The Ancient Enemy (6 page)

"I've always been uneasy around bees. It runs in my family," muttered Thru. "My father stopped keeping them. He didn't have the knack of minding them. He got stung too often."

"Uneasy?" replied Meu. "How about terrified? My mother would not let my father keep bees even if he wanted to. She was petrified of them. I am, too. We always buy our honey."

"Well, we'll have to do something about them, terrified or not."

Thru and Meu filled the lamps. At dusk they lit a lamp on the western terrace. The sun had just finished setting in splendor in the west, outlining far-distant hills in gold as it sank from view.

They ate bread and olives with a little cheese and pickled vegetables, then laid themselves down to sleep on the gallery floor. The bees had not bothered them in the slightest—as long as they stayed away from the door to the oil-storage locker.

The Assenzi, however, sat on the floor near the oil locker and went into a meditative trance.

Thru awoke in the night and found the Assenzi was still there, still meditating.

He went back to sleep, and in the morning the Assenzi had moved to the eastern terrace and was watching the sunrise in tranquillity. Then, without ceremony he got up, entered the temple, and opened the door to the storage chamber.

Taken by surprise, the young acolytes watched with horror. There was a sudden loud roar from the bees and Thru and Meu put their hands to their mouths, expecting the worst. But the roar dwindled suddenly and died away to a gentle sort of hum after the slender old Assenzi entered the oil cache.

The bees remained quiet, and Thru and Meu exchanged a look of astonishment. No howls of pain erupted from the oil locker, and after a minute or so Utnapishtim backed slowly out of the storage cache draped in a dark mantle of bees. The hive had swarmed out behind its queen, who had landed on his chest.

Wearing a shroud of bees while others flew around his head, the Assenzi walked slowly past the astonished Thru and Meu and out to the forest. There the queen left him with a sudden darting buzz and was immediately surrounded by the swarm, which lifted off with a roar of wings and departed through the trees.

Utnapishtim gave a slow shrug to his shoulders, as if adjusting bones as old as the mountains themselves, then he turned around and slowly walked back to the temple.

Thru and Meu stared at him wide-eyed. Then Meu got up and brought the Assenzi a cup of cool water from the cistern.

"Thank you, Meu, that was thirsty work."

"Are you all right, Utnapishtim?"

"Perfectly well, thank you. That nest was very cooperative. The bees are much beset in the wild, as you know. Honey will draw many predators. It leads them to prejudice against all creatures I'm afraid."

"Did they not sting you, Utnapishtim?" said Thru.

"No, young Thru, not one sting. I had given the nest to understand that its hive was in a dangerous place, and pledged my help in their relocation."

Thru and Meu exchanged a blank look. Given the nest to understand? He had spoken to the bees, and they had understood him? Assenzi magic, it was clear to both of them.

Still in awe at the Assenzi's calm handling of the bees the two young acolytes carried the jars of oil to the cache. The bees had left behind their hive, still filled with honeycomb, and they took the honey and ate it on their bread for breakfast. It was delicious.

Afterward they loaded the empty jars from the oil cache onto the donkeys and headed back down the trail to the valley below. The weather continued mild and sunny, although there were clouds far off in the east toward the Barataks.

The donkeys, overjoyed at being freed from the weight of filled oil jars, were eager to get down the mountain to the feed bag in the stables. They made good time.

But something was not right. A gradual mounting sense of unease afflicted Utnapishtim. Something was wrong, but he could not quite put a finger on it.

They came to the stone staircase, a place where the trail narrowed and doubled back on itself as it descended a steep slope and Utnapishtim stopped them with a wave of his hand, suddenly looking grim.

"My friends, I'm afraid we have enemies on this hill. I sense pyluk."

Thru and Meu stared at him for a moment while his words sank in.

"They will know we are here," said Thru, hurrying to the donkeys to pull his bow and quiver from the baggage. Meu retrieved his as well, an older bow that had been in his family for many years and in truth was in need of replacement.

