Part 41 (1/2)
Better to hit the rocks on the inside of the curve than the ones at the bottom of the cliff, was the way the man put it, to a collection of people, mostly young, already scared by their situation; but they fell in, keeping in a group as they walked and trying to stay clear of the mechieti.
”The staff will have to tag after us as best they can,” Banichi said. ”I have a feeling we'll out-pace them considerably; and that may be best for their sakes.”
”What's waiting for us down there?” Bren asked as they moved into the dark and the starlight of the road.
”Tabini's men, nadi, and some of Ilisidi's who came in by train from Shejidan, if, baji-naji, we have fortune on our side for a few more hours and they've met up without shooting each other.”
They pa.s.sed the split in the road, that which led around the rim to the cannon fort, the route the tourists used. Another mechieta shouldered in, with Jase aboard and Haduni leading it by the rein. ”Nadiin,” Haduni said, ”the dowager has lent Jase-paidhi Nawari's mechieta for the trip down.”
Nawari had left in the plane. Nawari was one of those who ordinarily rode close to Ilisidi.
”Jasi-ji,” Jago said out of the dark by Bren's left, ”he means when we run, you take the rein from him, stay low and hang on. He's holding the rein now because if he lets go you'll be up there with the dowager very fast.”
”Yes.” Jase acknowledged an order with atevi brevity. And to Bren. ”I'll certainly hang on, nadi.”
The head of the party had reached the fork of the road that slanted sharply down in the starlight, down and down into dark. As yet they kept a moderate pace, but the first hairpin turn came a good deal sooner than Bren expected, the mechieti still moving briskly, but not so the staff walking down couldn't stay with them.
The next hairpin and the next tier of the road brought the town lights into view, not as many lights as one saw looking down, say, from a plane on a Mospheiran Mospheiran city by night. city by night.
But those lights might be fewer than ordinary tonight, since one could well suppose the townsfolk were not unaware of the crisis, and were probably listening to radio and television in hopes of news or public safety announcements.
It was a steep road at the next turn. Very steep for the tourist buses that were the summer traffic up this road; but one paved lane was very broad for mechieti; and the front rank at the fourth hairpin turn struck a faster downhill pace that would leave the group afoot behind very quickly. Nokhada was in a far better mood, p.r.i.c.king her ears forward and hitting a stride that advanced her just marginally through the pack.
Her rider didn't stop her. That made her happier still; and Jase's mechieta stayed with her.
Next switchback. ”Nadiin,” Jago said, riding near Bren, as Banichi came on Jase's far side. ”If we come under fire, stay on. Our security is holding the road into town, and it will not be Guild opposing us, but all the same, present as low a profile as possible. There is a chance of Kadigidi partisans.”
It was never hard to pick out the leaders in an old-fas.h.i.+oned atevi cavalry charge. It never had been. It was part of the ethic - and maybe, Bren thought, among other feaiful thoughts, that risk kept wars to a minimum, in a species where the leaders went first, not hindmost. The gun knocked hard against his ribs as the dowager let Babsidi gather speed. Nokhada was right on the front rank with Babsidi. Cenedi's mechieta was; and Jase's; and Banichi's and Jago's. As they reached the lowest part of the road they were running nearly all-out, security maneuvering only to put their bodies between their charges and the likelihood of snipers as the road let out onto a town highway.
A human might not be wired to know what pa.s.sions it could touch off in the hearts of atevi instinct-driven to follow such a leader as Ilisidi was. He'd seen the maneuver in the machimi plays, he recalled that, the mad dash of riders across a landscape, a move he'd he'd understood for a dramatic convention, but which often preceded a sort-out, a realization of atevi loyalties. understood for a dramatic convention, but which often preceded a sort-out, a realization of atevi loyalties.
But as they came into the streets of the towns.h.i.+p of Saduri, he felt real emotion gathering in him. Hadn't the waving of a flag, the call of a trumpet meant something to humans once? They couldn't but follow. No matter whether Ilisidi or the atevi she led rationally knew knew what she was invoking - what she was invoking - this this human felt it. human felt it.
A shot from somewhere blasted white chips of plaster from a building onto what was now black, starlit pavement ahead of them; and fire racketed back at that source from riders all around him. From another answering source more fire broke out somewhere ahead on the road. He was aware every smallish rider in their group was a target. He knew he was supposed to keep his head down and he knew that using the gun he carried and putting his head up to do it was a stupid risk - but in his heart-pounding excitement Jago's warning at the start was all that held him from such foolishness.
Do what Jago said. Listen to his security. Get through this alive and take down the ones who'd threatened him and his the way he he could deal with them, not with a gun, but by getting to what they wanted before they did, and interdicting them from everything they intended tonight. could deal with them, not with a gun, but by getting to what they wanted before they did, and interdicting them from everything they intended tonight.
A flare went off behind them, a brilliant burst of light that threw them all into silhouette. Then he hoped the Guild workers, caught on the road above this fire-fight, had the sense to take cover. They'd stirred no random fools but an ambush. Tabini's men were not not in possession of this area. They pa.s.sed side streets that would lead to the harbor, each one of which could become a shooting gallery. in possession of this area. They pa.s.sed side streets that would lead to the harbor, each one of which could become a shooting gallery.
Then a single small light blinked ahead of them and a second red one, twice, to the right.
That might surely be signals of their own allies. Abruptly, Ilisidi took Babsidi around a corner, down a ghostly deserted street, and rode h.e.l.lbent through the heart of a not-quite-sleeping town toward the harbor.
