He reached the hill and scrambled up the near side. The bare rock reflected the heat of the sun until the slope was like a griddle. Blade's clothes were dark with sweat and torn in several places long before he reached the top of the hill.
He was only a few yards below the top when he heard a sudden soft thump that seemed to come from the other side of the hill. It sounded like an enormous feather mattress falling. Blade froze, then heard a more familiar sound-iron-shod hooves, moving fast across a hard surface. Blade flung himself toward the hilltop. As he reached it, the sound of human shouts joined the clatter of hooves. He threw himself flat and stared down the far slope of the hill.
The Wolves had come to Dodini. At least forty of them were heading down the hill, their heudas kicking up clouds of dust and gravel. Blade counted seven of the fully armored leaders with their shields and pennoned lances, with a cluster of men-at-arms following each one.
At least half the men-at-arms were leading pack heudas with large leather sacks or wicker baskets slung on either side. The heudas were ungraceful, almost grotesque in their movements, but they covered ground at a pace no horse could have matched on that slope.
Blade's eyes followed the trail of dust across the hillside to a pair of large boulders, each twice as high as a man. With a sudden shock he realized that the trail ended there. All the Wolves seemed to be riding out of the gap between the boulders-but none of them rode into a gap from the other side. The rising cloud of dust did not conceal the hillside beyond the boulders. It lay bare, empty, and undisturbed.
Blade looked again, more carefully, and saw the same thing he'd seen the first time. He forced himself to consider what it meant. He might be hallucinating. His eyes might be playing perfectly normal tricks on him-overlooking some natural feature which hid the Wolves until they appeared between the boulders.
Or he might be seeing what was actually happening-the Wolves appearing out of thin air and riding off toward Dodini.
Blade refused to use the word «impossible.» It was always foolish, and in Dimension X it was dangerous. Still, a force of heavy cavalry riding out of thin air wasn't something he met every day, even in Dimension X.
Suddenly the mystery behind the Wolves was much greater than before. The secret behind the Wolves was no longer just the identity of their master. It was much more how much more Blade didn't even want to try guessing for now. For now that would be a waste of time.
The vacation was definitely over, though.
Blade lay on his stomach until the last of the Wolves appeared and rode off down the hill. Among the men-at-arms behind the last leader Blade recognized the huge red-bearded man who'd wielded the ax in Frinda.
There were more than a hundred Wolves in sight by the time they stopped coming. As the last ones thundered off down the hill, the first ones were already reaching level ground. They spurred their mounts toward the road that led to Dodini. Farmers in the fields scampered out of the Wolves' path or threw themselves to the ground.
The Wolves struck the road, swung to the left, and pounded off toward Dodini. A thin column of red smoke seemed to be curling up from one of the towers. Otherwise the town lay quiet in the sunlight, as if the Wolves charging at its walls were no more than a thunderstorm which would come and go regardless of what men did.
As the last Wolf struck the road, Blade sprang up and scrambled down the hillside as fast as he could. On level ground he broke into a run. He headed straight for the town, cutting across fields and through woods, feet pounding, long legs eating up the ground. He could hardly have run faster if the Wolves had been behind him rather than ahead of him.
If he could get his hands on one of the Wolves, things would be a great deal simpler. But to do that safely he had to reach Dodini hard on the Wolves' heels. In the uproar of their arrival, no one would be paying attention to a ragged stranger with an ax over his shoulder.
There were many things that could go wrong with this rough plan. There always were, when one man decided to challenge a hundred. Meanwhile, there was nothing to do but run. Blade ran, and ahead of him the towers of Dodim rose higher and higher above the trees.
A final patch of woods gave Blade cover almost up to the walls. The trees grew so close that Blade wondered if the people of Dodini had ever heard of enemies creeping up to their walls under this ready cover. Had Dodini been at peace, except for the Wolves, since before these trees were planted? That was a long time. The trees were solid gray-barked things two feet thick at the base. They might have been here for a century or more.
This suggested not just one tyrant, keeping the peace in this Dimension by sending out the Wolves to collect his taxes and crush his enemies. It suggested a whole dynasty of tyrants, extending back a century or more, tightening their rule, picking and training their troops, getting people to accept their authority as something inevitable and inescapable, ruthlessly enforcing peace. Now Richard Blade faced that dynasty single-handed, ready to challenge its picked troops and try to dig out its secret-or die trying.
It was not going to be the easiest challenge he'd ever met. However, he'd faced longer odds in other Dimensions. He was still alive and most of the people who'd tried to kill him were dead. He'd just have to go ahead once more, do his best, and trust to luck for what he couldn't control. So far luck had been with him, and his best had been very good indeed.
It might even be good enough to keep him alive against a hundred Wolves.
Chapter 6
Blade crept to the edge of the trees and peered out. Luck was going to be with him, at least for now. Only two Wolves guarded the nearest gate into Dodini, and only one of them was mounted. The one on foot stood with his back to Blade, eyes firmly fixed on the narrow street visible through the gateway. The mounted Wolf sat with his heuda's head toward the trees. He himself spent half his time looking back over his shoulder into the town, rather than toward the trees or along the narrow road at the base of the wall on either side of him.
Blade was not entirely surprised to find only two Wolves. A hundred Wolves might seem like a mighty army, but in fact they would be spread fairly thin against a town the size of Dodini. Simply keeping the streets clear could use up fifty men. Two men at each gate would be enough to keep any hotheads from trying to lock the Wolves into Dodini and give warning of anyone trying to escape.
Nor was it surprising that the two Wolves were not completely alert. They were well-trained and well-disciplined, but they were also men who expected little resistance and no real fighting. Perhaps they were like the legions of Rome-men whose fathers and grandfathers had carried all before them, until they could no longer believe that anyone in the world would even try to stand against the Wolves. They were about to get a rude surprise.
Blade was happy to find Wolves at the gates. He wouldn't have to enter Dodini, hunt down a Wolf through its streets, then bring the man safely out again. He could strike at the men here, then have weapons, a heuda, a prisoner to question, and nothing else to do except get away from Dodini as fast as possible. He could only hope that his blow against the Wolves wouldn't bring some bloody retaliation against the town.
Blade's eyes scanned a half-circle from right to left, taking in everything along the edge of the trees, the road, and the wall of Dodini. The wall curved so that the other gates and their guards were out of sight. They wouldn't be out of hearing, though. He'd have to move fast. Fortunately the ground between Blade and the road was clear and level. A ditch lay on the far side of the road, between it and the wall, shallow and filled with scummy water, but that would be more of a problem for the two Wolves than for Blade. He moved a few yards to the right, gripped his ax, and got ready to charge.