"Oh, you meant all right, lad," Hornsbuck said levelly. "You just didn"t think of anyone, save yourself."
And Mika knew it to be true.
"Well, what do you intend to do now, Master Wolf?" Hornsbuck asked in a cool, mocking tone. "What is the plan?"
"Ride fast," Mika muttered softly.
"Oh, ride fast. Yes. That"s a wonderful clever plan. Would never have thought of it myself. We"ll certainly shake those monstrosities off our tails in no time."
"Well, what would you do?" asked Mika.
"I"d cut that wagon loose, for starters," said Hornsbuck. "Then I"d ride for the hills. We"ll never lose them out here on the plains; we"re too easy to see. We might stand a chance in the hills."
"What hills?" asked Mika.
"The hills outside Eru-Tovar along the southern march," replied Hornsbuck pointing out the landmarks on an oiled leather map. "We are here," he said, stabbing the map with a thick finger. "The hills are there, two days hence."
"Do you think we can make it?" asked Mika, his heart giving a leap within his chest."
"Aye, probably, if we abandon the wagon and ride for all we are worth," Hornsbuck said slowly, turning the situation over in his mind, weighing their chances.
"Gnolls are lazy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. They would not venture from their lairs and stick to us like this unless there was some extra kicker, like this magic-user fellow, pushing "em on. They like blood and killing and torture, but how much work are they willing to do to get a chance to enjoy them?"
"Seems like a lot," said Mika, glancing behind him to see how close they were.
"Nah! This is simple stuff, following," said Hornsbuck. "Anyone can follow in a straight line. But will they follow us if we make it difficult for them? That"s the question."
"We can try!" said Mika.
"You understand, though, that it could work against us."
"Why?" cried Mika.
"They are creatures of darkness," answered Hornsbuck. "They can see better at night and might lay traps for us. We will have to be on our guard at all times."
"Right," agreed Mika, relieved that Hornsbuck was still an ally.
"And Mika," said the older man, gripping Mika"s arm tightly. "Try to remember that we might have avoided this, had you been straight with me from the first. No more secrets. We must work together if we are to survive."
"No more secrets," Mika a.s.sured. "You have my word."
They turned their horses and galloped swiftly back to the wagon where Mika called a brief halt.
Weary men slid from their saddles and poured out a small amount of water for their mounts and themselves, barely enough to wet their parched mouths.
"We must abandon the wagon," Mika told Hary. "There is no other way. I have told Hornsbuck everything. We have imperiled the lives of him and his men. They have the right to know what it is they die for."
Hary"s blue eyes blazed for a moment and it looked as though he might argue, but he nodded briefly and bit back the words that rose to his lips.
"I can see that it is necessary," he said. "I appreciate all that you are doing for us. I will go and tell Reckna.s.s." Dismounting from his horse, he climbed into the wagon.
While Hary was making his arrangements, Mika called the nomads together.
The air was cool and fragrant with the smell of grease bushes in bloom. The sun was beginning to set, bathing the prairie in crimson like a shroud of warm blood. Night hunting birds came awake slowly, twittering and chirping quarrelsomely.
The nomads trotted up, one at a time, on horses whose necks drooped with fatigue. Wolves sat on their haunches alongside their humans, their tongues lolling, too tired to visit among themselves.
The nomads stared at Mika, waiting for him to speak, knowing that the words he spoke would affect their lives.
Mika looked into their weary eyes and felt as though he were the enemy. And, in a sense, he would have to admit that he was, since his actions, and the lack of them, had helped place them in this dangerous position. Waiting would accomplish nothing. He prayed to the Great Wolf Mother to give him the right words.
"I know you"re all wondering what this is all about-who this army belongs to and why they are following us," he began. A loud murmur a.s.sured him that this was true.
"There is a lady in yon wagon," Mika continued. "A lady who lies in a magical sleep from which she cannot be wakened. We have been charged with taking her to Eru-Tovar where there is said to be one who can break the spell.
"It would seem that someone would like to prevent us from reaching the city, but I am pledged to see that she reaches it in safety."
The nomads leaned from their horses and conversed among themselves with angry murmurs and much gesturing. Mika continued, speaking more loudly to draw their attention.
"We are abandoning the wagon so that we may travel more quickly. We are making for the hills along the southern march. It should take us two days to reach them. We hope to lose the army in the hills and enter the city unharmed."
"Abandon the woman!" called one of the eastern nomads, a dark, hawk-nosed man unfamiliar to Mika. "Give her to those who follow and spare us a needless death."
"I have given my word," said Mika. "I will not leave her."
The man spat contemptuously on the ground, his comment on the value of Mika"s word.
Mika was spared from answering the silent challenge by the appearance of Hary and Reckna.s.s as they emerged from the wagon.
