"Mel. Open it and get in!" Saeya wiped the tears from her eyes and ran to her dog cart. She leapt over its bentwood side and onto the drivers' bench. Jarl stopped her forward momentum and steadied her into the seat. Lon followed two paces behind and threw himself into the bed.
Melcart lifted the latch and kicked open the gate which creaked away on rusty hinges. The blond huntress didn't waste a moment. She took the reins and hissed her dogs forward. The rogue had to run alongside and jump-in as the wheels passed between the gateposts. Lon caught him and helped him aboard.
"What's happening?"Jarl asked over his shoulder. He couldn't feel the smilkripple and so he had no idea there was a deadly threat nearby.
Before Lon could answer, another pulse coursed through his body. This time the disturbance was accompanied by a clash of swords and distant screams. Jarl figured it out.
"Go Tisker, Go." Saeya spoke the lead dog's name and whisked the reins and all passengers held fast as the cart sped away. The overloaded carriage left the pasture and snaked into the Dairy Lane. This road was a tree lined corridor which became split rail fences that led back to the settlement. The ground was hard-packed, and they made good speed until disaster struck.
Valari galloped past them on her horse but rather than keep to level ground she chose enter the wheat field directly and have a look around. She pointed her charger through the hedge and over loose stones in the verge. The lead dog followed Val off the trail and into the trees and there was nothing Saeya could do to avert the catastrophe. Lon and Melcart held onto the rails and Jarl hissed in real terror. The dogs careened through the gorse and toward the fence where there was no breach wide enough for the wagon. Crunch. Lon heard the main brace crack against the axle case.
The occupants clung-on behind as the dogs squeezed through the treeline and into the green wheat beyond. They made it through to the other side, but no farther. The speeder became a sled in the soft soil. The buggy stuck and four passengers proved too much weight for the huskies to haul.
Valari circled and looked sorry to have caused the crash. She shook her head in disbelief and her wide eyes seemed to say, I didn't think this would happen. But her blond friend gazed away at something else. The canines barked at movement on the opposite side of the field. Lon recognized the marauders.
One hundred paces away on the far side of the wheat crop were fast-moving wildkin raiders. Twenty warriors on shaggy black pony- goats carried long lances over their shoulders and dangled steel sabers at their sides. Lon knew it was the same tribe that'd chased him and Tharus, Clyde and Jarl earlier in the week. Now they looked set to raid the peaceful hamlet he'd admired yesterday.
Vercino was visible even at this distance. He led the invaders on their prancing mounts. His staff was capped with a white skull fringed with blue feathers and his green copper coat clanked as he rode. Zed had said each leaf was stamped with the name and date of some a grisly triumph and today he'd add another plate.
Saeya's howling pack dogs alerted the enemy general to his new audience. He gazed south at the defenders stuck in the wheat crop, but he didn't slow the wildkin assault. Instead he merely raised a short black horn to his lips and issued a piercing call which echoed about the mountaintops. His plea garnered six cohorts. The wolf-faced leader pointed his shaggy blue staff and Lon thought he felt a smilkripple but it may have just been his own nerves.
Vercino dispatched six riders to assail them. The mounted warriors were a hundred paces away when they started their charge. They galloped toward what they must have believed were teenage herdsfeigor. They could see the locals were stuck in the field and their five barking dogs only added to the appeal. The hunters sensed an easy slaughter and came on with speed.
"Big mistake hair-kins," Saeya dropped the reins and climbed to stand atop the driver's bench. Lon was impressed with her courage. He watched her loosen her shirt sleeves and wait for the enemy. Her initiative snapped the others to their senses without warnings or commands. Melcart jumped clear of the wagon and dug his boots in the ground. Valari dropped from her horse to take a fighting stance beside him.
Jarl was likely quite mystified as to how these young ladies and the brat stood with no weapons, and no fear, but the veteran soldier knew what he had to do. His mission was to protect Saeya and as long as she was safe on the coach, he'd guard all approaches with sword and shield. With that in mind the veteran dropped to the ground and squatted in a riposte position. He stationed himself between the dogs and the wagon and raised-up his shiny new blade spring-loaded and ready to strike. He may have had some idea what was about to happen as he'd seen the two females in action before, but he couldn't know for certain.
Lon had no role to play whatsoever. Six saber-welding savages advanced in the morning sunlight and the sea drover was scared. He felt real fear as the enemy galloped closer. He had no defense for this; he wore no armor and carried no blades. He didn't have any Varget signs primed either, not really. Not for this. His sleep glyph and air-push and the narma blocker would be useless here. Alone in the back of the carriage his first instinct was to drop and roll under the wagon bed and hide between the wheels.
