“I think the entrance to the valley is in those cliffs,” Karliss said a couple of hours later, pointing at a line of cliffs on top of a steep ridge. The cliffs were considerably higher than they were.
“I don’t see any opening in those cliffs,” Batu said. “Are you sure?”
“I can’t see it from here either, but I’m pretty sure that is the right spot. It’s narrow, and easy to miss, which is why I didn’t see it before.”
Hulagu was scanning the terrain they had to cross to get there. “With the horses as tired as they are, it’s going to take us a couple of days to get there,” he said. “That’s a pretty big canyon we have to cross.” Before they could start climbing the high ridge they would have to drop down into a wide canyon and cross it.
It was midday when they saw the strange men again. It was Batu who spotted them this time. “Ahead to the right,” he whispered suddenly.
There were two of them, less than a hundred paces away, standing on top of a small cliff that overlooked the game trail the three companions were following. The three companions came to a halt and stared up at them.
The strangers were wearing crudely-tanned animal skins with the feet and heads still attached. One was wearing a wolf skin. The front paws dangled over his shoulders. The wolf’s head, with the teeth bared, sat on top of his head. The other one wore the skin of an animal Karliss didn’t recognize. Their faces were painted in white and black stripes. They were shorter than the Sertithians and were very thin, almost scrawny. They carried stone-tipped spears and over their shoulders were unstrung bows.
The one wearing the wolf skin yipped at them.
“What does that mean?” Batu asked, reaching for his bow.
“Stop,” Hulagu said. “Keep your hands away from your weapons. They’re not pointing anything at us yet.” He put his hands up to show that they were empty.
The man in the wolf skin yipped again.
“Is that a warning or a welcome?” Karliss wondered aloud.
“I guess we’ll find out,” Hulagu replied.
The two groups sat and stared at each other for some time. Finally the two strangers turned and slipped into a small copse of stunted trees. In seconds they had disappeared from sight.
“So we’re friends now?” Batu whispered.
“Or they’ve gone to set a trap for us,” Hulagu said.
“That’s real reassuring,” Batu said, still whispering.
“Why are you whispering?” Hulagu said. “They already know where we are.”
“I don’t know. Why are you talking so loudly?”
They continued riding. What else were they going to do? It was go forward or give up, and they’d come too far to give up now. They dropped down into the canyon and began making their way across it. Scattered across the bottom of the canyon were jagged piles of white rock, jutting up like broken teeth. Here and there were stands of stunted trees, some kind of evergreen with black pinecones. A few ravens drifted overhead. There was an ill feel to the place that subdued the companions and stifled conversations. Batu and Hulagu both strung their bows and rode with arrows nocked.
In the afternoon as they were passing through a small bowl, piles of rock all around, Karliss caught a hint of motion from the corner of his eye. He turned in time to see a squat, fur-clad figure rise up from behind a rock, draw back his bowstring and release an arrow.
Karliss called a warning and threw his hand up, directing a blast of wind. Quick as he reacted, he almost wasn’t quick enough. He barely managed to nudge it enough so that it glanced off instead of sticking in Batu’s shoulder.
Batu and Hulagu had their bows up, ready to fire, but there was nothing to fire at.
“We need to get out of here,” Hulagu said. “There’s no cover here.”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than a dozen or more fur-clad forms rose up in the rocks all around them and began loosing arrows at them.
But this time Karliss was ready. The wind was already at his fingertips. He gestured and instantly it raged around them. The arrows lost their way in the wind and those that made it through had no force or direction. One scratched Hulagu’s horse, but that was it.
Their attackers stopped firing. Surprised words were exchanged, then they ducked back into the rocks and disappeared.
“Let’s move,” Hulagu said, and urged his horse forward. Karliss kept the wind up and they trotted through the bowl and passed through a gap in the rocks on the other side. The boys kept their heads up, watching to see if anyone would drop down from above on top of them, but no one appeared.
A few minutes later they were in an open area with no good ambush points and Karliss let the wind drop.
“They weren’t expecting that, were they?” Batu said with a nervous grin. “Did you see the looks on their faces?”
“It was close. That first one almost got you,” Karliss said. “Just a little bit later and...”
Batu fingered the new tear in his jacket, his grin disappearing. “I guess now we know they’re not friendly.”
For a while they rode in silence. “We need to do something different,” Karliss said finally. “There are too many places they can ambush us. Or they can sneak up on us in the dark. We don’t know how many there are and we don’t know when they will attack. Sooner or later they’re going to take us down.”
“You have something in mind?” Hulagu asked.
“I say we turn around and run away. That’s what I have in mind,” Batu said, but the others ignored him.
“They seem pretty primitive,” Karliss replied, “and what I did with the wind surprised them. Maybe I can scare them off.”
“Why don’t we let them scare us off instead?” Batu said. Again the others ignored him.
“What’s the plan?” Hulagu asked.
Briefly, Karliss told them. “We’ll need as much wood as we can gather,” he said. “We need a big fire for this to work.”
