by Candy Rae
The Lai were taking casualties. Niaill watched as one golden dragon body was hit. Writhing in the flames that enveloped its body it plummeted to the ground.
But the Lai were forcing the Quorko to fly lower. One of the damaged Quorko crashed to the dirt.
With howls of rage the Larg swarmed over its fuselage, scraping and gnawing at any bits they could get hold of. Niaill couldn’t see the superstructure for the tawny bodies.
The troops around Niall began to cheer as another Quorko hit the dust.
In all, nine of the ten Quorko were forced to the ground. Only one managed to escape the holocaust, rising with difficulty through the flames of the Lai and heading west.
Niall gazed mesmerised at the Larg who were quite literally rending each Quorko apart piece by piece. He could hear their blood-roars as first one Quorko then another was forced open and he could hear, clear as day, the piercing shrieks of the Dglai inside as they met their deaths.
* * * * *
The Guildmaster and the Lai
Annert got the second bomba ready.
Haru dove down again, towards a Quorko that was making its wobbly way out of the battle area.
He dropped the bomba, it hurtled down. He watched the Lai who were flaming the Quorko move away to avoid the blast.
The bomba missed but not by very much, exploding perhaps three lindlengths away.
Annert crouched low on Haru’s back as he had been instructed.
Haru would now take on the Quorko with flaming breath.
He dove but then he swooped away.
Annert looked down. There would be no need for Haru to take on the Quorko. The Larg were doing just fine on their own.
* * * * *
Danal
The whimpering Inalei and Asya were cowering down, trying to blot the howls of agony that were hitting their minds. Danal clamped his hands to his ears in a vain attempt to blot it out too and fell to his knees.
“The Dglai,” he managed to gasp, “they are killing the families of the Larg. It is terrible.”
“How? What? Where?” screamed Grainne, looking frantically around her as if the Dglai were about to descend on their campsite.
“Far to the south,” Inalei raised his head, his voice shocked and dull.
“They must be killing many for the emotion wave to have got this far and with such strength,” pronounced Danal. “Lai, but my head is pounding.”
“I am sorry,” said Asya, “there was no time to shield.”
Danal swayed to his feet.
* * * * *
The Quorko
At first Quoi hadn’t been aware of the golden arrow descending from above.
The first Quoi knew of it was when he felt something impact the hull to the rear of his craft, where the engines were. It was Master Annert’s bomba. Then came the explosion and the engine began to stutter. The cabin of the Quorko began to fill with black smoke and the scout ship began to lose height. All he could do was to try and keep the nose up as it fell to the ground.
The smoke cleared as the extractor fans kicked in and Quoi spied a wedge of golden shapes flying down towards his and the other Quorko.
They looked familiar.
What is happening? What, who are they?
His Quorko hit the ground with a crash and a rending of strained metal. Out of the window-shield he could see were masses and masses of hairy bodies, the furious and angry Larg who were intent on gaining entry to his ship and tearing Quoi and the four crewmembers apart.
He kept firing the flame weapon but it was only making them angrier.
He could hear their talons scratching at the hull.
Quoi knew his death was only a matter of time.
* * * * *
Quoi and his four crewmembers had been the first Dglai to land on the planet. He was among the first to die.
The arrogance of the Dglai was their undoing, that and the fact that Kalavdr the Largan had never completely trusted his erstwhile allies. He hadn’t told Quoi that the Larg were telepathic. Qu therefore, when he had ordered the round up of the female Larg and their young, the eln and the lin, hadn’t realised that the males in the kohorts would know immediately when it happened.
* * * * *
Niaill
It was over.
The Larg took one last look up at the ridge before they turned and began to run back home, all but one kohort.
That kohort watched in silence as the Lai began to wheel down to the ground. Some, wounded, landed in a tangle of wings and bits of wing membrane, holed and charred.
“Medics!” Niaill shouted. “We need Medics down here! Fast!”
* * * * *
Tala
Qu was aware that the Ammokko’s external sensors had detected an incoming flier but he thought that it was one of the ten Quorko returning unannounced. He knew that they had come under attack but not from whom, Quoi’s message had been very quick and garbled. Qu assumed that the planetary inhabitants had found some way to attack the Quorko from the ground. It had happened on other planets. He was more concerned with the success of the fifteen Quorko who were rounding up the Larg who had not gone north with the kohorts. Larg meat would make a tasty alternative to the dull protein mix that was presently being served on the Ammokko.
Qu looked at the sensor screen. The blip was approaching fast and it was a strange shape. The locator system had not been made to home in on a small non-metallic attacker and he was having to rely on the less efficient short range sensors.
“Turn the exterior monitors on,” he ordered, “and point the long range locator towards where the sensor reports incoming.”
It took a moment for the Dglai to do this but at last, as Qu stood with impatience watching the screen resolve itself above his head, it came into focus and he could see exactly what it was approaching the ship.
Qu staggered backwards in shock.
“It’s not possible!” he gasped.
