The Stones of Nomuru

XI – THE PIT

Upon reaching Tuui, Salazar and Kara rode towards the huge headquarters tent, followed by their two Kook helpers and a string of eleven snorting, smoking trucks, crammed with Rangers and their gear. As they neared the main entrance, lines of musketeers shouted: "Hail, Terrans!" and presented arms in the Kukulcanian manner, turning their weapons muzzle down.

Other soldiers ran forward to hold the jutens' lead straps while the Terrans and Salazar's deputy, "Major" Kange, dismounted. An officer saluted and said: "Follow me."

He led them to the main tent, which loomed above them, its bulbous arms resembling a fat starfish. A Kook identified by his painted insignia as General Jidsho received them with un-Kookish effusiveness:

"Ah, Terrans who come from across the nighted gulfs of space to save us from the bloodstained nomads, thrice welcome! May you lead tranquil lives! Major Kange, return to your command, whilst we discuss the impeding campaign. My troops will assist you in promptly quartering your men."

When Kange had departed, Jidsho continued: "In your honor we have prepared our best food and drink to refresh you after your toilsome journey. We have imported from Henderson a human being who, having worked for Terrans, can cook in the alien fashion. Follow me, please."

As they trailed through the curtain that divided the main part of the tent from one of the starfish arms, Salazar muttered in English:

"Curiouser and curiouser! Upper-caste Kooks lose face if they eat with a Terran."

"Maybe they'll just watch us eat," Kara whispered.

As Salazar let the canvas flap fall behind them, he saw that he was in an elongated sub-tent at right angles to the axis of the main accommodation, and nine or ten meters high. Midway between the two poles was a circular pit a meter deep and seven or eight meters in diameter. In the center of the pit rose a post somewhat higher than a man.

"Now what?" murmured Salazar. "I don't see any sign of a buffet—"

At that instant, Kooks on both sides of the Terrans seized their arms in scaly, steel-muscled hands. Kara screamed.

"Hey!" shouted Salazar, resisting. "What the hell—" Kooks swiftly relieved Salazar of his rifle, pistol, and sheath knife. Others took Kara's small pistol.

General Jidsho stepped before them, his neck spines rippling satisfaction, saying:

"You clever aliens intended, by pretending to aid us against the Choshas, to seize the rule of our Empire? But we are not so stupid as you thought!"

"Whatever makes you think that?" retorted Salazar hotly. "If this be the treatment you accord those who come to help you—"

From a pouch, Jidsho drew a roll of native paper. "This letter arrived by courier from General Shta. It gives the particulars of your plot; you plan not to march against the Choshas but to slay me and my subordinates, seize command of the frontier force, lead it back to Machura, overthrow the Empress, and make yourselves rulers! You would destroy our venerable traditions and noble principles! You have already begun your subversion by wheeling soldiers about the land in trucks, instead of marching them about as warriors have always marched. You wish to soften them to the point of uselessness."

Privately, Salazar though the Kooks were right to fear the expansionist tendencies on the part of the Terrans on Kukulcan; but under present circumstances he could not admit this to Jidsho. He said:

"That is a fantastic fabrication. Will Your Gallantry hear the true story?"

"We shall give you your say ere you pay the penalty of treason." Jidsho snapped a clawed finger. "Tie their hands behind them and fetch a brace of stools. These feeble aliens cannot stand for long without extreme distress."

When this had been done, Jidsho stood towering over the Terrans. "Very well, now speak!"

"Do you know the work I have been doing at Nomuru?" said Salazar.

"Aye, digging for treasure, albeit I am not familiar with petty rumors in Shongosi."

"My treasure is one that Your Gallantry would never recognize. I am an archaeologist, whose work is to unearth, study, and interpret the material remains of ancient cultures and to learn the lives of the people of former times."

