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wonder " His eyes closed for a moment. "No, the weapon was destroyed, too."
Another virulent flash burned through the windows of a nearby house; in the
first a duller, redder light was growing. Men were darting out of the place,
smoke trailing behind them. The exploding crown had set fire to the age-dried
woodwork.
Men were filtering out of the shadows, dim clots of a more solid black in the
blackness under the tree. A fitful redness was growing in the moon-drenched
square as the ancient woodwork of the ig-nited house yielded to the growing
flame. The dimly seen messen-gers came near to Carron, speaking in low voices,
Carron's deep bass growling in reply, till they vanished again on some mission
of communication.
"Grayth," the giant's voice rumbled in its softest tones, "the men in the
buildings can't get near enough to
Drunnel's group to throw the heavy rocks. The glow-beams make it impossible,
and until they get near they can't disturb the aim. Is there any way we can
shield our men against the beams?"
Grayth was silent, but in his telepath Carron could feel the tenu-ous thread
of mind energies reaching out to Ware, to others of their group. And dimly, he
could feel Ware's answering thought. Screen-ing each man wrapped in sheet
metal carefully grounded, worn over a thick padding of cotton, or quilting.
Carron muttered disgustedly. Grayth looked up at him, nodding. "Impossible, I
know."
Shielded men were leaking away from the group in the center of the square,
darting down narrow side streets before the rocks hurled from nearby buildings
could knock them from their feet. Other shielded men were coming toward the
square from every di-rection, men from more distant sections of the annular
city. They were waiting in the back streets outside the square, moving in
rest-less circles.
Carron touched Grayth's sleeve. "We can't do it in this try, Grayth," he
growled. 'The shielded ones with their weapons are surrounding the square.
We'll be caught helplessly if we don't re-treat. I've sent word to those
others that "
"If we don't reach Drunnel tonight, we'll never be able to," Grayth groaned.
"The Sam Mother will give him better weapons, and waverers who had joined us
will transfer to him when they see us in retreat"
"We must retreat at once," insisted Carron unhappily. "If we only had some
means of swift communication if we had only been * able to map out a plan, and
put it across to all our scattered people. We didn't have time; we didn't know
what weapons Drunnel would have until too late. I know now what we should have
done. Perhaps it is not too late, if we can once join our forces. Because all
meetings have always been held in the square, all our men are rushing toward
it. I'll call the men out of those buildings at "
A wild rush of feet sounded down the great, radial artery. A hun-dred men with
the darkened faces of Grayth's supporters swept down the street, half a dozen
glow-tubes in then: hands, and many empty water pails among them. The hidden
men in the buildings of the square cheered them on, and a fusillade of air-gun
pellets rat-tled on the stone flags. The mass of men broke up, scattering
before they came in range of the pale beams of death. Long before Car-ron's
messenger reached them their compact formation was gone; they were filtering
through back streets into every building of the square.
But Carron's runner brought back a new interpretation of this reenforcement;
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they were not running to the charge, but falling back before more than fifty
armed, shielded Drunnelians. Another band of Grayth's men rushed in from
another artery, vanishing like smoke in shadows and shadowed buildings. The
torch lighted by an exploding crown was growing; the red flare of a burning
building was rapidly making the moonlight unimportant, the moon cream useless.
The fire was spreading.
Two score of Drunnel's fighters appeared down the street that had recently
brought Carron's green-cloaked legionnaires. Carron settled back under the
tree in helpless rage. "We won't retreat, Grayth.
We can't now, for Drunnel has driven half our men into this square, between
his central, unassailable group
and the ring of other men, and the buildings sheltering them are burning. I
haven't seen a score of Drunnel's unshielded fighters;
they're probably in the outskirts, keeping the rest of our men from relieving
those in-side the ring."
Grayth looked at the spreading flames consuming the buildings. Stone for the
most part, they were roofed with metal or slate, but the floors, walls and
supporting beams were of wood. These were burning furiously. A burning house
collapsed as he watched, the fierce heat of the internal furnace crumbling
age-hardened mortar, loosening the aged stone. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]