by Robert Adams
"Now, by Sacred Sun, madam," grated the komees, from betwixt bared, yellow teeth, "I'll not see my homeland ruled in the bloody manner of an unlettered northern barbarian!"
"It is you who are the fool," hissed Mother Mahrnee, "not our late husband! You make a loud noise of despising the Ehleenee and their ways, yet you talk just like one, as well you should, since you are at least half-Ehleen by blood. You, of all men in this duchy, after your years of soldiering in the Middle Kingdoms, should be aware that they and their peoples are in no way barbarian. Our civilization is much different from that to which you were bora, but it is in no wise inferior and, in many ways, superior to yours!"
Hate lanced from his eye as he cackled, "Ha! Hit a nerve, did I? Your kind have always been thin-skinned, proud as peacocks of the stinking middens which spawned you. Yes, I peddled my sword from Hwehlzburk to Hahrbuhnburk, and right often did I find it hard not to laugh at the unlearned apes you call noblemen—who marveled at a noble officer's abilities to read and write—even while I tried not to gag at the stenches of their long-unwashed bodies! When did one of your kind ever do anything to support your claim of civilized status, eh? They can but fight and kill, breed and wallow in their own filth and ignorance. You're, none of you, any better than the mountain barbarians; you're even of the same race!"
"Yes," nodded Mother Mahrnee. "We are of the same, ancient race as the mountain folk, and you Ehleenee would do well to remember that fact. Our race is descended in direct line from the demigods, the Mehruhkuhnz, untainted by the blood of effete Ehleenee.
"When first the Ehleenee came to this land, driving our race north and west, they were strong and valiant and honorable foemen, but in the centuries since, while we progressed, they have either remained static or have actually regressed. It required the Coming of the Horseclans and the unstinting efforts of the Undying High Lord to infuse new purpose along with new blood and inaugurate the snail-slow process of snapping your Ehleenee ancestors out of their course of certain racial suicide.
"As for what you have said of our people, some of it is true. No, we do not take to books and quills and soaps and scented water, but you who do so would not long be contented or safe as you now are without certain of the creations and products of our own civilization, Count Djeen.
"Your good sword bears the hallmark of the Kingdom of Pitzburk, as does each piece of your armor and, indeed, most of the decent weapons and armor in this duchy! That fine velvet you wore last night at dinner was woven in the capital of our own homeland, the Duchy of Zunburk, while your boots look to be from the County of Pahtzburk. And who but Middle Kingdoms Freefighters fought the Ehleenee's wars, ere God Milo crossbred Ehleenee with Horseclansmen and forced them to become other than effeminate fops?"
"And, speaking of God Milo, Count Djeen," interjected Mother Behrnees, "he knows the folk of the Middle Kingdoms far better than do you, yet he has never slandered us. Why, then, do you take such joy in it, not just here and now, but right often in the past?"
"You may be certain," the old man smiled thinly, "that my dear lord feels precisely as I do, but he must be diplomatic in any congress with your barbarians, since your dungheaps adjoin his northern and northwestern borders, just as he must call common mercenaries 'Freefighters.' But I need not be so careful of treading on barbarian toes, for I am but—"
"You are but a fool!" The mindspeak was of terrible intensity and was broadbeamed into the minds of every mind-speaker in the hall. "You were a hidebound, opinionated, self-righteous young fool, forty years ago, Djeen Morguhn, and I can see that age has not brought you wisdom!"
Then the alarm trumpet pealed from the watchtower and Feelahks Sami bellowed, "They have forded the stream and they now approach the hall. Open the gates! Now comes the Undying High Lady Aldora Linszee Treeah-Pohtohmahs Pahpahs!"
Chapter One
Vahrohneeskos Drehkos Daiviz had gotten the last contingent of his peasant-pikemen across the stream and jogging toward Morguhnpolis before the Vawnee scouts galloped in to report the Confederation cavalry's van to be no more than some two miles distant. He was distractedly rubbing an unshaven cheek and wondering whether he should try to cover the retreat of the hapless infantry with his mere handful of mounted men when the senior of the remaining sub-priests intruded upon his reverie with a demand.
"Lord Drehkos, if it be true that the hordes of the cursed Undying be not a mile away, I must insist that our coaches be returned to us, for the lives of those who do God's work are certainly of more importance than are those of the wretches you have ordered our conveyances filled with!"
