A Man Rides Through

  “I’ll tell Quiss,” Geraden replied as he pulled away.

  With Terisa beside him now, he reached the front room, shouted Stead’s message to Quiss, then dashed out of the house.

  “Where?” he demanded of the first man he met.

  The man looked too frightened to have any idea what he was doing. “West.”

  “West,” Geraden muttered, thinking hard. “So it isn’t soldiers. Soldiers would come from the north. The northeast.”

  Terisa saw what he was getting at; but her heart was pounding in her throat, and she couldn’t speak.

  “Eremis is sending Imagery against us.”

  She nodded. They ran west among the buildings.

  Everyone was running west. Tholden’s instructions to Houseldon had been explicit: women and children, stay at home; anyone who was too young or too frail or too sick to fight, stay at home. Unfortunately, the folk of Domne had lost the habit of taking orders. The streets were crowded with people who shouldn’t have been there. Some of the men who were prepared or equipped or at least determined to fight had difficulty working their way through the throng.

  But Tholden had replied to the alarm so quickly that he was ahead of the crowds; he didn’t know he was being imperfectly obeyed. He reached the guard post and climbed onto the platform where the man who had raised the alarm was on watch in time to see the whole attack clearly.

  They came in without a sound except for the rush of their paws and the harsh murmur of their breathing: strange wolves with spines bristling down their curved backs, a double row of fangs in each slavering jaw, and something like intelligence in their wild eyes. Only a few dozen of them, Tholden thought when he first spotted them. Enough to ravage a herd of sheep. Or terrorize a farmstead. Not enough to threaten Houseldon. They won’t be able to get past the stockade.

  Then the leader of the pack sprang at the wall.

  The wolf seemed to come straight up at him. Leaping at least eight feet in the air, it got its forelegs over the wall. While its hind legs scrambled for a purchase on the wood, its jaws stretched toward his face.

  For an instant more horrible than anything he had imagined, Tholden couldn’t move. He was a farmer, not a soldier: he didn’t know anything about fighting. Deep down in his heart, he had always believed there was something secretly crazy about people like Artagel, who went into battle with such fierce joy. The men standing on the platform with him had already flinched away. One of the bowmen rushed to bring up his bow. But Tholden just couldn’t move.

  Then hot slaver splashed into his face as the fangs drew near, and something inside him shifted. Although he never thought about it, he was prodigiously strong, and his strength came to his rescue. He reached out, caught the wolf by the throat, and heaved it backward.

  It fell among the pack, breaking the charge, preventing the wolves behind it from gathering themselves to spring. The pack burst into snarls – a raw, red sound, avid for blood. Jaws snapped. Then the wolves swirled around to regain their momentum so that they could leap.

  “Bowmen!” the Domne’s son cried desperately, “get some arrows into those things! If they get over the wall—!”

  Not fast enough. Already three wolves were leaping, four, six. And instead of attacking the guard post directly, they hurled themselves at a part of the wall where there were no immediate defenders.

  He was appalled by the realization that these beasts knew what they were doing. They were at their most vulnerable while they tried to cross the top of the wall – so they moved out of reach.

  But an arrow thudded into the chest of the nearest wolf. It fell away, coughing blood. While the bowman snatched up another shaft, someone below the platform threw a hatchet that buried itself between a pair of glaring, wild eyes. Someone else tried to use a pitchfork as if it were a javelin; the tines missed, but the wolf was forced to drop back.

  Three down.

  The other three got over the wall.

  Tholden saw a farmer swing an axe and miss – saw him go down with his throat torn out by an effortless toss of the wolf’s head. Luckily, the next man struck a solid blow with a club, and the wolf wobbled. While the beast was still unsteady on its legs, one long sweep of a scythe disemboweled it.

