The Buttoned Sky
CHAPTER XIV
The Mink he turns his blazing eyes Up to the buttoned sky: "This night I'll tear ye down from there To see if gods can die!"
The gentry mass in stallioned ranks, The priests have gone amuck; The orbs and zanphs they now descend, All-armed against the ruck!
--Ruck's Ballad of the Mink
John staggered to his feet. "Brother! Maybe I was wrong. That was anatomic city-buster if I ever heard one--and when the Tartarians wereover here, I did. Maybe the coal isn't so important to your damned orbsafter all." He went reeling to the open night. Revel and Nirea werebeside him now. Off to the west beneath the lurid light of the globes'buttons rose another of the dark twin clouds.
"If they were trying to smack us, they could stand a refresher course inpin-pointing ... let's get the thrower out here fast. Too many saucersdirectly above us for comfort."
"There went another quarter of Dolfya," said Rack. "What power theyhave!"
"You'll see their power come plummeting to earth if I can work themachine," said John urgently. "Bring it out!"
The miners hauled it out, a titanic job even when men pressed tightagainst men and uncounted hands lifted the great burden. John showedthem where to put it on the rock shelf. "Hoist me up on top," heclipped. It was done. "Now watch."
Revel stared at the sky till his eyes began to ache. At last Johnshouted, "I'm ready, but listen--I see a lot of torches coming up thevalley, and the men holding 'em are mounted!"
"Our rebels, likely," said Jerran.
"Send men to meet them," yelled Revel. "They might be gentry. Pickmenand those with guns. Fast!"
"Okay, son," said John then, "watch the buttons just over us."
All heads tilted. A strange clanking came from the great box, a beam ofthick-looking purple light lanced upward from the gun-like projection ontop and fingered out toward the buttons. "Be ready," called John fromthe top of the machine. "This'll nullify the diamond rays for a fewminutes, but then the things will be able to rise again. Your men mustgo out and break into the buttons before the globes can get 'em up!"
Revel issued his orders quickly. The purple light had now touched abutton, which wavered from its fixed position, then as the beam caughtit fully, dropped like a flung stone. Hundreds of voices bellowed therebels' joy. Half a hundred miners leaped off into the night to attackthe fallen ship, which struck the earth some distance up the valley witha shattering crash.
Already the beam, more sure now as John's hands grew confident of theirpower, was flicking over other buttons. The least play of its purpleglow on the under surface of an alien ship was sufficient to send itcatapulting down. The other buttons were moving, sluggishly, then moreswiftly, coming toward the valley; and John could be heard swearing in astrange foreign tongue as he wheeled his great gun around and around.
A ragged volley of shots broke out in the western end of the valley.Revel jerked his head up. "They _were_ squires!" he said. "We've got toget up there to help our men!" Rack motioned to the miners behind himand went off into the gloom; Jerran shouted, "Some for the fallenglobes! Some have to stay to--"
Revel made a long arm, picked him up by the scruff. "Little man, are youthe Mink?"
Jerran struggled ineffectually. "No, damn it, no!"
"Then shut your mug till you're told to give orders!" Revel dropped him,and roared out, "Two hundred men--Jerran, count 'em off as they passyou--to the fallen buttons! Pickax the globes! Break the skull of everyzanph! The rest of you, up to the top o' this hill--spread round in aring that circles this ledge, and don't let a squire or enemy through!We've got to protect John!" He turned, gripped Lady Nirea's wristurgently. "Have you quick eyes and hands, love?"
"Faster than most men's, save your own." Her slatey eyes glowed eerilyin the buttons' light.
"Then up you go," he said, and hoisted her up by the waist until herhands clenched on the upper edge of John's machine. "Perhaps you canhelp him. I can't spare a man yet. Luck, Lady!" He set off toward thenearest button, tilted crazily with its rim in a cleft rock. At thewestern end of the valley more shots were echoing and yells rose thinand frightened. He wished he could be in several places at once but thewounded ships were the place for a slayer of gods tonight.
