IV
According to the fiction tapes, the colonized worlds of the galaxy varywildly from each other. In cold and unromantic fact, it isn't so. Spacetravel is too cheap and sol-type solar systems too numerous to justifythe settlement of hostile worlds. There's no point in trying to livewhere one has to put on special equipment every time he goes outdoors.There's no reason to settle on a world where one can't grow the kind ofvegetation one's ancestors adapted themselves to some tens of thousandsof generations ago. It simply doesn't make sense!
So the inhabited worlds of the galaxy are farther apart than they couldbe, perhaps, and much more alike than is necessary. But the human racehas a predilection for gravity fields not too far from 980cm-secaccellerative force. We humans were designed for something like that. Weprefer foodstuffs containing familiar amino compounds. Our metabolismwas designed around them. And since our geneticists have learned how toput aggressiveness into the genes of terrestrial-origin plants--whynowadays they briskly overwhelm the native flora wherever they areintroduced. And it's rational to let it happen. If people are to thriveand multiply on new worlds as they are colonized, it's more convenientto modify the worlds to fit the colonists than the colonists to fit theworlds.
Therefore Bron Hoddan encountered no remarkable features in thelandscape of Darth as he rode through the deepening night. There wasgrass, which was not luxuriant. There were bushes, which were not undulylush. There were trees, and birds, and various other commonplace livingthings whose forebears had been dumped on Darth some centuries before.The ecological system had worked itself out strictly by hit-or-miss, butthe result was not unfamiliar. Save for the star-pattern overhead,Hoddan could have believed himself on some parts of Zan, or some partsof Walden, or very probably somewhere or other on Lohala or Kent orFamagusta or any other occupied world between the Rims.
There was, though, the star-pattern. Hoddan tried to organize it in hismind. He knew where the sun had set, which would be west. He asked thelatitude of the Darthian spaceport. Thal did not know it. He asked aboutmajor geographical features--seas and continents and so on. Thal had noideas on the subject.
Hoddan fumed. He hadn't worried about such things on Walden. Of course,on Walden he'd had one friend, Derec, and believed he had a sweetheart,Nedda. There he was lonely and schemed to acquire the admiration ofothers. He ignored the sky. Here on Darth he had no friends, but therewere a number of local citizens now doubtless recovered fromstun-pistol bolts and yearning to carve him up with large knives. He didnot feel lonely, but the instinct to know where he was, was again inoperation.
The ground was rocky and far from level. After two hours of riding on asmall and wiry horse with no built-in springs, Hoddan hurt in a greatmany places he'd never known he owned. He and Thal rode in anindeterminate direction with an irregular scarp of low mountainssilhouetted against the unfamiliar stars. A vagrant night-wind blew.Thal had said it was a three-hour ride to Don Loris' castle. Aftersomething over two of them, he said meditatively:
"I think that if you wish to give me a present I will take it and notmake a gift in return. You could give me," he added helpfully, "yourshare of the plunder from our victims."
"Why?" demanded Hoddan. "Why should I give you a present?"
"If I accepted it," explained Thal, "and made no gift in return, I wouldbecome your retainer. Then it would be my obligation as a Darthiangentleman to ride beside you, advise, counsel, and fight in yourdefense, and generally to uphold your dignity."
Hoddan suspected himself of blisters in places that had no dignity aboutthem. He said suspiciously:
"How about Don Loris? Aren't you his retainer?"
"Between the two of us," said Thal, "he's stingy. His presents are notas lavish as they could be. I can make him a return-present of part ofthe money we won in combat. That frees me of duty to him. Then I couldaccept the balance of the money from you, and become a retainer ofyours."
"Oh," said Hoddan.
"You need a retainer badly," said Thal. "You do not know the customshere. For example, there is enmity between Don Loris and the young LordGhek. If the young Lord Ghek is as enterprising as he should be, some ofhis retainers should be lying in wait to cut our throats as we approachDon Loris' stronghold."
"Hm-m-m," said Hoddan grimly. But Thal seemed undisturbed. "This systemof gifts and presents sounds complicated. Why doesn't Don Loris simplygive you so much a year, or week, or whatnot?"
Thal made a shocked sound.
"That would be pay! A Darthian gentleman does not serve for pay! Tooffer it would be insult!" Then he said, "Listen!"
He reined in. Hoddan clumsily followed his example. After a moment ortwo Thal clucked to his horse and started off again.
