Homage and Honour (38 page)

Quartet (9)

The Seventh
Ryzck with which Jess and Mlei were serving was in the middle of
its three-month duty stint in the mountains of north-western
Argyll. This sector was not one of the favourites, especially
during the super-cold winter months when blizzards and storms were
the norm. This winter was running true to form, at least true to
form for the last decade when the winters had been unusually
bitter. Outside the stone-built living quarters it was cold, wet
and miserable. The wind cut like a knife.

For Jess, newly
promoted Vadryza, these last months had been, not to put a finer
point on it, an unsettling time. The promotion had come not long
after Tana and Tavei had been transferred. These, her two greatest
friends, had gone back to Vada where Tana had taken up a position
of arms-trainer under Weaponsmaster Rhian.

Jess sighed as
she dragged her body from the warmth of the sleeping furs. As a
Vadryza she and Mlei had a tiny space of their own at one end of
the barracks, the members of her Vadryz shared the communal living
and sleeping area. In these, the most northerly duty stations, the
buildings were not split into the individual low-walled cubicles as
those further south, the better for the heat from the woodstove to
permeate the area. Jess and Mlei’s cubicle was heated by lagged
pipes which drew the hot air in and through them. They usually kept
her private area at a comfortable temperature but not today. One of
the people on the permanent staff here had reported that he had
found a crack in the boiler and had had to shut it down. The
woodstoves were the only means of heating at the moment. Jess and
Mlei’s cubicle was as cold as ice.

I might just
join the rest of them in the barracks tonight
, thought Jess as
she hurried into her uniform, watched by a still sleepy Mlei.

: I wish we
need not go out :
he said.

“You and me
both,” she answered, struggling with her tunic fastenings. Even
only a quarter-bell out of her bed, her fingers were growing numb,
buttons refusing to slot themselves into buttonholes. How she was
going to fasten the toggles on her leather outer-garments only the
Lai knew. She managed the laces on her heavy wool-lined zarova
leather boots with some difficulty.

Standing up,
she cast a wry grin at her life-mate, “and we wanted to join the
Vada!”

This was not
the first time Jess and Mlei had suffered in the mountains and they
both knew the winter would get worse before it got milder. This was
only the first wind-blizzard; next month would come the big freeze
when the going became treacherous. The Lind did not feel the cold
in the same way as humans. They had thick fur to protect them but
it still affected them nonetheless. Their paws were not fur-coated.
There were protective leather paw-shaped boots in the stores for
use in extremis but nolind liked wearing them.

“Unfortunately
Jess,” Mlei said in a resigned tone, “we have little choice in the
matter.”

A small pride
of gtran had been reported as being in the vicinity of a nearby
mining camp and Jess and Mlei were under orders to hunt them out
and to drive them off. These creatures and the wral were a very
real danger to the inhabitants of the mountains. Their summer prey
migrated to the lower slopes in the winter months and the gtran
either followed them or died of starvation. If hungry, they would
attack human settlements. A few years ago an entire camp had been
wiped out and Jenny, the Ryzcka of the Seventh, was in no mind for
a recurrence so, out into the storm Jess, Mlei and her vadeln-pairs
must go.

Mlei
stretched.

The furs on his
divan were as warm as toast (Mlei was fond of buttered toast) and
like Jess, he wished he could stay where he was.

: Could you
not put my harness on whilst I lie here? :
he asked in a
wistful whine.

“Lazybones,”
Jess teased.

Mlei sighed and
heaved his bulk out of the covers as Jess pulled the harness off
its hook. He crouched down so that she could swing it on to his
back and rose again as Jess fumbled with the girth straps.

Harness
arranged to his satisfaction, Jess began to clip his leather armour
protectors into place. There was every likelihood that, during this
patrol, they would find themselves in a fight. Hunger made the
gtran brave and they had long sharp claws and even longer
teeth.

Breakfast that
morning consisted of maize porridge and pastry wrapped fruit wedges
(also a favourite of Mlei’s) washed down with hot kala. The patrol
would take with them wrapped pastry packages to eat on the way as
the mining camp was some distance away.

