The Golden Sword (21 page)

“I do not think it will work,” commented Wiraal.

“It had better. I cannot take tiasks among northern men, lest they kill each other instead of the enemy.”

“Then tell them that,” Wiraal proposed, rubbing his jaw with his gnarled hand.

“You tell them. I have not the time or the inclination to bother with them.”

“They are not pleased at our conduct; they sent some representatives here with complaints,” I interjected.

Wiraal looked at me out of icy eyes. “None of us are easy about you, tiask.” I rose and got the bitless headstall Chayin had given me, and walked out into the night.

“Wait,” said Chayin, and joined me outside.

“I am going to try this upon Guanden,” I said, shaking his restraining hand from my arm. “I will see you when you are finished with the dharener and the chalder and the threx masters and your ill-mannered subordinates.”

“I must send two men with you, then,” he insisted, and snapped his fingers at two of the score that waited about the apprei to do his will.

With the jiasks to protect me, I had no trouble among the aisles, or even upon the track, for they saddled their own mounts and accompanied me as I walked Guanden around the course, that he might sniff the obstacles newly built there. The bitless headstall proved successful; he even carried his head lower, and it took just the slightest pressure of the single braided rein upon his nose to make him obey. I worked him longer than needful, even chancing a full nera’s run, and found busywork upon my gear until sun’s rising, when I turned him to the threx masters’ yellow pavilion, the restless and tight-mouthed jiasks following dispiritedly behind. They had had other plans for this time.

And I did not blame them. The polyrhythmic thrum of dhrouma and kapura players mixed with voices raised in song, and the jer fairly seethed with life. Hundreds had arrived during the night, and festival was upon them with the dawn of Amarsa first first.

It was slow going through the pedestrians, many drunk and reeling, to the threx masters’ pavilion. I dismounted, and led Guanden, whose ears were flat to his head above rolling eyes. Within the pavilion were scales upon which we were both weighed. Guanden was taken from me by a threxman to be tested for health and pronounced free of drugs or devices.

I drew third slot from the inside, out of fifteen positions, between a tiask of Dordassa, who had second, and a spare rangy Menetpher, who had fourth. Then we were each called up and received a flat racing pad with pockets for deadweight in them. Mine was heavily loaded, for I was lightest weight among the riders. Chayin lounged against the huge pavilion’s far wall, Jaheil beside him.

When Guanden was returned to me, I set the racing saddle, which weighed almost as much as I with stra rods in its pockets, upon his back and went to receive waiver from the high threx master that I might use the bitless headstall. When that was done, I relinquished him into the care of the threxmen and found my way across the threxcrowded pavilion to Chayin and Jaheil, my two guards close behind me. I could not even get near my mount again until second section was called and I and the fourteen other riders went to see which five would race the final section.

“What number did you get?” Chayin demanded, as I sidled through the jiasks to join him. My guards stood uncertain with their mounts in hand, watching.

“Dismiss them,” I begged him. Chayin did so. “Three in the second section,” I answered. “And I am seventh in the first,” the cahndor told me. “And Jaheil, with Dordassar luck, has first in the first. You should have no trouble with the elimination; all your competition runs first section.”

“Except Menetph, which has three mounts in my group,” I reminded him. “And I have almost my own weight in stra to carry.”

“I told you to eat a bigger meal.” Chayin grinned. A gong sounded loud in my ears.

“First call,” Jaheil chortled. “Give me a kiss for luck,” he demanded, and I did so, and Chayin also did I wish well, and then ran through the crowd into the new day to find a place near the ta-nera pole, that I might see the winner pass it. I squeezed my way between two men in plain leathers, who had upon their breast armor no device, but each wore around his waist a scarlet sash, and I knew them to be some who attended as guests of Nemar.

My stomach was an aching knot, and my throat was dry, but I knew my nerves. My indisposition would pass when I sat upon Guanden’s back.

Another gong’s stroke ushered the threx out of the pavilion, and they foimed up into a ragged line of snorting, frothing excitement. Facing left upon the track, they waited the huija crack that would start them. I was so close to Jaheil’s red mount that I could see the sweat break out upon his flanks. Chayin, down the line, sat Saer with the calmness of a man ready to jog around his holdings, and the dappled threx stood, with ears flicking and head held low, as if he were in his stall in Nemar North.

