by Hal Archer
Hodin offered his arm in bond to Jake, who accepted the gesture, clasping his forearm. He couldn't pretend to fully understand the Waudure, but their struggles, their tragedies, and that which they held dear, were like things he had seen in his own life.
Hodin pressed a spot on the stone wall of the cavern beside where the slab protruded. The slab, with the remaining equipment, receded into the wall.
"Return to your loved ones. Say what must be said. Cherish what you have, what you're fighting to preserve… for all Waudure. We head out in the lull just before dawn."
With somber faces but clear resolve of conscience, they each departed, all except Jake and Nadira.
Hanlan left first, then Brun and Alara, walking together, her hand clasping his as they went out of the room.
Hodin nodded to Jake and Nadira as he passed them. Once he left, Nadira moved in front of Jake, standing with only a couple of inches between her chest and his. He looked down at her eyes and saw she had no one else to return to that evening. She didn't say anything, and he replied by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her body against his own.
After a long while, sharing stories from their respective pasts and enjoying the timeless haze of indeterminate hours lounging in bed, Jake and Nadira, equally disinterested in getting any sleep, decided to make their way to the Waudure's answer to the many other establishments for drinking and late night revelry Jake knew across the galaxy. There they left serious thoughts behind and enjoyed the lively crowd, many of whom were poised to take part in the large assault on the Cracian base the next day. As Jake imbibed a variety of Waudure spirits, his mind ever more reveled in the alien music and raucous crowd; friends and fellow warriors, that spent the better part of the night trying to forget what the dawn waited to bring.
CHAPTER 26
J ake stood next to Nadira, looking at the expanse of dirt and rock ahead. They both, along with the other members of the infiltration team, watched the hundreds of Waudure ground troops move out before them. In clusters of ten to twenty each, the foot soldiers, some of them seasoned resistance fighters, others fresh-faced new recruits, made their way over the terrain that separated the underground Waudure stronghold from the Cracian base. Their target sat protected behind the stretch of jagged mountain peaks at the edge of the Untamed Lands.
"It's a long march," Hodin said. "Hours, but we'll get there, and with luck, we'll do it before they know we're coming."
They had already traversed several miles through underground tunnels to get to the open land they now faced.
"Any reason why we're standing around, then?" Jake asked.
"Oh," Nadira said, a mischievous look in her eyes, "didn't I tell you?"
Jake looked at her, waiting for what he figured from her tone would be an annoying bit of information.
"They're bringing a pack of crag beasts for us to ride." She looked pleased with herself at getting a rise out of him.
He didn't hide his dislike for the creatures.
"You must be kidding," he said, glancing around to see if the beasts were yet in sight.
"You have something against the things?" Brun asked. He had his thumbs tucked underneath the straps on his chest. He was flicking his forefingers against the sides of two of the explosives hooked to the straps.
"Anyone but Tay ought to have a problem with them," Alara said.
Jake noted from Alara's expression that she also disliked the idea of riding the deadly oversized hounds as much as he did.
Once again lulled into a momentary stupor by Alara's flawless beauty, he caught sight of something he hadn't noticed before. Her eyes were casting daggers toward him. Then he realized they weren't directed at him. She was targeting Nadira.
Jake, without moving his head too overtly, glanced at Nadira. She hadn't noticed Alara's assault.
What's the story there?
Jake felt a nudge on his shoulder opposite Nadira. He turned to Brun who was slowly shaking his head. Jake read his eyes to say, 'leave it alone.'
"They've been conditioned well," Hodin said. "We'll move with the mass of ground forces for the better part of the advance, but when the time comes, the crag beasts will provide us the speed and maneuverability needed to make our run for the base."
Hanlan, who as always stood off to the side, spoke while wrapping his rifle with a long band of cloth, protecting it from the swirling sand in the warm air. "Beasts acting like beasts shouldn't be blamed."
Several more Waudure came out of the tunnel openings in the mounds behind them. They'd made the long journey from the underground base.
"What are they carrying?" Jake asked.
The men and women he saw, about fifteen of them, wore large packs on their backs. Affixed to the outside of the brown bulky packs, metal tripods, the legs of which were as long as the Waudure were tall.
"Those are the anti-ship defense units," Hodin said.
"Right," Jake said. "I thought they'd be bigger."
"Don't underestimate them," Nadira said. "Besides, we may cross the mountains before the Cracians launch the ships. If we do, we won't have to worry about them."
"One thing I've learned over the years," Jake said, watching another group of anti-ship forces move past him and the team, "war rarely goes according to plan."
The wind picked up, a building rush of sound and reddish haze moved across the staging area where Jake and the others waited. He, like Nadira, pulled the cloth that dangled around his neck and secured it over his nose and mouth. Hanlan pulled his hood lower to shield his eyes from the sand. Brun grabbed the goggles on his forehead and lowered them into place.
"They're here." Alara stepped in front of Jake, then walked past Nadira, glaring at her again as she did.
Jake heard the growls and smacking jowls of the crag beasts before he saw them. Alara walked around a large formation of rock that jutted out from the mounds leading to the underground tunnels. He watched her extend her hand to meet the head of a massive crag beast, as it came into view. Following the first creature were five others, all equally intimidating and questionable, in Jake's mind.
