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Jia Li and her escort rode only a few hours
the first day. It seemed that
Sir Archibald was concerned enough about her health that he did not want
to tire her out. And in truth,
Jia Li was still very weak from her ordeal at the hands of the diminutive
Africans. If she had not been,
she would certainly have made some effort to
escape.
They made camp early and Jia Li noticed that no effort was made to guard
her. Sir Archibald even removed
the collar from about her neck. Was
that because of her obvious weakness, or because her captors did not think
that there was anywhere for her to go?
In any case, Jia Li was glad that they did not bind
her. She had been tied up more
than enough in the previous day or so to last her for a long
time.
Sir Archibald seemed quite concerned about her welfare and was in constant
attendance on her. He was quite
different from any African she had ever met, both in his dress and manner
and she found herself being strangely drawn to
him. She told herself that she
found him interesting because he had rescued her from her ordeal, but she
also had to admit that he was a fine figure of a
man.
“Stop thinking like that,” she told
herself. “That man bought
me for a few pieces of scrap metal.
I owe him nothing.”
By now she was beginning to understand Sir Archibald’s speech a little
better. He was speaking English
to be sure, but a brand of English that was so different from anything she
had ever heard that she missed a good deal of what was
said. She learned, however, that
she was being taken to Sir Archibald’s
home. A town somewhere in the
rainforest, that he called New Wessex.
He did not explain his motive for taking her there, but she guessed
it was something she might not approve of.
After supper, the camp settled down to
sleep. A two-man guard was posted,
but Jia Li felt it was as much to protect the camp as it was to prevent her
from escaping.
The next morning they broke camp early.
Jia Li was almost fully recovered now, and remained on the lookout
for some opportunity to escape. She
wanted to choose the moment carefully.
Charging off into the rainforest would be a waste of time if she did
not have some sort of plan as to where she was
going.
She noticed that the party proceeded through the forest with great
caution. It was obvious that
there was something in the vicinity that they considered dangerous and that
were keeping a lookout for. Jia
Li wondered what it might be, but could hazard a guess, based on her experience
of the past few days.
A crashing sound in the brush to the right announced the arrival of the danger
that Sir Archibald and his me had been watching
for. Smashing
through the forest came a creature very much like the one that Jia Li and
her friends had encountered near the wrecked
plane. Only this time,
there were no high powered rifles to drive it
off.
Immediately, Sir Archibald herded Jia Li to the back of the
group. Then seizing his spear,
he shouted a challenge and rode straight at the monster as it came onto the
trail. “Ho Dragon!”
he cried, as he pointed his spear like a lance and spurred his horse
forward.
That explained the length of the spear.
Jia Li had been a bit curious about that when she had seen it, as
it seemed a bit long for regular combat.
But it was perfect for skewering
dinosaurs.
The huge predator made no effort to avoid the point of the
lance. Probably it was not used
to its prey fighting back, and would not have understood the danger presented
by the weapon in any case. The
power of Sir Archibald’s charge drove the lance five feet into the chest
of the tyrannosaur. With a roar
of pain and rage, the powerful animal reared back, and then snapped down
at the wooden shaft protruding from its
chest. Sir Archibald, still clinging
to the lance was jerked from his saddle and then thrown through the
air. His body described a high
arc before crashing to the ground some thirty feet
away.
The tyrannosaur was badly wounded, but still full of
fight. It charged forward again,
snapping its teeth at whomever was
closest. It caught one of Sir
Archibald’s luckless retainers in its jaws and sheared the man in half
with a single bite. Then it went
after the next victim.
Jia Li, farthest away at the end of the column, watched in horror as two
more brave men were killed, each with a single
bite. Then the monster seemed
to remember Sir Archibald, who lay inert, sprawled in the dust of the trail
some forty feet behind the beast.
It whirled about and advanced on him, intending to finish off its
original antagonist. It was at
this point that Jia Li sprang into
action. She seized the lance
of one of the fallen men and spurred her horse
forward. Without hesitation,
the well-trained animal responded to her urging and she bore down on the
dinosaur from behind.
Sir Archibald stirred as the tyrannosaur turned on
him. The fall had not broken
any bones, but the impact had knocked him almost
unconscious. He was well aware
of what was going on, but not capable of moving his body to avoid
it. Thus it was that he was in
a perfect position to see the young woman he had purchased charge the dragon
from behind, and standing in the stirrups, drive her lance through the back
and out the chest of the monster that was about to seize him in its
jaws.
The tyrannosaur gave a horrible, blood-curdling
scream. It had been mortally
wounded. Still not dead, however,
it was able to lurch away from its
attackers. Jia Li, having delivered
its deathblow had been quick to release her grip on the lance to avoid being
thrown about the same way that Sir Archibald had
been.
