The Human defenses had no particular plan in mind. They occupied what cover there was available; but the sky was dull and the rain cut visibility radically, and their advantage would not be telling if Eagleheart attacked intelligently.
Nevertheless Blackstar was quite content to let the Beasts get very close. The Beasts were weakened by the loss of Stormwind, and could ill afford heavy losses. He believed that the Beasts would be as tentative as possible in their attack, and that the battle would be like so many they had already fought: a quick test of strength followed by tactical withdrawal.
Eagleheart’s attack was somewhat reckless, bearing in mind his numerical inferiority; but the Beasts had confidence in their commander, and they too believed that very little heavy fire would be exchanged. Eagleheart did not expect heavy losses. The rain and the dimness would make slaughter difficult, and he was confident that his men were better able to exploit the conditions than the Humans. He had the additional advantage that the Humans were as yet without their commander; but he could not be sure of that.
Many of the Beasts came from planets with higher gravity than that of Home, and they made up a much higher proportion of the fleet than the frequency of such planets might have suggested. Both Sula and Ligia had high gravity, and Falcor’s was almost as punishing as the gravity of Stonebow.
For this reason, Judson Deathdancer, the bearded lord of Falcor, and his Felides were entrusted with the difficult task of covering up for the absence of Stormwind’s Sabellans. Deathdancer’s men formed the central bloc of Eagle-heart’s attack—the part which would probably have to bear the greater part of the Human retaliation. It would be a very difficult job, but in the harsh conditions of Stonebow, there was probably no one better able to handle it than Judson Deathdancer.
DEATHDANCER
Judson Deathdancer is a good man. He thinks about what he is doing, and he tries to do what is right. But he is a slow thinker. While he does not have anything like the all-obscuring stupidity of Skywolf, his brain is somewhat susceptible to being led astray by false logic.
Physically, he is one of the strongest of the Beasts, and one of the most accomplished in the arena. He has no great reputation as a duellist, but he would not be a comfortable opponent to have to face. He is large, with black hair and a heavy beard which puts Eagleheart’s more careful and delicate growth to shame. His skin and eyes are dark. His temper is hot, but his character is basically generous and kindly.
He does not really belong in Eagleheart’s grand plan, but—unlike Stormwind and, later, Hornwing—he never becomes a threat to Eagleheart’s ambitions. His principle failing is that he listens too much with too little discrimination. He is carried away by Eagleheart’s magnificent speeches, and when he stops to consider the consequences which have accrued from them, Eagleheart is always ready with new words. He has disagreements, sometimes violent ones, with some of the actions which Eagleheart inspires, but most of his antagonism is directed against Mark Chaos and not against Eagleheart personally. But after every quarrel, he is all too easy to win back to the cause. He is far too willing to forgive and forget. He never carries his doubts to their logical limit.
Deathdancer is only one of many. Not only a great number of the Beast warriors, but a large proportion of the Beasts on the starworlds are rather like him. Perhaps he and his kind should bear a healthy share of the blame for what Eagleheart did. Certainly they should have known better; but they allowed him to do it—and to use them to do it. But it is always difficult to apportion blame, and it is easy to be too hard on Deathdancer.
Luck, if nothing else, seems to favor Deathdancer and his men a good deal more than the dupes and the planners. Deathdancer is often brave to the point of foolishness, but never pays the penalty. He survives the entire campaign.
He is what Adam December really wanted when he visualized the Beasts. He is the ideal material for Adam December’s galactic civilization, provided that he is not led astray. Judson Deathdancer and his land are still around in their thousands of millions when the Beast war is over, and the momentous events which follow it are all finished, and they are the cornerstone of the new civilization which has to be built
THE BATTLE IN THE RAIN
Despite the acute discomfort of the heavy rain, it was all too soon for the Humans when the Beasts opened fire.
