Kiteman of Karanga (16 page)

Karl took an end of one of the coils and tied it to a nearby tree. Then he pulled as hard as he could. It was obvious that the thin rope would hold much more than his weight.

"You won't break that rope, Karl," Zanzu said. "It's pure silk from the south islands beyond the Hrithdon Empire. It costs a lot, but it's light and strong."

Karl nodded. "It's what we need for launching kitewings with lizards. I just hope these lizards can pull hard enough to raise a kitewing."

"Don't worry about the lizards, my friend," answered Zanzu. "They'll pop you into the air like a catapult. Now, let's finish your riding lessons, pack this stuff up, and get going. The oja harvest is only three weeks away. We want to be on the desert this afternoon."

Zanzu finished the instruction in lizard riding that Athgar had begun by showing Karl and Rika the commands for the most common military maneuvers. When the three lizards were packed, Karl and Rika got mounted, while Zanzu took a final look at Athgar, who was deep in a drugged sleep. Then, taking a good-bye glance at Red Lizard Cave, they departed through the scrub and down the rocky slope.

From a distance the village of Dorn looked as though Eftah had been moved to the arid lowlands. As they approached the small shepherding community, the villagers ran to hide from their lizards. Only the village leader and a few older men remained outside to greet them.

They halted their lizards when the puzzled chief approached them. "Sirs, you bring some message from his Excellency, Murthdur?"

"May Murthdur be boiled in oja!" retorted Zanzu as he dismounted. "Clen, don't you recognize me?"

"Zanzu! What are you doing here? Why are you riding lizardback?" Clen shook Zanzu's hand warmly, but worry showed in his eyes.

"We're running from the Hrithdon." Zanzu handed Clen a small sack of coins. "We need a half dozen sheep, food for two weeks, and our water sacks filled. But most important, we need you to take care of Athgar for us. He's lying injured in Red Lizard Cave."

"Athgar! What happened?"

"We don't have time for the whole story now. Athgar will tell you when he comes to," Zanzu said. "Take good care of him and hide him from the Hrithdon."

"Of course we'll take good care of Athgar. We owe him more than we can repay. But tell me, Zanzu, will the Hrithdon attack Dorn in retaliation for what you're doing?"

"No," answered Zanzu. "Absolutely not. They want to catch us badly, and they're not going to stop for anything else. If they come here looking for us, you can tell them we disappeared into the desert."

A quarter of an hour later, the lizards had been fed and three extra sheep had been strapped on alive behind their saddles. They said farewell to Clen and departed in a swirl of dust. Soon they were on the last ridge before the wide desert floor.

Zanzu stared at the trackless expanse with interest. "All right, kiteman," he said with a subdued grin, "it's all yours now."

Karl surveyed the desert ahead. "If we're fifty miles south of Eftah, we'll head northeast until morning to put us on course and then we'll head due east. That will also give us a chance to find the spring at the midpoint."

"I can hardly believe there's water out there," exclaimed Rika.

"It's there," said Karl. "In the middle of some rocky hills with lots of scrub, sand, and palms. It's a nice spot except for dozens of dread lizards. I don't know what they eat—probably each other."

"They will, too," put in Zanzu. "A lizard has to eat every three to five days. After ten days without food, they'll turn on one another and the riders won't be able to stop them. That may have happened to some of the first Hrithdon expeditions into the desert."

Agreeing that it was important to put some distance between themselves and the Hrithdon, they headed out onto the desert despite the midday heat. Several times they doused the overheated reptiles and sheep with some of their precious water. When the sun went behind Eftah's mountains, they stopped to eat and rest. Then, as the stars came out, they continued on through the night. At dawn Eftah's mountains were only a jagged line on the horizon.

"We can sleep under a kitewing during the day," Karl said as they made camp, "but what about the lizards? They'll die in this heat."

"No they won't," said Zanzu. "Watch this."

He stepped over to the nearest lizard and slapped its leathery chin. At once the reptile sank its foreclaws into the sand and began digging. With Zanzu slapping its chin occasionally for encouragement, the lizard soon excavated a long trench in the desert sand.

"The digging command is useful if you're preparing a fortification," Zanzu remarked. "The Hrithdon know how to get the most out of a lizard."