Thru had twenty shafts, but only six of them had steel bodkins; the rest were hunting arrows with little flint broadheads meant for rabbits and pigeon. He strapped the quiver to his shoulder and slung his bow over the other one.

Utnapishtim had put himself into a meditative trance for a few moments as he allowed his consciousness to reach out to the surrounding hillside. He opened his eyes after a half minute.

"They are nearby, but I do not think they hunt us. We must move with caution, but with all possible speed. We need to get the word to White Deer so that a posse can be raised to hunt them down."

"Why would they risk coming so close to White Deer?" wondered Thru, who was not so sanguine about the situation.

"I have not heard of trouble from pyluk up here in many years," said Utnapishtim. "There must be war in the Barataks. Their hordes clash over the breeding sands every so often."

"This is a long way from the Barataks," said Meu, wonderingly.

They made haste down the trail, pressing the donkeys forward, which for once was not difficult. An hour passed in quick downward progress, and they came out on High Meadow, just a few miles from the first habitations of mots on the outskirts of White Deer.

Utnapishtim cast about himself once more and detected nothing. He remained uneasy, however. His ability to detect the lizard men was restricted. He knew they were on the mountain, but not exactly where. He hoped they had stayed behind on the high ground.

"They are far behind," he announced finally. "They must not have found our trail yet."

They relaxed just a little and continued on their way across the meadow, which was dotted with small copses of alder and spruce. Around the massive Gorn Crag, the path plunged downhill again with occasional openings onto narrow stream gorges. Some of these were bridged, others had to be crossed by stepping-stones. The donkeys were always recalcitrant about using the stones.

On the western side of the crag was a band of rock in which the immense spirals of ancient fossils stood out in rows. Thru had noticed them on the way up and been awed by their size and number.

"What are these things, Utnapishtim?" Thru asked, looking for something to take his mind off the pyluk.

"They are the shells of ancient squid, young Thru. Long ago they swam in the oceans in such abundance that their remains can be found all over the world, just like this."

"Squid don't have coiled shells."

"These were an ancient kind of squid. They long ago gave way to the shining little squid of today."

"And all this was at the bottom of the ocean?" said Meu with wonder in his voice.

"Yes, young Meu, all these rocks were formed from the seabed long ago. There is a great deal that we discern from the nature of the rocks. You shall study this, if you stay at Highnoth one more year."

Most of the small streams were dry, but the last one, the Exwem, was fed by a spring. The stream was low, but there was water enough for the donkeys to take a drink. This would be the last opportunity before they got back to White Deer, which was still a couple of hours farther on.

Thru took the opportunity to go off a short distance to relieve himself. The stream ran down the bottom of the rock strewn canyon between dense thickets of alder. He was soon completely alone. While he was there he watched an eagle in the distance, circling above the hill scanning the slopes below for rabbits. His father had told him how keen was the eagle's vision, and he chuckled at the thought that the eagle had probably seen him just as clearly as he had seen the eagle.

He hurried back and was working through the last stand of alders when he stopped with one foot still raised. A chill descended through him as he heard the harsh hisses and grunts of the pyluk tongue.

With his heart hammering in his chest he peered out through the stems of the alder. Four pyluk were pulling the gear off the donkeys, which were plainly terrified. But bucking and plunging did them no good. The pyluk had hold of their reins and were capable of holding them. Long spears were thrust into the ground nearby. There was no sign of the Assenzi, but Meu was visible, lying on the ground beyond the donkeys. He was not moving.

Another pyluk came into view from farther down the trail. He called to the four by the donkeys, who answered with hisses and guttural noises.

Thru stepped carefully back into the alders and crouched while he pulled his bow off his shoulder and nocked an arrow.

Five pyluk and six arrows with steel heads. It would be close work with little room for error. He wasn't even sure if a single arrow would be enough for pyluk. They were said to be hard to kill. He pulled the quiver around to rest on his hip and checked that his sword was loose in the scabbard. Then he moved forward again. He had to admit that he was afraid. One young mot against five grown pyluk was long odds. He took a deep breath, gathered himself, and looked out through the alder screen again. To his surprise the pyluk had gone off, taking the donkeys and Meu.