Warming to his subject, Salazar gave an impromptu lecture on the aims of archaeology. He explained why he did not wish the Choshas to rule the site of Nomuru and told of his negotiations with the Empress. He feared that he might be boring his hearer if he went on too long; but Jidsho's neck spines showed rising interest. Salazar concluded:

"As Your Gallantry can see, so far from overthrowing your venerable customs and traditions, I strive to bring back into the light of day those that have been buried and forgotten. If I can continue my excavations, your traditions will be strengthened, amplified, and reinforced. If you doubt me, go look at the ruins of Horenso, where workers under my direction replaced fallen stones, restored half-obliterated inscriptions, and returned the city, as far as possible, to its former aspect."

When Salazar paused, Jidsho said: "General Shta also warns me that you and the female Terran propose to use some spirit-destroying electrical device in connection with your plan. That we cannot permit."

"Your Gallantry is misinformed. Miss Sheffield and I can communicate faster than can be done by any courier, to warn you when the Choshas invade Shongosi. Our method has nothing to do with electricity."

"What is it, then?"

Salazar thought with furious intensity. He did not believe that he could quickly convert General Jidsho to the use of Terran electronics by citing the approval of Emperor Simmo's ghost. At last he said:

"Your Gallantry, Miss Sheffield and I are cousins. To communicate across long distances, we call upon the spirits of our common ancestors such as our great-great-grandparents. They carry our messages to preserve family solidarity."

Salazar fell silent, while Jidsho stood for a long minute with his chin on his talons. He turned to the Kook holding Salazar's rifle. "Let me see that!"

After turning the gun over in his claws, Jidsho said: "This is one of those Terran firearms that shoot again and again without reloading. Such inventions have ruined the noble art of war, making victory not a matter of strength or bravery but of blind luck, slaying by missiles launched from afar. I wish the gun had never been invented and that we still fought in the old heroic way, with swords and spears. I am told that Terrans have developed this evil art to the point where they can wipe out all life on a planet."

"But, Your Gallantry," said Salazar, "if you sent your men with swords and spears against the Choshas' guns, what would happen? Then consider the use of Terran rifles against the nomads' muzzle-loaders. It is a choice between disagreeable alternatives."

Jidsho gave a hiss that might have been a Kukulcanian sigh. "Your words contain a bitter logic, Sarasara; and your story has a plausible ring. But I am not so simple as to take it at face value. I shall therefore call upon the Universal Law to decide betwixt you and General Shta. I shall let your veracity be determined by the ancient and honorable ordeal of hurui, which, sadly, has fallen into disuse in recent centuries."

He croaked a word to his servitors, who seized Kara and began stripping her. Others pinioned Salazar's arms.

"Hey!" yelled Salazar, futilely struggling in his captors' iron grip. "Stop! You cannot do that! You will rob us of our dignity! Your thus disgracing a Terran woman will enrage every Terran on the planet!"

General Jidsho paid no heed, and the servitors continued roughly with their work. Unused to Terran clothes, they had trouble with buttons and slide fasteners. Some of the garments were torn by their claws.

Soon Kara was as naked as Penny Molina had been the night of the party. Four Kooks carried Kara to the central pit, sprang down to its floor, and tied her to the post.

"What are you going to do?" demanded Salazar. "Burn her?" The general croaked the one word: "Nay!"

"What, then?"

The forked tongue flickered. "You shall see."

Two Kooks came through a side entrance, carrying a huge basket with a lid. They set the basket down on the edge of the pit, whisked off the lid, and tipped the basket forward. Out poured a dozen or more slender, wriggling, black-and-white striped shapes, which fell to the floor of the pit and scuttled about, hissing angrily.

"Kara!" shouted Salazar. "Freeze! Don't move a muscle! They're venomous boshiyas!"

General Jidsho spoke again; two Kooks untied Salazar's arms. "Now," said Jidsho, "if you succeed in rescuing your fellow alien, your words will have been proven correct by the Universal Law."

"If you'll give me back my guns, or even my knife—" began Salazar, but the general held up a claw.

"Nay, you must save her just as you are. The ordeal would not prove your veracity otherwise."

