'And get to the gates and open them for you. That's asking a hell of a lot, Stryke. Those gates are massive, and they're guarded.'
'I didn't say it'd be easy. You'd have to deal with the guards and get those gates unbarred. We'd be waiting close by to help open them. Then it's a quick getaway. If you think it's too risky, we'll try to come up with something else.'
'Well, there were only two guards by the gates when I left tonight, so I suppose it wouldn't be impossible overcoming them. All right, let's go for that.'
Alfray joined them, frowning, the plant samples in his hand. 'Well, what you've brought us adds another twist to things, Jup.'
'Why? What are they?'
'I know two of the three types, although they're quite rare.' He held up a leaf. 'This is wentyx, which you can find in a few places down here in the south.' He indicated another. 'This one, the vale lily, tends to grow more in the west, though you could spend years looking for it.' He showed them the third sample. 'This is new to me, and I suspect it's something the humans brought with them to Maras-Dantia. But I'd guess it does the same thing these others do.'
'Which is what?' Stryke asked.
'Kills. The two I know are among the most lethal plants in existence. The vale lily yields berries that always prove fatal even in tiny amounts. With the wentyx you have to boil the stalk for a residue that's even more potent, if anything. The gods know how dangerous the one I can't identify is. And the first two have something else in common. They're so potent that large quantities of water hardly dilutes them. Does what Hobrow has in mind seem clearer now?'
Jup was stunned. 'Hell, yes. They're growing these things for poisons to kill elder races with.'
Alfray nodded. 'Massacre, more like. This explains the dam. Hobrow's protecting Trinity's own water supply so they'll be safe when they poison the other sources.'
'I saw wells in Trinity.'
'Then the reservoir's a further guarantee for them.'
'Or else it's the reservoir they'll poison,' Stryke said. 'If you control the major water supply for a whole area, then let it be known that any of the races can use it—'
'Or just leave it unguarded,' Coilla added, 'knowing they'll come and draw from it. Particularly if there's a drought, which isn't impossible seeing how the weather's been so unpredictable in recent seasons.'
'Either way, the result's likely to be the slaughter of every race but humans in these parts,' Alfray said.
Jup recalled something. 'Hobrow said that if it works here, they'll try it on a wider scale. They go in for a lot of purity-of-the-race stuff in Trinity, certainly if the way they treat dwarves is anything to go by. How much purer can you get if there are no other races?'
'It's an insane plan,' Alfray judged. 'Think about it. The first to drink the water would die, and that would warn off others. How can these Unis believe it would work?'
'Maybe they're too blinded by hatred to see things straight,' Stryke said. 'Or it could be they think enough would be killed to make it worthwhile.'
'The bastards,' Coilla seethed. 'We can't let them get away with it, Stryke.'
'What can we do? Things are going to be hard enough for Jup tomorrow without another near-impossible task.' 'We're just going to walk away from this?' 'From what Jup says, that plant house is a fair distance inside Trinity. There's no way we're going to get to it, particularly if the alarm's gone out about the missing star. All we can do is spread the word among local elder races and hope they can act on the warning.'
She wasn't happy. 'It doesn't seem much.' 'What if I can do anything while I'm in there, Stryke?' Jup asked. 'Without putting the star in peril, that is?'
'Then good luck. But the star's your first priority. The power the stars promise could do a lot more good for Maras-Dantia than us throwing away our lives to stop this scheme.'
'Have any of you wondered where Hobrow got his star?' Alfray wanted to know.
Stryke had. 'Yes. But I remember what Mobbs said. It's possible that the humans came upon it by chance, the gods know how, and just haven't an idea of what it's for.'
'Any more than we have,' Coilla put in.
'Hobrow's enough of a tyrant to go after the other stars if he knew their power, and to use it,' Jup informed them.
'Wiping out whole races seems to back that,' Coilla agreed, more than a little cynically.
'All right, there's not much else we can do tonight,' Stryke decided.
