by David Drake
Quickly she sketched in a line drawing of a Nedge next to the quadruped. Hmm. About man-height in front, sloping to shorter hindlegs.
“The skin appears to be thick, they are sort of a dark gray color. I didn’t see the teeth. All of them I saw carried edged weapons, some had sidearms, others laser rifles. There were heavier weaponry, broken down for transport. No armor, I’d say this is light infantry, probably some kind of covert force rather than a stand-and-fight unit.”
“Horse ninja,” Stone said.
“Would that we had one to dissect,” Imani offered.
Stone nodded. Yes. Knowing what was apparent was important; knowing your enemy’s invisible secrets was also important. Did they have heart and lungs in the main torso? Or were there organs in the upper body? Nerve plexes? Where was the brain? Where best to strike or shoot to bring one down? Offhand, the rear end seemed to be the weak point, it would be easier to break its back, perhaps, than it would be to snap a man’s or a Khalian’s, but would that do you any good? Maybe they could operate just as well on two as four. They seemed descended from herd animals. Would they move in formation, or could they function just as well alone? How fast were they? How high could they jump? A lot of questions and very few answers.
Well. This kind of information would come as it would. There was nothing to be done for it.
“What do you think?” Imani asked.
“We don’t know what they want,” Stone said, “but if they have any kind of military skill at all, they’ll have to secure the temple; it’s the only civilization around here. They had sense enough to hit us with a pulse to take out power and communications. I’d have to assume they’Il come here pretty quickly before we can figure out what is going on or maybe get some kind of com back online.”
Imani nodded. “Berq?”
“I agree with Stone. Were I leading the quads, I would already be halfway here. They can camouflage the ship so routine spysats won’t pick it up, and nobody is apt to stumble across it on foot. If we assume they didn’t land just to waste their time, there is somewhere else they want to get to, and they’ll need a place to hide that many troops. The temple would be a good base.”
Imani said, “That is also how I see it. I have sent my students away. They number a dozen and they know the terrain, so I expect one or more of them will manage to reach the nearest village, about five hard days on foot. They will inform the proper authorities.”
“You could have sent fewer and kept some here,” Berq said.
“They are enthusiastic, but more likely to get in the way than help. We have no projectile weapons with which to outfit them.”
“We could just fade into the woods and wait for help,” Berq said.
“I am Khalian and these serve those who exploited us. I cannot run and hide and do nothing. Would you, if it were your world?”
Berq offered a shrug. “Probably.”
Imani fixed her with a cool stare. “Loyalties are different,” he said. “What if someone attacked the Guild With No Nest?”
Berq blinked once, and then regarded the Khalian with a piercing look.
Stone was aware that something important was being said. But he had never heard of something called the Guild With No Nest. Some kind of clan?
“I am not so poor a teacher that my best students could be defeated so soundly by any but a very skilled fighter. I have heard of the Amaji and the few who can fly with it.”
Berq nodded, “Your point is well taken.”
“You are certainly free to leave if you wish.”
“Maybe not,” Berq said. “I do owe them for knocking my flitter down.”
16.
Quickly Imani took stock of their weapons and of their plan. The airgun was accurate and effective on deer to a hundred meters. His rocket pistol would throw a missile farther, but it would take a steady hand to hit anything past that same hundred meters. Berq said that her dartgun had half that range. They were therefore somewhat limited in their options. There remained less than two hours of darkness, and they had better make the best use of the night that they could. Once the invaders reached the temple and the sun came up, things would be much more difficult. The only real advantages they had were that he knew the terrain better than the invaders and that for a time, at least, they had surprise on their side. Plus maybe one other: Berq had said that each of the invaders carried an edged weapon. Perhaps they had some kind of personal honor. That might be worth something. He said as much to Berq and Stone.
“I have Khalian fighting knives. You would honor me if you would carry them.”
“Of course,” Stone said.
“My pleasure,” Berq said.
“I think we can find some straps to fit you. And let us move quickly. There is a gully through which any sizable force must pass to reach here. If we get there first, it would be to our advantage.
17.
Berq was uncertain as to her motives. Somehow, the old Khalian had challenged her honor, in a way in which she could not quite determine. It was not her problem, this business, and yet she found she could not simply walk away. Was it because these two were like her? They had the feel of warriors, and if not her equal, then they were close to it. Outside of a few inside the Guild, Berq had never met another, Nedge or alien, who could fly with her. And even in the Guild, she was the best. What would it be like to go into battle with equals at her side? Even against such odds?
Well. The odds were bad, but that was the way of it. All life was a risk. One made do. And she had no one waiting for her at home. If she did not return, the Guild would elect a new Master of Assassins. She would not be missed by fledglings or a mate.