Drehkos was not at all religious. He had joined the rebellion for the avowed purpose of gaining his brother's lands and title. His answer was heavily larded with studied irreverence. "Reverend Father, if you and your fellow 'servants of God' expect to reach Morguhnpolis other than on your well-shod feet, perhaps you had best start praying that God quickly grant you wings. You can blame Lord Myros and Father Rikos for the fact you have to walk; for had they not taken the last of the sound and usable wagons when they— ahhhh, shall we say, "proceeded" our departure last night— you'd be able to ride in the style to which you feel entitled. But I'II be damned if I intend to leave behind wounded officers and men, simply so priestly feet might be spared a few honest blisters!
"Now, go away and leave me alone! I've weightier things to consider than your possible discomforts."
With the departure of the glowering priest, Drehkos returned to his ponderings. For the first time in his life, he regretted not riding north in his youth to serve as a Freefighter in the Middle Kingdoms with Djeen Morguhn, as had so many others of the young Kindred nobility. If he had, at least, he might now have a bare glimmering of his best course to follow, might not now be in this sorry mess. Finally, he sent for the only professional officer left after the previous, night's chaos and carnage.
Shortly, the barbarian sublieutenant ambled in, his battered helmet sitting askew over his bandaged head. "You wanta talk to me, Lord Drehkos?"
Drehkos gestured at the other chair, charred slightly, like his own. When the skinny, long-bodied man had seated himself, the commander outlined the overall situation, admitted his own ignorance, and bluntly asked what he should do.
The reply was just as blunt. "Lord Drehkos, including me, it ain't but twenny real soljers left. Mosta them Vawnees done been long gone, an' I cain't say I blames ‘em none. The only ones in this whole kit-and-kaboodle what has any chance of getting back to Morguhnpolis is the horsemen and, mebbe, them there coaches. Them pike-toters is dead meat no matter how you figgers it, and you and us a-gittin' ourselves kilt long with 'em ain't gonna do nobody no good.
"Way I sees it, there's two things you can do, and I'll tell 'em to you. But I don't think neither one's gonna set in your craw too good." He paused, raising his grizzled brows in an unspoken question.
"Don't fear to speak, Lieutenant Hohguhn," smiled Drehkos. "I'm not Lord Myros. I don't punish men for speaking the truth as they see it, no matter how distasteful that truth may be to me."
"Wal, Lord Drehkos, if I ‘uz you, I'd ride up yonder and surrender and see if I couldn't git my lord to go easy on my men, even if he wouldn't on me!"
Drehkos shook his head slowly. "Would that I could, lieutenant, but I don't think that that gesture would accomplish anything. I've met Thoheeks Bili, both in friendship and in enmity, and I've found him hard as steel. He was reared in Harzburk and tutored at the court of King Gilbuht, if you know what that means."
Hohguhn nodded vehemently. "I shore do, Lord Drehkos, I shore do, and you're right as rain, too. Won't do no particle of good to expeck no mercy off one of the Iron King's folks. Only thing you and your officers and them few Vawnees can do now is make tracks for Morguhnpolis, and I shorely do wish you luck."
"You won't be riding with us then, Hohguhn?"
The lieutenant looked the nobleman squarely in the eye. "No suh, I won't, and neither will none of my men."
"May I ask why, go
od Hohguhn? I'll not hold your answer against you."
The officer cracked his scarred knuckles before answering. "Wal, Lord Drehkos, it's thisaway. We's all Freefighters and we ain't been paid in near three moons, but we 'uz all willing to stick around, long as it looked like we might get some loot, no matter how common Lord Myros treated us; but didn't none of us sign on to fight the Confederation Army or to die in a losing fight for no pay but rotten rations and horsepiss wine and hard words."
He glanced around uncomfortably, then leaned forward and spoke in a much-lowered voice. "Lord Drehkos, you done treated us better all along then any of the others', so I'll level with you. You cain't hold Morguhnpolis! Them old walls ain't near thick nor high enough, and mosta the engines whut wuz burnt up las' night was took off of them walls, so Morguhnpolis ain't nuthin' now but a big ol' rat trap. Don't you git yourself caught in it, Lord Drehkos. You just keep on by. You don't look like no Ehleen, so mebbe the mountain folks'll take you in. This all's just 'tween you and me, you unnerstan'."
