Carnivores of Light and Darkness (29 page)
There it was again.
“What was that?” Simna muttered uncertainly. “What just happened there?” Reaching out, he grabbed the merchant firmly by the shoulder, sinking his fingers into the soft flesh hard enough to hurt. But the other man just ignored him, staring, his gaze vacant with lost hope.
“There!” Ehomba pointed. “Look there.” Alongside him, Ahlitah was on his feet now, growling deep in his throat.
Below, the people of Queppa began to retreat, pulling back their siege engines and all their assembled forces. Atop the Wall, the hard-pressed Chlengguu quickly regained all they had lost. They lined the battlements, jumping up and down, their armor shimmering, yelling and screaming and taunting their fleeing, dispirited quarry. Those Queppa fighters who had taken parts of the Wall were surrounded and butchered, their bodies thrown like so much garbage over the parapets to land among their fleeing comrades.
Then the Wall stood up, all hundred feet and more high of it, all along its considerable impressive length, and took one giant step forward.
XXVIII
S
IMNA TRIED TO BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS SEEING
,
SHAKING HIS
head more than once as if that would make it go away. The hair on Ahlitah’s back bristled and his lips curled in a snarl. Ehomba stood between them, holding firmly to his spear, staring at the inconceivable, improbable sight. Nearby, the distraught merchant wrung his hands and wept in silence.
IMNA TRIED TO BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS SEEING
,
SHAKING HIS
head more than once as if that would make it go away. The hair on Ahlitah’s back bristled and his lips curled in a snarl. Ehomba stood between them, holding firmly to his spear, staring at the inconceivable, improbable sight. Nearby, the distraught merchant wrung his hands and wept in silence.
Having advanced one step, the Wall hunkered down. Dust rose from its base as a long, drawn-out
Boooom
echoed across the hills. Atop the battlements, the victorious Chlengguu howled and pranced a while longer. Then, except for the few assigned to the watch, they drew away from the edge, filtering back down stairways on the other side of the barrier to the numerous tented camps that served to house their multitudes. Soon campfires could be seen smoking among the ranked canopies, inviting the advancing night. The abundant serpentine coils of smoke gave the land the aspect of a vast plantation for snakes.
Boooom
echoed across the hills. Atop the battlements, the victorious Chlengguu howled and pranced a while longer. Then, except for the few assigned to the watch, they drew away from the edge, filtering back down stairways on the other side of the barrier to the numerous tented camps that served to house their multitudes. Soon campfires could be seen smoking among the ranked canopies, inviting the advancing night. The abundant serpentine coils of smoke gave the land the aspect of a vast plantation for snakes.
In his mind Ehomba replayed the impossible spectacle he had just witnessed. All along its length the Wall had risen and sprouted hooves. Dark gray, bristle-haired, cloven hooves, with gigantic toes and glistening, untrimmed nails. Hooves whose ankles disappeared into the underside of the Wall. In unison, they had risen as much as they were able and stepped forward, in a one-step march of fleeting but irresistible duration. The merchant had been telling the truth. The Chlengguu had not moved the Wall. The Wall had moved itself.
The heavyset man was watching him. “You see what has befallen us. From the first appearance of the Wall we were doomed. The people of the Queppa have been dying a slow death. The Wall is relentless and invincible. We attack, and sometimes we force back the Chlengguu. But then the Wall moves, overwhelming our war engines, dumping and smashing our siege ladders, forcing us always back, back, until now we are trapped here between it and the desert.” Helplessly, he spread his hands.
“What can we do? We cannot fight a Wall that moves. If our soldiers try to outflank it, it grows another length, another extension, until our people are stretched so thin they cannot be supplied. Then the Chlengguu pour down off their Wall and slaughter the flanking party. These hills are our last hope.” Once more he peered downward. “The Wall can march. We pray it cannot climb.”
Ehomba nodded, then smiled as gently as he could. “Go back to your family, friend. And thank you.”
Much relieved, the merchant nodded and turned to go. Then he paused to glance back, frowning. “What will you do now?”
The herdsman had turned away from him and was staring at the terrain below. “To find passage across the Semordria I have to find a ship capable of crossing it. If all that you have said is true, to do that I must cross this Aboqua Sea and reach the lands to the north. So we will keep going north.”
“But you can’t!” Licking thick lips, the merchant found his attention torn between his nearby encampment and the eccentric travelers. “You’ll never get over the Wall, or around it. Your situation is the same as ours, now. You can only go back.” His jawline tightened. “At least your home is safely distant to the south, and you know how to survive in the desert. The people of the Queppa do not.”