"It was nothing," he said regretfully. "I hoped we were riding into anambush."
* * * * *
Hoddan grunted. It could be that he was being told a tall tale. But backat the spaceport, the men who came after him waving large knives hadseemed sincere enough.
"Why should we be ambushed?" he asked. "And why do you hope for it?"
"Your weapons would destroy our enemies," said Thal placidly, "and thepickings would be good." He added: "We should be ambushed because theLady Fani refused to marry the Lord Ghek. She is Don Loris' daughter,and to refuse to marry a man is naturally a deadly insult. So he shouldravage Don Loris' lands at every opportunity until he gets a chance tocarry off the Lady Fani and marry her by force. That is the only way theinsult can be wiped out."
"I see," said Hoddan ironically.
He didn't. The two horses topped a rise, and far in the distance therewas a yellow light, with a mist above it as of illuminated smoke.
"That is Don Loris' stronghold," said Thal. He sighed. "It looks like wemay not be ambushed."
They weren't. It was very dark where the horses forged ahead throughbrushwood. As they moved onward, the single light became two. They weregreat bonfires burning in iron cages some forty feet up in the air.Those cages projected from the battlements of a massive, cut-stone wall.There was no light anywhere else underneath the stars.
Thal rode almost underneath the cressets and shouted upward. A voiceanswered. Presently a gate clanked open and a black, cavelike openingappeared behind it. Thal rode grandly in, and Hoddan followed. Now thatthe ride seemed over, he let himself realize where he ached from theunaccustomed exercise. Everywhere. He also guessed at the area of hisskin first rubbed to blisters and then to the discomfort of raw fleshunderneath.
The gate clanked shut. Torches waved overhead. Hoddan found that he andThal had ridden into a very tiny courtyard. Twenty feet above them, aninner battlemented wall offered excellent opportunities for theinhabitants of the castle to throw things down at visitors who afteradmission turned out to be undesired.
Thal shouted further identifications, including a boastful and entirelyuntruthful declaration that he and Hoddan, together, had slaughteredtwenty men in one place and thirty in another, and left them lying intheir gore.
The voices that replied sounded derisive. Somebody came down a rope andfastened the gate from the inside. With an extreme amount of creaking,an inner gate swung wide. Men came out of it and took the horses. Hoddandismounted, and it seemed to him that he creaked as loudly as the gate.Thal swaggered, displaying coins he had picked from the pockets of themen the stun-pistols had disabled. He said splendidly to Hoddan:
"I go to announce your coming to Don Loris. These are his retainers.They will give you to drink." He added amiably, "If you were given food,it would be disgraceful to cut your throat."
He disappeared. Hoddan carried his ship bag and followed a man in adirty pink shirt to a stone-walled room containing a table and a chair.He sat down, relieved to have a rest for his back. The man in the pinkshirt brought him a flagon of wine. He disappeared again.
Hoddan drank sour wine and brooded. He was very hungry and very tired,and it seemed to him that he had been disillusioned in a new dimension.Morbidly, he remembered a frequently gi
ven lecture from his grandfatheron Zan.
"It's no use!" it was the custom of his grandfather to say. "There's nota bit o' use in having brains! All they do is get you into trouble! Alucky idiot's ten times better off than a brainy man with a jinx on him!A smart man starts thinkin', and he thinks himself into a jail cell ifhis luck is bad, and good luck's wasted on him because it ain'treasonable and he don't believe in it when it happens! It's taken me alifetime to keep my brains from ruinin' me! No, sir! I hope none o' mydescendants inherit my brains! I pity 'em if they do!"
Hoddan had been on Darth not more than four hours. In that time he'dfound himself robbed, had resented it, had been the object of twospirited attempts at assassination, had ridden an excruciating number ofmiles on an unfamiliar animal, and now found himself in a stone dungeonand deprived of food lest feeding him obligate his host not to cut histhroat. And he'd gotten into this by himself! He'd chosen it! He'dpractically asked for it!
He began strongly to share his grandfather's disillusioned view ofbrains.
* * * * *
After a long time the door of the cell opened. Thal was back, chastened.
"Don Loris wants to talk to you," he said in a subdued voice. "He's notpleased."
Hoddan took another gulp of the wine. He picked up his ship bag andlimped to the door. He decided painfully that he was limping on thewrong leg. He tried the other. No improvement. He really needed to limpon both.
