According to limited maps shown me by Sernas there would be three areas where the Dark One would most likely attempt to stop us. The first was a deep north-south gorge at the bottom of which was a white water stream. There being two parallel roads to the main one which we would follow, there were, therefore, three suspension bridges, each consisting of four link chains tied with ropes and with a planked bottom so’s to create a narrow road.
The gorge was at a distance of about eight miles. Orders sent out the previous night had directed certain companies of ours to advance and seize the bridges at dawn’s light.
The second area, perfect for battle, was a broad valley of some fifteen miles toward the Omnian capital. One would come into it from a line of forested hills. Beyond the valley was another range of hills, opening finally to the great plain surrounding Hish.
The last area would be about six miles from Hish, itself-an indentation in the plain made by a wide but exceedingly shallow river.
We had hardly set the main bodies of warriors in motion when a covey of riders, coming at full gallop, shouted that whereas the flanking bridges had been saved, the main bridge had been taken by the enemy.
Rawl, shouting command orders, saluted Semas and myself, and with Caroween, Tober, and Charney, led his five thousand instantly in a wild dash to take it back. We sent quick orders for the flanking units to drive full speed across their bridges and to set up immediate liaison on the far side with each other and ourselves. We then drove straight ahead in Rawl’s wake-at our dottle’s pace of twenty miles per hour.
I rode with Sernas and the Lord Gol-Stils. Murie was to my left side; a proper spot for a shield-maiden. Griswall and Hargis rode to our rear. The Pug Boos, Murie told me, had each been put upon a separate dottle and had been given a heavy guard for protection.
They were following on in the midst of the dottle herd. As we rode, I had time to wonder at the instant acceptance of the Boos by everyone. It was not that Omnians had suddenly recognized them as something to worship, as did Marackians, but rather that they were seen as something different, to be wondered at and protected-though they knew not why!
Om was in every way as colorful as Marack. Indeed, more so! The household banners of this lord or that were a sight to see in wind-blown silk or satin. And the emblazoned surcoats of even the men-at-arms displayed the wealth of five thousand years of total exploitation without the ruin of havoc and pillage. I’d thought to mute the cry of horns and the thundering beat of the kettledrums-to no avail! They’d have none of it.
“If we’re to die, Prince Cares,” Sernas informed me, reverting to my Seligian title, “we’ll do it, sir, as men who for the first time are allowed to act as men!” And whereas there still were those who’d disagree with him, he generally spoke for all.
We thundered past the hidden scoutship. I’d dismissed any thought of contacting the Deneb-3. There was simply no way to do it without negating the “null” effect, and thus alerting the Dark One to its presence. Still, I’d eventually have to get back to it, and before the final attack, too, to move it, advance it to Hish’s environs, else the protection it afforded us-diminishing considerably at twenty miles-would be useless against the Kaleen’s wrath.
Which had, as of that very moment, become visible, palpable; substantially real!
Like the two previous mornings, we had awakened to clouds ringing us round on all the surrounding horizons: clinging fast to the edge of the great tableland upon which was the centered Omnian capital…. Now, however, they were encroaching rapidly, driven, I knew, by an unseen hand. Great thunderheads arose above them, and even as I looked, took on the fleeting casts of sorcery, of writhing tortured faces, tentacular arms-reaching, grasping.
There was then a veritable spate of sheets and angry spears of lightning. Great thunder crashed from all sides. And, as we mounted a ridge and poured down its far side, we saw ahead the first fingers of a great miasmic fog, brackish yellows and browns all roiling and boiling upon itself as if it were alive-had thought and purpose.
It moved rapidly over fields which, Sernas told me, led to the deep gorge and the bridge. And then-even as we watched, the fog was halted, dispersed by some unknown hand to reveal a large body of men, mounted and afoot, being driven back across the narrow bridge by hard-fighting swordsmen of Rawl’s five thousand. More! At that very instant, I saw my shieldman’s colors, followed by a few hundred of Sernas’ best, smash into the fleeing flank of the Dark One’s warriors, hitting them hard at the very edge of the bridge.
