A Warrior's Sacrifice (20 page)

"Corwin," Chahal said through the com system, "you need to get over to the Diviner's tent. The Choxen have broken through the guards' lines."

An icon appeared on the Maharathas' HUDs to tell them which direction to take despite the intervening tents and flame. They sprinted for the Prehson's tent, avoiding when possible the battle that swirled through the complex's courtyard. When they could they struck out, tight groups of armor-piercing rounds downing Choxen, sharp blades felling Grunts.

They arrived at a flanking position to the enemies besieging Yerama-gar's tent quarters. The tent had just caught flame, and long tongues of orange licked up the side to slide across the roof. The Humanesque Choxen ran headlong into the blaze.

From the state of things, Corwin knew they were too late.

"You have eyes, Chahal?" Corwin asked as the three Maharatha sprinted to close the gap.

"Not yet. Moving to a better vantage."

"Make a hole, then in through the side of the tent," Corwin said as a mental command added another burst of speed to the suit's already strained musculature.

The few remaining Car-karniss died as the Choxen and Grunts overran them, but their victory was short-lived. From the shadows and smoke cast by the burning tents, three Maharatha charged headlong into the confused Choxen.

Kai had stowed his sword and pistol and sprayed his support gun back and forth across the enemy line. Corwin and Phae — each still holding pistol and sword — beat back any Grunts that came too close.

They roared forward, a whirlwind of death as the Humans moved around each other, sliding, leaping, ducking, to engage any who approached. From up above, Chahal emptied clip after clip into enemy soldiers that escaped her Voidmates' attentions.

Another round ricocheted from Corwin's chest and sent him stumbling; Phae grabbed him and dove into Kai, pushing the three of them forward. They toppled into and over the low wall that surrounded the Diviner's tent, landing in a heap as a grenade exploded just a few meters away, melting a section of the wall with a splash of hot plasma.

They rolled, disentangled, and landed on their feet in low crouches. That last hit was not the only injury he'd taken in their mad rush across the Choxen lines, and Corwin gasped for breath even as his suit pumped painkillers into his bloodstream. A glance at his HUD told him that Phae and Kai seemed to have fared only a little better than himself, but Phae favored a leg and blood dripped from a gash across Kai's forearm.

A Choxen ran screaming up to the wall. As Corwin oriented to the threat, Its chest exploded forward and It slumped to the ground.

"You bought yourself some time, but they're regrouping. Get moving," Chahal said.

"Copy," Corwin said, slashing a hole into the side of the tent.

Flames from the roof cast flickering shadows across the dark room, and his helmet dimmed and brightened in time with the flames. The room was a mess, every chest, bed, and set of drawers overturned and emptied onto the floor.

The Groaton priest lay sprawled atop a table, guts hanging out and steaming. A four-fingered hand twitched from among a pile of clothes. With a thought Corwin highlighted the Foralli's body and assigned it to Kai to look after. Phae and Corwin advanced to cover the entrance.

"He's still alive," Kai said, "but in a bad way. Give me a minute." Kai tore a strip of cloth from the robes the Foralli lay upon and cinched it tight around the alien's leg.

"Ready."

They advanced, passing through an archway and into a dining area of some sort; plates were scattered across the floor, the furniture overturned and smashed. Three more rooms they passed through, each destroyed like the first, until they heard the guttural speech of the Choxen through the open door.

Corwin counted down from three on his fingers then flicked his wrist forward. The Maharatha slipped into the next room. Ten Choxen were tearing the place apart, searching, presumably, for the
Śeṣanāga. In the center of the room, Yerama-gar lay on its side, bleeding from where its four hamstrings had been sliced. Standing before it, armored fingers thrust into its gill slits, a Choxen in dusty blue armor screamed at the top of Its in-Human lungs.

"Where is Accession NOW, you
horse
?
"
It jerked in surprise as the three Maharatha opened fire on the distracted Choxen.

Corwin had his pistol trained on the Choxen holding the Diviner. His bullets punched into the alien's armor, but it didn't seem to matter. With one massive heave, the blue-clad Choxen jerked Yerama-gar's body upward into the line of fire. Two of Corwin's rounds struck the Prehson's exposed torso. The Choxen had flung the Diviner's body at the Maharatha, but It held onto the Diviner's head.

The loud
crack!
of a snapping neck echoed into the tiny space.

The Maharatha ceased their fire for fear of shooting the Diviner. Kai caught the Prehson with a delicate sweep of his arms and a few steps and laid the alien onto the ground out of harm's way.

The short reprieve granted the Choxen the few seconds they needed to dive out the door and escape.

Corwin and Phae darted to the open doorway to fend off another attack. It was clear that that battle was over. The Choxen retreated across the courtyard, climbing, scrambling up and over the broken walls to the safety of the dense forest.

Corwin rushed back to Yerama-gar's side. In a widening pool of alien blood and mud, he knelt next to Kai. With gentle hands he tried to realign the Prehson's slender neck. It was no use. The cloudiness of its eyes was gone; its gills no longer rippled with passing breath.

Rocking back onto his heels, Corwin wiped his armored arm across his helmet and tapped his pistol against his forehead as he tried collect himself. This was his fault. If he had been more accurate, the Choxen would be dead. If he had stopped firing sooner, he wouldn't have hit Yerama-gar. The Diviner might be alive, and no doubt the Śeṣanāga would still be in their possession.

Phae knelt down beside him, hand sliding along his forearm until she had his gun in her possession. "They're falling back." She took him under the elbow and lifted. "Come on."

"Should we follow them?" Kai asked as he jogged back through the Diviner's rooms.

Corwin looked up through the red-rimmed ash that drifted down. Fire had burned the tent's ceiling away so that only the night's sky and its stars shone through. "No. There aren't enough of us left for that."

