Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [77]
“Why do you tell me this?” Gultec scowled. “I cannot lead the warriors into battle, all the while taking care to preserve my own life!”
“You are important to us, to all Maztica. Perhaps more important than you know. If you were to perish now, all that you have won for us would be lost. The future would become despair.”
“What have I won for you?” the Jaguar Knight challenged “Thus far, your city has been sacked, your people have fled into the jungle, and now they stand at the brink of disaster. You know that the ants must be diverted, or at least slowed
here. Otherwise we will never make it to the pass in the mountains. There will be no future for the Itza!”
“Please do not ask me to explain,” continued the teacher. “But promise me that you will take care. Keep my words in your mind.”
Once again Gultec felt very strongly his teacher’s deep and patient power. What this strength personified, other than intelligence and wisdom, the warrior did not know. But he sensed it as a majestic might that could only be obeyed.
“This I will do,” the warrior promised. “Now the attack must begin.”
“Fare well in the fight, my son.”
“I will do the best that I can, Grandfather,” Gultec said with a bow.
He turned back to the warriors. Already the hulking black forms of the ants were visible among the underbrush. With a heavy heart, his teacher’s words ringing through his mind, Gultec ordered his warriors forward.
The shrill howl of a thousand war cries split the jungle stillness, heralding the attack against the head of Darien’s inexorable column. The monstrous ants, marching eight or ten abreast, didn’t hesitate, nor indeed take any notice of the assault.
Instead, the first rank trekked forward into the chopping daggers and axes of the Itza. These ants fell, quickly overwhelmed by the onrushing warriors.
The next rank, too, advanced to its doom, and the third followed. Still the insect legs drove the segmented bodies forward, while cold eyes sought enemies for the killing. The humans, too, pressed forward, a savage wave spreading to both sides of the massive insects, disrupting the march and forcing the column to dissipate and turn to its flanks.
But soon the creatures began to exact the price of battle in human blood, which quickly soaked into the damp earth of the forest. The ants reacted with mechanical precision,
chopping and mangling targets as they presented themselves, marching forward as long as no obstacle stood before them. But as brave men fell to the rock-hard mandibles, others swept around them, still pressing the attack.
In moments, the column of ants disrupted into complete confusion. The creatures turned upon themselves, seizing the torn bodies of their fellow insects and instinctively carrying the corpses to the rear. Others turned to the sides, striking and advancing to the right or the left, and the impact of the narrow column diffused into the tangled forest. The file spread, and the insectoid advance lost all sense of direction.
Warriors threw themselves at the monstrous foes, striking for eyes, trying to hack the glistening black bodies apart where the bulbous segments joined. A wild melee spread beneath the jungle canopy as men and insects both perished in mortal clash.
“What is the humans’ intent?” Darien demanded from her position with the other driders near the center rear of the column. The attack had caught her by surprise, but she felt curiosity, not dismay. She believed implicitly that human warriors could not hope to stand in battle against her mighty, unfeeling host.
The drider’s intuitive command, sensing the opportunity in the clash, reached her mindless creatures.
Kill, my soldiers! Kill!
The ant army surged forward, spreading into a broad front, facing the attacking warriors who now spread to the right and left of the column as well as to its front. Insects crawled over the bodies of their fallen kin, seeking human flesh.
“Hittok! Go now! Strike them with missile fire! Take the archers-now!” She barked the command at her drider lieutenant,