Next
The wind shifted, bringing her the sound of drums.
As if it was startled by the sudden sound, an animal about the size of a Terran raccoon jumped out of the undergrowth and all but ran over the feet of the young woman. That in turn startled the young woman, causing her to take a jump back and nearly drop her basket.
Regaining her balance, Leysen looked on as the animal scurried under cover again. Somewhat embarrassed, she looked around to make sure that nobody had seen her so startled by a harmless, and somewhat tasty, animal.
Seeing that she was alone, she cocked her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her forefinger as she listened to the drums. She couldn't quite understand the message --- drum signals were primarily intended for warriors --- but whatever it was, it sounded urgent. Then she heard the second message, one that even the females knew.
It was the call telling everybody to return to the village immediately. Dropping the still nearly empty basket of fruit, she turned and raced down the path, back toward the village.
She slowed her pace when she came across others, warriors and females, all racing toward the village. She followed them past the gate and into the village. The drums were still pounding out their messages.
Many of the warriors were already gathered in the village square when Leysen arrived. More were coming in from wherever they had been. Others were leaving. All of the warriors were armed, some with Leysen's new steel blades, others with the traditional iron blades. Some carried spears or bows as well. Gharrez was in the center, speaking with some members of the Council. One of the warriors was drawing something in the dirt with a stick. A quick look told her that it was a map of the area immediately around the village.
Finding Tillek and Velder conversing by themselves off to one side, she made her way toward them. "There you are, Ley," Velder said as she came up to them. Tillek merely gave her the slightest of nods to acknowledge her arrival.
"What's going on?" she asked. She wasn't even breathing hard, but the stress showed when the question came out in Arion.
"A sentry reported seeing Poreans," Tillek replied, in Talisi.
She remembered that the Poreans were the people who lived to the south of the Tureans. Far to the south. She brought up her right hand and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Poreans? This far north? What are they doing here?" This time, she remembered to speak in Talisi.
"Think, girl! What would any Poreans be doing in Turea?" Tillek turned back to Velder and resumed their conversation.
Leysen continued to rub her nose as she thought back to the very first village that they had seen on Talis. The first village that she had seen --- the two men had been here before. Though they had never caught any of the raiders, everyone was convinced that they had been Poreans. "Just where are they?" she asked, completely forgetting the warriors whom she had encountered on her way back to the village.
"That's what we're trying to determine, girl. The scouts are beginning to come back, but their reports aren't always consistent."
Another runner came back to the village. Tillek went to where Gharrez was to hear his report, leaving Leysen and Velder alone.
"Stars!" Velder said, looking at the young boys carrying messages for the warriors. "This is too damned primitive. What I wouldn't give for a good tactical display. We don't know where they are, or how many of them there are."
"Too bad you don't have your airplane finished. If you did, you could take it up for reconnaissance."
He turned to the young Prime who had just spoken. "The Talisi are good at hiding in the forests, but yes, it might help. They have no experience at hiding from aerial reconnaissance." He paused to think about it. "Though I don't have a good way to signal. It doesn't do us much good for me to see them, if I couldn't tell anybody down on the ground where they are."
The girl was rubbing the bridge of her nose, a sign that she was thinking of something. That was not always a good thing as far as Primes were concerned. However she surprised him, and not for the first time. "But, don't we have some short-range communicators?" she asked.
Of course! He slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand. Leave it to the Prime --- a young and inexperienced one at that --- to think of the obvious.
They hadn't been able to salvage much from the lifeboat, but they did have some short-range communicators, powered by the universal power cells. They'd been hoarding the power cells --- not having any means of recharging them --- for use only in emergencies. But if this wasn't an emergency, then what was?
He didn't have a glider yet. But the communicators would still be useful. He and Tillek could be separated and yet still remain in contact. It just might give them the edge they needed to defend the village. "Go get Tillek," he told the girl. "Have him meet me at the house." Without waiting for an answer he turned and started running.
Leysen stood still for a moment and watched as Velder began running back to their house. She briefly wondered whether it would hurt to slap herself on the forehead as she had just seen Velder do. Of course, it wouldn't hurt if Velder was to slap her, but if she was to slap herself with her Prime strength?
