The Quest - Smith Wilbur (читаем книги онлайн бесплатно TXT) 📗

Taita took Fenn with him to make a rapid inspection of the small fort and the defences in the throat of the Gap and he found them rudimentary, the walls low and in poor repair. However, the arsenal and the quarter-master's store were well stocked, as were the kitchen and larder.

'We will not hold the enemy here very long,' he told Fenn. 'Speed is our best defence.' They gazed down at the straggling column of refugees.

'They will need food and drink to give them strength to carry on. Find willing younger women to help you and Sidudu hand out food to them as they pass, whatever you can find, especially those with young children.

Then send them on down the track to the boatyards. Keep them moving.

Don't let them rest or they will die here.'

Meren hurried back to join them. He and Taita climbed the ladder to the top of the watch-tower. From there, Taita pointed out a ledge higher up the scree slope that overlooked the head of the path. 'Assemble all the men you can spare and take them up there. Tell them to gather large

THE QUEST

rocks and pile them on the ledge. We will roll them down on the Jarrians as they come up the path.' Meren scrambled back down the ladder and went for his men, while Taita hastened to join Fenn beside the path.

While she selected women to prepare food, he picked out the able bodied men and sent them to work with Meren on the ledge.

Gradually they made order from the confusion. The pace of the retreat quickened. With food and drink in their bellies the people took new heart. As they passed him, Taita exchanged banter with the men and made weary women smile and hoist their infants higher on their shoulders. Everyone plodded on with renewed determination. As evening fell, the laughter of Fenn's helpers sweetened the night, and the light of the torches that Hike's rearguard carried marked the tail of the column.

'By the grace of Isis, it looks as though we shall get them all through,'

said Fenn, as they picked out the tall figure of Hilto in the torchlight, and heard his deep voice urging the column along.

Taita ran down to meet him. 'You have done well, good Hilto,' he greeted him. 'Have you seen the Jarrian vanguard?'

'Nothing since sunset when we made out their dust. But they cannot be far behind.' Hilto was carrying a young child on each shoulder and his men were similarly burdened.

'Go on with all speed,' Taita ordered, and ran on down the empty track until he was alone and the noise of the retreating column was muted by distance. He stopped to listen and heard a faint murmur below him. He fell to his knees and pressed his ear to the rock. The sound was sharper. 'Chariots and marching men.' He jumped to his feet. 'They are coming up fast.' He raced back to where Hilto was shepherding the tail of the column. Almost the last in the line was a woman with a child strapped to her back. She dragged two others behind her, snivelling and whining.

'I am tired. My feet are hurting.'

'Can we rest now? Can we go home?'

'You are going home,' Taita said, then picked up both children and settled them on his shoulders. 'Hold tight,' he told them and reached out his free hand to the mother. 'Come, now. We shall soon have you at the top.' He strode on upwards, pulling the woman after him.

'Here we are.' He set the children down as they reached the top of the pass. 'These two pretty girls will give you something good to eat.'

He pushed them towards Fenn and Sidudu, then smiled at the mother, who was worn out and wan with worry. 'You will be safe now.'

'I don't know who you are, but you are a good man.'

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He left them and went back to join Hilto. Together, they saw the last of the refugees over the top of the pass and started them down the far side. By now dawn was breaking. Taita looked up to where Meren st6od on the ledge at the top of the scree slope. Meren waved, his men crouched among the piles of loose rock they had gathered.

'Go to the top of the watch-tower,' Taita ordered Fenn and Sidudu. 'I will join you presently.' For a moment it seemed that Fenn might argue but she turned away without a word.

Soon Taita heard the chariot wheels grinding up towards the fort. He walked a short way down the track to meet them, intending to divert the attention of the Jarrians from Meren's men on the ledge above. Suddenly the first vehicle appeared round the bend of the narrow track not far below him. As it climbed towards him, others appeared behind it. A dozen foot soldiers ran beside each vehicle, clinging to the sides as they were towed up the steep pathway. There were eight chariots in all, and behind the last came a mass of infantry.

Taita made no attempt to conceal himself, and a shout rang out from the leading chariot. The driver cracked his whip and the chariot bounced over the rough surface as it speeded up. Taita did not move. A spearman hurled a javelin at him, but Taita did not flinch. He watched the weapon fall five or six paces short of where he stood and clatter on the rocks. He let them come on again. The next javelin might have hit him, but he dodged aside and it flew past his shoulder. He heard Fenn cry from the tower, 'Come back, Taita. You are placing yourself at hazard.' He ignored her warning and watched the chariots. At last they were all fully committed: there was no space for them to turn and flee. He waved up at Meren. 'Now!' he shouted, and the echoes flung his voice along the cliffs: 'Now! Now! Now!'

Meren's men bent to the task. The first rocks rolled over the ledge and bounced down the steep slope. They loosened others and set off a rumbling rockslide. The charioteers heard it coming and, with startled cries, abandoned their vehicles and ran for safety. But there was no shelter in the narrow pass from the tide of rock. It crashed into the stranded chariots, sweeping them and the men off the path and into the gorge below. When the rock stopped sliding, the track was blocked with piles of debris.

'No chariots will be able to use that road for a while, and even men on foot will have difficulty getting over these obstacles,' Taita said to himself, with satisfaction. 'It should hold them for the rest of the morning.' He signalled Meren to bring his men down to the fort. By

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the time he had climbed to the top of the tower, the last of the refugees had long disappeared down the track on the reverse slope.

Fenn was so relieved to see him that she embraced him fiercely. 'You are very dear to me, my lord,' she whispered. 'My heart stops beating when I see javelins flying about your head.'

'If you have such high regard for me, then the least you should do is feed me before the rest of the Jarrian army arrives.'

'You have become so masterful since you returned from the mountain.

It pleases me, my lord.' She laughed and disappeared to the kitchens.

When she returned they leant on the parapet and ate eggs with dhurra cake. They watched the Jarrian commander send a detachment of fifty men up the slope to seize the ledge from which Meren and his men had hurled the rocks. He was standing in the middle of the track, just out of long bowshot, below them. He was tall and lean, and wore the ostrich plumes of a colonel on the crest of his helmet.

'I don't like the look of him in the least,' Taita remarked. The man had swarthy features, a hard, jutting chin and a large, hooked nose. 'Do you recognize him, Sidudu?'

'I do, Magus. He is a hard and merciless man, hated by us all.'

'His name?'

'Colonel Soklosh.'

'Colonel Snake,' Taita translated. 'He bears more than a passing resemblance to his namesake.'

As soon as he had control of the ledge, Soklosh sent his skirmishers forward to clear the rock-strewn path before the fort, and to test the mettle of the defenders.

'Send them a few arrows,' Taita told Fenn. Quickly the two girls unslung their bows. Sidudu's arrow passed so close over the head of one Jarrian that he ducked and ran. Fenn hit another in the calf. He hopped about on the uninjured leg howling like a wolf, until his comrades held him down and snapped off the arrow shaft short. Then they retreated down the track, two supporting the wounded man between them. After that there was a long pause before a dense phalanx of armoured men jogged around the bend, and came up the track towards the fort.