The Lai! It had to be, unbelievingly, the Lai! The legends spoke of the Lai! The shape could not be anything else. The Lai, with whom the Dglai had shared a planet once upon a time. He wondered what the Lai wanted. By the seas of the lost planet of Diaglon, how did he come to be here?
Qu ordered the ships guns to be made ready but he knew there would not be time for their mechanisms to charge before the Lai flyer was upon them.
The Ammokko was not furnished with the same type of weaponry as the Quorko. Her weapons were designed for an attack on or defence from other space ships. They fired missiles and smaller shells designed to punch through metal hulls.
The Dglai had never before had to use them while on a planet. The smaller of the weapons were ready first and began to fire out shells.
It was one of these small shells, filled full of shrapnel that got Tala and Chizu. It burst to one side of them, exploded its insides out with lethal intensity and shredded Chizu’s right wing. Chizu had no time to dodge away. He tried to compensate his flight path with his good wing but began to lose height.
Tala realised in that instant that they would no longer be able to place the power-core where they had first intended (it thrummed through her body, the needle on the dial quivering over the red point on the dial that told her it was about to blow) and then fly away.
She too was hurt, a piece of shrapnel had entered her shoulder with such force that if she hadn’t been tied on to Chizu’s back she would have fallen off.
Chizu would not be able to fly away from the blast when it came.
She knew what had to be done and so did he.
She glanced at the dial, the needle was well over the danger point. The power-core thrummed and began to judder.
She held the connector in place with determination, forcing the crystal to transfer, receive yet more energy into the core, trying to ignore the pain in her shoulder. She felt faint, her left hand didn’t seem to want to do what it was told.
“Head for the ship,” she shouted but the wind flipped her words away.
Chizu, striving mightily to retain air-height, stretched out his good wing and tilted towards the vast, shining, metal space ship.
Tala closed her eyes as Chizu glided straight for the Ammokko.
* * * * *
Danal
Danal stood beside Asya staring through the desert glare towards where Tala and Chizu had gone. Grainne brought him water but he would not eat.
The flash, when it came, filled the sky.
Danal and Asya continued their vigil. Chizu had said that he would be able to out-fly the blast wave. He was a strong Lai. He had told Danal that he was always the winner in the flight games and races. He was fast, perhaps the fastest Lai who had ever lived but as night passed into day and still they did not reappear Danal realised with an empty pang of loss that they would not be coming back.
All he had left of Tala were the memories of their time together, always snatched but always precious.
Asya said nothing, neither aloud nor telepathically. She did retain a presence in his mind and Danal was glad of the comfort.
His legs gave way beneath him as full realisation hit and he sat on the sand, sobbing. He scooped up a handful and watched it trickle through his fingers.
: Going, going, gone : he looked at Asya. Her glowing eyes were filled with compassion and love.
: They did it : she said.
: They did it? : he asked in a ‘voice’ absolutely devoid of emotion : the Ammokko is destroyed? :
: It is, I am sure it is :
: Are you definitely sure? :
: The power-core blew up did it not? :
: That doesn’t mean that it took the Ammokko with it :
Inalei came running. “There are Larg approaching,” he barked, the hackles down his neck and back rising so as to seem almost perpendicular.
Danal drew his sword.
: We’ll never know for certain if Tala and Chizu did it :
: We have done all that we could my Danal. I am sure she and Chizu did destroy the Dglai. I love you and am glad to be with you, here at the end :
As Zaoaldavdr and what remained of his warriors approached the gridref they saw two humans and two Lind standing beside a large rock waiting for death.
* * * * *
“Denei managed to get very strong mental thought through. He said that he was fighting,” Zaoaldavdr said in strangely accented Lindish, “then his mind-sense disappeared.”
“Denei is dead,” said Danal in a dull voice, “we met up with a Larg.”
“I see,” said Zaoaldavdr and lowered his head with regret. “I am sorry.”
“Do you know anything about what is happening to the north?”
“There is a great battle. Much killing.”
“Who is winning?” asked Danal.
“I do not know. We Larg of the Avuzdel are no longer a part of Largdom. We refused to take part in the insanity. The Susalai told us you were here in the dry nadlians. He asked us to protect you. We have been shadowing you for seven suns.”
“It was you we have been sensing?”
“Indeed. We could not contact you in case we alerted the kohorts and the Dglai to your presence.”
“And it was you who held off the kohort who were hunting us? We were sure there was one. The Larg that killed Derek and Denei would have told them where we were.”
Zaoaldavdr nodded.
“We fought them. We fought our brothers. Larg against Larg. It was a sad day, sad but necessary.”
“What now?”
“We wait for the end.”
“Your rtath, your eln, your lin?”
“Hidden where the Dglai will not find them. I never did trust the Dglai. Their promises of Larg ascendance were a falsehood. They turned on us in the end. They have already gathered in many of the meat herds. Hunger bites the packs. Even if your plan to destroy the Dglai has worked we will starve this coming cold season.”
