Valour and Victory (31 page)

The Larg did
not know that these were only youngsters, they saw them as even
more Lindars arriving to kill them. The Larg were not cowards but
nor were they suicidally stupid.

Rilla watched
heart in mouth as first one Kranj and then another turned and ran,
up over the ridge top and away out of sight.

The Militia
marched to the ridge, in open order now that the slow moving wedge
formation was no longer required. Once they had reached the top
they formed into rank. There was a steady series of thumps as in
turn each company established its shield-wall.

: Duncin and
Stasya will take command of the division :
Zawlei informed
Rilla
: we are to stay with him as his communications vadeln.
Charles and Wlya are coming to help :

: Duke
William is dead then :
assumed Rilla.

: And his
son :
added Zawlei
: here come Charles and Wlya :

“I hear that
you’ve been having quite a time of it,” said Charles as he and Wlya
reached them.

“You don’t know
the half of it,” said Rilla with feeling. She was sitting slumped
on Zawlei’s back. The strain got to her and she began to cry.

“Take a short
break,” Charles advised, patting her back. “Wlya and I will take
over until you can gather yourself together.”

* * * * *

The Lindar

Sadei stopped
to catch his breath.

Great Andei’s
pawprints but that had been close. The Larg were retreating,
leaving their dead and badly wounded behind. There were many of the
former but few of the latter.

Sadei sighed
before he gave his next order, instructing his Lindar to give their
wounded opponents the coup de grace. He hated the necessity but it
was dangerous to leave wounded Larg lying amongst them.

Wounded Larg
did not lie inert. Even hurt and dying they could do a lot of
damage, preferring to meet their end in suicidal fights than to
wait for their death with resignation.

Those in the
front ryz hastened to do his bidding, ripping open the jugular
veins of their wounded to ensure a quick and relatively painless
death.

Sadei saw some
of the Militia performing the same office, severing the Larg necks
with their swords, being very careful to keep out of the way of
their talons.

The Holad and
the Medics arrived to tend to the wounded.

Sadei ordered
his Lindar to form up again.

It wasn’t over
yet.

* * * * *

Tala and
Danal

Tala all but
grabbed the oilskin parcel that had been buckled to the rope
harness Chizu wore. With fingers that trembled she untied the
fastenings and drew out the contents, a letter and two boxes.

“Written
instructions,” said Chizu. “Master Annert says that you must follow
them exactly. One box has the crystal and the brackets in it and in
the other are the leads.”

“Do you know
what he’s talking about?” asked Danal in an aside to the stunned
Grainne, who until Chizu had appeared, hadn’t really believed the
story Danal had told her about the Lai.

Tala was
reading the instructions, written in her old master’s bold
handwriting.

“He says that
we must attach the crystal contained in the bigger box to the green
leads, there are two of them positive and negative, like a
battery.”

“Do you know
what she’s talking about?” repeated Danal.

Grainne smiled,
shook her head and continued to gaze at Chizu in awe and
admiration.

“Then we clip
the single end of the yellow ‘y’ lead from the narrow end of the
power-core into the ends of the two green leads. He says I’ll know
which ones are which because they are male and female.”

“Tala,” said
Danal, “Grainne and I don’t have a clue. Just tell us what to do
and we’ll do it. Explanations can wait.”

Tala continued
to read out the instructions.

“He says that
the crystal is part-charged already and as soon as it is exposed to
more sunlight the charging will continue. We do that bit
first.”

She knelt down
and began to undo the larger box. Once it was opened everyone
looked inside.

The crystal
began to sparkle.

“Yes,” Tala
continued, “here is the crystal. Master Annert says that it comes
from the Boton.”

She laid the
crystal down on the cloak that Grainne hurriedly laid in front of
her and opened the smaller box.

“Now the green
leads, two of them, yes, here they are.” She pulled them out.

“The crystal
seems to be pulsating,” exclaimed Danal.

With fingers
that shook only a little, Tala located the correct ends and
inserted them into the base of the crystal. She moved quickly as
the crystal was becoming hot and she placed it into the bracket as
quickly as she could. The springs snapped into place. “Gosh it’s
hot. Get me the power-core Danal.”

