Shadows over Kregen by Alan Burt Akers

Author:Alan Burt Akers [Akers, Alan Burt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781843197713
Publisher: Mushroom eBooks
Published: 1996-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twelve

Darham the Bold might be big and hairy; he was no awkward lumberer. He moved with a sudden smartness belying his bulk. We crouched in the pink-tinged shadows under a store platform raised on its stilts. Across the crater sheer insanity roared and thundered away as the main body of the Shanks met and fronted the assembled ranks of the Neeshargs. They fought one another with a frenzy that spoke eloquently of an ages-old racial hatred.

“She cleans out some fishface woman’s night utensils. They had me cleaning armor.” His voice was a mere low growl. “Hanitcha the Harrower take ’em!”

Quite obviously the Fish-heads would fight maniacally to protect the quarters where their women lived. We needed to cross the intervening space from the stilted store platform. We were as far away from the fight as we could be without tunneling through the desert wall surrounding the compound. Everything took place in a jumbled, nonsensical fashion, so that it seemed to me I was carried along on a surge of action. If Ismelda still remained in the slave huts of the Shank women’s quarters, if she did, why then, this was our best time of rescuing her.

Darham mentioned with disfavor the reason he was here. “Taken up like a coy in nets!” He’d grown tired of the strict Laws of Hamal and turned to the sea to follow his mercenary trade. He was a zhanpaktun who could wear the golden glitter of the pakzhan at his throat. The vessel sailing out of Ruathytu, caught in a hurricane and swept miles off course, had fallen in with three Shank vessels. They’d sealed the Hamalese ship’s fate without trouble.

Eventually Darham wound up here, in this hell. He’d not been here very long so that his natural strength and optimism, together with his fortune in landing a cushy job, had not reduced him as so many of the other slaves were sorely brought down.

He looked exceedingly fierce and shaggy as he gazed out over the space we must cross to the slave huts where we hoped to find Ismelda. She had not run into the cave where Darham helped at the opening until he was too late to squeeze through.

Some folk of Vallia regard the people of Hamal as stolid and stuffy and altogether no fun. Probably they haven’t rioted in the Sacred Quarter of Ruathytu. Every instinct told me Darham was a splendid fellow, a zhanpaktun, a swordsman, and, clearly, a man of honor.

Those thoughts and the fact that I was a Krozair of Zy explain my next action.

“Here, Darham.” I handed him the sword. “As a mark of friendship.”

Of course he was astonished. Without boasting I tried to convince him that he would make better use of the weapon if we were to form a team.

“Well, as Havil the Green is my witness—” He stopped abruptly. “By Krun! I haven’t used Havil the Green in an oath since I first went for a paktun! You’ve rattled me, Nath the Hammer, made me look more than a little differently at — well, you know.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.