Salazar stepped to the edge of the pit. He could see Kara's eyes following his movements, but otherwise she held herself as rigid as a statue. The boshiyas, resembling Terran lizards with long, snaky necks, four legs apiece, and long tails, scuttled about, hissing and tongue-flicking. Most were less than a meter in length; but a couple of the largest were longer and capable, should they rear up, of biting Salazar above the tops of his boots.

He walked slowly around the pit, his glance darting about for some stratagem that he could use. From each of two tall tent poles, many ropes led down to the ground inside the canvas and were tied to the tent pegs. The canvas lay upon these ropes, which had not been sewn into the fabric.

If, Salazar thought, he detached a rope from the peg to which it was belayed, he could use it to swing across the pit. He knew that he could not snatch up Kara during his swing, since she was bound to the post.

He felt in his pockets. Lacking clothes, the Kooks were unfamiliar with pockets; they carried their petty personals in pouches slung from belts and straps. Once they had relieved him of his big sheath knife, it had never occurred to them that he might also have a clasp knife in his breeches.

He squatted at the lower end of a tent rope with his back to the Kooks, so that they could not see what he was doing. With the clasp knife he sawed at the rope until it parted. Putting away the knife, he rose, grasping the rope at man height.

Since the rope slanted from the top of the tent pole to the edge of the tent, Salazar knew that he must make a short run to swing across the pit, and that he would follow a curved path. Stepping to within a couple of meters of the edge, he ran towards Kara and swung across.

As he passed over them, the boshiyas craned their necks upwards, hissing. In the middle of his swing, at the low point in his arc, he brought his boots down on a boshiya, smashing it into the hard-packed earth and leaving it broken and writhing.

Salazar had intended to make repeated swings across the pit, stamping one of the pseudo-lizards to death on each swing. But he had miscalculated the length of run he needed to bring him safely out on the other side. The swing slowed and stopped just as he passed over the edge, a third of the way around the pit. He scrambled with his boots for a foothold; but the earth of the edge crumbled, cascading into the pit.

Failing to secure his footing, Salazar found himself swinging back across the pit like a pendulum. Because of the angle of the rope, he saw that his swing would quickly bring him up against the edge, where he could scramble up for another try ...

There was a flash, a puff of black-powder smoke, and a loud report. The rope went slack, dropping Salazar to the floor of the pit. He almost fell but by a desperate effort staggered to a balance as coils of rope fell on him. He realized that a Kook had fired a musket to sever the rope.

He sprang back as a boshiya reared and struck. All around, other boshiyas advanced, hissing and rearing their serpentine heads. These animals would ordinarily flee from any creature as large as a man; but now they were enraged.

For some unexplained reason, the tune of Bizet's Toreador Song flashed through Salazar's mind. He whipped off his bush jacket and held it before him like a matador's cape, while with the other hand he gathered up the severed part of the tent rope, now lying partly in and partly out of the pit. He had about three meters of rope, which he grasped by the bight, double, to form a double whip. With the rope in one hand and the jacket in the other, he confronted the boshiyas, turning about to ward off those behind him.

One of them struck at the coat. Its fangs caught in the fabric, so that when Salazar whipped the garment away, the beast was thrown across the pit. He slashed with the rope at another, knocking it writhing; then sprang forward to stamp the coiling creature until it merely twitched. Whirling the rope, he cleared away a couple more before him and finally got all those still active on one side.

Still full of fight, they came at him in a tongue-darting, wriggling mass. They were tough organisms; those he had hurled aside returned instantly to the attack. When they were nearly upon him, he threw the jacket over them and leaped upon it.

He did not succeed in covering all the boshiyas; three remained outside the coat. As he stamped on the jacket, he whirled the rope to fend off these, presently joined by another that had escaped from beneath the garment.

He stamped and stamped, until the mass beneath his feet ceased to move. When at last he stepped back and looked around, the four unharmed boshiyas were scrambling up the rough Utile ramp that he had unintentionally made in the side of the pit.

