Kiteman of Karanga (17 page)

"Karl!" Rika cried. "Karl, Karl."

Karl lay stunned on the ground. He could barely breathe, and his ribcage felt as if a lizard had stepped on it. He clenched his fists in the sandy soil and forced himself to take short gasps.

"Karl, Karl," Rika called. She was on her knees beside him and that comforted him, even though he was still dazed. Soon he was able to breathe again, and he sat up.

"I think I'm all right," he said at last.

"It's a good thing you had on your Hrithdon war shirt," Zanzu said. "Here, let's take a look."

Rika and Zanzu helped Karl out of his guardsman's shirt. Garth's spearhead had penetrated one of the metal plates by half an inch. The broken-off spear tip was firmly embedded in the metal plate, and Karl had a gash in his back.

"Here, Rika, put some of this medicine on the cut." Zanzu handed Rika a vial from his supply pack. "You'll have a bruise the size of your foot, too," Zanzu told Karl. "But you still look better than Garth. He looked like lizard bait when they dragged him away. Garth must be a strong brute. Not many survive a lizard charge."

While Zanzu set to work prying the spear tip out of Karl's shirt with his knife, Rika took care of Karl's back. After she had washed the wound and applied some of Zanzu's medicine, she tied a piece of clean cloth over it, and Karl put on his war shirt again. As they remounted their lizards, Karl saw his kinsmen walking slowly away in the distance.

Karl, Rika, and Zanzu traveled along the last valley at a fast pace and soon could see the white houses of Karl's village clinging to the steep mountainside. Karl's heart raced at this first sign of home. He was surprised at how proud he felt as he explained to Rika and Zanzu that houses built on slopes gave protection from the winds yet made it possible for the inhabitants to launch their kitewings from their own rooftops. Karl pointed out how all the adobe houses were built side by side so that they enclosed a circle with one windowless wall facing outward. This made the village into a fortress with a smooth, high wall running all the way round it. On the downhill side there was one narrow entrance in the thick wall.

As they approached the village Karl noticed some of the women and children watching them from the rooftops. They made their way up the home path, but the entrance in the village wall was blocked by stout wooden bars. From the outside, the village seemed as deserted as a tomb. For several minutes Karl shouted their reason for coming, but nobody answered.

"How are we going to talk to the chief if he won't let us in?" Rika asked.

"We'll go to him," said Zanzu. "Stand back."

Zanzu spurred his lizard forward into the barred passageway. Horrible roaring and snapping and splintering noises issued from the confined space, with Zanzu shouting curses nearly as terrible as the lizard's racket. Several minute later, a jagged hole had been clawed and chewed through the wooden barrier. Zanzu rode his bloody-faced mount through, and the others followed. Inside, nothing stirred. They dismounted in the center of the village, and Karl led the way to the chief's door.

"Koron," Karl called. "We have urgent news and must speak with you. If you don't open your door, our lizards will tear it down."

Karl's demand met with silence.

"Let us come in, Koron, and I will explain," Karl continued. "We mean no harm to you or anybody else."

At last the gray-haired chief opened the door and let them in. Karl introduced Rika and Zanzu and then, in the Karangan custom, they sat in a circle on mounds of antelope hides.

"Karl," the chief began harshly, "you have broken your banishment. Your death sentence has not been changed. Even though you have joined these lizard people, you shall not escape your coward's punishment."

"I know the punishment, Koron, but I am here on a matter far more important than my own life. Rika, Zanzu, and I are not of the lizard people. We are enemies of the Hrithdon."

"You say you don't belong to the lizard riders who have been attacking the villages in the south?" The old leader stared at them suspiciously.

"Not at all," answered Zanzu. He explained to the chief about the Hrithdon, how they used oja to control their lizards, and how he thought a force of kitemen could save Karanga by striking while the oja harvest was vulnerable.

"The time to act is now, Honored Chief, and if there is any delay, I can promise you that Karanga will be under Hrithdon rule by spring."

The chief sat silently, considering what Karl and Zanzu had said.

"I'm not sure I believe you," he said finally. "But if what you say is true, it must be brought up at the council of Karangan tribes immediately. The lizard riders have already done terrible damage."

