Part 6 (2/2)
A murmur of wrath and horror swept along the ranks. I glanced over the savage array. There were a good four thousand of them; no bows were in evidence, but each man bore his carbine. That meant war, and their numbers proved it was no minor raid.
”Where are you going?” I asked.
”The men of Khor move against us, five thousand strong,” answered Khossuth. ”It is the death grapple of the tribes. We march to meet them afar off from our walls, and spare our women the horrors of the war.”
”Forget the men of Khor!” I cried pa.s.sionately. ”You would spare the feelings of your women--yet thousands of your women suffer the tortures of the d.a.m.ned on the ebon rock of Yuthla! Follow me! I will lead you to the stronghold of the devils who have harried Almuric for a thousand ages!”
”How many warriors?” asked Khossuth uncertainly.
”Twenty thousand.”
A groan rose from the listeners.
”What could our handful do against that horde?”
”I'll show you!” I exclaimed. ”I'll lead you into the heart of their citadel!”
”Hai!” roared Ghor the Bear, brandis.h.i.+ng his broadsword, always quick to take fire from my suggestions. ”That's the word! Come on, sir brothers! Follow Ironhand! He'll show us the way!”
”But what of the men of Khor?” expostulated Khossuth. ”They are marching to attack us. We must meet them.”
Ghor grunted explosively as the truth of this a.s.sertion came home to him and all eyes turned toward me.
”Leave them to me,” I proposed desperately. ”Let me talk with them--”
”They'll hack off your head before you can open your mouth,” grunted Khossuth.
”That's right,” admitted Ghor. ”We've been fighting the men of Khor for fifty thousand years. Don't trust them, comrade.”
”I'll take the chance,” I answered.
”The chance you shall have, then,” said Gutchluk grimly. ”For there they come!” In the distance we saw a dark moving ma.s.s.
”Carbines ready!” barked old Khossuth, his cold eyes gleaming. ”Loosen your blades, and follow me.”
”Will you join battle tonight?” I asked. He glanced at the sun. ”No. We'll march to meet them, and pitch camp just out of gunshot. Then with dawn we'll rush them and cut their throats.”
”They'll have the same idea,” explained Thab. ”Oh, it will be great fun!”
”And while you revel in senseless bloodshed,” I answered bitterly, ”your daughters and theirs will be screaming vainly under the tortures of the winged people over the river Yogh. Fools! Oh, you fools!”
”But what can we do?” expostulated Gutchluk.
”Follow me!” I yelled pa.s.sionately. ”We'll march to meet them, and I'll go on to them alone.”
I wheeled and strode across the plain, and the hairy men of Koth fell in behind me, with many headshakes and mutterings. I saw the oncoming ma.s.s, first as a mingled blur; then the details stood out-- hairy bodies, fierce faces, gleaming weapons--but I swung on heedlessly. I knew neither fear nor caution; my whole being seemed on fire with the urgency of my need and desire.
Several hundred yards separated the two hosts when I dashed down my single weapon--the Yaga dagger--and shaking off Ghor's protesting hands, advanced alone and unarmed, my hands in the air; palms toward the enemy.
These had halted, drawn up ready for action. The unusualness of my actions and appearance puzzled them. I momentarily expected the crack of a carbine, but nothing happened until I was within a few yards of the foremost group, the mightiest men cl.u.s.tered about a tall figure that was their chief--old Bragi, Khossuth had told me. I had heard of him, a hard, cruel man, moody and fanatical in his hatreds.
”Stand!” he shouted, lifting his sword. ”What trick is this? Who are you who comes with empty hands in the teeth of war?”
”I am Esau Ironhand, of the tribe of Koth,” I answered. ”I would parley with you.”
”What madman is this?” growled Bragi. ”Than--a bullet through his head.”
But the man called Than, who had been staring eagerly at me, gave a shout instead and threw down his carbine.
”Not if I live!” he exclaimed, advancing toward me his arms outstretched. ”By Thak, it is he! Do you not remember me, Than Swordswinger, whose life you saved in the hills?”
He lifted his chin to display a great scar on his corded neck.
”You are he who fought the sabertooth! I had not dreamed you survived those awful wounds.”
”We men of Khor are hard to kill!” he laughed joyously, throwing his arms about me in a bearlike embrace. ”What are you doing among the dogs of Koth? You should be fighting with us!”
”If I have my way there will be no fighting,” I answered. ”I wish only to talk with your chiefs and warriors. There is nothing out of the way about that.”
”True!” agreed Than Swordswinger. ”Bragi, you will not refuse him this?”
Bragi growled in his beard, glaring at me.
”Let your warriors advance to that spot.” I indicated the place I meant. ”Khossuth's men will come up on the other side. There both hordes will listen to what I have to say. Then, if no agreement can be reached, each side shall withdraw five hundred yards and after that follow its own initiative.”
”You are mad!” Old Bragi jerked his beard with a shaking hand of rage. ”It is treachery. Back to your kennel, dog!”
”I am your hostage,” I answered. ”I am unarmed. I will not move out of your sword reach. If there is treachery, strike me down on the spot.”
”But why?”
”I have been captive among the Yagas!” I exclaimed. ”I have come to tell the Guras what things occur in the land of Yagg!”
”The Yagas took my daughter!” exclaimed a warrior, pus.h.i.+ng through the ranks. ”Did you see her in Yagg?”
”They took my sister!”--”And my young bride”--”And my niece!” shouts rose in chorus, as men swarmed about me, forgetful of their enemies, shaking me in the intensity of their feeling.
”Back, you fools!” roared Bragi, smiting with the flat of his sword. ”Will you break your ranks and let the Kothans cut you down? Do you not see it is a trick?”
”It is no trick!” I cried. ”Only listen to me, in G.o.d's name!”
They swept away Bragi's protests. There was a milling and stamping, during which only a kindly Providence kept the nerve-taut Kothans from pouring a volley into the surging ma.s.s of their enemies, and presently a sort of order was evolved. A shouted conference finally resulted in approximately the position I had asked for--a semicircle of Khorans over against a similar formation composed of Kothans. The close proximity almost caused the tribal wrath to boil over. Jaws jutted, eyes blazed, hairy hands clutched convulsively at carbine stocks. Like wild dogs those wild men glared at each other, and I hastened to begin my say.
I was never much of a talker, and as I strode between those hostile hordes I felt my fire die out in cold ague of helplessness. A million ages of traditional war and feud rose up to confound me. One man against the acc.u.mulated ideas, inhibitions, and customs of a whole world, built up through countless millenniums--the thought crushed and paralyzed me. Then blind rage swept me at the memory of the horrors of Yugga, and the fire blazed up again and enveloped the world and made it small, and on the wings of that conflagration I was borne to heights of which I had never dreamed.
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