Next came a lesson in tactics; Saeya, Melcart and Valari each called out their targets and aimed their wrists at the first wave of raiders.
"I got my left," Saeya said. "The closest one."
"Middle," Melcart said.
The meant Valari had the rider on her right. Her target was the slowest attacker but the most agile. Lon watched the bandit attempt a flanking maneuver rather than a more straightforward assault. The soft-spoken girl did not bother to call out her mark, but he could see how she tracked her prey just forty paces away.
"Geibor," Saeya said from the drivers' bench. Her word snapped and Lon saw a small loaf of bright blue flame sail forth from her outstretched fingers.
"Geibor," Melcart's surge sounded louder and sped away even faster toward the center rider. Both intonations moved the smilk in Lon's body and he heard how the bolts fried the damp morning air as they sped away. Jarl was wide eyed and mystified at how these teenage feigors fought.
Saeya's aim was true and her sapphire coloured shaft lifted the raider clear off his animal. The body burned bright in the air and left a smoke trail as it tumbled into the green wheat. The dogs barked and pulled to get forward and run and bite the bandit and taste its blood.
Melcart's bolt hit the center wildkin and took his helmeted head from his shoulders. The headless corpse slumped forward, and blood drenched the goat which stumbled-on until it came to the canines. The lead husky pounced and the nimble goat bounced left and the wildkin cadaver fell off its back like a tasty snack for sled dogs. The five carnivores pulled the cart forward again and the lurch knocked Saeya from the bench and bumped Lon off the bed.
Jarl dropped his defensive stance and tried to hold the dogs. The sea drover tumbled and landed in the soft ground beside Valari's boots. He pulled himself up just in time to see her display.
"Geibor," Valari's bolt was magnificent. It flew straight and tight and was intensely blue. Her spike went right through the fur ball who thought he could outflank the wagon. It punctured his heart and made a red vapour cloud all around where his corpse hit the ground.
Jarl strained to hold the cart but was dragged away; the animals were uncontrollable now there was no weight in the wagon.
"On my right." Valari shouted. She targeted the next rider who followed in the same path as the previous foe.
"Middle," the rogue declared, same as before.
But Saeya was not ready. The blond girl was caught in the confusion at the front of her buggy. She moved through the rioting dogs to try and pull the pin in the wagon tongue that would free their stretched harnesses. But they were too much for her, and too much for Jarl and neither could reach the release.
"This is why armies uses horses!" Jarl said and he looked to Lon for help.
But Lon did not to help the old veteran wrangle the dogs. He rose instead to take Saeya's place in the firing line. He'd heard the same words spoken many time and in his waking dream this morning he'd seen the gold trim atop the lookout tower and now it all made sense. He knew this glyph inside and out, and he knew just how it worked. The words gei and bor meant air and rod. He knew both shapes and right in that moment it occurred to him just how they'd run together.
"On my left." He mimicked how the others called their shots.
'Geibor!" Valari intoned and her words smacked like granite blocks colliding in a stone quarry. Her blue spike struck the rider and set his metal clad body ablaze. The mounted warrior wailed in pain and fell from his goat to smolder and die of his wounds.
'Geibor' Maklin whispered professionally and his bolt sped forth like an arrow from a bow. A long flight, he watched it arc fifty paces and once again he struck his target square in the head. His bolt flamed the enemy's hair and encased the rider's skull in a brimstone helmet that blackened the bandit's face in death.
The last fighter wasn't afraid or in any way discouraged by the failure of his kin. The emotion on his face evidenced a mind impervious to fear or any rational thought. He aimed to deliver a fierce attack and he raised his blade with his eyes fixed on Lon.
The sea drover wrestled with the new shapes in his mind. There were two of them, and he still had to put them together. He brought up the Gei triangle he'd first learned in Zed's waxy lesson and produced the snaky Bor line he'd seen atop the tower. Then he fused them together into one mark. He set the construct on his smulcrum. Would it take the smilk?
It did. Lon breathed a sigh of relief as the mark glowed. If he didn't face such an ominous challenge he'd have laughed aloud with pride at how quick his newest creation came to life.
"Gie bor" Lon spoke the words aloud to free the golden glyph. He watched it become a surging mass of blue gnats that buzzed between his elbow and wrist. The bolt was the length of his forearm and it sizzled and hissed like green wood in a hot stove. Lon pushed it forward with his mind but it swam weakly. His Varget strike resembled an insect cloud that slowly buzzed through the air.