Not that she was about to try it. She turned and ran in the other direction. The thought that she was carrying out the orders of a Beta never crossed her mind.
She found Tillek with Gharrez and the other warriors of the council, listening to the reports of the runners and discussing how best to defend the village from the attack. "Tillek, Velder want you back at the house."
He turned his head and made a shushing gesture with his hand. "Not now, girl. We're busy. In case you haven't noticed, we're under attack." He turned back to the others as another breathless runner came up.
"That's what he wants to talk about." She took his arm and pulled him away from the others, only a small fraction of her Prime strength being required to overcome the Beta's resistance. She lowered her voice as she switched to Arion. "We have some communicators at the house. We can use them to keep in touch. It'll be better than using runners."
"Of course." He shook his arm free and raised it when she relaxed her grip. For a brief moment she thought that he would slap his forehead as Velder had. Instead he simply shook his arm once, turned to Gharrez, and called out, "I'll be right back." He then started running toward the house.
She jogged along at his heels, half tempted to pick him up and put on some real speed. However it wasn't a long distance, and she knew that she didn't want the whole village seeing that. Not that they didn't have other things to keep them occupied, but there was little to be gained for the few seconds that they could save.
When they reached the house, Velder had the communicators laid out in front of him. He finished installing a power cell in the last one and looked up at the others. "We've got four of these. One for each of us, and one for Gharrez."
"We don't have time to teach him how to use it. One of us is going to have to stay with him." Tillek looked at Leysen.
She shook her head. "Not me. I'm a Prime. I belong in the fighting." She quickly slipped off her outer garment. She hadn't needed it against the morning chill, but had worn it only because it was expected.
Tillek started to open his mouth but Velder cut him off. "She's right, Tillek. You're the tactician, you stay with Gharrez." He handed a communicator to Leysen. "You do know how to use one, don't you?" There was just a hint of condescension in his voice.
She looked down at the metal object in the palm of her hand. It was a standard model; every Arion knew how to use one. Did he think that she was stupid? She looked up at him and glared. "Of course I do. Even a Kintzi cub could use one."
"True enough." He handed another one to Tillek. Pocketing a third one, he put the fourth one back into the pack. He then led the way out, going back to Gharrez and the Council.
She detoured by her room to pick up her blade. One of her earlier attempts, it wasn't quite good enough for a warrior's use. It was better than nothing, however, even if it might not be as good as her bare hands.
Tillek quickly explained to Gharrez that the three of them had a means of communicating over distances, a means that was much faster than were runners. Velder and Bander were quickly dispatched toward the river. After assuring Gharrez that Leysen knew how to communicate, she and two warriors were dispatched to the east.
They'd barely gotten out of the village when a Porean came at them out of the trees, his sword leading the way. Her two escorts leaped forward to meet him.
A second Porean came out of the trees, swinging his sword at Leysen. She parried his blade with her arm, the edged iron slicing through her sleeve before coming to a halt against her much harder skin. She swung her own sword, the steel blade biting deep, and then some. Driven by her Prime muscles, it sliced completely through the warrior's body, slicing through muscle, gristle, internal organs, and bone. It then embedded itself in the tree behind him.
This tree was much bigger than was the one where she had embedded the sword of the first Talisi whom she had met, and held the blade much harder. The blade snapped as she tried to wrench it free of the tree, the steel proving to be no match for the power of the girl's slender arm.
She turned around to see that her two companions had taken care of the first Porean. They looked down at the warrior whom she'd killed.
"Let's go," she said. Turning, she resumed jogging, forestalling any questions.
Even after receiving her first report, Tillek still had misgivings about sending Leysen out with the warriors. Sure, she was a Prime, trained almost from birth for combat. But she was still young, completely inexperienced. And this wasn't an Arion battle, but a Talisi one.
Well, she was out there now. He thumbed the switch and asked Velder for his position.
"We're down by the mill. Everything seems fine, no signs of..." Velder suddenly stopped speaking. Just before the connection was cut, there was the ring of blade on blade.
