“Good shooting,” Gultec announced. “We hurt them that time.”
“Bui there are so many!” protested Keesha, one of the finest archers among the Itza. “How long can we keep harassing them thus? Every time we take our lives in our hands-and we cannot stop them!”
They all knew that several dozen men haul already lost their lives in these dangerous delaying tactics. And despite! their losses, the ant army marched implacably onward, pursuing the fleeing Itza toward the north.
“By tomorrow we will reach the mountains,” explained) Gultec. “There it is my hope that we can create an ambush and trap many of the beasts at once.” He looked at Keesha) and the others sympathetically.
“We also may succeed in drawing one of their leaders ton ward the front again,” he added. “If we can attack these man-bugs, then we may begin to stop the army.”
In the face of the frequent attacks from the forest, the driders commanding the ant army had taken to following in the path of their insect horde. While this protected them from the attacks, it also considerably lessened the drive and direction of the army. The column of ants tended to veer toward whichever threat presented itself, giving a party of archers nearby a chance to strike its flank and distract it from its original target.
A scream-a very human cry of nightmarish pain-tore through the jungle, and the warriors stiffened reflexively. They were but one of several bands of archers harassing the ants. One of the other groups, they knew, had just paid the price for their tactics.
“Let’s go!” Gultec growled, leading his men in the direction of the scream. Though they had no trail to follow now, the chance to make a diversionary attack in the flank of the column was one they could not ignore.
They soon heard the crunching and rustling of the army before them, and they pressed cautiously through the brush. Soon they saw the giant red bodies, the segments glistening in the patches of sunlight that broke through the overhanging canopy of leaves. The ants advanced past them from left to right. A flash of feathers indicated their fellow Itza archers, quickly disappearing into the jungle.
PI harsh cry arose from nearby, and the ants surged forward. Gultec saw one of the man-bugs jerkily scuttling forward. The creature held a long black bow, from which it fired a slim shaft in the direction of the retreating archers. Then it barked again in its strange tongue, obviously commanding the ants to pursue.
The Jaguar Knight’s pulse raced. Here was the chance he had been waiting for! “Hold your fire until Keesha gives the command,” he told his warriors. “I’m going after that one.”
Gultec sprang upward, grasping a tree limb and pulling himself into the foliage of the jungle’s heavy canopy. His shape shifted as he crept forward, hands and feet sprouting claws, becoming soft, padded paws that conformed easily to the rough surface of the limb. His Jaguar Knight’s helm shrank over his head, and then, from between fanged feline jaws, a deep growl rumbled. The jaguar’s spotted hide blended perfectly with the verdure as Gultec squatted down to wait.
“Now!” He heard Keesha’s command, and a dozen arrows burst from the brush to land among the ants. Several of these struck the man-bug but bounced harmlessly off its black metal shirt. Once Gultec would have thought that was the creature’s skin, but his experiences with the foreigners had shown him the powers of metal armor. He knew now that the black shell was such a material.
With the new attack, the ants twisted in confusion until the man-thing commanded them to turn and race toward the new threat. The bug’s path, Gultec saw with grim anticipation, took it very near the jaguar’s tree.
Ignoring the ants jerking and twisting around him, the great cat’s yellow eyes fixed upon the humanlike torso pitching and lurching among the insects. The drider passed the tree, still barking in its harsh, foreign tongue, and the ants pressed into the brush after Gultec’s band of archers. Keesha had already commanded them to fall back, the jaguar saw with satisfaction.
Then came the moment, as the man-bug moved away, its attention fixed steadily on the jungle before it. Silently the jaguar’s muscles flexed, hurling the heavy body into a great leap.
Gultec soared through the air and crashed heavily to the back of the drider. The weight of the cat bore the thing to the ground, and the human torso twisted frantically as the black-skinned face turned toward its attacker.
The drider screamed once, very quickly, as it saw the gaping jaws studded with curved, gleaming fangs. Gultec’s claws scraped for a hold on the hard carapace as his jaws clamped around the slender neck. He bit hard and felt bones snap beneath his jaws.
Instantly the creature went limp beneath him. Ants twitched in confusion, many turning toward him while others circled in aimless agitation. Mandibles snapped at the great cat, but before any could reach the creature’s spotted hide, Gultec flexed his muscles again.
With a powerful kick of his hind legs, he sprang straight up into the air. His forepaws seized an overhanging branch, quickly pulling the rest of his body behind them.
Then he leaped to another tree, darting away from the army, and in another second, he was gone.
The companions and their escort of desert dwarves had followed the smooth, barren coastline north for nearly a week when they began to encounter signs of increasing vegetation. First a fringe of hardy brown grass appeared, covering the dunes and spreading inland. Next, clumps brittle brush-dry and weather-beaten, but very common began to dot the land.
Hills rolled along the shore, though the beach itself mained smooth and sandy. Finally they noticed trees nest in the valleys between the hills.
At last, near noon of a typically hot and cloudless day, the reached an irrefutable sign that they had left the desert behind.
“A stream! Running water!” Jhatli, who had been scouting ahead of the procession, came racing back across the sand with the news. He looked older now, though his face still brightened with a childlike eagerness for good news. His body, however, had been toughened over the trek, even as he had grown an inch or more. Now wiry muscle rippled beneath his dark skin and tiny creases of concentration showed around his eyes.
Storm’s ears pricked upward at the scent of fresh water, and with Halloran jogging beside her, the mare carried Erixitl forward at an eager trot.
They reached a shallow grotto, where the stream flowed into the sea, and wasted no time in drinking and bathing. By the time Coton, Lotil, and the dwarves caught up, the three humans had drunk their fill and were basking peacefully beside the placid brook.
“The edge of the forest country,” remarked Luskag, staring in suspicion at the clear stream. He gestured to the wooded hills beyond. “The mountains of Far Payit lay there, to the northeast. We will skirt them as we continue to move north.”
For several more days, they journeyed along the coast, but now it was a forested shore, with realms of fiat savannah or rolling, wooded hills fringing their trail. The beach itself often disappeared, replaced by rocky crags and small, sheltered coves.
But game was plentiful, and so was water, The companions made good time now and didn’t complain when Luskag told them that their path must veer northward, away From the Sea of Azul.
They made their way through grassy valleys, lush with blossoms, berries, and wild mayz, and followed a multitude of streams and lakes. The desert dwarves spread out in tentative exploration of this new environment, soon overcoming their discomfort in the face of a multitude of food and water sources.
Erixitl slowly regained her strength. Her skin, darkly tanned and dried from the desert, grew smooth and fresh again. Every day, it seemed, the baby within her grew larger. Halloran rejoiced to the sensations of its kicks against her abdomen. For long hours, the journey became a pastoral adventure for them as they forgot about their mission, forgot about the dangers that lay before them. But then