Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (144 page)

The enemy dipped down into the small brook they'd used to hide and ambush the mercenaries. Pareesa tightened her bracer and slipped her finger-grip onto her index and middle finger.

"Wait," Pareesa urged her squad mates.

She aimed her bow at the sharp angle which would give her arrow the most height and make it more likely that the lizard demons wouldn't see it coming at them, though they had the advantage due to the direction of the sun. The other archers did the same. She pulled the sinew back to her cheek and waited, her arm shuddering with the tension.

"Let 'em fly!" Pareesa hissed.

She let loose her arrow.

So did the other women.

The arrows whistled through the air.

Several animalistic cries came out from the invading lizard demons. Bolts of lightning slammed into the wall, spraying the women with debris. Gisou shrieked that something had gotten into her eye.

"Shoot at will!"

Gisou recovered and strung her bow along with the others. The indeterminate mound of shadow-lizards paused in a defensive line which was one of the formations which Mikhail had taught to them. The archers let fly another volley. The lizard demons shot lightning back at them, but they seemed to do so one carefully calculated shot at a time, not in the disorganized way they'd
hoped
they'd do when they first encountered people wielding weapons they considered to be inferior. Had Mikhail miscalculated their tactics? Or perhaps this was a good sign? That the enemy was being careful and therefore they must be low on magic to make the lightning work?

A barrage which disintegrated a chunk of the outer wall answered her question for her. No. They'd simply taken a moment to assess where, exactly, the cover fire was coming from. It was a good thing they hadn't
been
at the edge of the roof, but had practiced for many weeks now how to fire an arrow to exactly where the lizard demons now crouched.

"I'm running low on the bad arrows," Gisou complained. "Pretty soon I'll need to start shooting the good ones."

“These things barely shoot straight,” Yadiditum said. She took a stick with crumpled fletching hastily shoved it onto her sinew and shot it upwards into a reasonably decent cover-fire arc.

“They’re not supposed to shoot straight,” Gisou said, ducking down as just lightning erupted on the other side of the rooftop crenellation they were hiding behind. "Just rain down like death."

“Keep your head down!" Pareesa hissed.

“We’re fighting gods who fly through the sky and command lightning. With sticks!” Yadiditum shot another stick at the oncoming enemy and ducked as pieces of gravel from the wall spattered over them. “What kind of chance is that?”

“And a winged creature of legend has come into our midst,” Pareesa said. "And taught us how to fight back against the enemy." She reached back into the pile of ‘expendable’ ammunition to fire another less-than-optimal shot.

“Where is he, by the way?” Gisou let fly another arrow.

“He took out two of the sky boats with a bolt of that lightning stick he said he’s been saving for a rainy day,” Pareesa said. “It finally started raining hard enough for him to use it, I guess.”

Several bolts of lightning erupted from the enemy weapons and blasted dust out of the remainder of the wall. The women squealed as they felt the roof destabilize. The enemy had gotten close enough that it was time to risk taking direct shots.

Pareesa grabbed one of the
good
arrows. She popped her head up to take a
real
shot at the enemy, and then dropped back down behind the safety of the wall as soon as she’d let the arrow fly. The wall exploded in a shower of rubble only a half-heartbeat after she got to safety. She lay there, panting, her heart racing at her close call. The enemy had reached the point that the Chief had ordered them to fall back.

She glanced over at the rooftop across the alley. Alalah led the others to scurry down to the place they were supposed to get down.

"Did you kill their leader yet?" Yadiditum asked.

"No," Pareesa said. "The sunrise is making it hard to see.""

"I think maybe that's their point," Yadiditum said.

"We're supposed to retreat now," Gisou said.

“Wait until they get a little closer,” Pareesa said. “Maybe we can risk taking some more direct shots."

"Their numbers are not as large as I'd feared," Yadiditum said. "I count perhaps only threescore men. Why so few?"

"It’s the firesticks which we can’t beat," Pareesa said. "Hold your fire until they get a little closer. Let them think we've already retreated."

“If they get any closer,” Yadiditum said, “they’re going to sit down and have breakfast with us. And why the
hell
do they have so many of those big ugly pigs?!!!”

“The Catoblepas?” Pareesa said. “Mikhail says they’re mean as hell.”

The enemy was so close she could hear them fart and breathe. It was time to retreat. She glanced back and saw that Alalah and her group had already taken up their position on the second row of rooftops.

“This wall has had about as much as it’s going to take,” Pareesa said. “Grab your arrows and move down to the other corner. I'll be with you in a few seconds.”

"What about you?" Gisou asked.

Pareesa dared a quick peek over the wall at the moving mass of men who had finally gotten close enough that the rising sun no longer cast them into shadow.

"Chief Kiyan gave me one shot to take," Pareesa said. "And I'm going to take it. Or die trying."

They all locked bowstring-fingers, and then her two friends scurried off the roof to safety, leaving her to take her final shot alone.

~ * ~ * ~

February: 3,389 BC

Earth: Village of Assur

Jamin

Jamin avoided the henchman named Eligor's gaze. Did he know? Did he know that Lucifer was now his lover? And if he did, did he judge him for it as his own people would? A man who lay down with other men? A
kadesh?