He followed a singularly silent Thal through a long stone corridor andup stone steps until they came to a monstrous hall with torches inholders on the side walls. It was barbarically hung with banners, but itwas not exactly a cheery place. At the far end logs burned in a greatfireplace.
Don Loris sat in a carved chair beside it; wizened and white-bearded, ina fur-trimmed velvet robe, with a peevish expression on his face.
"My chieftain," said Thal subduedly, "here is the engineer from Walden."
Hoddan scowled at Don Loris, whose expression of peevishness did notlighten. He did regard Hoddan with a flicker of interest, however. Astranger who unfeignedly scowls at a feudal lord with no superior andmany inferiors is anyhow a novelty.
"Thal tells me," said Don Loris fretfully, "that you and he, together,slaughtered some dozens of the retainers of my neighbors today. Iconsider it unfortunate. They may ask me to have the two of you hanged,and it would be impolite to refuse."
Hoddan said truculently:
"I considered it impolite for your neighbors' retainers to march towardme waving large knives and announcing what they intended to do to myinwards with them!"
"Yes," agreed Don Loris impatiently. "I concede that point. It isnatural enough to act hastily at such times. But still-- How many did youkill?"
"None," said Hoddan curtly. "I shot them with stun-pistols I'd justcharged in the control room of the landing grid."
Don Loris sat up straight.
"Stun-pistols?" he demanded sharply. "You used stun-pistols on Darth?"
"Naturally on Darth," said Hoddan with some tartness. "I was here! Butnobody was killed. One or two may be slightly blistered. All of them hadtheir pockets picked by Thal. I understand that is a local custom.There's nothing to worry about."
But Don Loris stared at him, aghast.
"But this is deplorable!" he protested. "Stun-pistols used here? It isthe one thing I would have given strict orders to avoid! My neighborswill talk about it. Some of them may even think about it! You could haveused any other weapon, but of all things why did you have to use astun-pistol?"
"Because I had one," said Hoddan briefly.
"Horrible!" said Don Loris peevishly. "The worst thing you couldpossibly have done! I have to disown you. Unmistakably! You'll have todisappear at once. We'll blame it on Ghek's retainers."
Hoddan said:
"Disappear? Me?"
"Vanish," said Don Loris. "I suppose there's no real necessity to cutyour throat, but you plainly have to disappear, though it would havebeen much more discreet if you'd simply gotten killed."
"I was indiscreet to survive?" demanded Hoddan bristling.
"Extremely so!" snapped Don Loris. "Here I had you come all the way fromWalden to help arrange a delicate matter, and before you'd traveled eventhe few miles to my castle--within minutes of landing on Darth!--youspoiled everything! I am a reasonable man, but there are the facts! Youused stun-pistols, so you have to disappear. I think it generous for meto say only until people on Darth forget that such things exist. But thetwo of you ... oh, for a year or so ... there are some fairly cozydungeons--"
Hoddan seethed suddenly. He'd tried to do something brilliant on Walden,and had been framed for jail for life. He'd defended his life andproperty on Darth, and nearly the same thing popped up as a prospect.Hoddan angrily suspected fate and chance of plain conspiracy againsthim.
* * * * *
But there was an interruption. A clanking of arms sounded somewherenearby. Men with long, gruesome, glittering spears came through adoorway. They stood aside. A girl entered the great hall. More spearmenfollowed her. They stopped by the door. The girl came across the hall.
She was a pretty girl, but Hoddan hardly noticed the fact. With so manyother things on his mind, he had no time for girls.
Thal, behind him, said in a quivering voice:
"My Lady Fani, I beg you to plead with your father for his most faithfulretainer!"
The girl looked surprisedly at him. Her eyes fell on Hoddan. She lookedinterested. Hoddan, at that moment, was very nearly as disgusted and asindignant as a man could be. He did not look romantically at her--whichto the Lady Fani, daughter of that Don Loris who was prince of this andbaron of that and so on, was news. He did not look at her at all. Heground his teeth.
"Don't try to wheedle me, Fani!" snapped Don Loris. "I am a reasonableman, but I indulge you too much--even to allowing you to refuse thatyoung imbecile Ghek, with no end of inconvenience as a result. But Iwill not have you question my decision about Thal and this Hoddanperson!"
The girl said pleasantly:
"Of course not, Father. But what have they done?"
