There were ten of them on small, ponies—men and both, and well armed. Travis it was the of the Horde that the as when necessary. Menlik—there was no the of their leader. And they were singing! The the with energy a his horn, its boom, the same call the Apache had before. The Mongols were themselves into the mood for some effort, Travis deduced. And if they were too under the Red spell, there would be no with them. He wait no longer.
The Apache from a near the gate, moved into the open and waiting, the across his forearm. If necessary, he to give a with it for an object lesson.
"Dar-u-gar!" The which had once across a of Terra. Thin here, and from only a throats, but just as menacing.
Two of the lances, preparing to him down. Travis a tree them and pressed the button. This time there was a flash, a of light, to mark the of a thing.
One of the lancers' reared, in fear. The other on his course.
"Menlik!" Travis shouted. "Hold up your man! I do not want to kill!"
The called out, but the was already level with the tree, his on his to the earth where it had stood. Then he his lance, on the reins. A might not have his charge, unless it killed or wounded, but what he had just was a thing his understanding.
The sat their horses, Travis, him with the of the they as forefathers, that the of the wild, not to into unknown danger.
Travis walked forward. "Menlik, I would talk—"
There was an from the horsemen, from Hulagur and one or two of the others. But the his into a walking toward the Apache until they only a from each other—the of the and the Horde the of the and the People.
"You have taken a woman from our yurts," Menlik said, but his were more on the gun than on the man who it. "Brave are you to come again into our land. He who sets in the must into the saddle; he who free of the must be prepared to use it."
"The Horde is not here—I see only a of people," Travis replied. "Does Menlik to go up against the Apaches so? Yet there are those who are his enemies."
"A of is not such a one as needs a under a to him."
Suddenly Travis was of the talking; there was so little time.
"Listen, and well, Shaman!" He spoke now. "I have not your woman. She is already the southward," he pointed with his chin—"leading the Reds into a trap."
Would Menlik him? There was no need, Travis decided, to tell him now that Kaydessa's part in this was involuntary.
"And you?" The asked the question the Apache had to hear.
"We," Travis that, "march now against those in their ship out there." He the northern plains.
Menlik his head, the land about them with disbelieving, appraisal.
"You are then of an army, an army with magic to overcome machines?"
"One needs no army when he this." For the second time Travis the power of the he carried, this time into shifting an of wall. Menlik's did not change, though his narrowed.
The his small company, and they dismounted. Travis was by this that Menlik was to talk. The Apache a gesture, and Jil-Lee and Buck, their own well in sight, came out to him. Travis that the Tatar had no way of that the three were alone; he well might have an of Apaches were near-by and so armed.
"You would talk—then talk!" Menlik ordered.
This time Travis events with an of word embroidery. "Kaydessa leads the Reds into a we have set the peaks—four of them with her. How many now in the ship near the settlement?"
"There are at least two in the flyer, eight more in the ship. But there is no at them in there."
"No?" Travis laughed softly, the on his arm. "Do you not think that this will the of that nut so that we can at the meat?"
Menlik's to the left, to the tree which was no longer a tree but a thin deposit of on ground.
"They can us with the as they did before. If we go up against them, then we are once more into their net—before we their ship."
"That is true for you of the Horde; it not affect the People," Travis returned. "And we out their machines? Then will you not be free?"
"To up a tree? Lightning from the can do that."
"Can lightning," Buck asked softly, "also make as of the river?"
Menlik's to the second example of the weapon's power.
"Give us proof that this will act against their machines!"
"What proof, Shaman?" asked Jil-Lee. "Shall we a that you may believe? This is now a of time."
Travis had a inspiration. "You say that the 'copter is out. Suppose we use that as a target?"
"That—that can the from the sky?" Menlik's was open.
Travis if he had gone too far. But they needed to themselves of that they to move out into the plain. And to use the of the as an example, would be the best proof he give of the of the new Apache arms.
"Under the right conditions," he stoutly, "yes."
"And those conditions?" Menlik demanded.
"That it must be range. Say, the level of a where a man may in wait to fire."
Silent Apaches Mongols, and Travis had a to taste what might be defeat. But the must be taken they toward the ship and the settlement.
"And, maker of traps, how do you to this one?" Menlik's question was an open challenge.
"You know these Reds than we," Travis counterattacked. "How would you it, Son of the Blue Wolf?"
"You say Kaydessa is leading the Reds south; we have but your word for that," Menlik replied. "Though how it would profit you to on such a matter—" He shrugged. "If you do speak the truth, then the 'copter will circle about the where they entered."
"And what would the pilot in?" the Apache asked.
Menlik again. "Any manner of things. The Reds have too south; they are of the heights—with good cause." His fingers, near the of his tulwar, twitched. "Anything which might that their party is in would them in for a closer look—"
"Say a fire, with much smoke?" Jil-Lee suggested.
Menlik spoke over his to his own party. There was a of answer, two or three of the men their voices above those of their companions.
"If set in the right direction, yes," the conceded. "When do you plan to move, Apaches?"
"At once!"
But they did not have wings, and the cross-country they had to make was a on foot. Travis' "at once" into night hours with over rocks, and an early of preparations, with always the threat that the might not return to its mission over the of operations. All they had was Menlik's that while any party of the Red was away from their well-defended base, the did just that.
"Might be on from a walkie-talkie or something like that," Buck commented.