* * * * *
The bottom projection, dark blue and some fifty feet across, had beenknocked open by the force of the fall. From the dark interior zanphswere crawling, a veritable army of the six-legged, snake-headed beasts.An occasional globe floated out, but moving slowly as if it were sick.Pickmen were axing them out of the air with yells of glee, as the zanphsmilled, then spread out to attack.
He swept his weapon in a long looping arc that tore the head off one andmaimed another as it leaped toward him. It was the first blow in apersonal battle that seemed to last forever. When one batch of zanphsand globes had been disposed of, another lay a few yards further on,coming out of another ship and another and another, some ravening tokill, some weak and sick, desiring only to escape. After the ninth"saucer" as John called it, Revel gave up counting, and slew his wayfrom button to button, gore of red and yellow spotting and splashinghim, wounds multiplying in his legs and arms and chest, half the hairburnt off his head by the energy auras of angry orbs.
His force dwindled. Men died with throats torn out by zanphs, with eyessinged from the sockets by globe-radiation. Men stood numbed anduseless, hypnotized into immobility. Men sat looking at spilling gutsthat fell from zanph-slashed bellies. But still the Mink slew on and on,a tall dark wild figure in the uncanny light of the still-flyingairships of the alien globes....
John was bringing them down faster than ever, and Revel must needs splitup his small force even more, sending miners to each wreck to catch asmany entities as possible. Many spheres of gold managed to rise into thesky, where they found sanctuary in other saucers: some zanphs wentscooting for shelter in the rocks and bushes, but most stayed to fightand die.
He yearned to check his forces back on the hill, those protecting John'smachine, and the men who still fought the gunmen in the upper end of thevalley. But he dared not take his encouraging presence from the minershere. A button came swooping to earth not three yards from him, sprayinghim with clods of dirt, unbalancing him by the shock; a zanph gainedpurchase on his shoulder and tore flesh and sinew and muscle so that hisleft arm lost much of its strength and cunning. He killed it with thepick handle and struggled on into a mob of the brutes, panting now andblinking blood from his eyes.
Of his original two hundred, less than seventy remained. Still he darednot draw any from the protective ring. Where were the rebels that Vorland Sesker and the others had gone to rouse? Probably raiding mansionsmiles away. He should have told them ... oh, well. Surely theconcentration of noise and buttons and gods above the valley would bringthem soon.
A moment's respite allowed him to look at the sky. It was lightening alittle for the early dawn, and the buttons were less bold; most of themhovered near the horizon, only an occasional one bravely sailing in at aterrific speed to make a try at bombing the valley. John, perhaps withNirea helping him, had managed to bring down every one so far. But Johnand Revel would run out of luck some time, as every man does; then Johnwould miss, Revel's arm would fail, and they would all die.
* * * * *
Even as he lowered his head a gargantuan blast shook the world belowhim. He fell into a mob of zanphs, who were fortunately so demoralizedby the explosion that they ignored him till he could gain his feet andbegin to murder them once more. From the tail of his eye he saw amushroom cloud lowering just beyond the hill; he flicked his gazeat the crest where his men had been stationed to guard the_antiforcescreenthrower_--no human form showed against the gray sky. Theblast had hurled them to dust, together with every tree on the skyline.
Finally--the gods knew how long he had fought--he found with amazementthat no more foes were in sight. The buttons that had fallen were allcleaned out. Zanphs lay t
hick in heaps and lines, emptied sacks ofglobes dotted the bloody grass. He listened for the sound of firing fromthe upper valley; yes, there were still isolated shots.
His forces there still held, then. He glanced again at the sky. Nobuttons in range. They were giving John a respite--or was it a trick?Revel's tired mind wondered if John and Nirea were dead, and the godsplaying with him this way....
He felt himself, his head, arms, chest, legs. He had been burned a dozentimes by energy auras, only his incredible animal quickness preservinghim, giving him the power to dodge away at first touch of the burningand slay the golden globes. The zanph bites atop the thorn scratches andhound gashes were rapidly stiffening his whole torso, his left arm, histhick-thewed legs. But there were shots in the upper valley, and Revelthe Mink was needed there.