"Velder!" As loud as he screamed into the mike, there was no response. He quickly thumbed the switch again, switching channels and calling Leysen.
The communicator beeped. Leysen stopped and pulled it out of her pocket, thumbing the channel open. The two warriors continued on for a few paces and then stopped, turning to look at her with quizzical expressions. "We just reached the east pasture," she said into the mike. "Ran into two of them, but we took care of them. I got one of..."
"Get down to the mill as fast as you can," Tillek's voice came through the speaker, cutting her off before she could give a description of her part in the battle. "Velder's run into some trouble there."
She immediately remembered that this wasn't a game, not even a school training exercise. While the Talisi weapons might not be able to harm her, they could certainly wreak havoc with the Betas and the Talisi. "The mill. Got it. On my way." Telling the others to head for the mill as fast as they could, Leysen dropped the communicator into a pocket and led the way up the trail. Tillek had told her to get there as fast as she could and that was exactly what she did, quickly leaving the two Talisi behind.
As she rounded a bend in the trail, a spear thrust at her from the trees to her right. Without slowing down --- and without stopping to think about what she was doing --- she grabbed hold of the shaft with her right hand and swung upward. The spearman made the mistake of holding on to his weapon. It was the last mistake that he would ever make in his life, as he was lifted bodily up into the air. His scream was cut off abruptly as his body was slammed into a tree trunk on the other side of the path. The spear snapped in half from the impact. That was nothing compared to what happened to his body.
Dropping the spear she continued running. Forty yards further, three men stepped into her path, all of them wielding swords. Instead of slowing down, she picked up her pace. Going between the front pair she ignored the swords as they slashed at her and swept the men aside with her arms. Neither man landed within fifteen feet of where he had been standing.
The remaining man jumped back from her, barely managing to raise his sword. Her backhanded sweep struck the sword, knocking it out of his hand and dropping him to the ground on his ass. She ignored him, not slackening her pace as she continued running down the trail.
Sitting on the ground, Dellin looked down the trail as the Turean female kept running. There was no way that she should have been able to run that fast. He didn't think that a hurja could have run that fast over open ground, let alone on a narrow trail.
There was no way that she should have been able to get past the four of them. Yet she had, and they hadn't even slowed her down at all.
Looking around, he saw his sword lying on the ground more than ten feet away, where it had been knocked away by her bare arm. Crawling over to retrieve it, he was stunned to see a large nick in the blade, as if he had struck a rock as hard as he could with it.
He hadn't gotten a good look at her face --- who could, as fast as she was running? --- but he was certain that he'd seen her before. That time, as just now, she had somehow managed to wrest his sword out of his hands. He knew that it had to be the same one --- how many females could do that to him?
It had to be the same one. How many females were there in Turea who could do that? How many females anywhere could do that?
He parried the swing with his own sword. He then recovered and swung, putting all of his Beta strength into it. The Porean just managed to block with his blade.
There was a ringing CRASH as the two blades met. One of the blades shattered in a shower of metal shards.
Not Velder's new steel blade, but the Porean warrior's iron blade.
He had no time to thank Leysen for introducing steel to the Tureans, as another Porean came rushing at him. He leaped to the side, using all of the strength in his Beta legs. He swung his blade as the Porean ran past where he had been. The blade bit deep into the back of his neck, cleanly severing the head. There was a fountain of blood as the headless body toppled forward, the head bouncing a couple of times before rolling against a tree trunk.
He turned around to see that Bander had dispatched his opponent, the lifeless body lying at his feet. He had barely taken a breath to congratulate Bander on his victory when more Poreans came out of the trees, all but surrounding them. Holding their swords in front of them, he and Bander stood back to back. The Poreans circled them warily, the corpses on the ground giving mute testimony to the prowess of the two warriors in the middle.
One of them lunged from the side. Both Velder and Bander turned to meet his attack. That provided an opening as two more Poreans attacked from the other side.
Velder immediately whirled, deflecting the first blade with his, the iron shattering against the steel. The other blade flashed toward his face. He reacted instinctively, bring up his left arm to shield his face, managing to catch the flat of the blade with his forearm. He put all of his Beta strength into the parry, ignoring the pain as the blade turned against his arm and bit into the flesh.
