Bunduki (Bunduki Series Book One) (20 page)

Passing around the edge of a clump of
bushes, the blond giant received the answer.

At the far side of the clearing,
Joar-Fane was standing with her back against the trunk of a tree.
She was grasping a thick piece of a branch in the manner of a club
and glaring at the tall, shapely, black-haired woman who was
stalking arrogantly towards her. Nor was the woman alone. There
were three men present. The largest was standing with his back to
the blond giant, watching Joar-Fane and the woman. Advancing along
the edges of the clearing, the other two were positioned to cut off
the girl if she tried to run either way.

All of the quartet were dressed
and armed in much the same manner. While the woman’s hair had no
covering, the men had on leather helmets decorated on each side by
the embossed head of a horse—or a zebra. All wore one piece, short,
white tunics—the woman’s being sleeveless—and had a sword shaped
like the
gladius
of a Roman soldier in a scabbard on the left side of the
belt. They had sandals on their feet and leather greaves protected
their shins.

Ground hitched by their dangling
one-piece reins, the four saddled animals among the trees at the
left side of the clearing supplied the blond giant with a clue to
the quartet’s identity. He had already suspected that they might be
the party sent by the Mun-Gatahs’ People-Taker to recapture
Joar-Fane. There was a white garment of some kind hanging from each
saddle’s cantle, but he did not waste time in trying to decide what
they might be.

‘
Watch her,
Latica!’ called the biggest man, drawing
Bunduki’s attention from the
zebras. He was clearly more amused than perturbed by the girl’s
threatening attitude. ‘She might be an Amazon in
disguise.’

‘
I’ll “Amazon”
her!’ the woman answered, without looking back or offering to
draw
her sword. Put that stick down, damn you, or I’ll break
every bone in your body.’

‘
You try it
and see what I’ll do!’ Joar-Fane replied spiritedly, seeing the
blond giant at the edge of the clearing and wanting to prevent the
Mun-Gatahs from becoming aware of his presence.
‘I’m not afraid of
you.’

Having reached his conclusion
regarding the identity of the quartet, Bunduki was taking advantage
of their preoccupation with the girl and was moving forward.
Noticing that she had seen him, he was pleased by the way she was
acting. She was behaving in a much braver and more intelligent
manner than he would have expected.

Remembering what Joar-Fane had told
him about the Mun-Gatahs, the blond giant doubted whether he could
save her by peaceful means. Nor, if he was correct in his
assumption of where he had been transported by his unknown saviors,
could he follow the dictates of the civilized society in which he
had been born and raised. He must be ready to fight and kill if he
wanted to survive and rescue the girl.

Accepting that there was no other
choice, Bunduki ran towards the largest of the men. His bare feet
made little sound on the springy turf and the man, who almost
matched him in size and bulk, was not aware of his approach. That
was all to the good and the big blond hoped to turn it to his
advantage. If he could take the man by surprise and use him as a
hostage, it might still be possible to avoid bloodshed.

‘
You’re up
against a fierce one th
—’ the warrior at the right commenced.

The words died away as the
speaker became aware of a figure coming from the bushes ahead of
him. Dressed
in a jaguar-skin loincloth, the newcomer had his right leg
bandaged by leaves and was limping along using a stout spear as a
crutch. In his left hand, he held a weapon of a kind the Mun-Gatah
had never seen. He looked like a Telonga, except that those with
whom the People-Taker’s party had come into contact were never
armed, nor so muscular.

Studying the newcomer’s black
hair, dark skin and Polynesian features, Bunduki assumed that he
belonged to Joar-Fane’s people. However, despite the thing like
a
czdkan
that he was carrying, his injured leg would reduce his
effectiveness in a fight.

‘
An
armed
Telonga, as I live and breathe!’ the warrior on the right
shouted derisively and looked behind him.

‘
I’ll
need your he—’ Once again he did not complete a speech. Instead, he
started to swing around and his right hand went to the hilt of the
sword as he shouted, ‘Behind you!’

