The Cache (16 page)

“If the Pwawwaw had any sense,” said Lezpet, “they would have come out from behind their walls and fought the besiegers. They outnumbered us until now.”

“The L’wan fear us ever since the Third Army, ten years ago, made a punitive campaign up and down the river valley and burned many villages and took many captives,” said the Usspika. “They learned that undisciplined and unarmored savages cannot stand against Kaywo.”

“According to the report, the vessel is buried within the site of the fort,” said Lezpet. “Too bad it wasn’t in the village, instead. But that can’t be helped.”

She gave orders to have all the slaves chained to their benches on the galleys. They were to be provided with food and water so they did not suffer while the fighting went on. But she had the oars removed from the galley, since she did not want to see the slaves rowing away. Leaving only a few soldiers to watch over the slaves, she led her bodyguard and the cavalry of the First Army up the bluff.

Within a few minutes, she found that tall siege-ladders had been built from wood cut from the trees of the neighboring forest. And many wooden walls on wheels had been built so that the Kaywo might advance behind them close to the fort and be protected from arrow fire.

After complimenting the commander on his foresight, the Pwez turned her horse to face the assembled soldiers.

“Sons of the two-headed wolf! The fate of Kaywo lies in your hands! The Skego are coming swiftly in great numbers! We must conquer the Pwawwaw within the next two hours if we are to succeed! This means that we cannot count our costs and that no man must turn back, even to gather his strength for another attack! Once the charge trumpet is blown, we must go forward without pause! Sons of the wolf, you must be wolves!”

A trumpet blew the long call to action. The soldiers, chanting “Kaywo! Kaywo!” began to push the tall and thick log shields on wheels before them. Behind the pushers came files of man carrying the long and heavy siege-ladders.

Benoni, with Joel and Zhem, was not among the attackers. He was stationed about fifty yards behind them with a group of three hundred cavalry. Lezpet at their head, they waited until the time was ripe.

As soon as the mobile walls came within arrow range of the Pwawwaw, a cloud of feathered shafts rose from the many towers and from behind the sharp points of the walls of the fort. Most of these thudded into the Kaywo shields; a few found targets among those who had dropped too far behind their shelters. After two volleys, the Pwawwaw, seeing that they were wasting arrows, ceased fire. But a powerful drumming rose from the fort, and the wild-men shrieked in their strange tongue at the attackers.

When the wheeled walls had gotten within fifty yards of the Pwawwaw ramparts, they stopped. Now, half of the men behind the mobiles fitted arrows to their bows. The others gripped the ladders and waited. The Pwawwaw, unable to hold themselves any longer, began to shoot. The disciplined Kaywo did not retaliate, despite some losses; they waited until their commander gave the signal.

He, looking through a peephole in the mobile, chose a time between the volleys. Then, he lowered his hand, a trumpeter gave the assault call, and the soldiers ran out from behind their shelters.

The archers quickly marshalled themselves into ranks of four deep. At the orders of their sergeants, they began to fire in volleys, rank by rank. And the men carrying the ladders rushed forward to the foot of the twenty-five foot high walls of the fort. Now, the arrows of the Pwawwaw began to find their flesh. Kaywo dropped, several ladders fell to the ground and were not picked up again; so many of their carriers were dead or wounded.

But the archers of the Kaywo were finding their marks, too. Many a Pwawwaw head projecting over the edge of the pointed logs dropped with an arrow in it or in the chest below the head. And the Pwawwaw suddenly quit sending over concerted fire and resorted to individual initiative.

The Kaywo gave a loud shout and raised their ladders high and planted the feet on the ground and let the upper part fall against the walls. The Kaywo bowmen now aimed at the areas where the ladders were. When a brave Pwawwaw jumped up from behind his walls to push the ladders back, he suddenly bristled with shafts.

Lezpet turned on her saddle and motioned to a wagon behind this. This had been especially fitted with a giant log mounted on top and lashed to the frame. The wagon faced backwards, and a team of twelve horses had been hitched to the specially prepared tongue. The back wheels of the wagon were on a rotatable axle; the axle could be turned several degrees to the right or left by means of cables and a huge wheel fixed to the top of the wagon. A soldier crouched on a chair and turned the wheel; he peered through a hole set in the middle of a heavy log shield and was protected by a roof. Since the ramming-log took up most of the space on top of the wagon, the pilot’s shelter and the wheel within were set to one side. Braces had been built on the side of the wagon to support the half of the pilot’s shelter which projected.

