“Hoy?” Simna grinned challengingly. “For me—or for you?”
The herdsman returned his attention to the watching four-legged blackness. “I do not like the idea of having in a moment of danger to rely on another who accompanies me unwillingly.”
Yellow-bright eyes flared and enormous teeth made their second appearance in the form of an exquisitely volcanic snarl. “Do you doubt the steadfastness of my vow?”
“Oh no, no, we would never do that!” An anxious Simna forcefully jogged his friend’s arm. “Would we, Etjole?”
“What? Oh, sorry—I was thinking. No, I suppose you should be taken at your word.”
Teeth disappeared behind thick folds of lip. “How very magnanimous of you,” was the acerbic response.
“But this is not necessary. I did not help you with the intention of indenturing you to me. Maybe it would be best if you simply returned to your home.”
The litah began to pace back and forth, looking for all the world like an ordinary agitated house cat made suddenly gigantic. “First you doubt my word, now you scorn my help.”
Ehomba did his best to appear reassuring without sounding condescending. “I speak to you out of neither doubt nor scorn. I am simply saying that your assistance is not required.”
“But it is, it is!” Throwing back his head, Ahlitah let out a long, mournful howl that was a mixture of melancholy and roar. It was at once impressive, terrifying, and piteous. When he had finished, like a tenor at the end of a particularly poignant aria, he fixed his gaze once more on the empathetic herdsman.
“Don’t you see? Until I have repaid you in kind for what you did for me—without your being asked, I might add—I can’t proceed with a normal life. I couldn’t go on with that burden resting heavy on my heart and thick in my mind. However long it takes, whatever the difficulty involved, I have to discharge it before I can again be at rest.”
“For Gudru’s sake, Etjole,” Simna whispered urgently, “don’t argue with him. Accept the offer.”
“Your annoying friend is right.” Sitting back, Ahlitah scratched vigorously at his belly with a hind foot. “If you send me away, you not only shame me, you spray on my soul. You say to me that my offer of all I can give is worth nothing.” Scratching ceased as the great cat resumed its pacing. “You reduce me to the level of a jackal, or worse, a hyena.”
“Oh all right!” Fed up, Ehomba waved a diffident hand in the litah’s direction and turned away. “You can come along.”
The cat dipped its head, its long black mane falling forward like a courtier’s cape. “I cower before your unfettered magnanimity, oh maestro of the condescending arts.”
“If you want to do something for me,” the herdsman responded, “you might lose some of that feline sarcasm.”
“Sorry. It’s in a cat’s nature to be sarcastic.”
“I know, but yours seems in proportion to your size. Over time, I see it growing tiresome.”
Teeth flashed in a grinning display. “I will try to restrain my natural instincts. Given present company, that may prove difficult.”
“Do your best,” Ehomba instructed his new companion curtly. He looked back at the kopje. “It has been a wearying day.”
Simna let out a muted guffaw. “That’s me bruther—master of understatement.”
“We might as well rest here until tomorrow.”
“Agreed.” The litah turned and began to walk away.
Simna called after him. “Hoy, where are you going? I thought you were with us?”
The cat looked back over its maned shoulder. “I am going to find something to eat, if that’s all right with you. Maybe a human can live on anticipation and fine words, but I cannot.”
“Don’t get testy with me, kitty,” Simna shot back. “I’m as hungry as you are.”
“As am I,” added Ehomba. “If you truly want to be of assistance, you could bring back enough for us all to eat. We will make a fire.”
“I’ll enjoy the warmth,” Ahlitah growled back. “We cats quite like fire. We’re just not adept at fabricating it.” He sniffed derisively. “You, of course, will want to use it to burn perfectly good meat.” Turning, he surveyed the veldt. “I will be late, but I will be back.”
“Why so?” Simna’s expression became a smirk. “Are you like the male lions that let the females do all the hunting?”
Sliding smoothly through the grass, the litah did not deign to look back. “Idiot. Male lions hunt often and perfectly well—at night. During the day our dark manes are highly visible through the yellowed or green grass and give our presence away. That is why the females run the day hunt. For the same reason, I am a better night hunter than any lion, and can bring down larger prey than any cheetah.”
