City of Death (29 page)

With a sigh, she pointed at the temple. “Well, let's start there.” Maybe Roland's men had missed something.

A section of the floor had been removed from the center as well and a hole had been dug down to an earlier shrine. Bayang lowered her into the hole, and as soon as Scirye's boots felt the ancient stones, she thought she heard a wisp of chanting and drumming. She yanked the glove from her hand. The mark was still pulsing. But that was all.

And after being lifted out of the hole again, they all probed different parts of the temple but found nothing. After an hour, they left the temple and began to explore the area around it. Scirye was about to examine a shallow trench when she saw a large silhouette on her left about thirty feet from the temple.

Who's wandering away like that?
she wondered.

Scirye was just about to call out when she noticed the peculiar way it shambled along. And then she remembered where she had seen just such a gait before. It was a lyak. Roland must have hired some of them to patrol the area while he and his thugs concentrated on his treasure hunt. And it was just their bad luck that one such patrol was passing by the temple.

Then she heard the lyak take a long, deep breath and then another. She remembered the broad nostrils she had seen on the others. Did that mean it had a good sense of smell?

Apparently so. Snuffling loudly, the lyak began to head straight toward her.

As quietly as she could, Scirye slid the dagger from its sheath.

Scirye felt a hand on her arm. Wali gave a little shake of her head and then pointed at herself to indicate she would take care of the intruder. She'd already left her carbine and shovel back with Oko. Sliding out her own dagger, she moved silently to intercept the intruder.

Suddenly there was a second silhouette. Then a third, and then more and more.

“Mount up, mount up,” Lord Tsirauñe ordered.

Kat and Oko slipped past them, stuffing their shovels into their belts as they unslung their carbines.

“Come on, Skee,” Árkwi said as he picked Scirye up and deposited her on the saddle. Around her, she saw that the other griffins were doing the same with her friends as they got ready to escape into the safety of the skies.

The next moment a huge head with one eye seemed to materialize over her. More lyaks were leaping at them from a totally different direction. Scirye realized too late that the lyaks had smelled them long before, using the first group to distract them while the second snuck up behind them.

Scirye had her dagger out in an instant and aimed straight at the lyak's chest.

The large eye blinked, startled, in a face almost as pale as the snow as the creature's own weight drove it down onto the knife point. The lyak howled in pain and Scirye was pulled from Árkwi's saddle as her attacker fell.

As she lay on the frozen ground with the lyak on top of her, his stench was thick in her nostrils. His blood felt warm against her chest as she squirmed against the frozen ground, worming her way out from underneath him. She heard Kles flapping overhead, frantically trying to tug the lyak up.

Stunned from her fall, Scirye sat for a moment.

“Rapaññe! Rapaññe!”
the griffins called as their claws slashed and their deadly beaks bit the snarling, howling lyaks.

Her parents and the Pippalanta were firing their carbines at a quick but deliberate pace, so that each bullet knocked a lyak down, but despite the toll that the sharpshooters took, the lyaks were focusing all their attention on the griffins.

Nor did the lyaks seem to be in any hurry to kill their ancient enemies, thrusting their spears and chopping their axes only at the griffins' wings.

With a shock, Scirye realized the lyaks wanted to trap all of them on the ground first, like a cat that breaks the wings of a bird before it begins a cruel game of torture.

And now,
Scirye thought,
everyone's going to die because of me
.

 

52

Leech

The griffin that Leech was on pivoted and twisted, her paws lashing out at her tormentors. It was all Leech could do to cling to the saddle.
Now I know how a cowboy on a bucking bronco feels,
he thought.

As the world whirled around him, he looked for his friends. Bayang had leaped off her griffin, who had reared up on her hind legs to defend herself. M
ā
ka was half off her mount while Tute, clinging to the saddle with his hind paws, did his best to haul her back up. But there was no sign of Scirye, Kles, or Koko.

I want to go home. I want to go home,
the Voice wailed.

The Voice sounded like any small child now and not a warrior with powerful magic.
But there's no home to go to,
Leech said with brutal honesty.
That China's long gone.

His griffin suddenly swept her powerful wings down, knocking several lyaks to the ground. But that was a mistake because immediately several lyaks jumped upon the wings, chopping at them with their axes.

Leech felt the shudder pass through the griffin's body even as she screamed. Her legs buckled beneath her, pitching him forward.

He rolled over the hard ground straight into a lyak's legs. With a snarl, the creature raised a spear to take care of the annoyance.

Clong!

The lyak dropped like a stone beside Leech, but his comrades took no notice of the boy.

“You okay, buddy?” Koko asked. He'd picked up a shovel that one of the Amazons had dropped.

Leech nodded mutely. There was no time to transform the flying discs, but he would need his weapon ring. When he was done, he expected to see his mount dying, but she had managed to raise herself halfway up again. As vulnerable as she was, the lyaks were only targeting her wings.

Leech and Koko would make them pay for their mistake.

“If there's one thing I hate worse than pigeons”—Koko gave a grunt as he swung the edge of the shovel's blade against the back of a lyak knee—“it's lyaks.”

Leech brought his weapon ring down with a thunk on the lyak's head. “I thought you hated pigeons the most.”

“I just demoted them,” Koko said and, lifting his shovel over his shoulder, brought it down hard on a lyak's skull.

Clong!

The creature dropped instantly to the ground.

By then, a lyak realized what they were doing and turned with a snarl. Koko thrust his shovel forward, ramming the tip of the blade into the lyak's belly. When the creature doubled over, Leech's ring knocked him on the head and finished the job.

“It's just like being back in San Francisco,” Leech said. “I mean, you and me fighting together against some gang.”

