Viperhand - Douglas Niles [129]
He raised his hand, bearing the gauntlet marked with the all-seeing eye of Helm. Chanting a plea to his god, he raised his other hand and gestured at the mass of warriors in the intersection before them.
Immediately a droning buzz rose above them, and almost as quickly sharp cries of pain and dismay rose from the Nex-alans. Visible even in the dim light, a shapeless darkness appeared over the crowd, a darkness that consisted of millions of tiny insects, each of them biting and stinging whatever lay in its path.
Quickly the warriors broke for the shelter of the side streets or nearby buildings as the insect plague gained control of the crucial street crossing. The Bishou raised his hands again, and the buzzing mass began to move out of their path.
Again Grimes's horsemen rushed for the causeway. Cordell led the footmen on a rapid push right behind him. The horses struck a rank of defending Nexalans before the bridge. These warriors, armed with very long spears, knocked several riders from their saddles. Grimes's own horse went down, its belly gashed in a deep, mortal wound.
But a final surge carried the legion forward, and at last they gained the narrow roadway, surrounded on both sides by the deep, black waters of the lake. Grimes and Cordell, heedless of the rain, rushed forward on foot as the men of the legion raised a cheer and followed. They charged headlong down the causeway, meeting no opposition, though gradually they became aware of warriors swimming in the water beside them, in Lake Zaltec to their left and Lake Qp-tal to their right. Soon they caught sight of canoes-many, many canoes-on the dark lake's surface.
And then the advance came to a sudden stop. They had reached the first of the two gaps in the causeway where the waters flowed back and forth between the lakes, beneath the heavy planks of a bridge.
Only now, the bridge had been removed. Rain continued to shower the city, and before the legion stood thirty feet of black, deep, silt-bottomed water.
Heavy clouds swirled around them, and chill winds drove stinging needles of rain into their faces. High on the slope of the mountain, in the dark of impenetrable night, Halloran fought despair, pressing on in the endless search for the Highcave.
He pulled himself up a steep slope, finding a narrow ledge. Reaching down, he helped Erixitl to climb up beside him. She gasped as the mountain rumbled beneath them, and they clung to each other for a panic-filled minute while it seemed that Zaltec tried to shake them loose from his towering volcano.
But then the tremors eased, and finally Shatil and Poshtli reached the ledge as well. Chitikas hovered in the air, swirling slowly while the exhausted humans rested.
"Zaltec's hunger grows," observed Shatil, touching the rock of the peak.
"Hunger!" Erix whirled on him, surprising the three men with her vehemence. "Must a god always feast? Must we always feed him?"
Shatil leaned back, chagrined. "I am sorry to upset you, my sister. But, yes, the gods I know require food. We can do little else but to feed them."
"What of Qotal?" she challenged. "A god who grants food, not demands it? And our ancestors drove him from Maztica for it!"
"Perhaps, if you speak the truth, he will indeed return."Shatь said quietly.
She looked at him, half angry that he wouldn't argue, but surprised at his willing aquiescence. She opened her mouth, but then decided not to speak.
"Here," whispered Chitikas Couatl, speaking from the darkness above. "Here I see the mouth of a cave."
Black water stretching before them, Cordell and Grimes turned desperately to the sides, their arms weary from the strain of constant battle. Cordell wielded his sword, Grimes his lance. Rain still drummed the city and the lakes, but they could dimly see the fleets of canoes swarming around the causeway. Behind them, the screams of their comrades told them the battle raged there as well.
The surviving legionnaires couldn't advance along the causeway, since the bridge before them had been