and his companions. Now, he mindspoke his aide, Lieutenant of Freefighters Frehd Brakit.

  "All right, you've seen, now. Do you think that the plan we discussed earlier is feasible?"

  "Aye, my lord," Brakit answered just as silently. 'To my way of thinking, it's the only plan that is, since you and we are not suicidally inclined. Yonder lies a natural fortification, and only a few hundred men who were both mobile and determined could easily hold it against the direct assaults of several times their own numbers; as it is, we are the few hundreds and the defenders there number at the least seven times our strength."

  "Closer to ten times, I'd say, man-Frehd," put in Lieutenant Kahndoot, "if we include the strength of the two patrols whose routes crossed-near to here and consider that there are likely six more such patrols at any one time to adequately cover all approaches to that camp."

  "The woman is right," Pah-Elmuh beamed. "The others and I, we Kleesahks, can sense many mounted groups of Ganiks on the move through these woods, here."

  Bili nodded once, unnecessarily, but by constraint of long habit. "So, then, all of you study that camp, try to memorize it and its surroundings; I want to construct a sand-table model of it when we get back to Sandee's Cot, so that all of the force will have a basic familiarity before we get here.

  "Frehd, scout out what you feel would be the best locations for your specialty. Take one of the Kleesahks and move to another vantage point, if you think that will help. I'll mindcall you whenever we're ready to go back.

  "Now, I go to the mind of Whitetip."

  Bill first farspoke the prairiecat. "Is my cat brother in a safe place, one where he cannot easily be seen?"

  The powerful beaming of the cat answered readily, "Yes, brother-chief, Whitetip is well concealed, yet still can he see much of the places below him. But he cannot stay here for long; the stench of those two-legs below is nauseating him."

  As always, whenever he suddenly went from looking through human eyes to looking through the eyes of the cat or horse, Bill suffered for a few seconds from the lack of acuity of vision and the paucity of colors and textures, although a predator cat's eyes were better in all of these ways than those of the equines.

  The big cat had chosen an excellent positi
on, and a comfortable one as well. The deep mat of fallen needles cushioned his pads and body from the hard rocks studding the sparse soil beneath, while the thick dimness of the dense stand of gnarled cedars made a sighting of even as large an animal as Whitetip from any point below most unlikely.

  Partially meshed with the mind and all of the senses of the prairiecat, Bili was also quickly aware that the female cat— one of the Confederation Army cats whose small size, relatively small cuspids and other deficiencies of mind and of body were the unfortunate results of interbreeding, over the centuries since the coming of the Horseclans to the lands of the eastern seaboard, with the native treecat—was farther up the mountain, guarding Whitetip's back and their route back over that mountain.

  Whitetip was a purebred prairiecat, which strain was virtually extinct in the eastern lands. He and his sept—some dozen or so other cats, all related in various degrees one to the other—had but recently come into the Confederation lands in company with a Kindred clan of Horseclansmen, Clan Szanderz. All muscle and sinew and bone, he stood some ten hands at the withers and weighed three hundred pounds, well fed. His upper cuspids projected, slightly curving, to more than an inch below his lower jaw, when it was closed. His mindspeak was powerful and his farspeak could range farther than average.

  The female, on the other hand, was of lighter structure, weighing only a bit over half of Whitetip's heft. Her cuspids were but little larger than those of her treecat cousins, and although her mindspeak was perfectly adequate for the military purposes to which she had been bred and trained, it was nowhere near as powerful or as far-ranging as was that of the purebred male prairiecat.

  The two vastly disparate cats had fled the crumbling plateau during the height of the earthquakes along with the other cats who had accompanied Bili's original squadron of Freefighters and Confederation nobles. Somehow, in the terror and milling confusion of avoiding the scattered forest fire ignited by white-hot debris from the volcanic eruption that immediately followed the quakes, they two had found themselves together well west of any other cats or humans, in company with only a couple of big Abrmehnee ponies.