╬ ╬ ╬
By the end of the day each of them had a sizable pile of wood tied to the backs of their horses. When Karliss saw a small hill with a rounded top, he pointed to it. “We’ll camp up there.”
On top of the hill they piled all the wood they’d gathered. Karliss looked around. There was no sign of the strangers. “There’s still light. Let’s gather more wood while we can.”
By dark they had a pile that was chest-high. The wood was mostly small stuff, but it was dry and it would burn rapidly.
“I sure hope your plan works,” Batu said. “Otherwise all we’re doing is making ourselves better targets. They’ll be able to pick us off easily.”
“When do you want to light it?” Hulagu asked.
“Once it’s good and dark. It will work best then.”
They ate their meager rations and waited for darkness to fall. It was Hulagu who started talking after a while.
“When you said you’re afraid of wolves, Batu, I said there are things I’m afraid of too, but I never told you what.”
“I thought you were only trying to make me feel better,” Batu said.
“I’m afraid of letting the clan down, of making a mistake at the wrong time so someone gets killed.”
Karliss knew how that felt.
“Really?” Batu asked.
“Really,” Hulagu said.
“Because you’re the best fighter of any of us who are still training. By a lot. The teachers always use you as an example of how to do things. So when you say you’re afraid of not being good enough, it doesn’t make any sense.”
“You don’t understand. I’m not talking about not being good enough. I know I’m good enough. It’s more that I’m afraid when the time comes that I’ll hold back and then the enemy will get by me and hurt someone I’m trying to protect.”
“But why would you do that?”
“Because I don’t like hurting people, that’s why. It makes me feel terrible. When we spar, I’m always worried my opponent is going to get hurt so I always take it easy on him.
When I do accidentally hurt him, I feel bad about it for days. The teachers all say I’m going to be this great warrior someday, but the truth is I don’t want to be a warrior. I hate fighting. I’d rather try to talk stuff out and find another way to solve problems.” Hulagu gestured out at the surrounding countryside. “I don’t want to fight those people out there. Maybe they’re only hungry. If we could talk to them, we could offer to share our food.”
“I think I’d rather fight than share our food,” Batu said.
“I’m being serious,” Hulagu said.
“Sorry,” Batu said. “But when the man on the giant bird attacked the camp you didn’t hold back.”
“That was different. I don’t think he was a man anymore. But with regular people I can’t stop thinking about who they are. Those men who shot arrows at us today, they must have wives and children, people who care about them. I’ve seen the families of slain warriors grieving. It makes me feel sick to think of other families grieving because I killed someone they love.”
“If this works,” Karliss said, “we won’t have to kill anyone.”
“Then I hope it works.”
“Let’s not forget how nice it would be not to get killed ourselves,” Batu said.
╬ ╬ ╬
“It’s time,” Karliss said. “Light the fire.”
The wood caught quickly and blazed up fiercely. Karliss waited until it was at its peak, then he called the wind.
He used the wind to lift the flames and sparks high into the sky, spinning them into a tight column fifty feet or more high. Then he focused his power, going for finer control.
Faces appeared in the flaming column, bestial faces which belched tongues of fire. He made bizarre creatures appear in the flames, things that had never existed, with long fangs and horns.
He kept it up as long as he could, bringing forth every nightmarish thing he could think of. Then, as he felt the flames dying down, their fuel depleted, he gathered it all together into one huge face with staring eyes. As the flames withered and died, he kept the face alive for moments longer, composed only of sparks by then.
“I don’t know about them,” Batu said when he was done, “but that scared me. Where did you come up with that stuff?”
“I have a lot of bad dreams these days.”
“I think you probably just gave them some,” Batu said.
They took turns keeping watch but there was no sign of the strangers the whole night. When they got up the next morning the countryside was empty of movement. There were no tracks near the camp.
“So far, so good,” Hulagu said.
Karliss shivered inside his fur coat and said nothing. His night had been plagued by bad dreams of Kasai slaughtering the clan and this morning he found himself wondering if he’d made a terrible mistake coming here. What if they found nothing? What if Kasai was even then attacking the clan? The world looked as bleak as he felt. He didn’t think they had enough food to make it back to the steppes, even if they turned back today. And that was assuming the strangers didn’t riddle them with arrows or cut their throats during the night.
They’d only been riding for a few minutes when Hulagu, who was in the lead, reined his horse to a stop. “Look at that,” he said.
On a flat spot beside the game trail a forked stick was stuck in the ground. Hanging off each of the forks was a rabbit that had been skinned and cleaned. There was something else, wedged in the fork itself, but Karliss couldn’t see what it was until they rode closer.
“It’s a little doll,” Batu said wonderingly. “I think it’s meant to be you.”
Karliss dismounted and picked up the doll. It was made from sticks bound together with strips of rough leather. A scrap of fur was wrapped around it and it had a braid made of what looked like human hair. “Why do you think it looks like me?”
“You’re the one who made the fire demons,” Batu replied. “Not me or Hulagu.”
“Is this an offering or a threat?” Karliss wondered.