"The two of them," snapped Don Loris again, "fought twenty men today anddefeated all of them! Thal plundered them. Then thirty other men,mounted, tried to avenge the first and they defeated them also! Thalplundered eighteen. And all this was permissible, if unlikely. But theydid it with stun-pistols! Everybody within news range will talk of it!They'll know that this Hoddan came to Darth to see me! They'll suspectthat I imported new weapons for political purposes! They'll guess at theprettiest scheme I've had these twenty years!"
The girl stood still. A spearman leaned his weapon against the wall,raced across the hall, shifted a chair to a convenient position for theLady Fani to sit on it, and raced back to his fellows. She sat down.
"But did they really defeat so many?" she asked, marveling. "That'swonderful! And Thal was undoubtedly fighting in defense of someone you'dtold him to protect, as a loyal retainer should do. Wasn't he?"
"I wish," fumed her father, "that you would not throw in irrelevances! Isent him to bring this Hoddan here this afternoon, not to massacre myneighbors' retainers--or rather, not to not massacre them. A littleblood-letting would have done no harm, but stun-pistols--"
"He was protecting somebody he was told to protect," said Fani. "Andthis other man, this--"
"Hoddan. Bron Hoddan," said her father irritably. "Yes. He wasprotecting himself! Doubtless he thought he did me a service in doingthat! But if he'd only let himself get killed quietly the whole affairwould be simplified!"
The Lady Fani said with quiet dignity:
"By the same reasoning, Father, it would simplify things greatly if Ilet the Lord Ghek kidnap me."
"It's not the same thing at all--"
"At least," said Fani, "I wouldn't have a pack of spearmen following meabout like puppies everywhere I go!"
"It's not the same--"
"Their breaths smelling of wine e
xcept when they smell of beer, and theybreathe very noisily and--"
"It's not--"
"And it's especially unreasonable," said the Lady Fani with even greaterdignity, "when you could put Thal and this--Hoddan person on duty toguard me instead. If they can fight twenty and thirty men at once, allby themselves, it doesn't seem to me that you think much of my safetywhen you want to lock them up somewhere instead of using them to keepyour daughter safe from that particularly horrible Ghek!"
Don Loris swore in a cracked voice. Then he said:
"To end the argument I'll think it over. Until tomorrow. Now go away!"
Fani, beaming, rose and kissed him on the forehead. He squirmed. Sheturned to leave, and beckoned casually for Thal and Hoddan to followher.
"My chieftain," said Thal tremulously, "do we depart, too?"
"Yes!" rasped Don Loris. "Get out of my sight!"
Thal moved with agility in the wake of the Lady Fani. Hoddan picked uphis bag and followed. This, he considered darkly, was in the nature of areprieve only. And if those three spaceships overhead did come fromWalden--but why three?
* * * * *
The Lady Fani went out the door she'd entered by. Some of the spearmenwent ahead, and others closed in behind her. Hoddan followed. There werestone steps leading upward. They were steep and uneven and interminable.Hoddan climbed on aching legs for what seemed ages.
Stars appeared. The leading spearmen stepped out on a flagstoned levelarea. When Hoddan got there he saw that they had arrived at thebattlements of a high part of the castle wall. Starlight showed arambling wall of circumvallation, with peaked roofs inside it. He couldlook down into a courtyard where a fire burned and several men busilydid things beside it. But there were no other lights. Beyond the castlewall the ground stretched away toward a nearby range of rugged lowmountains. It was vaguely splotched with different degrees of darkness,where fields and pastures and woodland copses stood.
"Here's a bench," said Fani cheerfully, "and you can sit down beside meand explain things. What's your name, again, and where did you comefrom?"
"I'm Bron Hoddan," said Hoddan. He found himself scowling. "I come fromZan, where everybody is a space pirate. My grandfather heads the mostnotorious of the pirate gangs."
"Wonderful!" said Fani, admiringly. "I knew you couldn't be just anordinary person and fight like my father said you did today!"
Thal cleared his throat.
"Lady Fani--"
"Hush!" said Fani. "You're a nice old fuddy-duddy that father sent tothe spaceport because he figured you'd be too timid to get into trouble.Hush!" To Hoddan she said interestedly, "Now, tell me all about thefighting. It must have been terrible!"
She watched him with her head on one side, expectantly.
"The fighting I did today," said Hoddan angrily, "was exactly asdangerous and as difficult as shooting fish in a bucket. A little moretrouble, but not much."
Even in the starlight he could see that her expression was more admiringthan before.
"I thought you'd say something like that!" she said contentedly. "Goon!"
