Adelinda forebore to comment on his poaching. “Can you follow the trail?”
“I think so.”
“All right then, let’s go. Are the creatures truly nocturnal, like vampires?”
“No,” Orvet answered. “They’re just rather cowardly and prefer the dark. Watch yourselves, though. They’re true predators, and if anyone goes down, they’ll tear him to pieces in an instant.”
The riders followed Len at an easy lope, for the tracks were clear and easy to follow. They led away from the stream, and before long the riders found themselves on a steep trail carved into the low cliffs that marked the western boundary of the Vale. Here they were forced to slow down; the trail was narrow and rocky and the tracks were harder to see. For horses accustomed to the vast ranges and perilous trails of the Black Mountains, though, the climb was not a difficult one. Soon they were topping out, to see before them a very different landscape.
It was a broken land, hilly, cut with gullies and washes. The terrain was made more difficult by the tangled, thorny scrub that clustered in the bottom of every declivity. The summits of the hills were grassy and windswept. The trail of the night stalkers followed a broad and obviously well-traveled path. The riders turned their horses into it. They soon discovered, however, that the path had been made by creatures considerably shorter than a horse and rider, for wherever the path passed through the thombushes they were forced to dismount and lead their horses through. The spiny branches arched over the trail at a level of about live feet. Len, in the lead, found it an uncomfortable experience; visibility when down in the thombushes was limited to a few feet in front and a few inches on the sides, and he coald easily imagine the vicious creatures which had mangled those poor peasants leaping out at him from the dimness.
An-Shai lashed his lumbering mount along in the wake of the outlanders. He was angry and upset, and he knew that Blackie was nowhere near fast enough to catch up before they found the night stalker nest. He failed to evee consider that the stallion was too big and clumsy to tackle the trail up the cliff, but put him at it determinedly, and the animal tried gallantly. An-Shai realized his error when he found that his leg was nearly scraped off against the cliff, and when he remembered that he really didn’t ride very well, but he shut his eyes and made it to the top.
The bishop knew that he had to regain control of the situation. Events had moved so rapidly, and he had been so unprepared for the vengeful departure of the outlanders, that all the initiative had passed to them. Not that he was exactly unsympathetic with their anger and determination to wipe out the evil little supematurals; he had long thought that Godsland would be better off without them. But if anyone
was going to wipe them out, it ought to be he, or at least by his direction. It was simply intolerable that they hadn’t even asked him if they could chase the night stalkers.
An-Shai was so wrathful that it never occurred to him to get off and lead his horse through the thorn thickets. Blackie was so big and powerful that he plowed right through the tangled branches, but even so his rider was scratched and bleeding.
The horses first warned Karel that they were approaching the nest of the night stalkers. He had learned long ago that a horse’s senses are far more acute than a human’s, and that a wise soldier in enemy territory pays close attention to his mount’s actions. When Len’s gray mare lifted her head and whuffled disgustedly as the stench of the night stalkers reached her nostrils, Karel quietly called a halt. Within an instant, all the horses were snuffing the tainted air and staring up the trail with huge eyes and working ears.
Orvet squeezed past the horses on the narrow trail and slipped on ahead to survey the situation. It was not long before he,was back. “They’re bedded up, all right- They’ve made a sort of village of stick and bark huts.”
Karel rubbed his chin. “Can we use the horses in there?” “We’ll have to,” said Orvet evenly. “They’re small but they’ve got incredibly sharp teeth and claws. If they get one of us down, I doubt that we’d be able to pull the pack off in time to save the victim.”
“All right,” said Karel, “let’s split up. Three of us work around to the other side with crossbows. The other three charge from here with lances. Crossbows take the outiiers and those that try to bolt. Lancers take the center and the fighters. Len, Adelinda, with me to the far side. Orvet, Ina, Tobin, give us fifteen minutes to get into position, then charge. If anyone’s unhorsed, everybody drop everything and get to him immediately. Questions?”
