Kiteman of Karanga Read online

  "Forward!" commanded Zanzu. "Forward!"

  Karl and Rika looked ahead at the white-water maelstrom before them. With a smashing jolt they were slammed into the gunwales as the bow careened against the wall of the canyon. The boat raced down the maddened river, plowing straight through the surges in the current and splashing them with spray. The hull of the boat shuddered as it rebounded again and again from the rock walls. All at once the boat lifted up almost out of the water. Its forward motion stopped, and it began to turn sideways to the current.

  "Pull for your lives," screamed Zanzu. "Were caught on a rock. Pull! Pull!"

  The oarsmen rowed frantically, and jabbed desperately at the rock walls with their oars. For a moment, Karl was sure that Zanzu's boat was going to capsize, but then, with a groan from beneath the keel, it turned forward again and slid back into the current.

  As the canyon widened the river subsided. Behind them, the two remaining Hrithdon boats were struggling to survive. Zanzu's crew cheered again as one of the boats struck a boulder and flipped over into the raging water. As the last boat escaped into a quieter side eddy and its crew grappled onto some overhanging branches, Zanzu's men booed them loudly. Karl could not suppress a grin.

  When the white water ended, the crew resumed a steady rowing. Zanzu relinquished the tiller to one of his men and went down into his stateroom to get Athgar. A moment later, the two friends emerged, Athgar holding a compress to the wound under his left arm. Another of Zanzu's crewmen came behind with a box of medical supplies.

  When Zanzu removed the compress, they could see that the gash had stopped bleeding. Athgar lay on the table, while Zanzu gently wiped the outside of the wound with spirits. Then, dipping a needle and thread in the liquid, Zanzu began to sew up the wound. Athgar clenched his teeth and gripped the edge of the table. When Zanzu was done, Athgar had a neat row of stitches under his left arm.

  "Good as new," Athgar said, standing up. "Thanks for getting me out of that fortress." He walked over to Karl and put his arm around him and gave him a shake. "You were terrific, Karl. The Karangans don't know what they lost when you flew away."

  Karl grinned back. He wanted to think that Athgar was right.

  Athgar sat down on a bench. "That escapade must have cost you plenty, Zanzu. How did you finance it? Or do you have an oja plantation hidden away somewhere."

  "Rika helped on that score," said Zanzu. "She gave me a sack of gems worth a dozen lizards."

  Athgar looked at Rika. "You looted your grandfather's treasure. How can I ever pay him back?"

  "Don't worry about that," said Rika. "Just come home to us. We need you, Athgar. Besides, friends don't keep accounts."

  "You're right, Rika. But as to returning home ... that may be impossible. But we don't need to talk about that now."

  Food was brought to the table, and Athgar dug in like a man half starved. Karl, too, was hungry and ate heartily. After the meal, Karl and Rika listened as Athgar and Zanzu told about their adventures as lizard rustlers when they were fighting against the Hrithdon conquest of Eftah. The afternoon passed swiftly, and as the sun was setting, the boat went through a wide expanse of river that was flanked on each side by a thick growth of trees. Karl noticed that they were steering close to the bank, and soon they were brushing the overhanging branches. Suddenly the crew rowed backward, bringing the craft to a standstill. Someone whistled a signal and a dense mat of green foliage lifted out of their way, revealing a channel dug back into the bank. As they pulled into the hidden channel, the mat of foliage closed behind them.

  Athgar eyed his old friend admiringly. "This is some operation you've got, Zanzu. It's the slickest thing I've seen since we hid lizards in caves. Maybe I should have gone into business with you after all."

  "You still can," Zanzu said. "Judging by today's events, I'd say you haven't lost your touch."

  "Ha!" snorted Athgar. "I may have to join you in business the way things are going."

  That evening, more tables were set up on the deck for the crew, and everyone joined in a sumptuous meal. Karl sat with some of the crewmen, and though he enjoyed talking with these adventuresome smugglers, he was careful not to ask too many questions, even if he was friends with their chief.

  Later, after most of the crew had gone ashore to sleep, Karl felt a hand on his shoulder. "Karl, come down to my cabin for a minute," Zanzu said.

