CHAPTER XV
The Mink has fought till nearly blind, Till almost deaf and dumb; Till all his strength is waned away, And all his senses numb.
At last his foemen give before His pick as swift as fire; Before him now there stands alone The cruel, and savage squire!
--Ruck's Ballad of the Mink
With thirty men at his back, Revel went down the valley at a crouch;slipped up the rock shelf to the eastern entrance of the great mine ofRosk, protected from the gentry's view by a chance outcropping of shale,and went into the darkness. The tunnel he sought was on the secondlevel. He dropped down the ladder, unhooked a blue lantern to guide hisway, and followed the narrow tunnel west.
Behind him the pad-pad of his weary men lifted muffled echoes, and hetried to set such a pace as would take them swiftly to the hill abovethe squires, yet not tire them further nor wind them before the battle.In the intense gloom he distinguished another lantern far ahead. As heapproached, it appeared to move toward him. Was someone carrying it?
He tensed himself and swung the pick a little; but when the priesthurled himself at the Mink, bearing him back against Jerran, the Minkwas caught by surprise. It had been no lantern, but the priest's glowingrobe!
Revel's reflexes were still, if not hair-trigger, at least very quick.This was a tough priest, though, a lean hardbitten man, with a fanaticallong face that shoved itself into Revel's and clicked its teeth aquarter-inch short of his nose. The fellow's arms were tight about him,as they rolled sideways against the rock, Revel straining to bring hispick into play, clutching tight to the lantern, while the priest flailedhands like knobby boulders against the Mink's nape and head. A blow ofhis knee, and Revel doubled up, gasping; struck out blindly with thelantern, caught the fellow in the belly, and made him curl up in histurn, choking for breath. Jerran and the others were blocked by Revel,and growled encouragement.
Revel straightened, nauseated and weak. The priest came at him. Revelraised his pickax and swung it--pain stabbed into his legs and belly--hebent involuntarily in the middle of his swing--and what should have beena neat spitting of the holy man's skull became a messy job ofdisemboweling. The fellow died gurgling, picking futilely at his spiltentrails. Revel crawled over him and went on once more, his troopsbehind him.
At the western entrance to Rosk's mine, he peered out for the first signof the highborn enemies. A thrill of panic touched him as he saw theywere not where they had been; then, poking his head into the dawn, hesaw them advancing in a slow line toward the rise where his four menwere raising shouts and taunts.
Orbs, he thought exultantly, here's a piece of luck! We'll take them inthe back!
He slipped down the shelf, gesturing his men on. Running silently, hecame within a yard of a squire in green and gold; then halted andcleared his throat loudly. The squire, startled, looked back.
"Ewyo!" he shrieked, whirling. "It's the Mink!"
"Come from Hell to slay you," said Revel between his teeth, and dealt ablow with his pick that clove the gentryman from brow to breastbone. Theline of men had swiveled, and now shots rang out; at such close rangeeven their guns could not miss. Half a dozen rebels fell, screaming.
And now the weary Revel was a brazen-throated fiend, brandishing hispick, roaring, scalping one and braining the next, destroying with freshvigor dredged up from the pits of his free soul. For now he had astrange certainty that the gods were done, and if he died in this momenthe died emancipated.
Joy brought him strength such as he had never had. These squires,running off, loading their guns feverishly, firing, clubbing theirweapons to stand and fight, what chance had they against him? He lookedfor Ewyo, but could not find him. _Let him not be dead_, he prayed. Andthen there was Rosk.
Rosk, red of visage, narrow of jaw, bloody about the thin mean mouth,facing him over a thrust-out gun. Revel jumped aside, but Rosk did notfire, only following him with the musket muzzle. "Don't bounce, Mink,"he grated. "Stand and look around you. Your men are falling faster thanautumn leaves."
* * * * *
Revel glanced behind, and at that instant Rosk fired. It was atreacherous trick, and by poetic justice it was his last. The ancientgun, overheated by long use, could not take the overcharge of powder inthe shell. It blew up, its barrel twisting into twin spirals of metal,its stock driving back into the guts of the squire, fragments of hotiron spraying his face and chest. Rosk had no time to howl, but wentdown like a lightning-struck birch. Revel felt the slug, or a piece ofthe shattered gun, burn along his cheek.
What was one more wound atop the uncounted number he had? The Minklaughed, turning to his men.
Of the thirty, Rack and Jerran and one other remained. Each was engagedwith a squire, his two friends grappling without weapons, the minerswinging a pick against a clubbed gun. All the others were dead ordying. Ewyo must be dead somewhere in the valley, or else he had notbeen here at all.