“You and your people will not starve,” promised Danal. “Vadath will help.”
“As will we,” added Inalei.
Zaoaldavdr lifted surprised brown eyes but his mind was far away. He was not listening. Everyone except Grainne heard what he said next.
: The Ammokko is gone! Some survived the blast, none of the Dglai. Some Larg were far away but close enough to see when she blew up and to spread the news :
“Tala and Chizu did it!” the exultant voice of Inalei said to Grainne.
“What about the battle?” she asked.
“The Larg are gone,” Inalei answered, “except for one kohort, they do not know why.”
* * * * *
Niaill
The ridge was silent, every participant in the battle stunned by the events.
They stood and gazed mesmerised at the golden wings of the Lai spiralling down in ever decreasing circles. Then first one then another group began to shout out with jubilation. The ridge resounded with calls of welcome and relief that the battle was over.
Even Zuvavdr, Kohortangan of the Larg army in Duchesne who had remained on the battlefield with what remained of his kohort began to bark out a welcome of his own although he kept a wary eye on the Lindars.
He was defeated and defeat in battle was considered the greatest dishonour any Larg could experience; punishable by death but he could not find it in him but to feel anything but relief that the Largan’s plan had failed and that he need fight no more.
The oft denounced and repudiated stories about the existence of the Lai were true after all. The Largan had been wrong and more than wrong. Zuvavdr now realised he had been wrong in many things. The Dglai had not been the true allies of the Larg but a duplicitous enemy. They had used the kohorts of the Larg for their own purposes. What would happen now Zuvavdr had no idea but he did know that he was a witness to one of the most momentous events in history.
He stood, surrounded by his remaining warriors, tail between his legs as befitted one who had been vanquished and watched as first one then another golden flyer landed on the ground between him and the ridge. Some of the Lai, he noticed, had human riders on their backs.
Then there was a surge of movement from the centre of the ridge as the Lindars began to run down the slope towards where the Lai were landing.
He commanded his warriors to remain where they were and the kohort waited in a tight little knot for the Susyc to arrive so that he could intone the words of his formal surrender. Zuvavdr was not feeling despondent about having to utter the words. Perhaps once he had surrendered the victorious would permit him to approach the Lai on his own account, to praise them and to give thanks for what they had done to stop the madness.
From the ridge, Niaill and the rest of the Vada were keeping an eye on the small knot of Larg.
: They are not fleeing with the rest : telepathed a surprised Taraya : I wonder why :
: Perhaps they have nowhere to go : surmised Niaill : perhaps their eln and lin were among those who the Dglai killed and they have nowhere to go :
: Their Kohortangan wishes to surrender :
: It is not for us to receive it - that is the duty of Julia and Alyei :
But to their surprise it was not the Susyc pair who was now approaching the kohort but a large white-haired Lind that Niaill recognised as Hansei, the Susalai of the three branches of the Avuzdel. He trotted out of the crowd of Lind milling around the Lai and headed towards the Larg.
To Zuvadvr’s astonishment, Hansei, after he had introduced himself, refused to accept the surrender of the kohort, informing him that there was no need.
Zuvavdr did not know what a Susalai was but he did gather that Hansei was a most important Lind and thus merited a great deal of respect.
He bowed low in front of Hansei’s paws, his nose on the dirt.
“All will become clear in time,” Hansei told the confused Zuvavdr. “You are the new Largan?”
“Kalavdr is dead then? I feared it was so. I have not heard from him for many a long sun.”
Hansei nodded. “The kohorts who were with him are either
dead or fled. The Larg will need a new Largan now.”
“The Dglai?” asked Zuvavdr. “They have been killing our eln and our lin.”
“We know,” Hansei replied with sympathy, a sympathy quite remarkable in the circumstances when Zuvavdr thought about it, “and the Dglai ship is destroyed.”
A group of Vada were approaching as an apprehensive Zuvavdr watched.
“Holad,” explained Hansei. “They are here to tend to your hurts.”
Zuvavdr nearly collapsed with shock. The Holad had come to tend to his Larg!
: Some of the Holad have gone to the aid of the Larg, those not tending to the Lai :
: Good : announced Taraya, satisfaction in her mind-voice : what is happening over there is more tremendous even than the arrival of the Lai :
Niaill knew what she meant.
* * * * *
“From this day forth,” pronounced Hansei in a loud voice, “all enmity between Lind and Larg must be at an end. The Holad coming to your aid is the proof of this. Lind and Larg are together once more as the Lai have ever promised. Let peace exist between us now and always, as it was in the ancient times.”
At these words Zuvadvr’s tired legs did give way beneath him and from his prone position he looked around in stunned shock as the Holad began to move amongst his wounded, smearing smaha ointment on their hurts and speaking to them with voices of kindness and compassion. He saw one of the maroon clad humans begin to sew up a large bleeding tear in one of his warrior’s sides to his left. The young warrior would normally have died from such a serious wound; had in fact been dying before the Holad had arrived. Now he had every chance of a long life.