  Karl rose and followed Zanzu, wondering why he was wanted. The lamps were lit inside the handsomely furnished cabin. Athgar's friend had spared himself no expense. Every table, shelf, and bench was exquisitely crafted of the finest polished hardwood. They sat on either side of the small stateroom table.

  "You did a great job today, Karl. Your determination and guts made that plan succeed. Athgar is my oldest and best friend, and I want to thank you for saving him."

  Like a thermal lifting a kitewing thousands of feet into the air, Zanzu's praise lifted Karl's spirits higher than they had been for a long time. Karl grinned back at the smuggler. "We showed Murthdur a few things today."

  "Yes, we did," said Zanzu with sudden seriousness. "And perhaps it was too much. Karl, what's next for you? Murthdur's going to bear down on Eftah and rule it like a prison camp. And when the oja harvest is finished, he'll send an army of lizard riders to Karanga. If they can't capture your people, they'll just kill off all the game and starve them into surrendering. By this time next year, Karanga will be a province under Hrithdon rule."

  The Hrithdon invading Karanga! Karl didn't want to believe it, but he knew Zanzu was right.

  "As I see it, Karl, you should go back to Karanga, recruit a force of kitemen, and return here. Bring the battle to the Hrithdon! With your flying skill you should be able to find some weak point in the Hrithdon military operation."

  "I've already found it," said Karl, remembering the night he and Rika had burned the oja beans. "We could drop firebrands on the oja fields before the harvest."

  "That's a great idea, Karl!" Zanzu rose from his seat with excitement. "Those oja fields will be like tinder soon—a force of kitemen could put Murthdur on his knees! Don't hesitate!"

  "But I'll be executed if I go back to Karanga," Karl cried. He told Zanzu about Bron and banishment and the consequences to him should he ever return.

  "Things were different when you were banished, Karl. What would your chief say now if he knew the whole story—what you've done since, and what the Hrithdon are planning?"

  "I'll still be executed," Karl said.

  "You don't know that for sure," Zanzu continued. "The Hrithdon have attacked several villages in Karanga now, so you might be listened to. Besides, Karangans will never be persuaded by Athgar or Rika or me. You're of Karanga—you're the only one who has a chance of saving your people."

  Karl took a deep breath and looked away, but it did not prevent him from picturing thousands of lizard riders moving eastward across the desert.

  "Anyway," said Zanzu, "I brought you down here to give you this." From his jacket pocket Zanzu took out a tiny leather pouch scarcely the size of his thumb. He squeezed it, and a large fire opal slid into his palm.

  "I noticed you looking at this, and Rika told me later that you liked it, so I bought it back. Athgar's my best friend, and I wanted to give you something to show my appreciation. Here." Zanzu put the opal and tiny pouch into Karl's hand.

  Karl tipped the opal toward the lamplight and felt a shiver of recognition as he viewed the red ember surrounded by blue and green flashes. "Thank you," he said. He put the stone in its miniature pouch and got up to go.

  "Don't take too long making up your mind," Zanzu said. "Remember, the time for action is now. If you decide to do it, I'll give you and whoever goes with you the best of lizards and all the supplies you'll need for a desert crossing."

  Karl shut the door behind him. Above decks, the boat was dark, except for the lamp on the table near the stern. Rika was sitting there, and he went and sat on the chair beside her. She was staring into the darkness.

>   "What are you thinking?" Karl asked.

  "That our future extends about as far as this lamplight," Rika answered.

  "I know," Karl replied.

  "Are you going away now that we've rescued Athgar?"

  "I'm not sure," said Karl. He told Rika about his conversation with Zanzu.

  "What should I do?" he continued. "If I go back to Karanga, I'll probably be executed for breaking my banishment. Why can't I just live peacefully somewhere? Why should I try to save a bunch of people who are just going to kill me?"

  "You can't live peacefully anywhere because the Hrithdon won't let you," said Rika. "And you should try to save Karanga because you care about your people, even if going back to them puts you in danger. I hope that you also care about Athgar and me and Grandfather and Rolf and the rest of Eftah. We did not turn you over to the Hrithdon; please don't turn us over to them."

