The Emperor of Earth-Above by Sheila Gilluly

Author:Sheila Gilluly [Gilluly, Sheila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: heroic fantasy, dark fantasy, swords and sorcery, Aztec mythology, wounded hero
ISBN: 9781611385342
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2015-06-23T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

“Kinu.” Grumahu had to say my name twice before I heard him. I was crouching on the edge of the pit, Imlaud beside me.

I shook my head. “I should have realized that’s what he’d do.”

The giant shook my shoulder again. “Look up, will you, Runt Mage? We’ve got a problem.”

When I followed where he was pointing, I saw nothing at first. Then the breeze caught the red pennant. I traced the rope down the tree to the bronze trap. “So whoever set this knows it’s been tripped.”

“Right. Won’t let a valuable cat chew its paw off, either. They’ll be coming soon. Should go.”

The tree wardens were a well-disciplined troop. At Imlaud’s nod, three of them moved out up the trail as sentries, while several more took up guard positions off the trail, protecting our flanks. The odds were that the cat-soldiers would use the easier trail to come down from the hill fort that must crown this height, but it was just possible they’d approach through the woods.

Meanwhile, Grumahu pulled the peg that secured the chain of the trap, motioned back the two Yoriandir who made to go down into the pit, and went down himself to prise open the bronze jaws single-handedly. There had been no discussion among us, because there had been no question. The Umlisi would not be left for the cat-soldiers, not even dead.

The giant lifted the little man carefully and laid him on the matting that had covered the pit. “No, give me that,” he said as I bent to pull out the dart and throw it back down into the pit so that none of our men would step on it by accident. While the Yoriandirkin wrapped the Umlisi in his funeral mat, the big man put the trap back in the bottom of the pit. He left it sprung, but slipped the dart along the chain, just where someone would pick it up. None of the wardens noticed what he had done, but I did, and I approved wholeheartedly.

The fawn was watching from a covert not far away. While Imlaud directed his folk in brushing out our tracks, I walked over to Bounding Hoof. Thy dam is not coming, I said as gently as I knew how. And thee cannot follow us, little one, as far as we are going. Thee knows the grove of Sweet Dews yonder? Go there, and do not stray far from the trees till thee’s grown. Tell them the mage sent thee. It was as much as I could do.

By the time I had seen her on her way, Grumahu was standing with his fists on his hips waiting for me, but he said nothing when I rejoined the group. Two of the Yoriandirkin picked up the body in the mat, another two stayed behind to wipe away our trail, and Imlaud spoke to the tao-ti. We hastened away from the pit, the lookouts falling in as a rearguard.

Not a moment too soon. We were no more

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