He handed it
over.

“Don’t burn
your fingers,” he cautioned.

Tala bestowed
upon him a fleeting grin as she placed the power-core down beside
the pulsating crystal and pulled the yellow ‘y’ lead out of the
box.

Danal peeped
inside, “the only thing left in it is this.” He held up a small
coil of wire.

“Hold on to
that,” Tala instructed. “I may need it. Now, I attach the two
together.” She fitted the two short ends of the yellow lead to the
green. They clicked together with a snap. “So far so good.” She
took a deep breath.

“What next?”
asked Danal.

Tala referred
to Master Annert’s instructions once more.

“He says that
as soon as the final connection is made, this last yellow end to
the power-core, then the crystal will begin to transfer the solar
energy it is gathering along the leads and into the core. As it
does it will keep replenishing itself and the energy will keep
transferring into the power-core. Because here the power-core isn’t
attached to anything else, on the ship the energy it was receiving
would have travelled on to the ship’s engines, it will keep on
receiving the energy until it cannot take any more and then it will
blow up.”

“Does he say
when that will happen?”

“He says there
should be a dial on the core.”

“Yes, here it
is,” said Grainne, “I’ve seen others like it on the
Electra
.”

“Right,” said
Tala, bestowing on her a beaming smile. “When the needle in the
dial reaches a certain point it will blow up.”

“There are
numbers on the dial,” said Grainne.

“Is one of them
a hundred?” asked Tala.

“Yes, the red
one,” she answered.

“The core must
be dropped on the Dglai ship when it reaches the hundred. Annert
suggests that we charge up the core here, away from the ship until
it reaches the ninety-five point then disconnect the crystal. He
says the core will retain the energy. Then we connect it again when
we are close to the spaceship.”

“Try to connect
it,” urged Danal.

Tala tried to
insert the last lead-end into the power-core. She fiddled with it
for a moment.

“Damm, it’s too
small. Doesn’t fit. Give me that wire. Master Annert would have
realised this might happen. He didn’t have the actual core to test
the connectors, but the wire should do the trick.”

Her fingers
were uncoiling the wire. Danal, Grainne, the Lind and Chizu watched
as with deft fingers she clipped a length from the coil with her
snippers and began to wrap it round the connector at the end of the
yellow lead. That done, she inserted the connector into the end of
the power-core.

There was a
sizzle and Danal jumped back. Tala pressed the connector in hard.
The power-core sprung into life. It began to hum and emitted a
faint pink light.

“It’s working!”
shouted Danal. “You genius Tala! I could never have done it!”

“That’s why I
insisted I come,” Tala smiled up at him. “We
do
have a
problem though. The connection isn’t an exact fit. Someone will
have to stay with it make sure it stays connected.”

“We can take
turns,” said Danal, watching the needle on the dial flickering.
“How long will this take?”

“I have no
idea. We should get the needle on the dial as high as we can manage
during what’s left of today. Then we disconnect as Master Annert
suggests. It has to reach the hundred mark exactly before it
blows.”

There was a
silence as both Tala and Danal realised the import of her
words.

“We never
thought this far ahead,” said Tala at last. “Master Annert and the
others have found the way to turn the power-core into the weapon
that will blow up the Dglai ship but problem is, one of us will
have to go with Chizu to make sure the connector stays in place,
taking it out if the dial gets too near the hundred but making sure
it is at the hundred when he reaches the ship. We can’t just set it
down and leave it to blow up. The Dglai might find and disconnect
it. We can’t take that chance Danal. I must go with Chizu and make
sure it blows at the right time.”

An anguished
Danal shook his head.

“I’ll go,” he
said.

“No. It must be
me. Something might go wrong. The wire might need replaced, we
don’t know how long it will last. It’s hot now and will probably
get hotter. I won’t have Asya’s death on my conscience as well as
yours.”

Chizu was
watching and listening.