They took fifteen minutes to move supplies from the temple to a nearby patch of forest, then set off for the gully. She remembered passing through it earlier, and it was a perfect place for an ambush. There was a narrow path next to a rain-swollen stream, and the sides rose perhaps seven or eight armspans to high ground. Fifteen meters with the dartgun was too far for tack-driving accuracy, but she could hit a target the size of the Kosantzu all night long. Whether the needles would drive far enough into that thick skin to allow the poison to work, or whether the poison would affect the creatures, was another matter. There was only one way to find out. She had survived death once this night. The muggy air was especially sweet because of that. And she had been living on borrowed time since the guard’s gun had jammed on her third assignment a dozen years past. She had accomplished her last assignment. She had nothing to lose but her life, and the first thing an assassin learned was just how fragile life could be.
She certainly could do worse than Stone and Imani for fighting companions. What the gods will, happens. She would soon see what the gods had in mind.
18.
Stone wished he’d had time to practice with the air rifle. Imani told him it was sighted dead on for fifty meters, center hold with the three-dot iridium glowsights, and good for five shots before the motorized pump had to be worked. The weapon held five rounds and he had a packet of forty-five more after the first loading was gone.
Whatever scenarios he had imagined on his trip across space to come here, this had not been one of them.
Still, he was committed. Death would come when it would. Technique was all.
19.
They were an hour from false dawn, when they arrived at the gully and set up. Imani and Stone took the east side, Berq the west. All the years since last Imani had done killing battle seemed to drop away, and the feelings he remembered came back. Different, in that he was not afraid to die in quite the same way, he had made his peace with the Taker, but the same in the anticipation.
Five minutes passed, and he smelled them before he saw them. They had an oily, musky scent, and it was heavy on the night air. Imani raised one paw and gestured to Berq across the gully. The three of them had agreed on several signals beforehand, simple things. Here they come, this one said.
There they were. Given their size and numbers, they moved f
airly quietly through the gully. Nothing rattled or clinked. Thirty or more, Imani guessed. He did not have time for a certain count before they were almost directly below.
As agreed, he tracked the second five. Berq would shoot at the first five, Stone the third group. Since the Nedge had the shortest-range weapon, her shot would be first.
Imani heard the quiet twang! of the dartgun and without waiting to see the effect, he began firing.
The rocket launcher’s whoosh was joined by the whump of Stone’s airgun.
Below, somebody screamed orders as several of the Kosantzu fell, dead or wounded. A few flashes of hard orange light bounced from the gully’s upper edges, tearing chunks of rock away and boiling the wet dirt where they hit.
Imani’s rocket pistol was very visible in the dark. He managed four shots before the laser fire steadied and found his position. He slid back from the edge as the beams of half a dozen weapons baked black the spot where he had been a second before.
Stone also rolled back as other beams found his position.
Across the gully several hot laser claws raked at the Nedge’s perch. Her weapon did not give off any telltale flashes, but those below had set up a field of fire and were taking no chances. Imani saw Berq scoot away from the edge as the coherent light bounced all around her.
“Go!” Imani said. “To the rendezvous!”
20.
A kilometer away the trio met. Berq arrived first, Stone and Imani shortly thereafter.
“I shot all five,” Berq said, “but only three went down. I think maybe the needles didn’t dig deep enough on the other two. I don’t think I missed.”
“I shot four, four fell,” Imani said. “I sought to hit where a deer’s heart would be.”
“I only shot three. I think the brain is in the head, though. I hit the first one there and he collapsed fast. The second one I hit in the upper body and he fell, but got up. The third one I hit on the lower body, right at the shoulder. I didn’t have time to see what he did.”
Berq said, “So we killed or wounded ten. I made it thirty-five of them.”
“You have a sharp eye,” Imani said.
“That leaves more than two dozen, even if all the ones we hit are out of action,” Stone said. “And we will play hell sneaking up on them again.”
“Back to the wheat field?” Berq said.
Imani nodded. “I have six high-explosive rockets. If they cross after daylight, we might get a couple more.”
“And if they hurry and get there in the dark?” Stone said.
Imani shrugged. “We will have to try something else.”
21.
The Kosantzu were not altogether stupid. They had made a bad mistake going into the gully, but they did not repeat it by moving their remaining force across an open field of knee-deep wheat. Even though they didn’t arrive at the edge of the field until well after the sun rose, they stayed in the cover of the trees.
“What do you think?” Stone asked.
“They’ll probably flank the field. Or set up one of the heavier weapons and blast away at the first sign of fire,” Berq said.
“We can’t form much of line with just us three,” Stone said.
“We fall back,” lmani said.
22.
The man, the Nedge, and the Khalian watched from the woods as the Kosantzu cautiously approached the temple. The quads were prepared for resistance, though there would be none.
Berq’s vision was the clearest, and she could see well enough to tell that two of the Kosantzu carried large-bore charged-particle spitters, to judge by the large capacitor packs attached, and several others waved directional sensors back and forth, probably sweeping for signs of life-heat.