"How soon will the council meet?" Karl asked.

"At the full moon, tomorrow night," said the chief. "But be warned, Karl. If you go before the council about the matter of the Hrithdon, they will order you killed for breaking your banishment."

"Cant you stay out of this, Karl?" Zanzu asked. "You've already risked your life enough just bringing us here. And Garth has already tried to kill you."

"No," Karl replied firmly. "I have to go before the council to warn them of the Hrithdon invasion. If I do not face them, you and Rika will never be believed, and I will be seen merely as an outcast who returned and made trouble. In the confusion the Hrithdon will complete their invasion. I will go before the council."

Suddenly, loud thumping came from the trapdoor to the chief's roof. More pounding came from the chief's front window.

"Come out, coward and lizard rider, we know you're in there."

"Garth's men," Zanzu said.

"Yes," said the chief. "Most of the men are away hunting, but Garth and his followers stayed behind to guard the village."

"Come on out, coward, so we can crush you the way you crushed Garth." Still louder pounding came from the roof and the front door. Garth's men swarmed over the chief's house like insects.

"You will not violate your chief's house," shouted Koron.

"We do not wish to, Honored Chief, but we will if the coward does not come forth."

Suddenly the cries of outraged anger on the roof changed to shouts of alarm. "Lizard riders! They have reinforcements. More lizard riders are coming!" From the chief's rooftop came the scuffling of a hasty retreat.

"The Hrithdon followed us here," Karl said. "I've got to convince Garth's men to help us. We need all the wings we can get."

"I'll take the passageway," volunteered Zanzu. "There's only room for one lizard in there, and I know some tricks that will hold them off for a while."

"I'll set up your wing while you talk to Garths men," Rika said as all three ran outside.

At the opposite end of the village Karl saw Garth's men in a confused group. He ran straight toward them, and they looked at him in fear.

"Karl, call off your lizards," the bravest of them yelled out. "Call off your lizards, and we'll make peace with you."

"Those lizard riders are my enemies too!" Karl shouted. "I came back to Karanga to warn you about them. If we stick together, we can save the village. Grab a rock and climb onto the rooftops. Then every man get into his wing."

To Karl's surprise, Garth's men obeyed him willingly. Karl stopped for a moment to tell Rika his plan of action and asked her to set the women to gathering rocks and defending the walls. Then he climbed onto the chief's roof and tied himself into his Asti. A moment later, with a hefty rock held tightly under one arm, he launched from the rooftop and sped out over the valley he knew so well. A dozen wings launched behind him. Circling, he gained height and waited for his kinsmen to catch up.

As the Hrithdon column approached the walls, Karl led the way back over them. Above the lead lizard, Karl turned into a steep spiral and then released his rock. It plunged five hundred feet and struck the lizard squarely on the head, crushing its skull instantly. Without a sound the great beast fell and began to writhe, its long tail lashing back and forth. This momentarily stopped the advance. Karl knew the determined Hrithdon would not be halted for long, but his lucky shot had encouraged Garth's men, who cheered and began releasing their own stones on the column of guardsmen. Their height made aiming difficult, and most of the stones thumped harmlessly into the mountain slope.

"Back!" Karl cried. "Back for more rocks. If we can get one lizard each trip, in twenty trips they'll be finished."

Below them the Hrithdon spread out, and with a furious roar they rushed up to the wall of the village. One guardsman charged into the entryway, only to retreat a moment later with his mount gushing blood from its neck. The Karangan women, led by Rika, had carried rocks to the rooftops, and Karl and his kinsmen needed only to land, scoop up a rock, and launch again without getting out of their wings. Rock after rock was dropped over the Hrithdon, one in ten falling close, one in twenty striking home. But Karl yelled encouragement to his kinsmen, and doggedly they kept flying.

Unable to get through the entryway that Zanzu was defending on lizardback, the guardsmen tried a new tack. Several Hrithdon drove their mounts forward, and the great reptiles began chewing and clawing their way into the soft adobe walls. Suddenly one lizard found a weak spot in the wall and tore a gaping hole. Astonished, Karl watched as Rika stepped into the opening with a spear made into an oja torch and drove it into the throat of the attacking lizard. With a roar of pain, its mouth spewing flames, the lizard backed away from the wall.