"That's all," said Hoddan.
"Quite all?"
"I can't think of anything else," he told her. He added drearily: "Irode a horse for three hours today. I'm not used to it. I ache. Yourfather is thinking of putting me in a dungeon until some scheme or otherof his goes through. I'm disappointed. I'm worried about three lightsthat went across the sky at sundown and I'm simply too tired andbefuddled for normal conversation."
"Oh," said Fani.
"If I may take my leave," said Hoddan querulously, "I'll get some restand do some thinking when I get up. I'll hope to have more entertainingthings to say."
He got to his feet and picked up his bag.
"Where do I go?" he asked.
Fani regarded him enigmatically. Thal squirmed.
"Thal will show you." Then Fani said deliberately, "Bron Hoddan, willyou fight for me?"
Thal plucked anxiously at his arm. Hoddan said politely:
"If at all desirable, yes. But now I must get some sleep."
"Thank you," said Fani. "I am troubled by the Lord Ghek."
She watched him move away. Thal, moaning softly, went with him downanother monstrosity of a stone stairway.
"Oh, what folly!" mourned Thal. "I tried to warn you! You would not payattention! When the Lady Fani asked if you would fight for her, youshould have said if her father permitted you that honor. But you saidyes! The spearmen heard you! Now you must either fight the Lord Ghekwithin a night and day or be disgraced!"
"I doubt," said Hoddan tiredly, "that the obligations of Darthiangentility apply to the grandson of a pirate or an escap.... To me."
He'd been about to say an escaped criminal from Walden, but caughthimself in time.
"But they do apply!" said Thal, shocked. "A man who has been disgracedhas no rights! Any man may plunder him, any man may kill him at will.But if he resists plundering or kills anybody else in self-defense, heis hanged!"
Hoddan stopped short in his descent of the uneven stone steps.
"That's me from now on?" he said sardonically. "Of course the Lady Fanididn't mean to put me on such a spot!"
"You were not polite," explained Thal. "She'd persuaded her father outof putting us in a dungeon until he thought of us again. You should atleast have shown good manners! You should have said that you came hereacross deserts and flaming oceans because of the fame of her beauty. Youmight have said you heard songs of her sweetness beside campfires half aworld away. She might not have believed you, but--"
"Hold it!" said Hoddan. "That's just manners? What would you say to agirl you really liked?"
"Oh, then," said Thal, "you'd get complimentary!"
Hoddan went heavily down the rest of the steps. He was not in the leastpleased. On a strange world, with strange customs, and with his weaponslosing their charge every hour, he did not need any handicaps. But if hegot into a worse-than-outlawed category such as Thal described--
At the bottom of the stairs he said, seething:
"When you've tucked me in bed, go back and ask the Lady Fani to arrangefor me to have a horse and permission to go fight this Lord Ghek rightafter breakfast!"
He was too much enraged to think further. He let himself be led intosome sort of quarters which probably answered Don Loris' description ofa cozy dungeon. Thal vanished and came back with ointments for Hoddan'sblisters, but no food. He explained again that food given to Hoddanwould make it disgraceful to cut his throat. And Hoddan sworepoisonously, but stripped off his garments and smeared himself lavishlywhere he had lost skin. The ointment stung like fire, and he presentlylay awake in a sort of dreary fury. And he was ravenous!
* * * * *
It seemed to him that he lay awake for aeons, but he must have dozed offbecause he was awakened by a yell. It was not a complete yell; only thefirst part of one. It stopped in a particularly unpleasant fashion, andits echoes went reverberating through the stony walls of the castle.Hoddan was out of bed with a stun-pistol in his hand in a hurry, beforethat first yell was followed by other shouts and outcries, by theclashing of steel upon steel, and all the frenzied tumult of combat inthe dark. The uproar moved. In seconds the sound of fighting came from aplainly different direction, as if a striking force of some sort wentrushing through only indifferently defended corridors.
It would not pass before Hoddan's door, but he growled to himself. On afeudal world, presumably one might expect anything. But there was asituation in being, here, in which etiquette required a rejected suitorto carry off a certain scornful maiden by force. Some young lordlingnamed Ghek had to carry off Fani or be considered a man of no spirit.
A gun went off somewhere. It was a powder gun, exploding violently tosend a metal bullet somewhere. It went off again. There was an instantalmost of silence. Then an intolerable screeching of triumph, andshrieks of another sort entirely, and the excessively loud clash of armsonce more.<
br />
Hoddan was clothed, now--at least clothed enough to have places to stickstun-pistols. He jerked on the door to open it, irritably demanding ofhimself how he would know which side was which, or for that matter whichside he should fight on.
