The Warrior Returns - Anteros 04 (9 page)

It was Lizard.

Then I saw the shadows of the rest of my men swarming up to me.

But I was already fully committed to my next action. As my toes jammed against the stone, momentum carried the rest of my body forward. I swung my arms in the same direction to heighten and control that motion. Polillo's ghost grunted with effort and my legs were powerful springs that absorbed all weight and all speed.

Then I was somersaulting backward. Turning in the air, then stiffening my legs until they were like driving dock poles.

I hit the captain square and we both went over, his armor sounding like a huge collapsing machine of many parts.

He roared in pain and fury. Polillo's ghost wanted me to stop and choke off that sound and break his damned neck. But I sensed an oncoming presence and kept rolling.

I sprang to my feet just in front of an attacking giant. He threw himself back in surprise like a rooting boar that snuffs out a mouse and then fears it'll burrow into his nose.

Polillo's ghost laughed and made me slam down my foot and crush his toes. As he screamed, I leaped up, grabbed his beard, and booted myself away like a sailor kicking off a mast.

I clung to his beard, swinging back just as far as I could, then slammed in—hard.

My feet skidded off an armored thigh and clubbed into the softness it found just to the side.

By the gods, I made it a good kick. A kick for Polillo.

His howl made a lovely sound, my sisters. It started low in that grumbling and grunting place where the beasts strut about and fart between thick, bowed legs. And it ended falsetto high in a tone so piercing that if the heavens were glass they would've shattered.

The memory still cheers me.

But there wasn't time to savor it then. The others were nearly upon me. And their captain had recovered, thundering for them to step aside as he charged forward to cleave me in two with his massive blade.

I should have died then. I should have gone the way of those two old temple warriors. I cursed for not being able to complete my too-hastily drawn plan. And braced for that final blow.

Dark shapes whistled past and a small cloud of arrows struck the captain full in the face.

He screamed and clawed at his face, then screamed again and jerked his hands away. Several arrows protruded from each eye.

As he crumpled, my men burst into the melee. I couldn't help but feel pride. My men shouted wild, bloodcurdling war cries. But there was nothing wild or unruly in their attack.

There were seven of them. The twins and Lizard engaged one giant, dodging and slashing and covering one another whenever a man saw an opening. Donarius and two others took on a second of the armored creatures, while Captain Carale dispatched the giant I'd kicked and ran over to stand beside me and fight. I heard sounds of combat from the shore and knew the rest of my men were taking on the longboat guards.

As proud as I felt, I knew the giants would soon recover from this surprise, regroup, and then easily overwhelm us.

I shouted to Carale, "Help the others."

He whirled and sprinted to the melee at the longboat.

I needed time
...
just a little time.

I knelt and placed Daciar's tiara on the ground. Then I drew her clockwork toy from my sleeve and set it within the jeweled ring.

The little farmhouse with its closed door seemed puny and childish against the sounds of the battle raging about me. But it was all I'd had time to prepare.

I fetched the coin out of my sleeve. It was a good copper Antero coin. I kissed the image of the ship, breathed a prayer to Maranonia, then placed the coin in the slot.

My thoughts skittered about, searching for the proper spell. But my mind went maddeningly blank. I had to slip past the enemies' sorcerous shield, otherwise whatever spell I made would be flung back at me and I'd suffer the same fate as Daciar.

The chant I formed would have to use such innocent words that they'd never be noticed by my opponent. Then a child's rhyme leaped into my mind. I didn't examine it, worry over it, but quickly whispered the words as they formed in my head
...

"Piggy, piggy,

what did you do?

Piggy, piggy, shame on you.

Ate the cream, ate the butter, then

You ate the cat.

Hold still little piggy while I

Give you a whack.

Then I'll stuff you with dumplings

And fry you in fat."

I let the coin fall.

There was a mechanical whirl, and I jumped up as the door burst open and the farmwife came rushing out waving her toy axe over her head.

Instead of running after the piglet, she ran to the end of the toy's painted platform. She didn't hesitate at the edge, but leaped off, her tiny legs carrying her toward the battle.

I made a motion and she grew larger. I motioned again and she became larger still, ballooning bigger and bigger until she was the size of the giants.

She shouted at the brutes, and the shout was like the heavens erupting. But instead of a war cry it was my little rhyme:

"PIGGY, PIGGY, WHAT DID YOU DO?" The giants were momentarily frozen by the howling apparition.

The huge toy farmwife cackled maniacally, waving an axe the size of a shed. Her voluminous skirts rustled like the winds as she ran. Her eyes bulged huge in that painted face and her fixed grin was so gleeful that it was horrifying.

"PIGGY, PIGGY, SHAME ON YOU!" roared the farmwife. And then she was in their midst, chopping this way and that.

There was no stopping her relentless, untiring, mechanical fury. The giants squealed in terror like massive pigs. One was split in two. Another had his arm lopped off. I saw a huge, hairy head struck from brawny shoulders.

The farmwife rushed about at blinding speed, leaving a river of gore in her wake. The slaughter continued down to the longboat, where the giant guards were soon dispatched.

Then we all stood, stunned by the horror of all that spilled blood, as the farmwife leaped into the sea and began churning toward the giants' ship.

"HOLD STILL LITTLE PIGGY
..."
she cried, speeding

toward the enemy vessel like a ship of war,
"...
WHILE I GIVE YOU A WHACK!"

