The Inferior (26 page)

21.

A PLAN GONE WRONG

S
topmouth kept utterly quiet. The Slimer sniffed loudly, its fat head bobbing from side to side. It was an ungainly creature to his eyes–its short fat legs were good for one quick leap from ambush, but they also gave it a lurching gait that made the creatures almost helpless in the open. A thin black tongue flickered in and out of perpetually open jaws, licking walls, the ground or its own slimy hide.

The creature sniffed again. Perhaps it hadn’t yet learned to identify human smells, or perhaps its sniffing was just some beast ritual. In any case, it never once looked in Stopmouth’s direction as it climbed onto the roof.

Stopmouth saw the Slimer poke its head over the parapet as he himself had done no more than a thousand heartbeats before. It stared across the road towards Headquarters. Maybe it was eyeing up the defences. The young human hoped so. He’d designed them to look weak, especially the wall thrown across the mouth of the alley. Stones were clumsily piled, one on top of the next, as though built by children with no idea of the terrors waiting in the world beyond.

Stopmouth could have killed the beast. Instead, he watched it turn back downstairs and prayed it would soon return with a few dozen relatives. It was either that or lose Rockface. Human food stores were running out and the Tribe badly needed the mass attack Stopmouth had predicted.

‘They’ll think we’re not ready for them,’ he’d said. The beasts would be surprised by the ferocity of the defence and shocked to find their retreat cut off. It was a great plan. But only if the neighbours took the bait. Otherwise it was the humans who’d be desperate for food, making foray after foray into enemy territory until attrition wiped them out.

Stopmouth’s tummy rumbled. Thoughts of fatty flesh filled his mouth with saliva.

‘If you see an opportunity to kill,’ he’d warned his men, ‘don’t take it! Let them think we’re too disorganized to post guards beyond Headquarters.’

Stopmouth had sent his less able men along as protection for the women gathering water. As a special favour he’d asked Rockface to mind the children.

‘Why don’t you just let me volunteer, hey? I warn you, Stopmouth, don’t insult me by keeping me alive beyond usefulness. My wives would weep with shame to see it.’

‘I won’t,’ Stopmouth had promised, reluctant and sad.

The rest of the men, like himself, had been hiding for days in buildings across the road from the mouth of the alleyway. He knew they were tired of waiting. Some of them openly doubted him. Yama’s young followers in particular seemed eager to prove their dubious manhood and sooner or later he’d have to let them hunt, regardless of the consequences. Yama was still angry with Stopmouth too. He and his friends had agreed to take part in the plan, but insisted on forming their own hunting party. When Stopmouth had disagreed, Yama laughed at him in front of everybody.

‘What are you going to do about it,
Chief?
Volunteer me? We haven’t got to volunteer even one person since you took charge. Not one! Things will be done properly when I’m in charge, I promise you that.’

Sudden thumps and squeals shook Stopmouth from his reverie. The Slimer came running back up the stairs, trailing a spear. It waved its long tongue about in what might have been a scream for its kind. Stopmouth cursed under his breath. When he found the fool responsible for this, he’d have him working on water duty for a thousand days! He was about to finish the Slimer off himself when a white beast head popped up through the skylight. The human froze in his hiding place.

The Slimer sent its tongue flickering in the Skeleton’s direction, but the humanoid dodged easily and pinned the tongue to the roof with a bone knife. The Skeleton held it there while two more of its kind ran onto the roof and speared their victim through the chest. Stopmouth winced in sympathy, something he’d never done before the arrival of the infant Fourlegger among the humans. Now he couldn’t even eat without thinking of the pain that had brought food to his lips. Even so, his mouth watered.

The victors didn’t butcher the body immediately. Instead, like the Slimer before them, they gazed across the road at Headquarters.

Stopmouth could hear more of them downstairs. It sounded like a large hunting party. One of the Skeletons leaned over the parapet and waved one of its four arms towards something Stopmouth couldn’t see. A signal! His heart thudded in his chest as he realized the long-sought-after battle might begin that very day.

