Frank, Janrae - Wolves Of Nakesht Read online

  completely, the east side a sloping fragment. Chimquar kicked the filly into a

  canter, then a full gallop. Hazier sprang forward with her. Meadusea and Katalla

  came a few strides behind. The sudden full flight triggered the actions of heir

  pursuers. A high human wail wounded. The wolves answered and came leaping at the

  heels of the racing horses. Chimquar drew her sword. The wolves avoided her

  blows, concentrating on her horse.

  Six beasts splintered from the pack, out-stripping the horses to gain the ground

  ahead of them and turn, teeth bared, to halt the flight. Chimquar's filly

  plunged into the middle of them. A wolf fixed its teeth in the filly's throat.

  Chimquar leaned out to cut it away. The filly stumbled and fell, hamstrung.

  Chimquar sprang free a moment before the beasts swarmed over the hapless horse,

  landed wrong and stumbled, falling. She lost her grip on the sword and it lay a

  yard off. She stretched her hand to reach it and a wolf landed on her. Chimquar

  dug her right hand into the folds of skin around its throat, twisting hard. Her

  left hand got the dagger from her boot top and with it opened the beast's belly.

  It was a naked, gutted man with a golden collar she saw dead. Another wolf,

  charged. Chimquar flung herself out of its path, her hand closing on her sword.

  She rolled over, the steel blade flashing in the morning sun. The wolf dodged

  neatly and came back. Chimquar gained her feet and impaled the lunging beast.

  "Heads up!" Meadusea extended her empty sword hand to Chimquar. Chimquar took

  the hand, springing up behind the warrior. Meadusea's gelding covered the last

  yards swiftly, jumping a small pile of tumbled stone to enter the ruined

  dwelling.

  Chimquar leaped down, turning to face the wolves with steel. The cries of their

  master rose and once more the wolves held back. Then Hazier and Katalla reached

  the dubious fortress.

  A line of horsemyn drew up twenty spear-lengths from the ruins. One man sat at

  their head, his huge body muscled to grotesqueness. A bright, crimson scarf made

  a headband holding his black mane from his face. He rode out a few yards and

  shouted, "Chimquar!" Surrender and the others go free."

  "Lies, Bakran!" I know you too well. "You've already promised them to the

  Nakesht!"

  A gaunt figure rose at Bakran's feet. His horse shied. Wolves gathered about

  their master. Bakran's horse reared. Hecursed, struggling with it, then brought

  it back to the Nakesht.

  The master raised one hand and dropped it. The wolves surged forward and their

  master ran among them, crying them on. The renegades followed.

  Meadusea and Katalla took the empty expanse where the south wall had stood.

  Chimquar dropped back along the east wall fragments. Some would come that way

  and, on foot, she would have a better chance there. Hazier wavered in the

  middle. Chimquar gestured sharply at the Sharanis. The youth went to their side

  as the men struck.

  The wolves circled the ruins with their master. Chimquar listened to the cries

  of the battle, scant spear-lengths from her as she watched the wolves. Her

  instincts were to aid her companions, yet she waited, knowing the Nakesht would

  come. She had to hold the rear when they came. An image of Makajia on the tall

  stallion, her neck pressed against his, his pale mane whipping around her narrow

  face came into Chimquar's mind. Then the first wolf came over the wall. She

  sprangbefore it, her sword impaling it in mid-leap. Another attacked as she

  kicked her blade free. Her dagger grazed it ribs and it turned, coming again.

  The day-old wound throbbed and hurt, slowing her dagger hand. Teeth closed on

  that arm, tearing the wound further. Chimquar cried out in pain and anger,

  bringing her sword blade down on the beast's back. Itwrithed, snapping in bloody

  circles on the ground. Two more danced around her. Chimquar feinted at one, then

  pivoted to meet the charge of its mate. The wolf dodged too slowly and died. It

  was easy telling which wolves were truly dead, for even in their death throes

  they had turned to men. It was like fighting in an illusion or a dream, slaying

  beasts but felling men, but Chimquar had no moment to consider the eeriness of

  the battle.

  Teeth raked her calf. Chimquar twisted, landing a sword blow on the wolf's head.

