Descendants of the Scythians - Страница 85

Diana began growling, but the geologist’s strong hand pressed her head to the ground, and she was silenced; only her intelligent eyes were moving, watching the enemy.

The priests carefully scanned the ledge and were in no hurry to jump in. There was no one in sight except for the body of Varkan. The explorers were well hidden from view behind the rocks in their corner of the ledge.

Then one of the priests, having probably decided there was no immediate danger, turned back and said something to the rest of his party. A dozen helmeted priests hoisted themselves up onto the rocks. In addition to their usual short swords and wide daggers, they were also equipped with bows and quivers full of arrows. They stood at the very edge of the slope, not yet daring to go any further.

Suddenly, Dorbatay’s creaking, imperative voice could be heard from below. From the tone of his voice it could be surmised that he was inquiring about something. The priest who had signalled his comrades to come up a minute earlier, replied. His voice sounded reassuring and brought quite unexpected results.

In a few seconds the head of Dorbatay himself emerged slowly from behind rocks. As he was helped onto a flat rock, Dorbatay carefully scanned the ledge the way the priests had done before him. His cold and cruel eyes seemed to touch every stone, rock or prominence.

Artem grew absolutely still, afraid even to breathe. It seemed to him that Dorbatay’s searching gaze lingered over their hiding place for much too long before it moved further. But he could not see through the stone, he absolutely could not! And the crack in the rock Artem was peeking through was much too narrow to reveal their presence. And yet, Artem could not get rid of the impression that Dorbatay had somehow seen him and his friends… It felt like just the right time to throw a charge at him!

“I’m itching to do away with him right now,” Artem moved his lips in an almost soundless whisper, turning to Ivan Semenovich. “I haven’t had time to tell you… that Varkan gave an oath of vengeance… to kill Dorbatay…”

“Shhh!” the geologist stopped him sharply.

Dorbatay was still examining the rocks, especially the ones behind which the explorers were hiding. Suddenly his face puckered in a grimace of wicked triumph. He seemed to have come to a decision. Artem, hardly believing his eyes, saw the old soothsayer point with his sinewy hand in their direction. It was an extremely unexpected gesture as it was quite impossible to see the strangers from the spot where the soothsayer was standing! And yet he was pointing to their hiding place as though he had in fact seen through the stone!

Whatever made the soothsayer point in that direction, the priests, obedient to his commands, began moving toward the explorers’ corner of the ledge, their swords drawn and arrows taut on the bows. Artem had the odd feeling of being able to see his own body go stiff with tension, only his chest heaving as he breathed. Now, now! How was his cigarette? Good, still burning!

But why wasn’t Ivan Semenovich giving the signal? The priests were no more than five or six meters away!

“Go ahead, Artem!”

It took him only a moment to put the cigarette to the fuse. It immediately started burning, hising and dropping sparks. Artem hurled the charge over the barrier of rocks.

When it was still in the air, he saw that he had thrown it with too much force. The charge sailed over the priests’ heads and fell somewhere behind them over the ledge.

“Another one!”

One more dynamite charge flew into the air, traling smoke. This time it came down right in front of the three nearest priests. They froze, staring in fear at this smoking object, vomiting forth sparks. Its hissing reminded them of a small angry animal.

“Hit the deck, Artem!” Ivan Semenovich bellowed when he saw his friends hoisting themselves from the rocks to see better. “Down, can’t you understand!”

Dorbatay cried out something in alarm: he must have recognized the hissing sound that brought to mind the memory of his comeuppance at the sacred altar. Artem saw him jump backward, tripping as he did so on his long robe. But it was too late. The terrible explosion shook the rocks, sending up a cloud of black smoke. One of the priests was flung high into the air by the blast, flailing his arms wildly. A huge boulder crushed into the ledge, exploding into small lethal pieces. A hail of stones knocked the priests down. A moment later another explosion shook the ground: it was the first charge thrown by Artem; it went off a little later than the second one, probably because its fuse was longer.

