Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [98]
Lotil and I remain here, with the Itza, and we learn of their trials and terrors. It is a tale that seems all too familiar, for in a sense it is the tale of the Nexala, of all Maztica. We humans see our land taken from us, given over to the rampaging of evil. Everywhere we are driven from our homes, pursued and slaughtered.
But suddenly now, like a flash of pure lightning through a dark, cloudy night, 1 sense him. Qotal is near! His power is a bolt of hope penetrating the True World.
And it strikes very close.
VICTORY AND VENGEANCE
“They gain the summit!” cried Hittok. Along with the other driders, he stood with Darien in the valley bottom, looking upward at the ants creeping steadily toward the rounded, rocky crest. The creatures of Lolth had witnessed the attack of their army, had seen it weather the heaviest defenses the humans could muster.
Impassively they had watched their soldiers slain by the hundreds. They had seen the march up the mountainside slowed by the deluge of arrows and rocks. Imperturbably they had observed the dust cloud that cloaked the slope, obscuring the ants from their sight. Then they had seen the dust fall away, and were not surprised when the ants appeared. still numerous and still steadily ascending.
True, a great number of ants had fallen during the attack, especially to the destructive power of the man-made rockslide. Yet more than half the ants survived, and they represented more than enough power to overwhelm the last mortal line of resistance.
The driders remained behind, at the fringe of jungle before the swamp. They watched the army advance and anticipated its inevitable triumph. They didn’t shout or cheer, yet each drider’s eyes blazed with a frightening intensity, like the wicked gleam of a cat before it crushes the life from the hapless mouse.
“Indeed, they have done as I expected,” Darien said quietly. Hittok looked at his pale-skinned companion. Why did she not share his triumphant joy?
“Do you feel that?” Darien asked, her voice a harsh whisper. The white drider settled her great body to the ground, cowering as if in fear.
“What? What do you mean?” the black drider asked.
She didn’t reply. Instead, she kept her eyes fixed upon the summit of the pass. The six-legged insects continued to work their way up the wall, the first rank already disappearing from sight.
“The human warriors-they have gone,” she said, still in that soft, thoughtful tone.
“They flee-not that it will do them any good!” Hittok replied with a sneer. “They will live a few moments longer. That is all.”
“No, wait.” Darien stared at the pass. “Look. One remains, the man sitting at the very top.”
Hittok squinted. The sky was overcast, but the brightness still caused him discomfort. “Where?”
“He is very dangerous. I can feel it,” replied the female.
“I see him! Wait… no, I don’t. Where is he?” Hittok squinted at the sky, cursing the shimmering that seemed to trail along the top of the ridge.
“He was there, moments ago. Now 1 cannot see him, but worse, I feel him, down deep. I feel a great menace in the air.”
Then they heard, or felt, a rumbling within the earth itself. The ground below them heaved and buckled, staggering the driders. Gaping upward in terror and awe, the creatures saw waves ripple across the land. Several shelves of rock broke away from the slope, slowly tumbling downward, carrying a few of the ants with it.
The ground heaved again, and even the eight-legged beasts of Lolth had to squat low to keep their feet. Energy surged through the earth. The crashing of the rock shook the very foundations of the mountains.
An explosion wracked the valley then, like an unspeakably monstrous crash of thunder. The man at the top of the pass vanished in a cloud of dust and smoke. More rumbles emanated from the ridgeline, and the horizon shimmered and shifted under a wave of convulsive pressure.
Great cracks, each with the explosive volume of a thunderclap, shot along the rock face of the high ridge. More convulsions twisted