Thread Slivers (Golden Threads Trilogy), page 29
Allua, one of his squad’s Daggers, ran in and leaned over to whisper in his ear, “Sir, the hound is ready. Alpha and Echo are ordered to river walk for him.”
Shocked at the news, Elades stood. “Thank you very much, Nualli Baker, I appreciate your help with this. Do you desire compensation for lost work?”
The baker stood. “Thank you, but my assistants are likely doing OK in my absence. I am glad things are finally getting cleaned up here. I live for the true Princes and their Regents.”
Elades smiled and waved him out. Turning, he saw more of his men had already stepped into the room as the order was being rapidly passed. Looking at Allua, he asked, “Where?”
“West Gate.”
“Of course; and Echo?”
“Already informed, sir.”
“Ridge run to within four blocks, then river walk on Duke’s lead.” No one waited a breath longer and they all bolted, most grinning with excitement. Elades couldn’t keep from smiling himself. I don’t know how he did it, but if he can truly hunt now we might finally have the advantage. Playing catch-up is even more annoying than dealing with holy types. Sorry, Lord, but you know it’s true.
They poured out of the building, using every alley, door, and window, heading in many different directions. Of course, once out of sight, they each took a separate path, turning toward the western gate at their best speed.
Elades approached the west gate from along the wall. He was stepping over another dead bird, cooked by the lightning-balls on top of the walls, when he noticed that it had something on its foot. Stopping, he picked it up. The bird was charred, like it had been in a very hot fire, especially its wings. The legs, however, were relatively untouched. On one leg was a small canister containing a sliver of paper; he took it off of the bird and pulled the sliver of paper out of the canister. It was in some kind of code. I need to show this to Duke. Looking up, he saw the silver balls at the tops of the long spikes that topped the wall sparking with lightning occasionally. Well that explains those things. Interesting counter-intelligence device, for sure. For the dozenth time, he wondered what the effect would be on a person trying to climb over the wall. We’ll have to scout the outside of the wall carefully for bodies when Duke opens the gates. This might be very interesting. I should also have our patrols look for more carrier birds.
He continued to the gate and arrived within minutes of Duke, who was sitting next to the gate, looking at the area quietly. Duke turned and walked to the gate and then sat down. He looked at it curiously, then said something, and the six-foot-thick, fifty-foot-wide metal slab slid down rapidly, with a slight grating sound like a knife being dragged over rock. It sank until it was a few inches below the street level, making a slotted line in the road across the gateway. The slotted line was where it had been paved over, hiding it from view. Must have been done when the pretenders figured out they couldn’t control it and put in the more normal gate system. Duke said something else and it slid up just as fast, closing without much more than a soft thunk. That thing has to weigh as much as a large house; what kind of machinery could lift such a weight so efficiently and evenly? Duke then opened it and closed it a few more times, and each time it moved at a different speed. Not once, however, did it close with the speed and power it had when it had cut Ticca off from the Nhia-Samri, who had then managed to fight clear and escape.
After experimenting with the gate, Duke moved around the periphery of the fight area, which was still being guarded by a dozen city guardsmen. Duke stopped at each guard and Dagger asking them to hold their hand out to be sniffed. After getting each person’s scent he continued his circuit, snuffling the ground. There were key points where he stopped and snuffled around dramatically before continuing around the scene. One spot near the gate Duke spent more than a minute following the scents. Finally he followed the fight path to and from the gate a few times before also examining the steel gate where the Nhia-Samri had pounded on it in frustration.
Duke looked around. There were a number of people watching the event with interest. Duke called out, “Alpha and Echo Commanders, front and center!”
Elades jumped down into the alley, past another of his men, who was concealed in the shadows watching the alleyway diligently. Once down, he walked out to Duke, around the fight area, which everyone was under orders to not cross for any reason. Echo’s commander, Sonnua, was coming up the street.
As they came to Duke, Elades took command as was appropriate, answering for both squads. “Sir.”
