The incursions of the Reindeer Tribes into the northern part of Deer Hunter country continued for the next few weeks, but Athlan’s “silent ambushes” and Zathal’s “stinking bodies” notion seemed to disturb the invaders more and more as time went by, and as autumn approached, the intrusions became fewer and fewer.
Then, on a cloudy morning, Kathlak came up from the village of Statha to speak with Athlan. “What are you doing, Athlan?” he demanded.
“Hunting, of course,” Athlan replied with feigned innocence. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”
“I just received a complaint from the chief of one of the Reindeer Tribes about a foul smell coming up from our territory. He says that it’s making the people of his southern villages sick.”
“That was sort of what we had in mind, Kathlak,” Athlan replied. “The Reindeer Tribes have been attacking villages on our side of the border, so we came up with a way to make them stop.”
“Oh?” Kathlak said. “What’s that?”
Athlan shrugged. “We kill them and then drag the carcasses back up to the border and leave them there. If Dahlaine doesn’t like what I’m doing, tell him to order the Reindeer Hunters to stay on their own side of the line.”
Kathlak glanced around to make sure that they were alone. “Don’t change a thing, Athlan,” he said very quietly. “All I’m doing here is following Dahlaine’s orders. I’m supposed to reprimand you, so consider yourself reprimanded.”
“Did you want me to weep and wail and bang my head against a tree, or something?”
“I don’t think you need to go quite that far,” Kathlak replied. “Keep me advised about how things are going up here. If the Reindeer Tribes learn to stay where they belong, you probably won’t have to go any further, but if they keep on coming down here, we might have to take some more drastic steps.”
“I’ll let you know, My Chief,” Athlan promised.
The incursions of the Reindeer Tribes into Deer Hunter territory had more or less come to a halt by the end of the following week, so Athlan went on back to Statha to advise Kathlak that things were quiet again. “It took them a while to get the point, My Chief,” Athlan concluded as they spoke together in Kathlak’s lodge, “but when they realized that we’d kill every one of them who came across the line, and we wouldn’t make any noise, they decided to go find something else to do.”
“You’re very good at this sort of thing, Athlan,” Kathlak observed.
Athlan shrugged. “I’m a hunter, My Chief, and a good hunter’s quiet. You won’t take very many deer if you yell at them before you shoot your arrows.”
There was a sudden shattering crash just outside Chief Kathlak’s lodge.
“I wish he wouldn’t do that!” Kathlak growled.
“Who is it?” Athlan demanded, his ears still ringing.
“Dahlaine, of course. He roams around in the world on a thunderbolt. He says it’s fast, but the noise it makes irritates me for some reason. Let’s go see what he has to say.”
“Has he managed to get over his grouchies about what my people were doing to the Reindeer Hunters?” Athlan asked a bit apprehensively.
“We can ask him, if you’d like. Come along, Athlan.”
They went on out of Kathlak’s lodge, and Dahlaine was waiting nearby.
“How are things going in your brother’s Domain?” Kathlak asked.
“Even better than we’d hoped, Kathlak,” Dahlaine replied. “The war’s over down there, and the Vlagh doesn’t have nearly as many servants as she had when it started. There was another enemy involved as well, and now they’re gone, too.”
“Fire again?” Kathlak asked.
“No. This time it was water.” Dahlaine grinned broadly. “Things don’t seem to be going too well for the Vlagh this year, for some reason.”
“Which way do you think the Vlagh will strike next?” Kathlak asked.
“We don’t know for sure,” Dahlaine replied. “We’ve managed to block off the West and the South, so that leaves only two regions of the Land of Dhrall still open. My older sister’s positive that the Vlagh will attack her Domain next, but I think she might be wrong. We’ve all been hiring outlanders to help fight the Vlagh, though, so we can cover Aracia’s Domain and mine as well. There’s a sizeable fleet of Maag ships on the way up here, and they should arrive before very long. Have there been any sightings of the creatures of the Wasteland up here lately?”
“What are they?” Kathlak asked.
