But Nona herself protested. “You can’t leave the others,” she gasped, spitting out a bit of reddish froth. The stab must have punctured a lung. “You have to help them. I can make my own way.”
Colene knew she was right. The stab was bad, but she was able to walk, and could probably manage to cover the distance before losing too much blood. Triage: she was one of the walking wounded. But others might be killed, if Colene did not get back into the fray immediately. “Go heal yourself—and if we don’t make it, go home.”
Nona nodded. Then Colene turned and ran back to rejoin the battle.
She saw the two enemy women lying where they had been downed. What a vicious fighter Colene had turned out to be, with her favored weapon and Seqiro’s power to guide her at key moments! She knew she should be appalled and sickened, but right now she was on a suicidal high. A berserker, heedless of the carnage.
The males were still battling. Burgess had reached the stones, but the minion had reached Burgess, and was tipping him over. Burgess weighed about four hundred pounds, but the man heaved with superhuman strength, and the floater went over on his top. For the first time she saw his underside, with the gills waving like fine foliage. The man used stones to prop Burgess upside down, then snatched up two clubs and headed back to join the other minion. It was about to be two against one, with the two armed and the one unarmed. That made sense; the man probably didn’t know how to kill Burgess quickly, so saved time by taking him out of circulation while he went after the more dangerous one. Burgess’ mental independence had proved to be no advantage. The enemy horse had figured out how to handle the alien creature.
But Colene was charging across the field while she observed. She would not let Darius fight alone!
Then she felt a nudge in her mind. Just enough to signal her the way Seqiro wanted her to go. Not toward Darius. Toward Burgess.
But Darius could be killed in the seconds she took to try to help Burgess!
Yet despite that, she yielded to the judgment of the horse, and swerved to go to Burgess. She had to trust Seqiro to know his tactical situation best. The two men closed in on Darius, the one tossing a club to the other.
Then the men hesitated. Colene felt the periphery of a terrible mental battle. The two horses were struggling for mental control of the two minions. Koturo had the advantage, because they were his minions, but Seqiro was able to reduce their efficiency so that they staggered and fell before straightening out and stalking Darius. Darius, however, was free to move at full speed. He could disarm one, or run for his own weapon.
But Darius did not. He too staggered and fell. Koturo was trying to take over his body. Then he stood straight, flinging out his arms in a gesture of defiance. He had blocked the enemy horse’s attack! Which meant the home team had taken the advantage, because Koturo was struggling to control three men, while Seqiro could focus on two.
Colene reached Burgess. He was in a sad state, with his trunks flattened under his own weight, his contact points jamming into the turf, and his eye stalks retracted. She swept out the stones propping him, then bent at one side, grasped two contact points, and heaved. He was four times her weight, but Seqiro gave her a flash of strength, and the floater went up and over. He landed with a muffled whomp—because he was frantically pumping air as he came down, cushioning the shock.
Colene grabbed on to two more contact points. “Pump rocks, Burg! We need you!”
The floater extended an eye stalk. Colene saw with horror that the other two had been squashed, and were useless. The third was operative—but the eyeball was unable to travel to its end. He was blind.
“I’ll be your eyes!” Colene cried. She focused on the three men, who were doing an odd dance: Darius was unarmed and fast, the other two armed and slow. Darius could avoid them, but could not disarm one without getting smashed by the other. It was a standoff, for the moment. “Can you see the targets?”
No. Colene’s mental picture was fuzzy for him, so that he could not distinguish one vague shape from another.
“Then let me call out the shots, like a cannon with a surveyed site,” she said. There was a large artillery base near where she lived, so she had picked up a bit about what the big guns did and how they oriented. “Just get these straight: range and direction. Fire where I tell you. But first go to the side for ammunition.”
Burgess pumped more air, and lurched to the side, finding the rocks. His two trunks seemed to be functioning, if slightly squashed. He sucked up a rock and fired it out. It struck the ground not far away, and in the wrong direction.
“Next shot,” Colene said. “Quarter turn to the right, and twice as far.”
The next rock fell near the three men. It was working!
“Next shot: just a bit farther, just a bit left.”
The third rock struck one of the minions on the leg. He did not react; his pain had been blocked. That was fine with Colene. She didn’t want him hurting, she wanted him incapacitated or dead. With no pain, he would not take evasive action. “Next shot: same direction, little bit higher.”
The next rock missed, because the man had moved. But it was right where it belonged.
“Hold it, now,” Colene said. “Fire when I tell you.” She watched the men move. When one minion started to go back to the key spot, Colene called the shot. “Now.”
The rock struck the minion in the head. The man went down, unconscious. Great!
Now Koturo recognized the threat. The remaining minion broke away from Darius and ran toward Burgess, dodging. He would be almost impossible to hit.
But Darius was chasing him. In a moment the two men were locked in hand-to-hand combat, fighting for the club. A rock could hit either one, so was too risky.
Colene thought of something else. “Eighth turn to the right. Double distance. Fire.”
The rock sailed out—and just missed the enemy stallion. The pieces were putting the king in check.
Now Koturo moved. He started toward Burgess. The horse might weigh a ton, literally; he could trample Burgess in short order.
Bur Seqiro also moved, to intercept the enemy stallion. It was going to come to direct physical combat between them.
Colene pondered her course, quickly. With the two horses together, stones were too risky. Darius remained locked with the other minion. But Colene was free.
“Stay here, Burg. You’re out of it, for now.” She let go of his contact points and stood.
She grabbed another knife and ran for the horses. No mind interfered with hers. She saw Seqiro and Koturo squaring off, turning to face each other.
Then the two horses squealed and reared up, striking at each other with their forehooves. Two hooves met with a thud; another struck a shoulder, bashing the flesh so hard that a wide gash opened. Colene wasn’t even sure which horse was hurt; the two were moving so quickly despite their size that her eye hadn’t quite caught the skin color.
It looked like an even battle. All the minions except Colene had been neutralized, one way or another, and she was physically and mentally insignificant. But she was not about to leave the outcome to chance.
She came up to the horses. Each stood higher than her head normally, and when they reared they were twice as high. But she never paused. As the two reared again, she ran in under Koturo and stabbed into his lower belly with her knife, driving it in with both hands.
Suddenly the terrible force of Koturo’s mind smashed into her mind. Colene reeled back, falling, helpless. She was done for, she knew. As she hit the ground, she felt the sledgehammer blow of a killing strike. Then mental fireworks radiated out, and something struck the ground beside her. She waited for death, helpless to move. She had done what she could, and it hadn’t been enough.