The Cache (15 page)

“They say that the foot-soldiers of the First Army have been given horses and that they are following us as fast as possible,” said Zhem. “Did you see the supply wagons? Very light vehicles and drawn by teams of six horses. The wagons hold nothing but food, water, blankets and weapons. Only the essentials. No tents.”

“I wonder what the emergency can be?” said Benoni. “It must really be something grave for us to be called along too.”

That night, they camped outside a large valley. They had to build their own fires and cook their own meals, for this expedition was not to be slowed down by servants or slaves. Each man was given two extra horses, requisitioned from the villages, towns, and farms they had passed on the road. The riders would get little rest, but it was essential that the horses take turns carrying the men.

After eating, the men collected around a big l ire in the center of camp. A platform of logs had been built so that the Pwez could address her troops from a height.

She saw Zhem, Benoni, and Joel in the front ranks of the Red Wolves, and her eyes widened. She called them before the platform and said, in a low voice, “What are you doing here?”

“We were ordered,” said Benoni.

Lezpet bit her lips and said, “In the hurry, it never occurred to me that you might come along. After all, you are members of my bodyguard. And I gave orders that all such should assemble immediately. I had thought you three were on your way now with your escort.”

“They are riding with us,” said Joel. “I saw the officer who was supposed to command our escort.”

“It can’t be helped,” said Lezpet. “Now, it may not matter. If our mission is a success, we won’t be in any hurry for you to carry out your command. And, if we fail, which, of course, we won’t, then it won’t matter.”

She sent them back to the ranks. And she said, “Soldiers of Kaywo! Our spies in the forests of L’wan sent a carrier pigeon to the palace with a very urgent message. It said that the people of Pwawwaw, an independent village of wild-men living by the side of the L’wan river, were digging to establish a foundation for new walls around their village. While digging, the Pwawwaw came upon a strange object. This was a great needleshaped building made of a hard silvery metal. It must have been buried under the earth for a thousand years. It must be a fallen ship of the Hairy Men from the Stars!”

There was a murmur from the assembled men. The Pwez held up her hand for silence and continued. “Who knows what that ship may contain? It may hold nothing, for it may have been stripped of everything and have been buried and empty for a millennium. Such a ship was seen recently by one of our Red Wolves, a wild-man from Eyzonuh. He saw it on the great plains. A tribe of wild-men were living in it because it had not been buried by the dust.

“But the ship uncovered by the Pwawwaw may be a different case. It is possible that it made a great hole when it fell and was quickly covered. Or it fell after devastating the area and was soon buried beneath dust blown by the wind. In any event, if it was not stripped, it undoubtedly contains many of the magical devices of the Hairy Men from the Stars! And he who gets his hands on these will control the powers of demons!”

Another murmur arose, and, here and there, shouts. The Pwez again raised her hand, and she said, “The Skego undoubtedly have their spies, and these will have sent reports. So, you may safely bet your pay for the next ten years that the Skego will send soldiers, that they are riding even now to Pwawwaw!

“We must get there first! We must demand that the ship be turned over to Kaywo! If the Pwawwaw refuse, then we take it from them! And, if the Skego arrive, we must defeat them, too!”

The soldiers cheered. Their swords flashed in the firelight as they swore to take the ship or die to the last man while trying. Then, dismissed, they went back to their blankets.

Lezpet motioned to the three wild-men to come to her fire.

“Now,” she said to Benoni, “do you understand why my uncle was so excited when he heard you describe that silvery structure on the plains?”

“Yes. Your Hairy Men from the Stars must be the same beings that we Eyzonuh call demons. Our preachers say that, a thousand years ago, they came out of the earth and warred against man. Man drove them back into the bowels of the earth. Sometimes, Seytuh struggles to get free, and that is why the earth quakes and mountains belch fire.”

Lezpet laughed, and she said, “We have our stories, too, very integral parts of our religion, as I suppose yours are of your religion. I will tell you ours.