“That’s what the servants of the Vlagh are called, My Chief,” Athlan explained. “They’re very small, and they sneak around, watching what we do. Longbow told me that they’ve got poisonous fangs—sort of like some snakes, so you don’t want to get too close to them.”
“You know Longbow?” Dahlaine asked with some surprise.
“We met a few years ago,” Athlan replied. “He came up here to find out if the creatures of the Wasteland were snooping around up here like they were down in Zelana country. He comes by every so often, and we usually go hunting. He’s awfully good with his bow, isn’t he?”
“He’s the best,” Dahlaine said. “He’s coming up here with the Maags, so you’ll be able to renew your acquaintance.” Then Dahlaine squinted at Athlan. “You’re the one who’s been murdering the members of the Reindeer Tribes, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘murder,’ Dahlaine,” Kathlak stepped in. “The Reindeer Hunters are coming down here into our country to rob and kill members of my tribe. Athlan gathered up some archers to hold them off—and he did a very good job. I approve of almost everything he did. Piling dead Reindeer Hunters on the border and leaving them to rot might have been a little extreme, but it got the point across. The Reindeer Hunters stopped attacking our people at that point, and that was the whole idea. If you want to scold somebody, you can scold me.”
Dahlaine frowned. “I wasn’t aware of what was happening up here,” he admitted. “I think I’ll have a word or two with that Reindeer chief. He didn’t tell me what was really going on up here. All he said was that those rotting bodies were making life unpleasant for his people.”
“That was sort of what we had in mind,” Athlan said. “How long would you say it’s going to take Longbow and his friends to get here?”
“No more than a week,” Dahlaine replied. “There’ll be some others coming as well, but it might take them quite a while to get here. I’m sure they’ll surprise everybody in this part of the world. They’ve managed to tame an animal called ‘the horse,’ and they sit on his back when they want to go somewhere.”
“You mean that they’re too lazy to walk?” Kathlak asked.
“Not really. It’s just that horses run very fast, so those people can go from here to there much, much faster than just about anybody else. They’re very good warriors, so I’m sure that they’ll be useful when our enemies invade our part of the Land of Dhrall.”
3
Athlan went on down to the temporary village the fish hunters of the tribe set up on the coast every summer. Fish meat didn’t taste as good as deer meat, but once it had been dried, it didn’t rot, and it kept the tribe eating regularly during the winter.
The outlander boats came up the coast a few days later and Athlan was surprised by the size of them, and by the fact that the outlanders didn’t use paddles to move their boats. They’d come up with a way to put the wind to work, and their boats moved very fast.
The boats came closer to the fish hunter village, and Athlan saw his friend standing at the front of the leading boat. He pushed his canoe off the bank and paddled on out to greet his old friend. When he climbed up the rope ladder, Longbow introduced him to a small man who appeared to be playing with a fire for some reason that Athlan couldn’t understand. Then Longbow and his little friend showed Athlan something so remarkable that the world seemed almost to turn itself upside down. It was an arrowhead unlike any other one he’d ever seen, and he saw its value almost immediately. Then the man called Rabbit advise
d him that there would soon be more of those arrowheads available than he could even count—and that they’d be a gift.
Then Longbow advised him that Dahlaine wanted to speak with him.
After Athlan told Dahlaine that the Reindeer Hunters Tribe would probably continue their attacks, Dahlaine decided that it was time to get to the bottom of that.
The strangers seemed to be quite surprised by the swamp-fires dancing over one of the marshes, but the young soldier called Keselo explained it, using some terms Athlan had never heard before.
When they reached Statha, Kathlak was waiting for them in one of the Nation Lodges, and he and Dahlaine spoke at some length about the attacks of the Reindeer Hunters Tribe to the north, and then Dahlaine’s sister told them that she’d drift on up to that part of the Tonthakan Nation to find out just why the Reindeer Hunters had suddenly decided to go to war.
“I don’t really think that’s a very good idea, Longbow,” Athlan said to his friend, “particularly not if she’s going up there alone. It could be dangerous for her up there, you know.”