Jup turned to Alfray. 'How's Haskeer?'
If Alfray was surprised at Jup asking after the health of his antagonist, he didn't show it. 'Fair. I'm hoping his fever's going to break soon.'
'Pity he's out of it. Irritating fucker he may be, but we could use him tomorrow.'
They talked a while longer about tomorrow's plans, and the expedition Hobrow planned to Scratch particularly intrigued them. But in the end they settled down to catch what sleep they could with more questions than answers.
Getting into Trinity the next day proved no harder than before.
Jup presented himself at the pick-up point, boarded a wagon and was delivered to the township. This time he took especial notice of the number of guards manning the gates. There were five. His heart sank. But he consoled himself with the thought that perhaps more were assigned at busy times like this.
One thing Jup did differently for his second visit was to conceal a knife in his boot. His reasoning was that as they hadn't searched him coming in yesterday, they wouldn't today. In the event, his gamble paid off.
This time, there was no lecture from Hobrow. And when the dwarves were told to report to their places of work, Jup didn't check with the custodians. He simply went with the two other dwarves assigned to the hothouse. Istuan told Jup what to do, which was a rerun of his previous day's duties, and Jup got on with it.
The time agreed for Jup to be at the gates was midday, which he reckoned was in about four hours. Which meant he needed to be out of the arboretum well before that. As he worked, his mind and eye kept returning to the small jungle of plants in the adjacent glassed area. He didn't favour leaving Trinity without at least trying to do something about them. As Stryke had said, that was all right as long as it didn't endanger gaining the star. He thought it worth the additional risk.
The plan he had for getting away from the hothouse and to the temple was basic, direct and by necessity brutal. He pondered it as he lugged the wood and black burning-stones to the piles that fed the kilns. Time dragged, as it often did when a particular moment was anticipated, but he knew that when it came to it things would move fast enough. He carried on shovelling the fuel, working up a sweat and casting shifty glances at the toxic nursery.
When he judged the moment near, he left the furnace room by way of the back door, ostensibly to check the tank's water levels.
Jup didn't want to use his knife against fellow dwarves unless he had to, no matter how treacherous they might seem. So he selected a sturdy timber bough, concealed himself behind the door and waited.
Several long minutes passed before a voice was raised inside. The words were unclear, but he was obviously being called for. He ignored it.
The door opened and one of the dwarves came out.
Jup waited for the door to close again, then stepped forward and rapped the dwarf smartly across the back of the head with his improvised bludgeon. His victim went down. Jup dragged him out of sight.
He returned to his hiding place and renewed the vigil. There were no warning shouts before the door opened a second time. Then not one but two figures exited.
Jup found himself facing Istuan and the other dwarf. He laid into them. The dwarf went down first, and without too much effort, if only because he had no weapon to defend himself with.
But the custodian put up a fight.
'You filthy little freak!' he bellowed, swinging his own club, which unlike Jup's improvised version was designed for the purpose.
They stood toe to toe and exchanged grunting blows. Jup's concern was that the human would cr
y out loudly enough to bring help. He had to finish this quickly.
The custodian proved no easy prey, however, and one of his swings caught Jup's arm. It was a painful but not crippling strike, and it spurred him to greater effort. He powered into Istuan, battering at him in search of an opening. Another swing by the human gave him his chance. Jup ducked and brought his club up to connect heavily with the custodian's chin.
Istuan gasped and the weapon fell from his loosened fingers. Jup quickly followed through with a swinging blow to his head, knocking him cold.
Tossing aside the piece of timber, he took up a two-handed axe used to chop the logs. A single swipe severed the pipe carrying water from the tanks into the furnace room.
He rushed through the door. The water in the open gully above the kilns was already drying up. Snatching one of the stoking shovels, he loaded it with glowing coals. He turned, ran the few paces to the hothouse and tossed the coals into the jumble of plants. This he repeated several times, with both hot coals and flaming logs, until the plants in the hothouse began to burn and the wooden shelving caught.