Wearily he gathered his men--twenty-six of them now, all as tired ashe--and trudged at a broken shuffling lope toward the light.
As he passed the rocks where the machine of John sat, he scanned it withblood-shot eyes. A score of miners, perhaps thirty at most, stood aroundit, and the man of the Ancient Kingdom sat on its surface, wiping hisface with a white cloth. Lady Nirea stood up beside him and waved herhand as he passed. He swung his pick in a big arc to show he was stillhale and hearty, though the effort cost him much.
Through his dulled brain now ran one thought, one hope. It was a chant,a prayer, a focus for his beaten spirit, for though he had won thus far,he was so death-weary that he could not conceive victory coming to himat the last.
_Just let me meet Ewyo. Only let me meet Ewyo without his horse. Give menow one fair fight with Ewyo the Squire of Dolfya._
The first man he met was Rack, engaged in binding up a torn calf withstrips of his shirt.
"How goes it?"
Rack turned the walleye toward him, as though he could see out of it."We have eight or ten left. All their horses are dead or run away. Westayed them in hand-to-hand combat, but when they drew back and began touse their guns long-range, we lost heavily. Now we're dug in along thatrise, and they seem to be waiting for more squires, or horses, orsomething. I think they have twenty or thirty left."
"Then we have thirty-five or so, and outnumbered them."
Rack let his good eye rest on his brother. "Your voice is the croak of adying frog, Revel. You must have lost a quart of blood. Your men arelike sticks and sacks and limp rag bundles. You call this forcethirty-five _men_?"
"We are still men, Rack." His voice, croak though it was, rang strongand fierce. "I can plant this pick in any gnat's eye I desire. Now doyou lead us to the battle front."
"Yes, Mink." Rack turned and hobbled forward. "One of the slugs hassliced half the tendons of this leg, I swear."
"That wound is in the fleshy part, and won't trouble you for a week. Isthat a man?"
"That's Dawvys."
* * * * *
Revel started back, appalled. The man lying behind the rise was red andbrown from short-cropped hair to waist, his back a mass ofblood--sparkling crimson in the light of dawn, where it had freshlysprung leaks, and dirty mahogany color, where the scabs had dried andcracked and flaked. It was a back that should have belonged to a deadman; but Dawvys rolled over on it without a wince and grinned at hisleader.
"Hallo, Revel, bless your soul," said the former servant. "I'm glad tosee you alive."
"The same to you, Dawvys," said the Mink. "Did you have any trouble inthat pit?"
"I went to sleep when the hounds had passed, and never awoke till yourmen found me tonight." He stretched and grunted with pain; then, "Ithink I shall live."
Revel looked cautiously over the rise. Some fifty yards down the valleythe squires were grouped in a knot, their costumes gaudy in the earlylight. A few of them were looking toward him, but most watched the farend of the valley. They were looking, thought Revel, for reinforcements.Time might be short.
He scanned the terrain. Where the squires stood, the valley was narrow,scarcely more than sixty feet across. Above their knot, to Revel's left,was the open mouth of a mine; the opposite hillside was bare and rocky,without break. A familiar voice behind him said, "What's to do, Mink?"
"Greetings, Jerran. Why did you leave the machine?"
"Nothing doing there. The gods are sitting on the horizon. Have you athought?"
"See that mine?" He pointed with his gory pick. "Isn't that the westernentrance of the great mine of Rosk?"
Jerran took his bearings. "It is."
"Then the other entrance is back yonder, and through it we can traversethe mine and come out that hole-above the squires."
Jerran nodded. "The best plan under the circumstances. Let's go."
Rack said, "I come too."
"Yes, all of us save four men," agreed Revel. "They must stay here tocreate noise and pretend to be forty people. Give us ten minutes, andthe squires will find that mine shaft erupting death all over them!"