There were none. Quietly, grimly, each prepared him- or herself for the task ahead. Karel, with Len and Adelinda close behind him, swung wide around the night stalker nest, approaching it again from the west. Easing their horses into position where their bolts could command the boundaries of the camp, they even had a few moments to observe the vicious supernatural®.
They were like hideous little caricatures of human beings. About five feet tall, weighing perhaps a hundred pounds, they were covered with sparse, wiry hair, mostly brindle in color. Their forelimbs, or arms, were disproportionately long, and the stubby fingers were armed with such large curved claws that they could have been of very little use as manipulating organs. Their bellies were swollen, and the jaws and chest of many of them were dabbled with dark dried blood. Their faces were the least human. Massive brow ridges, like those 011 apes, shaded bloodshot little eyes. The nostrils were mere slits. The jaws were entirely unapelike, being as wide and massive as a bulldog’s, and filled with too many teeth. Long canines projected over the opposing lips, and were backed by smaller canines, while the enormous muscles of the jowls gave promise of an incredible shearing force. In the heat of the late afternoon, the nasty creatures were mostly somnolent, lying about in the patches of shade cast by their crude huts. Many sprawled unconcerned in the dung that lay carelessly about. There were bo artifacts other than the huts in evidence, no signs of fire or other elements of culture.
From across the clearing, the three riders burst out of the scrub, grimly silent except for the thud of hooves and the creak of accouterments. Adelinda sighted on a large specimen on the south flank, and in spite of Red Hawk’s mincing
he wanted to join the battle below—skewered it neatly on her bolt. It flopped and convulsed, but she was cocking and loading her bow and paid its death agonies no attention. Another of the creatures bolted out of the melee in the center; she shot it, crippling it, and Ina swung her horse out of the melee long enough to administer the coup de grace with her lance. For a few moments, no more of the creatures attempted to escape on her side, and she saw Tobin hacking at them with his saber and doing a bloody slaughter; Qrvet’s proscription against killing did not apply to supematurals, and having trapped a clot of the night stalkers in a circle of greenish powder, he was finishing them off at his leisure. She could hear the thudding of Karel’s crossbow on the left, and then Len broke out of the scrub, impatient with the slow slaughter possible with crossbows, and charged into the thick of the fight.
The night stalkers, confused and dazed, were easy prey for the first seconds of the fight, but they soon turned on their tormentors and fought desperately. One leaped onto the crupper of Tobin’s chestnut, claws extended, while another sank its fangs into the horse’s flank. Squealing, the chestnut wheeled, but the rest of the night stalkers, sensing a wounded victim, mobbed Tobin and his horse. The rider was fully occupied with trying to keep the razor-sharp, filthy claws of the night stalker out of his flesh. Adelinda set her heels into Red Hawk’s sides and charged down into the battle. As she came, she drew her saber, but Red Hawk was a herd stallion and one of his mares was threatened; he plucked the creature off the chestnut’s rump in his teeth, and, flinging it to the ground, trampled it into the earth as he would have a wolf. Adeiinda’s sweeping saber accounted for two more.
The riders pulled op their sweating horses and looked about. There were no living night stalkers visible. The crashed and bloody remains of the pack lay about them, stinking even more in death than they h
ad in life. They had wiped out the nest.
That was the scene that An-Shai came upon when he finally caught up with the outlanders. He rode into the clearing at a lumbering gallop, holding for dear life to Blackie’s mane, his bishop’s robes hiked up over his thighs, scratched, ragged, bloody, and breathless. The outlanders sat their horses in the midst of an abattoir of night stalker carcasses. Tobin had dismounted and was anxiously inspecting the damage to his chestnut mare’s flank, but she was the only casualty, and thanks to Red Hawk she was not seriously hurt. An-Shai pulled his mount to a stop and stared about him, tom between chagrin and pleasure. He hated the night stalkers venomously; he was far more aware than the outlanders of the death and terror they had spread. He could not be sorry that they had been so completely destroyed. Then he saw Adelinda, and was surprised to find that he felt relieved, i “Your Grace!” said Adelinda, shocked. They had had no idea that they had been followed. They were no less surprised than the Bishop when Li-Mun and a contingent of hastily recruited peasants armed with hoes and scythes came laboring into the clearing on foot, to halt and stare about wide-eyed.
