Fires of Azeroth com-3

by C. J. Cherryh

  Suddenly Kessun cried warning at a rattle of rock behind, for enemies poured off the rocks at their left flank, cutting them off from retreat

  Witch-sword and plain steel: they held an instant; then Morgaine began to back against the rock of the Horn. These Shiua did not break and run: "Angharanl"they cried, knowing Morgaine, voices hoarse with hate. With pike and staff they pressed forward, demon-helms on the one side and marshlands rabble on the other.

  There was no more retreat. Lellin and Sezar, Sham and Kessun, had snatched themselves weapons such as they could of the dead, wooden spears and barbed lances. They set their backs against the jumbled rock of the Horn, the horses backed almost against it, and held, the while Changelingdid its dread work.

  Then there was respite, a falling back, the enemy seeming exhausted, dazed by the lessening of their ranks, and raw abrasion of Gate-force loose in the area: hearing dimmed, skin seemed raw, breath seemed close. A man could bear that only so long.

  So could its wielder. Vanye spurred forward as the retreat spread, thinking Morgaine would attempt it but she did not; he checked his impulse at once, appalled when he saw her face in the opal light. Sweat beaded her skin. She could not sheath the sword. He pried it from her fingers and felt the numbing force in his own bones, worse than it was wont to be. With that gone, she simply slumped against Siptah's neck, undone, and he stayed beside her, the sword yet naked, for he wished to give their enemies no encouragement by sheathing it.

  "Let us try," said Merir, moving up beside. "Our force added to yours. We might have distance enough here."

  Morgaine sat up and shook her white hair back. "No," she exclaimed. "No. The combination is too dangerous. It might still bridge, take us all, perhaps. No. And stay back. Your kind of barrier cannot turn weapons. We have seen that. You and the arrha-"She looked about, for the arrhawas not with Merir. Vanye cast a quick look back too, and saw the small white figure poised halfway up the black rock, perched there forlornly… horse lost in the melee. "Send she stays there," Morgaine said. "Lord, go back, go back against the rock."

  Then came a booming from far below, echoing up the height. Even the murmur of the enemy fell silent, and the faces of the arrhendimwere for an instant bewildered.

  "Ram," Vanye said hoarsely, shifting his grip on Changeling'sdragon-hilt. "The Lesser Horn will fall quickly now."

  A shout arose from the enemy; they had also understood the sound and the meaning of it.

  "They will wait now," Lellin judged, "til they can come at us with the help of those from the flat."

  "We ought to carry the attack to these uphill of us," Morgaine said. "Sweep them from our path and try to reach Nehmin's doors."

  "We cannot," Vanye said. "Our backs are at least to rock and we can hold that turning. Higher up-we have no guarantee there is a place to stand."

  Morgaine nodded slowly. "If they grow cautious of us, we may last a little time-maybe long enough to make a difference for the arrhend.At least we carry food and water. Matters could be worse."

  "We have not eaten today," Sezar exclaimed.

  Morgaine laughed weakly at that, and others smiled. "Aye," she said. "We have not. Perhaps we should take the chance."

  "A drink at least," said Sharrn, and Vanye realized the parchment dryness of his own throat, his lips cracked. He sipped at water of the flask Morgaine offered him, for he did not sheath the sword. And another flask went the rounds, fiery stuff that lent a little false warmth to shock-chilled bodies. In their lasting freedom from attack, Sezar broke a journeycake or two which they passed about; and Kessun went over to the arrhaon her lonely perch, but she accepted only the drink, refusing the food.

  Anything of substance lay cold in the belly, indigestible; only the arrhendimliquor lent any comfort. Vanye wiped his eyes with the back of a bloody hand and suddenly became aware of silence.

  The ram had ceased.

  "Soon now," Morgaine said. "Vanye, give me back the sword."

  "Liyo-"

  "Give it to me."

  He did so, hearing that tone; and his arm and shoulder ached, not alone from the shocks they had endured, but from the little time he had held it. It was worse than ever it had been. Jewel-force,he thought suddenly, in the fortress above us. Someone has one unmasked.