A second cloud of smoke began slowly rising above the ledge of rocks. Artem had a glimpse of a human figure who seemed to be riding spreadeagle on top of the black smoky mushroom. The figure in the scarlet cloak turned upside down. There was something painfully familiar in this figure. The sight made Artem shudder. Was it?.. Yes, it was Dorbatay. The old soothsayer did not have time to escape, and the second blast hurled his corpse back toward the ledge.

The broken body of the soothsayer began falling down, still turning. The long white gown and the chimerical red cloak fluttered around him, and at that moment he looked like an ominous bird with wings spread. Dorbatay was falling in an avalanche of stones… The punishment of his dread gods had been meted out to him at last… Finally, his body crashed into the rocks and lay still with stone falling on and around him.

Ivan Semenovich shouted a command:

“Another charge, Artem! Over there, to the left!”

“Artem, the priests! Further to the left!” Lida cried out, too.

In fact, several more helmeted heads appeared above the crest. Brandishing their swords and keeping their bows drawn, the enemy poured into the ledge, scrambling over the rocks like insects. In a few seconds they would reach the explorers…

But there was enough time for Artem to set fire to the fuses of two charges and throw them, one right after the other, at the enemy. Up went the charges over the wall of rocks, trailing smoke, and a moment later they landed among the attackers.

“Now, you’re going to get it!” Artem whispered, his heart beating wildly.

The charges lay on the ground, spewing smoke. The priests recoiled, but then an unexpected thing happened, something the explorers would never think was possible: one of the priests bent forward quickly, snatched one of the charges from the ground, straightened up, and with a wide sweep of his arm, hurled it back behind the rock barrier separating the explorers’ hiding place from the rest of the ledge!

“Look!” Lida screamed.

The explorers’ weapon had been turned against them! Petrified with terror, they watched the same priest stoop over to pick up the other charge. But this time, he did not manage to throw it back at the strangers — the charge went off, flashing red flames, shaking the mountain and sending pieces of rocks and priests flying down the slope in a cloud of black smoke…

But what happened to the charge that had been thrown back at the strangers by the priest?

* * *

They saw the charge fly over their heads, as the priest had thrown it too hard. It fell somewhere behind them among the rocks. They could not see the place where it landed; only a thin wisp of smoke indicated its location. A moment later it exploded thunderously in wliat seemed a more powerful explosion than all the previous ones.

And lo and behold: the crags wavered and…

Eyes wide with horror, the explorers gaped at the terrible change the explosion had wrought in the mountain: immense masses of rock, now unbalanced, were about to collapse and bury them under thousands of tons of stone.

Then the rocks began to fall! First they wavered, then moved slowly as though sliding apart, and then suddenly, they crashed down, falling onto the ledge a short distance from the explorers, and breaking into thousands of pieces, showering them with stones.

The explosion not only disturbed the balance of the rocks on the face of the mountain, it caused some shifting of the stone below the surface.

As the explorers watched in awe, a crack opened in the face of the cliff. The cliff seemed to have been cleft in two by a deep black gap that widened before their very eyes. The two huge rocks that flanked the gap on either side began moving inwards as though pushed by an invisible gigantic hand; as their tops met, the immense slabs stopped, keeping all other rocks from sliding down. The gap looked very much like the mouth of a cave.

Ivan Semenovich looked around, and to his great consternation and dismay, he heard the battle cry of the priests. Apparently they had not been intimidated by the terrible explosions and falling rocks. It could only mean that the priests figured it was better to risk storming the ledge and to face all the hazards awaiting them there, both natural and supernatural, than to fall into the hands of the insurgents burning with vengeance. The explorers were virtually defenseless now — Artem had only one charge left; and there was no one to help them. By the time Ronis’s men got here, everything would be over… So, there was no option left but…

“My friends!” Ivan Semenovich shouted. “Follow me! Follow me!”

And he rushed to the gap — whatever awaited them there in the bowels of the mountain was better than the prospect of being seized by the bloodthirsty priests, seething with rage.

It seemed to Artem as he started to run that the great slabs flanking the gap were tottering. He stopped for a moment to get a better look. Yes, they were definitely sliding!