  She whirled back, kicking and striking with sword and dagger. The battle became

  a blur; she ceased to think, reacting by reflex. She moved and fought in a sea

  of teeth that threatened to overwhelm her. Some wolves got past her. Only the

  death of their master could stop them.

  The hollow, whistling laughter of the Nakesht Master drew Chimquar. She glimpsed

  him half a spear-length beyond the wall watching. Anger and desperation became a

  hot, screaming rage within her. All the long bottled and controlled energies

  became a violent strength. She broke from the wolves, vaulting a low piece of

  wall. "Aroana God! My God!"

  The master's note changed. He retreated. His wolves drew together, swarming over

  the warrior, clinging to her like ticks. Chimquar cut them away, the force of

  her rage making her oblivious to her wounds. The Nakesht retreated again, waving

  his arms and crying in his strange, whistling tongue. Bakran appeared, stepping

  into Chimquar's path.

  "You're a dead man, Chimquar!" He said coldly.

  "Man?" Chimquar paused, laughing crazily. "I'm a woman!"

  An incredulous expression entered Bakran's face. Chimquar rushed him, her blade

  dancing swift and hard about him. He dodged, gave ground. Chimquar moved after

  him, breathing raggedly, her strength faltering. Bakran's sword left a bloody

  furrow across her ribs. She brought her longer weapon down, biting into his arm.

  Bakran lost hand and weapon. Chimquar left her sword standing in his stomach.

  She lurched toward the retreating Nakesht, her sword arm pressed against her

  ribs. Her rage-born strength drained away as her pain overtook her. She

  staggered, went to her knees, then fell on her face. Her left hand lost the

  dagger as she fell.

  The core of her awareness fought the darkness lapping at it. Clawed hands pulled

  at her, turning her over. The mate to her lost dagger slipped from its arm

  sheath into her hand. She thrust up into the face of the Nakesht Master. He fell

  dead across her.

  Chimquar heard horns blowing and many Sharani voices shouting. She tried to get

  up, but her body would not answer her will, and she passed out.

  A soft voice chanting her name and wet drops falling on her face touched

  Chimquar's drifting awareness, disturbing the warm, fuzzy haze enveloping the

  warrior. A sweet-sharp fragrance colored the air she inhaled, it cleared her

  head as she took a deep lungful of it. Heaven Flower so far from the western

  forests? She felt for Makajia. Her fingertips brushed the girl's tear-streaked

  face. Chimquar opened her eyes. The outlines of the Euzadi girl's narrow,

  creamed-coffee face slowly congealed.

  "Chimquar!" Her chant broke off with a fresh, joyful sob. She buried her head

  against her guardian's chest. Chimquar stroked her head and shoulder, awkwardly,

  her limbs feeling stiff and weak. Chimquar murmured soft, meaningl
ess words to

  Makajia, soothing, reassuring.

  Light flowed in suddenly. Makajia straightened quickly. Chimquar levered herself

  up on her arm. Makajia snatched several pillows, shoving them to her back.

  The slender figure standing in the tent's entrance lowered her lamp and limped

  in. She placed the lamp on a small tablebeside the dim candles, the moved to

  Chimquar and knelt.

  Chimquar looked into the unchanged face of her youngest and only surviving

  sister, Anaria. After so many years among the lesser races, the imperceptibly

  slow aging of her long-lived race startled her.

  Anaria raised a flask to her sister's lips and Chimquar drank. It filled her

  body with warmth, eased it, clearing the last cobwebs from her mind. Pollonae.

  "Anariaâ"

  "Shhh, Tomyris. Just listen to me." Her voice was soft, yet stern. "You and your

  children are coming home. I am not surprised to find you are Chimquar. I've

  suspected it since talking to Aejystrys Rowan several years ago in Vallimrah."

  Anaria waved aside Chimquar's attempt to speak. "Not all like that fact. But if

  you are not ha'taren enough to face them, you will be of no use to the High

  Priest Sonden who sent us after you. Shaurone is growing, changing. Great deeds

  are in the offing." Her sternness dissolved into a child-like lostness. "Do I

  have to beg you again? Or will you listen this time?"

  Chimquar remembered a very young girl crying, pleading, and cursing her on a

  moonlit wold. She could not repeat that night's decision. "I want to go home,"

  she said, and then smiled.

  THE END