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Estrup Books
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Category:
Science Fiction
Publisher: Estrup Books
Type: Fiction
Pages: 110
Price: $4.00 (eBook)
Climax of the Starlight On Stone saga in which the peace-bride, Harranish, must decide between dark vengeance in her own land and bright possibilities in the strange one of her traditional enemies.
Science and history - Fiction without the mythology ...
Excerpt
From above, on the northern slope, Parro pointed and shouted, “Look!”
“Not so loud,” Waaloo grunted, and they all moved off the rough path to see.
In the growing daylight it took them a moment to understand what they were seeing. The river was leaden, liquid stillness. On the western side, barely visible, men stood in small groups, most of them carrying weapons of one sort or another. But they were not many or organized. Behind them mongers and servants, women and children had gathered.
City officials and residents came to the walls to see, but they were too far away for Twi and Canni or any of the others from Harran to identify, just movement.
They all heard a distant, intermittent sound. It came from below, on an open place. There, a huge serpent lay tightly coiled upon the earth. It made a noise like a raspy hissing. “Hear it?” Parro asked, animated with pleasure.
“I’ve seen something like this before,” Ugan the Glott offered. “It looks like that Egyptian game they play in gambling halls.” He said this eagerly, finishing with a puzzled look. “Yet different.”
Obviously the soldiers and recruits defending Kadesh could hear. The rude line of them began moving back from the river bank. Several broke into a run.
Soon the sun would break over them all. “That’s it,” Ugan said. “In the game, the serpent’s head is in the center of the coil. This one has its tail inside, head free.” Suddenly he remembered that it was a forbidden game and fell silent.
As if it had heard Ugan, the head began to move forward and they saw it was a chariot pulled by white horses. Behind it trotted soldiers, their shields changing subtle colors like scales. As the chariot gained speed the escort broke into a full sprint. The coil became a slithering, fang faced god.
The city’s defenders, even some of the emperor’s disciplined soldiers, fled.
Filled with fear, most of the conscripts fell back, but those who had a lifetime of standing fast were frozen with awe. The sound of a hundred short spears rhythmic on rhino shields churned their bowels and pounded their hearts.
Focused on the matched white horses, many failed to appreciate the machine they pulled. It was the usual uniquely engineered Egyptian carriage - well suspended, fast and more maneuverable than the Hatti versions. But this one was also finished with thin gold sheeting and had a raised cowl. Something on the cowl glittered and the whole serpent shimmered in the morning dust.
But it was not until the horses hit the ancient ford and water sprayed skyward from the impact that so many fell to their knees.
As if perfectly coordinated, the first rays of the sun, Ptah-Ra, flashed onto the screen of vapor and a million tiny rainbows, uncountable miniature suns, the glare of Amarichi herself seemed to rise out of the very river.
Then one of the horses screamed and fell. The other followed and the chariot’s curved tongue dug into the pocked stream bed. The gleaming gold vehicle rose on its finely hewn spar and something red as Ptah flailed out, posed for an instant, then plunged after the horses into the spray.
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