Duke glanced curiously at the bird in Elades’s hand for a moment. “Commander, evacuate the vicinity for a space of three blocks in all directions. Pay what is needed to compensate business owners. I want three detachments of guards made ready. Place one of those detachments on the perimeter here. They are under orders to not allow anyone to re-enter, but not to raise arms to anyone who refuses or who exits after the evacuation. They are to take careful note and request firmly a piece of clothing, hat, or coat to be returned later of anyone exiting late or re-entering. Again, they are not to raise arms if refused, just take careful note. Bravo Squad to assemble at the center square with the other two detachments. Elades, remain here; and Sonnua, please attend to this.”
Elades turned and signaled for Alpha to remain on guard while Sonnua started giving orders to the guards present.
Elades turned back to Duke, holding out the bird. “Sir, I found this in route.” Holding out the small paper and canister in his other hand, he added, “It had this.”
“Feed me the bird.”
Elades tossed the bird in the air and Duke snapped it like a dog catching a tasty morsel from the table. Duke chewed it whole for a few moments, then swallowed. “Not bad. Mash and corn fed, definitely a prized bird. Give that message to Ladro, with orders to make a copy for the royal scribes and for Delta’s commander to decipher.”
Elades smiled. Yes, let’s see if the Nhia-Samri agents will feed us good or bad intelligence. I wondered when we were going to deal with them. But they have done a good job so far, nothing even out of order, other than paying a little too much attention to other units’ orders.
Duke looked around as the guards were escorting everyone from the various buildings, making sure they walked down the side of the main roads and out of the area. “Elades, give me your hand.”
Elades held out his hand and Duke sniffed it carefully. “Good. Also, have anyone else involved with that fight come here immediately.”
He signaled for Alpha to report in individually. Over the next twenty minutes Duke took a good smell of every single member of Alpha Squad. By the time he was done the streets were completely silent. Duke motioned for Elades to remain still and sat in the middle of the empty street with his head held high. Although Duke’s eyes were closed his ears rotated back and forth rapidly. Once or twice his head would snap around in a direction with his ears perked in the same direction like a pointer dog. He’s waiting for something or someone. But, what? The area is evacuated.
Duke stood with his head pointing up at one of the buildings down the street, which looked like a rich merchant’s home. “Alpha, deer hunt!”
Duke burst forward like a released arrow, straight at the building, while a dozen Daggers came out of the alleys all around and ran at top speed in the direction Duke was heading. Elades felt his heart rate jump and he followed Duke as fast as he could. Duke didn’t bother heading for the main door; he ran right at the building. When he was ten feet away, he leaped high into the air, bursting through a lower window. Three other Daggers, with Elades, ran right up under the window and then partially up the wall, managing to grab the window ledge. From there they pulled themselves up and followed Duke inside.
Elades swung himself into the library with a kick. Landing, he rolled, coming up to a fighting stance and drawing his daggers. Duke had barreled through the library, knocking a table and some large chairs out of his way and crashing through the closed double doors. Elades checked that the three others were up and ready. He smiled when he recognized his second, Idanas, as well as Nullo Sidurson and his brother Essen — his best knife fighters — were the three with him. Together, the four of them followed Duke at a cautious run.
Through the doors was a large, round, two-story room with stairs going up both sides. Duke ran through the middle and jumped up, just clearing the banister to land half-way up the stairs. Elades signaled for two to follow Duke and Nullo to stay with him. Together they ran left and then up the nearer stairs. Idanas and Essen ran across the room to follow Duke up the far stairs. All four of them reached the top together. From the first floor the front and back doors crashed loudly as they were kicked in by the rest of the squad.
Duke turned right, towards the street, barking loudly, “First floor alley-side, second floor street-side,” at the top of the stairs, then barreled through a set of large white double doors. Duke’s growls sounded like a whole wolf pack. Below the sounds of more fighting could be heard. Elades waved Idanas and Essen off to a pair of doors to the left of the ones Duke had forced; then he and Nullo dove into the room where Duke was already fighting.