A chorus of Kookish croaks drew his attention to his audience. Several Kooks fled the tent; others aimed their weapons at the escaping animals. Flintlocks boomed, scattering bloody bits of boshiya about the inclosure.

Ignoring the commotion, Salazar sprang to the center of the pit and cut Kara's rope with his pocket knife. As the last rope fell away, he held out his arms, expecting her to fall feinting into them. Instead, she drew her slender body up, saying:

"Thanks a lot, Keith. Now do you think they'll let me put on my clothes?"

A woman of steel! Salazar thought proudly, as he picked up his jacket, befouled as it was with boshiya blood and guts. He helped her up over the side of the pit, vaulted up himself, and walked with her to the place where General Jidsho stood immobile. Ignoring the general, Kara retrieved her tattered garments and began to put them on. Salazar eyed the general coldly as his hard-pushed heart slowed down to normal. He said:

"Well, Your Gallantry?"

"Honorable Sarasara, you have proved by the Universal Law that your version of events be the true one. Since Shta and I are longtime rivals, I assume he sent the letter to get me into trouble. Such treachery is unheard-of among gentlefolk; Shta has been corrupted by his contact with the Terrans. I offer my apologies to your female and my assurances to you that I accept your soldiers with their newfangled guns; although, if such execrable devices spread amongst us human beings, I shall quit the trade of soldiering. It will no longer be an occupation for genteel persons."

"We thank you," said Salazar with a tinge of sarcasm. "May I ask why someone fired the shot that cut the rope?"

"Had he not, the test had not been fair. We knew not that you, in your sly Terran way, had a second knife concealed on your person."

"If you did not think to inspect my garments, the fault was yours."

Another long hiss floated across the silence.

"True. Although you are a mere animal, honorable Sarasara, and at death you will perish utterly without leaving a spirit to guide your descendants, your logic almost ranks you as a reasoning being like us. Now you and the female may return to your command. An officer will show you the way to your quarters. May good health pursue you both!"

"May the general likewise enjoy good health," growled Salazar as he began the tedious ritual. A Terran could have told from the archaeologist's tone that he wished General Jidsho anything but health, wealth, and happiness; the general, fortunately, was incapable of drawing such subtle inferences.

At last Salazar said: "Ready, Kara?"

"Yes, Keith. Your jacket's a mess, and I'll have to spend the rest of the day mending my own things."

Salazar grinned. "Remember those baths in the creek, when we killed the porondu?"

"What about them?"

"Well, I must say that your shape is as splendid as ever!

"Damned old satyr!" she muttered, following Salazar out of the tent.

As they emerged into the slanting shafts of the afternoon sun, Kara said: "I—I'm sorry, Keith. I really am eternally grateful. You were brave and clever—a real hero!" Her voice trembled, and Salazar though he saw the glisten of an unshed tear.

"No, darling," he said. "You were the heroic one. I did what I did because I love you; and I'd do it even if I never saw you again in my life. Now let's find some better food than was offered at our so-called buffet lunch."

As, following one of Jidsho's officers, they walked toward the Ranger's tents, Salazar saw a mud-stained courier pull up his juten and leap down, crying that he bore a letter from the Empress to General Jidsho. As the Kook was led into the big tent, Salazar remarked:

"Lousy timing, eh?"

The following sunrise saw Salazar and Kara standing before the main tent. Kono held the lead straps of three jutens, one for himself, one for Salazar, and one for gear. Kara and Salazar were concluding a friendly but heated argument over who should have the pup tent while they were apart. She insisted that he take it with him, while he was equally determined to leave it with her.

"After all," he said, "I've been sleeping under the stars a lot lately—"

"I know. But you'll be traveling alone, and it's sure to rain. Then you'll get sick, and what will happen to me?"

"Well—" Salazar weakened.

"Besides, I'll be perfectly fine in with Major Kange; his tent's big enough for the pair of us."

Salazar grunted. "I suppose it will be all right, if you can stand the Kookish smell. But don't let him get too fond of you."

"Silly! I must be as sexually repulsive to him as he is to me. Think you'll run into Conrad Bergen?"