Those cool, blue eyes studied his reflection off the front windshield of the sky canoe like an owl staring into the darkness, unblinking, perceptive, pretending not to notice things, and yet Jamin could tell that Eligor saw too much. The man's unreadable expression, his unearthly blue eyes, reminded him of Mikhail. The opinion of the dirty-winged Angelic named Zepar did not bother him, for he suspected he was every bit as depraved as Lucifer was. But Eligor? This man, like him, was not completely under Lucifer's control. And yet for some reason, Eligor served him anyways.

Jamin hid his shame the way he'd hidden all inadequacies in his life. He sat up taller and spoke of subjects that men would speak to other men.
Real
men who liked to hunt and fish and fight and whore. Not a
kadesh…

"Sergeant Dahaka set down a company of men just beyond the south gate of the village," Jamin said in the Sata'anic language, for unlike Lucifer who seemed to understand
any
language, Eligor had difficulty understanding his broken Galactic Standard. "The terrain there is relatively flat, and the rising sun will make it difficult for my people to identify their targets with their arrows."

Rather than answer him, Eligor pretended he hadn't been watching his reflection and spoke into the tiny transmission device which threw voices between the ships like spears.

"
Jamaran-1; Jamaran-2,
" Eligor spoke in the lizard language. "This is
Prince of Tyre-1.
Do you have the exact coordinates you promised for that house?"

"
Prince of Tyre-1,
this is
Jamaran-2,"
a voice hissed from the ethers. "The coordinates are north thirty-five degrees, twenty-seven minutes, twenty-four seconds by east forty-three degrees, fifteen minutes and forty-five seconds."

Eligor looked not to him, but to Lucifer.

"They have given us the coordinates, Sir. Just as they promised they would."

Lucifer's eyes were silver this morning; he was back to hiding because Eligor was around, but the way his nostrils flared like a predator sniffing the air for its prey gave Jamin a thrill. His snow-white wings arched forward, a great white eagle about to dive for prey.

"Wait until the other two gunships are lined up to move in" Lucifer said, "and then hit the targets we have reserved unto ourselves."

"Yes, Sir," Eligor stated with no emotion whatsoever.

The sound of Lucifer's voice issuing the kill order was almost adequate to drive Jamin to yet another bout of ecstasy. This was
his
dream come true.
His
fantasy. Lucifer had promised to lay this world at his feet and he intended to
give
it to him.

The sky canoe banked to the right. Lucifer caressed his thigh, an invitation, a promise of things to come.

"Soon,
chol beag,
" Lucifer whispered. "As soon as I have given you back your village, we shall round up the trouble-makers and then we shall teach them a lesson. Eh?"

Pareesa. Cast down upon the ground. Just like he'd done to the women the night before. And other women. Other men. Only the men he'd flay alive. Those who cowered before him and worshipped him would be spared. Everybody else was food for his newfound god.

An odd echo of remorse whispered this was not the way he'd like to take back his village, but Jamin tucked it away, into the treasure box where Lucifer could not pluck it out of his mind.

"The other two gunships are moving into position, Sir," Eligor said.

"Good," Lucifer said. "Get ready to engage."

He unstrapped his safety harness and gestured for Jamin to do the same.

"Come, little chieftain," Lucifer grinned. "We killed the lion
your
way. This time, we shall do things
my
way so I don't have to piece you back together."

Jamin stepped up into the cockpit, a place the lizard people had never allowed him to go. Rather than meet Lucifer's gaze, Eligor focused intently on the small, circular instruments which told him things Jamin was only just beginning to fathom, such as how high they were and where they were on a map. On the ground beneath them, the outline of Assur lay in the pre-dawn murkiness so close that Jamin swore he could climb through the windshield and leap out onto one of the roofs.

"We are in position, Sir," Eligor said.

"Charge the pulse cannon," Lucifer said.

Eligor flipped up a small lid on the dashboard and then flipped up the knobs which sat immediately above a big, red button. As he did, with his other hand he punched in a series of numbers. Something mounted on the underside of the ship whirred. Eligor flipped up another switch. The sky canoe began to hum. The hair stood up on Jamin's arms and on the back of his neck. He'd experienced this sensation before on the lizard people's ships, but it still excited him, the weapons they could bring to bear. Eligor tucked his wings neatly against his back, giving Lucifer access to the large, red button which lay immediately beneath the levers.

"She's ready to fire, Sir."

Lucifer pressed into Jamin's back and nudged him forward to the windshield. He nuzzled his neck and whispered into his ear.

"Look,
chol beag.
There it is. The house of your enemy. Completely defenseless and unaware. Smite him while he is unwary. For while death in battle is an honorable thing, winning is even sweeter."

Lucifer's erection pressed into his backside. An image danced into his mind of Lucifer mounting him, taking him right in front of his men while Jamin fired the pulse cannon again and again. And oh, gods he wanted it! He wanted to feel that heady feeling again!

"What do I do?" Jamin asked. "How do I make the weapon fire?"

"Just push that red button, little chieftain
,
" Lucifer's voice was husky with desire. "Just push that button, and the ship will do the rest."