Friends (2013) - Adams, Robert

Horses whinnied behind them, and the sounds of men harnessing their mounts, too loud in the middle of the night, too loud for the men inside to hear the butchery to come. Krai found a rake handle on the ground. There were no other weapons.

From a distance, the soldiers and the two peasants saw each other. The soldiers slowed to walk, savoring the kill to come, as Garva and Krai walked backward, until they felt the rough adobe walls against their shoulders.

“Even if you kill us, there are thousands more just like me behind every bush! If not this month, then next! Save yourselves and go home!” He brandished his weapon.

Someone laughed, and a voice called, “You know how to use that thing?”

“Come forward and find out!” Garva waited. “Come forward, you craven, stinking cowards!”

Three spears arched through the night. Garva batted one of them away, but the other two struck home, one in the thigh, the other straight into his paunch. “Krai, the horses!” he cried, and toppled into the dirt.

As the soldiers moved to grab him, Krai dropped his stick and leapt with all his strength for the top of the adobes. His fingertips caught the crumbly edge, and as spears clattered against the dried mud, missing him, he pulled himself up and over, into the forbidden stables of the Prince.

The horses had all been jammed together, with no space for them to move at all. Krai dropped to his knees and ran between the spindly legs of the beasts, close to the back wall. He was too afraid to stand, terrified, alone, the soldiers all about. His knees shook, and the sweat poured from him, and at every human voice he shuddered and farted, waiting for the sharp steel to cut him in half.

*Why are you afraid, young one? came a thought into his mind.

Krai jumped. “Who—who speaks?” he quavered.

1 do, came the strange thought again. *You are Comet’s-son’s friend.

Help me! Krai sobbed.

*1 don’t know what you want. What do you want?

Don't let the soldiers kill me!

I am afraid of the soldiers, too. They put the steel in my mouth to cut me, and prick my flanks with the steel on their boots, until I bleed

But you’re so much bigger than they are!

If 1 throw them off, they tie me and beat me.

Please help me!

Gauntlet-shod hands grabbed the boy and jerked him up. With a wordless wail he struggled as the men twisted his wrists behind his back. The horses all around them began stamping and snorting, and the soldiers shoved through them to seize the doomed thrall.

With kicks and sharp stabs they forced Krai into the paddock, where the officers waited, already mounted. At the center of them sat the Prince.

The haft of a lance smashed into Krai’s shoulder, and he fell to his knees.

“Conspirator!” the Prince called. Krai looked up. “Impale him!” i

“No! Please, dear gods, no!”

The few unmounted men grabbed Krai and dragged him to the gate. Beyond, the sharpened posts stood in silent rows.

What are they going to do?

“Don’t let them put me on the stake! 1 beg you! Help

me!”

The soldiers laughed. “Who are you talking to, you little wimp? The horses?” They laughed some more.

*We will try, Comet’s-son’s friend. We need you to help us, too.

The Prince’s huge horse began neighing and twitching, stamping and prancing. Krai turned and for the briefest moment caught the eye of the beast and knew in his soul that this was the horse he had Spoken with. He wept, begging destiny for this chance.

The Prince had lost control of his mount. His long crop thrashed down again and again, but the horse paid no attention. Finally it kicked out at Don Arturo’s mount, who likewise snorted and began to buck.

The mounts, whom the soldiers had thought so well trained, all began to rear and scream. A few riders were thrown, but most stayed on, raging at the horses and trying to master them. Then they began to run.

Krai was forgotten as the crazed beasts began to circle inside the fortress walls. Around and around they went, the riders hauling on useless reins.

*What should we do with them, friend?

Take them away! The gate! Take them through the gate!

The Prince’s horse pulled away from the swarming mass, leaping and screaming. Krai saw the man clutching the mane with both hands, his legs flopping against the saddle, as terrified as the peasant he had doomed minutes before.

In a flash, Krai saw that he was master of an army, too—an equine army. And he knew what Garva would have done. He was safe amid the horses.

“Follow me!” he yelled, running alongside the tide of horse flesh. He pushed through, beaten by the hooves and shoulders of the animals, feeling no pain, but exulting in freedom, and the strength of his allies.

The horses charged through the gate. Before them rose the stakes, their white points gleaming.

“Now!” screamed Krai. “Throw them off! Now!”

The Prince, aghast, heard that voice of command and stared for a heartbeat at the youth he had condemned. Then his horse went berserk. He held on as tight as he could, but his strength was too puny, and with a desperate, futile grab for the horn of his saddle, he felt himself lofted into the air. There was a moment of peace, and then searing, unimaginable pain as he came gut first down upon a cottonwood spear. His screams were lost in the noise of men and horses. Those who looked saw two feet of reddened wood penetrating the man’s back, and his wretched thrashing and kicking.

The horses saw and understood. Rider after hapless rider found himself charging into the array of stakes and then facing a hellish tortured death. Those who hit the ground died faster, beneath iron-shod hooves.

Krai ran among the riderless horses, the knife of a dead man in his hand, cutting the bridles off as fast as he could. The sound of riot and war had summoned the villagers, and soon Krai saw other friends, two-leg friends, coming fearlessly into the stampede, to kill the few invaders who managed to remain on their feet.

Then it was over and the horses slowed their manic battle. Not one of the Prince’s men would survive to see the dawn. The villagers were free. It was hard to believe.

Slowly they came together in two quiet groups, the horses and the people. The peasants watched as Krai went up to the huge horse the Prince had once had the arrogance to ride.

Thank you for saving me, he Spoke. You saved everyone here. We all thank you.

*The one who rode me killed your friend, because your friend would not let him ride.

Comet’ s-son?

Yes.

Krai stood silently. There was nothing to say.

We learned that we need not obey the iron in our mouths. Tell the other two-legs that. We would be friends and allies, not servants.

Krai did so.

*Is it true that there are tribes above the Sun where we and the two-legs all Speak as you and 1 do?