  And then with comforting clarity: They know that we are here.

  Not yet did the enemy come on them. There was a growing murmur from below, from the part of the trail which wound below the Dark Horn. The sound came nearer and louder, and now their enemies above rallied, waiting eagerly.

  "We simply hold," Morgaine said. "Stay alive. That is all we can do."

  "They come," Kessun said.

  It was so. The dark mass of riders thundered up the road in the dark. They have erred,Vanye thought with grim joy; they choose speed over numbers.And then he saw the number of them and his heart sank, for they packed the road, filled it, coming on them leftward as the marshlanders surged forward on the right, slower than the riders who plunged between.

  Demon-helms, white-haired riders, and pikes and lances beyond counting in the moonlight. .. and there was one bareheaded.

  "Shien!" Vanye shouted in rage, knowing now who it was who had broken Roh's defense, though Roh had spared him once. He checked his impulse on the instant: he had other concern, Shiua arrows on their flank. Morgaine fended those away, though one hit his mailed ribs and nigh drove the breath from him. Sharrn and Kessun spent their last several shafts in the other direction, into the riders… spent them well; and Lellin and Sezar gave good account of themselves with Shiua pikes. But constantly they were forced back against the rocks.

  A charge surged at them. Shien was the heart of it, and he came hard, seeing them without retreat. Horsemen plunged about them and Morgaine drove Siptah for the midst of them, aimed at Shien himself. She could not; man and rider Changelingtook, but there were ever more of them, more pouring up the road, deafening clamor of steel and hooves.

  They were done. Vanye kept at her side, doing what he could; and only for an instant in the shying of a demon-helm from attack was there an opening. He rammed the spurs in with a manic yell and took it, broke through, swung an arm which itself was lead-weighted with sword and armor, but he was suddenly without hindrance.

  Shien knew him: the khal-lord'sface twisted in grim pleasure. The blade swung, rang off his, his off Shien's in two passes. His exhausted horse staggered as Shien spurred forward and he lurched aside and felt the blade hit his back, numbing muscles. His left arm fell useless. He drove up straightarmed with his blade with force enough to unseat his elbow, and it grated off armor and hit flesh. Shien cried a shriek of rage and died, impaled on it.

  Gate-force swept near, Morgaine by him. The wind out of the dark took the man who came at him; the face went whirling away into dark, a tiny figure and lost. He reeled in the saddle, and while the reins were still tangled in the fingers of his left hand, the arm was lifeless, the horse unguided. Siptah shouldered it back; it staggered and turned with that shepherding as Morgaine tried to set herself twixt him and them.

  Then her eyes fixed aloft, toward the Horn.

  "No!" she cried, reining back. Vanye saw the white-robed arrhawho stood with one arm thrust up, the shapes of men crawling up the height to reach her; but the arrhalooked not at them, but to Morgaine, fist extended, white wraith against the rock.

  Then light flared, and dark bridged from Changeling'stip to the Horn, cold and terrible. Rocks whirled away vast and then eye-wrenchingly small; and riders and horses, debris sucked screaming into a starry void. The white form of the arrhaglowed and streamed into that wind, vanished. Abruptly light went, all save Changelingitself, while the earth shook and rumbled.

  Horses shied back and forward, and part of the road went. Rock rumbled over the side, taking riders with it; rock tumbled from the height, and poured over the edge. Those riders nearest cried out in terror, and Morgaine shrieked a curse and whipped a blow that took the man nearest.

  Few Shiua remain
ed; they fled back, confounding themselves with the marshlanders. And Vanye cast his sword from his bloody fingers; with his right hand he dragged the reins from his useless left and kept with her.

  The remaining Shiua attempted the slide itself, scrambling down the unstable rocks to escape; some huddled together in desperate defense, and a few of their own arrows returned from arrhendimbows shattered that.

  There was silence then. The balefire of Changelinglit a place of twisted bodies, riven rock, and seven of them who survived. Kessun lay dead, held in Sharrn's arms: the old arrhenmourned in silence; the arrhawas gone; Sezar had taken hurt, Lellin trying with shaking hands to tear a bandage for the wound.