The Porean suddenly toppled sideways as Bander withdrew his sword from the Porean's ribs.
Neither of them had time to rest as the remaining Poreans charged to the attack. Velder and Bander wove a singing curtain of steel around themselves, a curtain that the Porean iron couldn't penetrate. Yet Velder knew that it was only a matter of time before the superiority of numbers eventually wore them down. If one of them was to fall, there would be nothing left to cover the other's back. He could already feel his strength beginning to slip away --- his injured arm didn't help matters any, though it wasn't a very serious wound --- and he knew that it had to be worse for the Talisi at his back.
Whatever faults Bander might possess as a man --- and there were a number, including his attempts at bedding Leysen --- he was a superb swordsman. Though he dared not take the time to turn his head and look, Velder could hear the clash of blades behind his back.
The Poreans fell back, giving the two of them a chance to catch their breaths. It was a short respite however, as two Poreans came at him together. He knew without looking that he could expect no help from Bander this time, there were certain to be at least two men attacking him.
Taking a gamble, he rushed forward, taking the man on the left. His sword flashed out, biting deep into the Porean's neck. Crimson blood fountained out, some of it splashing into his eyes. Quickly wiping the blood out of his eyes, he turned to face the other Porean.
He wasn't there any more.
Turning further, he was just in time to see the two men facing Bander bring their heads together.
Bander stared in amazement as the two remaining Poreans crumpled to the ground, their skulls shattered as they collided. He was even more amazed when he recognized Ley standing behind them.
Before he could even begin to understand what had just happened, three more Poreans appeared out of the trees. They apparently thought that they had the advantage, the three of them against two Turean warriors and a female.
Bander raised his sword, prepared to meet them.
"They're mine!" Ley brushed past him, stepping forward to meet the latest threat.
"Ley!" He tried to pull her back, but Velder grabbed his arm and restrained him.
The Poreans hesitated, unsure of what to make of this. An unarmed female approaching them, while two warriors held back? Even after having seen her in action, Bander wasn't quite sure himself. She had caught them unawares and from behind then, this time she was approaching them from the front.
One of the Poreans stepped forward and raised his sword. She kept walking forward.
He swung his sword with both arms, going for a quick beheading. Her right arm flashed out to meet it.
What was she doing? Even if it was an old iron blade and not one of her new steel ones, it would still slice right through her unprotected arm.
He gasped in amazement as she caught the blade in her hand, stopping its swing. The tableau froze for a moment, the warrior's two arms and her much slimmer arm holding the sword motionless between them.
Then the sword moved. It didn't look like much more than a quick flick of her wrist, but she wrenched the sword out of his two-handed grip.
Another flick of her wrist sent the hilt of the sword against the side of the warrior's head. His skull exploded in a fountain of blood and gore as the blow lifted him completely off of his feet and flung him across the trail and into a tree. The lifeless body slid down the trunk, leaving a smear of blood.
The second warrior came at her, swinging his sword. She caught this blade in her left hand. At the same time she swung the sword that she already held. His head also exploded in a fountain of blood, his body toppling over, leaving her holding two swords by their blades.
The third warrior had seen enough. Turning, he took to his heels, running down the trail from which Leysen had come only moments before. He almost collided with the two warriors whom Leysen had left behind at the pasture, stopping just in time to deflect the first sword thrust with his own blade.
Already unnerved by what he had just witnessed happen to his compatriots --- and facing two warriors --- he didn't stand a chance. One blade all but severed his sword arm while another sank deep into his chest.
Holding his sword in front of him, Bander approached the nearest fallen Porean. There was no need for his blade, Ley's blow had not only completely smashed his skull, but it had almost removed it from the neck. He didn't think that he could have done half as much damage with the heaviest war hammer. She had done it with a the hilt of a sword? With a one-armed swing? While holding the naked blade in her bare hand?
Velder had apparently reached the same conclusion, for he was following Ley as she walked toward the second one. He followed.
It was the same thing.