The Pwez rode up to the ram-wagon and spoke a few words to the soldier crouched behind the steering wheel. Then she rode to a position a few yards behind the team that was to push the ram-wagon. Behind her, the three hundred cavalry arranged themselves in ranks of four abreast.

A trumpeter, at a signal from Lezpet, blew the charge call. Lezpet and some of the officers began striking the flanks of the wagon team with whips and shouted at them. At first, the horses were reluctant to gallop, as if they were afraid of this strange arrangement of pushing, instead of pulling, the wagon. But, under the sting of the lash, they began to pick up speed. Long before the wagon reached the gates of the fort, it was traveling at maximum speed.

Benoni, in the front rank of the cavalry, could see Lezpet just ahead of him, but the huge bulk of the wagon and the log it carried blocked out much of his view. So it was that he did not, at first, see that some quick-thinking and daring Pwawwaw were opening the gates. Their intention was to swing them open just enough to allow the wagon to come speeding through, and perhaps, a few of the cavalry. Then the gates would be swung shut, and the Kaywo would have lost their only immediate chance to burst the gates apart.

Lezpet, however, saw at once what the Pwawwaw were planning. She spurred her stallion to race around the team and drew up alongside the wagon. Despite the rumble made by the wagon’s wheels, she managed to shout out an order. And she dropped back.

The pilot turned the front wheels just in time; the wagon veered; the great butt of the log, projecting six feet ahead of the wagon, crashed into the edge of the right gate and flung it back against the wall, sending the Pwawwaw who were holding it rolling over and over.

The ram struck the gate and the wall behind it with an impact that tore the gate from its hinges and bent the logs of the wall backwards.

The horses driving the wagon piled into the rear of the wagon as their traces broke, and they became a kicking, screaming tangle. The pilot house itself was ripped loose and smashed against the gate, killing the pilot.

But the ramming had not only opened the way to the cavalry; the impact had knocked off the archers on that side of the gate, sent them tumbling to the ground. And reduced the effective fire against the horsemen pouring through the gateway.

The next ten minutes was a melee. Benoni found himself engulfed in a swirling mob, but the Pwawwaw were all on foot, and he could strike downwards. His sword rose and fell, rose and fell. Kaywo around him went down as arrows fired from the wall struck them or their horses: or Pwawwaw leaped up from the ground and dragged them off their saddles.

But, by then, many of the Kaywo on the siege-ladders had successfully climbed up the ladders, over the walls, and onto the platforms behind the walls. After clearing some areas of the defenders, they fought others while archers began shooting at the Pwawwaw on the ground within the enclosure.

One of the arrows went through the belly of the chief of the Pwawwaw. The chief, standing on a platform and directing the fighting, toppled off into the swirling mob around him. Another Pwawwaw, a subchief, picked up the fallen standard, a pole with a wild boar’s head at its end. Benoni, his horse shoved against the platform by the weight of the crowd, struck out with his sword and half-severed the subchief’s leg. The standard fell within reach of Benoni; he picked it up, rose in his stirrups the better to be seen by all, and waved the standard.

The Kaywo cheered and began to press around Benoni to defend him against the Pwawwaw struggling to regain it. Some of the heart seemed to go out of many of the barbarians. Perhaps, in their belief, the standard contained the strength of the Pwawwaw, and he who possessed it possessed their strength.

Whatever the explanation, the battle went speedily in the Kaywo’s favor. A few minutes later, the Kaywo burst into the big longhouse in the middle of the fort. Here, they found the children and many of the women huddled, expecting to be slaughtered or captured for slavery. But Lezpet had ordered that they be dispossessed as quickly as possible; if the Pwawwaw men saw that they were not harmed, they might not fight so desperately.