Alara wasted no time in mounting the first one, who knelt before her as she touched her hand to its head.
"Well," Jake said, an inflection of surprise in his voice, "she seems to know what she's doing."
He was caught off guard by the bump in the back of his shoulder. Nadira stepped past him without a word. She moved toward the second animal. He watched her steps. Quick. But he saw the anxiety in her body as she approached the creature.
She raised her arm to place her hand on the its head, much as Alara had done. The crag beast snarled. Her hand shook slightly, but she otherwise didn't move.
"Excuse me," Brun said to Jake. Then he walked over to Alara, ignoring her mount. "What do you think you're doing?" He glanced at her hands, which were clenching the neck of the creature she sat upon.
"I figured Tay taught her how to approach," she said.
Brun tipped his head slightly. "Alara."
"Fine." She released her grip on the animal. Once she did, the lead crag beast, hers, sounded a faint snort.
The one standing before Nadira ceased to snarl. Then it lowered its head.
Careful not to face Alara as she walked around to the side of her mount, she climbed onto its back.
"Maybe we should walk," Jake said, rolling his eyes for Hodin to see.
"Come on," Hodin said, as he headed to the group of beasts and took one for his mount.
Hanlan, without a word, did the same, followed by Brun.
Jake shook his head. I can't believe I'm doing this again. He walked up to the unclaimed crag beast and stood before it, eye to eye.
"You gonna behave?"
Without waiting for a response he knew wouldn't come, he stepped to its side and climbed on.
"Alara." Hodin called out, louder than before to overcome the sound of the growing wind.
She let out a guttural noise that triggered her crag beast to move. The ot
hers fell in behind and beside hers, and they made their way out into the vast land before them.
Jake surveyed the Waudure forces, many well ahead of them. Hundreds moved onward, grouped in clusters of a dozen or so each.
He wondered how all of them would fare when the Cracians brought their might to bear.
The sky enveloped the land below with a banded blanket of ever-darkening clouds. Though it was dawn, the light of the day hadn't made a full appearance. Instead, the whole of the scene was cast with an eerie glow, the reticent daylight muted by the approaching storm.
Jake felt the air as he rode. The still air warmed him, only to give way to currents of cold that brought a chill to his spine. Even the sky knew the day would be wrought with conflict, he thought.
"The weather serves us," Hodin said, riding up beside him.
Jake continued to look skyward. "From what I've seen, the weather cares little for those beneath it."
Alara and Brun rode a short distance in front of the others, beyond the reach of Hodin's words. "Tay was her brother," Hodin said, and he nodded toward Alara.
Jake glanced at Alara. "I had no idea."
"She honors him in her own way. She's always been hard to read."
Jake nodded. After an appropriate pause, out of respect for the subject of Tay's passing, he spoke. "It wasn't hard to read her feelings about Nadira."
"Hmm, well."
Echoes drifted around him from the battle-ready forces all around. The drum beat of war.
Jake thought Nadira, who rode behind him next to Hanlan, couldn't hear his conversation with Hodin. He was wrong.
"She wants you to notice," Nadira said, her mount catching up with his.
Caught off guard, he turned to face her. "What do I know?"
He could tell she wasn't buying his feign of ignorance.
"You're not the first man to fall for it," she said.
He decided he wanted no part of the contrived guilt she was offering. He prodded his crag beast with his heels, and it responded by picking up the pace.
"What the?" Jake heard her say, as he rode to the front of the group.
After several minutes riding as they were, the terrain became more challenging. The beasts covered ground at the same rate, but they were jumping over large rocks and uneven sections where the slabs of dirt-covered stone had shifted long ago, leaving ridges. There were sudden drops of several feet quite regularly.
Jake forgot about the conversation he had been avoiding and instead focused on staying upright on the constantly shifting mass of bone and muscle beneath him. It didn't help that the wind, which seemed to be calming before, suddenly picked up, gusting against his body.
He could no longer discern the Waudure forces he had been watching walk ahead of him in the distance, spread out across the landscape. The brewing storm had lifted enough sand and grit from the ground that the land looked like a hazy red lake.
They rode for a long while.
Maybe it was his growing sense of unease that drove his attention elsewhere. Whatever it was, he became acutely aware of the stench coming from the creature beneath him.
Hodin rode up beside him. "It's their sweat."
"What?" Jake said.
"The smell. You'd think the bastards sweat out their bowels."
"And I said I didn't like these things."
He chuckled, and so did Hodin.
Jake heard a rumbling somewhere behind him, in the distance. He repositioned his hand gripping the crag beast, then turned to discover the cause of the noise.
Hodin tossed him a pair of viewing lenses. Jake drew them to his eyes.
Twenty or more vehicles advanced, pushing a thick red cloud of dirt as they did. They moved over the ground with an occasional bump, almost a bounce, as they cleared the larger clusters of rock. Square at their base and domed on the top, the vehicles measured about ten feet high and the same in width. Large, deeply grooved wheels, six of them, carried each mass of rust-colored metal forward.