Heartened by this sight, Garth's men redoubled their efforts. Their rock strikes began to tell on the Hrithdon force. Nearly all their lizards had been struck once or twice, and several had been killed outright. Then Karl saw what he thought he would never see: a Hrithdon retreat. Slowly, with many of their lizards limping, the Hrithdon reassembled and moved off.

Karl gathered the men on the rooftops. "Now," he cried, "we must pursue them relentlessly for as long as we have lift. Drive them into the desert. If they even think to come back tonight, we are lost."

All afternoon, Karl led Garth's men in pursuit of the retreating Hrithdon force, dropping rocks now from a thousand feet in the air. By the time the sun began descending in the western sky, the Hrithdon column had disappeared into the desert.

In the morning Karl, Rika and Zanzu departed on lizardback for the council meeting ground. Koron, whose trust they had gained by their defense of the village, had gone ahead to announce their arrival. Along the way Karl set up his wing and hunted antelope to feed their lizards. Rika and Zanzu were amazed by the skill and apparent ease with which Karl was able to bring down three of the fleet-footed animals. But Karl felt no joy from the hunting; instead, he wondered what the chiefs would decide and how soon he would be executed.

They arrived at the council meeting ground that evening. By the light of a bonfire the roll of the Karangan tribes was taken: the Asti, famed craftsmen; the Amonte, Karl's own tribe; the Andar, tribe of the east; the Iskar, who lived on a tiny "island" of mountains just visible to Karanga's north; the Kulep and the Kandans, famed terry hunters of the south; the Unzi, the largest tribe; the Vantar, who for reasons of their own maintained a perpetual vigil on the summit of Karangas highest peak. All these tribes and a dozen more answered the call.

After a prayer for wisdom was offered to the full moon, the council formally opened, and a furious discussion about the recent Hrithdon attacks broke out. Some of the chiefs accused Karl of having betrayed Karanga to the lizard riders. Others left the meeting to look at the tethered lizards from a respectful distance, staring at them with horror and fascination before returning to the heated discussions. Finally, Karl, Rika, and Zanzu were summoned.

Karl listened grimly as Koron told of Karl's banishment and return, including the defense of the Amonte village. Then Karl was called upon to account for himself. Next the council called Zanzu, who related in his own colorful language the story of Athgar's rescue from Murthdur's fortress. He then told them of his conversation with Karl after the rescue and how Karl had decided, at the peril of his own life, to try to save his homeland and free the people of Eftah.

Zanzu's perspiring face shone in the firelight as he explained that the Hrithdon relied on their lizards for their military power and that their ability to manage their lizards depended on a steady supply of oja. He praised oja, and passed vials around for the chiefs to smell. He reminded them again of the flammable nature of the bean and its oil. Reaching deep into a pocket, Zanzu brought out a handful of oja beans, and with a sweep of his hand, like a farmer sowing a field, he threw the oja beans into the council fire. For a moment nothing happened, but then with a whoosh that scattered ashes over the chiefs, the oja beans exploded into a ball of flame as bright as the sun. When the flames had died down, Zanzu concluded his speech.

"Noble chiefs of Karanga, already your southern villages have been attacked by the Hrithdon. Three days ago the village of the Amonte was under seige. This winter the invading force will number thousands. In two weeks the oja harvest will begin, and the oja fields will be as dry as last years grass. A strike now would bring the Hrithdon to their knees. But a strike by land would be impossible because the fields are heavily guarded. However, a small force of kitemen striking by air could destroy dozens of oja fields. I'm not suggesting that a force of Karangans can conquer the vast Hrithdon Empire; that would be impossible. But a hard attack on their oja fields would make them realize just how costly an invasion of Karanga would be. I'm convinced that they'll choose not to pay that price. They'll make peace with Karanga first. The time for action is now. To wait is to wait for slavery."

Zanzu left the circle and joined Karl and Rika. Then they were sent to a private tent to wait while the council deliberated. As they were moving from the council arena, a young man suddenly ran out of the crowd, straight for Karl, stopping only inches from him. Only then did Karl recognize his brother, Lars.