“Except they didn't have spears and axes.” Koko grunted as he struck another lyak so hard the shaft of his shovel snapped. He picked up an axe from the ground. “And at least the gangs in San Francisco take a bath every now and then.”

They only managed to clear a small space in front of the griffin on her left, but that was enough for the griffin who only had to defend her right side. Her paws lashed out, bowling those attackers over.

She said something in Kushan to Leech and Koko, and when she reared up, Leech thought she must have told them to cover her exposed chest and stomach. Though it must have hurt her terribly, she reached over her shoulders and tore her torturers from her wings, flinging them right and left. But she now had several great gashes in the wings and a dozen smaller ones at least.

The griffin's going nowhere,
the Voice screamed.
Use the discs and get away!

Leech ignored the yelling Voice. “Take her left,” he called to Koko and took up his station on her right near her wings.

Leech ignored the screams of the Voice as he fought for his and Koko's life.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but it felt like hours as Leech fought.

Leech heard some of the griffins shout,
“Rapaññe! Rapaññe!”
He was relieved to hear M
ā
ka's voice too, repeating the war cry.

His griffin was fighting her way to the other griffins, who had formed a defensive ring around Scirye. Scirye's parents and the Amazons were firing, and with each shot a lyak screamed and fell over. Bayang, M
ā
ka, and Tute fought as well. Kles was circling overhead, swooping down to help anyone who might be in trouble.

Suddenly, there were no lyaks in front of them. Instead, they were backing away.

“That's right, run, you chickens,” Koko jeered. He'd picked up a second axe so he now had one in each paw. He waved both of them over his head now in triumph.

But the lyaks looked satisfied rather than afraid, and when Leech saw the maimed and broken wings of the other griffins, he realized the lyaks were retreating because they'd accomplished their goal: Leech's friends were trapped on the ground.

All the lyaks had to do now was wait for Roland to come with reinforcements and then it would be all over.

Not for us,
the Voice said.
We can fly away.

Would Scirye run off and leave the fighting to us?
Leech demanded.

Um, no,
the Voice said.
It wouldn't be—what's the word? Tumarg?

Yes,
Leech said hopefully.
And you know Koko, Kles, M
ā
ka, and Tute wouldn't desert us either.

Of course,
the Voice said indignantly.
Don't you know your own friends?

Sure,
Leech said,
but I also know you like them too.

The Voice sighed.
I suppose I do.

Then you'd feel rotten if you left them to die while you saved your own skin,
Leech pointed out.

I guess,
the Voice admitted.
Besides, Roland's hurt so many people. I don't want him in charge of the world. He's worse than any dragon.

So do you still want to run away?
Leech asked.

No, that stops now,
the Voice said, determined.

 

53

Leech

Kwele and Wali's griffins were so badly wounded that they collapsed where they stood.

Koko slumped against a pile of rubble and waved his paw feebly. “The next time you guys hold a picnic, do me a favor and leave me off the invitation list.”

Tears began to roll down her cheeks as Scirye looked around. “I'm so sorry, everyone. This is all my fault.”

Wali had gotten a medical kit from one of her saddlebags. “Lady, you only need to apologize when you ask us to do something that's
not
Tumarg.”

Kat smiled and then dipped her head. “It's an honor serving you, lady.” Then she turned and waved a hand at everyone else. “And it's an honor fighting with all of you.”

She meant you too,
the Voice said enviously.

She meant us,
Leech assured him.

I'm still afraid though,
the Voice said.

So am I, but I'm just as afraid of letting down our friends,
Leech said.

I think I am too,
the Voice said.
But what do I do? I'm not as brave as them.

All we can do is try,
Leech said,
just like they are.

While Wali took care of the riders' injuries, Lord Tsirauñe had gotten another medical kit from his saddlebags and was tending the wounded griffins. “Leech, can you fly in this weather?”

Leech glanced at the snowflakes that had begun to fall even heavier than before.
Can we?
he asked the Voice.

I don't know,
the Voice said uncertainly.
I guess we could try.

“I'd be willing to attempt it,” Leech said.

“Then take my daughter away from here,” Lord Tsirauñe said and put up a hand to stifle Scirye's protest. “You have to carry out your mission from the goddess, but if there's time, Leech might be able to ferry your friends out of here.”

“I'd be willing to try to take the grown-ups out too,” Leech offered.

Árkwi was lying on his stomach, waiting his turn for his master to help him. “With all due respect, my lord, the lyaks would hunt Lady Scirye down, snow or no snow. Or anyone else who left here. We're better off staying together.”

“I'll fight anyone who tries to make me leave,” Scirye said firmly.

Lady Sudarshane was sewing up a gash in Kwele's side with thread and a huge needle. Though it must have hurt each time the needle pierced the invalid's hide, the griffin trembled but did not cry out. “It's no use arguing, dear,” she said to her husband. “She gets her stubbornness from you.”

Lord Tsirauñe eyed his defiant daughter for a moment and then shrugged. “All right. Then we'd better try to improvise a fort with the stuff around here.”

They climbed back onto the temple floor because the raised platform would give them a slight advantage. Then they used the remaining wall even if the columns might get in the way of the defenders and brought stones up to build three other walls against part of it until they had a square with each side about ten feet long and five feet high.

“Do you suppose Nandi delivered our message?” M
ā
ka panted as she waddled with a rock over to a wall.

Kat grunted as she hefted a large stone to fill a gap. “Well, ifrits can be funny creatures, but he seemed like the responsible sort. So Princess Maimie is coming with every warrior she can muster. We just have to hold out until then.”

Tute's body arched as he shoved a rock along with his head as well as both forepaws. “And what will we do when the storm ends and the guardsmen can fly again? They'll pick us off from above.”

“You look nimble enough to dodge the bullets.” Kat laughed as she added a slab on top of the other stone.