Zanzu led the lizard down into the trench. Feeling the cooler sand on its belly, the reptile squirmed deeper into the trench and quickly managed to cover its body completely. Only its head remained above the surface. The other lizards dug themselves into the cool sand next to the first. Then Karl, Rika, and Zanzu set up the kitewings, one over the lizards' heads and the other for themselves and the sheep. Protected from the sun in this manner, they slept through the hot desert day.

For the next four nights they continued trekking eastward, and each morning they stopped and prepared their camp for the day. But by the fifth day their water supply was low. The lizards had consumed more than Zanzu had anticipated.

"This is why the first Hrithdon expeditions into the desert disappeared," said Zanzu as he eyed the contents of the last water sack. "We've got to find that spring, Karl."

"Well have to look for it by air," Rika said.

"We'd better," Karl replied. Despite Zanzu's assurance, Karl was not convinced that a lizard could run fast enough on the sand to pull a kitewing aloft. But he said nothing. Having missed the oasis on foot, launching a kitewing with a lizard would have to work if they were going to survive.

When the coils of the thin rope had been tied together and the sun was hot and high, they removed the Asti from above the lizards' heads and roused one of them from its sleeping place. Karl tied the end of the long rope to the back of the saddle.

"Start slow," he told Zanzu, who was riding the tow lizard. "When you see me take off, keep up a fast run until I let go of the rope."

Karl wrapped his end of the rope around his forearm three times and ran it through his fist. To release it he had only to let go with his hand. Then he signaled to Zanzu, and the lizard began to move.

As Karl began running, the line snaked ahead of him in the sand. The lizard gained speed, and the rope tightened. With a tremendous jerk Karl was snapped into the air, but he was not yet flying, and his wing began to settle. Then a rapid series of smaller tugs became one steady pull and he was flying. Pushing his control bar forward, Karl rose at a steeper angle than he had though possible. Higher and higher Karl climbed as the desert spread out beneath him. Below he could see the racing lizard. He felt the bump of a weak thermal and released the line, banking quickly to catch the rising air.

Karl teased what lift he could from the weak thermal and waved to Rika and Zanzu before he moved on to look for stronger lift. Soon he was several thousand feet high, and he turned east. He flew over the featureless expanse, but there were no landmarks, no animals, no clouds. As he searched the horizon for the hills surrounding the oasis, he was again awestruck by the emptiness of the desert.

At last Karl spotted the low hills twenty miles to the north of their course. Turning back, he retraced his course as carefully as possible, keeping the sun at his left wingtip. If he could almost miss a range of hills in this vast space, it would be easy indeed to miss two people and three lizards. An hour later Karl was relieved to see the shape of the second kitewing against the sand. He dove sharply, pulled up into a loop above Rika and Zanzu, and rolled into a steep, descending spiral. When he was near the ground, he dove straight for Rika and Zanzu and zoomed over their heads. He then turned and touched the ground lightly beside them.

That night they pushed hard to reach the oasis. At sunrise they saw the hills several miles ahead, but as he led the way Karl could not put aside a feeling of danger. They fed the lizards the three sheep and began their own breakfast in the shade of the palms beside the sparkling, clear pool of the spring.

"What a wonderful place this is," remarked Rika, "especially after nearly a week of sand and dunes."

"It is beautiful," agreed Karl, "but it's also infested with wild lizards. I was nearly caught by one when I was here before." Even as Karl spoke, the screech of a wild dread lizard echoed through the rocky valley.

"A person could make a good profit selling wild lizards to ranchers like the Costyras," said Zanzu. "They like to let wild blood into their lines to keep them strong. A full wild-blood is rare."

"That would be quite a job," Karl said, "capturing a wild lizard alive and transporting it all the way to Costyra Ranch."

"It wouldn't be easy," Zanzu agreed, "but the price Lodi would pay for one would make it worth trying."

"Just catch a baby lizard," said Rika with a smile. "Then transportation wouldn't be difficult at all."

Zanzu laughed heartily. "Keep that up, Rika, and you'll be my partner before long."

