The next morning Girl sniffed, then snorted, at Peter as if uncertain at the change in his smell after his bath.
The rest of the Clan readied to depart their overnight camp and descend towards the valleys. The rumble of conversation and shouted commands rolled over the snowy ground newly white after a fall overnight.
His mount rocked her great head from side to side, lowered it, then pressed her forehead to his, as she rumble-purred deep within her chest.
‘Not you too? I guess I needed that bath.’ He felt revived with a morning zhavaqiko that warmed him from inside. But his guts wrenched as he looked sidelong at Grey and Sarah deep in conversation. They had spent the night in the wayhouse, while he had had a restless night in a Clan tent with Jan and the boys, trying not to think what might be happening between the two Clan leaders.
‘Two of the three,’ Peter muttered. Kituqarup had found lodging inside too. He rationalized there had not been enough space for more and, as leaders, they needed to show their status. ‘Also they were hostages of sorts.’
The guard of manisaurs around the clan had remained, but had slept in tents, with only a few on guard around fires that warmed and warded off any beasts from the mountains. The partially eaten dead gharumal had spooked them as much as the arrival of the Clan had.
The manisaur troupe formed up ready to leave alongside the clan. He had decided he liked the wily manisaur Khavuraqo. Their honest talking ways made it easy to trust manisaurs. It did not make them any less dangerous as enemies, you just knew when you were about to be killed. The norms of manisaur psychology were the reason sejrat’sha — turned blades invoked such horror in manisaurs. Traitors in more than the usual sense, against society and species expectation.
Long ago he had decided to act in the same truthful and reliable manisaur way, even if most humans lied and manipulated their way through life. He had taken to heart the lessons learned when he had earned the name Jupiter on Eoth. He still thought of himself as Jupiter all these years later. In private at least.
He stepped up Girl’s muzzle, and she tossed her head high as he reached her forehead. He squatted at the top of her movement, then jumped back onto her broad shoulders into the saddle webbing. Jan and the boys had taken to riding grazing beasts. The sturdy animals looked a lot like larger moasaurs and so could easily carry the teenagers. The nervous creatures danced back from Girl as she moved to join the vanguard of the Clan mounts readying to leave.
The road down from the pass widened, but not so much that two mounts could ride side by side, so the line of Clan and their grazing beasts stretched out for a kilometer or more. Dusty set mounts at intervals alongside the trail to keep order, and to keep everyone moving.
Khavuraqo’s hundred-strong troupe all mounted on the large moasaurs, and Peter saw straight away the similarity between those creatures and the Clan’s grazing beasts. They set a fast pace down the mountain and Peter’s ears popped as they descended. He pulled up alongside the klaed leader.
‘We’ll not be troubled by Nezhnakhevo or Imperial patrols with such a large army,’ Khavuraqo said.
‘You think? We came close to battle with Qhorthak’s blackbirder’s.’
‘You came close enough to learn that creature’s name? But that perhaps tells you he did not want to fight.’
‘We did not have what he wanted.’
‘And what was that?’
‘A treasure. But we had not taken it.’
‘Ah. That might explain why the Nezhnakhevo have been so restless in recent days. A troupe of them passed through our lands for the pass, and then the black skyship we saw depart north from the pass yesterday. That is uncommon enough that we gathered our militia to climb here to investigate.’
‘But not to do battle?’
‘As you say, we are loyal Imperial subjects.’
Peter saw the contrary aura flow across his face and laughed. Khavuraqo told the truth, if you understood sarcasm.
‘But where did those black fiends go?’ Khavuraqo said.
‘And yet you retreat to the klaed now.’
‘Ah. Do not think I have abandoned the mountain to them.’
‘You’ve left scouts?’
‘And fast running beasts to send news.’ Khavuraqo looked around and they paused to watch the lines of humans and manisaurs move off. ‘But getting you and your ghoraq — barbarian horde safe and down into the plains is more urgent.’
‘Where you can keep an eye on them.’ Peter laughed. ‘As would I.’