His hope was to kill two birds with one arrow. The fire should create a diversion, and destroying the plants might scupper Hobrow's plan, or at least delay it.
Satisfied the blaze had taken, he checked the street and left, firmly slamming the door behind him. As he hurried past the glass end of the structure he saw smoke inside, and pinpoints of yellow flame. He set off for the temple, careful not to break into a run no matter how much he wanted to.
He wondered how long he had before the alarm was raised. Glancing at the sky showed the sun was near its highest point. The Wolverines would now be in position. He hoped he wasn't going to disappoint them.
Moving as fast as he dared, he tried not to dwell on the enormity of the task he'd agreed to.
Jup turned into the avenue of the temple. Almost as soon as he did, the doors opened and a crowd of humans flooded out, presumably from attending a service. He froze, shocked at this sudden profusion of the species.
Conscious that standing in the road and staring was likely to attract attention, he snapped out of his paralysis and resumed walking. Very slowly, with his head down. He went past the place of worship, staying on the other side of the road, careful not to obstruct any of the departing worshippers scattering in all directions. Very few took much notice of him. For the first time he appreciated how being regarded as a member of a lowly race had its advantages.
He rounded a corner, making out that he was heading somewhere else. As the worshippers thinned he turned back and walked towards the temple again.
The street outside was clear now, except for a few humans moving off with their backs to him. He decided on a direct approach and damn the consequences. Marching straight to the temple doors, he shoved them open.
Much to his relief, the building was deserted.
He ran to the small glass case, grabbed it and dashed it against the altar, shattering it. Snatching up the star, he stuffed it into his pocket and fled.
Outside, he noticed smoke rising from the next street where the hothouse was located. Behind him, somebody shouted. He looked over his shoulder.
Four or five custodians were running his way.
He ran too. There was no point in trying to avoid attention now.
They chased him through the streets, yelling and waving their fists. Others joined in. By the time he turned the last corner and saw the gates, a howling mob was at his heels.
That wasn't all he saw. For a start there were more guards than he had anticipated. He counted eight. There was no way he was going to overpower that number single-handed. Two, certainly; three, possibly; four, maybe. Twice that number, never.
The other thing he saw was Hobrow's carriage. His daughter, Mercy, was sitting in it alone. Hobrow was standing some way off, talking to a custodian.
It gave him an idea. A desperate one, admittedly, but he could see no other choice.
Hobrow and the guards, alerted by the cries of the pursuing mob, turned and looked his way. Several of the custodians were already drawing weapons and starting to move in Jup's direction.
Jup put on a spurt of speed and ran for all he was worth. He made a beeline for the carriage. The guards raced forward to cut him off. Hobrow himself, seeing Jup's intention, also began to run.
Heart pounding, Jup reached the carriage just a few paces ahead of Hobrow and the custodians. He leapt on to it. Mercy Hobrow squealed. Jup grabbed her, ripped the knife from his boot and held the blade to her throat.
Hobrow and the guards were clambering on to the carriage.
'Hold it!' Jup yelled, pressing the knife closer to the trembling girl's pinky-white flesh.
'Let her go!' Hobrow demanded.
'Another step and she dies,' Jup said.
The holy man and the dwarf locked gazes. Jup inwardly prayed for him not to call his bluff. The girl might have been a pretty unpleasant example of humanity, and the offspring of a ruthless dictator, but she was little more than a child for all that. Given the choice, he would rather not harm her.
'My daddy will kill you for this,' Mercy promised. It was all the more chilling a threat corning from the lips of one so young.
'Button it,' Jup sneered.
'You monster!' she wailed. 'You stunted ogre! You . . . eyesore! You—'
He let her feel the keenness of his blade. She gulped and shut up.
'Open the gates!' he said.
The mob had halted and were watching in silence. Their weapons half raised, the custodians stared. Hobrow pinned Jup with his searing gaze.
'Open them,' Jup repeated.