Then, having freed the span’s entry, he swung to lead his men directly out upon that swaying bit of iron and rope, slaying and literally hurling all those who dared oppose him down to the waters far below.
On the far side he directed his men to right and left, against those of the Dark One’s men who’d been poised to cut the ropes and chains if the bridge was lost. They’d no time to wield a single axe. He cut them down, and drove again into the mass of Hishian soldiery, so that we saw his and the various banners of certain lords and captains who’d dined with us the previous night all tossing and waving alongside raised swords, axes, and the bloodied weight of mace and hammer.
It lasted but seconds. Rawl’s remaining thousands, led by young Sernas, then went thundering over the narrow way to shatter, ruin, and then pursue all that was left of those Hishians who’d thought to hold the bridge.
A cheer went up from all who watched, including us, such as I’m sure that none in Om had ever heard before. The first skirmish. And the first victory! The sound of their cries of joy wafted up to us as we too poured down upon the bridge….
And the Dark One moved again!
Intent upon the fighting, I’d not noticed the approach of the clouds. A gigantic thunderhead, a wind-driven battleship of tremendous size now hung directly above us. It covered at least a mile of front. From it there came a crashing bolt of lightning such as I had never seen before. But then I’d never been that close to a bolt of lightning either. It was directed at the bridge. It missed! Another came-and missed! And still another-and it, too, missed! I stared in awe. There was simply no way he could have missed-except? A last bolt came to join its light with the mighty thunder of the previous blasts. I’d set myself to watch it closely. It was not directed at the bridge-but at me! And it, too, missed! Or rather, it was deflected. And that, for the moment, was it. The cloud, diminished by its loss of energies, broke up, was wafted away by puffs of wind from the final ensuing thunder. The crackling stench of ozone was sufficient to make our dottles cry.
How had the little bastards said it? “We’ll help you, but you might not like it-” And so they would. And the Dark One, seeing, would lay the blame for the power all on me. I sighed.
From here on in, when the Dark One sought to work his will, he’d be singling me out as the prime target. By all gods, they were so right! I didn’t like it!
Still, gazing at the blasted boulders in the stream below, and at all the burning earth around us, I couldn’t help but smile. I then looked up to see Murie, Hargis, and Griswall all gazing at me proudly, whilst Sernas and a dozen great lords and barons were ogling me in awe. I frowned at their misplaced belief, then thought better of it and winked; which I shouldn’t have done. For from now on, too, in a tight spot, they’d expect the same-and I damn well couldn’t deliver. Those little bastards had me again, and this time by the short hairs!
“My Prince,” Lord Sernas said slowly, for he had to say something, if for no other reason than that the others would expect it of him, “you do ease the hearts of all of us. I must confess, I had not thought there was a chance. Now I know better. Indeed, though we still might die to the last man-we and our twenty thousand-I know that a final victory will be ours.”
I answered just as slowly, sternly: “My thanks to you. But I adjure you now to erase all thoughts of not winning. For hear me”- and I arose in my stirrups to address them all. “If we do not win today-we will have lost our chance forever! And it’s because of this
fact that I’ll now disclose to you that you are not alone. Indeed, know this-and pass the word-before three hours past high noon you’ll be joined by thirty thousand of the finest warriors of all the north. And sirs, m’lords, despite small victories, by that time we’ll sorely need them.”
As we neared the bridge we saw the headless bodies of the original defenders, warriors of the house of the Lord, Gol-Stils…. Others of his men, attached to Rawl, were taking their vengeance among those of the Dark One’s levies still alive on our side of the gorge. One group of fifty or so Yorns now stood at bay. I recognized the leader. Strange, I thought, that I should meet him again and in almost the same circumstances. Perhaps it was an omen. I broke from Sernas’ troupe and rode to where I could put my dottle between the Yorns and their attackers. “Down swords!” I shouted, and raised a gauntleted fist for emphasis. To the Yorn leader, I cried, “Well! So we meet again, warrior of Yurnal. But why do you now fight on the side of the Dark Kaleen? Did you not tell me that you were of the pack of Twill, enthralled to our Lord of Haken?”