Revel hurried tiredly to the nearest combatants, let his pick go lickingout over Jerran's small shoulder, tore off half the head of the squire.Rack crowed triumphantly as he throttled his man. The miner had won hisfight. They were finished.
The four of them limped toward the hill of John's machine.
Then there came a pounding of hoofs on greensward behind them. Revelturned. It was a lone rider, galloping furiously down upon them. He saw,with an incredulous gasp, that it was Ewyo of Dolfya.
"Go on," he said urgently. "Leave me, comrades."
"You young _fool_," barked Jerran. But he took Rack's arm and pulled thegiant forward, leaving Revel standing alone with his face toward Ewyo.
The stallion was pulled up short, and Ewyo stared down at him. "I hopedI would get here in time," he said.
"You're late. Your world is broken, Ewyo." Revel realized as he said itthat he was fatigued to the point of not giving a damn whether he livedor not. Still there was a yearning to fight this devil on horseback."Shoot, Ewyo. I shall kill you all the same."
Ewyo raised his gun, hesitated, then said, "Is there only myself, then,and you, Mink, in all the world?"
"In all the world, Ewyo."
"Will you give me a pick?"
Revel started. "You are no miner. You can't fight with a pickax."
"I can fight with anything I can hold." He threw the gun on the grass."Give me a pick," he commanded, leaping from his nag.
* * * * *
Revel stooped and took up the weapon of a dead man. It was a good pick,with a longer handle than the Mink's own. He reached it out to Ewyo,holding it by the head, and the squire took it and stepped back a pace.
"When you're ready, Mink."
"Now, Ewyo."
They circled each other, warily watching the eyes and arms of the enemy."Why didn't you shoot me?" asked Revel in wonder.
"Too unsporting," growled the beefy squire, his pale eyes squinting withstrain. "A gentleman doesn't take advantages."
Revel laughed. It was too ridiculous a statement to merit an answer. Hemade a feint, Ewyo parried skillfully. Then the squire brought his pickdown in a looping arc. His reach was as long as Revel's, and the pickgave him an advantage. Revel jumped back, slashed sideways and missed.They circled.
"The gods will win out," grunted Ewyo.
"Their day is done. We are aided by the Ancient Kingdom."
"Superstition! Things have always been as they are."
Slash, hack, parry and retreat. "Not as they are now, Squire Ewyo."
Ewyo dropped his guard, Revel came in to gut him. Too late he saw thetrick, and Ewyo's pick sliced across his shin, a shallow cut that nickedthe bone. He jabbed with the flat of the blade, struck Ewyo in thechest, and jerking his pick sidewise and back, tore velvet coat andsatin weskit and drew blood. Ewyo cried out.
Revel summoned his strength and began a series of flashing swings, whichEwyo parried frantically, backing across the grass. Blood spurted fromcheek and hand as the rebel's deadly weapon glinte
d dully in blurredmovement before the squire's eyes.
Then the squire rallied, and his power being greater than Revel's now,if his skill were less, he drove the Mink back in turn.
There came a blow that turned the pick in Revel's hands, sending itspoint down to the side; Revel recovered, but the squire threw up his armand brought down his blade with such force that the off-balance Minkcould not turn it wholly. It sliced over his ribs, drove through theflesh of his hip.
Pain so hideous as to make him dizzy and ill knifed the Mink. In thatmoment he knew if he did not make one superb effort he was done.Conquering agony, he swung up the pick before Ewyo could recover fromthe vicious downswing. With a noise like a rock hurled into a rottenmelon, the pick tore through cloth and flesh to lodge in Ewyo's belly,half its head buried in the screaming squire.
Ewyo tore it from the Mink's hands as he fell, and writhed about it,curled like a stricken serpent.
The Mink dropped to one knee beside him, head bowed with nausea andrelief. "You were a brave man, you bastard."
Ewyo, strong in his fashion as Revel in his, stiffened his body so thathe could look straight up at his killer. "Not--especially brave," heground out. "You see--Mink--I had no--ammunition--for the gun...."
His pale eyes filmed over, and Revel staggered off, leaving him for thecrows and worms of the valley.
* * * * *
When he had come, dragging himself like a wounded stag up the rockshelf, they stared at him in silence for a long minute. Lady Nirea atlast said, "But you are dying, Revel!"
"Not for a good many years," he grinned.
Jerran said, "Aye, cut him a thousand times and he'll make fresh bloodfrom that valiant heart!"
John called, "Look there, Mink!" Down the dawn wind rode half a dozengolden orbs, high enough to be out of reach of their picks, low enoughto observe them. Revel gritted, "Blast 'em!"