Jess took her
usual seat at the mess-table beside grizzled old Angus.

“Tuck in,” he
advised as she sat down. He was eating a huge bowl of sweetened
milky porridge with evident enjoyment. Jess was not fond of it at
the best of times. She decided to forgo the dubious pleasure and
snaked a hand out to grab her first pastry wedge.

“We set out at
Fourth Bell,” Jess announced as she bit into it. The fruit dribbled
down her chin.

The door opened
and Ryzcka Jenny entered. She was a small, gentle woman of middling
years who ran her Ryzck with a calm discipline, a far cry from her
predecessor who had been a loud-mouthed bombastic man whom Jess had
never much liked. She had been very pleased when he had been
recalled to Vada and Jenny promoted into the vacated command. He
had shouted a lot. Jenny almost never raised her voice. She took
the empty seat on the other side of Jess.

“Ready for the
off?”

“Yes ma’am,”
replied Jess between mouthfuls, “have there been any more
sightings?”

Jenny shook her
head as she poured herself a mug of kala.

“The one family
unit so far. This is going to be another bad winter if these early
snowfalls and blizzards are anything to go by. There’ll be more of
them in the months to come.”

By Fourth Bell,
Jess, Mlei and the vadeln-pairs under her command were running out
of the station and heading towards the mining camp. This camp had
only recently been set up, a vein of copper having been surveyed
last summer. The Northern Continent was not over-rich in terms of
ore metals and miners would brave many dangers for copper. Jess
knew that the camp was a small one, twelve miners strong, which was
what made their situation all the more dangerous. A gtran family
could be double that size especially during the first months of
winter when hunger and accident had not yet thinned out its ranks.
If the gtran were still prowling round the camp Jess and Mlei knew
that a fight was inevitable. They would have to kill the lead male
of the family and set the remainder to flight.

The mining camp
was reached at Sixth Bell, a pallisaded stockade with three wooden
cabins inside. There were large paw prints in the snow outside. The
gtran had been here recently; snow was falling but had not yet
covered their tracks.

: Can you
see where their tracks are headed ? :
asked Jess of Mlei.

: Into the
lian :

This was not
good news. The gtran could climb, unlike the bear-like wral. That
was how they hunted, lying in wait in the branches of trees and
leaping down on to their unwary prey.

Jess most
definitely did not want to lead her Vadryz into the woods.

The burly man
who met them approached her, recognising her as being in command by
the silver rank stripe on her sleeve.

“Thank the Lai
you’ve arrived, these blasted creatures have been prowling around
all night. Slunk off a half bell ago, must’ve sensed you
approaching.”

“You are
doubtless right,” agreed Jess as she dismounted. Her left hand was
promptly crushed in a thank-felt grip of relief.

“Vadryz Jess
and Mlei,” Jess introduced herself, “Ryzcka Jenny got your
message.”

“Where is
Brin?” he asked, “we’ve been worried about him. He left for your
station two nights ago.”

“He met up with
one of our patrols,” explained Jess, “who took him to the station.
It was a brave thing he did, going out in a snowstorm to get help
and on foot too.”

“Aye, but he’s
born and bred in these mountains, said he’d have more chance on his
own.”

“How many of
the gtran are there?”

“About a
dozen,” the mining chief supplied the information.

“Young?”

“Didn’t see any
smaller ones though that’s not to say they aren’t around.”

“We’ll have to
deal with them but I don’t want to lead my vadryz into the woods.
That’s a sure-fire way of getting killed. We’ll have to tempt them
into the open.”

“Been thinking
they think of me as their next meal,” the man said with a
gap-toothed smile

“They’re drawn
to the kura as much as you and your miners. You have kura
here?”

“We keep them
in the outhouse in the winter; too cold outdoors and there’s
nothing for them to forage anyway with the snow lying as it
is.”

“We’ll tether
one of them outside the walls,” decided Jess, “lure the gtran to
us.”