  Defenders arrived as quickly as the narrow streets and the crowds permitted. The second wolf over the wall ducked between two hostlers – who nearly brained each other trying to hit it – ripped open the best baker in Houseldon before he could raise his hands, then flung itself at a knot of young boys who had escaped from their mothers. But it went down when an ancient sword in the hands of an old man who remembered the wars struck between the spines protecting its back.

  The third wolf took an arrow in its hindquarters from a terrified young apprentice bowman. As if it thrived on pain, it killed the young man, bit off another man’s hand at the wrist when the man tried to stab the creature with a knife, then raced down an alley toward the heart of Houseldon.

  At the same time, more wolves sprang to the attack.

  Only a few dozen of them, Tholden thought. He wanted to tear his hair.

  A second bowman ran up from the guardpost where he had been stationed. Like his comrade, he began picking wolves off the top of the wall as fast as he could nock arrows to the string. But they were only two. Every time one of them reached for a new shaft, three or four beasts got into Houseldon.

  Calling frantically for help, Tholden leaped off the platform.

  The other bowmen were on their way, but hampered by the crowds. And the defenders at the scene of attack didn’t know how to fight an enemy like this; they got in each other’s way. In a sense, the wolves were losing. They would all be killed eventually. But if enough of them ran loose in the streets, they would do terrible carnage before they were hunted down.

  And if they killed the bowmen—

  Maybe the wolves wouldn’t lose.

  Tholden snatched an axe from a man who obviously didn’t know how to use it effectively. Planting himself in the path of the wolves, he hewed at them as if they were nothing more than a stand of timber. He had no idea what else to do.

  So he didn’t see what happened to the beasts that got past him. He didn’t see the arrival of the remaining bowmen, or the efforts they made to thin out the attack; he didn’t see the wall of defenders behind him crumble and fail as people panicked and fled and even men who knew how to wield their weapons went down.

  On the other hand, he was one of the few people in a position to see that the wolves were only the vanguard of the attack.

  No one else guessed that. No one else thought about it. The wolves were trouble enough. Cursing the folly which had taken them outside, women rushed back to their homes, hauling their children along behind them. Men dove into hiding. Flocks of chickens fled in a squall of feathers and fright, running crazily in all directions or battering their way heavily up to the rooftops. The whole west side of Houseldon was in disarray, instructions and defenses forgotten.

  Suddenly, the street in front of Terisa and Geraden cleared, and they found themselves facing a beast with blood on its jaws and an arrow sticking out of its hindquarters.

  The spines along its back made it look like a hedgehog of monstrous size. The double row of its fangs made it look like a great shark.

  Terisa was reminded of riders with red fur and too many arms.

  The wolf stopped, scented the air. Its eyes seemed to burn with the possibility of intelligence.

  “It’s hunting us,” she said. At any rate, she thought she said that; she couldn’t tell whether she spoke aloud.

  “When I push you,” Geraden whispered, “go for that house.” He nudged her slightly toward the nearest building. “Get inside. Close the door. Try to bolt it.”

  The wolf began to snarl deep in his chest – a sound like a distant rumble of thunder.

  “What’re you going to do?”

  She must have spoken aloud. Otherwise he wouldn’t have answered.

  “Same thing in the oppo
site direction.”

  Automatically, she nodded, too frightened to do anything else.

  As if her nod were a signal, the wolf sprang at them, slavering murderously.

  Geraden hit her shoulder so hard that she stumbled and fell.

  At least she fell out of the way of the beast’s charge. Trying frantically to bounce up from the ground, she jammed her legs under her, pounded up onto the porch of the house—

  —whirled to see what was happening to Geraden.

  He hadn’t made any attempt to do what she was doing. After pushing her aside, he had simply ducked. By the time the wolf checked its spring, landed, and came back at him, he was on his feet facing the creature, poised as if he intended to kick its brains out.

  “Geraden!”

  “Get in the house!”

  So fast that she hardly saw it happen, he jumped sideways. The wolf flashed past him. She heard the savage click as jaws strong enough to crush bone tried to close on him. The sleeve of his jerkin burst into tatters.