Hearing and seeing the change in his
companions words and behavior, the third male member of the party
glanced back. What he saw caused him to duplicate the second’s
actions. The woman threw a look to her rear and half-turned,
reaching for her sword. Unaware of At-Vee’s arrival on the scene,
as he was coming from behind her, Joar-Fane let out a yell and,
swinging the club above her head in both hands, sprang
forward.

Seeing first one, then the
other warrior turning and preparing to arm themselves, Bunduki
abandoned his ideas of trying to take the nearest man as a hostage.
The , other two appeared to be devoting their attentions to him and
ignoring the newcomer. Nor, if the painful way in which he was
moving meant anything, would the Telonga be of much use. Certainly
he could not come quickly enough to be of assistance. So Bunduki
put aside his original notion of giving the largest man a chance to
turn and fight. The odds were sufficiently high without him adding
to them by pandering to ideals of fair play
and chivalry. He knew that such
sentiments would not be accorded to him if their positions were
reversed.

Increasing his speed, Bunduki hurled
himself into the air in such a way that his body was almost
horizontal. His left shoulder rammed into the centre of the man’s
back. Struck by the full force of the blond giant’s two hundred and
twenty pound frame, the Mun-Gatah was knocked from his feet. Nor
did it end there. There was a sharp crack, followed by a scream of
pain, as his spine snapped.

Going down with the stricken man,
Bunduki rolled clear and started to rise. His right hand flashed
across to close on the ivory hilt of the bowie knife, sliding it
from its sheath. There was not a second to lose. Already the two
warriors were converging upon him.

Alerted by Joar-Fane’s yell, the woman
looked back at her. Finding that the girl was attempting to attack
her, she let out an angry snort. Swiveling around swiftly, she
stepped forward and, before Joar-Fane could bring the weapon down,
lashed around her right arm. Caught at the side of the head by a
powerful backhand blow, the little Telonga went spinning. The club
flew from her hand and she measured her length, dazed and helpless,
on the ground.

Still in the process of rising,
Bunduki analyzed the situation with great rapidity. There was, he
decided, one thing in his favor. The man to his left was much
closer than the other warrior and showed no sign of slowing down.
Therefore they could not launch a concerted attack.

Wanting to gain the acclaim that would
accrue from avenging what he guessed had been a fatal assault on
his leader, the first warrior had no intention of taking the
sensible course of co-operating with his companion. Instead, he
bounded onwards at an increased pace. Arriving within range, he
launched a savage downwards chop with his sword at the side of the
blond giant’s neck.

Thrusting himself erect,
Bunduki held the bowie knife
with its blade projecting in front of his thumb
and forefinger. It was a grip that allowed him to utilize the
weapon to the best advantage, permitting a cut, thrust, or backhand
slash with equal facility.

Bringing the knife across, the blond
giant let the flat of the blade meet and sweep aside the
Mun-Gatah’s sword. Then, disengaging his weapon, he delivered a
devastatingly effective counter attack. Hissing to the right, the
knife—which had an edge as sharp as a barber s razor—passed under
the man’s chin. The steel sliced inwards, laying open the
Mun-Gatah’s throat to the bone with a force that twisted him aside.
The sword fell from his fingers and they rose to clutch at the
hideous, blood-spurting mortal wound. Collapsing to his knees, he
fell forward on to his face.

Seeing the second of his party struck
down by the big blond did not deter the last of the warriors. He
continued to rush towards Bunduki and was so close that he felt
sure he could make his attack before there would be any chance of
evasion or reprisals.

Alert to the danger, the blond giant
prepared to defend himself. He saw that the man was adopting almost
identical tactics to those of the first assailant. Once again, the
attack came in the form of a round-house swing. Except that this
time it was travelling horizontally rather than at a downwards
angle.