Hary descended first, jumping down lightly, then held his arms out as though willing to take the princess from the giant. But Reckna.s.s ignored him, standing tall and straight atop the wagon, staring each of the nomads in the eye, challenging them to deny him and his fragile charge their right to life. None spoke.
Only when he had stared them all down, even the eastern nomad, did he step down, cradling the princess in his arms like a tiny waif.
It would have taken a very brave or a very foolish man to have challenged Reckna.s.s, for the giant appeared even larger and more frightening than he had inside the wagon.
His face was now a ma.s.s of purple, yellow, and black bruises, and his nose was still flattened against his cheek. He stared at the men with his one good eye. They drew their horses back a step and lowered their eyes, unwilling to aggravate the brute.
Mika had eyes for the princess alone, having seen more than enough of Reckna.s.s. But she was completely swaddled in the soft pink coverlet and all that could be seen of her was a few glossy curls.
Hary and the driver Cob pa.s.sed almost unnoticed in the small drama, fastening bulky trunks and bits of luggage to the sides of the mules that were being unfastened from the wagon.
"What are you doing?" asked Hornsbuck.
"It is the princess"s luggage," replied Hary. "We cannot leave it behind. She will need it when she wakens."
"If she wakens," growled Hornsbuck, striding up to the mules and unceremoniously stripping the luggage from their backs.
"This is no garden party, no pleasure outing. The gnolls and trolls back there will grind your precious princess between their teeth and not appreciate the difference between her sweet flesh and your stringy meat. Mount up and leave this foolishness behind."
Hary stepped back, dropping the trunk on the ground as though it had burned his fingers. Mika smiled sympathetically, glad that it was not he who was the object of Hornsbuck"s anger.
Reckna.s.s strode over to the largest of the mules and, without shifting the princess or even stepping on a stone, threw his leg over the animal"s back and seated himself carefully. The mule sagged beneath the man"s great weight and its legs wobbled as though they might give way.
"That will never do," muttered Hornsbuck and ordered Marek, who rode a huge roan stallion, to give the animal to the giant. Marek frowned and looked as though he might argue, but at that moment, the wolves began to howl, their tails curled high above their backs. A quick glance behind them told them that the gnolls were gaining rapidly.
The time for talk was done. Marek handed the reins of the roan over to Reckna.s.s who mounted and settled the princess across his legs. In a rare mood of concern, Mika rode up next to the giant and handed him the fragile gold chain with the crystal bead that always hung from his neck.
"Take it," he said, after looking around to see that no one noted the unusual gesture. "Put it around her neck. It has been lucky for me. Perhaps it will bring her luck as well."
The giant stared suspiciously at Mika. Then, seeing nothing other than honest goodwill, he nodded curdy and slipped the gold chain over the princess"s head.
All around them, men were whipping their mounts into hasty retreat, with the exception of Marek who crawled with ill-concealed bad grace onto the back of the mule. They rode off swiftly, leaving nothing but the empty wagon and a pile of baggage behind.
There was a loud outcry when the army of monsters reached the wagon a short time later. Shrill cries pierced the air, along with furious barking yaps as though the hyenas were fighting over some delectable prize. But it didn"t hold them long.
Mika and Hornsbuck positioned themselves atop a ridge a short time later and looked down on the entire horde.
They were spread out over the plains in a ragtag smear without any sign of order or organization. The hyenas and the larger hyenadons loped at the fringes of the mob, and the shambling figures of the trolls brought up the rear.
A mult.i.tude of weapons ranging from great bows to pole arms, long two-handed swords, battle axes, and morning stars were clearly visible.
Here and there, soft pastel bits of silk-the tattered remnants of Julia"s finery-rippled from the tops of barbed pikes or swathed the necks and heads of hairy, slope-browed gnolls. Scarcely three miles separated the vile army from Mika and the others.
"Got to do something," muttered Mika. "Hornsbuck, do you think we could fire the prairie? It worked on the kobolds, it might work here."
"Maybe," said Hornsbuck. "Wind"s coming from the west. It would blow in their direction. It"s worth a try.
Dismounting, Mika and Hornsbuck struck their firestones and lit a grease bush which instantly burst into flames.
"Remount!" cried Hornsbuck as he yanked another bush out of the ground. "We"ll have to do it from horseback; they"re spread out too widely!"
Leaping on his bay in a single bound, Hornsbuck stabbed the point of his sword into the base of the grease bush and then lit it. It flamed instantly, and he kicked his nervous horse into a trot, pa.s.sing from one bush to the next, lighting them.
Mika followed suit and soon a whole line of grease bushes sputtered and raged, throwing thick black clouds of acrid smoke into the air. They sputtered and popped as the flames devoured them, tossing fiery sparks up to fall on other bushes. The spa.r.s.e dry gra.s.ses and soon the entire prairie behind them were being consumed by the ravenous flames.
"That should keep them for a while," yelled Mika as he watched the flames being swept toward the gnolls by the intermittent west wind.