Ehomba moved to stand behind his friend. “Do not taunt him. He is unhappy at having to accompany us. If a man has one bad moment and strikes out at you, your face may suffer a bruise.” He nodded out into the veldt. “If that one has a bad moment, he is liable to take off your head.”
“Aw, he’s all right,” Simna insisted. “He’s obligated to you, and I’m your friend, so he won’t let harm come to me.”
“Probably not as long as I am alive, no. So it is in your best interest to see that I stay healthy.”
“Hoy, that’s always been in my interest.” Simna grinned broadly as together they turned toward the kopje. “If anything were to happen to you, I’d never find the treasure. Not,” he added in haste, “that I’d want anything to happen to you even if there was no treasure.”
“There is no treasure,” Ehomba replied forthrightly.
The swordsman clapped the tall herdsman roughly on the shoulder. “Yeah, right—what a kidder! I’ll bet among your fellow villagers you’re considered a real comedian.”
“Actually, I believe they think I am rather dry and somber.” He smiled hesitantly. “Of course, I do not think so, nor do my children or my wife.” His expression twitched momentarily. “At least, I do not think she does.”
XVII
THERE WAS ENOUGH DRY WOOD TO MAKE A FIRE ON THE KOPJE, but not a large one. Raised above the surrounding grass on the rocks, the blaze would still be visible for quite a distance. Even so, Simna especially was beginning to doubt the truth of the litah’s words as evening gave way to night and there was still no sign of their erstwhile ally.
“Maybe he decided he wasn’t so indebted after all.” Using a long stick, the swordsman stirred the vivacious embers that winked at the bottom of the fire. “Maybe he met an obliging pride, or a lone female in heat, and decided some things were more important than tagging along with us.”
“I do not think he would leave like this. He was very adamant.” But as the night wore on and the moon came to dominate the speckled bowl of the sky, Ehomba was less certain.
“He’s a cat. A prodigiously talkative one, ’tis true, but a cat still. Cats set their own agendas, and big or small, those rarely include tending to the needs of humans.”
“Listen.” Ehomba froze suddenly, his face highlighted by the glow of the campfire.
Simna was immediately on guard. “What is it? Not more wind, I hope.” Visions of angry wild relatives of the demolished tornado appearing in the middle of the night to wreak vengeance on those who had murdered their brother swept through his thoughts.
“No, not wind. Something moving through the grass.”
Ahlitah was almost upon them before the flickering blaze cast enough light to reveal even the outline of his massive form. In his jaws he carried the limp, bent body of a wandala, a medium-sized antelope whose horns had spread wide and thinned out until they formed a great membranous sail attached to the skull. Using this the animal could tuck its short, fragile legs beneath it and in a good breeze literally fly across the tops of the veldt grass, flattening its body to assume a more aerodynamic shape.
The successful hunter unceremoniously dumped his offering onto the rocks alongside the fire. “Here is meat. You may have the flanks. I know humans are fickle
about what portion of animal they eat.”
“Hoy, not me.” Drawing his knife, an eager Simna set to work on the carcass. “When I’m hungry I’ll eat just about anything.”
“Yes, I see that. But then, one would never mistake you for the fastidious type.” Settling himself down on the other side of the body, Ahlitah began to eat, ripping dainty chunks out of the hindquarters of the dead wandala.
“You were late,” Ehomba declared accusingly. “We had begun to wonder.”
Blood stained Ahlitah’s muzzle as he looked up from the other side of the cadaver. “I had to wait until it was dark enough for the night to hide me. When I stand or stalk, I am taller than any other cat. Better a certain kill that takes time than a quick one that fails.” Lowering his head, he thrust his open jaws into the wandala’s soft belly. The ragged percussion of bones breaking drifted out across the veldt.