As the land opened up Clan and klaed riders now intermingled. The human klaed members attempted to communicate with the Clan, but with little success. Jan and Tiz had even less. But everyone liked Walt, and so he had made friends, despite not sharing any language. Peter kept his distance, he did not feel like being interpreter just then. He didn’t feel much of anything good. Sarah’s mount lead the Clan while Grey rode close behind so Peter could not see much of her. They had not spoken at all since the previous day. Peter got the impression she avoided him, and now preferred Grey’s company.
He tore his eyes away and looked at the land they rode through. The river gorge had widened out and the gray rocks had filled the riverbed so the braided pattern had begun to reassert itself.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He could not believe how he had missed it. The land form, the plants, all pointed, as Sarah had said, to this being Aotearoa New Zealand on Earth. Just a version much larger, enormously larger, than anything in the time and place he came from. The relationship between Earth and Eoth still made no sense.
As if a passage between worlds makes sense. But I’ve done it twice now.
A sudden cry of alarm came from behind. Clan and klaed riders wheeled away to investigate. Hoots and shouts rose close by, Girl spun around and lifted, then lowered, her head in alert as she sniffed for an enemy.
Grazing beasts boiled away from the trail as a pack of black thraqanonkra flowed through them. Klaed fighters raised weapons while Khavuraqo called for his troops to ready for the blackbirder’s attack.
Girl reared up poised to do battle, but Walt ran his grazing beast in front of her to meet the ravening beasts first. Girl twisted away to avoid him.
‘Walt!’ Peter shouted. He drew his long blade. As Girl’s forelegs hit the ground, he slid down her flank, ready to defend the boy who had been thrown from his grazing beast as it jumped away from the attack.
The young boy fell under the mass of thraqanonkra as klaed and Clan moved to take on the creatures. But Walt stood up amongst the black leaping thraqanonkra. His grin and laughter made the warriors pause. Peter slid in front of the pack and held his blade up.
‘Hold,’ he shouted in Clan and Thaluk. ‘We know these creatures.’
‘You are friends with the familiars of the Nezhnakhevo?’
‘Yeah. You can think of them as sejrat’sha — turned blades.’
‘I have never seen the like,’ said Khavuraqo as he stared at the exultant Walt. Soon Jan and Tiz had joined the roiling happy creatures.
‘Yeah. I’ve been on the other end of a hunt with these ravening beasts baying for my blood. So yeah.’
‘And where are the Nezhnakhevo?’ said the klaed leader. ‘They cannot be far away.’
Sarah rode up. She had the Clan shaman, Kituqarup, behind on her mount now, perhaps to protect him if attack came. ‘We need to gather the Clan. We’re too spread out. Blackbirder invaders would find it easy to pick us off like this.’
Grey followed on his mount. ‘The aliens promised we were free to go. And these beasts pose no threat. Sound the all clear and get everyone moving again.’
But Sarah’s warning to draw together had just been sent along the caravan when the large herd of grazing beasts appeared on the riverbed. They moved fast in an obvious panic. Clan herders ran beside them in an attempt to slow their stampede.
‘Be ready,’ shouted Sarah. ‘Form up.’
In the distance a large mounted party ran in pursuit of a Clan mount. The sharper eyes of the klaed manisaur warriors told Peter what he had already guessed.
‘Nezhnakhevo,’ Khavuraqo shouted in Thaluk. ‘They have found us. Ready for attack.’
On all sides the shouted orders fell upon Peter from both klaed and Clan. He shouted translations, as did Kituqarup, so Sarah had full awareness. Grey got shouldered aside, almost literally, as the Clan’s core riders on their mounts formed up to face the blackbirders.
‘Who’s on that mount they’re chasing?’ shouted Sarah. Peter asked Khavuraqo’s manisaurs to report. The Clan mount outraced the blackbirders but it stumbled not used to a prolonged chase at speed.
‘It’s a child, or a very small person,’ said the nearest manisaur. ‘They run from the nezhnakhevo.’
’It is not a human, nor quevantaq,’ another continued.
‘How can that be?’