“Nevertheless, we will continue northward.” Ehomba turned to regard him. “Go back to your family, friend, and do not worry about us. You do not have enough worry to spare for strangers.”
“There is truth in that.” The merchant hesitated briefly, then raised a hand in a gesture that was both salute and farewell. “Good fortune to you, seekers of a sudden end. I wish you luck in your foolishness.” With that he turned and hurried off as fast as his thick, heavy legs would carry him.
Simna sidled close to his companion. “I’ve no more desire to turn and go back the way we came than anyone, but he has a point. How do we get over the Wall?” The swordsman nodded toward the imposing barrier. “I count a pair of guards for every thirty feet of parapet and fire baskets or lamps for light every forty. We’ll have to try it at night anyway. We wouldn’t have a chance in daylight.” He nodded at the third member of the group.
“And what about our great black smelly eminence here? Cats can climb well, but a smooth-faced vertical wall is another matter. You and I can go up a scaling rope, if we can borrow or steal one from this disheartened mob of defenders, but what about him?”
The dark-maned head turned to face the swordsman. “I’ll get up and over. One way or another, I will do it.”
“You won’t have to.” Ehomba was not looking at either of them, but at the Wall.
Simna squinted at him. “Say what?” Then his expression brightened. “Hoy, right! You’ll use your alchemical gifts. By Gyuwin, I’d forgotten about that.”
“You cannot forget something that was not there to know,” Ehomba corrected him. “As I have told you repeatedly, I have no alchemical gifts to use.” Lowering his spear, he gestured with the point. “We will go down among the Queppa defenders and find a place to ourselves, one unsuited to fighting. The next time the Wall rises to advance, we will race beneath it to the other side. It needs longer than a moment to take its step—more than enough time for us to run underneath.” Lifting his spear, he smiled confidently at Simna.
“It will be easy. The only care we must take is that no one trips and falls. There will not be enough time for the others to help him up.”
“Underneath?” Gazing afresh down at the Wall, Simna swallowed, trying to envision hundreds of tons of yellow mass hovering just over his head. He marked his companion’s words well. Anyone who tripped and went down during the crossing might not have enough time to rise and scramble to safety. The Wall would descend upon its hundreds of feet, crushing him, smashing him flat as a crêpe.
Ehomba put a hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his sickly reverie. “Do not worry, my friend. There will be enough time. Remember—as we run to the north, the Wall will be moving one giant step to the south.”
“Hoy, that’s right.” Simna found himself nodding in agreement. “Yes, we can do it.”
“Easier than climbing,” the litah pointed out, “and no guards to dispose of while making the passage.”
“Okay, okay.” Simna had grown almost cheerful. “A quick sprint, no fighting, and we’re through. And these Chlengguu won’t be looking for anyone to do something that daring.” A sudden thought made him hesitate. “Hoy, if it’s so easy and obvious, why haven’t these Queppa folk tried it? Ghalastan knows they’re desperate enough.”
“Any group of soldiers large enough to make a difference in the fight would surely be spotted from the ramparts by the Chlengguu lookouts,” Ehomba surmised. “Since they control the Wall, they could simply command it to cut short its advance and relax, thereby smashing any counterattacking force beneath its weight. It may be that the Queppa have already made the attempt and met such results.”
“Yeah.” Subject as he was to abrupt swings of mood, Simna was suddenly subdued. “Poor bastards. Having to fight every day and move their women and kids at the same time.” His face was grim as he stared downward. “If that Wall can come up these hills then they haven’t got a chance. And after seeing the size and number of those hooves, I don’t see these gentle slopes being any problem for it.”
Ehomba’s eyes danced. “Why Simna ibn Sind—one would almost think you were ready to stand and fight on behalf of these people.”
The swordsman laughed derisively. “There are certain diseases I fear, Etjole. Among them are the chills and fever the mosquito brings, the swelling of the limbs one gets from an infestation of certain worms, the closure of the bowels, the clap, the spotted death, leprosy, and altruism. I count the last among the most deadly.” He glared over at his companion. “I don’t see
you
volunteering to help these pitiful sods.”
you
volunteering to help these pitiful sods.”
“We do not have the time.” Looking away, the herdsman once more considered the Wall they were about to attempt. “I have family and friends of my own. One man cannot save the world, or even particularly significant portions of it.”
“Hoy, it’s thoughts like that that keep us together, bruther.” The swordsman glanced at the third member of their party. “I don’t suppose you have any thoughts on the matter?”