There were no signs of the dead or wounded.
“They have to believe that whoever jumped them will run for help, so they won’t be waiting around very long.”
“Yes,” Imani said. “We’ll have to take them out before they leave and maybe spread out.”
“A difficult chore,” Berq observed.
“Perhaps not, if those swords they carry mean anything.”
Berq and Stone both looked at Imani.
“You are an assassin,” he said. “You know what the surest way to take out a target is.”
Berq nodded, understanding.
Stone didn’t pick it up so fast. “You know of a method to take out more than a score of heavily armed soldiers with what weapons we have?”
“If I can get one of their laser rifles.”
“Looks to me as if a laser pulse would glance right off those things unless you hit it solid. Our own weapons are as effective.”
“Not quite.”
He explained.
23.
The sentry was understandably nervous. He paced back and forth in the open, next to the nearest outbuilding. If the sentry had a sensor–and they had to assume he did–he would have it tuned to Khalian body mass. Since both Berq and Stone were larger, he’d spot them, too. The thing probably had a range of at least fifty meters. Even if they could sneak up on him somehow, he’d know they were coming if they got too close. Too, the Kosantz had picked a fairly clear spot, and he would see anybody trying to come across the open ground between the woods and himself. It was a distance of two hundred meters between the woods and where he stood, too far to use the airgun.
The trick was to get close enough to shoot him without being seen.
Berq claimed to be an expert with a rifle, so she would be the shooter. It would be up to Stone and Imani to distract the sentry long enough for her to get a clear shot.
The plan was simple.
Stone worked his way around the far side of the sentry. They would offer the Kosantz one target–Stone insisted that he be allowed to provide it–and when he was drawn to it, Berq would move within range.
Stone crept and crawled through the still-muddy grounds, Imani watching for other guards. When he was thirty or so meters away from the guard, Stone stood and offered a fully erect heat shadow.
The guard’s sensor cheeped, and he spun surefootedly, unslinging the laser rifle and snapping it up to his upper shoulder.
Stone dropped like his namesake.
Having his target disappear, the Kosantz trotted forward a few steps, weapon held ready.
Berq Ieft the cover of the trees and sprinted toward the guard.
Stone leaped up and dropped flat again.
The Kosantz guard whipped his rifle into position and fired.
The silent pulse scorched over Stone’s prostrate form, sizzling the air and missing him by maybe ten centimeters. He could feel the heat, or imagined he could. Too close.
The Kosantz moved toward Stone, ready to blast anything that moved. Come on, Berq–!
Berq realized that the guard would reach a place where he could see and hit Stone before she would get to optimum range. She was twenty meters out. She stopped, dropped prone, and held her aim high, over the Kosantz’s head. She caught her breath, sharpened the sights, and squeezed the firing lever. The whump kicked the weapon back against her shoulder. She looked at the target. He was raising his weapon again–
The Kosantz’s shoulders jerked back and he clawed at the middle of his back with one hand, dropping the laser rifle. A good twenty-five centimeters below her point of aim, that hit. If she’d held on the middle of his back, she’d have put one right up his ass. Amazing what one thinks of during moments of great stress.
Stone came up and ran toward the wounded Kosantz, firing the borrowed dartgun. One of the needles got through. The sentry drooped over, quivering.
Stone snatched up the laser rifle and ran toward her. Imani angled in behind the man, moving fast for an old Khalian. Berq turned and moved back toward the woods.
24.
The laser rifle was coded. Any hand that pulled the firing lever other than the one to which the weapon had been custom-mated would disappear when the laser’s nuclear battery went up. The unfortunate shooter would leave no more than
a slightly radioactive crater twenty meters across and as much as two meters deep behind when he went, depending on how hard the surface was, of course.
The battery could be removed, but not without the trigger mechanism, since they were of a piece. There were tales of stolen coded weapons with the original owner’s severed hand stuck in place under a new owner’s grip, but that would not be needed here.
Imani removed the battery and firing mechanism and tucked it into his belt pouch, out of sight.
“No point in delaying,” he said.
He started off, with Berq and Stone a few paces behind him.
Stone said, “That’s what he meant when he was talking about the best way to assassinate somebody.”
“Yes. Killing another is fairly easy if you don’t mind dying when you do it.”
Stone shook his head. “He had things to teach me.”
“Is he not teaching you even now?”
Stone thought about it a moment. “Yes. I suppose you’re right.”
25.
When they were within shouting distance of the main building, Imani yelled out.
“Are you a species with any honor?”
Kosantzu emerged, assorted weapons held ready.
“They’d be foolish to go for this,” Stone said.
“They are already foolish to be owned by others,” Berq said.
“It’s a big risk.”
“Not so big,” Imani said.”I know them, because I know my own people. We were thralls to the same masters.”
A rough voice answered in Khalian militaryspeak. “Who challenges the honor of the Kosantzu?”