For one moment, each of the beasts faced front, and all was in readiness; the threx master gave the signal, lest the opportunity be lost. So close upon the huija’s crack did the beasts spring forward that the sound was lost in the thunder of their start.

By the time the dust settled so that I could see, they had passed over the tyla-palm break at the first turn and were close upon the ditch at the sa-nera pole. I jumped up and down to peek over the heads of those before me, and the plain-leathered man upon my right picked me up bodily and sat me upon his broad shoulders. I yelped and pounded upon his helmet when I saw Saer ‘s dappled form fly over the ditch with Jaheil’s red mount close behind. A pure white beast with the Menetph black-and-amber hooding his head did not fare so well, but misjudged his leap and floundered, to be pummeled by a dun whose saddle pad proclaimed him of Coseve.

Then they were at the half, and a black began to move among the bunched threx.

A deafening roar rose around me as the black began to move upon the leaders. The white threx who had gone down at the ditch had not risen. Gaen were hurried onto the track to drag him from it before the second lap. The dun threx who had crashed into him was limping slowly toward the inner field, his rider beside him. Two out.

The black threx, whose pad was of Nemar, had closed upon the leaders as they entered the stone chutes set diagonally across the track. Two grays of Coseve followed them into it, and when the leaders reemerged, the grays were close upon them. With enviable skill the Coseve riders had paced their beasts at the perfect speed for the chutes, exploding from them with a burst of speed that brought their muzzles to the tails of the leaders, still collected up from the chutes’ narrow confines.

I saw Chayin throw his mount sideways as the grays flanked him. Then they were packed tight at the ca-nera pole and straining toward us, Chayin’s Saer on the inside, one gray pocketed behind him by his mate on the outside, and Jaheil’s red behind. The black threx, who I now saw was Quiris, came up to match Saer, blocking the Cosevers’ path again. And while Chayin and Hael held the grays in check, they slowed their own mounts. Jaheil, as if expecting this, had dropped back and out, loosing his red in a great burst of speed upon a clear track. Past me Jaheil sped, and again over the tyla-break and into the second lap, while the grays were still held entrapped between Quiris and Saer and the tight field closing behind them.

Then, as if of one mind, Hael and Chayin loosed both Saer and Quiris after Jaheil, while the unobstructed grays of Coseve matched them stride for stride, not a nostril’s difference between them as they took the tyla-break four abreast.

Jaheil had the half, and started slowing then for the chutes. He could have walked him through them, such a lead did the Dordassar have upon the rest.

I saw Saer snap out at the gray, who seemed to bump him, and Chayin’s hand raised from his mount’s neck, and the two of them fell back, while Hael and the second gray matched each other, less than a threx-width between them over the ditch. The moment they landed upon the far side, Jaheil passed before me in a red blur, and the volume of the shouting doubled as Parsets screamed themselves voiceless.

The man whose shoulders I rode reached to lift me down, and when I was on the ground, Hael passed before me, a quarter-length behind the first Coseve gray, and at that one’s tail was Chayin, and the other Coseve gray a half-length to the rear.

I was still struggling through milling, close-packed Parsets when the gong rang for second section. In my haste I jostled a man queued up to collect his bet, and coins went flying. He cursed me as I ran. I laughed.

Into the yellow pavilion I stumbled, just as a roar behind me signaled the brief presentation of golden knives finished. I would not have time to congratulate the first-section winners.

Down the rows of restless threx I hurried, until I reached the line of second-section threx in order before track entry.

I smiled at the man who held him. Guanden snapped at me nervously. He was already damp and trembling. He had done this before, and the crowds were nothing new to him. He was ready and anxious for what he knew awaited us. I checked my saddle girth, every strap and buckle, and his feet one at a time, though I knew it had already been done. I made a mental note to shave his bristles, which flopped bead-heavy around him. I took off my cloak and handed it to my threxman, and donned the tiask’s mask of plain leather, that I might have some protection for my face against flying dirt and stones.