  Karl took out the tiny pouch and let the opal slide into his hand. The red ember in its center glowed, and sparks of color flashed all around it. As Karl stared into the stone, pondering, he began to grow angry. Why couldn't he be brave, able to forget himself, and worry instead about what was right and what should be? Karl felt as if there were a Hrithdon force inside him telling him he was hopeless, telling him he wasn't good enough, making him panic. He grew furious at that part of himself that would not let him be what he wanted to be. If that force had never been there, he knew he would not have panicked at the terry hunt.

  For a moment Karl's anger was so great that it blinded him to everything except that weakness within himself. Then he remembered. Bron had helped him around it once and had taught him to fly. That afternoon he had got past it again by remembering all that Zanzu had told him, and he had freed Athgar. This time he would get past it on his own. He could be as brave as Bron or Athgar or Zanzu.

  Karl continued thinking a long time. "We're going to Karanga," he said finally.

  "We are?" said Rika.

  "Yes, as soon as possible, you and I and Athgar. Zanzu said he'd give us lizards and supplies."

  "Youre not worried about breaking your banishment?"

  "I'm worried about it," Karl replied, "and I'll do what I can to protect myself. But I've begun to realize that that's not the most important thing."

  16. Rendezvous at Red Lizard Cave

  Before dawn the next day the foliage mat lifted again, and Zanzu's boat put out quietly into the still, black water. Under starlight they continued downstream for several hours, and at sunrise turned eastward up a small tributary. Here the landscape became drier and more open, and Karl found himself instinctively looking for antelope and other game. At noon they arrived at a complex of low adobe buildings with orange tile roofs.

  "This is Costyra Ranch," said Zanzu. "Of all the families that breed and train lizards for the Emperor, the Costyra family has been at it longest—over two hundred years. Lodi and his son, Arlo, are old acquaintances of mine."

  They left the boat and were met by the father and son who owned the lizard ranch. They seemed to know Zanzu well, and all were invited into the house for lunch. Afterward, everyone was given a few drops of oja oil to put on as a precaution and then they were taken on a tour of the breeding and training facilities.

  Beginning at the pens containing the prize bulls and hens, Lodi Costyra mentioned the things to look for in a superior riding and fighting lizard. "You want the body to be fourteen to sixteen feet long, excluding tail, and you want it to be evenly proportioned and to have fast reflexes."

  Zanzu's friend stopped at the pen of one particularly strong-looking young bull. Reaching into a sack, he threw a piece of meat past the lizard, which snapped it out of the air with speed the eye couldn't follow. He repeated this, hurling the meat from a different angle, and the lizard snatched it as easily as a frog would snap up a slow-moving fly.

  "Do you train wild lizards too?" Karl asked. He was fascinated by the huge reptiles which he could examine so closely without fear.

  "Almost never because they're very rare now," replied Lodi, who was so enthusiastic that it seemed he could go on talking about lizards forever. "Of course, all our lizards came from wild stock originally, but the wild ones are hard to train and carry flaws. Wild lizards do have one vital use, however. A line that has been bred for seven or eight generations often loses it speed, and we cure that by introducing some wild blood into the line. So we try to keep at least one part-wild lizard on hand."

  They continued on to view the hatching parlor, an area of sandy enclosures open to the sunlight where workmen tended scores of leathery, melon-sized eggs. The workers mounded the heated sand up over the eggs to protect them from the cold night air, then dug it away in the morning so that the eggs would warm up. But the men were careful not to take too much sand away, lest the eggs cook in the hot sun. As they were watching, a young lizard appeared from a mound and a workman caught it and carried the writhing creature away to the rearing pens.

  The training corral was next. They watched as a rider guided one of the young lizards up to a scarecrow-like dummy hung from a pole. On command, the lizard snatched the dummy and shook it violently. When the dummy was down, the rider moved on to the next and the next. Now Karl could appreciate how three Hrithdon guardsmen had been able to vanquish thirty Northmen.

  "Will the lizards attack a man wearing oja?" Karl asked.

  "Yes," answered Lodi emphatically. "Trained lizards will attack anything they're commanded to attack. All oja does is keep you from smelling good to eat. Lizards don't get angry, they get hungry. You can ride the same lizard every day for ten years and then forget your oja once and he'll eat you." The lizard rancher smiled.