The skinny officer stood and extended his hand. Soberly, Drehkos arose and gripped the officer's grubby, broken-nailed hand as if he had been an equal, saying, "I thank you, Hohguhn, I thank you for everything. Now, let me advise you, if I may. Your men may,' of course, take anything left in the camps that strikes their fancy, but don't linger too long, lest you be taken for a rearguard and attacked."
From the top of the hill, the camps appeared deserted. Nonetheless, Bili rode with his visor down and his uncased axe laid ready across his wide-flaring pommel. While he had ridden through the dark, narrow passage to the gate, he had mindspoken his warhorse, Mahvros, reaffirming their brotherhood and telling him how much he regretted their enforced separation and how pleased he was to be once more able to ride into battle astride one on whom he could depend. Nor was any of it untrue, for Bili actually felt kinship with the devoted stallion, had felt his own wounds no more keenly than he had the horse's at the embattled bridge where he and the High Lord and Vahrohneeskos Ahndee had stood off a score or more of mounted rebels. Had it only been less than a week since that affray? It seemed a lifetime—and he well knew how important to a warrior's safety was the cooperation of a disciplined and courageous mount.
As for Mahvros, he all but purred! Once clear of the gate, he arched his steel-clad neck and lifted his white-stockinged feet high in his showiest parade strut, his powerful thews rolling under his glossy black hide. Mahvros loved nothing more than a good blood-spurting fight, and his brother had told him that soon there would be two-legs in plenty to savage and kick.
Bili spoke aloud, for though Chief Hwahltuh Sanderz, who rode at his right, could mindspeak, Captain Pawl Raikuh, on his left, could not.
"Captain, should I fall. Baron Spiros Morguhn will be acting duke until my brother, Tcharlee, can get here from Pitzburk. You are a brave and honorable man and you have served me well—serve them equally. Command of the present warband will devolve upon the Undying High Lord.
"Regarding the rebels, the only men I want taken alive are those damned priests and the treacherous nobles, but no man is to chance undue risks simply to capture them. I would like to have the bastards for public torture and execution, but none of them are worth the lives of any of your men, and I'll settle for just their heads, if it comes to that.
"As for the common scum, I want to see no living ones along our track. Understood?" At his companions' grim nods, he went on.
"Save your darts and arrows for the unlikely event that someone persuades the pigs to make a stand, or for later, when the horses are too blown to run them down; for now, let's have sword and axe and spear work. And, since our numbers be small, we'd best stay together until we're certain there's no organized rearguard to hack through. We—What's this?"
A broadbeamed mindspeak from Chief Hwahltuh and a hand signal from Captain Raikuh brought troopers and clansmen into line of battle on the flanks of the three leaders. Then every eye was fixed upon the tall, broad form of the young thoheeks, awaiting his word or gesture to charge the small band which had emerged from a fold of ground and was now moving slowly up the hill.
Bili raised his visor for better visibility and kneed Mahvros forward a few yards, then a few yards more, until he could clearly see the approaching men. Only the leading six were mounted, though several others led limping horses or saddled mules. The foremost, a skinny man whose dented helmet bore the horsehair crest of a commoner officer, was gripping his sheathed sword by the tip and holding it high over his head. Noting Bili's advanced position, the officer turned to halt his party, then spurred forward alone.
Bili unwound the thong from his wrist, grasped the central spike of his axe and waved the haft above his head.
"Now, what the hell is going on?" demanded the Sanderz of Raikuh.
His eyes still upon his young lord, the captain snapped, "Sword Truce. Those men must be Freefighters, probably part of Captain Manos' two troops of dragoons. But keep your eyes peeled, lord chief, and your bow ready. Sword Truce is sacred to those of us who worship Steel, but others have been known to invoke it for purposes of unhallowed treachery."
When but a yard separated the two riders, the lanky officer extended his weapon, hilt first, to Bili, who accepted it with one hand while proffering his axe with the other. Gravely, the officer raised the head of the upended axe to his lips and kissed the burnished metal. No less gravely, Bili partially drew the sword and reverently pressed his lips to the flat of the wide, well-honed blade, gently resheathed it, then returned it to its owner, accepting his axe in return. Moving up knee to knee, the men exchanged whispered words and a complicated handclasp.
Grinning, Bili laid his axe back across his pommel and relaxed against the high cantle of his warkak. "Well, Sword Brother, I hope that, if you and yours were a part of that sorry rabble just departed, you at least got paid."