“Once, the people of Earth were a very wise and powerful people. They covered the earth with their millions then and were not just a handful here and there, as we now are. They were very happy, too, for they could control the weather, grow as much food as they wanted, and had such mastery they even subjected the sun god and the demons of the earth. But the sun god and the demons, who were enemies, chafed at being enslaved and were angered at man’s arrogance. So, despite their enemity, they banded together. The demons went to the faraway stars on a vehicle provided by the sun god. And the demons made a treaty with their brothers who lived on a star or stars. These demons were half-devil, half-human.

“One day, the half-demons, who looked like hairy men with pointed furry ears, appeared over earth in their ships. They told the people of Earth a lie. They said their world was burning up and they had no place to live. The sun god was angry at them and was destroying their world. Would Earth give them living space?

“But Earth said no. Man did not have enough space for himself. In those days, each man and woman lived a thousand years and bred many children, who also lived a thousand years. So, the Hairy Men from the Stars said that they would make space. And they had a war with men. It was the most horrible war that earth has ever suffered. At its end, all the Hairy Men from the Stars were killed. But the price of victory for humanity was great. Only one in every hundred thousand survived. And the survivors forgot their magic, forgot everything in their battle for survival. They became savages, unhappy fierce men. And only in the last two hundred years has humanity become numerous enough and wise to begin building civilization again.”

“That is not quite the way I heard it,” said Benoni cautiously. He did not wish to get involved in a religious discussion. “We have never heard of the Hairy Men from the Stars. According to what our preachers say, the demons of earth tried to master men. They did call in the demons of the air to help them, but most of these were captured and also buried with Seytuh under the earth.”

Lezpet laughed again. She said, “That story, and the one told in my country, is good enough for the common people, children, and fools. They need something they can understand. But I think otherwise. I think that the Hairy Men were people something like us. They lived on a planet like ours, and it revolved around a star, which was a sun to their planet. Something drove them to leave their world; perhaps, their sun got too hot. In any event, they did come to Earth in their vehicles. They asked to be allowed to live on Earth. Man turned down their request, for what reason, I do not know. A war did ensue, and civilization was smashed.

“But I do not believe in any sun god or earth demon. I do not believe that there is a First God, nor do I believe that Kaywo was founded by the two-headed son of a two-headed bitch wolf.

“Of course, if you were to repeat this, I would have to deny saying such, and I would have you burned as blasphemers. The best thing to do is to subscribe publicly to the belief. After all, it keeps the people in order. It’s a useful lie, decorative rubbish.”

Benoni was shocked. He did not believe in a sun god, either. But he did believe in earth demons. Had he not felt the earth quake and the land break open in fire as Seytuh struggled with his chains deep beneath the crust of the earth?

“You look shaken,” said Lezpet. “Don’t. Haven’t you found out that many things you believed were so, while you lived behind your desert mountains, just aren’t so? And you will find many other things untrue also.”

Benoni went back to his campfire a very troubled youth. During the next four days, he had time to think. He was busy, but most of what he did was automatic and his brain was free. Could what Lepzet had said be true? That both their religions were false? After all, if, say, Jehovah were the real god, then why was his worship known only in the valley of the Sun? Why not all over the world?

But Jehovah had once been only known to a very small group, the Hebrews. And they, a desert people, had carried their worship into the land of Canaan and from there all over the world. So, why not the Eyzonuh? Perhaps, it was as the preachers said. Jehovah always preserved a nucleus of faithful. The Eyzonuh had inherited the torch of the true religion from the Hebrews, who must have perished, for no one he had ever met outside the Valley had heard of them. Or could they be in the land from which that gabby veiled man, Aflatu ib Abdu, had come?

Anyway, the preachers said that the Eyzonuh alone knew the true god. All other peoples worshipped Seytuh. For instance, the Navahos and the Mek.

But, Benoni told himself, why hadn’t I ever thought of that before? I know very well that the Navahos have never heard of Seytuh, and the Mek worship a god called Thiys. I never thought of that before.

By the time they had reached Senglwi, he had decided to quit thinking. For the time being, at least. It was easier to live for the moment alone and think only of the fighting ahead.

