IronStar (46 page)

“They must have a launcher,
something to throw these cursed things from their camp all the way over the
lake and halfway across our city. If they had longer range, they would be
striking us here. I must think how we respond to this. Thank you, both of you.
Please come with me to the
shee’tho’vai
Council meeting tonight. I need
to meet with Lord Tsano and Armsmaster Opeth for an hour, before the Council.
Please excuse me.”

The two women, healer and warrior,
and the young boy stood watching the change in their Warmaster’s gait and body
language as she trudged back to her quarters. Changed from impatient and
energized to something they had not seen in her before. Akaray recognized it as
well as the others:
defeated
.

“I do not believe in a fate that
falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them
unless
they act.” - G. K. Chesterton, 20
^th
century A.D. author-philosopher;
Britain, Terra.

The Council chamber was eerily
quiet considering the number of people presently seated in it. Every
shee’tho’vai
was present, over two hundred of the block-leaders. The last of the setting
sun’s rays through the high windows painted the far wall a glowing, molten
orange. At the raised section along the back wall, Lord Tsano, his four
Masters, and Kirrah waited until the scribe struck the small chime and called
the meeting to order. Lord Tsano rose and proclaimed:

“Citizens of Talam, hear your
Warmaster. What she tells you has been discussed and agreed among the Realm’s
Masters.” Kirrah rose a bit unsteadily and cleared her throat, which had
somehow gone dry since the sip of water she had taken three seconds ago.

“Citizens of Talam.” A pause,
Kirrah’s eyes scanned the faces of the people whose future she was about to
alter so drastically. “We are faced with great danger. The Kruss have given our
enemies a weapon, two weapons, which together I cannot fight.

“Many of you have seen the effect
of their
nanowire
, in the field against us. Against this weapon alone,
we can fight. They cannot advance with it against our archers, if we know it is
there. But we cannot safely push them back. The
nanowire
is a perfect
weapon to ambush moving forces, right in the open. Its use at the wrong time
could, in the fifth part of a
bhrakka,
destroy Talam’s entire military
force. We dare not risk our soldiers in any great numbers against its possible
use. We do not even know whether they have more than one such weapon.

“The river is a natural defense
which has served us well these past tendays, because we have mobile weapons
with longer range than theirs. But now they have brought up a second Kruss
weapon, the plague-of-screams. They have shown they are able to throw this
weapon into the center of our city, from well back behind the far shore. In
fact we have not ever seen them launching it.

“Their second weapon alone I could
also fight. They seem to be unable to throw many of the small devices. Thus by
attacking their positions with archers and cavalry we could kill or capture
whoever uses it. But I see no way to fight against both their weapons used in
combination, no way that does not risk all our forces.

“I - we,” she turned and included
the King and Masters in a gesture, “…see no alternative to evacuating the city
below Slow Water Road.” Kirrah waited while the hubbub of moans and cries built
to a crescendo and abated.

“We realize this will deny us the
use of the shipyards, the military barracks and most of the walled fields. We
will continue to work the fields north of the city, and I have asked for and
received volunteers to man the watchtowers along the river, and sailors to crew
the steamboats we have already in service.

“We also realize this will put two
thirds of the city’s people out of their homes and jobs. I know that the city
cannot live very long like this. But if we do not take this action, our
citizens will be killed at the rate of a dozen or two every night. More, if
they deploy more similar weapons. We believe our lives are worth more than the
buildings in our city.” Another pause, while the block-leaders began to deal
with their new reality.

“Two more things. You deserve to
know what I know about the second weapon, the plague-of-screams which has
caused so much grief and death these last two days. It is a small device, no
larger than a
dappa
-seed, but very strong. It is not alive, but a
machine which acts as alive. It is thrown across the river, probably one or two
at a time, and it settles to land on whatever roof or courtyard or wall or tree
it may. Then it waits for the scent of a human, or it may crawl or jump about
and hunt. It is patient and good at hiding. When it senses a human, it attacks.
It quickly penetrates the skin and burrows its way through flesh until it
reaches the heart. Once it has killed, it leaves the body and may attack more
persons, five or even more, depending on its strength.