Hulagu climbed down and gathered up the rabbits. “It’s food. We badly need food. I’m calling it an offering. Maybe they think you’re a god.”
“Shows how primitive they really are,” Batu said with a half-smile.
Karliss didn’t smile back. He couldn’t shake the sense of foreboding he’d had since he woke up.
By midday they were at the base of the steep ridge where Karliss thought the entrance to the high valley was.
“I think we should walk and lead the horses up the ridge,” Hulagu said. “I don’t know if they can carry us up this, and even if they do, they’re going to be worn out by the time we get to the top.”
The three of them dismounted and began picking their way up the steep slope. There was a lot of loose rock on the slope and several times the horses lost their footing. Once Batu stepped on a stone that rolled underfoot and he fell and slid a ways down the slope. When he got up he was limping.
“It would be really easy for someone up there to roll rocks down on us,” Hulagu said, echoing what Karliss was thinking.
“Don’t say it so loud,” Batu said. “There’s no need to give them any ideas.”
It took hours, but at last they reached the foot of the cliffs. But there was no sign of the defile that Karliss had seen earlier.
“Now what?” Batu asked.
“It can’t be far,” Karliss said, frustrated. He’d scouted it again this morning before they started out. This had to be the right spot. He recognized a pattern of color on the cliff face. “Follow me.” There was a narrow game trail tracing the bottom of the cliffs and he led them along it.
Even though he was watching for it, he still almost missed the defile. A large bush covered the opening, which was angled in such a way that it didn’t look like there was a break in the rock at all.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones to pass through here,” Hulagu said, pointing at tracks leading in and out of the defile.
“Well, let’s hope what we found this morning was an offering then,” Karliss said, leading his horse into the crack. It was barely wide enough for his horse and his stirrups scraped against the rock walls. The soft sand in the bottom muffled the sound of the horses’ hooves. The defile twisted and turned, some of the turns so sharp that the horses had trouble making it through them.
“If they weren’t so skinny already, we wouldn’t be able to get them through here,” Batu observed.
“I just hope we don’t come to a spot we can’t pass,” Hulagu added. “It’ll be nearly impossible to back them out of here and there’s nowhere to turn around.”
Karliss looked up as a loose stone rattled down from above, wondering if it presaged an attack. He saw nothing and no more stones fell. If the strangers wanted them dead, this would be the place to do it. They were nearly helpless. He wished he could at least see the sky, but the defile narrowed overhead so much that it wasn’t visible.
As they passed deeper into the defile, Karliss began to experience a nameless feeling of dread. He realized that his heart was beating faster and his palms were slick with sweat. He felt a strong desire to turn and run back the way he’d come, abandon everything and simply flee. He felt trapped. The stone walls seemed closer. They were looming over him, slowly crushing him.
“I can’t take much more of this,” Batu said from behind him. “There’s not enough air in here or something.”
“I feel it too,” Hulagu said. “Suddenly all I want is to be out on the open steppes. I can’t move in here. I can’t see anything.”
“I don’t think it’s too much further,” Karliss said, hoping it was true.
“Anybody know any funny stories?” Hulagu asked. “Something to take our minds off it?”
“The only story I know is the one about the three idiots who got trapped in a stone crack,” Batu said, “but it’s not very funny.”
About the time Karliss thought he couldn’t take it much longer, he rounded a bend and saw the crack open up ahead. “I think I see the end!
” he called and hurried forward. He didn’t have to encourage his mare. She wanted out of the crack too and nearly trampled him in her eagerness.
A minute later all three of them were free of the crack. They stood there, breathing hard. Hulagu wiped sweat from his face. “I don’t suppose there’s another way out besides that?” he asked.
“What do you think?” Karliss replied, gesturing at the valley they found themselves in.
The valley was about a mile across. On all sides it was surrounded by high, steep ridges, steeper than the one they’d just climbed, and sheer peaks. There were a couple of places where it looked like a man on foot might be able to get to the top, but there was no way they’d ever get the horses up there.
“Maybe the strangers will slaughter us after all,” Batu said. “Then we’ll never have to leave.”
They mounted up and rode down into the valley. There was the small pond Karliss had seen while scouting. There were several clumps of trees around it, bigger trees than any they’d seen so far. A flock of birds flew overhead, the first flock they’d seen in days. The slope leading down to the pond wasn’t too steep and there was even grass growing on it in a few places.
“What’s that down there?” Hulagu asked, pointing.
Not far past the pond was an area where all the plants had been cleared away. There were a number of strange-looking whitish objects scattered across the area. They rode closer.
“What are they for?” Batu asked when they got close enough to see.
“I have no idea,” Karliss replied. They were figures made out of different kinds of bones, tied together with leather straps and held upright by stakes driven into the ground. No two figures were the same. One was quite small and looked to be composed of the skull of a squirrel attached to a bird’s ribcage, the wings still attached, with legs that looked like they came from a rabbit. Others were as large as a person, made up of various skulls, ribcages and mismatched legs.
Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3) Page 21
