by Alan Black
He knew I-Sheera’s sling and rocks had caused havoc again. Her aim was true to the mark. He saw her standing in the meadow to his front left. He had positioned them to give his arrows and her rocks the best crossfire possible against the Hummdhar saurusmen.
Tanden let fly his arrow into the mass of riders without aiming. He looked to the forest’s edge to his right rear. Charging full tilt across the field in a flanking movement was his cavalry. Seenger held his spear at the ready. Tuller held a long sharpened pole.
Tanden let another arrow sail into the riders. When he saw a rider splinter off from the group, he thought he had wounded the man or saurus. But the Hummdhar sat firmly on his saurus, riding straight for I-Sheera.
Tanden grabbed another arrow and put it to the bowstring, but before he could shoot, a yell caused him to turn. He ducked quickly and felt the swoosh of a long sword cut through the air above his head. The rider pounded past him turning his saurus in time to catch Tanden’s next arrow. The injury unseated the man. The arrow shaft was protruding from his thigh. The Hummdhar still held the reins in one hand as he lay screaming on the ground.
Tanden grabbed another arrow and notched it to the bow. The riderless saurus blocked his view of where I-Sheera last stood. Tuller and Seenger crashed into the flanks of the two remaining mounted Hummdhars sending riders and sauruses sprawling in every direction. In the pouring rain, Tanden could see only two men still seated on sauruses. He could not tell if they were his men or not. Gadon and Durrban should be moving together to take on any Hummdhar knocked off his saurus. He believed they had the sense to avoid a fight with any mounted opponent. They should encounter enough unseated riders to keep them busy and win any fight if they watched each other’s back.
Tanden held his bow with a notched arrow in his left hand. He swept up two extra arrows and put them across his mouth, biting down on the shafts. His clutched his sword in his right hand. Leaping out of the mud hole, he ran toward the injured man. He looked down at the two riders he had shot earlier, as he passed. The first man lay unmoving, an arrowhead protruding from his chest. The second man was clawing his way toward the forest, pulling himself through the mud and grass using only his arms. An arrow was stuck in his lower back just above his unmoving legs. Tanden ran by without stopping. His concern was for the living. He would deal with the dead and dying later.
The wounded man Tanden was running toward had dropped his sword as he fell from his saurus. He attempted to reach the weapon, but could not stretch far enough. The man had tied his saurus’s reins around one wrist and the saurus drew back as Tanden ran directly at him, keeping the reins taut, jerking the injured man’s hand away from his sword.
Tanden sank his sword into the man’s throat, the dull blade jamming against bone. Blood spurted from the wound, but washed away quickly in the rain. He left the sword where it struck, with the hilt pointing skyward. He stepped forward, drawing his bowstring taut. Sauruses and men lay tangled and twisted around him. He was not archer enough to shoot into a melee without hitting one of his own men, even if he could determine who was whom.
Shifting his gaze to I-Sheera’s location, Tanden discovered the Hummdhar had not run the girl down on his first pass. He was turning his saurus for a second attempt. I-Sheera was on the ground and slow getting up, a short sword in her hand. Tanden knew he was not good enough at this distance in the pouring rain to shoot the saurusman. He watched as the rider heeled his saurus into a run toward the lone woman.
Tanden’s heart cried out for her, as a breeze blew mist and rain in a curtain between them. She had become a valuable member of his small band of crewmen. Her loss would diminish them, him most of all. Just as he was about to shout, the wind blew a small hole in the clouds and a flash of sunlight highlighted the girl. He could see her clearly again.
At the last possible second, I-Sheera jumped sideways, ducked low to the ground and spun around. Her clothing and long black hair spun rain and mud in a wild arc following the stroke of her sword. She reached out slashing across the tendons of the saurus’s hind leg. A bone-chilling shriek filled the air as the saurus tumbled to the ground. Its fall threw the rider free. As he hit the ground, his forward momentum caused him to slide in the mud and muck of the drenched clearing, unable to regain his feet.
Running past the saurus, deftly avoiding its flailing feet, I-Sheera leaped onto the Hummdhar. She drove her sword into his back, pressing downward with all her weight to drive the point through the man.