  But there was no blood. Yet.

  Faster this time because its second charge had been less headlong, the wolf turned and went for him again.

  If he had tripped, if he had missed his footing or misjudged the assault, he would have died. No one could do what he was doing, not for long. The arrow in the wolfs hindquarters wasn’t enough of a handicap. Nevertheless he dodged a third time – ripped himself out of the way, ducked and rolled, came to his feet to face the wolf again just as it gathered itself for another spring.

  Blindly, stupidly, Terisa started back into the street to help him.

  At that instant, a woman came out of the house in mortal terror. So scared that she could hardly control her limbs, she thrust a pitchfork into Terisa’s hands. Then she slammed the door behind her, slammed a bar into place against the door.

  Terisa took the pitchfork without thinking. Wailing like a madwoman to distract the wolf, she leaped off the porch and did her utter best to spear the beast on the tines.

  She missed. The wolf was too fast, too smart for her inexpert onslaught. When it came around at her, however, she was able to fend it off, almost by accident; it shied away from impaling itself on the pitchfork.

  As if out of nowhere, the head of a cane whizzed through the air and cracked the wolf across the base of its skull.

  Coughing a howl, the beast spun and hurled itself on the Domne.

  Geraden yelped a helpless warning. Terisa froze, holding her weapon as if she had forgotten its existence.

  The Domne couldn’t run or dodge. With his bad leg, he could scarcely hobble. But he had a cane in his other hand as well, and when the beast leaped at him he rammed the end of that stick down its throat.

  At the same time, Geraden went past Terisa, tearing the pitchfork from her hands in one motion and hammering it into the wolf’s back with all his strength.

  Spiked to the ground, the beast writhed for a moment, snarling horribly and spitting blood on the Domne’s boots. Then it lay still.

  “Thank you, Father,” panted Geraden. “Glass and splinters! that was close. You shouldn’t take chances like that.”

  The Domne balanced unsteadily on his feet. His face was white. Yet he contrived to speak calmly. “Someday,” he remarked, “you’re going to call me ‘Da.’ I think you’ll like it.”

  Geraden shook his head as if he had lost his voice.

  With one cane, the Domne prodded the body at his feet. “How many of them are there?”

  “Enough to get past Tholden,” croaked Geraden.

  Terisa had the vivid impression that she was about to faint. Fortunately, Geraden turned and caught her before her knees folded.

  As the last wolf came over the stockade with an arrow in its heart, the bowman on the guardpost platform yelled, almost shrieked, “Tholden!” and Tholden gasped a curse because there was nothing else he could say while he retched for breath.

  Half the pack had been slaughtered in front of him. Carcasses lay along the bottom of the wall, in piles on both sides of him, among the dead bodies of his people at his back. His axe was covered with blood; his hands and arms ran red; blood dripped from his beard and soaked his shirt. His eyes held a wildness of their own which bore no resemblance to the feral intelligence of the wolves. How many of them had gotten past him? He didn’t know. He didn’t know what the people of Houseldon were doing to defend themselves. He only knew that the bowman on the platform sounded frantic.

  There was more. The wolves were only the vanguard.

  Forcing himself into motion, he staggered to the guardpost, heaved his bulk up the ladder to the platform.

  When he looked over the top of the stockade and saw what the bowman was pointing at, his first reaction was one of deflation, almost of disappointment.

  Oh, is that all?

  He was gazing across a hundred yards of open ground at a cat.

  Just a cat. One cat. Nothing more.

  The realization came to him slowly, however, that this cat was bigger than he was. It was at least as big as a horse. At least—

  Then he noticed that wherever the cat put its paws the new grass and old leaves caught fire. It had already left a smoldering trail away into the distance, where the wolfpack had come from. And it was approaching – not rapidly, but without any hesitation – advancing as steadily and inevitably as a storm front.

  “Tholden,” the bowman murmured like a prayer, “what is it?”