“The second thing. If my Navy
arrives soon, it will be easy to eliminate both threats using Regnum
technology
.
But I do not expect them before another fifty-two days at the earliest. Worse,
they may be much later, or they may never come. The only hope I can offer Talam,
indeed for all humans on this planet, is that my allies arrive before the Kruss
receive reinforcements. Because without Regnum help, I promise you the Kruss
will send more and better weapons, until this entire world is theirs and every
human on it.

“I know this is terrible news, and
I know I have failed to bring you the defense you deserve. I deeply regret the
deaths and danger which has come to this Realm. We will now answer your
questions as best we can. The duty scribe will pass the Mouth of Talam to
whomever wishes to speak. Please indicate which of us you would like to answer
your question.”

Two hours later, a physically
exhausted and emotionally drained group met in Lord Tsano’s private office.

“I commend every person in your
Council, Lord Tsano,” Kirrah sighed wearily as she settled into a chair. “That
decision process would have taken six days’ debating on the floor of the
Regnum’s parliament, and would have produced a great deal more heat and less
light. Your citizens are remarkably quick to accept the reality of a situation.
Do you still think we are doing the right thing?”

“We are doing the
only
thing,”
the large man replied. “I was embarrassed at some of the suggestions,
especially those questioning your ability, but I think we have convinced them
to chose life over dead stone buildings.”

“They are fully entitled to
question my abilities, my Lord,” Kirrah replied. “I thought I could use my
knowledge to defend the Realm, but I did not anticipate having to defend
against Kruss weapons, and I should have. It is the Kruss’ habit to supply more
and more lethal weapons to whichever side they have chosen as their puppet
conqueror. The only reason they have held back so long is they thought they
could use the O’dai, and through them the Wrth,
without
helping them.

“I am only surprised that, instead
of their usual gift-weapons, these weapons are so few and have the look of
being adapted from whatever supplies they have at hand. Yet poor and few as
they are, they seem sufficient to force us from our city.”

“We will allow them to keep us from
our homes in the south neighborhoods,” said Opeth. “It is early in the summer,
we will not suffer from weather for some time. But let us not give them any
more than we must. And if I may suggest, we should all get a good sleep and
meet again tomorrow morning. Sometimes the lost spoon has fallen into one’s own
lap, and only clatters to the floor when one gives up the search and rises to
get another. And please, Warmaster, allow Issthe to help you sleep. We will
need your mind clear and active at that meeting tomorrow. I am not convinced
that we cannot bring more grief to the O’dai and to that little boy who leads
them.”

A brief and mostly silent walk
brought Kirrah, Irshe and Issthe back to their quarters in the school. To
Kirrah’s surprise, Akaray greeted them in the courtyard.

“Is it true, Kirrah’
shu
? Are
we going to let the O’dai have this city?”
Why did I ever think this
civilization needs radio communication?
Kirrah wondered to herself.
Nothing
is faster than rumor
. At the sound of their voices, a subdued Tash’ta came
out into the torchlit courtyard. Slaetra and a few students were sitting at a
nearby table, looking tired and more than a little discouraged.

“Warmaster, I am sorry, he would
not sleep until you returned.”

“I understand, Tash’ta, that is all
right. Akaray-
aska,
we must stay away from the center of the city. The
O’dai keep throwing plague-of-screams devices at us. I cannot stop them, and if
we do not withdraw to a safe distance, there will be more deaths.”
Many more
deaths
…

“Then let us throw deaths at
them!
”
Akaray exclaimed. “See, I have been practicing!” With that, the boy reached to
the bench beside him and lifted a training bow and a fire-arrow he had somehow
got his hands on. Before any of the tired adults could react, he had nocked the
bulb-tipped arrow and drawn the short bow.