There were three Nhia-Samri in what looked like a spacious sun room, with large windows overlooking the gate and street. All three were dressed simply, but had odassi blades out and were circling Duke cautiously. Duke dove at one, who dodged out of the way, while the other two tried to spear him. One of them managed to stab Duke. Duke grunted with pain and twisted around, pulling the attacker off-balance as his blade was stuck in Duke’s side. Duke’s teeth succeeded in grabbing the end of his attacker’s leg, which was all Duke needed to yanked the warrior around; Elades had to admire the guy’s tenacity as he didn’t yell out or panic instead he tried to stick his other knife into Duke’s head.
Duke saw the coming attack and yanked his head around hanging on to the guy’s leg. The Nhia-Samri was whipped around violently, like a doll. The Nhia-Samri must have had a death grip on his blades; the one stuck in Duke’s side was ripped out, causing a spray of blood that arced around Duke, following the sword.
Elades stepped up to Duke’s wounded side and blocked a second attack by the remaining Nhia-Samri on that side. They exchanged a rapid series of knife thrusts and parries. On the other side of Duke the sound of another knife fight told Elades that Nullo had engaged the third Nhia-Samri. Exchanging knife strike after knife strike, he fought his opponent. They circled each other and Elades saw that Duke was slamming the one he had up and down on the floor, turning him into nothing more than a bloody pulp of a man. Duke flung the pulped man out of the window into the street and turned to Elades’s opponent.
Duke made a snap for Elades’s opponent, which forced the Nhia-Samri to dodge. That gave the opening Elades had been waiting for. Elades swiped his dagger at the Nhia-Samri’s neck with all his entire strength behind it, half decapitating the man. Blood sprayed out and over Elades and Duke as the Nhia-Samri fell.
Not pausing, Elades turned and jumped over Duke’s tail to the other side of the room where Nullo had been cut on his arm and leg but was still fighting the Nhia-Samri there. Duke’s ears twisted toward the hall, he barked and launched out of the room, giving them more space to fight. Elades stepped in and attempted a double-cut strike at the Nhia-Samri’s head, which he blocked, leaving his lower belly open. Nullo didn’t hesitate, plunging both of his knives into the Nhia-Samri’s gut. The Nhia-Samri tried to cut down on his killer, but Elades quickly parried the attack and kicked him backwards off of Nullo’s blades to fall by the window.
Grinning, they turned and followed the sound of fighting to another room where Duke was standing on one Nhia-Samri’s arms, pinning him down, while snapping at another who was trying to get Duke off. The Nhia-Samri who was pinned was ineffectively kicking Duke as hard as he could from below. But Duke ignored it. Two other Nhia-Samri were fighting Essen and Idanas individually. Nullo jumped into the fight to aid his brother. Elades whipped his dagger at the Nhia-Samri who was attacking Duke. His dagger imbedded into the Nhia-Samri’s throat, making him fall backwards into a chair, landing in such a way as to look asleep except for the dagger sticking out of his throat and the blood running down his front.
The distraction gone, Duke growled. Looking down, he turned his head sideways to take the whole pinned Nhia-Samri’s head into his mouth. The Nhia-Samri screamed as he saw the wolf’s teeth coming down. Duke bit down hard, crushing the skull and cutting off the man’s scream. Duke, still holding the head, pulled upwards with a twisting motion, ripping the man’s head right off his body. Duke spun, slinging the head out the window into the street.
Nullo and Essen had finished off the Nhia-Samri they were dealing with and were turning to help Idanas. Except that Idanas performed a masterful triple-cut maneuver, ending in a down strike that cut the Nhia-Samri open from neck to waist. The Nhia-Samri fell back, screaming, as his blood and guts burst from his opened front. Essen ended the Nhia-Samri’s suffering with a rapid cut to the neck, which partially decapitated him.