Tanden tossed his bow to the ground and almost as an afterthought, spit out the extra arrows. He reached down, pulling his sword free from the dead man’s throat. Grabbing the reins of the saurus in his left hand, he cut the reins free from the dead man’s wrist. The saurus sidestepped away from Tanden, but he was able to grap a handful of neck and threw himself onto the animal’s back.
Turning the saurus toward the melee in the middle of the field, he rode toward the center of the mass. The battle was over by the time Tanden’s saurus skidded to a halt. He looked around him at the remains of the Hummdhar tribesmen. His crew had taken them by complete surprise. Their focus had been on the two unimposing men. The three-pronged attack from the rear and both flanks had thrown them into utter confusion. I-Sheera’s sling sent them into complete disarray unseating the two foremost riders. Tuller and Seenger had ridden into the two remaining saurusmen.
The saurus Tuller had ridden lay on the ground unable to regain its feet with both of its front legs shattered. Tuller reached down with a knife and mercifully cut through the saurus’s throat. Seenger remained mounted. His spear was deeply imbedded in the midsection of a body on the ground. Tuller’s homemade lance lay in pieces near another body.
Through the thick rain, Tanden saw Gadon and Durrban leaning against each other, resting on the ground. Around the two men were two dead bodies. One of the dead had a sword jammed in his ribs. The other man lay at odd angles to himself, his back broken and twisted.
“Tuller. Seenger,” Tanden called out. “Gather as many sauruses as we need.” Looking around he saw two of the animals milling about, oblivious to the death around them, munching casually on the abundant grass. Some of the sauruses had bolted, but they had not run far. They should be able to catch a saurus for each of them.
Tanden turned his saurus toward I-Sheera. Through the driving rain, he could not see her. His saurus splashed through the meadow, making muddy puddles in the standing water. He spotted the woman sitting in the grass, cradling a wounded saurus's head in her lap. Riding up to her, he looked down at her in amazement. A small cut on her scalp caused a thin trickle of blood to flow across her face. It washed quickly away in the rain, mixing with her tears.
He did not know what to say to her. This girl, who had killed two men in two days and watched three men being decapitated with curiosity and without flinching, sat in the mud and cold rain crying over a wounded saurus.
“The easterns breed strange women,” he thought.
The wounded saurus grunted at his approach, looking wild-eyed, and starting to kick, but it calmed as I-Sheera stroked its face. She shushed the animal and rocked its head gently in her lap. She looked up at Tanden, her face streaked with blood, tears, and mud. Her eyes pleaded with him to do something. A small cry escaped her lips as Tanden shook his head slowly from side to side.
Tanden prepared to dismount, but she stopped him by picking up her sword. She laid it against the saurus’s throat. With a stifled sob, she yanked the blade deep, across and out. With a little shiver, the saurus lay still, its life’s blood flowing out across the woman’s legs.
Gently, she slid out from under the saurus, laid its head in the wet grass and with an open palm closed its eyes. Tanden watched as she walked over to the dead Hummdhar. She jerked at the man’s tunic, stripping him to the waist. Without a word, she walked back to the dead saurus and covered its head with the clothing. She stepped to Tanden and offered her hand to him.
Gripping her wrist, he lifted her up behind him.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head against his back, hugging him tightly. He felt, more than heard, a ragged sigh. He turned his saurus back toward his crew. Tanden stopped when he realized only one man was standing in the middle of the battlefield. From the bulk he knew that the lone man was Gadon. Turning to look about him through a break in the rain, he saw Tuller and Seenger on sauruses heading toward them. Each man had another mount in tow. He could not see Durrban anywhere.
“Where is Durrban?” he called.
Gadon pointed to a small body crumpled on the ground and said simply, “He used his magic to deflect a sword meant for my back. The blade turned aside, but he didn’t have enough power to protect both of us.”
Tanden nodded without saying anything to Gadon. The outcome was better than he expected. He wasted no wishes on Durrban. He had been a good man and would have to find his own way to the afterlife, as they all would. Maybe his green priests would use their magic to speed him on his way to the world after this one once they learned of his death.
