Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [121]
the only conceivable release from the death by starvation that now seemed his inescapable destiny
Suddenly he heard a sound and sat instantly upright. Perhaps, he decided, he didn’t really want to die-not yet, in any event.
But what was that? He heard another noise and pictured the approach of some horrid beast, certainly about to tear him limb from limb.
Then he sagged back, almost crying out with relief. It wasn’t a horrid beast, for he heard a voice, an unmistakably human voice. He couldn’t recognize words, or even a language, but the deep and resonant tones could be nothing other that a man engaging in deep and serious conversation.
“Here! Here! Help me,” he cried, scrambling to his feet. “I’m over here!”
He would not have been disappointed to see Cordell himself coming toward him; at least the captain-general might reasonably be expected to provide him with a decent meal before hanging him!
“Please, come here!” he shouted again, climbing to his feet and pushing through the brush toward the source of the sound.
Then he stopped, dull horror creeping over his senses and freezing him in his place. He came to the source of the voice, but it was not a man in earnest conversation. Instead, he looked into a bestial face, with a mouth full of long, curving fangs. It was a mouth that, even as Kardann watched, slowly spread into a wide, horrifying grin.
“Hello,” said the great cat, in its soft, well-modulated tones. “I am the Lord of the Jaguars, and you are mine.”
* * * * *
From the chronicles of Colon:
In the certain approach of the Plumed Grandfather. We leave Ulatos knowing that, shortly behind us, the horde of the Viperhand will reach the city of the Payit. A
city of long-lasting peace, it will see its second war within the year. The faithful warriors who have accompanied us here will try to buy us the time to work a miracle.
But if anyone can do so, I suspect it will be this black-haired woman who bears the child of two peoples. She is truly the Chosen One of Qotal, and her goodness is manifest. She may yet open the gate to the ‘s passage.
The menace looms behind us in the monsters of Zaltec. The unknown lurks ahead, an encloaking darkness that beckons and yet dissuades. 1 pray that we, that Erixitl, has the power to shed that darkness.
THE SECOND BATTLE OF ULATOS
The beasts of the Viperhand, guided by the battle-hungry Hoxitl, waited for nightfall to launch their attack, allowing time for the entire monstrous army to gather at the edge of the savannah. The great regiments pushed forward along the coastal trail, and the column gradually expanded into a vast front within the protective jungle.
Cordell, conversely, had been forced to prepare for an assault as soon as the horde reached the fringe of the savannah surrounding Ulatos at noon. His men stood under the blazing Maztican sun throughout the day, ready for battle. But as the hours of afternoon passed into twilight, the battle did not come.
At least, the captain-general realized, they were spared the damage that could have been inflicted by the monstrous image of Zaltec. The stone colossus stood there throughout the waning afternoon, staring above and beyond the savannah and the armies that gathered around its feet. It was as if the humans were too pathetic, too unworthy even of his notice for Zaltec to take the trouble of wiping them out.
Finally, before dusk, the giant stepped onto the savannah, scattering the desert dwarves of Luskag’s tribe, for those unfortunate warriors stood in the god’s direct path. Fortunately the nimble dwarves all raced out of the way of the monstrous footsteps, and Zaltec continued marching steadily to the east.
Cordell, along with the rest of the army, watched him go and felt an unmistakable sense of relief. Still, some of them, including the captain-general, knew that the battle to be fought at Twin Visages was at least as important to their future as the one about to occur here.
The latter, however, was Cordell’s only concern now His troops were in position, though they seemed a pathetically frail