  "Help me," Morgaine asked in a broken voice.

  Vanye tried, letting go the reins, but she could not control her arm to give him the sword; it was Merir who rode to her right, Merir alone of them unscathed; and Merir who took the sword from her fingers, before Vanye could prevent it

  Power… the shock of it reached Merir's eyes, and thoughts were born there that were not good to see. For a moment Vanye reached for his dagger, thinking that he might hurl himself across Siptah-strike before Changelingtook him and Morgaine.

  But then the old lord held it well aside, and asked the sheath; Morgaine gave it to him. The deadly force slipped within, and the light winked out, leaving them blind in the dark.

  'Take it back," Merir said hoarsely. "That much wisdom I have gained in my many years. Take it back."

  She did so, and tucked it against her like a recovered child, bowed over it. For a moment she remained so, exhausted. Then she flung her head back and looked about her, drawing breath.

  It was utter wreckage, the place where they had stood. No one moved. The horses hung their heads and shifted weight, spent, even Siptah. Vanye found feeling returning to his back and his fingers, and suddenly wished that it were not. He felt of his side and found riven leather and parted mail at the limit of his reach; whether he was bleeding he did not know, but he moved the shoulder and the bone seemed whole. He dismounted and limped over to pick up his discarded sword.

  Then he heard shouting from the distance below, and the heart froze in him. He returned to his horse and mounted with difficulty, and the others gathered themselves up, Sharrn delaying to take a quiver of arrows from a marshlander's corpse. Lellin gathered up a bow and quiver, armed now as he preferred. But Sezar was hardly able to get to the saddle.

  The sound was coming up from the foot of the road. It roared like the sea on rocks, as wild and confused.

  "Let us ride higher," Morgaine said. "Beware ambush; but that rockfall may or may not have blocked off the road below us."

  They rode slowly, the only strength they and the horses had left, up the winding turns, blind in the dark. Morgaine would not draw the sword, and none wished her to. Up and up they wound, and amid the slow ring of the horses' shod hooves there were sounds still drifting up at them out of the night.

  A great square arch loomed suddenly before them, and a vast hold built of the very stone of the hill. Nehmin: here if anywhere there should be insistence, and there was none. The great doors were scarred and dented with blows, a discarded ram before them, but they had held.

  Merir's stone flashed once, twice, reddening his hand.

  Then slowly the great doors yielded inward, and they rode into a blaze of light, over polished floors, where a thin line of white-robed arrhaawaited them.

  "You are she," said the eldest, "about whom we were warned."

  "Aye," Morgaine said.

  The elder bowed, to her and to Merir, and all the others inclined themselves dutifully.

  "We have one wounded," Morgaine said wearily. "The rest of us will go outside and watch. We have advantage here, if we do not let ourselves be attacked by stealth. By your leave, sir."

  "I will go," said Sezar, though his face was drawn and seemed older than his years. "You shall not," Lellin said. "But I will watch with them for you."

  Sezar nodded surrender then, and slipped down from his horse. If there had not been an arrhaclose at hand, he would have fallen.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Cold wind whipped among the rocks where they sheltered, and they wrapped in their cloaks and sat still, warmed by hot drink which the arrhabrought out to them-fed, although they were so bloody and wretched that food was dry in the mouth. Arrhatended their horses, for they were hardly fit to care for themselves; Vanye interfered in that only to assure himself that at least one of them had some skill in the matter, and then he returned to Morgaine.

  Sezar joined them finally, supported by two of the young arrhaand wrapped in a heavy cloak; Lellin arose to rebuke him, but said nothing after all, for joy that he was able to have come. The khemeissank down at his feet and Sharrn's and rested against their knees, perhaps as warm as he would have been inside and fretting less for being where they were.

  Morgaine sat outermost of their group, and looked on them little; generally she gazed outward with a bleak concentration which made her face stark in the glare from Nehmin's open doors. Her arm was hurting her, perhaps other wounds as well. She carried it tucked against her, her knees drawn up. Vanye had moved into such a position that he blocked most of the wind, the only charity she would accept, possibly because she did not notice it. He hurt; in every muscle he hurt, and not alone with that, but with the anguish in Morgaine.