"You can always shoot later, son. Let's hear what they want."
Reluctantly Revel waved a crimsoned hand to stop his gunmen. The globeshalted a few feet above the machine. Fingers of thought pried into theMink's head, and automatically up went his screen.
Then the cerebral prying ceased. John murmured, "They're talking to me."
Revel watched the silent exchange of thoughts. What if the obscenethings got hold of John's mind. Anxiously he scanned the strong face forsigns of fading will. At last he could stand it no longer, and was aboutto order a volley, when John said, "I think that's it, Mink."
"What happened?" they all asked eagerly.
"The things parleyed. They see they can't get close enough to smash themachine--that last explosion was a desperate try at crashing a saucerwith a bomb ready to trip, and it didn't work--so they want to talk. Igave 'em a skinful." He chuckled. "Told 'em there were men of my timewakening all over the world, with machines to defeat them totally; theyknow whom they're dealing with now, and they're going to talk it over.Mink, that's the end of the gods, with luck! They won't face a force oftwenty-first century scientists. They haven't got it, they just haven'tgot it."
"But they'll discover that you lied," said Nirea. "They'll get thethrower, sooner or later, and then we're at their mercy again."
"I didn't lie, girl. All over this hemisphere there are caves like theone I came from, with scientists held in suspension, plenty of machinesfrom our time, and knowledge that will bring your world out of theseDark Ages into another Renaissance! I have the locations in the papersthat were interred in the casket under me, and we'll send parties outtoday to find 'em. This is a new world dawning this morning." He leanedover and kissed her enthusiastically, and Revel, who would have splitanother man down the brisket for that, did not mind at all. "Your globesare done, Mink. The gentry and the priests will be easy prey. You canprobably scare them into surrender after last night."
Jerran said, "Here be men on horses, Mink." Revel turned and saw a greatcavalcade of stallioned men sweep down the valley, and in a moment ofgreat joy saw that they were all ruckers, carrying dead gods on pikesand singing the Ballad of the Mink as they came.
The Lady Nirea was in his arms, kissing his lips that were caked withthree kinds of blood; and Revel the Mink forgot the pain in his tornbody, the utter weariness of brain and muscle, and everything elseexcept what was good and sweet and wonderful.
* * * * *
Three months had passed, and the leaders of the successful rebellion ofEarth were sitting in a drinking-house (legal now) downing toasts tovarious people and events. Revel and his wife Nirea sat at the head ofthe board, and down the sides ranged their friends and lieutenants: thegiant Rack and the tiny Jerran, Dawvys and a dozen others, with JohnKlapham at the foot.
"To the end of the globes," said John, his tongue a trifle thick by now."By gad, you brew potent stuff in these times! To the gods' finish!"
They drank that standing, roaring it out gleefully.
Revel said, "It was a sight to see, that--thousands upon thousands ofbuttons, all sweeping into the sky and vanishing into dots and thennothing ... and here's to the gentry they took with 'em!"
"How many went?" asked Nirea, though she knew as well as he.
"Seven thousand and four hundred and ten, squires and their ladies,electing to travel out of the world for promised power in another!"Revel grinned wolfishly. "And here's to the priests who weren't allowedto go, and so have become miners and know what it is to sweat!"
Rack stood up, looming gigantic above them. "Here's to the men awakeningnow all over this country--the men of the Ancient Kingdom!"
"And the things they can teach us," added Jerran.
"And a toast to the most important of those things--the art of tobaccogrowing!" shouted John gaily.
They sat down after that, and Revel said to John affectionately, "If ithadn't been for you, friend, we'd still be ruckers and worse. You gaveus a new world."
"Rot. I gave you a technical skill--you furnished the brains, brawn andmotivating force, a legend come to life. I was only one more weapon inyour hand."
Lady Nirea touched the Mink's arm tenderly. "We'll all be weapons inyour hands now, Revel. Tools to make a civilization again--to make thelast verse of the old song come true."
"Let's sing it," said Dawvys, a little in his cups by now. "Let's allsing it loud."
"The gods have flown beyond the sky, The priests toil underground; The gentry's curse is lifted free, And all our foes are downed....
"Now over all the Mink he reigns, And gone are rank and caste; The ruck is lifted from the mire-- And we are free at last!"
* * * * *
They finished the rousing song and looked expectantly at the Mink; buthe had borne back Lady Nirea on the bench and was kissing her withenormous warmth, so that even a prophetic song, written about him agesbefore he was born, could not tear loose from him the only chains thatwould ever bind him again--the wrought-steel, invisible, shatter-proofshackles of Nirea's love.
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