An-Shai hurriedly gathered his thoughts. He couldn’t very well castigate the outlanders for killing the night stalkers without arousing their suspicions, and certainly not in front of the awe-stricken peasants. “Good work!” he said heartily, letting the very real pleasure he felt at the destruction of the vicious little beasts show in his voice. “I’m more sure than ever that it was a wise move to bring the horses here, and you, too, of course. My own servants have never been able to catch them in daylight.”
“Yes, indeed,” seconded Li-Mun, who had been staring with nearly as much amazement as the peasants. “We’re well rid of the creatures. We owe you considerable thanks.” “You’re welcome, I’m sure,” said Adelinda. “I’m surprised to find that you know about these creatures and haven’t done something about them.”
“If we’re going to get back to the palace by dark, we’d better get going,” An-Shai said. “Doing something about them is easier said than done. Our farmers are not as warlike as yours appear to be, and can’t be relied upon in this kind of situation. We have made appeals to the army of the Church, but there are many demands upon them which they consider to be more important than this little Vale.” As he spoke, the bishop moved his horse away, drawing Adelinda with him.
“Just a minute, Your Grace, I really must talk to my people.” She swung her horse away before he could object, leaving him grinding his teeth at her disregard for his consequence.
In the clearing, Li-Mun was directing the peasants in the unpleasant task of cutting wood and piling the carcasses for burning. Adelinda gathered her friends around herself. “I just wanted to say,” she said diffidently, almost shyly, “what a magnificent job you all did. Tobin, you did exactly the right thing to bring the news to us, and that was quite a fight you put up. Len, your tracking is what made it possible for us to find the night stalkers. Ina, you were really brave and I want you to know that I’m proud of you. You all showed courage and initiative. Karel, Orvet, all of you, I can’t tell you how glad I am that it was you who chose to come with me.” She choked a little with emotion.
Ina blushed with pleasure at the praise. Tobin glowed. Len looked down at his horse’s mane and mumbled inaudi-bly. Karel leased over from Dusty’s back and gave her a quick one-armed hug around the shoulders. Even Orvet smiled as if pleased.
An-Shai watched the exchange. How on earth could the woman expect to keep her inferiors under control if she treated them like that? he thought impatiently. Why, she’s acting as if they were... well, people, people she cared about. He silently vowed to keep her away from the rest of her party and to speak to Li-Mun about hurrying along the process of subverting them. It shouldn’t be hard, he thought contemptuously; they weren’t the least bit afraid of her.
On the ride back, he kept her close by him with various subterfuges, and she had little opportunity to speak again to the rest o!f her party. They trailed far enough behind that An-Shai and Adelinda couldn’t hear their discussion of the events of the day. They didn’t talk about the slaughter of the night stalkers. It had not really been a battle, only butchery, the advantage given them by their horses rendering the vicious little supematurals almost helpless. They considered that they had done a good job of extermination, no more.
They did talk about the other events of the afternoon, however. “How is it that you know so much about supematurals, Orvet?” asked Tobin.
Orvet and Karel exchanged a glance. Adelinda had told them not tell the farmer folk about Orvet’s position, but they judged that the three would not be content to be foisted off with lame explanations. “Better tell them,” advised Karel.
Orvet related a condensed version of the story he had told Adelinda. THe farmers were surprised, but not frightened; they knew Orvet too well to hold him in superstitious awe. “That’s lucky,” commented Len. “From what people tell me, there are lots of supernatural creatures around here.”
“I’ve heard so, too,” contributed Tobin. “I guess they don’t have anybody like our exorcists to combat them.” “There’s some human agency involved,” said Orvet. “At the head of the trail up the cliff there was a guardian stone that should have kept the night stalkers out, but a releasing symbol had been drawn over the barrier symbol. Somebody let the creatures into the Vale.”
“Bandits, maybe, or those slave raiders,” speculated Karel, “hoping to profit by the confusion and disorganization.”