  Changelinghad killed, had taken lives none of them could count; and more than that-it had taken yet another friend; that was the weight on her soul now, he thought: that and worry for the morrow.

  There was still the tumult on the field below… sometimes diminishing, sometimes increasing as bands surged toward the rock of Nehmin and away again.

  "The road must surely be blocked with the stonefall," Vanye observed, and then realized that would remind her of the arrhaand the ruin, and he did not want to do that.

  "Aye," she said in Andurin. "I hope." And then with a shake of her head, still staring into the dark: "It was a fortunate accident. I do not think we should have survived otherwise. Fortunate too… there were none of us in the gap twixt Changelingand the arrha."

  "You are wrong."

  She looked at him.

  "Not fortunate," he said. "Not chance. The little arrhaknew. I bore her across the field down there. She had great courage. And I believe she thought it through and waited until it had to be tried."

  Morgaine said nothing. Perhaps she took peace of it. She turned back to the view into the dark, where cries drifted up fainter and fainter. Vanye looked in that direction and then back at her, with a sudden chill, for he saw her draw her Honor-blade. But she cut one of the thongs that hung at her belt-ring and gave it to him, sheathing the blade again.

  "What am I to do with this?" he asked, thoroughly puzzled.

  She shrugged, looking for once unsure of herself. "Thee never told me thoroughly," she said, lapsing into that older, familiar accent, "for what thee was dishonored… why they made thee ilin,that I know; but why did they take thy honor from thee too? I would never," she added, "orderthee to answer."

  He looked down, clenching the thong taut between his fists, conscious of the hair that whipped about his face and neck. He knew then what she was trying to give him, and he looked up with a sudden sense of release. "It was for cowardice," he said, "because I would not die at my father's wish."

  "Cowardice." She gave a breath of a laugh, dismissing such a thought. "Thee?-Braid thy hair, Nhi Vanye. Thee's been too long on this road for that."

  She spoke very carefully, watching his face: in this grave matter even liyoought not to intervene. But he looked from her to the dark about them and knew that this was so. With a sudden resolve he set the thong between his teeth and swept back his hair to braid it, but the injured arm would not bear that angle. He could not complete it, and took the thong from his mouth with a sigh of frustration. "Liyo-"

  "I might," she said, "if thy arm is too sore."

  He looked on her, his heart stopped for a mo
ment and then beginning again. No one touched an uyo'shair, save his closest kin… no woman except one in intimate relation with him. "We are not kin," he said.

  "No. We are far from kin."

  She knew, then, what she did. For a moment he tried to make some answer, then as it were of no consequence, he turned his back to her and let her strip out his own clumsy braiding. Her fingers were deft and firm, making a new beginning.

  "I do not think I can make a proper Nhi braid," she said. "I have done only my own once and long ago, Chya."

  "Make it Chya, then; I am not ashamed of that."

  She worked, gently, and he bowed his head in silence, feeling what defied speaking. Long-time comrades, she and he; at least in distance and time as men measured it; ilinand liyo-he thought that there might be great wrong in what had grown between them; he feared that there was-but conscience in this area grew very faint.

  And that Morgaine kri Chya set affection on anything vulnerable to loss-he knew what that asked of her.

  She finished, took the thong from him and tied it The warrior's knot was familiar and yet unaccustomed to him, setting his mind back to Morija in Kursh, where he had last been entitled to it. It was a strange feeling. He turned then, met her gaze without lowering his eyes as once he might That was also strange.

  "There are many things," he said, "we have never reckoned with each other. Nothing is simple."

  "No," she said. "Nothing is." She turned her face to the dark again, and suddenly he realized there was silence below… no clash of arms, no distant shouting, no sound of horses.

  The others realized it too. Merir stood and looked out over the field, of which only the vaguest details could be seen. Lellin and Sharrn leaned on the rocks to try to see, and Sezar struggled up with Lellin's help to look out over the edge.

  Then from far away came thin cries, no warlike shouts, but terror. Such continued for a long time, at this point of the horizon and that.