Tanden looked down at his friend, “And you?”
“Alive,” Gadon said. He looked back at the dead sailor and shook his head. “Best I could do for Durrban was to take revenge on the son of a snake who killed him.” Gadon pointed to a Hummdhar lying in the grass.
He continued, “I broke his back with my bare hands. He still lives.” Looking up to Tanden in defiance, he said, “I intend to leave him that way. Alive and helpless.”
Tanden nodded, “It isn’t my concern.”
Gadon looked at I-Sheera and then gave Taden a questioning look. Blood was obvious as it mixed with the rain and ran off her body from her waist to her boots.
Tanden shook his head. “Most of it isn’t her blood. Climb down, girl. Let Gadon look to your head wound.”
“No!” she shouted. Calming noticeably, she said, “Sorry, Captain. Would you do it?”
Tanden looked at the woman in surprise then looked at Gadon, who shrugged back. He said to her, “I’ll do it. But, I thought you liked Gadon?”
“Never mind. Just forget about it,” she said. “I’m fine.” She slid off the back of his saurus and went to sit in the mud next to Durrban’s body.
Tanden shook his head, baffled by the woman.
Gadon said, “Women are more problem than they’re worth, Tanden. I’ve told you that a hundred times but you just don’t listen. As a matter of record, you don’t ever listen to me. Remember that time in Allexia? I told you not to go down that back alley, but would you listen? Oh, no! And who had to follow after you and save you from that angry crowd of Eyyians? Me, that’s who!”
Tanden leaned over the man and said, “As I recall, my friend, they’d come looking for you. Something about improper advances to the wrong man’s daughter?”
“Oh, that’s gratitude. I save your life and you blame me?”
Tuller and Seenger cut off Tanden’s reply as they rode up to him. Each man had gathered weapons as well as sauruses. Seenger tossed a small bag to Tanden. He looked inside and saw a jumbled pile of smoked meat and dried fruits. He pulled out a large slice of meat and handed the bag down to Gadon. The four chewed quietly as Tanden looked around at the carnage.
Tanden bit into another piece of the smoky meat and chewed. He was unable to identify the type of meat they were eating, but he was hungry. Anything would do. He looked skyward, blinking as the rain pelted his eyes. The sky showed no sign of clearing. If anything, the wind looked to be moving the clouds around more than ever. Everything was so wet they would be unable to find dry wood to cook the hunks of butchered saurus meat still hanging on Seenger’s saurus. Besides, as stringy and tough as the smoked meat was, Tanden thought it might be saurus anyway.
Finally, he spoke, “We must move on again. What happened here is done! We put it behind us and once again move toward the White Wind.”
The men nodded, although Gadon looked over his shoulder at I-Sheera still sitting next to Durrban’s body. No one wanted to leave a comrade’s body to the scavengers. Tanden would not be able to face the man’s wife and children unless he rightly cared for Durrban. They would have to find some safe resting place for the man.
“Search these men for anything we might find useful. Gadon, find something to wear before you’re so undressed you embarrass us all. I’ll deal with the girl and Durrban soon enough.” Tanden wheeled his saurus around and rode back to where he started the battle. Alighting from the saurus, he retrieved his bow and arrows from the ground near the dead man.
Pausing only briefly to take another bite of smoked meat, he squatted down and searched the man’s clothing. He found a small knife and sheath. Digging deeper, he found a small pouch of beads and a worn piece of flint. The flint was useful and the beads might make nice trade goods. He stashed the pouch in his shirt and the knife into his trouser’s waistband.
Tanden picked up the man’s long sword. Without a sheath, it would be awkward to carry, but he stuck it under the leather strap holding the sheath for his short sword.
He walked to where he had last seen the wounded man with paralyzed legs. His trail through the wet grass was easy to follow and he found him lying face down only thirty feet away. The arrow’s fletching in his back pointed skyward. Tanden rolled the Hummdhar over onto his side. The man had driven the point of his own knife through his heart. Tanden pulled the knife free. It was rusty and of poor quality, so he tossed it into the weeds. Stepping around the man, he grabbed the arrow and pulled. The arrowhead grated on bone and the shaft snapped.
