Robert Adams - The Death of a Legend

‘Then did the monstrous leader and his search party from the upper areas come back, and shortly the Muhkohee began to mill about and shout and wave their weapons as always they just before attacking us had done. And then they charged. And we awaiting our certain deaths, stood with our arms to hand.

“But then, when still the barbarians were more than five score yards distant, ponies began to go down and men as well, many, many of them, for no apparent reason. Not until the mob had rolled closer did we, could we, see a drizzle of black-shafted arrows was falling among our foes, seemingly from out of the clear skies—not enough to halt the Muhko-hee, by any means, but enough to slow and confuse them.

“Next, on that day of miracles, hundreds of steel-sheathed men on big lowlander horses came charging down the eastern flank of the cliff line and slammed full-tilt into the damned savages! What a splendid sight that was for us all to see, Der Byruhn! Near ten hundreds of the sons of filth went down, it seemed, when first the Lowlanders struck.

“We wanted to join the fight at once, but decided did we that longer would it take to open our wall enough to get out the horses than would it take to go back up and out the back entrance, then circle around through the open pass. Atop the cliff, we found the lowlander archers, with all their shafts spent; they were preparing to go back to whence they had come and thence down that steep, shaley slope to join the battle, below. But we persuaded them to come with us the longer but safer way.

“On the plain we arrived just as Dook Bili rallying his fighters was for another charge and with him we joined our own swords and spears and axes. What a day that was, Der Byruhn! The murderous pack broke at the second charge and chased and slew we did them for far and far until off the Tongue of Soormehlyuhn they fled, those who could still, and Dook Bili halted us did. Coming back we were when the earth shook.”

“Thank you, Dehrehbeh Vahrtahn,” said the prince, gravely.

“Der Byruhn,” the Ahrmehnee protested, “I am not a dehrehbeh, only a simple village headman. The dehrehbeh of the Panosyuhn Tribe is—”

The prince shook his head forcefully. “If you lead and speak for those Ahrmehnee warriors here present, you’re a dehrehbeh, as far as I’m concerned, young man, but I’ll call you whatever you wish.

“So, then, Pahrohn Vahrtahn, how many of these accursed Ganik outlaws would you say were slain in all—by both your force over the full period and by Duke Bili’s at the end?”

The swarthy young man scratched his head and squinted for a moment. “If not twenty hundreds, Der Byruhn, close on it.”

The prince turned back to Bili. “And you, young cousin, would you concur with that figure?”

Bili nodded once. “There were some hundreds of dead shaggies all around the mouth of that cave, my lord, and more of them scattered on the plain. The first charge I led was devastatingly effective—though the horses counted for more than us men in that particular instance, that and the impetus of coming down that almost-sheer slope. I’d put the total shaggy casualties of all the actions at more in the neighborhood of twenty-five hundred.”

Smiling like a winter wolf, Byruhn said, “Coming off the plateau where they did, the bastards would’ve almost surely had to come through the eastern forest to reach their base by the quickest route. That would mean that the earthquake and, more important, the fires would have caught them there. And that’s one of the better pieces of news I’ve heard in years.

“Buhbuh led about six thousand outlaws, total. If your estimate is correct, cousin, and if as few as five hundred more were lost when the forest burned, that strength will be halved, anyway. With so many men of fighting age lost—and I’m not even thinking about those too badly wounded to offer resistance, mind you—such forces as only I command here in the southerly reaches of the kingdom might be able to… ahhh… persuade the small Ganiks hereabouts to move on and harass somebody else’s stretch of mountains.

“But with your fine force here to help us… you do intend to join with us for the duration of our campaign, do you not, cousin Bili? My poor old father needs every sword he can raise in the north, and I can spare not a one of these in the south until the devilspawn Ganiks be driven out.”

“My lord prince,” Bili answered slowly, carefully choosing his words, “I—we all—greatly appreciate your kind aid and this lavish hospitality to utter strangers, trespassing armed on your lands. But what you now ask is not my decision to make—not to make alone, that is. Before I can answer yea or nay, I must council with my captains, my lady and my allies, for their lives and well-being will be as much in Jeopardy as mine own in these actions you contemplate. You will have my answer when I have heard and weighed the views of all.”

“Spoken honestly and openly,” said Byruhn. “So be it.”

When once the prince had completed his ablutions, Bili and Rahksahnah made use of the welcome bath house, which occupied one end of the outbuilding housing the kitchens for Sandee’s Cot and was warmed by its fires and ovens. The dust and dirt and dried sweat of the long, wearisome day laved away, they then made their way back into the main building and the bedchamber they had been assigned, wrapped against the chill air of the mountain night in yards of unbleached and scratchy woolen cloth, carrying their clothing and weapons.

At the door of the bedchamber, Gy Ynstyn and Meeree waited to take the boots and other leather gear for cleaning and burnishing. Just before following Rahksahnah into the small room, Bili gave Gy an order to transmit: All hale members of the mixed force were to assemble around the foot of the lofty tower keep in the third hour after tomorrow’s dawning.

In the chamber, Bili found Meeree talking softly to Rahksahnah in Ahrmehnee, but the woman broke off when he entered, cast him a long, hard look and stalked from the room, with a rattling of spur chains and saber sheath.

“Poor Meeree,” said Rahksahnah, sadly, while Bili was arranging his bared sword and cased dirk within easy reach of the feather bed, “she knows that the Will of the Lady it is, but still cannot reconcile herself that the ways of the Hold dead are, in fact. Your man, Gy Furface, she chose as battle companion that she might remain near to me; but if refuses she does to change, to adapt to this strange, new order of living, better it would have been if another man she taken had, I fear.”

Bili chuckled. “Yes, I know, she had the brass to… shall we say, threaten me, this morning, when I was on my way to you. But don’t worry about her, dear. I don’t.”

Rahksahnah, however, still looked deeply troubled, and there was much concern in her voice. “Underestimate Meeree do not, my Bili. Stronger she is than she appears, and quick as a snake with blade or spear, nor so proficient are most with thrown knife or axe or dart.”

“Which only means,” said Bili good-naturedly, ‘“that she is a fine trooper for this mixed squadron of mine. And no matter if she still loves you, she must be doing right by Gy, for I cannot recall ever seeing him smile so much. Besides, with the two of us now to care for and see to, Gy would’ve needed help anyway. Now, come to bed, my dear, there is much we must discuss before the morning.” But serious as were the matters pressing upon Bili’s mind, they did not talk at once. For both were young—Bili almost nineteen and Rahksahnah some few months his junior—they had found and shared their first blissful pleasure earlier in the past day and, although their minds were aroil with other, more worldly concerns, their vibrant young bodies, pressed closely together for warmth, speedily aroused insistent demands for fresh delights.