“Why would slave raiders want their merchandise eaten?” asked Len.
“We should tell the bishop what you discovered,” said Ina, indignantly. “He should be glad of your help.”
“I’d just as soon he didn’t know too much about me just yet. Right now he thinks that Adelinda does ail our thinking, just as he does for his people,” said Orvet. “As long as he thinks that, the rest of us are a secret weapon.”
“Do you think we need a secret weapon?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t like the way he keeps Ade-iinda away from the rest of us, or the way they try to send us all in different directions.”
“That’s right,” said Karel, softly. “Divide and conquer. It’s one of the oldest rules of warfare. Everybody be on your toes.”
“I don’t believe it!” cried Ina. “Nobody’s trying to conquer me. Cho-Hei has been as kind as he could be...” Her voice trailed off. Her expression was stricken. Experience told her that no man was so attentive to her unless he had a reason, but she desperately wanted to believe that Cho-Hei was the exception.
The rest of the travelers rode along in silence for a while, respecting her painful struggle between truth and inclination. Karel shifted uneasily in his saddle, trying to find a comfortable position for his aching leg. “When we get back,” said Orvet kindly, “you’d better ask the healer for another dose of that medicine.”
Karel shook his head emphatically. “That stuff knocks me out too much. It helps the pain, but I feel like I’m floating in a warm bath where nothing matters. I can’t afford to be drugged out of my mind. I’ll make some willow bark tea. It helps some.”
Len had been riding along, preoccupied in his own thoughts. “Do you really think they’re trying to split us?” he said, almost shyly.
Orvet looked keenly at him. “I don’t know, but I think they might be. Why, have they been at you?”
“Li-Mun was being very sympathetic this morning about how badly Adelinda treats us.”
“I don’t think Adelinda treats us badly,” said Ina, indignantly. “She’s just sort of insensitive, like all the horse folk. Oh, I’m sorry, Karel, I didn’t mean... well, you know what I meant.” She colored in embarrassment.
Karel smiled kindly. “I know what you meant. You’re right. She treats us that way too, sometimes. She’s impetuous, and she doesn’t realize that other people are a little overwhelmed by her....” he floundered for an accurate word.
“D
etermined character,” offered Orvet, helpfully.
“Yes. But she can be as warm and sensitive as any woman at times. Of all my friends and relations, she’s the only one who didn’t avoid me as if I had some infectious disease when I came home crippled. Without her, I think I’d have died when I finally realized that I wasn’t ever going to be any better.”
“The problem with her,” said Len bitterly, “is that she thinks everyone else is as tough as she is.”
“In a way, that’s a compliment. She thinks of other people as being adult, responsible for their own lives. She doesn’t nurse along any emotional cripples, but she’s never asked to be nursed.”
“That’s easy enough for her. She’s never had an emotional problem in her life.”
“Do you think not?” interposed Orvet. “Then you’re not very observant. I’ve never met anyone whose conditions of life were so completely suited to make her miserably unhappy, and who was so little willing to submit and take what crumbs she could find in an impossible situation.”
Len was silenced, but Orvet resolved to talk to him again at the first opportunity to be private. At the head of the trail, he dismounted and restored the barrier symbol on the guardian stone. They were forced to abandon the conversation when they started down the trail. At the bottom, Karel called them into a huddle.
“I’ve been thinking about the bishop. If he is really trying to divide us, we need to know why. I’d suggest that we all play along and try to find out. Try not to fall for their game,” he said with a warning look at the downcast Ina, “but try to find out what they want.”
“Nobody’s offered me anything,” said Tobin.
“I expect I’m their main target. Li-Mun thinks I resent Adelinda and would be happy of an opportunity to do her a bad turn,” said Len.
“Do you resent her? Why?” asked Tobin interestedly, if not very tactfully.
“If I do, it’s between her and me, and no business of any foreign preacher. It doesn’t mean I’d throw her to that bishop to do what he likes with.”
Claudia J Edwards - [Forest King 02] Page 9