”Aiji-ma!” someone cried from a window above the street and others yelled it. But the street was dark.
”Go!” shadows yelled at them from an intersection, in utter darkness. ” 'Sidi-ji! Go! Go! Go Go!”
The darkness of the streets gave way to open night sky and hills and the sheen of water, and they went toward that gap. A light flashed in a window above the street, near the end of the block, and when they reached that open harborside, other atevi shadows appeared with that same flas.h.i.+ng of lights, some white, some red, in a pattern that must silently tell Ilisidi and the Guild with them what was critical for them to know.
Ilisidi stopped on harborside against a weather-shelter. A sign by the water and another on the railing said Ferry Ferry, and gave a departure schedule, but there was no ferry there for them.
A boat was coming, however. Not a ferry, if one could judge who'd only seen them on television, but a fair-sized boat, just the same.
”Is that someone we want?” Jase asked faintly, having seen it too, as mechieti all around them breathed and blew and harness creaked. One could just make out the spreading disturbance of the boat's wake, as, against a shadow of low hills well across the water, it made its way on a diagonal toward them.
”Late,” Ilisidi breathed. ”After all these years, every d.a.m.ned appointment, Geigi is still late late, d.a.m.n him!” She signaled Babsidi to extend a leg, and got down - a glistening dark trail was on her hand, and Cenedi wanted immediately to see to it, but: ”It's a d.a.m.ned plaster-chip,” she said. ”The man's revised his arrival time three times - half an hour more, he says, and he's still still late!” late!”
Bren slid down and Haduni got down, but in the meanwhile Ilisidi was back among the mechieti, looking for more injuries.
One mechieta had taken a fairly extensive injury on the flank. Two riders had been hit, one a trivial matter, one man with a serious amount of bleeding and a broken arm, which by no means improved her mood.
”I want this woman,” Ilisidi said. ”d.a.m.n this fool! d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, this fool! d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n d.a.m.n! - Can someone get this man to hospital?”
”Help is coming,” Jago said. They had risked the pocket corns, she and Banichi, so it seemed.
And indeed dark figures were moving on the street, figures that shouted to each other and brought timid ventures from the buildings along the way. More supporters joined them, townsfolk or maybe Guild. But by this time the victim was swearing that he could very well walk to the hospital, which was just down the street. They could see the lighted sign from here. People who called themselves local residents were offering respects to the aiji-dowager in an outpouring of support, loudly wis.h.i.+ng to carry the wounded man and to take the injured mechieta to the doctors, too.
Haduni provided them answers and directions.
Cenedi and Banichi were giving orders to the ferry personnel, who had shown up uncertain whether their services could be of use, and very willing to support the woman they recklessly called 'Sidi-ji.
In the meanwhile Jase was safely down and on two feet, and Ilisidi was muttering about the modern age and modern leaders sitting safely in estates and offices looking at computer screens, as lord Geigi's boat cruised up to the ferry landing with a powerful slow thump of engines and a boil and wash of water.
For a fis.h.i.+ng boat, Bren thought, it was pretty d.a.m.ned impressive.
Security came ash.o.r.e first. Lord Geigi followed with an amazingly agile leap, as the ramp manned by the ferry personnel attempted to adjust to the height of his moving gangway.
”Late!” Ilisidi cried.
”The wind is is up, nandi-ji! A hard west wind beyond the breakwater, which does make a difference! Was I to forecast intent to join you? The up, nandi-ji! A hard west wind beyond the breakwater, which does make a difference! Was I to forecast intent to join you? The aiji aiji was late, so I was late, the whole was late, so I was late, the whole countryside countryside is late, so the Kadigidi will be late, too!” is late, so the Kadigidi will be late, too!”
”You were to take the train and borrow the boats here!”
”Well, and the village of Kinsara has a carload of spring vegetables derailed on the grade on this side, so we had to take the boats all the way, and I've come to order boats out from Saduri, if I can get some of the good fisherfolk to give us a hand. - And good evening evening, paidhi-ji. Good evening to your a.s.sociate. Come aboard! We've a cold supper if you've been in a hurry. It's a good half hour back to the breakwater against the wind, 'Siri's going to call in debts up and down the harborside. We'll get boats out there tonight, as many as you like.”
Bren recognized Gesirimu among the handful who had come ash.o.r.e, as shouts went out to get boats away and get the coastal road blocked.
”We have three boats out there holding off sh.o.r.e, but it's a dark, wide sea,” Geigi said, ”and I'll not say we can keep the Kadigidi from getting a boat past us. If we can intercept the rascals on the water we'll take fewer casualties.”
”Some Kadigidi are are here,” Banichi said, ”in the towns.h.i.+p. If we're unlucky we'll just have chased them to positions up the sh.o.r.e to warn their allies.” here,” Banichi said, ”in the towns.h.i.+p. If we're unlucky we'll just have chased them to positions up the sh.o.r.e to warn their allies.”
”Nothing for it,” Cenedi said. ”Sitting here gains us nothing. With a west wind blowing, lord Geigi, where would a Mospheiran craft come in, between here and Aidin?”
”Is it only Hanks-paidhi, all this mysterious goings-on?”
”Only Hanks indeed,” Ilisidi said in disgust and, with Geigi, led the way to the heaving plank. The wind blew cold off the harbor, and the buffers squealed and groaned as the boat heaved against the sh.o.r.e. Hanks indeed,” Ilisidi said in disgust and, with Geigi, led the way to the heaving plank. The wind blew cold off the harbor, and the buffers squealed and groaned as the boat heaved against the sh.o.r.e.