‘We’re going to ride those?’
‘Yes, Mortal Sword. They were bred for you and for the Shield Anvil.’
‘The one for Stormy’s got the saddle around the wrong way. How’s he going to stick his head up the Ve’Gath’s ass, where he’ll feel at home?’
Kalyth’s eyes widened.
Stormy laughed. ‘With you in charge, Ges, I’ll hide anywhere. You barely managed a measly squad. Now you got thirty thousand lizards expectin’ you to take charge.’
Gesler looked sick. ‘Got any spare room up that butt hole, Stormy?’
‘I’ll let you know, but just so you’re clear on this, when I shut the door it stays shut.’
‘You always were a selfish bastard. Can’t figure why we ever ended up friends.’
The Ve’Gath lumbered up to them.
Gesler glanced at Stormy and spoke in Falari. ‘All right, I guess this is it.’
‘I can taste their thoughts-all of them,’ said Stormy. ‘Even these two.’
‘Aye.’
‘Gesler, these Ve’Gath-they ain’t nasty-looking horses-they’re smart. We’re the beasts of burden here.’
‘And we’re supposed to be commanding them. The Matron got it all wrong, didn’t she.’
Stormy shook his head. ‘No point in arguing, though. The One Daughter told me-’
‘Aye, me too. A bloody coup. I imagine those Assassins figured out-and rightly so-just how redundant we are. Kalyth too. Stormy, I can reach out to them all. I can see through the eyes of any one of them. Except Gunth Mach.’
‘Aye, she’s built thick walls. I wonder why. Listen, Ges, I really have no idea what it is a Shield Anvil’s supposed to do.’
‘You’re a giant pit everybody bleeds into, Stormy. Funny your dreams didn’t mention that bit. But for this battle, I need you to command the Ve’Gath directly-’
‘Me? What about you?’
‘The K’ell Hunters. They’re fast, they can get in and out and with their speed they will be the deadliest force on the field.’
‘Ges, this is a stupid war, you know. The world’s not big enough for Long-Tails and Short-Tails both? Stupid. There’s barely any left as it is. Like the last two scorpions busy killing each other, when the desert covers a whole damned continent.’
‘The slaves are loose,’ Gesler replied. ‘With a few hundred generations of repressed hate to feed off. They won’t be satisfied until the last Che’Malle is a chopped-up carcass.’
‘And then?’
Gesler met the man’s eyes. ‘That’s what scares me.’
‘We’re next, you mean.’
‘Why not? What’s to stop them? They fucking breed like ants. They’re laying waste to warrens. Gods below, they’re hunting down and killing dragons. Listen, Stormy, this is our chance. We’ve got to stop the Nah’ruk. Not for the Che’Malle-I don’t care a whit for the Che’Malle-but for everyone else.’
Stormy glanced over at the Che’Malle. ‘They don’t expect to survive this battle.’
‘Aye, bad attitude.’
‘So fix it.’
Gesler glared, and then looked away.
The two Ve’Gath waited. Their backs were malformed, the bones twisted and lifted taut beneath the hide to form high saddles. Something like elongated fingers-or the stretched wings of a bat-slung down the beast’s flanks, the finger-ends and talons curling to form stirrups. Plates of armour ridged the shoulders. Lobster-tail scales encased the forward-thrusting necks. Their helms wrapped about the flattened skulls, leaving only the snouts free. They could look down upon a Toblakai. The damned things were grinning at their riders.
Gesler faced Gunth Mach. ‘One Daughter. The last Assassin-the one that escaped-I need him.’
Kalyth said, ‘We do not know if Gu’Rull even lives-’
Gesler’s eyes remained on Gunth Mach. ‘She knows. One Daughter, I ain’t going to fight a battle I can’t win. If you want us leading you, well, one thing us humans don’t understand, and that’s giving up. We fight when the fight’s been thumped out of us. We rebel when all we got left that’s not in chains is inside our skulls. We defy when the only defiance we got left is up and dying. Aye, I seen people bow their heads, waiting for the axe. I seen people standing in a row in front of fifty crossbows, and doing nothing. But they’ve all made dying their weapon, the last one left, and they are nightmare’s soldiers for ever afterwards. Is this getting through to you? I’m not one for inspiring crap. I need that Assassin, Gunth Mach, because I need his eyes. Up there, high overhead. With those eyes, I can win this battle.
‘You say Matrons never produce more than a hundred Ve’Gath. But your mother made fifteen thousand. Do you really think the Nah’ruk have any idea of what they’re getting into? You’ve filled my head with scenes of past battles-all your pathetic losses-and it’s no wonder you’re all ready to give up. But you’re wrong. The Matron-was she insane? Maybe. Aye. Insane enough to think she could win. And to plan for it. Mad? Mad genius, I’d say. Gunth Mach, One Daughter, summon your Shi’gal-he is yours now, isn’t he? Not ready to give up, not ready to surrender to the fatalism of his brothers. Summon him.’
Silence.
Gesler stared up into the Che’Malle’s eyes. Like staring into a crocodile’s. It’s the game of seeing all but reacting to nothing. Until necessity forces the issue. It’s the game of cold thoughts, if thoughts there are. It’s what makes a man’s balls crawl up looking for somewhere to hide.
She spoke in his mind. ‘Mortal Sword. Your words have been heard. By all. We shall obey.’
‘Gods below,’ Stormy muttered.
Kalyth stepped close to Gesler. Her eyes were wide. ‘A darkness lifts from the K’Chain Che’Malle.’ But in those eyes, beyond the wonder, he saw a flittering fear. She sees me sowing false hope. Gods, woman, what do you think a commander does? He walked up to one of the Ve’Gath, gripped what passed for a saddle horn, set one boot into a stirrup that suddenly clasped tight round his foot, and then swung himself astride the enormous beast.
‘Get ready to march,’ he said, knowing his words were heard by all. ‘We’re not waiting for the Nah’ruk to come to us. We’re heading straight for them, and straight down their damned throats. Kalyth! Does anyone know-will that sky keep follow? Will they fight?’
‘We don’t know, Mortal Sword. We think so. What else is left?’
Stormy was struggling to climb on to his beast. ‘Trying to crush my damned foot!’
‘Relax into it,’ Gesler advised.
The One Daughter spoke in his mind. ‘The Shi’gal comes.’
‘Good. Let’s get this mess started.’
Gu’Rull tilted his wings, swept close round the towering cliff-face of Ampelas Uprooted. There was but one Shi’gal left inside-he’d managed to deliver fatal wounds to the other before he’d been driven from the Nest, and then the city. Deep slashes wept thick blood down his chest, but none of these threatened his life. Already he had begun to heal.
Before him on the plain the massed Furies had resumed their ground-eating march. Thousands of K’ell Hunters spread out to form a vast screen in a crescent as they struck southward, where dark clouds boiled on the horizon, slowly disappearing as the sun finally sank beneath the western hills. The Nah’ruk had fed this day, but the quarry had proved deadlier than they could have anticipated.
This Mortal Sword and his words impressed Gu’Rull, in so far as these soft humans could do so; but then, neither the one named Gesler nor the one named Stormy were truly human. Not any more. The aura of their presence was almost blinding to the Shi’gal’s eyes. Ancient fires had forged them. Thyrllan, Tellann, perhaps even the breath and blood of the Eleint.