The door was locked. He raged. He flung himself against it and it barelyquivered. It was barred on the outside. He swore in highly indecorousterms, and tore his bedstead apart to get a battering-ram.
The fighting reached a climax. He heard a girl scream, and withoutquestion knew that it was the Lady Fani, and equally without questionknew that he would fight to keep any girl from being abducted by a manshe didn't want to marry. He swung the log which was the corner post ofhis bed. Something cracked. He swung again.
The sound of battle changed to that of a running fight. The objective ofthe raiders had been reached. Having gotten what they came for--and itcould only be Fani--they retreated swiftly, fighting only to cover theirretreat. Hoddan swung his bed leg with furious anger. He heard a flurryof yells and sword strokes, and a fierce, desperate cry from Fani amongthem, and a plank in his guest-room-dungeon door gave way. He struckagain. The running raiders poured past a corner some yards away. Hebattered and swore, swore and battered as the tumult moved, and hesuddenly heard a scurrying thunder of horses' hoofs outside the castlealtogether. There were yells of derisive triumph and the pounding,rumbling sound of horses headed away in the night until it was lost.
Still raging inarticulately, Hoddan crashed his small log at the door.He was not consciously concerned about the distress Don Loris might feelover the abduction of his daughter. But there is an instinct in most menagainst the forcing of a girl to marriage against her will. Hoddanbattered at his door. Around him the castle began to hum like a hive ofbees. Women cried out or exclaimed, and men shouted furiously to oneanother, and off-duty fighting men came belatedly looking for somebodyto fight, dragging weapons behind them and not knowing where to findenemies.
Bron Hoddan probably made as much noise as any four of them. Somebodybrought a light somewhere near. It shone through the cracks in thesplintered planks. He could see to aim. He smote savagely and the doorcame apart. It fell outward and he found himself in the corridoroutside, being stared at by complete strangers.
"It's the engineer," someone explained to someone else. "I saw him whenhe rode in with Thal."
"I want Thal," said Hoddan coldly. "I want a dozen horses. I want men toride them with me." He pushed his way forward. "Which way to thestables?"
But then he went back and picked up his bag of stun-pistols. His air waspurposeful and his manner furious. The retainers of Don Loris were in anextremely apologetic frame of mind. The Lady Fani had been carried offinto the night by a raiding party undoubtedly led by Lord Ghek. Thedefenders of the castle hadn't prevented it. So there was no specialreason to obey Hoddan, but there was every reason to seem to be doingsomething useful.
He found himself almost swept along by agitated retainers trying to lookas if they were about a purposeful affair. They went down a long ramp,calling uneasily to each other. They eddied around a place where two menlay quite still on the floor. Then there were shouts of, "Thal! Thisway, Thal!" and Hoddan found himself in a small stone-walled courtyarddoubtless inside a sally-port. It was filled with milling figures andmany waving torches. And there was Thal, desperately pale andfrightened. Behind him there was Don Loris, his eyes burning and hishands twitching, literally speechless from fury.
"Pick a dozen men, Thal!" commanded Hoddan. "Get 'em on horses! Get ahorse for me, dammit! I'll show 'em how to use the stun-pistols as weride!"
Thal panted, shaking:
"They ... hamstrung most of the horses!"
"Get the ones that are left!" barked Hoddan. He suddenly raged at DonLoris. "Here's another time stun-pistols get used on Darth! Object tothis if you want to!"
* * * * *
Hoofbeats. Thal on a horse that shied and reared at the flames andconfusion. Other horses, skittish and scared, with the smell of spiltblood in their nostrils, fighting the men who led them, their eyesrolling.
Thal called names as he looked about him. There was plenty of light. Ashe called a name, a man climbed on a horse. Men thrust swords,spears--all manner of weapons upon them. Some of the chosen menswaggered because of their choice. Some looked woefully unhappy. Butwith Don Loris glaring frenziedly upon them in the smoky glare, no manrefused.
Hoddan climbed ungracefully upon the mount that four or five men heldfor him. Thal, with a fine sense of drama, seized a torch and waved itabove his head. There was a vast creaking, and an unsuspected gateopened, and Thal rode out with a great clattering of hoofs and theothers rode out after him.