“I expected
this,” he said, “when Haru asked me to come, I knew the chances a
problem like this would happen. Guildmaster Annert thought so too.
I will take you Tala.”

“I can’t let
you go,” said Danal in a broken voice to Tala, his hands
outstretched in entreaty and denial.

“You must my
love, don’t you see? Grainne can’t go, she’s only a child, despite
what she says and she doesn’t have the technical know-how. Neither
do you. Only I can do it. There’s no alternative. It has to be
me.”

Danal couldn’t
look at her, he stared at the sand and at his dusty boots.

: Tala is right
:

: Don’t you
start :
flashed back Danal.

“Don’t blame
Asya for stating truth,” said Tala, “and who knows, Chizu and I
might even survive. I have no intention of dying Danal, I assure
you. We can place the power-core, it doesn’t need to be put
directly on top of the space ship, close by then Chizu can fly us
both away in two shakes of a baby kura’s tail.”

“I fly fast,”
offered Chizu in a bright voice, but Danal felt deep within that it
wouldn’t happen this way. The stakes they were playing for were too
high. What were two lives sacrificed if it meant that the Dglai
would be destroyed?

Tears flowed
down Danal’s cheeks and he raised a swollen face to Tala. She
wasn’t crying, she was looking at him. “Please be brave,” she
pleaded, “help me do this.”

“I will,” he
managed to choke out.

“Right,” she
said, “it should stay connected for a while but someone’ll have to
stay with it round the bell. When does the sun go down? Anyone
know?”

“About Twelfth
Bell,” Danal answered.

She did some
rapid mental calculations. “I reckon the dial will be up to around
three quarters by then. So we watch over it in shifts, a human with
a Lind or Chizu.”

“When you’re
awake then I am too,” declared Danal.

Tala bestowed
on him a fleeting smile.

“Tomorrow we
get up and do the remainder of the charging when the sun comes up.
Then we disconnect and Chizu and I set out. I would have preferred
to fly by night so that we won’t be seen but that won’t be
possible.”

“Makes no
difference,” said Chizu. “They will have proximity sensors. Me I
prefer to fly in the daylight so that we can see the hazards
ahead.”

“So tomorrow is
the day,” said Tala and beckoned Grainne over to take first
watch.

Once the girl
was settled and understood what was to be done, Tala caught Danal’s
eye and began to walk towards the awning.

By common
consent, the others left them alone.

* * * * *

Julia

At dusk the
exhausted Lindars who were holding the ridge in front of Julia
found time to rest. They had survived to fight another day.

: Alyei, please
tell the divisional commanders that tomorrow will be harder. We’ve
used up much of our reserves so they must use every soldier under
their command to best effect. Also tell them that I, we, are proud
of them. There is no need to say any more. Each one of them knows
what he or she must do :

She turned to
look at Hansei, the Susalai of the Avuzdel. “What news?”

“The Lai are on
their way,” he answered. “They should cross over into the Duchesne
airspace at dawn tomorrow.”

“It’s as close
as that?”

“Yes. Chizu has
reached Danal, Asya and the others.”

“They’ve found
the core!” breathed Julia, “at last!”

“We must
survive tomorrow,” added Hansei. “I have also had word from
Zaoaldavdr. Ten Quorko are on their way. We do not know where the
other fifteen are. We believe that this is why the Larg are waiting
and do not mount a night attack.”

“So tomorrow we
face the Quorko
and
the kohorts. Alyei, please inform all
commanders via the communications pivot about this news.”

Alyei did and
added to Julia
: all we can do is to hold on and hope. We have
held off the Larg for two days, surely we can manage one more, even
against the Dglai. I wonder why they are only sending ten of these
Quorko things and not all of them? :

Along the
ridge, soldiers and orderlies were working to clear the area of the
dead and the wounded, lifting the former on to carts that trundled
their despondent way to the rear where they were emptied of their
load before returning to be filled with another cargo of inert
bodies. Among them were Zak Talanson and Hilla Talansdochter,
brother and sister, who like hundreds of others, Lind, Human and
not a few horses, had given their lives so that their friends,
comrades and families would have a chance of life.