Foster, Dean - Spellsinger 02 - The Hour of the Gate

Half moved to meet the attack. The second half, consisting

primarily of powerful but ponderous beetles, dipped below

the fight. With them went a large number of the more agile

dragonflies with their single riders.

"Look there," said Mudge. "Wot are the bleedin' buggerers

up to?"

"They're attacking ground troops!" said Aveticus, outraged.

"It is not done. Those in the sky do not do battle with those

on the ground. They fight only others of their own kind."

266

THE HOUR Or THE GATE

"Well, somebody's changed the rules," said Jen-Tom,

watching a tall amazonian figure moving across the wall

toward them.

Confusion began to grip the advance ranks of warmlanders.

They were not used to fighting attack from above. Most of

the outnumbered birds and bats were too busy with their own

opponents to render any assistance to those below.

"This is Eejakrat's work," muttered Clothahump. "I can

sense it.'It is magic, but of a most subtle sort."

"Air-ground support," said the newly arrived Flor. She

was staring tight-lipped at the carnage the insect fliers were

wreaking on the startled warmlander infantry.

"What kind of magic is this?" asked Aveticus grimly.

"It's called tactics," said Jon-Tom.

The marten turned to Clothahump. "Wizard, can you not

counter this kind of magic?"

"I would try," said Clothahump, "save that I do not know

how to begin. I can counter lightning and dissipate fog, but I

do not know how to assist the minds of our soldiers. That is

what is endangered now."

While bird and dragonfly tangled in the air above the Pass

and other insect fliers swooped again and again on the ranks

of puzzled warmlanders, the sky began to rain a different sort

of death.

The massive cluster of large beetles remained high out of

arrowshot and began to disgorge hundreds, thousands of tiny

pale puffs on the rear of the warmlander forces. Arrows fell

Aom the puff shapes as they descended.

Jon-Tom recognized the familiar round cups. So did Flor.

But Clothahump could only shake his head in disbelief.

"Impossible! No spell is strong enough to lift so many into

the air at once."

"I'm afraid this one is," Jon-Tom told him.

"What is this frightening spell called?"

"Parachuting."

267

Alan Dean Foster

The wannlander troops were as confused by the sight as by

the substance of this assault on their rear ranks. At the same

time there was a chilling roar from the retreating Plated Folk

infantry. Those who'd abandoned their weapons suddenly

scrambled for the nearest canyon wall.

From the hidden core of the horde came several hundred of

the largest beetles anyone had ever seen. These huge scara-

baeids and their cousins stampeded through the gap created

by their own troops. The startled wolverines were trampled

underfoot. Massive chitin horns pierced soldier after soldier.

Each beetle had half a dozen bowmen on its back. From there

they picked off those wannlanders who tried to cut at the

beetle's legs.

Now it was the wannlanders who broke, whirling and

scrambling in panic for the safety of the distant Gate. They

pressed insistently on those behind them. But terror already

ruled their supposed reinforcements. Instead of friendly faces

those pursued by the relentless beetles found thousands of

Plated Folk soldiers who had literally dropped from the sky.

The birds and their riders, mostly small squirrels and then-

relatives, fought valiantly to break through the aerial Plated

Folk. But by the time they had made any headway against the

dragonfly forces confronting them the great, lumbering flying

beetles had already dropped their cargo. Now they were

flying back down the Pass, to gather a second load of

impatient insect parachutists.

Glee turned to dismay on the wall as badly demoralized

troops streamed back through the open Gate. Behind them

was sand and gravel-covered ground so choked with corpses

that it was hard to move. The dead actually did more to save

the wannlander forces from annihilation than the living.

When the last survivor had limped inside, the great Gate

was swung shut. An insectoid wave crested against the

barrier.

268

THE HOUR OF THE GATE

Now the force of scarabaeids who'd broken the wannlander

front turned and retreated. They could not scale the wall and

would only hinder its capture.

• Strong-armed soldiers carrying dozens, hundreds of ladders

took their places. The ladders were thrown up against the wall

in such profusion that several defenders, while trying to spear

those Plated Folk raising one ladder, were struck and killed

by another. The ladders were so close together they some-

| times overlapped rungs. A dark tide began to swarm up the

| wall.

| Having no facility with a bow, Jon-Tom was heaving spears

I as fast as the armsbearers could supply them. Next to him

| Flor was firing a large longbow with deadly accuracy. Mudge

I stood next to her, occasionally pausing in his own firing to

| compliment the giantess on a good shot.

I The wall was now crowded with reinforcements. Every

II time a wannlander fell another took his place. But despite the

number of ladders pushed back and broken, the number of

climbers killed, the seemingly endless stream of Plated Folk

: came on.

; It was Caz who pulled Jon-Tom aside and directed his

attention far, far up the canyon. "Can you see them, my

friend? They are there, watching."

! "Where?"

"There... can't you see the dark spots on that butte that

juts out slightly into the Pass?"

Jon-Tom could barely make out the butte. He could not

discern individuals standing on it. But he did not doubt Caz's

observation.

"I'll take your word for it. Can you see who 'they' are?"

S "Eejakrat I recognize from our sojourn in Cugluch. The

| giant next to him must be, from the richness of attire and

'servility of attendants, the Empress Skrritch."

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Alan Dean Foster

"Can you see what Eejakrat is doing?" inquired a worried

Clothahump.

"He looks behind him at something I cannot see."

"The dead mind!" Clothahump gazed helplessly at his

sheaf of formulae. "It is responsible for this new method of

fighting, these 'tactics' and 'parachutes' and such. It is telling

the Plated Folk how to fight. It means they have found a new

way to attack the wall."

"It means rather more than that," said Aveticus quietly.

Everyone turned to look at the marten. "It means they no

longer have to breach the Jo-Troom Gate...."

270

XVI

"Is it not clear?" he told them when no one responded.

"These 'parachute' things will enable them to drop thousands

of soldiers behind the Gate." He looked grim and turned to a

subordinate.

"Assemble Elasmin, Toer, and Sleastic. Tell them they

must gather a large body of mobile troops. No matter how

bad the situation here grows these soldiers must remain ready

behind the Gate, watching for more of these falling troops.

They must watch only the sky, for, if we are not prepared,

these monsters will fall all over our own camp and all will be

lost."

The officer rushed away to convey that warning to the

warmlander general staff. Overhead, birds and riders were

holding their own against the dragonfly folk. But they were

fully occupied. If the beetles returned with more airborne

Plated Folk troops, the warmlander arboreals would be unable