Kasrkin by Edoardo Albert

Author:Edoardo Albert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2022-09-26T14:42:58+00:00

CHAPTER 3

Shaper Tchek crouched down beside the Long-sight, Stryax. From their position, in a large hollow under a wind-carved rock, Stryax could see the entrance to the cave and the slope down to it.

‘Kill any human that tries to get to the cave,’ he instructed the Long-sight, ‘but do not shoot any human that comes out from the cave – one of them is the human we want.’

Stryax said nothing, but the nictitating membrane that slid across kroot eyes to protect them from wind and storm flicked back and forth in answer and his quills rattled gently in response.

Tchek had Krasykyl the Stalker covering the far side of the slope down to the cave mouth, while Cirict and Kliptiq waited further back, in the deeper shade under the rock.

The Shaper looked around. ‘Where is Chaktak?’ When silence greeted his question, Tchek moved beside Stryax and whistle-called for his Cut-skin, the sound high beyond the range of human hearing.

There came no answer.

Tchek called again, the string of high-frequency notes resonating from his quill crown. But still there was no reply.

The Shaper looked towards the Seeker. ‘Where is he, Cirict? Where do you smell him?’

The Seeker, the smallest and slightest of the kroot, crawled forward to the edge of the bowl, head turning as he sought scents on the still air.

Cirict turned to Tchek. ‘His smell is… strange. It comes from more than one direction, as if he is in many places. I will send Flet higher, that he might see.’ The Tracker turned his head up and whistled, calling the pech’ra further towards the zenith, and from below they saw the flash of its wings as it ascended.

As Obeysekera, Gunsur, Ensor and Lerin worked their way down the mountain, advancing through rills and gullies, stopping and covering while one man moved then proceeding down in sequence, Obeysekera tried to raise Uwais and Chame on the vox. There was no answer from either of them. But Uwais and Chame were not the only ones missing.

‘Anyone seen Amazigh?’ Obeysekera asked.

The answers came back over the vox, all negative, and Obeysekera shook his head. The Kamshet was not his problem, and he could not spare the time to search for him on a chaotic battlefield where it was impossible to tell the position of the enemy or even his own men. Besides, the mountain was tabu to Amazigh and his people; perhaps he had disappeared to perform some rite to appease the mountain spirit.

Looking round from where he was covering Ensor, Obeysekera could see the outcrops and slopes, the cross-cutting rills and gullies, their edges all worn smooth, and he felt a shiver on the back of his neck. If ever he had seen a mountain that might have a presiding spirit, as machines had, then this was the mountain.

With Ensor safely under cover and surveying the surrounds through the sights of his hellgun, Obeysekera waved Gunsur past. That left him covering the rear of their descent. He watched Gunsur low-run down the slope, using outcrops and his body shape to stop himself presenting a clear target to any enemy.

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