I can't imagine what was going through the minds of the giants aboard the ship when they saw the immense toy coming at them. I prayed that whatever those thoughts were, chaos would reign over all. I felt sorcery crackling in the air and I knew I had them.

A huge ball of magical fire lofted up from the enemy ship. I could smell the sulfur and evil intent from across the distance.

I chanted:

"I summon the summoned,

I curse the becursed.

I cast back the spear.

Mirror into mirrored And mirrored once more."

And I shouted:
"Be done!"

The fireball struck the huge toy, and all disappeared into a vast steamy mist as the sea boiled and frothed.

The surface suddenly became so calm and so smooth that you'd think nothing had happened—that it'd all been the work of a fevered imagination. Then the water bulged as a shape rose up like a ship rising from the deep. It was no ship that appeared, but the sister to the fireball that had been hurled. It hissed and steamed and shot off sparks as it broke through.

The fireball hovered for long seconds, then blasted back the way it'd come. I heard the giants shout the alarm as they realized what had happened. The alarm echoed into hysterical bellows when the remainder of the crew became dimly aware that all was lost.

Then all the sounds that living things make when they're desperate to remain in that state were drowned out as the fireball struck and an explosion rocked the ship.

Flames gouted up from the deck, then ran up the masts and the ratlines, and then the sails caught fire. Some tried to fight it. Others ran for the sides.

But the inferno cut them off and the air was filled with screams of pain.

Then the screams died off and all we could hear was the rumbling of the raging fire. Smoke columned up as the ship burned down to the waterline. It sank with a long slow hiss that could be heard to the very hills.

And all became still except the whistle of the wind and the low crash of the waves.

a few days
later I visited with Daciar in her chamber. She looked frail and weak under the covers, still suffering from the sorcerous blast that had felled her. But the bright gleam in her eyes showed she was recovering.

She sent her attendants away so we'd be alone. And then we embraced one another, sobbing all those things people say when they're glad to see that their friend still lives after a great catastrophe.

When emotions had settled, I wet her hps with a sponge soaked in wine. I'd mixed a restorative remedy of wine and magical herbs and was rewarded by color returning to her cheeks.

"Do you know why this happened, Rali?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I haven't the vaguest notion," I admitted. "I've thought long enough on it while you were lying abed. But I keep coming up with more questions than I started out with.

"We know the giants carried the banner of the Ice Bear King, so he must be responsible. We know the giants came specifically for you. And that they'd been ordered to deliver you to some person or persons. Perhaps even the Ice Bear King himself. We can only speculate. With little to base it on."

"Perhaps the enemy thought that without me, Pisidia would be helpless," Daciar said. "And that a large army could march in and take over with little resistance."

"I've thought of that," I said. "It seems the most likely explanation. It wouldn't be unusual for a pirate to get grand ideas, declare himself king, and then set out to seize himself a kingdom to reign over."

"It's so obvious," Daciar said with a smile, "that you don't think it's the case."

"Not entirely," I said. "Otherwise they'd have tried to kill you instead of take you captive."

"But what purpose could I serve?" she asked.

"My only guess," I said, "is that they wanted your power. That somehow they have—or believe they have—the means to tap your abilities to achieve their own aims."

Daciar snorted. "It can't be done," she said. "It's been tried many times in wizardly history. You can make a spell to reverse a spell. To turn it back on your attacker. Which is what happened to me. And I still feel like a fool. But you can't steal magical power. You can't even get it as a willing gift."

"As far as I know," I agreed, "that is the way of things. But who can say for certain? Magic is old but the laws are new. Only since Greycloak have such things been actually tested."

Daciar nodded. She could see my point. Before Janos Grey-cloak, all spells and magic were handed down from generation to generation. No one questioned the whys and wherefores. Faith was the rule, not reason.

"Pisidia's leaders and generals are meeting now," she said, "to determine what should be done.

'Tomorrow, if I'm well enough, I will add my counsel to the confused hysteria that is going on right now. Tell me, Rali dear, what do you think should be done?"

"I have no right to say," I answered. "It is your homeland that's been violated. Only you and your people know how much you're willing to risk.

"Does revenge need to be exacted? If so, what blood price are you willing to pay for revenge or to make certain others don't think you've grown weak and are open to attack?"

Daciar took this in, then said, "My advice will be to wait and see. To arm ourselves and do all we can to be ready for another invasion. But to seek more information before we act"

"That sounds the wisest course to me," I said. "What will you do, Rali dear?"

"Simple," I said. "My mission was to see how great a threat this Ice Bear King was. Now I know. It's very great I don't have to sail all over the Southern Sea to prove that. But is that threat great enough to warrant action from Orissa? From our perspective he's far away.

"I think, like you, I'll advise my brother to wait and see what develops."

"So you'll return home immediately?" she asked.

"Not immediately," I said. "First I'm going directly to the outposts. I can't leave my people in such danger. I'll lift them off, abandon the trading centers to the Ice Bear King if need be, and get back to Orissa as fast and safely as I can."

Daciar smiled. "Such a cautious woman," she said.

I laughed. "My old sergeant didn't used to think so," I said. "She'd lash into me for being such a hotheaded child that some enemy was sure to take it off someday. I didn't listen. Probably because only
my
head was at stake."

Daciar asked me the particulars of my confrontation with the giants and the spell I'd used to overcome them.

"When I was told you'd used one of my toys from girlhood," she said when I was done, "I thought my priestesses had been getting into the wine lockers again. But now I know it's true. And how fitting an end for those creatures." She hugged herself in delight Then she asked, "What coin did you use to operate the toy?"