'There's no need for this," Hobrow told him.
'Open the gates and I'll let her go.'
'How do I know you will?'
'You'll just have to take my word for it.'
Hobrow's expression turned meaner, his tone took on a harsher edge. 'How far do you think you're going to get out there?'
'That's my problem. Now are you going to open those gates or do I spill her blood?'
The preacher's fury was building. 'You harm one hair on that child's head—'
'Then open the gates.'
Hobrow fumed silently for a moment and Jup wondered what his daughter's life was worth to him. Then the holy man turned and gave the custodians a curt order. They ran to lift the crossbar. Others pulled open the gates.
For Jup it was another moment of truth. If the Wolverines weren't out there his chances of escaping were down to near zero.
The reins of the horses in one hand and the knife at Mercy's neck in the other, he edged the carriage through the gates and out into the road.
There was no sign of the Wolverines. That didn't worry him unduly. He hadn't expected to be able to see them.
Then, as he moved into the open, the band appeared from the cover of the long grass.
'Get off,' he told the girl.
She stared at him, wide-eyed.
'Get off.' he barked.
She winced and jumped down from the carriage, then started running back toward her father's outstretched arms.
Now she was free, the humans had no constraint. Yelling and screaming, they charged. Jup cracked the reins and started to move.
As they spilled through the gates, the wave of humans got their first sight of the Wolverines. They thought they were going to lynch a dwarf, not engage in a minor battle. The suddenness of the orcs' appearance, and the ferocity of their onslaught, threw the humans into disarray. Further discord was sewn by Coilla picking off the guards in their towers with her bow. Three grunts peppered the crowd with arrows.
Led by Stryke, the remainder of the band beat back the mob, which broke ranks and fled for the safety of the enclave.
Hobrow could be heard shrieking orders and vowing revenge.
Stryke jumped up beside Jup. 'They'll be getting horses! Let's move!'
Coilla and several other band members leapt aboard; the rest jogged along beside the speeding carri
age.
'Did you get it?' Stryke said.
Jup grinned. 'I got it!'
The Wolverines raced from Trinity with their prize.
20
Amid the chaos, Kimball Hobrow was beside himself with rage.
Custodians were scrambling for horses and climbing to reman the walls. Citizens armed themselves for the chase. The wounded were being tended, the dead dragged clear of the gates. A team of fire fighters carted water to the blazing arboretum.
Mercy Hobrow, tearful and petulantly angry, tugged at her father's frock coat and wailed. 'Kill them, Daddy! Kill them, kill them!'
Hobrow raised his arms, fists clenched, and bellowed over the confusion. 'Track them down, brethren! As the Almighty is your guide and your sword, find them and smite them!"
Heavily armed riders galloped out of the gates. Wagonloads of citizenry, bristling with weapons, careered through to join the hunt.
A dishevelled custodian, ashen-faced, ran to Hobrow. 'The temple!' he cried. 'It's been desecrated!'
'Desecrated? How?'
'They've taken a relic!'
A deeper fury creased the preacher's face. He reached out and grasped the man's coat, pulling him close with maniacal strength. His eyes blazed. 'What have they taken?'
The Wolverines had left their horses with Alfray and a trooper in a copse several fields distant. Haskeer, semi-conscious and groggy with fever, was there too, lashed to his steed.
Abandoning the carriage, the band wasted no time mounting. As they rode off, a massive posse appeared on the road from Trinity.
Stryke had earlier decided that they'd head due west toward the Calyparr Inlet. This gave them the advantage of an open run, and once they reached it, a terrain varied enough to hide them.
The pursuers were disorganised and still recovering from the shock of the unexpected. But they were also tenacious. For several hours they hunted the band doggedly, rarely losing sight of them. Then the less able or less energetic began to fall back, with the overladen wagons the first to be lost.
By the end of the day only a comparative handful of diehards were still on the Wolverines' trail. Some high-speed, devious riding on the band's part eventually shook them off, too.
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