“I wouldn’t be too concerned, Athlan,” Longbow replied. “Our Zelana can listen without being seen. She’ll be able to find out what’s really going on up there, and the Reindeer Hunters won’t even know that she’s been there.”
“I take it that she doesn’t ride a thunderbolt like Dahlaine does,” Athlan said.
“She rides the wind instead,” Longbow replied. “It’s not as fast as a thunderbolt, but it’s a lot quieter.”
“Just exactly when was it that she decided to leave that island where she was hiding?”
“Last winter. She and her little girl chased me down and persuaded me to help when she went on over to the Land of the Maags to hire an army to fight the creatures of the Wasteland.”
“I’ve heard a few things about that war, but it seemed to me that there might have been a lot of exaggeration in those stories.”
“They probably were understatements, Athlan,” Longbow said. “There was a fire-mountain that cooked thousands of the creatures of the Wasteland, and later there was a flood that drowned even more of them.”
“Did Zelana do that?”
“No, actually, Eleria and Yaltar did it. Have you heard the old story about ‘the Dreamers’?”
“When I was younger, yes.” Athlan blinked. “Are you trying to tell me that the story was really true?”
“It came very close, my friend. So far, we’ve won two wars that we couldn’t possibly have won if it hadn’t been for the Dreamers—and with the help of somebody we didn’t even know about. That’s another old story that you probably heard when you were a child.” He smiled. “As they always say, ‘the old ones are the best.’ That should brighten up your whole day, Athlan. We’re getting so much help that we can’t possibly lose.”
Dahlaine’s sister returned to Statha the following morning with a slightly puzzled look on her beautiful face.
“Well?” Dahlaine asked her.
“Somebody’s tampering, big brother,” she replied. “The Reindeer Tribes are all convinced that the southern tribes insulted them dreadfully, but they can’t quite remember just exactly what the insult was. I browsed around a bit, and they’re all certain that the insult was dreadful, but they can’t remember a word of it. I’m fairly sure that the servants of the Vlagh have come up with a way to instill a sense of outrage in the Reindeer Tribes with no real basis in fact. If this continues the way it’s going right now, you won’t have any Tonthakan archers to help you when the creatures of the Wasteland attack.”
Then the farmer from Veltan’s Domain came forward. “Excuse me,” he said, “but I just remembered something that might be useful here. It seems that there are certain sounds that the bug-people can’t pronounce. The shepherd Nanton told me that they lisp, and they can’t correctly pronounce the sound at the beginning of the words ‘cat,’ or ‘cow,’ or ‘kill.’ It comes out as a peculiar sort of ‘click’ that sounds very much like a hiccup.”
“Now that might be the answer to our problem right there,” Longbow said. “If there just happen to be several people with hiccups standing around any of the chieftains up in Reindeer country, it might just explain what’s happening. The bug-people have been able to manipulate quite a few ordinary people in the past.”
“Like Kajak, you mean?” Rabbit suggested.
“He was one of them, that’s for certain.”
“How?” Athlan demanded. “How in the world could a bug-man convince a chief that he’d been insulted when it really didn’t happen?”
“Let’s not throw the idea away,” Dahlaine said, frowning slightly. “Sometimes the bug-people use certain scents to set off reactions that aren’t really appropriate. It’s entirely possible that some scent made a chief of that Reindeer Hunter Tribe believe that something happened when it really hadn’t.”
“I’d say that it might be time for some of us to go up into Reindeer Land and listen for clicks and sniff the air,” Longbow suggested. “If there’s somebody smelly who clicks when he says ‘Tonthakan,’ it might just explain what’s going on up there.”
With Dahlaine in the lead, Athlan and Longbow, along with several outlanders, went north from Statha toward the border between Deer Hunter Land and the home of the Reindeer Tribes. It was a cloudy day, and for some reason that made Athlan just a bit edgy.
There weren’t any archers of the Reindeer Tribe guarding the border, and that was unusual. Since the path they were following went directly up from Statha, the border here was usually well guarded by both tribes.
“Peculiar,” Longbow observed. “If the Reindeer Tribe’s feeling belligerent, they should be watching this border very carefully.”
