“He’ll be unconscious for a long time but I’ll stake him out just in case we’re delayed.”
“You mean while we’re looking at the Holy Place?”
“No while I’m looking at it. You’ll stay with him. His fear was real. Whatever is up there is dangerous.”
Lea snorted with disgust. “And just what isn’t dangerous on this planet? We go together. Correct?”
Brion opened his mouth to argue then closed it and reluctantly nodded. This was one argument that he knew he was lost even before it had begun. “Stay close to me. We have no idea what might be over the ridge.”
They walked slowly upwards through the trees, then stopped at the foot of the grassy slope. It ended at the top of the ridge a few yards further on. Brion leaned close and whispered.
“Please stay here until I see what we are facing. I promise that you will join me as soon as it is safe. All right?” She nodded agreement and sank into the shelter of a large tree.
Brion crept the last few feet an inch at a time. At the top he paused, then raised his head with infinite caution. Looked, then raised his head even higher to stare down the other side. Then he stood and waved, calling back to Lea.
“Come up here it’s all right. Just come and see what we have discovered.”
13: The Enemy Revealed
Lea scrambled up the slope, burning with curiosity. What could it possibly be? Ravn had been deathly afraid of something up here yet Brion was standing on the ridge, calling to her and waving. He reached down and took her hand, helping her up the last few feet. “Look,” he said, pointing.
Ruins, the ancient remains of buildings of some kind. Lea shook her head,
“Is this the Holy Place? Just some decaying ruins. There is certainly nothing frightening here.
“To our eyes. This surely represents something important to the locals. They may be destroyed now, but you must realize that these are the first permanent structures of any kind that we have seen on this planet. I think that it is safe enough to take a closer look.”
There was certainly nothing in the tumbled walls that could offer a threat of any kind; the ruined buildings must have been centuries old. Some of the construction had been of steel, but this had long since rusted away leaving only red traces in the soil. However the larger buildings, great square structures, had been made of rammed earth faced with ceramic. Where the ceramic had been fractured the dirt had been washed away, but enough of it had remained intact so there was still solid structure in many places. Brion clambered up to take a closer look at one of the remaining walls, searching for any evidence that might remain of the original nature of the constructions. He kicked at the crumbling dirt, then pointed to a series of holes in the outer wall.
“Do you think it would be farfetched to suggest that these buildings might have been destroyed by explosions at one time? These could be the remains of craters and these pock marks in the ceramic could have been caused by fragments.” Lea nodded agreement. “More than possible, if you stop to consider what is still happening on this planet. But what could this have originally been? This place is too small to have been a city, yet these buildings are so large.”
“The machinery has long since vanished but I have a strong hunch that this could have been a mine of some kind. Those hills out there are too regular to be anything except mine tailings. These could have been the mine outbuildings and offices, with the larger structures used for storage. All destroyed by bombing. All of the people killed as well …”
“No! Not all of them. Isn’t there a strong chance that our natives might be descendants of these people? The few survivors? Why else would they call a destroyed mine a Holy Place?”
“It’s a possibility, but we have no way of telling one way or the other. They might simply have found these ruins without knowing anything about them, worshipped them for their size. Perhaps Ravn can tell us.”
“I doubt it. And don’t you think it’s about time to go back and see if he has come around yet?”
“Yes, we’ve seen everything we need here. If he’s still out there’s no need to let him know that we have even been here. We still need his cooperation.”
Ravn was awake and glaring and refused to go on until dark. He knew where they had been, the dark flow of his hatred indicated that, but he was powerless to do anything about it. He sat, motionless, until dusk, then rose without a word and started down the hill towards the plain. They couId only follow after. Half of the night had passed before they completed the large detour around the Holy Place and were back in the foothills again. They slept the remaining few hours until dawn, then pressed on.
It was early on the fourth day when they paused at one of the streams that led down to the lake, in order to refill their water bottles. Brion stopped suddenly and looked up, his bottle still only half full. Lea saw the motion and started to speak but he held up his hand and waved her to silence.
“Just a moment. Don’t look around or draw any attention to yourself. We’re not alone any more. There are some people ahead, they must be among those trees, just above that grassy slope.”
“Are they friendly?”
“On this planet? Anything but. I can think of only one reason for their hiding along our trail like this. They are lying in ambush, waiting for us.”
“What do we do?”
“Nothing except wait for them to show themselves and make their intentions known. If it’s going to be trouble we can defend ourselves a lot better if we face them out here in the open …”
He pushed her suddenly to one side as something dark arced up and out from the trees. It was a long spear that thudded into the ground before them, almost at Ravn’s feet. He squawked with fear.
“Well, I would say that takes care of their intentions.” Lea pointed at the figures slipping out from the cover of the trees. “They look exactly like Ravn’s people and we know by now what they’re like. I know I shouldn’t give you advice, but wouldn’t you like to do something violent before they get any closer?” She tried to speak the words lightly, but could not keep the tremor out of her voice. The sight of the spear-armed men’s slow advance terrified her. The violence had been ceaseless since they had landed on this planet.
“Keep behind that tree where they can’t reach you,” Brion called to her, as he bent to take out the container of percussion grenades. The attackers were closer, at the top of the slope now, waving their spears and shouting insults. Brion armed a grenade, waiting for them to get closer. It was stalemate for the moment and this was when Ravn began shouting.
“I am the Ravn! I am coming to help you!” He jumped forward into the shallow stream, still shouting, and splashed across it. Brion started forward then drew back. It was too late to stop him now. Ravn was on the slope, waving his arms and shouting. “There are two of them, behind me, hiding, kill them, I will help. They have touched metal, they have machines! I have seen them. They must be destroyed!”
His words brought the spearmen forward, their voices rising to match his. They could see his necklace and bracelet, they knew that he was a Ravn, they would obey…
Flame and smoke erupted suddenly from the hillside, sending metal fragments sleeting through the boughs and into the trees. Ravn was lifted from his feet, broken, hurled aside. The sound of the explosion crashed out, and in the silence that followed, the wail of the retreating hunters keened loudly. Even as Brion hurled himself to the ground, dragging Lea with him, a second explosion hurled broken boughs and fragments of tree trunk from the forest above. This time Brion was aware of an echoing explosion from the plain behind them, and turned to see an armoured tank drawn up beside the stream. It’s long gun, pointing in their direction, vanished suddenly behind a cloud of flame-pierced smoke. The third shell struck even further up among the trees where the men had disappeared.