After eating, they staked their three lizards out around them and slept luxuriously in the shade of the palms. When Karl awoke, the sun was already low. The feeling of danger he remembered from the morning was still strong, making him restless. Rika and Zanzu were both still asleep. Without waking them, Karl rubbed on some fresh oja, took his spear, and climbed to the top of the ridge that formed one wall of the narrow, sandy-bottomed valley. He wasn't entirely confident in the power of oja to ward off wild lizards, so he made his way cautiously. As he followed the top of the low hill he examined the western horizon. Suddenly a stab of fear went through him. Silhouetted against the low sun were Hrithdon riders only a few miles away.

Karl raced down the slope toward their camp, shouting to warn Rika and Zanzu of the approaching Hrithdon. As he came running up, Rika and Zanzu were already loading the baggage onto the lizards.

"How far away are they?" Zanzu asked as he cinched a water sack tightly onto one of the lizard's backs.

"A couple of miles and coming fast," Karl answered.

"No need for us to panic, then," Zanzu said. "If they've been riding in the sun all day, their lizards will be near exhaustion. Ours have been fed and are fresh. Let's mount up."

Outdistancing the tired Hrithdon mounts was as easy as Zanzu had predicted. By the time they had left the hills and headed east again, all pursuit had stopped. They continued on through the region of strange rocky formations that towered out of the ground. When the moon rose, they were back on the desert sand. For five more nights they went on as before, but with one change. They now kept watch for the Hrithdon during the daytime, but not once did they sight them. At the end of the fifth night from the oasis, the plume of Angastora towered above the horizon, pink in the early light.

"By the Lizard!" exclaimed Zanzu. "Karanga must be some country if that's any indication."

"That's Angastora," replied Karl as his heartbeat quickened, "the largest volcano in Karanga. Do we stop here or push on?"

"Push on," said Rika. "There isn't much time before the oja harvest, so we've got to hurry."

Zanzu nodded in agreement.

That morning, they entered the folded foothills backed by the massive mountains that Karl knew so well. They skirted the volcano and proceeded along the series of valleys that would take them to Karl's home village. Karl spotted kitewings in the distance and they knew they were being watched. As they reached the last valley before his village, a contingent of kitemen came over the ridge. It grew larger until Karl counted nearly a dozen wings. Traversing the slope, they sped closer and closer.

"Rika, Zanzu, we have company," Karl said. He pointed to the large formation that was descending toward them.

"If they attack us on the ground, they're sunk," Zanzu snorted.

"I know," Karl said, "but I don't think they will be that foolish."

"You know these people, so you do the talking," said Zanzu.

Karl nodded.

The kitemen landed, blocking their way, and Karl recognized their leader with a wave of apprehension. Parading forward in his wing, Garth, son of Bron, came toward them. His left cheek bore a fresh scar, and several of his teeth were broken.

"Stop! I order you to stop," Garth shouted. His voice was abusive and rasping, and strove for an authority it did not possess. "You have no right to be here. Your life is forfeit."

Karl, Rika, and Zanzu brought their lizards to a halt. Behind their spokesman, the kitemen stood their ground.

Karl urged his lizard a step forward. "Garth, you know me. This is Rika and Zanzu from across the desert."

"I know you, coward," retorted Garth. "Why are you back in Karanga?"

"We will speak with Koron, the chief," Karl replied.

"You'll answer to me first, coward," continued Garth, pointing to his scar and broken teeth. "You did this to me. Killing my father wasn't enough for you."

"You didn't have to follow me into the crater," Karl replied. He strove hard to keep himself under control. He must not let Garth rattle him.

"What's the matter, coward?" Garth taunted. "Are you so toad-hearted that you don't dare to fly anymore; you crawl across the ground on a stinking reptile?"

"Garth, this is a trained Hrithdon war lizard. I have known three lizards to destroy thirty armed men in as little time as we have been talking here. Now get out of our way."

Karl started his mount forward, and Garth reluctantly moved aside. He glared hatred at Karl as he passed.

Then Garth let out a hideous scream. "You broke your banishment, coward! Die!" Garth threw his spear with all his strength directly at the center of Karl's back.

Karl fell to the ground.

Rika drove her heels into the side of her lizard and with a speed faster than the eye could follow, it leapt forward and snatched Garth in its jaws. A second later, Garth lay in a crumpled heap, twenty feet distant. Rika dismounted and ran to Karl while Zanzu scattered the rest of the Karangans across the valley floor.