Lifting his eyes from the corpse, he turned his head and looked at her. "How... how did you do this?"
She turned to him, her deep blue eyes sparkling, seeming to glow with their own light, but she didn't answer him, instead raising her hands and looking at the two swords as if she had never seen them before. She then dropped the two swords at her feet and clasped her hands over her stomach, hugging herself as her body started to shake. "I... I've never killed like this," she whispered. Her hair cascaded over her face as she looked down.
He took a step toward her but stopped when Velder put an arm around her waist, clasping her to him. His other hand brushed the hair out of her face.
As the hair was swept aside, Leysen looked up to see Velder standing in front of him, blood dripping down his arm. His blood. She reached for his arm. "Velder! You're hurt!"
"It's nothing." He pulled his arm back.
A quick glance with her tachyon vision showed her that it was indeed just a flesh wound. She ripped off a piece of her garment and reached for his arm again. He tried to pull his arm out of her grasp, but she held it immobile. "Hold still," she told him unnecessarily. She then wrapped the cloth around his arm, starting to bind the wound.
"Ouch!" He grimaced in pain. "Not so tight, Ley."
"Sorry. I suppose I don't want to make it worse, do I?" She loosened the wrapping a little and tied it off.
He tentatively flexed his arm. "If it wasn't hurt before, it is now," he said, smiling to let her know that he wasn't serious. He then looked down at the corpse at his feet. "I'm in better shape than he is." He prodded it with his toe.
As Ley tended to Velder's injury, Bander turned away and thought back to his own first kill. He could still remember the joy, the exultation, the glory. He could also remember feeling sick afterward, the smell of the blood that he had shed.
He had been trained almost since birth to be a warrior and a hunter. What must it be like for a female?
He then remembered that incident after the summer dance, when he had tried to force Ley to his bed. She had easily rebuffed him, repeatedly knocking him down. But that had been nothing compared to what she had done today.
He turned around to see Velder and Ley heading back toward the village, his good arm protectively around her waist. As if she needed his protection. If it hadn't been for her timely arrival, both he and Velder would have been killed by the Poreans.
He followed behind them.
Velder didn't resist as she worked herself free of his arm just before they reached the gate.
By evening, the scouts reported that all the Tureans were gone. The live ones, that is. More than a score of them had been killed. Only one Porean warrior had been killed, though several had been wounded. The wall around the village had been set afire, but the fires had been doused before too much damage had been done.
After posting the first shift of sentries, Gharrez called for a Council of Warriors. Given her contributions, Leysen was allowed to sit in.
Those warriors who had been fortunate enough to have received Leysen's new blades gave glowing reports. More than one of them had seen an opponent's iron blade shatter against a harder steel blade. The rest of the warriors --- even those who earlier had opposed having a female make them --- now clamored for steel blades of their own.
The idea of spending even more time making more weapons didn't appeal to Leysen. "There should be something we can do to deter future attacks. How about setting up a defensive perimeter. Or at least patrols far enough out to give us some warning."
"We don't have enough warriors for that, girl. We just have enough for sentries, not for patrols."
"But there are enough people in the village. What about the females?"
That caused more than a little stir among the Talisi. "Females? You expect the females to fight?"
"Why not? It's their --- our --- village too." She was very conscious of the fact that she was a female. That was something over which she had no control --- nobody had asked her before she was born. Her father probably would have preferred a son to a daughter, though he'd never said so. But that was neither here nor there. "Why shouldn't they --- we --- help to defend it?"
"They're not like you, girl. The females can't fight. They don't have the training. They don't know how to fight."
"With Ley to set an example and help teach them, they can learn."
This was a new voice. Leysen looked up to see Bander coming to his feet behind Tillek.
With a slight nod in her direction, Bander continued, "I've seen Ley fight. She's worth a hand of warriors. More." He turned to her and gave her a slight bow. "I have never seen anybody fight the way you did."
"But what can the other females do?" This came from Tillek. "She can't teach them how to do what she does. It requires... something else."
"They can carry supplies," Velder said. "Carry messages. Signal on the drums. Each warrior who is not doing one of those things is available to fight."