Lezpet shouted orders; the Kaywo managed to form themselves into two lines. Between the avenue made by the lines, the women and children fled for the gates. Many fell and were crushed beneath the panicky crowd, but the majority managed to get outside. From there, they fled towards the woods. Then, the Kaywo regrouped and fought towards the other end of the fort. After reaching it, they unbarred the other gate and admitted the Kaywo outside it.

From then on, it was slaughter and flight.

The Pwawwaw men, finding that the Kaywo were making no effort to keep them from leaving through the gates, broke and ran.

The Kaywo had no difficulty finding the vessel of the Hairy Men from the Stars. It lay in a huge excavation beside the northern wall.

Benoni, reining in his horse beside Lezpet, said, “It looks just like the one I saw on the plains!”

Lezpet slid from her horse, ran down the steps into the excavation, and stopped before the towering bulk. The vessel was only partly uncovered; over-two-thirds of it was still buried under dirt. But a ramp of earth led up to a window, and she could see within.

Benoni stood by her, for the window was a circle ten feet across, and also looked. The glass or metal was clear. The sun was at the correct angle to flood the interior. They had no trouble making out details.

There were many things that looked alien; they were incomprehensible to him. That was to be expected. Beings that controlled such power would use devices beyond his understanding.

One thing he did understand. The skeletons on the floor of the chamber within the ship. The Hairy Men from the Stars, who had died when their ship fell. There were six of them, lying here and there. The skull of one was broken open, doubtless from the impact so many hundreds of years ago.

The skulls and skeletons seemed to resemble those of human beings. From this distance, Benoni could detect only two outstanding differences. Every skull had very prominent cheekbones. And every hand had six fingers.

Lezpet stepped back and said, “How do we get in? There don’t seem to be any doors.”

She ordered a Pwawwaw prisoner, a wounded man, brought to her. The fellow spoke only his native language, but one of her officers, a specialist in Pwawwaw, translated.

“Have any of you entered this?” she said.

The officer directed the question; the fellow spewed forth some gibberish.

“He says that they have tried to get in. But that, so far, they have found nothing that even looks like a door. Moreover, the metal has resisted all their efforts. They pounded two days on the window and didn’t even make a dent. Broke all the tools.”

Lezpet bit her lip, and she said, “The First would laugh at us if we sacrificed so many then had to leave empty-handed. Perhaps, there may be an entrance farther back on the ship. But we’ve no time to dig away all that dirt.”

Benoni left the ramp and walked along the curving silvery bulk of the vessel. He searched on both sides and returned to the Pwez.

“The skin of the vessel is absolutely smooth,” he said. “Except for six slight indentations. These are arranged in a circle, not as wide as my hand.”

“Perhaps, they mean something,” said Lezpet. “But what?”

Benoni looked again inside the room. Would they have to leave the ship as they found her? Go away with the mysteries, and possible treasuries of the Hairy Men forever unknown?

“At least, Your Excellency,” he said, “If we can’t get in, neither can the Skego.”

“The Skego will have all the time they need to uncover the rest of the ship,” she said, furiously. “And time to study means for getting in. No, we have to find its secret now! Within the next few hours!”

Benoni looked at the skeletons again. Six fingers on each hand. He tried to imagine what those hands looked like when clothed with flesh.

Then, abruptly, he spun around and raced down the ramp of earth.

“What is it?” said the Pwez, but he did not bother to answer. He ran along the side of the vessel until just before the rear half plunged into the wall of the excavation. Then, he extended one hand with the five fingers and the other hand with one finger extended. And he pressed down on the six indentations forming a circle.

Immediately, a great circular crack appeared in the smooth skin.

Benoni shouted, and Lezpet came running.

“What is it?”

She had no need for an explanation. A section of the skin was sinking inwards. Within a minute, the circular portion had sunk a half-foot, then begun sliding to the left into the skin itself.

Benoni told her what he had done. She, forgetting her dignity for a second, squealed with joy. “First above! It took a wild-man to solve it! You have shamed us Kaywo!”

She motioned to the soldiers to bring the Pwawwaw prisoner. Through the interpreter, she said, “You are lying to me. Did none of your people press down on those indentations?”

The prisoner’s eyes were wide at the sight of the sliding door. He said, “Yes, some of us did. But nothing happened.”