"Aye, sir."

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"You let them escape!" the Car-karniss Guard General said, slamming a taloned hand against the side of a reconstructed medical tent. The Maharathas' helmets translated her hisses and growls into recognizable Human words.

Corwin didn't flinch. "We rescued your priests."

"You failed! Only one survived."

The crack of Yerama-gar's neck echoed through Corwin's mind. He pushed the memory away. "They would have all died if not for us."

"Yes. You
Humans
. You were here to guard us. Protect us on this planet. Where were you?"

"On the far side of the complex where we were housed, as
guests
, not guards," Corwin said.

The Guard General hissed in frustration, shaking her head. "Your species proves its weakness."

An Ordeiky arrived, her robes singed and dirt-spattered. "Guard General, we have not located the Śeṣanāga
within the Diviner's chambers," the creature said with clacks of teeth and gurgles.

The Guard General growled and slammed her hand onto the tent pole again; the tent shuddered. "You have lost us our prize!" She stepped forward, yellow nostrils flaring, the scales on her throat and belly flashing from yellow to red. "I will have your head!"

Her hands stopped inches from Corwin's throat. His pistol pressed into the soft spot on the underside of her lower jaw. "Touch me and you die, lizard."

Corwin wasn't sure if his insult would translate, but from the sudden bulge of her eyes and orange-red flush of her underbelly skin, he suspected that it had. "If you want our help, tell us what to do, but we will not take the blame for a surprise attack on a known hostile world."

Her arms retracted, and so too did Corwin's gun. From the edge of the medical tent, a young Foralli jumped and waved for attention. "Guard General! Humans! The Diviner wishes to speak to you!" Despite his soft scales, his movements reminded Corwin of the young apes he'd seen at play in the jungles.

The Guard General growled and led the small procession of warriors into the dim tent. With the death of Yerama-gar and the Groaton, the next to take control of the mission was the Foralli priest they'd saved during the raid.

The triage tent was a mass of groaning and writhing bodies as the overworked medical staff healed who they could. The Car-karniss — who had borne the brunt of the casualties — could regenerate a lost limb quickly enough if their bleeding could be stopped in time. The other aliens weren't as lucky, and due to the Grunts' presence in the battle, more than a few were missing limbs and bore deep wounds.

The Humans' stomachs turned despite their familiarity with combat, and they kept their eyes focused elsewhere.

The new Diviner lay on a small medical bed covered with a blanket. Tubes in his arm fed nutrients to the small alien and provided a constant flow of nanites to aid in healing. Two Car-karniss guards straightened and bowed as the procession approached.

The Guard General took a knee. "Diviner. You asked for us?"

"Yes," the Foralli squeaked. "There has been much Schism today. Yerama-gar has been taken from us; we have lost the
Śeṣanāga; many have perished. The Schism of this battle will be felt for generations."

"Diviner, the
Humans
…" the Guard General said.

The Diviner waved his hand through the air. "The Maharatha saved us. We were foolish to believe that we were safe."

The Guard General shut her mouth with a hiss and an angry tongue twist.

The Diviner turned his bald, scaled head towards Corwin. "The Diviner believed that Accession was upon us — an old Schism returned to Wholeness. You must find where they took the
Śeṣanāga. You must retrieve the Śeṣanāga."

"We must speak with our superiors," Corwin said. "They may have other tasks for us."

The Guard General hissed and rounded on Corwin. "You dare to deny a request from a Diviner?"

A feeble, delicate hand reach out to alight upon the Car-karniss' wrist. "Be still. They do their duty, as do you."

The Car-karniss hissed again and thrashed her tail.

"I have spoken with your Oniban, and she has seen to your reassignment to us. You will be in our care until we retrieve the Śeṣanāga, or until we all die trying." The Foralli stared at Corwin, reptilian eyes wavering in and out of focus.

Behind the safety of his helmet, Corwin frowned. He didn't like being assigned to a group of maniacs who would throw themselves against their enemies even if it meant defeat. He saw now why the ideas of dreng and jendr that so pervaded the Republic culture were important: efficiency in all things applied to Human lives as well as material goods. If you fought a battle, make sure you won, otherwise the loss incurred would be for nothing. Did the entirety of their battle force comprise of the Maharatha and the handful of the Car-karniss still standing?

If that were the case, their quest was hopeless, and he needed to make sure that he could get himself and his Void out if, no,
when,
things went bad.

"I leave the planning up to you, Guard General." The Diviner leaned back and closed his eyes.

The Guard General turned to the four Humans. "We will plan our next moves and let you know how you may be of use to
us.
"

The four Maharatha lounged again in their bunks, relaxing as best they could, still dressed in their sneak suits.

Pulling the helmet from his head, Corwin set it on the floor. "It's true," he said, sighing as he rubbed at sweaty hair. He had called the Oniwabanshu to speak with the Oniban, but he'd spoken with one of her generals instead. "We've been assigned 'until the conclusion of our services' to the IGA. The IGA has in turn assigned us to this particular group."

"It is dreng to assist the IGA…" Phae said.

"Not when it will get us killed fighting a religious war without end." There was venom in Chahal's voice.

Phae scoffed. "Says the Exilist? That's some hypocritical wickt if I ever heard it."

"The First Exiles removed religion from their society for this exact reason. It doesn't do anyone any good and gets everyone killed."

"So your kind puts it back in, and that makes it okay, right?"

"NO!" Chahal slammed her foot on the ground. The outburst surprised everyone into silence. "They call what we do 'religion' because they are afraid of us. We honor the First Exiles because they were the epitome of dreng. Their trials were
real
, tested on the field of battle instead of in training halls."

"You have a problem with the way the Republic does things?" Phae leaned forward, gesturing with her hands.