“I know you, lord!” he called back. “And so it was. But we’d been beaten, which meant our death anyway. So I took those of the pack who would follow me to seek the protection of the Dark One.”
‘Would you fight for me now?”
“What is the difference?”
“Would you fight for me-to win your freedom?”
“What is freedom?”
“To live as men, in Om.”
“Who but the Dark One could grant such a gift?”
‘Which he will never do. Fight for me-all you and yours. You’ll win your freedom under a just god whose name is Ormon… . I promise you!”
“How can we trust you?”
“As you did before. But if you stay with me, then will I ask you to beseech all Yorns whom you meet in battle to turn their swords against the Dark One-and to join with us. What say you?” I grew impatient.
Their communal thinking took but seconds. The leader said aloud, “My name is Unghist, and I am chief of these. We will fight for you.”
The whole thing had taken but three minutes. I sent Hargis to see that they were given mounts and then to catch up with us.
I said not a word to Sernas’ raised eyebrow, nor to the perturbed looks of the other lords of our privy council-nor to Murie either. For it was a most natural thing for all those descended from Alphians to detest Yorns. For they knew instinctively that Yorns were what they could have been, had they been born deformed, twisted, grotesque, touched with the Dark One’s curse. ‘Tis a standard humanoid reaction everywhere - Kill the deformed!
We drove on!
The black clouds came streaming in again from all the compass points. Thunder and lightning were everywhere, blasting the darkness the clouds had brought with a blue-white brilliance. Hard rains lashed the forest to the south-then stopped as quickly as they began.
What, I wondered, would the Dark One do now? What could he do? I was reminded of Hooli’s statement: “He can throw rocks. He can rain on you. He can zap you with lightning bolts.” That’s what he’d said. But surely the Dark One could do more…. A mind seizure perhaps, despite the scoutship’s “null” effect, and wherein half our men would fight the other half-to the death? Nyet! No way! “Null,” or the strengthening of all magnetic lines of force so as to put them beyond the use of sentients in the one area-for the control of other sentients-did exist! We were, in part, protected. And, too, the Kaleen was in no position now to give full attention to this Omnian rebellion; even with the peril of its ultimate meaning…. Still, I could scarcely believe that he would allow us to attack-and just send humanoids and Yorns against us.
On we went at the dottle’s mile-eating pace. Cloudbursts nearly drowned us. Bolt lightning came again. And we lost men, too, for not every bolt was deflected. At a number of points flanking squadrons of the Dark One’s gathering hosts who’d filtered through our advance companies, drove into us. They were led by cowled warrior-priests in flaming red or black. I was glad of the attacks. For I knew what the Kaleen didn’t know, that our men were spirited, ready; that man for man we’d win. And there’s nothing quite like victory-a blooding of your own-to set the heart to racing and the hopes to rise. Each time they came at us, Sernas detached an equal number of ours to meet them under the command of this lord or that baron. The enemy fought poorly. Indeed, with but few losses to ourselves, we cut them down like so many gogs to the slaughter.
The cheers of our warriors who watched these small victories, and the difficulty our captains had in keeping rein on those who wished for a part of the glory, now, was real indeed.
And then-and then-ahead of us the sky began to glow a hellish red from beyond a low range of hills to our front. It was the second spot, the area of the valley where the first real battle might be expected. I had not thought we’d reach it so soon.
Rawl’s five thousand, advancing ahead of us, rode up through the forest to show themselves upon the skyline. To the left and right our flanking thousands did likewise-but drew in upon the center. And on the hot winds that seemed to come now from that valley there was also some kind of vagrant, far-off howling.
“My lords,” I said to Sernas and the others, “It would appear that Sir Fergis does not go on, which means that we must go full speed to him.” And we did it, to a tattoo of kettledrums and a skirl of pipes. The howling grew, matched by a shrieking wind that suddenly raged around us. We burst out upon the grass-grown upper slopes and raced toward the cleft of the road where our barons and lords joined quickly with Rawl’s command.