“This situation makes for an interesting puzzle to contemplate,” the litah announced later, when cat and men had finished eating. “Here we sit, as companions if not as friends. I kill for you. But if we were in your homeland to the south, I would be hunting your herds and flocks, and you would be trying to keep me from doing so. Trying to kill me, if it became necessary.”
“That is true.” Ehomba watched Simna slice steaks from the side of the dead antelope, the easier to pack them for carrying. “Oftentimes it is not personal preference that makes friends and enemies, but circumstance.” This time it was he who mustered the feral gaze, peering deeply into the eyes of the litah. “It is a good thing I trust your word, for fear you might try to eat me in my sleep.”
“And I yours,” Ahlitah replied, “or I might worry about you acting like just another man, ready to leap to murder at the first opportunity and skin me for my valuable coat. How fortunate that we have such trust in one another.”
“Yes. How fortunate.”
Just because Ehomba could survive comfortably on little food did not mean that he was averse to a filling meal. Knowing that the meat would not keep for very long and that they had no time to spare to jerk it, they ate their fill of delicious wandala. Nothing was left to waste, not even the marrow of its bones, as Ahlitah possessed an appetite to match his size. When the unlikely trio finally drifted off to sleep, more than content, it was with an ease in mind and body none of them had known for days.
Except Simna. Troubling thoughts woke him several hours before dawn. Nearby, Ehomba lay on his side beneath his blanket, his back to the swordsman. On the other side of the vanquished campfire Ahlitah snored softly, his shadowed bulk like a storm cloud that had, silent and unnoticed, settled to earth for a moment’s unnatural rest.
He had seen Ehomba utilize the power of the sword smelted from sky metal, but until the fight with the spinning storm cloud he had never imagined the extent of that power. What not could a man do who possessed such a weapon? The herdsman had declared that, just as its substance was not of this world, so it had powers that were not of this world. Certainly whoever wielded it could defeat more than clouds and Corruption.
Sitting up, he gazed out across the veldt. Distant moans and occasional sharp barks broke the stillness of the night, but nothing troubled them on their isolated stony outcropping. Ehomba had yet to vary from his path northward. He, Simna, had come from the east. What if he were to return that way? Would the herdsman try to come after him, or would he accept what had transpired, absorb his loss, and maintain his course? How valuable was the sword to him, how important to his journey? A wondrous weapon it was, true, but it was only a sword. Simna would not be leaving him weaponless. Ehomba would still have his spear, and his other sword, not to mention the protective, intimidating company of the litah.
Visions of conquest swam through the swordsman’s tormented thoughts. He had never been what one would call a greedy man. Acquisitive, yes, but hardly rapacious. Overlordship of a small city would be sufficient to satisfy his desires. With the sky-metal sword in hand, what minor nobleman or princeling would dare stand before him? Again he gazed at his lanky companion’s sleeping form. Ehomba was a generous soul. Surely he would not begrudge a good friend the loan of a wanted weapon.
By Giopra, that was it! Not a theft, but a loan, a borrowing! A temporary adoption of a singular arsenal, to be returned as soon as vital objectives had been achieved. As he slipped silently from beneath his blanket, he reflected on the worthiness of rationalization. The herdsman would understand. Humble and unsophisticated he might be, but he was compassionate as well. While he might not feel the need to take control of a town or trade route himself, surely he could empathize with the preoccupation of another to do so.
Advancing more quietly on hands and knees than a beetle on its six legs, he made his way over to where his friend slept. With his back to the humans, Ahlitah did not stir. The sky-metal sword lay alongside its tooth-lined bone companion and the strangely tipped spear, all three within easy reach of their owner in case of emergency.
Ever so gently, as though he were handling a king’s newborn infant and heir, Simna slipped his right hand beneath the fur-covered, quaintly beaded scabbard. It was heavy, but not unmanageably so. At any moment he expected the herdsman to turn over, or rise up, and innocently ask what the swordsman was doing with his property. But Ehomba never stirred. He was worn out, Simna knew. Exhausted from his battle with the elements. Poor fellow, the best thing for him would be to forget all this nonsense and return home to his family and his cattle, his flocks and his friends. He might have the fortitude for this kind of journeying, but he most surely did not have the zeal.