  This was foolishness, really. Who was he to pretend that he could fill his father’s boots, that he could succeed as the next Domne? He didn’t understand anything about Imagery. The only real accomplishment of his life, from his point of view, was to figure out the best time of year and the best conditions to fertilize apricot trees. Unless he counted marrying Quiss, or having five children: his family was also an accomplishment that gave him pride.

  “How many arrows do you have left?” he asked the bowman.

  “None.” It was a question the man understood. “I’ll have to get them from the wolves.”

  “Don’t bother. Go.” Tholden pushed him gently. “Get men for the water tubs. If that thing doesn’t just break the stockade, it’ll burn it down.”

  The bowman clattered off the ladder, sped away. Tholden turned to the other bowmen, actually turned his back on the advancing firecat. “If you’re out of arrows,” he said as if he were speaking to a small circle of friends on an occasion of no great importance, “go rally Houseldon. We need help.

  “If you’ve still got some left, come up here.”

  No more than fifty yards away, the firecat brushed past a discarded corn shock. At once, the shock sprang into flame and withered to crisp ash.

  The platform wobbled as two bowmen clambered up to join Tholden. Nodding toward the firecat, he said, “Aim for the eyes.”

  “Will that kill it?” asked one of the men huskily.

  “Who knows? You got any better ideas?”

  The man shook his head. His face was taut with fear, but he didn’t back away.

  The bowmen nocked their shafts, strained their bows. Almost simultaneously, they let fly.

  The firecat flicked its head aside negligently. The arrows caught fire and became charcoal before their heads could pierce the cat’s hide.

  “I think we need a better idea,” the second bowman muttered as he and his comrade readied more shafts.

  As if he were losing his mind, Tholden turned again and shouted, “Geraden? Where’s Geraden?”

  The first of his reinforcements had begun to arrive: men who hadn’t encountered the wolves; others who grasped that a greater danger was coming; some who were so frightened that the bowmen had to goad them along. No one had seen Geraden. A few of the defenders stared at Tholden as if he were speaking an alien tongue.

  “All right,” he rasped. “We’ll do it ourselves.” The wildness in his eyes was getting worse. Suddenly furious, he roared, “Don’t just stand there! Get those watertubs up onto the banquette!”

&n
bsp; Galvanized by the incongruous desperation in his high, kind voice, the men below him started hurrying.

  The bowmen exhausted their shafts – to no purpose – and jumped out of the way of the watertubs. The firecat was so close now that Tholden thought he could feel its heat. Or maybe that was just the sun. The sky was clear and gorgeous to the horizons, and the air was growing warm. With blood running from his face like sweat, he helped several men boost a watertub into position.

  Just in time – barely in time. The cat reached the stockade, paused, tested the wood with its nose. Instant flames swept upward, building swiftly from a small flicker to a savage blaze. The hands and arms supporting the watertubs were scorched. Tholden lost his beard and eyebrows; he nearly lost his eyes.

  Then two half hogsheads went over the wall almost simultaneously, and water hit the flames and the heat with a roar like an explosion.

  The fire in the timbers went out. But the concussion as that much water erupted into steam blasted the men off the platform, off the banquette.

  Tholden landed on his shoulder and spent a stunned and useless moment staring paralyzed at the sky while all his muscles locked up around the jolt. It was possible that his shoulder was broken. It seemed possible to him that he would never breathe again. The hard, hot steam disappeared into the air almost immediately, leaving the heavens blue and perfect, untouched.

  After a momentary delay, the wet wood of the stockade began to smolder.

  Wrenching air into his lungs, Tholden rolled sideways, got his legs under him.

  His shoulder was numb. He couldn’t move that arm.

  Flames licked between the timbers. The lashings that held the timbers began to snap.

  With a howl of heat, the wall caught fire again and blazed up like the blast of a furnace.

  Tholden and his men staggered backward, stared as the timbers flamed – and the firecat thrust its way between the beams as if they were nothing more than charcoal twigs.