“
Snzzz
. . . what?” Ahlitah looked up, blinking. “I was cat-napping.”
Snzzz
. . . what?” Ahlitah looked up, blinking. “I was cat-napping.”
“I thought as much. Go back to your rest, maestro of the long tooth. You’ll need your strength for running.”
Once more the litah dropped his great head onto his forepaws. “I could make the dash ten times back and forth before you arrived on the other side. Look to your own legs, man, and don’t worry about me.” The yellow eyes closed.
“Get up,” Ehomba chided him. “We need to make ready.” Poling the ground with the butt of his spear, he started downward, trailed by Simna and a reluctant, yawning Ahlitah.
None of the dispirited Queppa who saw the unusual trio pass did more than glance in their direction. With so much of their land under siege by the Chlengguu, allies from many townships and counties had been thrown together. Men fought alongside apes they had never met before, and monkeys did battle in the shadow of lightly armored chimps. In such conditions, under such circumstances, the presence of one imposing, long-legged feline was not considered extraordinary.
The travelers descended until they were close enough to the base of the Wall to easily make out individual sentries patrolling the parapet. Turning eastward, they walked until they found themselves among an outcropping of jagged rocks. No Queppa soldiers were present. Such rugged, uneven terrain rendered siege engines and scaling ladders useless. Having the spot to themselves, they settled down to eat an evening meal from their limited stores.
Less than a hundred feet away, the base of the wall loomed. It had the appearance of limestone that had been washed or stuccoed with some thick yellow paste. To look at it one would never suspect it harbored within the underside of its substance hundreds of hooves the size of elephants.
Tearing off a mouthful of dried fish from the whitish lump he held in his fist, Simna chewed slowly and stared at the imposing barrier. “We’ll have to be damn careful. These rocks will make for treacherous running.”
“Only between here and the Wall.” Ehomba sat nearby, arms resting on his angular knees, his mouth hardly moving as he masticated his supper. “Beneath it the rocks will have been crushed flat. With luck, it will be like running on a gravel road.”
“With luck,” a skeptical Simna murmured. “Well, once on the other side we should be fine. Might be an occasional Chlengguu pillaging party to avoid, but that shouldn’t present much of a problem. We’ll just give them plenty of room.”
Nearby, Ahlitah sighed sleepily. “Should be lots of livestock running free. Easy kill, fresh meat.” He growled softly in anticipation.
“Stay alert,” the herdsman advised him. “We need to be ready to move at the first sign of activity from the Wall.”
“Don’t worry about me,” the big cat assured him. “Just look after your own skinny, inadequate selves.”
It was already dark when they heard, not saw, the first indications of movement: a deep-seated grinding and rumbling that emerged from the base of the Wall itself, spreading outward as a vibration in the rocks beneath them.
To all outward appearances sound asleep, Ahlitah was first on his feet, awake and alert, tail flicking back and forth in agitation as he glared at the Wall. Ehomba and Simna were not far behind in scrambling erect.
To left and right they heard the yells and screams of the Queppa defenders, and, behind them, up in the hills, the distraught cries of their families and other noncombatants. Once more, showers of arrows rose from the massed defenders while gobbets of blazing brush and oil were flung against the Wall. It was all to no avail, but Ehomba suspected the citizen soldiers felt they had to do something, to try. The flaming missiles did no more damage to the Wall than they would have to any stone monument, and up atop the quivering, trembling barrier the Chlengguu despoilers merely hunkered down out of reach and range.
“It’s moving,” Simna hissed as he stood watching. “Be ready!”
So near, the raising up of the Wall was infinitely more impressive than it had been from the top of the hill. Dirt and bits of weed and brush were carried upward by its bottom edge, a slow vertical heaving of unimaginable mass. Living stone groaned as it ascended on many multiples of hooves to reveal gigantic nails and pads.
The travelers were racing forward well before the Wall had risen to its full stepping height, arrowing down a slight gap in the rocks. Ehomba sprang lithely from one slab of sharp basalt to another, while Simna bounced from stone to stone like a lump of rubber that had been formed into the shape of a man. As for the litah, it leaped nimbly from one outcropping to the next, clearing in an instant spans that mere humans had to traverse painstakingly on foot.
They sprinted beneath the overhanging awe of the Wall and were swallowed beneath its gargantuan mass. Ehomba could sense the volume above him, millions of tons of solid material balanced on pillarlike but still imperfect toes. Barely visible through shadow and darkness, a few lines of brightness ran through the underside of the barrier, though whether they were fractures in the rock or flowing veins he could not tell.
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