"Shouldn't be surprised. The route lies past that Nomuru site."

"Promise me you won't try to kill him! Not that I care about him, but it would cause us endless trouble."

"I won't shoot unless he tries something first, and he's a terrible shot. Try to practice your Feënzuo on Kange; maybe he'd like to learn a little English."

He half opened his arms, but all he got was a brisk handshake and a gentle smile.

Keith Salazar, with Kono and the baggage animal, jounced expeditiously back to Shongosi on their way to the Chosho frontier. Salazar lingered in Biitso only long enough to learn that High Chief Miyage had gone to the frontier, taking all but a handful of his army. In Shongaro he made a similar discovery when he inquired about Chief Sambyaku.

The forges of Neruu glowed redly in the dusk as Salazar rode through the town, while the smoke of a hundred chimneys dimmed the stars and the little starlike moons. The whirring, clanking machine shops were working overtime on muskets and other military gear.

Knowing the route, Salazar went on to his old camping ground. Kono had lighted a fire, and he and Salazar were putting up the pup tent, when a crackle of twigs apprised them of intruders. As Salazar picked up his rifle, the light of a lantern fell on him and a Kookish voice croaked: "Stand! Who be ye?"

Three Kooks painted with the insignia of the army of Shongosi came toward the firelight, muskets raised. Salazar identified himself.

The Kook wearing the symbols of an officer said: "I am Captain Te of the Biitso Civil Guard. Honorable Sarasara, know that the High Chief has forbidden either you or the other Terran, the large one with a name like 'Boogen', to touch the site of Nomuru until he decides which of you is legally entitled to do so. We are here to enforce His Highness's command."

"I understand," said Salazar. "In fact, I am here to assure myself that no unauthorized work has been done on the site in my absence. With such alert, dutiful guards as you on hand, I realize that my fears were groundless."

While the beaked face showed no emotion, the neck spines rippled in a pleased way. Even the unemotional Kooks, Salazar thought, were not proof against flattery. "Have you any idea when His Highness's decision will come?"

"Not during the emergency, certainly," said the officer.

"I understand. Where can one now find the High Chief?"

"The army is mustering at the village of Hetori, near the frontier."

Salazar considered. "Is that a little place on the lower Tsugaa, near Mount Zu?"

"Aye, or so I have been told."

Salazar was thankful for Kookish veracity. Kooks were terrible liars. Although they did sometimes lie, one skilled in their ways could detect the lie by the movement of their neck spines. Perhaps, he thought, that accounts for their being so law-abiding. He said:

"Thank you. May you be in robust health!"

"And may the honorable Sarasara's health be robust!"

"May you lead a tranquil life! ..."

Next morning, Salazar stood on the edge of the Nomuru site, peering across it. A dozen of Captain Te's guardsmen patrolled the site. Three stood near Salazar. The rippling of their cervical spines betrayed nervous apprehension beneath their stolid exteriors.

Probably, thought Salazar, they have heard of the stunts I've gotten away with lately, mainly by dumb luck. He strolled about the site, pocked by the rectangular test pits. Bergen's tractor still lay half in and half out of one hole.

The chugging of a steam car caused Salazar to turn. The car stopped with a hiss and a puff of white vapor on the edge of the site. Besides the Kook driver, the car carried Conrad Bergen and Oleg Pokrovskii. These climbed down and walked towards Salazar. As they came, several Kooks clustered around them. These the bulky black-browed Bergen ignored and strode straight for Salazar, who unsnapped the flap at the top of his pistol holster. Near Salazar, Captain Te barked:

"No violence!"

Bergen roared: "Go on, Keith, take your hand off your goddam gun! I'm not going to shoot you, even if you deserve it! I just came out to see how the site's doing, so I can get to work as soon as Miyage makes his decision."

"You mean, if he decides for you," rasped Salazar, suppressing an urge to draw and shoot Bergen dead.

"I'm not worried. What are you doing here? Thought you were in Feënzun."