Tanden shook his head at the loss. “Maybe the others will find more arrows.”
He took another bite of the smoky meat and began searching through the man’s clothing. He had just about given up when he found a small pouch hidden in the top of one boot. A polished emerald set in carved ivory inlaid with intricate patterns of gold dropped into his hand from the pouch. Tanden was unable to fathom why a man would kill himself with a rusty knife on a muddy battlefield when he carried such a precious item that could have bought him a wife and a home. He placed the jewel in the larger pouch with the beads and stashed it back in his shirt.
He walked over to another dead man and grasped the arrowhead protruding from the man’s chest. Pulling steadily, the arrow came through and popped loose with a sucking sound. Tanden swished the arrow in a puddle and calmly placed it in his quiver. He found nothing else useful on the man. Last of all, leading the saurus, he walked back to the depression to retrieve his quiver containing half a dozen arrows.
Tanden finished the slice of smoked meat on the walk back to the others, leading his newly acquired saurus. The meat only slightly eased the hunger in his belly and its saltiness brought his thirst to the forefront. Leaning his head back, he opened his mouth wide allowing the cooling rain to fall into his mouth, doing little more than wash away the salt, but it would do for now.
Tuller tossed him the food bag as he walked past the three men. He continued on until he stood next to the girl. He tucked his saurus’s reins under a rock and sat down next to her. Setting the bag of food between his legs, he reached in, pulling out two pieces of dried fruit. He popped one into his mouth. The other he put into her mouth.
I-Sheera leaned against him, turning to put her hands on his chest. Tanden put his arms around her. He was not used to comforting women, but it seemed like the thing to do. He was not sure his arms were a help to her, but it felt good to him. He searched through her scalp as she leaned against him. When he finally located her wound, he dabbed carefully at it with a small piece of cloth he tore from his tunic. The rain mixed with the blood to flow freely, making the cut look more serious than it was. He cleaned it up as best he could, straightening the matted hair away from the wound. It would leave a scar when it healed, but he was sure no one would see it hidden in her mass of hair.
He swished the cloth in a puddle near at hand. Wringing out most of the water, he tilted her head back and wiped her face clean. When she lifted her eyes to him, he smiled and
gave her a quick wink.
She smiled back, sighed, sat upright, and reached for the food bag.
Tanden stood up and stepped over to speak to Durrban’s body. He said, “Thank you for saving Gadon. I swear I will take care of your family. You’ve done service to me for years and even now. Good-bye, my friend.”
Tanden looked up from the dead man, into the eyes of the Hummdhar warrior with the broken back. Hot, angry eyes glared back at him.
Tanden said in the man’s own tongue, “You still live then?”
“I’m a dead man. Still, I’d take you with me if I could.”
“I don’t doubt you’d try. Hummdhars have tried to kill me before, but I’m here and you’re there.”
“You!” the man spat. “You’re the one? The killer of women and children?!”
“And worse. I hear you were looking for me? Well? Here I am.”
“Coward!”
“That’s a matter of viewpoint. And from where I sit, there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about it, does there?”
“I swear by any life left in me, my son will take my vengeance on you.”
“That would be Bransch?” Tanden asked. At the man’s surprised look, he could see Seekin had not told this man the whole truth. “Oh, maybe you have another son? No? Well then, I’m sure Bransch won’t cause me trouble in the least, certainly not in this life, and I don’t believe I’ll see him in the life to come.”
The energy seemed to drain from the Hummdhar. “Kill me then and be done with it.”
Tanden said, “You aren’t mine to kill, or you’d already be dead.” He turned his back on the man. He bent down and picked up Durrban’s body. He draped it over his saurus and turned to his men gathering around him.
“Gadon, why are you still barely dressed?” Tanden asked. Before the heavyset man could respond, he continued, “I imagine we’d have to sew two sets of clothing together to make one to fit you. Or we could catch and skin an oliphant.”