"The troop carriers?" Jake asked Hodin.
"We have fifty of them," he said proudly.
Jake, thinking of all the ground troops, and of the mountains ahead, and of the Cracian forces and weapons he heard about in the briefing, said, "Will it be enough?"
Just then, Nadira and Hanlan rode quickly past Jake. He heard Nadira yell as she closed in on Alara and Brun. "Take us left!"
Alara, hearing her, reached down to the right side of her crag beast's neck and slapped it repeatedly. The creature responded by swiftly turning leftward and breaking into a run. The other beasts, with their riders holding fast, did the same.
Jake looked back to see half of the troop carriers moving off to one side and the other half moving the opposite direction.
"Here they come!" Hodin guided his mount onto a large rock that protruded like a ramp above the ground to form a higher vantage point from which to watch.
Bursting through the opening between the divided line of troop carriers far behind Jake and the rest of the team, a transport pod came into view. Jake recognized it as the same sort that had nauseated him days before when he rode with Nadira away from Halcion Station.
He watched the large sphere race toward him. It was moving at what he guessed was top speed.
"Ride!" Hodin roused his mount by kicking his heels into it. It leapt from the large rock and took off at a full run.
Jake, not remembering this part from the briefing, looked around to see what the others were doing. Hanlan rode past him. Nadira moved her crag beast beside Jake's and reached over to his, slapping it on the backside. Jake felt the jerking pull against his arms as his mount took off. He held on and leaned forward against the creature.
All six members of the infiltration team rode at breakneck speed. Jake grunted with each landing as his mount lunged and jumped over every obstacle, never slowing its run. Soon, they moved among the first waves of Waudure that advanced on foot. He saw all of them, hundreds, now running.
The first transport pod shot past him. He felt the strong push from the displaced air as it passed him. The pod was a blur, but it looked to him that no one was inside piloting the sphere.
Seconds apart, nine more transport pods rolled past him, every one of them moving at the same phenomenal rate of speed.
After the last one, Hodin rode next to Jake. "Get ready. That's our way through the mountains. There's a passage between them. Not much rock to the other side. No large mountains. The pods will clear it for us."
"They'll die on impact," Jake said, his beast still running fast with the others.
Nadira slowed her mount for a moment to settle in beside his.
"There's no one inside them, of course," she said.
"Explosives!" Brun yelled to Jake.
They rode forward. With his peripheral vision, Jake saw scores more Waudure running for the mountains, for the path set by the spheres rushing to crash into the rock defenses of the Cracians. He heard a rolling rumble. Their numbers were great.
At the horizon, rising slowly into view, the tips of the mountains. The ride across the border of the Untamed Lands was near an end. War was in sight.
The sky darkened, as if on cue. The sound of his crag beast's legs striking the ground became drowned out by a sudden ear-numbing crack and a thunderous boom that swelled though his body. For a second, he thought it must be the transport pods, now far ahead and out of sight. But he realized the sound came from the sky, from every direction. The storm was upon him. It was upon them all.
He looked skyward and remembered the storm by the cave, and Tay.
He leaned toward his mount's neck and drove the beast faster.
CHAPTER 27
F ire and explosive might formed from shooting debris, black torrents of pulverized rock from the mountains, took over the horizon. The flashes lit the barren plains, revealing all the Waudure forces for the brief time it took for the transport pods to do their work. The crashing sounds of explosives cracked the air across the battlefield,
declaring the Waudure people's freedom from their Cracian oppressors. Jake felt the noise reverberate in his bones, and his ears rang.
When his hearing returned, he heard the roar of cheers from the forces rushing toward the blasts. Hodin, Brun, and the others in his team joined the many hundreds in celebration. Jake noticed that Nadira stayed silent. No cheer. No smile.
Me neither. But why just her?
He rode his beast near hers. "This is it."
His words broke her away from her thoughts. She hadn't seen him until he spoke, though he was beside her for a moment before he did.
"I don't know what's going to happen," she said, turning to him, even as they rode on.
He knew her to be strong, but her face spoke fear. She's not a fool. People were about to die, he thought. But he sensed it was more, something else.
He thought about the time they'd shared in the cave before he'd been knocked out by the monster they'd encountered, and the hours they spent talking after meeting the team.
"Stay close to me," he said. It was the only thing he could offer her. No promises. War took without permission. He promised himself that he would have something to say about that if it came down to it.
She swallowed whatever thoughts had called her mind away, then she nodded to him and smiled.
With the others, they rode toward the pass that the pods had blasted through the mountains.
Ash floated slowly downward upon them, drifting and meandering in the sky as it did. The closer they rode to the impact site the warmer and thicker the air grew. Smoke and dust hung in the sky and draped to the ground, as did the tease of death.
Darkness settled in ahead. Jake and the rest of the infiltration team rode the fearless crag beasts toward the foot of the Cracian mountains. As they approached, he heard the blasts of weapons, a few at first, then a rush of firings, some accompanied by explosions. Flickers of the fighting lit up the now swirling gray canopy into which they rode.
The sounds of battle filled in all around as Jake pushed into the chaos.