There were lights everywhere about the castle, now. All along thebattlements men had set light to fire-baskets and lowered them partwaydown the walls, to disclose any attacking force which might havedishonorable intentions toward the stronghold. Others waved torches fromthe battlements.
Thal swung his torch and pointed to the ground.
"They rode here!" he called to Hoddan. "They ride for Ghek's castle!"
Hoddan said angrily:
"Put out that light! Do you want to advertise how few we are and whatwe're doing? Here, ride close!"
Thal flung down the torch and horses trod it underfoot as the knot ofmen rode on. Thal boomed:
"The pickings should be good, eh? Why do you want me?"
"You've got to learn something," snapped Hoddan. "Here! This is astun-pistol. It's set for single-shot firing only. You hold it so, withyour finger along this rod. You point your finger at a man and pull thistrigger. The pistol will buzz--briefly. You let the trigger loose andpoint at another man and pull the trigger again. Understand? Don't tryto use it over ten yards. You're no marksman!"
There on a galloping horse beside Hoddan in the darkness, Thal zestfullyrepeated his lesson.
"Show another man and send him to me for a pistol," Hoddan commandedcurtly. "I'll be showing others."
He turned to the man who rode too close to his left. Before he had fullyinstructed that man, another clamored for a weapon on his right.
This was hardly adequate training in the use of modern weapons. For thatmatter, Hoddan was hardly qualified to give military instruction. He'donly gone on two pirate voyages himself. But little boys on Zan playedat pirate, in dutiful emulation of their parents. At least thepossibilities of stun-guns were envisioned in their childish games. SoHoddan knew more about how to fight with stun-pistols than somebody whoknew nothing at all.
The band of pursuing horsemen pounded through the dark night understrangely patterned stars. Hoddan held on to his saddle and barked outinstructions to teach Darthians how to shoot. He felt very queer. Hebegan to worry. With the lights of Don Loris' castle long vanishedbehind, he began to realize how very small his troop was.
Thal had said something about horses being hamstrung. There must, then,have been two attacking parties. One swarmed into the stables to drawall defending retainers there. Then the other poured over a wall or inthrough a bribed-open sally-port, and rushed for the Lady Fani'sapartments. The point was that the attackers had made sure there couldbe only a token pursuit. They knew they were many times stronger thanany who might come after them. It would be absurd for them to flee....
* * * * *
Hoddan kicked his horse and got up to the front of the column of ridersin the night.
"Thal!" he snapped. "They'll be idiots if they keep on running away, nowthey're too far off to worry about men on foot. They'll stop and waitfor us--most of them anyhow. We're riding into an ambush!"
"Good pickings, eh?" said Thal.
"Idiot!" yelped Hoddan. "These men know you. You know what I can do withstun-pistols! Tell them we're riding into ambush. They're to followclose behind us two! Tell them they're not to shoot at anybody more thanfive yards off and not coming at them, and if any man stops to plunderI'll kill him personally!"
Thal gaped at him.
"Not stop to plunder?"
"Ghek won't!" snapped Hoddan. "He'll take Fani on to his castle, leavingmost of his men behind to massacre us!"
Thal reined aside and Hoddan pounded on at the head of the tiny troop.This was the second time in his life he'd been on a horse. It was twotoo many. This adventure was not exhilarating. It came into his mind,depressingly, that supposedly stirring action like this was really nomore satisfying than piracy. Fani had tricked him into a fix in which hehad to fight Ghek or be disgraced--and to be disgraced on Darth wasequivalent to suicide.
His horse came to a gentle rise in the ground. It grew steeper. Thehorse slacked in its galloping. The incline grew steeper still. Thehorse slowed to a walk, which it pursued with a rhythmically tossinghead. It was only less uncomfortable than a gallop. The dim outline oftrees appeared overhead.
"Perfect place for an ambush," Hoddan reflected dourly.
He got out a stun-pistol. He set the stud for continuous fire--somethinghe hadn't dared trust to the others.
His horse breasted the rise. There was a yell ahead and dim figuresplunged toward him.
He painstakingly made ready to swing his stun-pistol from his extremeright, across the space before him, and all the way to the extreme left.The pistol should be capable of continuous fire for four seconds. But itwas operating on stored charge. He didn't dare count on more than three.
He pulled the trigger. The stun-pistol hummed, though its noise wasinaudible through the yells of the charging partisans of the Lord Ghek.
The Pirates of Ersatz Page 4