"They should our ship in two days ... three at the most ... if they are pushing," Travis said thoughtfully. "It would be a help—if that is a link in any unit—to it its up and any report of what there."
Jil-Lee grunted. He was the above the pocket in which Menlik and two of the Mongols were brush. "There ... there ... and there...." The Apache's three juts. "If the pilot for a quick look, our fire will take out his blades."
They a last with Menlik and then to the Jil-Lee had selected. Sentries on reported by that Tsoay, Deklay, Lupe, and Nolan were now on the move to join the other three Apaches. If and when Manulito's closed its on the Reds at the western ship, the news would pass and the Apaches would move out to the enemy on the prairie. And should they blast any the might carry, Menlik and his would them.
There it was, just as Menlik had foretold: The from the open country was into the hills. Menlik, on his knees, to steel, the fire they would the pilot to a closer investigation.
The caught, and smoke, thick and white, came in and then into a to a no one overlook. In Travis' hands the of the gun was slippery. He rested the end of the on the rock, his as best he could.
To any on the flyer, the Tatars had in the the Apaches' lookout. And as the in, Travis two men in its cockpit, one a to the one they had on the Red days ago. The Reds' long over the Mongol would make them overconfident. Travis that if they one of the waiting Apaches, they would not take until too late.
Menlik's fire was well and the was for it. The machine the once, too high for the Apaches to trust its blades. Then the pilot came in a which him only yards above the brush, on a level with the snipers.
Travis pressed the on the barrel, his the fast-whirling blades. Momentum the on, but at least one of the marksmen, if not all three, had scored. The machine through the to up beyond.
Was their working, in the Mongols to the Reds in the wreck?
Travis Menlik make his way toward the machine, the of the cockpit. But in the shaman's hand was a on which the sun glinted. The Mongol open the door, with the tulwar, and the of he was as and wild as a wolf's.
More Mongols ... Hulagur ... a woman ... on the helicopter. This time a into the of the flyer. Payment was being for long slavery.
The Apaches from the heights, waiting for Menlik to the wild scene. Hulagur had out the of the man and the Mongols were off his equipment, it with rocks, still their cry. But the came to the fire to meet the Apaches.
He was smiling, his upper lip in a the victory of a tiger. And he with one hand.
"There are two who will not men again! We you now, andas, of battle, when you say you can go up against their and make it as nothing!"
Hulagur came up the shaman, a modern in his hand. He the into the air, it again, laughing—disclaiming something in his own language.
"From the we take two fangs," Menlik translated. "These may not be as as yours, but they can bite deeper, quicker, and with more than our arrows."
It did not take the Mongols long to the and the Reds of what they use, all the other which had the wreck. They had one move: The link the party and the Red headquarters—if that was the role the had played—was now gone. And the "eyes" over the open of the had to exist. The party move against the ship near the Red settlement, they had only Mongol to watch for. And to enemy under those was an old, old game the Apaches had played for centuries.
While they waited for the from the peaks, a was and a Mongol to up the of the and all mounts. Menlik to the Apaches a of the meat which had been Horde fashion—under the to it for eating.
"We do not any longer like or city men in dark holes," he told them. "This time we ride, and we shall take an from those out there—a accounting!"
"They still have other controllers," Travis pointed out.
"And you have that which is an answer to all their machines," Menlik in return.
"They will send against us your own people if they can," Buck warned.
Menlik at his upper lip. "That is also truth. But now they have no in the sky, and with so many of their men away, they will not too from camp. I tell you, andas, with these of yours a man a world!"
Travis looked at him bleakly. "Which is why they are taboo!"
"Taboo?" Menlik repeated. "In what manner are these forbidden? Do you not them openly, use them as you wish? Are they not of your own people?"
Travis his head. "These are the of men—if we can name them men at all. These we took from a of the star who Topaz when our world was only a ground of wild men the skins of and with spears. They are from a and are cursed, a we took upon ourselves with their use."
There was a light in the shaman's eyes. Travis did not know who or what Menlik had been the Red had returned him to the role of Horde shaman. He might have been a or scientist—and him some of that now be Travis said as superstition.
Yet in another way the Apache spoke the exact truth. There was a on these weapons, on every of knowledge in that of the towers. As Menlik had already noted, that was power, the power to Topaz, and then to across the to Terra.
When the spoke again his were a whisper. "It will take a powerful to keep these out of the hands of men."
"With the Reds gone or powerless," Buck asked, "what need will anyone have for them?"
"And if another ship comes from the skies—to all over again?"
"To that we shall have an answer, also, if and when we must it," Travis replied. That well be true ... other in the powerful to a out of the sky, but they did not have to worry about that now.
"Arms from a tomb. Yes, this is men's magic. I shall say so to my people. When do we move out?"
"When we know or not the to the south is sprung," Buck answered.
The report came an hour after the next when Tsoay, Nolan, and Deklay into camp. The a with one hand.
"It is done?" Travis wanted in words.
"It is done. The Pinda-lick-o-yi entered the ship eagerly. Then they it and themselves up. Manulito did his work well."
"And Kaydessa?"
"The woman is safe. When the Reds saw the ship, they left their machine to her captive. That was easily destroyed. She is now free and with the mba'a she comes across the mountains, Manulito and Eskelta with her also. Now—" he looked from his own people to the Mongols, "why are you here with these?"
"We wait, but the waiting is over," Jil-Lee said. "Now we go north!"