Deathdancer and his men were the first to advertise their presence, and attracted most of the initial retaliation from the Human riflemen. The overlapping flanks of the Beast army were allowed to move out and round without much discouragement; but while the wings were maneuvering, Deathdancer was subjected to murderous fire by the entrenched Humans.
Black smoke poured from seared grass and trees, but nothing would catch fire in the pouring rain, and the smoke made little difference in the already poor light. As far as the Humans were aware, Judson Deathdancer and his Felides moved like shadows in the storm, undaunted and untroubled by the heavy fire. Only gradually did the Humans begin to realize how weak Deathdancer actually was, and how much damage they were inflicting. They could hear Deathdancer’s confident voice over the sound of the rifle fire, urging his men on, and their imaginations read all kinds of lies into Deathdancer’s confidence.
Deathdancer had observed that the Humans were tightly grouped in the patches of trees strung out across the slopes, and he directed his fire up into the crowns of the trees. The beams stripped the leaves from the trees and filled the copses with sluggish smoke. It was, however, not as troublesome to the Humans as it might have been.
However, the confusion among the Humans was sufficient for him to keep his own men moving about and relatively safe. By the time the Beast flanks opened fire in any serious manner, they had run a great U around the Humans and had a noticeable positional advantage. They were spread thin, but they covered the Humans’ retreat paths fairly well, and were in a position to inflict a great deal of damage.
Blackstar and Starbird had guessed by this time where the Beasts’ real weakness lay, and as soon as it was confirmed, they rushed forwards into Deathdancer’s guns. Deathdancer’s guns were too few and too close to make much impression as Starbird and the Humans charged into them. The charge could have been devastating if it had not been for its lack of coherency. The difficult terrain became an important factor in the battle for the first time. Fragments of both armies were spread over miles of mountainside and valley as the Beasts tried hopelessly to counter the Human maneuver. The thoughts of both commanders turned to getting out and getting back, but the hopeless tangle of the forces made it difficult to communicate these ideas to the soldiers.
Deathdancer himself was suddenly alone in the middle of a jumble of Human and Beast troops. Even though there were far more enemies than friends, he decided that indiscriminate rifle fire was too dangerous, and drew the long sword from his belt. He moved through the pouring, smoke-filled rain, killing Humans where he could and trying not to attract attention. The rifle fire was dying out all over the neighboring slopes, and the battle was slowly dissolving into a complete mess.
Deathdancer had killed three men before the Humans became fully aware of his presence and his isolation, and gathered to attack him.
As they ran in, he shoved the first behind him with a slashed throat, and was forced to turn his attention to a man coming in from the left with his rifle levelled for a point-blank shot. Deathdancer stroked the rifle away with the sword and thrust quickly. The Human countered by blocking the thrust with his rifle, and Deathdancer was compelled to move quickly backwards to evade other men coming up quickly. Deathdancer kept up a rapid, slashing attack without much science or grace; the Humans were slower in the heavy gravity, their reflexes kept playing them false and they continually got in each other’s way. The man with the rifle kept searching for an opportunity to use it, but it was a futile quest. The two swordsmen who helped him were more worrisome.
But as Deathdancer’s swordsmanship proved easily capable of taking care of the three, the rifleman dropped
out and tried to circle for a free shot.
With slightly more luck than skill, Deathdancer cut one man’s arm above the elbow and there was suddenly only one sword left, and too little time. But before the man with the gun could steady his weapon, a flying leap brought Deathdancer close enough to kick it out of his hands. The sword he had neglected to parry whipped through his clothing, but if it cut his skin he did not feel the wound. The Human swordsman came in quickly, following up the cut and hoping that Deathdancer was off balance because of the kick. His skull was caved in by a slanting blow of Deathdancer’s weapon while his own sword was carving empty air. The man with the wounded arm had struggled back to his feet and was waving a rifle; Deathdancer grabbed the barrel and pulled it from his hand and then used it as a club to knock the man senseless.