If it induced him to turn back, Simna decided virtuously, then by borrowing the sky sword he was actually doing his friend a favor. Probably saving his life, yes. Certainly the herdsman’s family would thank him for it.
Returning to his blanket with the sword gripped firmly in one hand, he prepared to gather up his kit. The moon would guide him eastward, and by the time Ehomba woke, Simna would be well out of sight and on his way. He could move fast when the occasion demanded.
But before departing, best to make sure he could make use of the weapon. Though Ehomba continued to insist he was no magician, Simna would look the prize fool going into battle someday with a sword he could not draw. If he could but remove it from its scabbard, that would be enough to reassure him that its owner had cast no locking spell on it.
Gripping the handle, he gave an experimental tug. The polished metal was slick against his palm, and the oddly etched blade slid effortlessly upward. The smooth, gray edge with its peculiar right-angle markings gleamed dully in the moonlight. No problem there, he saw appreciatively.
One series of cross-hatched markings in particular caught his eye. They looked a little deeper than the others, though by no means deep enough to threaten the integrity of the blade. They drew his attention to smaller markings still, and others still smaller, until he felt that he was looking into the very elementals of the metal itself.
Suddenly the parallel scourings flew apart. It was as if he had been staring at a painting, a painting rendered entirely in gray, only to be drawn in, sucked down, cast helplessly into a gray metallic pit. Now the picture’s frame was flying to pieces all around him, and he found himself falling, kicking and flailing helplessly at ashen emptiness adrift in a leaden vacuum.
Fiery globes of incandescent energy rushed past him, singeing his skin and clothing. Around these colossal spheres of coruscating hellfire spun worlds whole and entire, swarming with life-forms more fantastic than the word spinnings of any storyteller. Immense, billowing clouds of luminous vapor filled the spaces between the fire globes and their attendant worlds, along with tailed demons and rocks that seemed to have been launched from God’s own slingshot.
And in the middle of it all was he, tumbling and kicking, screaming at the top of his lungs even though there was no one to hear him. Not that it mattered, because despite his frantic efforts, no sound emerged from his throat. Perhaps because there was no air in his lungs with which
to make sounds. As this new horror struck home he began to choke, gasping for the air that was not there. His hands went to his throat, as if by squeezing they could somehow force nonexistent air into his straining, heaving chest.
Something pushed at him, rocking him even as he fell. Invisible hands—or claws, or tentacles—were wrenching at his body, threatening to divert him from his endless eternal fall to a place where unfathomable horrors could be wreaked on his impotent person. Screaming, crying, he kicked at the unseen presence and flailed at it with his hands. Though he could see nothing, his extremities made contact with something.
He was struck across the face, the blow stinging but not hard enough to draw blood. Dimly, distantly, he felt he heard a voice calling his name. Gojura, the Lord of Unknown Places, or some other deity? He was in no shape to meet his sister’s daughter, much less a god or two. Not that he had any choice. Beyond caring, long past mere fear, he opened his eyes.
Ehomba was leaning over him, looking down into his friend’s tormented face. The herdsman’s expression was full of sympathy and concern, notwithstanding the fact that he held one hand upraised and poised to strike downward.
A gruff, inhumanly deep voice somewhere off to his left growled, “There—he’s around. No need to hit him again. Unless you’re simply in the mood.” The speaker sounded sleepy, and bored.
Ehomba lowered his open palm and sat back. Feeling of his body to assure himself it was still intact, the swordsman sat up. Around him were darkness, night sounds, veldt smells, and wistful moonlight. The comforting solidity of the kopje’s naked rock chilled his backside.
Relieved, the herdsman leaned away from his friend. “You were having a bad dream, Simna. Bad enough to wake us. You were kicking and screaming in your sleep as if something was after you. What was it?”
“I . . .” The swordsman put a hand to his perspiring forehead. “I’m not sure I remember, exactly. I was falling. Not into something, but through it.”
Carnivores of Light and Darkness Page 17