The gong chimed, and I took the leg up the threxman offered me. Then it was just Guanden and I, and what we would do this day. I took up the braided circle of rein and stood once in the saddle, then settled myself, my knees tight against his ribs, prominent through the padded web of the racing pad. The rana-brown rear of the second-place threx, ridden by the Dordassar tiask, moved before me, and I took Guanden out onto the track.

When his feet touched it, he stopped, his nose raised up to the sky, turning his head to and fro, questing. He shivered, and in answer to the pressure of my knees danced to his place between the brown and the golden mount of the Menetpher who was fourth.

Not one moment could I keep his four feet upon the ground. He walked upon his hind legs, he screamed his high-pitched challenge to the others, kicking and snapping. The golden Menetpher threx answered him, and for a moment the two of them stood together upon the air, teeth flashing. I wrapped length after length of rein round my fists, until his head was pressed to his chest. I saw the Menetpher strike his beast viciously between the ears, and the golden threx came down heavily upon his four feet, head between his knees. The Menetpher grinned at me, where I still struggled with Guanden. I might have struck such a blow myself, if I had had a free hand. At last I got him, for one instant, upon four legs and facing straight ahead, and the attentive threx master’s huija cracked out loud in the stillness.

Guanden’s first leap near to pulled my arms from my sockets. I loosed two loops of rein and let him go. I could do little else. He was oblivious of me. I crouched down, my head upon his neck. The ground sped by my tearing eyes. The golden Menetpher threx was the only one I could see before me. His rider headed him into the tyla-break at an alarming speed. I fought with Guanden for control, that I might aid him at the leap, but he would have none of me. He soared over the five-palm break with such a mighty thrust of his hindquarters that we landed a length beyond it, and almost upon the Menetpher’s tail. Guanden screamed his challenge, and the gold threx’s answer came to us on the wind. I saw the Menetpher’s hand rise and fall on the beast’ flanks, and he leaped away from us once more. I risked a look around and saw the Dordassar tiask and three others close behind. The ditch past the half was beneath us, and still I did my best to hold Guanden, and the harder I tried, the more he screamed and twisted, that I might release him, and he catch the beast who dared run before him. But I did not. Not until we twisted right, left, and right again in bone-jarring leaps and came out of those fiendish stone chutes did I free him. The threx knew what he was about. Not once had he broken stride in the chutes. I gave him more rein and closed my eyes, my cheek pressed to his hot, slippery neck. I barely opened them in time to see the ta-nera pole flash by. The golden threx loomed ever closer. Over the tyla-break we gained a stride, and at the ditch another. It was a two-threx race. I could no longer see the others through our dust. I gave Gttanden the final two loops I held as we came again into the chutes, and threw my weight to the right as the threx changed strike-foot. Then left, and right, and as we hit open track, I smacked him with the flat of my hand upon his rump.

In vain did the golden threx’s rider ask him for speed, in vain did he urge his mount to keep his lead. Guanden’s shrill high voice rang once again upon the track, to be swallowed up in the stamping crowd’s roar as we came abreast of the Menetpher. Nostril-to-nostril for three leaps, and in that time the Menetpher’s hand flashed out, and a leather whip struck Guanden in the chest. Guanden bellowed, leaping ahead. As we passed the ta-nera pole, he was a threx length in front of the Menetpher.

It took me almost a quarter-nera to turn him. I would not call foul upon the Menetpher. He had won us the race with his unseemly gesture. I could feel Guanden’s rage, as we came abreast of the Menetpher and his golden threx awaiting their reward before the threx master’s yellow apprei. The brown Dordassar threx had placed third, a tan with black legs from Itophe was fourth, and another golden Menetpher beast, had the fifth position.

I rode Guanden to the place of honor before the threx master, putting his tail in the face of the Menetpher threx who had been second. I stroked his neck. He was not too tired to trumpet his disdain for his rival in ear-shattering tones, nor to attempt to take a chunk of the threx master’s arm as the man handed me the gold-hiked knife we had won. I accepted his congratulations, feeling cold and undeserving and alone among them. I had only done what the time demanded. I felt no triumph or joy until I saw Chayin, his face alight, with Jaheil behind him, making their way toward me through the crowd.