"I finished my business there and came by, for the same reason you did. How did you get that car here, with the Sappari bridge in the shape it's in?"

"Oh, hell! I built my own bridge."

"You what?"

"Built my own bridge. Had it prefabricated in my shops and strung it over the Sappari a sixtnight ago. Had to wait for the concrete in the dead men to harden before putting any weight on it."

"You do get things done," muttered Salazar. Much as he detested Bergen, he had to admit a wry admiration for the developer's energy.

"Sure. If I waited for Chief Sammy to fix the old bridge, we'd be dead of old age before he got around to it. When we get the resort built, maybe I'll hire you to lecture the guests on Kook history and culture, for the eggheads who like that sort of thing." Bergen gave a contemptuous snort of laughter. "Come on, Oleg!"

Off went the pair with their escort of musketeers. Mentally cursing himself as an ineffectual intellectual, Salazar returned to his camp, got out maps, and studied the route to Hetori. Early next morning he and Kono were on their way before the diurnal species of the leather-winged zutas had begun to squawk and chatter.

They took the road south to Neruu, where they turned east towards Hetori and the Chosha country. Although this road was a mere track, unsuited to wheeled traffic, it was easy to follow. Most of the Shongo forces heading for the frontier had gone this way, so that the surface of the road itself and of the ground on either side was trampled.

Three days later, Salazar and Kono rode past the isolated conical peak of Mount Zu. The road skirted the base of the peak, curving around toward the village of Hetori, which lay between the mountain and the river Tsugaa. At this point, the river formed the boundary between Shongosi and the lands of the nomadic Choshas; and here could be found the only good ford for many kilometers.

The vegetation became scrubby and widely scattered, save for gallery forests along the streams. East of the Tsugaa, as Salazar had noted during his captivity and escape, the trees petered out altogether, and the land stretched into a wide, grassy plain.

On the open spaces along the river, Shongo infantry marched and juten cavalry maneuvered. When Salazar rode into the camp, he was at once surrounded by well-armed guards.

"Who be ye and what would ye?" they barked.

Salazar explained. He asked to see Chief Sambyaku, whereupon the soldiers led him to the headquarters tent, whence Sambyaku presently issued.

"Sarasara!" welcomed the chief. "Is all well with you?"

"Yes, indeed. Is all well with the chief?"

"Indeed it is. Is all well with the honorable Sarasara's clan?"

Salazar and the chief had not finished their formal greetings when High Chief Miyage bustled out of the same tent. "Sarasara!" he croaked. "What in the name of the ancestral spirits do you here?" His tongue flicked.

Salazar said tartly: "Does Your Highness wish an answer forthwith without the usual greetings?"

"Aye; we have no time here for empty ritual. Speak!"

"I am here, Your Highness, to see how things go; since the outcome of the impending conflict affects the practice of my profession. If you should lose, and my site fall to the Choshas—"

"You try by talk of defeat to destroy our spirit ere the battle be joined!" cried the High Chief furiously. "We know not why ye plot against us, unless it be some scurvy Terran scheme to steal our lands. In any case, we will not have you lurking about here, weaving webs to entrap us. Begone, instantly, or we will have you shot!" On command, the bodyguards cocked and raised their muskets.

Salazar looked at Chief Sambyaku. The chief made a vague gesture, while the movement of his neck bristles implied: Sorry, honorable Sarasara, but you know how it is. I can do nothing.

"At least," said Salazar, "let us replenish the food for our journey homeward."

"That were but reasonable," added Sambyaku.

Miyage grunted. "You are a Terran-lover, Sambyaku; but custom demands that the alien be succored. We will spare you a week's rations. If you wish more, you can shoot a wild beast with that newfangled gun of yours." The High Chief turned to his entourage and barked: "Captain Yeron! See to the alien."

An hour later, Salazar and Kono rode back the way they had come. When Hetori and the camp were hidden by the curve of Mount Zu, Salazar left the trampled road and turned toward the mountain. At its base he dismounted, telling Kono:

"Get down, Kono. We shall have to lead the beasts."