"Hah!" yelled Hornsubuck, wearing a wide grin on his bearded face. Shaking loose the flaming remains of their torches, they wheeled their mounts and raced after their fleeing comrades.
They rode as hard and as fast as they could for the remainder of that long evening, leaving the gnolls behind them hidden by a stinking curtain of black smoke. Finally, mules and horses nearly dropping with exhaustion, they were forced to stop.
The land had begun to change. Not that it was any less empty; if anything it had fewer grease bushes and little or no forage for the animals. But there were slight hills now and then, folds in the land and empty stream beds that told of water in other, happier seasons. For now, they were empty and dry and the waterskins were falling dangerously low.
Hoping to escape the sharp night vision of the gnolls, Mika led the party into one of the deepest of the arroyos.
Hornsbuck instructed the men to water the horses and mules and then feed them. Once this was done, they were hobbled and muzzled so that no careless whicker would give them away.
The men themselves sprawled against the banks, enervated by their fatigue. Few spoke. Hornsbuck gestured to Mika and led him a short distance away from the temporary camp, peering intently at the ground.
Soon, a slow smile spread over his broad bearded face, and he pointed at the ground. Mika looked down but saw nothing. Tam, however, had no such problem. Shoulder to shoulder, he and RedTail, Hornsbuck"s big male wolf, pawed at the earth beneath the rocky overhang. Earth flew in all directions. Then, ceasing their activities, they crouched low and Mika heard the sound of lapping tongues. The wolves drank their fill and then moved aside and began grooming themselves.
"Water," said Hornsbuck. Noting the puzzled look on Mika"s face, he laughed. "There"s usually water in places such as this; you just have to know how to look for it. See there-footprints of mice and lizards."
Looking more closely, Mika could see the tiny footprints in the sand, the curved sign of a dragging tail converging on the hidden water.
"It could save your life sometime," said Hornsbuck.
"I"ll remember," said Mika as he knelt to drink.
The water was warm and brackish and thick with sand, but they drank their fill and wiped their wet hands over faces that were tight and cracked from harsh exposure to sun and wind. And it spared them from drawing on their own meager supply of water. When they finished, there was naught left but a hole filled with damp sand. This, Hornsbuck filled with sand and rocks.
"No sense leaving them beasts anything if we can help it," said Hornsbuck. "They need water same as us. I hope they"re suffering."
But if they were suffering, it was not apparent. During the night, the army of monsters had circled around the line of fire and could now be clearly seen on the lower slopes.
Drawing strength from the brief respite, the small party mounted and began climbing the steep incline as swiftly as their tired mounts could carry them.
Chapter 13.
AND SO BEGAN A LONG PERIOD of hurried flights interspersed with short periods of rest. Eru-Tovar, while only a few days distant, might as well have been on another world, for it seemed that the army of monsters never slept.
They dogged the nomads" footsteps, following whatever path they chose, whether by night or by day, and they were not deceived by false trails or the most clever of traps.
The nomads tried all of Hornsbuck"s tricks-from deadfalls to sweeping the trail behind them-and they even used one of Mika"s spells of illusion, creating an exceedingly realistic chasm where none had previously existed. But nothing worked.
The gnolls showed an uncanny amount of intelligence for creatures that were not known for their ability to think. It was almost as though they knew what the nomads were planning and were taking steps to antic.i.p.ate their tactics.
They were well into the hills now and all were glad to see the last of the empty prairies. The hills were barren, mostly stone and hard-packed earth, but here and there were soft green patches of gra.s.s and these the mules and horses cropped greedily.
There were also small pools of water to be found, and the nomads did their best to see that these were either emptied or concealed before they moved on.
Everyone was tired. Horses and mules showed their exhaustion in the curved bend of their necks and their slow, shambling gaits. The men rode loosely, often slumbering in the saddle. Even Mika and Hornsbuck felt the lack of sleep in their muscles, which were stiff and slow to respond, and in their eyes, which felt as though sand sc.r.a.ped beneath their swollen lids.
Only Reckna.s.s seemed untouched by the lack of sleep and food. His back remained straight and his eyes alert. His arms still held the swaddled princess in a tight embrace, and he glared forbiddingly at any who rode near.
The wolves themselves were showing signs of exhaustion-their tails dragged the ground and their tongues lolled from their mouths dispiritedly. They flung themselves on the ground and panted whenever they stopped, licking their footpads, which were sore and cracked from the rough terrain.
In spite of his promise to Hornsbuck, Mika still thought about Princess Julia. The giant was an abomination. Nothing that ugly should hold someone that beautiful.
Mika thought of Julia as he rode throughout the long endless night. Her delicate beauty filled his mind and the subtle scent of her body lingered in his nostrils. He craved her as he had never craved another woman, even Celia. And the thought of her was the cause of his every action. Just thinking of her dowry filled him with a warm glow. He was determined that he would have her yet.