“Maybe they’ve come up with a plan of some kind,” the bulky sea-warrior Ox suggested. “They could have pulled back like this to lure Athlan and his bowmen into a trap. That would be very much like what Athlan here’s been doing to them lately, wouldn’t it?”
“It is possible, Lord Dahlaine,” the young Trogite Keselo agreed.
Dahlaine frowned. “There aren’t any of them in the immediate vicinity,” he said. “If they’re trying to lure us deeper into their territory, it would make sense to leave the border unprotected. The one we’re looking for is Chief Kadlar. He’s the one who was complaining about the stench coming from his dead archers a while back. He’s the one we want to track down, because he’s almost certainly the one who started all this. Let’s keep moving, gentlemen. I’ll be able to sense them if they’re hiding in the forest, and that’s probably all the warning we’ll need.”
They pushed on through the alien-looking forest. Athlan noticed that there were many more hemlock trees here than there were in the forests of Deer Hunter Land. He didn’t really care much for hemlock trees, since they gave off an unpleasant odor.
The small, wiry Rabbit moved on ahead of them, and after a while, he came scampering back out of the hemlock forest. “They’re just ahead of us,” he reported quietly to Dahlaine. “They’re gathering in a large meadow about a half mile to the north.”
“Archers?” Dahlaine asked.
“They all have bows,” Rabbit replied. “That says ‘archer’ to me. I didn’t count them, but I’d say there are a thousand or so.”
“Is there any open ground between us and that meadow?” Dahlaine asked. “I want them to see me coming so that they don’t start showering us with arrows. Kadlar may not like me all that much, but he does know that I’m the one who’s giving the orders around here.”
“There’s a dry creekbed that leads down into that meadow,” Rabbit replied. “It’s a little brushy, but I’m sure they’ll be able to see us if we stand up and walk instead of creeping through the brush.”
“Lead the way, Rabbit,” Dahlaine said. “When we get close to the normal range of a well-shot arrow, I’ll unlimber my pet thunderbolt to let Kadlar’s people know that it’s me. She’s terribly noisy, but she lets people know that I’m really who I say that I
am.”
They veered off through the hemlock woods and then followed the dry streambed on down to the meadow.
“Kadlar!” Dahlaine roared in a voice people probably heard ten miles away, “I want to talk with you—now! Come here!”
The chief of the Reindeer Tribe was a large man of middle years who was fairly paunchy, and he appeared to be more than a little reluctant to obey Dahlaine. He approached warily, followed by several of his tribesmen.
“Why are you doing this, Kadlar?” Dahlaine demanded.
“The Deer Hunter Tribes insulted us, My Lord,” the paunchy chief replied. “We won’t tolerate that.”
Athlan noticed that most of Kadlar’s men were grouped up around him with their bows ready. There were two men, however, who seemed to be backing slowly away, and they were holding their bows rather awkwardly. “I think those two don’t really want to get too close to us, Longbow,” Athlan told his friend in a very quiet voice.
“You could be right,” Longbow agreed, his eyes going narrow. “Ox, why don’t you see if you can persuade those two who seem to want to leave to join us.”
Ox hefted his heavy iron axe a couple of times. “Do you think this might get their attention?” he asked.
“I’m sure it will,” Longbow said.
“Just exactly what was it that the Deer Hunter Tribe said that you found so offensive, Kadlar?” Dahlaine demanded.
“I won’t repeat it, Dahlaine. It was absolutely foul and uncalled for.”
“And who was it who used that language? Was it Chief Kathlak himself?”
Chief Kadlar frowned. “No, it wasn’t Kathlak,” he said. “It was somebody who was standing very close to him, though.”
“Give me a name, Kadlar,” Dahlaine insisted. “I can’t punish him if I don’t know his name.”
Kadlar looked a bit puzzled. “The name’s right on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t seem to remember it.”
Ox was herding the two reluctant natives back to the little group surrounding Chief Kadlar. “Here are those two bashful ones, Longbow,” he said with an evil grin.