They slept that night on the ground outside the breached walls of the conquered city. At dawn, they and their horses boarded a fleet of long low swift galleys. Word had been sent ahead by drum and by heliograph to prepare the boats. Using an extraordinarily large crew of rowers, working day and night shifts, the galleys could make even better time than the horses. They did not have to stop to rest.

Benoni slept most of that day, for he was tired. But the next day he took his turn at rowing. Slave’s work, true, but the Pwez had so ordered. If the slaves could rest while the freemen broke their backs for several hours, the slaves could row just that much harder when their turn came. And the timer could keep his gavel hammering out the full-speed beat.

They forged against the current of the broad and muddy Siy River, the Father of Waters, running close to the shore where the current was weakest. Then, they turned right into the mouth of the L’wan river and rowed northward. They left the civilized area and began to pass little villages inhabited by the wild-men of L’wan. Day and night they rowed, working the oars, eating, and sleeping in shifts. Not once did they stop, for they carried all they needed. And the wild-men, seeing this great fleet approach up the river, did not bother. The wild-men either shut the gates of their wooden fortress-villages or else fled into the forests.

One morning, two hours after dawn, they saw a band of horsemen standing on the left bank. These wore shining armor, and the standard-bearer at their head carried a long pole on which was mounted two wolf-heads.

Lezpet gave the order, and her galley swung into the bank.

Their leader, a young lieutenant, clenched his fist to his chest. He said, “Your Excellency! You are only ten miles from Pwawwaw! You may proceed safely on your boats the rest of the way. We control the river at this point.”

“What has happened so far?” said Lezpet.

“We did what was ordered. So far, things have turned out as planned. On receiving your message from Kaywo, the Second Army boarded galleys, leaving just enough behind for your forces to use. Part of the army went by land, because we did not have enough craft. We rendezvoused just below Pwawwaw. Part of us attacked Pwawwaw. We forced them into the fort but did not have enough men to storm it. The rest proceeded up the L’wan on the galleys. And a good thing we did.

“We ran headlong at night into a fleet of Skego soldiers. There was a battle. Every Kaywo fought without thought of surrender. “We sank their galleys and killed every soldier and slave. At a terrible cost, for they fought like demons. We lost every boat but one and all our soldiers except thirty. I, a lieutenant, was the highest left in command.

“We came back to the besiegers around Pwawwaw and waited for you. But our spies tell us that another Skego fleet is coming fast, is about forty miles up river. And about two thousand Skego cavalry on a forest road not thirty miles away. Twenty miles behind them, a great army.”

“How many of the Second are besieging Pwawwaw?”

“Eight hundred and fifty.”

“There are fifty of you, and a thousand warriors on these boats. A thousand and nine hundred in all. How many Pwawwaw men?”

“I would estimate about a thousand. But their women will fight by their sides, and they are all excellent archers.”

“And they will all fight like furies to defend their children,” said Lezpet. “And will be shooting from behind walls. Well, we haven’t time to starve them out. Pwawwaw will have to be stormed inside an hour or two after we begin the attack. We have to get to the vessel of the Hairy Men, take what is valuable, and leave at once. Then, it’ll be a race back to Senglwi.”

She ordered soldiers aboard, and the galleys raced towards the north. A pigeon was released; it shot off to the southwest, toward its home in Senglwi. The message it carried ordered the garrison to march at once toward the confluence of the Siy and L’wan. There, if the Skego galleys did pursue the Kaywo, they could be ambushed and the fleeing Kaywo galleys could turn and fight.

Every man aboard took a turn at the oars, rowing with all his strength. The blue L’wan waters turned white before the prows; in an hour, the lookout on the lead ship saw the reflection of the sun on the armor of the Second.

Pwawwaw was the largest village of the L’wan wild-men. It lay next to a river on the left bank and was surrounded by a wall of earth on top of which was another wall of heavy logs. The inhabitants lived within the walls in square log cabins. However, on the big bluff just behind the village was a large log fort, almost a wooden castle. Here, the Pwawwaw had retreated upon first seeing the Kaywo galleys of the Second. The Kaywo had landed and burned the village to the ground. They had also stationed troops near the two gates of the fort on the bluff, just beyond arrow range.