Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [159]
The heroic jousters came together slowly, the steeds leaving wide footprints in the soft dirt of the combat field. The reptilian mounts hissed and then lashed out with spined tongues, but the riders kept the creatures apart to prevent them from doing damage...at least until the jousting formally began.
The Ildiran knights carried throbbing laser lances, long crystal shafts couched with ruby projection rods and power sources connected to battery packs behind the saddles of the reptilian mounts.
"Are those spears used for combat?" Nira asked in a hushed voice. "Do they stab each other or those creatures they are riding?"
Jora'h's golden hair waved about his head. "The crystal spears can be formidable weapons, but no sophisticated Ildiran knight would use them in so crude a fashion."
He stood, and on cue projected lights focused on him, a prismatic rainbow glow that drew the full attention of the audience. When Jora'h raised his hands, the crowd suddenly fell silent. "Fighters! Make a good impression today!" His voice boomed out, somehow amplified, though Nira could see no microphone or speaker. "Combatants—power your lances."
The crystal spears shimmered with an inner jewel light, as if a tiny stellar core had just been ignited in their handles. "Begin the joust!" Jora'h shouted.
The dazzling lights turned from the Prime Designate and illuminated the combatants' field where the huge reptiles began circling. The three jousters raised their shields in salute. Nira noticed that, though the shields were all generally the same size, each had a different shape and was inlaid with a specific pattern of mirrored patches, designs, and transparent windows.
The knights raised their crystal lances, and each fired a dazzling burst of light toward angled mirrors in the amphitheater ceiling. The long lance shaft was actually a laser collimation path to project a coherent beam, which reflected and sparkled in a beautifully patterned webwork visible against the faint mist within the dome.
"By regulation, the knights' shields have to be exactly half silvered," Jora'h said to her, "part reflective and part transparent. However, there is no requirement as to how the patterns must be arranged. Our greatest jousters believe there is much strategy in applying the mirror surfaces to their shields."
Nira didn't entirely understand, but she leaned forward. "So if they don't hold the shield just right, the laser beam can pass directly through?"
"Indeed," Jora'h said, his eyes on the tournament. "It can be fatal."
The jousters urged their lizard mounts to greater speed, then shot deadly lasers at their opponents. One knight fired a beam that reflected from his challenger's shield, ricocheted off one of the ceiling mirrors, and scorched the third jouster's reptile steed. Squealing, the creature lashed out with a spined tongue, but the first jouster backed away to roars of applause.
Jora'h said, "It is considered the greatest mark of skill to take down one's opponent by a reflected shot of his own lance."
One of the three jousters was clearly the crowd hero. Every time he moved, cheers and shouts rang out with increased ardor. "Who is that?" Nira observed the knight's aloof manner, the dramatic flourish of mirrored swirls on his shield.
Jora'h smiled. "Cir'gh is one of our greatest champions. He has won hundreds of matches, and he feels and thinks like his mount. He also knows precisely how every beam will reflect. Perfect instinct."
Cir'gh launched a laser volley that reflected off the ceiling, struck one opponent, reflected off his armor, and grazed the second jouster, all in a single move.
"He is also blind in one eye." Jora'h grinned at Nira's expression of shock.