Duke looked them over and smiled, “you can’t control who comes into your life, but you can pick the window you through them out of.”
Idanas nodded and grinned madly at Duke then turned and jogged out of the room with Essen following and went down the stairs. Duke turned and listened intently for a moment. Then he sat down; licking his lips clean he turned to licking his wounds. “Good way to start. I think they got a signal off, warning the others.”
Nullo, who had been examining his wounds, looked at Duke, surprised. “Did you expect to have the element of surprise?”
Duke looked at him and then laughed. “Well, now that you mention it I had hoped for it. But you’re right, not likely to happen anyways.”
Elades looked at the wound on Duke’s side. It wasn’t very long and it had stopped bleeding. But he knew it had been deep stab. “Will you need medical attention?”
Duke stood up and shook like a wet dog, sending blood droplets everywhere. “No, it is already healing. Let’s get back to the gate and continue this hunt. I want to kill more Nhia-Samri today if possible.”
As they exited, Idanas came and reported four other Nhia-Samri had been killed on the first floor and the house was clear. They left Idanas with one team to search the house for intelligence, not expecting to get any, and then walked back to the gate.
Duke stepped up to the edge of the scene and sat down, looking at the street as if reading a book. “Run me through the events as you have assembled them again.”
Elades provided a narrative of the complete fight, pointing at various locations as he went through the events. Duke didn’t interrupt but looked hard at each place Elades pointed to. After he was finished Duke thought for a bit. “Elades, did you see Ticca ride over this Nhia-Samri?”
“No, sir, but I have the description from nine separate witnesses to the event.”
“Damn! That had to have been a hell of a maneuver to pull off. You came to the fight after they had already been fighting for at least three minutes?”
“More like five, sir. I cannot be sure, but that is what I feel is about right from the descriptions.”
“Ticca fought this guy head-to-head for five minutes before your squad got here. Then four of your squad tried to hit him with thrown knives, which he avoided, while still trying to kill Ticca. By your reports she only started Daggering six cycles ago. That is a pretty damned good performance for one so young and inexperienced. Any chance he was letting her go, just making it feel hard for her?”
“I don’t think so, sir, unless he was an unbelievably good actor; he desperately wanted to kill her. Five of us engaged him long enough to let Ticca break away, but he walked over us and gave chase. I tell you there was rage and hate in his eyes. I truly believe he wanted to kill her and he went practically berserk when the gate cut him off from her. He shouted some pretty intense oaths while he pounded on the closed gate with his knives. If he was acting for her benefit, that wouldn’t have been needed. By that time all of Alpha Squad was present and we still couldn’t stop him, sir. He fought as fast and hard with all of us as he did with Ticca; if he was any better he’d have had an easier time getting away from us. I am seriously impressed with her speed and knife skills. She is better than any of us.”
Duke was staring at the gate as they spoke. “Did they say anything? Especially Ticca?”
“The Nhia-Samri asked her who she was. She didn’t answer him.” Thinking back, Elades concentrated. “You know, I think she did say something.”
Duke looked at him. “What did she say exactly, Elades?”
Elades thought about it, making the moment clear in his head. Ticca had run and jumped up the five feet to the top of the closing gate. The Nhia-Samri lightly wounded him and a couple of his squad. He had knocked them aside and started to run for the gate. Ticca had reached the far side and did a jumping half twist flip, landing ready to fight. She didn’t look happy that the Nhia-Samri was already giving chase. She then exasperatedly called out for the gate to hurry up and close.
“Sir, she said, ‘Damn it, close already!’ from the far side of the gate.”
Duke looked at him. “Are you sure?”
Elades nodded and Duke turned back to the gate. He said something and the gate smoothly slid open. Then he said something else and the gate began slowly closing. When it had reached about five feet high Duke looked at Elades. “Commander, please say it the way Ticca did.”