“Akaray,
no!
” several voices
exclaimed in near-unison. Irshe was quickest, lunging up just fast enough to
startle his intended target. The arrow slipped out of the boy’s draw-grip and
flew from the bow, passing between the adults, just over the heads of the small
group at the next table, and smashed with the distinctive ‘
Whuff!’
of an
oil fire somewhere behind them. Ignoring his stricken look, all the adults
turned and ran to the source of the flames illuminating the center of the
courtyard. Slaetra arrived first, and to Kirrah’s surprise and consternation
was laughing aloud by the time she and the others arrived.

“Young man,” the teacher declared
loudly enough to be heard across the courtyard, “of all the places to land a
fire arrow in my school, you have chosen the one I would have asked for!”
Indeed Kirrah and Irshe could not help but appreciate Slaetra’s point, looking
at the burning oil dripping down the stone fountain and the patch of pale
yellow and green flames dancing on the water of the small central pool. Even
Issthe allowed herself a small chuckle. Tash’ta arrived, bringing the culprit
to the scene of his crime, which had by now attracted a small crowd. Akaray
twisted away from her grip and ran to Kirrah, hugging her and saying over and
over:
“I’m sorry! Kirrah’
shu
, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! I’ll fix it!”
Schooling her expression into seriousness, Kirrah disengaged herself from the
boy’s embrace and held him at arms’ length.

“Akaray, you have just had a very
cheap lesson. Look at the fire. This could have been one of our friends. These
weapons are not for untrained hands.

“
Aska
, I already know you
are loyal and brave. And I know you are wise as well. So wise, you will not
risk repeating this. You will have plenty of time to learn the proper use of
weapons.”
I hope. And scant reason to need them, if I can just figure out
some way to hold out a few more tendays
…

“Now, off to bed!”
Not a bad
idea, in fact. Hopefully the Council meeting has tired me sufficiently to
actually
sleep… And sleep she did, after an hour or more of restless
tossing and turning, and then stalked by dark dreams.

“People stumble over the truth
from time to time, but most pick themselves up and continue as if nothing had
happened.” - Sir Winston Churchill,
op. cit.

Deep in the dream, something was
chasing her. Something small, invisible. She and others, a whole community was fleeing
headlong across an endless blackness. Every few moments someone would scream
and fall, clutching at belly or leg or face, tumbling and rolling into a
pathetic motionless bundle of black rags left behind on the plains. The rest
kept running, desperately, endlessly, tattered dark clothing streaming around
them like ebon flames. In the strange
knowing
of dreams, she was sure
Irshe, Slaetra, Tash’ta were fleeing with her. So were her ex-crewmates -
Sammy, and Doris, and Captain Leitch, and Professor Stanglee from her Academy
classes.

Where was Akaray?
There, far
ahead on the plains, almost hidden in the darkness, she could see him
beckoning. ‘There!’ she shouted, but no one could hear her. Alone she swung to
the left, toward the promise of sanctuary…
not alone
, three figures were
diverging from the crowd to follow her. Even as she ran, one of them fell.

Suddenly she was at the place
Akaray was calling them to. The other two figures pulled to a halt beside her…
Captain Leitch, and Professor Stanglee, panting, looking anxiously around for
whatever-it-was pursuing them. Behind her the sense of dread increased acutely
- it was almost on them. She looked around to see Akaray’s face, laughing,
looming huge, as he gestured sharply down and flames burst at his feet,
instantly spreading into a sea of fire blocking their path. Behind her Captain
Leitch turned and
snapped
somehow at the darkness, and with the gesture,
disappeared, his dark cape and clothing falling as two empty pieces of cloth.

“It’s
here!
” screamed Professor
Stanglee, and disappeared into a black hole he’d been carrying for just that
purpose, leaving her alone, trapped between fire and terror. Skin tingling in
awful anticipation, she turned and dove headfirst into the lake of fire.