He followed along carefully behind them. There was no sign of any blood at the stream crossing. Nor was Utnapishtim's body visible. He checked for the slim, short tracks of the Assenzi but could not spot them in the churned dust left by donkeys and pyluk.

He could not tell if the Assenzi had gone ahead or gone back. There was no blood on the ground, so the pyluk had not speared either Meu or Utnapishtim, and Meu had not fired his bow, which had been discarded by the pyluk, who disdained the bow and arrow in favor of their long spears and throwing sticks.

The surprise must have been complete, he concluded. Somehow the Assenzi had failed to detect them in the twisted terrain of ridges and canyons.

Thru followed them back up the trail. He could not leave poor Meu in their hands. There was no time to go down to White Deer and rouse a posse. It was up to him.

Keeping a wary eye ahead and pausing frequently to scan the trail above for any sign of ambush, Thru stalked the pyluk. For the most part he kept to the sides of the trail, moving beneath the eaves of trees or in the shadow of rocks, but he needed to keep up a good speed so he had to use the trail.

Above the meadow, below the switchback, he sensed something was different. There was no birdsong from the slope above.

He moved off the bare rocky trail and into the heather. Scrambling up the slope he left fur and even some skin on the heather, but he kept going and climbed the slope above the trail. From the top he could survey the trail all the way to the crest.

He spotted them after a few moments, three pyluk crouched below in ambush. They were spaced along the trail, hidden in the heather at a place where the trail turned up toward the switchback. The other pyluk were not to be seen, nor were the donkeys and Meu.

Thru considered shooting the three in ambush for a moment, but they were just a little too far for a good shot, and he could not afford to miss. Besides, they would warn the others up the trail, who might kill Meu, if he still lived, just to be sure of him before confronting Thru.

He crouched in the heather and watched until the pyluk stirred themselves from cover and loped up the trail in search of their fellows. They wouldn't want to miss the meat.

Thru climbed down to the trail again and followed with cautious steps while trying to think of a way to equalize the odds a bit. The pyluk were justly famous for their prowess with their long throwing spears.

The pyluk drove the donkeys back up to the top of the hill and halted just outside the temple. They were joined by two more members of their sept. Immediately all seven began the slavering ululations of the pyluk hunting call.

Thru heard the terrible sound as he approached the top of the trail, and tried to distinguish the number of voices making the ululations, in case all the pyluk were at their meat and they had left no sentry. It sounded as if all of them were calling, but he could not be certain. Caution kept him from charging ahead and attacking directly.

With great care he climbed up a steep rocky slope well away from the trailhead, then eased himself through the brush until he had a view of the temple precinct.

The pyluk had knocked one of the donkeys down and crushed its skull with a rock. They were tearing it open with their hands and teeth. The other donkey was raving on the end of its tether, bucking and braying as it saw its herd-mate devoured.

Meu was lying nearby faceup. Thru saw his friend's chest rise and fall. Meu was alive! Thru took heart from that, but then he realized there were now seven pyluk and his hopes sank again.

The pyluk swarmed over the donkey with their usual avidity. They were smeared in blood and offal. One pulled its head out of the donkey's body cavity with a large piece of liver in its jaws. A gulp, a flash of bright sharp teeth, and it was gone.

The rib cage was disassembled between three others, who growled and snarled as the bones cracked and popped. Jaws ripped and tore at the meat while the remaining donkey continued to tug frantically at the tether that bound it to the hitching rail.

The dead donkey's legs were torn away with loud cracking and snapping. The pyluk ate quickly, as was their wont. Occasionally a long barking belch would be released, followed usually by grunts from the others and the sound of pyluk laughter.

Thru edged around the clearing, looking for the best possible spot from which to launch his attack. He had noticed a thick-boled ancient oak that was barely twelve feet high, but almost five feet thick. Behind that would be a good spot to shoot from.

He had also noticed that the pyluk spears had been set beside this tree. If he was stationed there he would be in command of their weapons. They would have to come at him to get them, and that should give him the chance to shoot them.