‘Aramqhami, by the gods of fate,’ said Khavuraqo. ‘Agent of fate, from who I cannot escape.’
Realization hit Peter than. ‘Varuk’hat! And then under his breath he wondered, ‘how the heck did you get a Clan mount? And why does it allow you to ride it?’
Varuk’hat ran towards the Clan lines, they knew a worn out mount that would not fight when they saw one, and a rider so small and insignificant would be no threat. So the clan parted to allow the rider through. Khavuraqo ordered his troupe to surround the staggering mount, they raised weapons ready to strike them down.
Peter called them away. ‘I know this one. And I know the mount. Face the nezhnakhevo. The blackbirders are the true enemy.’
Peter swung up onto Girl’s back again. Varuk’hat’s winded mount staggered beside him, its breath whistling as with heaving sides it tried to catch its wind.
Both Clan and klaed formed up with Sarah and Khavuraqo at the centre. Or really with Kituqarup leading both parties. He spoke between the leaders, and they combined their strategy and communications so the two groups acted as one. They formed a wedge of mounts and heavy moasaurs and ran them at the approaching blackbirder line. The hundred and fifty blackbirders on heavy moasaurs and perhaps twenty stolen Clan mounts would have been more than a match for the klaed. But combined, the allied Clan and klaed became a force to be reckoned with.
The Clan set their mounts to run through the Arthan blackbirders. The Clan mounts would be more than a fair match with the wearied blackbirder’s mounts, while the enemy's heavy moasaurs would have to deal with the fresh klaed riders.
The Arthans spread out to flank the wedge as the two forces met, but the klaed use similar tactics, and the sides of the wedge peeled out to face them directly. The Arthans had guns, and many of the klaed fell before the Clan mounts could wheel out to roll up the thin Arthan line. The blackbirders turned away from such close quarters. To be most effective they had to fire from a distance.
The Clan had faced this tactic before and knew the only way would be to press close. So the Clan mounts pursued with dogged determination, with the blackbirders reduced to firing over their shoulders.
Another wave of blackbirders emerged from the forest on the edge of the riverbed and struck towards Peter. They fired at both grazing beasts and riders but only had eyes for the imp.. Peter now understood the blackbirder’s target, and whirled in anger at Varuk’hat.
‘The only reason the blackbirder’s attack us is to get to you. Where is the zharaqsa Varuk’hat?’
Peter’s searching gaze passed over the imp's saddle webbing and saw the panniers and bags.
‘I can’t let them get the catalyst,’ Varuk’hat said. ‘You have to help me.’
‘Meanwhile the Clan and these manisaurs from the klaeds suffer.’
‘It’s worth it. And they would agree, if only there was time to tell them. The fate of universes depends upon them not getting it.’
‘You said that before. Universes. What do you mean?’
‘You think Earth and Eoth are the only hypergraphs that touch upon one another? The Arthans wish to break the symmetry that balances the universes, and they need the zharaqsa to do this.’
Peter stared at the imp.
‘I don’t care about that,’ Peter said. ‘I really don’t. But I’ll help you get away now, if it will lead the blackbirders from the Clan.’
Peter saw the mount Varuk’hat rode now. And understood.
‘It’s a turned blade,’ Peter said. ‘Its imprint has been broken.’
‘You must have turned it with the drug,’ the imp said. ‘You shot it perhaps?’
Peter remembered. He still had the imp's gun, and he had used it before on the blackbirder’s mounts.
He drew it from under his cloak, and weighed it in his hand as he pirouetted Girl to face the blackbirders.
‘Varuk’hat. It’s time to stop running from these bastards. We have to take them out, or there will be no rest.’
‘No. We have to run.’
‘Stay close imp. We need you to keep them here while we finish them off.’
Peter ran Girl at the attacking blackbirders. Next to him the thraqanonkra raced to keep by Girl’s side. Walt rode on the back of one black ravening beast with Tiz close beside on a grazing beast a blade held high.
He saw Jan on another grazing beast she and other herders had turned the grazing herd towards the fighting.
Chaos came upon the Arthans then.