Everyone saw the sloppy mess he'd made and they held all their breath. They watched the enemy approach and waited to see the effect. Lon didn't yet know how to tighten the bor and so it appeared more as a floating pitfall than a fierce projectile; it was a shapeless cloud of supercharged gas the enemy simply couldn't avoid.
The poor billy had no choice and lowered its horns to take the blast head-on. Bwuuzsh. The goat's eyes went white and its legs seized. The ram tumbled and the corsair was catapulted through the frying fog. The blue surge burned his chest and face and he screamed and squirmed on the ground for several seconds before Jarl silenced his cries with his shiny cutlass.
"Well done Lon," Saeya congratulated him as she held the pack. Melcart winked and grinned and Valari nodded her respect.
Lon had never felt so good about anything before in his life. But it was odd feeling and carried some guilt. It was contrary to Amon's Code to kill feigor for any reason, even in self defense . But the fear of his mounted opponent and his steel blade had heightened his sense of achievement. He'd saved himself and helped his friends. On the other hand, the hairy little warriors from this strange mountain clan were still feigorin and so killing any of them was not a worthy triumph. But still it felt good.
Saeya pulled the pin and the dogs scrambled in every direction.
Vercino's brigade was no longer before them and so the dogs were content to torment the riderless goats. The howling canines circled the cart as they chased the loose mounts.
"We'll just hike it to the cow gate." Saeya pointed and started. "We've got to warn oooo." Clang.
Clang. A loud bell rang in the tiny town. There were shouts and cries for help. Ducks squawked and pigs squealing, and Lon knew the bandits foraged for livestock they could eat for lunch. The hue and cry intensified as the despoiled families wailed in despair. A moment later the raiders appeared in the wheat field again. They left the hamlet at a brisk clip. They rode away with sacks of grain and chickens tied to their sides . "My children," a worried mother cried in Common and her plea got everyone's attention; townsfolk in the treeline wielded pitchforks and clubs and rallied around the damsel. They consoled her in an unknown language, but the words children, my children were repeated and again.
Lon understood this worried mother hoped to secure their assistance. He looked to see where she pointed. The cedar hedge opened-up on the far side of the field where a logging trail entered a woodlot filled with tall pines. One rider carried an orange bundle that squirmed. The wildkin had taken slaves.
"We can save them," Lon said. "We must."
"How can we?" Saeya's eyes tracked the five errant huskies now scattered about the field.
"We can Missy," Jarl grabbed onto a circling black mountain goat and he wrestled it under his arm. He fought for control and kicked away the canine that nipped at its heels .
"We can't ride that!" Saeya said.
"She can pull," the big cat reasoned.
Lon was impressed with how well the old soldier wrangled the goat. Jarl had grabbed its mane which he used like a bridle to hoist himself on top of the bucking billy. It kicked, bleated, and made such a racket as to summon a companion to help. This second ram trundled over with its horns lowered while still trailing two barking dogs behind. The animal tried to use its horns to dislodge Jarl despite the mutts snapping at its tail.
"Tragedy always strikes when you start feeling tough," Saeya said, for no particular reason.
It was mass confusion until Melcart came around and shooed away the dogs. Valari pacified the goats. The smilkmaid strolled towards the angry animal that Jarl wrestled, and she calmly put her hand on its forehead. The creature immediately became compliant.
When its companion saw this happen, it moved to attack Val. The ram lowered its horns and bleated angrily to resuscitate the rebellion.
Valari reached out and touched the second animal which then also became docile and was brought into line. It made a final soft bleat that sounded like an apology.
"Nice trick," Jarl said.
"Useful in taverns," Valari replied.
"How did you do that Val?" Lon pushed the lightweight cart with its dirt-clogged wheels into position behind the docile animals.
Melcart fetched up the harnesses and began stringing them together into a workable tow solution.
"She won't tell you," Saeya said.
"She jams smilk in their brains is what she does," Mel said.
Valari stood in front of the goats and smiled. She gave nothing away. Lon watched her pet their faces and saw how they nibbled and licked her hands. Ten paces away her black horse whined jealously.
Collars and harnesses were draped over the rams and the cords were wrenched tight to the front carriage bars of the summer-wheeled dogsled. When they were done, Mel jumped up behind Val on her black horse again. That left just two passengers in the dilapidated dog cart as Jarl continued to ride the lead goat.
The wagon had taken a lot of damage from the truant dogs and now the back wheels dangled and looked like they might fall off at any moment. Lon thought it likely the braces underneath were broken or stretched and now the rear axle was loose.