Pivoting to face his assailant,
Bunduki bent his right knee and thrust his left leg backwards in a
long stride. Doing so caused him to sink below the arc of the
sword’s swing. Even as it went over his head, stirring his hair it
passed so close, he turned the knuckles of his right hand
uppermost. Out drove the bowie knife in an almost classic lunge.
Carried onwards by his momentum, the man paid the price of failure.
Spiking its clip point into his stomach, the bowie’s blade sank
almost to its brass lugged guard.

While dealing with the third male
Mun-Gatah, Bunduki did not forget the woman. Even as his knife was
entering the man s body, he looked to find out what she was doing.
Like her companions, she appeared to consider him a greater danger
than the Telonga hunter. That was true. Due to the ‘putting away’,
the People-Taker and his escort had only come into contact with the
placid, unresisting male members of the Telonga nation. So she was
discounting the Telonga hunter as a serious factor—as the two
warriors had—and felt that he could be disposed of easily enough
once the blond giant had been killed.

With the latter thought in mind, and
ignoring the Telonga hunter and the motionless girl, the woman
advanced across the clearing towards Bunduki. Judging from the way
she held her sword she might prove as dangerous as either of the
warriors, or possibly more so if she had taken a warning from the
results of their rash behavior and was skilled with the weapon.
Bunduki straightened his right leg and, driving himself erect, he
swung the stricken man to the left in a way that ripped the bowie’s
blade through flesh and freed it.

Practically disemboweled and letting
go of his sword, the dying man tottered in a half circle until he
was facing the woman. She stared in horror at the intestines which
were oozing from the gaping tear in his stomach and came to an
involuntary halt. Then, as she watched him crumpling like a rag
doll that had had its stuffing removed, her nerve failed her.
Instead of continuing with her advance, she fled at an angle that
would take her to the waiting zebras but would at the same time
keep her well beyond the reach of the blond giant who had felled
all of her companions.

Throwing a glance at Joar-Fane,
Bunduki was relieved to see that she was moving and that there was
no blood to suggest she had been stabbed. The hunter was hurrying
towards her with his face showing mingled anxiety
and pain. Feeling
sure that the girl was not seriously hurt, the blond giant started
to go towards the woman.

Having no desire for further killing,
Bunduki did not want to catch and deal with Latica. Nor did he wish
to be encumbered by a prisoner. He had something else in mind.
Being an excellent horseman, he was hoping to gain possession of at
least one of the zebras. He felt sure that he could ride it. In
which case, it could prove very useful in his search for his
adoptive cousin.

On reaching the animals, having
seen that the blond giant was following her and misinterpreting his
motives, the woman acted with panic-induced speed. Dropping her
sword instead of sheathing it, she grabbed the reins of her
ocha-gatah.
Taking them over
its head, she caught hold of the saddle horn and vaulted on to its
back. Almost as soon as her rump hit the leather, she sent her
mount bounding forward without as much as a glance at the dead
companions she was leaving behind.

Deciding that the woman was too
frightened to come back, Bunduki hurried towards the three
remaining zebras. Although they appeared to have been made a little
restless by her hurried departure, none of them showed any signs of
bolting. Studying them as he was cleaning the blood from his knife
and returning it to its sheath, he unconsciously matched Dawn’s
summation regarding their physical conformation and possible
relationship to wild zebras. One reminded him of the
subspecies
Equus Grevy,
but the other two had the colors and striping
of
Equus
Burchelli.

A glance across the clearing
reassured Bunduki that Joar-Fane had not been seriously injured.
The hunter was kneeling somewhat awkwardly, holding her in his arms
and she, was behaving much as she had after the blond giant had
saved her from the
Mangani.

Pleased to find that the girl
was unharmed and obviously on good terms with the man, Bunduki
turned his attention to the zebras. Going to the
banar-gatah,
although he did not
identify it by its Mun-Gatah name, he acted as he would if he had
been approaching a strange horse. Speaking in a low, soothing voice
and avoiding any sudden movements, he reached out slowly with his
right hand. The
banar-gatah
snorted, tossed its head, then calmed and allowed him to
stroke its sleek neck.