Sunset Warrior #03 - Dai-San by Eric Van Lustbader

Author:Eric Van Lustbader [Lustbader, Eric Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780345466754
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 1978-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Dai San

Three

1~AI-FENG

Horse I’at~tudes Or

1 HE shimmering grey ice had crept southward during the long, agonizing time of the Kai-feng. As the three Makkon became stronger with the imminent arrival of their liege, as The Dolman swept toward the world from which he had once been banished, bent on a hideous vengeance, so the deathshead warriors burst from the confines of their spreading encampment. Led by great beasts with faceted eyes and shining blue-green carapaces, these warriors hurled themselves across the littered plain and against the high stone walls of Kamado, the last citadel of man.

Behind the deathshead warriors came the creaking and

trundling of immense machines of war, designed to eject threescore pikes at a burst in a trajectory that would take them over the highest fortress wall, or hurtle lifers of scalding liquid metal at oncoming warriors. There were towering scaffoldings housing immense horizontal pendulums sheathed in thick metal at one end. And more. Pulled by the dissolute and bedraggled hordes of the northern hill tribes, inveigled into The Dolman’s employ by promises of power. So the world of man shuddered on its axis as if it knew by the quaking movement of these vast machines of war the impending doom rushing headlong to its curving hazed surface.

The fourth Makkon was about to arrive upon the continent of man.

And the last allies of The Dolman were called forth, those who had waited in secret for the time of the Kai-feng. Arming themselves, they traveled across frozen, bitter land, turbulent, violent seas, by means neither human nor readily understand- able.

The Aegir, adrift in the deep, was preoccupied with more important matters. It did not hinder their progress yet it was

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aware of them, since all karma is intertwined. It was content to be the protector of its murderer.

With the coming of The Dolman’s last allies to the flaming continent of man, the penultimate step had been taken to ensure the defeat of mankind. They watched with baleful, emotionless eyes, the torn, scarred face of the land, smoldering ashen, blasted, a ribboning triptych through which they traveled, thinking only of their destination, a forest’s verge, blind to the piles of rotting corpses alive with gorging rats and nervous wolves. They were deaf to the pitiable cries of the old the infirm, and the very young wretched creatures who had somehow escaped the slaughter. They rode onward. Assembling, the vultures began their spiraling descent.

As the last allies of The Dolman made their arcane way across the continent of man, Kiri, the Empress of Sha’angh’sei, was returning northward to Kamado. She rode at the head of a vast column of warriors more than a kilometer in length. On either side of her rode two contrasting figures, though both were powerful leaders. On her right was an enormously fat man with keen, intelligent eyes and a forbidding manner. He was Du-Sing, taipan of Sha’angh’sei’s Greens. On her left was a small, slightly built individual with a flat nose and flowing wispy beard trailing from his strong chin.

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