A rifle beam licked past his shoulder, burning him and hurting his sword arm badly. He clutched convulsively as he almost dropped the blade, but it was the stolen rifle in his left hand that he used to attack his new assailant, sweeping it around his head in a wild arc which took the rifle which had been fired at him out of his enemy’s hand and swung it far away into the distance.
The butt of Deathdancer’s makeshift club smashed into the Human’s face while the man was still deciding whether to retreat or draw his sword.
There were shadows looming close on every side now, and shouts which told the Humans that he was there and must be stopped. As the shadows came in around him, emerging from the opaque curtains of rain, he whirled the rifle round his head and danced madly from side to side. The jars as it collided with several objects hurt his arm, but they must have done far more damage to whatever it was they hit. But he did not get far before someone dived in underneath the club and sent him crashing to earth with several bodies on top of him.
CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE
Neil Sunpiper of Olivia felt the massive weight of Judson Deathdancer bounce down on top of him, and then to the ground, as he grasped the Beast lord’s legs. The vast weight of the body knocked the breath out of him, and one of the Humans who tried to dive on the felled Beast crushed him into the ground as his knees found the wrong target. His open mouth tasted the salty soil and he coughed convulsively, tears coming into his eyes. The weight would have been hard to bear on his home world of Olivia, but on Stonebow it was far worse. Even when the bearded giant rolled away and the Human on top of him followed, Sandpiper felt distinctly disinclined to get up and help. It was a blessed relief just to lie there, without even his own weight for his tired body to support. His aching muscles gave him the feeling that he would probably never get up again, with the heavy gravity sucking him into the ground.
It was several semipeaceful seconds before the hubbub of cries of pain and screamed orders seeped through to his brain and reminded him that the battle was not only still in progress, but moving rapidly past him for distant parts. He lifted his head and tried to guess where the sporadic fire was now coming from. The focus of the noise seemed to come from over to his left, but it was so diffuse now that neither commander could possibly want to continue the fight. Both sides were falling back to their own ship, but it was difficult because both sides were finding a lot of enemies in the way.
Sunpiper got to his knees. Mere yards away, Death-dancer still wrestled with two Humans. A third stood discreetly by, armed with a sword in case the Beast should sufficiently disentangle himself to be eligible for a sword thrust in the chest. Sunpiper saw the rifle Deathdancer had dropped lying near the spot where he kneeled, and reached out for it, still balanced on his left hand and both knees.
A silver foot landed on his left hand and shot it away. His right fist clenched, but he missed the rifle by a foot. His face hit the dirt again. He struggled to rise, half narcotized by overexertion. A silver hand on the scruff of his neck lifted him halfway to his feet, smashed him hard on the side of the head just in front of his right ear, and let him fall again.
Sunpiper’s head was ringing, and he was not in the least interested in arguing with his attacker, so he stayed down. But he was not unconscious, and he contrived to balance his sagging head on his chin and look up to see what was happening.
The silver man-shape was no longer standing on his hand. Weaponless, and moving with the effortless grace of a leopard, it spun round the waiting swordsman and hit him in the midriff. While doubling up in pain, the Human brought his sword round in a horizontal sweep which collided with the thigh of the metal man, but without any real force and without the edge even denting the metal skin.
Heljanita’s toy then lifted one of the Humans off the struggling Deathdancer and threw the man away. The Human landed ten or twelve feet away, bounced, and then lay still, rainwater splashing into his open mouth.
Deathdancer obviously did not understand what was happening. Suddenly free of half the opposition, he had regained his feet and was gripping the last Human by throat and crotch while the man clawed uselessly at his face. Deathdancer took the metal man for an enemy and hit it with the man he held, launching the Human like a spear headfirst into where the toy’s stomach ought to be.
Both the Human and the toy went down in a heap, and Judson Deathdancer, without pausing to think, leapt after them. Only two figures reemerged from the heap, rising slowly from the long grass. They were Deathdancer and the silver humanoid.
