Wings Over Talera - Charles Allen Gramlich [8]
I ducked under a sidearm swipe, slashed open an unarmored thigh. A wheel-dagger whirred past my ear. I caught a second one against my shield, hearing the thunk and letting it anger me. A sword clattered along mine. I thrust the enemy weapon aside, forced my steel down the length of the raider’s blade, let the tip leap up to take him in the face. He screeched, fell back. I kicked a second warrior in the chest, hurling him from his feet.
Our attackers were a mixture of Humans and other, which meant they were probably mercenaries—verdredi. National armies usually consist of only one race, and even outlaw bands often form along racial lines. Talera has its prejudices. Most of these verdredi were Human, but I saw a few variations among them. I was glad there were no Black Llurns or Nokarra, who are among the deadliest of warriors. There were Vhichang, lithe and avian within their covering of feathers, and there were the members of a race called the Ss’Korra, which I had heard of but had not seen before.
Humans sometimes call the Vhichang “birds” and the Ss’Korra “the wolf people.”* Neither is accurate. The Vhichang resemble birds only in their feathery coats and in the sharp, hooked shapes of their faces, which sport small beaks. They are not winged and do not have a bird’s hollow bones. They do not lay eggs, though they do not suckle their live-born young as mammals do.
[*I once asked a Taleran savant why so many of the planet’s races resemble Humans. Like Humans, most of them walk upright, have various numbers of limbs, have something like hands at the end of those limbs, and see with two eyes in the front of Human-type heads. Yet, they are supposed to have developed under far distant suns. He told me that the intelligent races brought to Talera, including Humans, were probably all guided in their development toward this common pattern. I asked if he thought the Asadhie were responsible for this, and he said that they were themselves likely products of this vast manipulation.—Ruenn Maclang.]
The Ss’Korra are mammals, though they can only generally be said to resemble wolves. They have fur, except on their bellies, and they do have something that might be construed as a muzzle. But their overall appearance reminds me most of a baboon. They have the same small ears lying close to the head, and the same facial expression. Both races are superb fighters, with the Ss’Korra being the more vicious of the two.
It was an Ss’Korra who came against me next. He was bigger than the average for his race, almost as tall as my six feet, and was given to hacking with the strength of his arm. I caught that arm with a hand. We strained together for a moment—he trying to kick my legs from under me, I trying to block with my knee. He spat the word “Human” in my face. I didn’t hold it against him. But when I got my shield past his guard, I hit him hard enough with it to break his jaw and stretch him senseless.
Beneath me, abruptly, the airship faltered. I could see amidships that the pilot was unharmed, but perhaps the frothing savagery around him had broken his concentration on the power wands that drove the ship. For whatever reason, the flyer staggered and slowed. That meant the vullwings would come up to us again. I didn’t relish that idea.
Two Vhichang, working in tandem, tried to isolate me from Valyan and cut me down. It didn’t work. Valyan and I had fought side by side too many times. I killed one attacker, watched the second one back away with fear in his eyes. In that lull, I saw that Rhandh and Kreeg had freed the Aestor’s hatchway. Gray-clad members of the Princess’s Own roared up from below, anxious to come to hand strokes with the enemy who had bottled them up.
For an awful moment I had the fear that Rannon would come up with them, a sword in her own slim fist. I should have known that Rhandh would not have allowed it. He shouted one word, “Jhesana,” before dropping down the hatch to keep his princess