The Skeletons waited. The tallest wore elaborately decorated hides and the other two kept switching their glances between it and the Slimer’s corpse, drool beading the sides of their narrow mouths. Stopmouth just wanted them gone. They were keeping him from his hunters and he dreaded what would happen to his plans if somebody like Yama took over the lead.

The tall beast with the decorated hides leaned over the Slimer and dribbled onto it. Drool sank into the skin, changing its colour. The Skeleton chief (if that’s what it was) touched the end of its arm to the wet spot. The flesh had become soft and the creature scooped a handful of it into its narrow mouth. Only then did the others feel free to jostle over the meat, spattering their strange drool everywhere.

Stopmouth’s stomach continued to rumble. He hadn’t moved in a long time and had wet himself where he lay. Moss juice covered every part of his skin, and sometimes its vapours stung the back of his throat. Not for the first time he wished he’d brought a blanket of the pounded stuff with him.

He didn’t even realize darkness had fallen until the skin of his enemies began glowing. As one, they stood and descended the stairs. The old building seemed to shake with their movement. A short time later he heard them passing into the street.

Stopmouth restrained himself a little longer. When he could stand it no more, he grabbed a chunk of Slimer flesh and sneaked out through the back of the house. He was very nearly caught: glowing Skeletons were moving in from all directions. There seemed to be tens of them, maybe even a few hundred. What species could spare so many hunters? His old Tribe, certainly, had twice that number, but had never been able to marshal them. Men couldn’t be forced to join a hunt. They preferred to attach themselves in small numbers to leaders who promised them meat.

His plan was looking shakier by the moment, but it was way too late to change things now.

The Skeletons pulled themselves into a large group on a street that ran at right angles to the puny barrier protecting Headquarters. More of their kind were arriving all the time. Most carried spears and knives, although a few had brought strange, flat pieces of wood.

They won’t hurt us with bits of wood, thought Stopmouth, but he felt uneasy, especially when another group moved towards the front of the mob with the trunk of an uprooted tree. At least they’d be attacking in the right place–at the deliberately weakened barrier. And a creature with glowing skin that hunted by night couldn’t be that smart!

Stopmouth ran hard until he reached the end of a meandering street where it opened onto the river. His feet made absolutely no sound against the thick moss of this area. Even his breathing felt muffled, as though the plant had grown over his face and eyes instead of nearby walls and roads. At night it lost its colour, becoming a black emptiness that only the tracklights above could relieve. Yama was already waiting for him along with a few of the others. Humans kept arriving in dribs and drabs–Varaha, the holy man, Kubar, and many more–until perhaps fifty men and a pair of women had gathered together.

Everyone carried slings and knew how to use them. But only Stopmouth and the two women Indrani had found, Sodasi and Kamala, could hit a target the size of a Skeleton with any accuracy.

The young hunter gave no speeches and knew none of his audience would have understood him anyway. He’d made a decision not to risk the Talker outside Headquarters. Never mind: the hunt had begun. If he needed them to do anything, he’d use the signals he’d taught them. It would be enough.

As agreed, the ex-gang members stayed with Yama while Stopmouth led the rest over to the river and down a couple of side streets. He wanted to circle around Headquarters and stake out a spot on the far side of the enemy. But the group circled too fast and came within heartbeats of dying. Behind Headquarters, at the base of the U, where the roof was lowest, a party of ten Skeletons was coming in the opposite direction. Stopmouth signalled everyone to stay down. In a fair fight the beasts would wipe them out. Even if the humans escaped such an encounter, the plan would be ruined and the Tribe doomed.

They hid as best they could, waiting for the beasts to join the main assault. But they never did. The glowing creatures had come up with a better idea. They weren’t stupid, after all. Tree trunks were brought forward and placed quietly against the walls. Some of the Skeletons crowded around the base to steady the trunks, while the rest began a dangerous climb to the top. Stopmouth cursed. There’d be a fight now, whether he wanted one or not.