Bander nodded in agreement. Like all warriors, he'd done his share of fetching and carrying. "Young warriors-to-be do it now. Females can do the same."
"The stuff the Betas do for us," Leysen said under her breath, in Arion. She was about to say more, then realized from Tillek's sharply drawn breath and the expression on his face that she was the only Prime in the presence of the two Betas and the Talisi. She leaned closer to Tilledk and whispered in Arion, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"She's right, Tillek," Velder said before Tillek could say anything. "We can't all be Primes, or warriors." Still, the look on his face told her not to pursue that particular thread any further.
The members of the Council looked back and forth between the Arions, not understanding a word of this latest exchange.
There was further debate, but the Council wasn't quite ready to allow females in what the Arions considered combat support rôles. However they were more than willing to allow the females to help with the repair and rebuilding work.
Somewhat strangely, Chaddik remained silent throughout the debate, only answering later that yes, he could help Leysen with the forging of steel blades.
In the morning, Leysen and Bander ended up with the task of organizing the females to help repair and fortify the walls around the village. They hadn't been too badly damaged, but Gharrez had decided that this was the time to implement some of Tillek's design ideas concerning palisades and other fortifications. Tillek and Velder were out with the scouting parties, making sure that the Poreans were gone from the vicinity.
The females were familiar with construction in general, since they did most of the house-building. However the defensive walls were considered weapons, and thus the warriors had been responsible for them, the females had not worked on them before. Before the Arions' suggestions, the repairs would have waited until after the scouts had returned.
Even though some of the warriors had seen her in battle, Leysen was still careful not to show too much of her Arions strength as she helped cut and position logs and sharpened stakes into place. It was tempting to drive the stakes into place with her bare hands, but she resisted, using the same tools as did the others. Still, she did more than any single Talisi male could have done. Working among the females, her greater strength was even more apparent.
She was holding a log in place while Mai and another female tied it into place when she saw Velder returning. He barely looked up at the working females as he passed through the gate, but the expression on his face was unmistakable.
Unable to let go, she continued to hold the log steady while the others fastened it into place.
Even at night and from nearly two miles up, Tani'a Veloor's bright blue eyes had no trouble picking out the Porean warriors crossing the ford across the Blue River. They were heading south, so they had to be returning to Porea after a raid.
The damn fools! Despite her 'divine' edict they had dared to raid across it. And judging from the numbers, it must have been a sizable raid. Perhaps even bigger than the raid which had completely wiped out that village a few seasons ago. What had it been called? Ah yes, Ranture. Had they repeated that stunt?
Wondering just where they had been, she headed further north.
The ruins of Ranture still looked much as they had the last time that she had been up here. All of the other villages looked the same, as well. None of them looked as if they'd been hit hard in the last few days.
Returning to the Blue River, she saw that the warriors had finished the crossing. Looking closer, she saw that some of them were wounded. So, they had raided, and they had failed.
Serves them right for daring to defy her edict. Still, she would have to make sure that they never defied her again. She couldn't completely stop the nearly continuous state of warfare on the planet, but she could try to keep it down to a manageable level. After all, what would be the point of being the Planetary Protector if the natives killed each other off completely?
She would have to find the persons responsible and have a nice long chat with them. And --- as much as she disliked the prospect --- she just might have to make an example out of one or more of the ringleaders. An example of just what happens to someone who displeases the Golden Goddess.
But not right now. There were three warriors in her temple, and they were only half the way through with tonight's worship of their Golden Goddess. By now they should be recovered enough to go through the second half.
She'd worn a heavy gold chain around her neck for the first half. It had been a pleasurable experience, the men seeming to be stronger than they actually were, their bodies seeming to be harder than they actually were. Maybe she would wear the chain for the second half as well.
Turning around she headed south, back to Simpore. A triple sonic boom rang out over the mountains as she flexed her calves and broke the sound barrier. If anybody heard it, they attributed it to thunder, even though there were few clouds in the sky.
A few minutes later, she was back in her temple, the gold chain around her throat, the three worshippers awake and worshipping their goddess.