As Jess had
predicted, cautious gtran began to appear out of the woods as soon
as they had tethered the unfortunate kura buck to a suitable tree
and had withdrawn but, after sniffing around the terrified kura,
they ran back into the woods refusing to stay around long enough
for the Vadryz to reach them. The gtran didn’t even attempt to kill
the terrified animal.

Jess
sighed.

“I don’t think
we’ve got much choice. The rest of the Ryzck is miles away and if
we don’t deal with them here, now, they’ll move on down the valley.
There are farmsteads there, families, young children.”

Angus agreed.
Older than Jess and with thirty years experience, he was one of
those solid dependable vadelns who had never looked for promotion
nor wanted it; content to serve. He liked and respected Jess and
believed she would develop into one of the best Ryzckas in the Vada
during the years to come.

“You’re right.
They’re not hungry either, look how they left the kura, surprised
it didn’t die of fright.”

Mlei was
restless, he kept moving his paws around, raising first one then
the next and placing them back in the exact point in the snow. None
of the Lind was wearing protective paw-shoes, they would need their
sharp chelas for the fight ahead. He kept complaining about the
snow-melt that was sticking to the his paws.

“I know my
Mlei,” whispered Jess in his ear as she checked his armour and
adjusted the fighting harness to their satisfaction, “once the
fight is over we can get back inside the camp and thaw out.”

“Mmmm,” he
murmured. His whiskers tickled her neck.

Jess checked
the buckles of Mlei’s breastplate. It was made of hardened leather
and was fashioned to fit exactly, protection yes, but not enough to
restrict movement, a necessary thing in a battle. Such plates would
stop all but a direct sword-sweep and it was a very brave and
courageous enemy indeed who would try to get close enough to an
angry Lind to complete the down-sweep.

At last they
were ready. The Vadryz fanned out in line abreast and trotted
towards the treeline.

Angus gave her
the thumbs up. His Lind had sighted the first gtran.

: Halt :

Jess settled
her helm, drew her sword and was conscious of the men and women
under her command doing the same. Unlike horse cavalry there were
no jingles of bits, saddles, metal and armour.

Jess was
thankful she didn’t have to cope with the encumbrance of reins and
the need to have to guide and control her mount. How do the cavalry
manage? She ordered the advance.

They were
underneath the first branches, the first trees.

“Over here!”
shouted one of the vadelns and Jess’s head swivelled round towards
the voice, as did Mlei’s.

It was then it
happened, as Jess was peering through the snow-laden branches.

She felt the
weight on her back. The pain as the claws ripped through her
leather back plate was excruciating. She felt Mlei twist beneath
her as he vainly attempted to reach the throat of her attacker. She
heard the growls and shouts of the other vadeln-pairs as they leapt
to her rescue. Mlei crashed to the ground.

She did not
see, but she felt, for a pain-racked instant, the claws of the
gtran as they reached her throat.

Jess was
choking, choking in blood, her blood.

Unconsciousness
brought relief as agony disappeared into oblivion.

News travels
fast in Vadath.

Tana was
teaching when Tavei interrupted her with the devastating news.

The cadets
watched wide-eyed as their favourite instructor dropped to her
knees and burst into tears.

She was unaware
of the excited speculation around her.

She did not
resist when Weaponsmaster Rhian arrived, summoned by one of the
more quick-witted cadets and guided her out of the salle.

* * * * *

Quest (1)

Hannah and Beth
were upset at Jess and Mlei’s deaths but it was Tana and Tavei who
felt their loss the most keenly.

She and Jess
had sworn a sister-oath.

Beth and Xei
were at Vada when the news came in and it was in Beth’s arms that
Tana cried out her sorrow and about what she had to do next.

“I must go,”
she insisted some days later. She can’t do it so I must.”

“Jess wouldn’t
have wanted you to destroy your career.”

“That’s the
chance I’ll have to take. Don’t try to dissuade me Beth, my mind’s
made up.”

“How you
getting there?” demanded her friend, “boat?”

“No, we’re
going via the Islands.”

“There are
guards,” Beth warned.

“I know, but
we’ll get through, the Avuzdel do it all the time.”