  After the training corral, Zanzu and Lodi stayed behind while Arlo led the others back to the house for refreshments; then everyone but Zanzu returned to the boat. When Zanzu finally came on board, he wore an expression of satisfaction, and once they had started upstream again, he handed a pouch of money to Athgar.

  "I had a private chat with Lodi. At dusk tonight, you'll have three of the finest mounts in the Empire. I'll catch up to you with supplies."

  Athgar nodded. "Three days' training on the lizard, a day of rest, and ten days to cross the desert."

  "Good," answered Zanzu. "I'll join you at Red Lizard Cave."

  At dusk the boat pulled close to the bank, and at the agreed-upon site, one of Lodi's ranch hands was waiting with three lizards. Before Karl and Rika and Athgar got off the boat, Zanzu handed each of them a vial of oja.

  "Three small containers are safer than one big one," he said. "Take care of yourselves." He grabbed Karl's hand. "Karl, you may have doubts, but you're doing the right thing. By the Lizard! I know you are." Zanzu embraced them all, then, taking Lodi's man aboard, he gave the order, and the big boat faded into the darkness.

  "Don't anybody move until we've put on a couple of drops of oja," said Athgar. "More than one rider has met his end in the jaws of his own lizard because he forgot that simple precaution. From here on out, apply two drops of oja every morning and whenever you've been sweating heavily. For now, we're just going to lead them on foot a couple of hours until we make camp. That will get them used to us. In the morning I'll teach you how to ride. Let's tie the baggage and the kitewings onto these beauties and get hiking."

  The light, cross-country saddles had baggage racks on the rear, and once everything was lashed down to Athgar's satisfaction, he showed Karl and Rika how to hold the reins and how to lead the lizards. Two tugs meant come forward, one tug meant stop. The lizards had been trained to stay four steps behind without further commands.

  Athgar led them eastward across the hills. On one of the pine-covered ridges they made camp for the night, but at the first hint of yellow on the horizon, they were up and loading the tethered lizards. After a quick morning meal, Athgar began to teach them how to mount and ride the lizards.

  "Walk up to the lizard's head," Athgar began, "and run the palm of your left hand over his nose, up between his eyes, over his head
, and along his neck and back until you reach the saddle. That way he gets a strong smell of oja, and if you never lose touch of him till you mount, he'll be more relaxed. Then your left foot goes into the stirrup, and up you go."

  Athgar demonstrated on his own lizard, and a second later he was mounted. Karl was sure from Athgar's graceful, confident manner that he had mounted thousands of lizards in his life. Sitting astride his lizard, he looked as sure of himself as any Hrithdon rider.

  From lizardback, Athgar told them how to make the lizards go forward, go left, go right, and stop. "Okay, let's mount up. We'll go slow until you're used to it."

  Following Athgar's example, Karl placed his left hand on his lizard's nose. Then, following the flow of slippery gray-green scales the size of his fingernails, he slid his hand up over the huge, terrifying head and along the neck and back. With a smooth leap he was mounted. A rush of elation flowed through him. He glanced behind. Rika, too, was mounted, and she grinned back at him.

  "Does anybody besides the Hrithdon ride lizards?" Karl asked.

  "Nobody!" exclaimed Athgar. "Absolutely nobody except sworn-and-tried Hrithdon guardsmen. Not even the wealthiest of the wealthy ride dread lizards. You can't ride a lizard without possessing oja, and the penalty for that is death. Don't worry, though. We'll stick to the back country, so it isn't likely we'll be spotted."

  "How was Zanzu able to buy these lizards so easily?" Rika asked.

  "I don't know," replied Athgar. "My guess is that he knows some dark secret of the Costyra family. Zanzu is a man of many capacities, and if he weren't twice as ruthless as Murthdur, he wouldn't be alive today. Now lets get these scale-tails moving."

  Athgar led them into the wild backland. Soon they came to a dense thorn thicket that formed an impenetrable wall fifteen feet high. But Athgar brought them to a narrow pathway, and single file they followed him into the heart of the thorn forest.