Lieutenant Hohguhn smiled ruefully. "Not for the last three moons, noble Sword Brother, but Lord Drehkos, he give us leave to loot the camp, after he 'uz gone. 'Course, we would've enyhow, pay or no pay, but she were a nice touch, having permission and all."
"Well, what want you of me and the sacred Truce,
Brother?" asked Bili, adding, "I must be brusque, for there is a day of bladework ahead."
Hohguhn snorted. "Butcher's work, it'll be, and no mistaking, less some o' them Vawnee dig up enough gumption to stand and fight."
An icy prickling crept under Bill's backplate. "Vawnee, Sword Brother? Is Thoheeks Vawn involved, then, in this sorry affair?"
"If you'd a-lissuned to whatall them Vawnee said, you'd of thought their Ehleen god'd done in the thoheeks and all his kin. But iffen you 'uz raised in mountains, like me, you'd know what probly really happuned."
"Thoheeks Vawn and his Kindred are then dead?" Bili's voice was tight.
"Oh, aye, noble Sword Brother," Hohguhn stated. "Seems as how him and his got drove up inta the mountains and holed up in a old Confederation fort and they ‘uz standing off the whole dang Ehleen force, then—and this here's where them Vawnee gits all walleyed and sweaty—what I figger happened was a big ole thunderstorm come on and lightning struck their wall. I tell you, I seen the like happen, up near to Pahkuhzburk, where I 'uz borned, Sword Brother. A hit like that, with a lotta thunder a-rattling the rocks will real often set off a landslide, so when them Vawnee tolt me part of the fort slid down the mountain, I knowed didn't no Ehleen god have nuthin to do with it.
"But, anyhow, five or six hundred of them Vawnee come a-riding in last night, fulla piss and vinegar and set to lick the whole Confederation. Leastways they wuz till all that ruckus got started. Half 'em wuz dead afore dawn. And that wuz a right fine piece of worf 'k, that sally. Did you lead her, Sword Brother?"
"No," said Bili simply. "It was led by my birth brother, Djef. Tanist of Morguhn, now dead."
Hohguhn clasped his cased sword in both hands, saying, "Honor of the Steel to his memory, Sword Brother."
"Thank you, Sword Brother Hohguhn. But I rep
eat, what is it you want of me? Safe passage out of Morguhn, or employment?"
A note of ill-concealed eagerness entered the officer's voice. "You… you'd hire us on, then. Sword Brother?"
"Of course," Bili replied shortly. "Unless you've some compunction against drawing steel in my cause. I'll confirm you as sublieutenant and pay you as such, but you'll be under the command of Captain Raikuh, who leads my dragoons."
Hohguhn's bushy brows rose. "Pawl Raikuh, what useta be a gate sergeant at Morguhnpolis?"
Bili's helmeted head bobbed once. "The same. You see. Brother Hohguhn, men of proven loyalty rise fast in my service.
Hohguhn beamed a gap-toothed smile. "Then Bohreegahd Hohguhn's your man, and no mistake! B'sides, I weren't no officer till I signed on with Captain Manos, anyhow. Highest I'd ever been afore that 'uz troop sergeant for Captain Feeliks Kahtruhl."
Now Bili looked amazed. "You mean that some of you Freefighters actually got out of Behreezburk alive? With our lines drawn so tightly it seems hard to believe that anything larger than a rat could have wormed through them."
All at once, Hohguhn's mouth dropped open, his seamed and weathered face mirroring surprise. When, at length, he again spoke, his tone was less of respect than of utter awe. "By my Steel, you… you be Bili the Axe! It wuz you what slew the earl and two of his bodyguards in that fight under the north wall. I seen it!
"And now you be duke here? Well, my lord, me and my men, what's left of us, we'd be purely honored to fight under your banner, we would!"
While Lieutenant Krahndahl conducted Hohguhn and his men up to the hall to get them outfitted and decently mounted, Bili and the warband picked through what was left of the string of camps, dispatching any wounded they came across, making certain that the dead really were deceased and earmarking usable spoils for later collection by the hall garrison.
Then Krahndahl and Hohguhn were cantering down the hill at the head of the reinforcements and, at Bili's word, Raikuh's bugler sounded the recall while the thoheeks and Milo mindcalled the rest. And the larger-by-a-third column reformed and negotiated the ford and set off in pursuit of the quarry, the great prairiecats—Whitetip, Lover-of-Water and Steelclaws—bounding well in the lead.