"Does the honorable Terran mean to scale the mountain?"

"Yes. Come along!"

The twilight was deepening and nocturnal zutas flitted about, replacing the diurnal ones, when Salazar reached the top of the hill. After resting with his back to a tree to recover his breath, he wandered over the crest.

Eventually he found an outcrop of granite on the eastern slope. By pitching camp above this rocky, treeless surface, he obtained a splendid view of the camp of the Shongo army, the village, the river beyond, and the plain across the river. If the Shongorin had known beans about warfare, he thought, they would have posted lookouts on the hill as soon as they reached Hetori.

While Kono set up the tent, Salazar buttoned his poignette. Thin with distance came Kara's voice:

"Keith! Is it you?"

"Yep. Everything okay with you?"

"No trouble so far. How's your job going?"

Salazar told her. "I wanted to ask the chiefs if their spies had any word of a Chosha advance; but they said they'd shoot me if I hung around."

"Keith dear, once you tell me the invasion has started, head for Tuui as fast as you can! Don't get so interested in the battle that you stay up on your mountain until the Choshas arrive to collect your head!"

"Good advice, darling. Good-night!" He silently mouthed: "I love you!"

"Good-night, Keith."

Days passed. Salazar swept the distant plain with his binoculars, seeing wandering dust devils and a few clusters of black specks, like grains of pepper spilled on a beige tablecloth. These turned out to be herds of wild herbivores. Archaeology had instilled in Keith Salazar the virtue of patience.

Between spells of watching, he prowled the mountaintop, making mental notes of the geology and looking for relics of the Kookish Stone Age. He found one projectile point, like that which he had picked up in his flight with Kara. He chuckled at the thought that now, if the Empress proved niggardly, he could at least claim expenses from Patel by calling this expedition an archaeological reconnaissance.

He pocketed the artifact and found Kono cooking a frugal meal. The Kook squatted in a hollow on the western side of the crest, where the rear slope began to fall away. Salazar had insisted that Kono make his fires there, keeping them small and using only dry wood, lest the smoke betray them.

On the seventh day of Salazar's vigil, his binoculars picked up a dust cloud of unusual size and persistence. An hour later, a swarm of black specks appeared beneath the cloud, crawling towards the Tsugaa. Another hour, and the specks grew into Kooks on jutens.

Salazar told Kono: "Strike the tents and start packing." He buttoned Kara and told her the news. She said: "I'll pass the word. Now you ride homeward hell-for-leather!"

Below, news of the approach had reached the camp. Trumpets blew, drums beat, and the Shongorin milled like a colony of ants whose nest has been broken open. With his glasses, Salazar picked out the form of High Chief Miyage, beside a standard bearer. The High Chief was forming up a body of juten cavalry.

Another hour, and the leading elements of the Chosharin were within sight of the Shongo forces on the western bank. Salazar could hear faint war cries above the buzz and chirp of Kukulcanian insectoids. Then, as he scanned the field, he muttered:

"Jeepers! They can't be that stupid!"

Although Salazar's military knowledge was obtained entirely from books, not experience, it seemed to him obvious that the course for Miyage would have been to defend the west bank of the river with musketry. He should hold his cavalry, far inferior in numbers to the mounted nomads, in reserve, ready to dash in wherever the Choshas obtained a foothold on the bank. Instead, saber in hand, Miyage was leading his cavalry down to the river and into the ford. Salazar could see tiny diamonds of sunlight sparkling on the fountains kicked up by the jutens.

Evidently Miyage meant to cross and attack the Chosha army head-on. The Shongo jutens splashed across the ford. Through his glasses, Salazar caught the flash of sun on the saber that Miyage brandished. Then the Shongorin plowed into the nomads and were swallowed up in a vortex of circling mounts and whirling blades.

At last Salazar tore his gaze away from the unfolding battle and said to Kono: "Let us go!" Taking the lead strap of his juten, he set off down the steep western slope, man and animal jumping, skidding, and sliding.