[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Finally Hanak trembled in the glory and awe of his bloodthirsty god.And at last he understood.* * * * *“The warriors are ready, my chieftain,” reported Tokol.The leader of the Kultakans was the first to report to Corded, but this fact did not surprise the commander.Despite the disaster in Nexal and the long flight with his Nexalan enemies, Tokol had remained fiercely loyal to the general who had conquered his nation.Cordell tried to shake off a grim feeling of unease as darkness settled over the vast camp.The Nexalans had reached the valley Gultec had discovered, and in truth it offered a lush bounty—not only water, grain, and berries, but an abundance of fish and fowl as well.Also to its credit, the valley had a high, sleep rim separating it from the natural pathway by which they had entered.Knowing that the beasts still pursued them, Cordell and the chiefs had deployed their fighting men along this crest.At least, that was the plan.Tokol’s warriors, some five thousand strong, promised a good hold on the right flank.Cordell’s legionnaires would stand in the center.The left flank, which was the longest, had been entrusted to the Nexalans, who could muster some twenty thousand warriors.But now Cordell waited to hear back from Chical or any of the other war chiefs responsible for positioning thatline.He stiffened as he heard a sentry cry a challenge, but then the clatter of hoofbeats told him that one of his own men approached.Cordell turned to face Grimes as the rider dismounted and raised his hand in casual salute.“They’re out there, but still a couple miles back,” he reported.“A big camp of em.They seem to be settling in for the night”“Did any follow the decoys?” Cordell asked.“You mean Daggrande, with Halloran and his woman?” asked the captain.“Yes, dammit! Did they draw any of the beasts away?”“One of my men saw a large company of big ones—trolls, the whole lot—heading for the east ridge.It seems likely that’s who they were after.”“Well, that’s something, anyway.” Cordell turned as another shape emerged from the darkness.He recognized the tall, haughty figure of Chical, captain of the Eagle Knights.“My warriors are emplaced upon the ridge.If they come, we will meet them.With the favor of the gods, we will throw them back.” Chical reported to the captain-general, but he did not bow.“Good,” Cordell replied.The line of defenders was ready, straddling the route between the monsters and the Nexalans in the valley At night they were most vulnerable, and this was when he most feared an attack.They could only wait for an attack, or dawn, whichever came first.“With the favor of the gods.” he repeated after Chical and Grimes had left.Could they ask for that much anymore?* * * * *The eagle perched on the platform atop the pyramid.His bright eyes glittered as he looked at the humans and the dwarf who climbed to meet him.The companions gasped for air under the strain of the long climb, while the drop to the highest terrace of the pyramid fell dizzyingly away below.Each flight of stairs was successively steeper than the last until here, near the summit, they placed their hands on steps that seemed mere inches from their faces as they carefully scaled the last stone stairway.“We have come, Lord Poshtli,” said Erix quietly as they finally reached the summit.“You have called us and we have come.”The eagle cocked its head to the side, and it seemed to Halloran as ii” the bird understood her words perfectly.He remembered the noble warrior who had been his friend, and he wondered how this bird could be that man.Yet he never questioned the fact that this was Poshtli.The top of the pyramid formed a broad square plaza, perhaps fifty paces on a side.The temple building itself occupied most of the square, though a wide shelf passed around the building on all four sides.Though the wall had appeared featureless from the distance, now they could see that intricate carvings of snakes, birds, and jaguars covered the sides of the temple building.The creatures, carved in detailed relief, had been left unpainted.The huge door yawned before them, larger now even than it had seemed from the ground below.It loomed a good thirty feet high and nearly that wide.But their sense of proportion vanished entirely as they stepped through the door.They entered a monstrously huge chamber, with floor and walls of stone and a roof of thatch supported by the longest tree trunks they had ever seen
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]