Renegade of Callisto by Lin Carter

Author:Lin Carter
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-10T16:00:00+00:00

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12 Thundering Hooves

All that day the little scoutcraft followed in the wake of the Yathoon caravan, while the migratory Clan stolidly pursued its southward way.

Since the Shondakorian ornithopter had fortunately thus far eluded discovery by the Yathoon scouts and outriders, Prince Valkar and the young officer took every precaution to make certain that their very existence remained a secret. The advantage of surprise, they reasoned, might yet prove vital to the success of their plans.

But the trouble was, they really had no plans. Once they had found out that Koja and young Taran still lived and were presently the captives of the Yathoon caravan, they bent every thought to the conception of a method by which the two might be rescued from their insectoid captors. As yet, however, no viable scheme for the rescue had occurred to either of them.

They could not simply engage the migratory Clan in battle, of course. Few activities are more intrinsically suicidal than for two warriors and a half-grown othode pup to challenge the might of a force of enemy swordsmen armed, so to speak, to the teeth, and numbering in the hundreds. Even the advantage they possessed in being able to attack from the air would afford them little more than a momentary tactical superiority which would soon be lost in the struggle against overwhelming numerical strength.

Neither could they swoop down and carry off the two prisoners by any conceivable means, since both Koja and young Taran were chained to their fellow captives.

"If we could stage a diversion of some sort," suggested Kadar tensely, "while the attention of the guards was diverted, one or the other of us could descend by means of the mooring cable and perhaps sever the chains, or pry them apart, and then Koja and the boy could climb up the cable and we could all fly away together . . . ?"

"What sort of a diversion?" asked Valkar practically.

"Um," replied the lieutenant lamely, subsiding into thoughtful silence.

"Perhaps," remarked Kadar a bit later, "once darkness falls, we could set the meadow grasses afire, and while the Yathoon are busy fighting the fire, we could come down and carry off our friends unseen in the gloom of night?"

"Perhaps," nodded the Prince with a marked lack of enthusiasm. "But suppose the wind changes and the fire turns back and goes the other way? Or suppose the Yathoon simply decided to out-race the flames? Or suppose it is the captives they send out in front of the warriors to fight the fire?"

"Um," said the lieutenant for a second time. Again he lapsed into moody silence, a silence which upon this occasion continued unbroken for a goodly time.

"There must be some way we can use the ornithopter to good advantage," Valkar mused. "It seems foolish to have this unique aerial superiority, without somehow putting it to use. But, for the life of me, I have to confess I cannot envision any method of rescuing our friends from the air which is not obviously foredoomed to failure .

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