The beasts-of-burden were coaxed forward, and Jarl had an easy time bringing them up to speed. He wasn't directing them; the goats wished to return to their camp all by themselves and that was fine with the driver. That's just where the rescuers wanted to go. The bumping stopped when the coach found the trail at the side of the field. The cart path led past the village.
The aggrieved parties watched and the young mothers prayed for their success as the hastily rigged rescue-vehicle passed the peasant mob. A posse of the townsfeigor had formed and it was clear they intended to pursue the raiders themselves but had no ready horses or any way of rapidly following the kidnappers. Lon watched as they spilled onto the road behind the wagon and followed their cart with pitchforks and clubs.
Jarl crouched on the lead goat's back and piloted the animals. The awkwardly tethered team pulled the carriage in pursuit of the wildkin riders who'd long ago disappeared. The lion wasn't being so careful now. He galloped the goats at the same speed as Valari's horse, and he didn't once look back at the passengers in the bentwood cart behind.
Saeya and Lon crouched low in the copper sided carriage and tried to be as bottom-heavy as possible and spread their weight evenly over the frame. The cart bumped about and the passengers had their hands on the sidewalls and each other to keep from being thrown out of the bed. Once a big bump launched Saeya into the air and the lad caught her. Another ramp launched him flying and Saeya reeled him back. They laughed and held each other tight but Lon knew it'd just be a matter of time before the wagon lost its wheels.
Despite his concerns, the rescuers traveled a great distance in a short period of time through the bumpy forest trails. The buggy held together well despite the jolts but when the ground turned soft beside a trickling small creek the front axle snapped and the gurney crumbled. They'd have to walk from here.
Jarl dismounted and untied the leather harnesses that bound the goats' bodies to the now hopelessly crippled dogcart.
"Fill your canteens" Saeya said to everyone, but then it became clear that only she sported such a convenience. She squatted by the forest stream and studied the hoof prints on both sides of the muddy scene.
"We'll follow the deep ones." Mel pointed to the most severe indentations that were made by the heaviest goats which had carried the hamlet's brood.
"Why would they take children?" Lon asked.
Melcart shrugged. He didn't want to think about it.
"One reason could be to lure young masters into the woods," Jarl said. He sharpened his saber with a whetstone he carried in his side pocket.
"We're just going to have a look okay?" Saeya said. Was she asking permission from Jarl? The big cat simply shrugged.
Valari dismounted from her horse. She set the bridle and slapped its flank to set it free. Then she gave Lon a smile which suggested she was confident her horse would find its way back to Atarskal and before she returned there herself.
Saeya didn't wait for Jarl or anyone's approval to continue her exploration of the enemy territory ahead. The blond huntress took point and led the pack up the pine-needled ridge.
"Keep an eye where you step," Jarl went second and seemed to study everything in their surroundings including the treetops and he pointed out the heavy hoof prints they followed as they penetrated deeper into the forest. They walked quietly for five minutes before Melcart sniffed the air.
"They are here." The rogue waved his hand in front of his nose. "Smell that? Goats and cabbages and ... "
"Shhhhh" Jarl said.
Lon looked around at the tree trunks in all directions. The top of the rise was just twenty paces ahead. Jarl also sniffed the air and took a few steps to the side. He used all his senses to find any sign of the enemy.
Saeya got impatient and plowed forward through more underbrush and she surprised a lone sentry who'd sat crouched in the bushes. Perhaps he was doing some personal business? That would explain the odour they smelled. The wildkin struggled to pull up his pants and get a weapon from his belt.
"Nargor," Saeya said softly and despite all her efforts at subtlety the word hissed and ended with a loud popping sound. The hairy feigor's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed into whatever mess he'd just made on the ground. Lon felt the surge roll through him too and he wondered if the enemy could feel such things.
Jarl seemed amazed at how easily Saeya could do that trick. He'd been on the other end of that Varget construct in sunflower grove two days ago. He cast a glance at Melcart and the rogue smiled and winked.
Saeya raised a finger in a signal for everyone to be quiet and listen. Up ahead, over the next rise, they could hear carts and wheels splash through a creek bed. Harnesses jingled and metal equipment clanked, cavalry-goats bleated, and they heard the muffled voices of many warriors. Deep in the hullabaloo behind the hill, Lon also heard children crying and he could see the others heard it too.
Saeya lay down on her belly and crawled to the edge of the berm. She carefully peered down. "Oh blazes." She waved them forth. "Come look."