Below we saw the source of the howling.
How the valley must have looked to an Omnian is one thing. To a Terran, steeped in the history of a beauteous world and its varied religions, the scene was “inferno,” a steelpoint from the ancient Dante. I had ridden twice through the area. It was now unrecognizable. From the small dam to the north, to the encroaching forests to the south where the valley narrowed, all was a desert. Gone were the green fields, all burning now with the fires of hell. Gone, too, was a small, remembered village, reduced to blackened stones amid the ashes of its surrounding groves of fruit and nut trees. All now was but a red-fogged, blasted earth upon which, on the slopes of the farm hills, there awaited the massed host of the Dark One.
Young Sernas had told us that even on short notice the Kaleen could easily count upon a minimum of twenty-five thousand warriors. Well there they were! And something else had been added, too. For spaced between the companies of warriors and knights, and dark cowled priestwizards, were a hundred great kaatis, at least a dozen meegs-and another creature: the only thing in all of Fregis-Camelot, except a Vuun, that could kill a meeg….
It had been placed in the very center of the Dark One’s host. The howling came from it, amplified you can bet, from where it now seemingly crouched in the spring. It was called a skaiding by the Vuuns, for neither Omman nor Marackian had ever seen its like before. It was a plated and scaled meat-eating dinosaur. Its’ thirty-five foot body, inclusive of a horned tail of twenty feet, swayed heavily upon four monstrous legs. Extending from its front was a thick neck rising some ten feet from the torso. At the base of the neck were two more legs, or arms, with taloned extremities for the grasping of its prey. But the true horror was its head. The only parallel would be the Terran Tyrannosaurus Rex!
We stared, transfixed, at what could only mean our death. At that very instant the warm earth shook beneath us. Noxious gases arose from newly opened cracks in the ground and the stench of brimstone was everywhere. I had time to wonder what the Dark One would do next. But looking again at the skaiding, I doubted he could top it.
Whatever. The issue would soon be decided. For but fifteen hours remained for us and him!
From our ranks there arose another howling to match the one across the way. Our dottles had seen the skaiding. Their moans and cries were a cacophony of terror.
The lords, Gol-Stils and Gol-Tabus had ordered our lightly armed archers forwar
d to screen our front against any untoward advance of the Kaleen’s host-this, while we discussed what to do.
“It appears to me,” I told them all, “that though they possess superior force, they’ll still wait for us to attack them. The Dark One has but to bar our way for his plan to succeed, whereas we must hack our way through all that mess over there just to get at him.”
“The more reason, sir,” Gol-Tabus said pompously, “for us to begin right now. Allow me to inform you, Prince Cares, that I’ve killed many a kaati in my day, and I doubt me, sir that yon other strange beasties have charms against our spears.”
Young Sernas interrupted. He’d ridden up from the liaison with the units of the left flank. “That dam up there’s a peril,” he said calmly. He doffed his helm to wipe streaming sweat from his face. “We must seize it afore they do, else they’ll free the waters-to drown us all.”
His father grunted. “The peril’s sharpened your wits. Seize it! Take whom you need!”
Young Sernas instantly whirled his dottle-shouted back over his shoulder: “Ten minutes, Sire, and it’s ours.” And off he rode in a thunder of red dust, trailed by his blithe companions.
Interesting, I thought. There was a certain stiffness to his spine and a pride to his voice unnoticeable ‘til now. I asked then that we quickly advance our warriors to just this side of the stream. “In that way,” I said, “his maneuver will seem but a part of ours.
But-unless the dam is opened-we will stay and he’ll attack. And that way we’ll see the ‘way’ of it.”
I marveled that they, who just short hours before had bowed so obsequiously to the Dark One’s every wish, could now show such calm: considering that any advance at all on our part would be into the very jaws of hell itself. A plaguing thought touched me. Did they rely on me too heavily because of the Pug Boo’s counteraction at the bridge? I shrugged.
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