The nearest Skeletons were no more than a dozen steps away. Stopmouth signalled to his followers: ‘sling’ followed by ‘spear’. They shifted nervously behind him. He could see their fear building. It wouldn’t have time to grow. ‘Shoot!’ Twenty men and the two women twirled their slings, each releasing within a heartbeat of the others. Twenty-two stones flew towards the enemy, and before they reached their targets, Stopmouth and the others were running with levelled spears.

The men couldn’t shoot straight, but with the Skeletons all clumped together, it didn’t matter. Two of the beasts went down. Others clutched at various injuries and in their panic released their hold on the trunk. It fell sideways, sending all but one of the unfortunate climbers crashing back to earth.

The humans were among the beasts with plunging spears before they even knew they were under attack. Most died without lifting a weapon. One of them had the presence of mind to get its back to the wall, each of its four arms waving a different weapon. But Stopmouth had learned lessons from his own first encounter with the creatures and his men knew what to do. They surrounded it and struck at its weak arms with the butts of their spears. Finally one of the men moved in close enough to grapple with it. He fell back screaming. ‘Sling!’ Stopmouth signalled. ‘Sling!’ Urging them to finish it.

By now all the Skeletons in the small party had been killed except for one that hung desperately to the parapet of the roof. Stopmouth imagined its terror, alone, surrounded by enemies. Then he ordered Sodasi and Kamala to bring it down. The skirmish was over.

Men grinned and slapped each other on the back. Stopmouth knew how they felt. But the joy died in their hearts when they heard groans and found two of their comrades mortally wounded. One of them clutched his belly while blood and guts pushed through his fingers. The other lay back against the wall, the top of his face glistening and somehow blurred, as if it had been melted.

Kubar pointed at a dead Skeleton and mimed spitting, then pointed at the man. Stopmouth shuddered. Even though he’d seen the creatures eat, he’d never expected they could rot a man’s face just by spitting at him.

Stopmouth remembered something Rockface had done once on a trip into Hairbeast long ago. He took his dagger and stabbed each of the dying hunters in the eye before they knew what was happening.

The others reacted in shock. Stopmouth pushed their angry bodies away and began walking towards the main assault so that they had no choice but to follow. He knew they didn’t understand. By morning it would be different.

He could already hear sounds of battle beyond–tens of rocks crashing to earth, and another noise: the irregular pounding of the tree trunk against the first barrier. He saw this when they arrived at their position.

Rocks rained down on the Skeletons from above. They suffered less than Stopmouth had expected: many held flat pieces of wood like little roofs above their heads and rarely did the missiles break through. The ingenuity of it worried him more than he dared show his hunters.

‘
Wait!
’ he signalled. But they knew not to advance yet. According to the plan, they were to hold back until the first barrier had fallen and all the beasts had passed into the alley. Then, it was hoped, an assault from the rear coupled with a rain of stone from above would leave the attackers helpless. But Stopmouth could see there were just too many Skeletons. He doubted the alley could hold them all.

The pounding continued for a hundred heartbeats more. The centre of the wall gave way and the men and women who’d made a show of guarding it ran for their lives. Some of these–more than could be spared–fell under thrown knives and spears. The Skeletons pushed through the gap. Above the din Stopmouth could hear Indrani shouting orders. She seemed used to command. He marvelled how she was able to keep her people from pushing rocks into the alley too soon. They concentrated their fire on the enemy by the barricade, although the temptation offered by those in the alley must have been very great. But Indrani, hated and feared for reasons he could never understand, held them easily. He hoped Yama could command his group so well.

The first rocks fell when about half the beasts had passed inside. It meant they’d reached the second barrier, the one that was supposed to hold out for a while. Stopmouth and his men watched anxiously as more and more of the attackers pushed into the alleyway. He could see they’d already learned to keep to the centre and away from hurtling rocks. But so many of them were packed into the small space that a few were still crushed.

‘Good,’ he muttered. It was working better than he’d feared, although a large number of the beasts had yet to pass inside the wall.

Then he saw something strange. A few Skeletons outside the barrier fell down. Some were clutching at various parts of their bodies, others simply keeled over. Stopmouth didn’t understand what was happening at first, until a very large group of attackers detached itself from the main body and charged off towards the place where Yama’s men were supposed to be waiting quietly.