Deathdancer must have known by now that he was fighting no Human, but he still associated the thing he was now fighting with his other assailants of moments before. Death-dancer’s huge fingers were locked with the slim ones of the toy, and they were wrestling grimly. The metal man could probably have broken Deathdancer’s hold easily enough, but instead it simply let the Beast lord use his strength uselessly.
When Deathdancer finally gave up the effort, it let him go and was obviously about to do something else when the Falcorian launched a boot into its crotch. In almost manlike fashion, the silver shape folded and crumpled. It rolled away from Deathdancer’s follow-up kick and regained its feet, waving its arms wildly.
Judson Deathdancer apparently got the idea at last that the toy was not trying to fight him. He still had not guessed why it was involved in the melee at all.
The toy, granted the time at last, pointed in the direction of the Beast ships. Deathdancer moved reluctantly away in that direction, and disappeared.
The toy paused beside the prone body of Neil Sunpiper, and the Human tried half-heartedly to get up. The toy gripped him by the armpits and hauled him to his feet. Sunpiper tensed for the blow he thought was coming, but the metal man simply left him standing there and disappeared into the night.
Apparently, the toy had been more concerned with Deathdancer’s well-being than hurting Humans. It was probably Sunpiper’s imagination, but he got the impression that the toy was limping when it left him.
Neil Sunpiper began moving slowly in the wake of the battle, circling back until he was headed once again for the Human ships.
COUNCIL OF WAR
By the time the slow-moving sun of Stonebow had reached the zenith, the battle was long dead. The armies had retreated to their own ships to contemplate the events of the previous night and the morning. The rain had stopped hours ago, and the sun shone strongly from a clear sky.
There was no doubt that, despite their numerical disadvantage, the Beasts had won. The Humans had been routed and subjected to severe punishment. Their casualties were a great deal larger than the dead of Deathdancer’s Felides. Hardly any of the other Beast factions had suffered any real damage at all. The Felides themselves had been saved from all that they might have suffered by the rapid dissolution of the Human army after the charge, and the sidetracking of the heavy fire. Deathdancer himself was safe but slightly wounded.
The Beast strength was dwindling quickly now. Casualties on Merion and Stonebow, plus Stormwind’s men, represented a substantial fraction of the original Beast strength. The Humans still had more men, and the numbers were low enough for the numerical advantage to be vital.
Eaglehe
art spoke to the assembled Beast lords. “We must have more men and more ships,” he said. “Stormwind must be replaced. Ethically such an action might be challenged by the Humans. But there was no initial agreement as to strength, and they are quite at liberty to increase their forces if they wish. We are of lesser strength through no fault of our own, and we must make up the deficit. Any legitimate claim which the Humans had must be invalid after their totally unwarranted breaking of the covenant between Skywolf and Starbird last night.
“There is no need to be ashamed of asking for help. We will explain to the Beast nations what has happened and why. We represent not only Daniel Skywolf of Sula, but the Beast nations as well. They feel a deep involvement with our cause, and they will be proud to offer us the help we need to bring that cause to a just conclusion.”
Robert Hornwing then stepped forward to speak. “I wish to oppose this course of action. Too many men have already been poured away in this attempt to settle a minor affair of honor. If you throw the war open to every spaceship in the galaxy, there is no telling where it will end. All balance and control will be abandoned. The war will be escalated beyond all hope of a result.
“I say that if, in the opinion of this council, we have been unfairly deprived of an equal chance in subsequent engagements, then we should abandon all hope of settlement by this futile war, and attempt a settlement by duel again.”
“And have the Human ships land again, to save their champion from defeat?” protested a still angry Skywolf.
“There must have been a reason for their landing,” countered Hornwing weakly. “We should not condemn them until we know why they landed.”
“They landed to save Starbird’s skin,” Skywolf said emphatically.
The Days of Glory Page 8