The battle was over. The dying
dinosaur staggered off through the forest, bellowing in pain, until the severity
of its wounds overcame it, and it dropped, never to rise
again. Jia Li’s chance had
come. Now she could
escape. Instead, however, she
rode over to where Sir Archibald lay and
dismounted. Quickly she made
her way to his side and helped him into a sitting
position. Still groggy from his
fall, the knight accepted her help.
The daily routine shattered by the attack, and with two bodies to bury, Sir
Archibald decided not to proceed any further that
day. There was a brief, but heartfelt
ceremony to honor his fallen comrades and then they made
camp. Later while eating supper,
he wondered why his exotic captive had made no effort to
escape.
He now realized that he had found a woman with unique
qualities. Never in his life
had he seen a woman handle a weapon the way Jia Li had
done. He also recognized that
he owed his life to her. This
posed something of a dilemma for him.
How could he escort this woman back to New Wessex and a life of forced
breeding? The very thought of
such a thing now seemed like a most dishonorable
act. Yet he was tasked with the
burden of bringing her back to New Wessex for
breeding. And he was a knight
of the realm, bound to obey his
sovereign.
He gazed across the campfire at Jia Li.
As he did so her eyes met his.
For a brief instant they gazed steadily at one another and then she
looked away. If only he could
communicate with her, but she spoke a language that was incomprehensible
to him. He had an
idea. Tomorrow he would have
her ride next to him and he would try to teach her some of his
language. Perhaps in time they
might be able to exchange information.
They were still two days from New
Wessex. He would have time, and
it seemed a pleasant way to pass the
time. He had never before seen
so beautiful a woman.
Jia Li was also deep in thought.
Had she made a mistake in not attempting to escape when she had the
chance? But there was something
about Sir Archibald. He seemed
to her to be a man of honor. He
had treated her well after her cruel treatment by the
pygmies. Of course, he might
not understand her capabilities. He
quite possibly thought of her as a helpless
woman. However, the demonstration
she had given today had probably changed his mind about
that. Still, he no longer treated
her as a captive. She had the
freedom of the camp and she had her strength
back. She should be able to handle
herself against these men if anything went
wrong. Tomorrow would
tell. She wrapped her blanket
about her and slept.
The next day they rose early. By
By the end of the day, Jia Li and Sir Archibald were exchanging basic
information. Of course, their
worlds were so different that much of what they tried to explain to one another
was incomprehensible. Jia Li
was better at understanding Sir Archibald’s background than he was at
understanding hers.
After setting up camp for the night they continued to talk until it was time
to turn in. They finally went
to sleep with all sorts of thoughts buzzing through their
heads. There was still much that
they had to learn about one another, but they had made a
beginning.
The next day they resumed their journey toward New
Wessex. They were now only a
day’s ride away and Sir Archibald expected to be through the gates of
the town before evening. It was
perhaps because of the proximity to their home that the little expedition
was less watchful. As a result,
the attack caught them completely
off-guard.
Without warning a number of tall warriors burst from the trees on either
side of them. Their skins were
so black that by comparison Sir Archibald and his men seemed almost light
complexioned. Sir Archibald and
his little party were heavily
outnumbered. Their attackers
numbered at least fifty men to Sir Archibald’s
eight. But Sir Archibald and
his men did have a few advantages.
First, they were mounted, which in hand to hand combat gave them a
decided height advantage. Their
horses could also be used as weapons.
A charging horse could ride down anything in its
path. Also, Sir Archibald and
his men wore chain mail armor on their
torsos. Although their arms and
legs were bare, the armor would prevent a thrown spear or even a spear thrust
from penetrating their vital organs.
As a result, the eight men, plus Jia Li and Sir Archibald gave their
attackers a bit of a shock. The
tall black warriors had evidently expected an easy victory, counting on their
sheer numbers and the element of surprise to simply overwhelm their supposed
victims.
They got a rude awakening. Sir
Archibald and his men reacted almost instantly, spurring their horses forward
into the attacking blacks while drawing their
swords. Using their height advantage
they rose in their stirrups and struck down with devastating force, knocking
aside the shields and spears of their opponents and cutting through limbs
and skulls. Although unarmed,
Jia Li was an expert rider. She
followed her charging escort and ran her horse over the nearest
attacker. The impact knocked
the man beneath the horse’s hooves.
Hanging over the side of the saddle, Jia Li picked up the spear carried
by the fallen man. It was a
formidable weapon, consisting of a heavy wooden shaft ending in a two-foot
iron blade. In all the weapon
was about eight feet in length and deadly in the hands of someone that knew
how to use it.
Jia Li now used her new weapon to good
effect. She was trained in the
use of a variety of Chinese hand weapons, and the spear she held was not
much different from many that she had
used. Charging the nearest warrior
she skewered him on its razor point, the impact of her charge lifting the
large man clear of the ground. With
a twist of her wrist, she pulled her blade clear of the falling body and
went after the next man. He shared
a similar fate. Jia Li fought
like one possessed. And she had
reason to. She had recognized
her attackers as the Ullabomba, a fierce race of warriors who ranged far
and wide in the Lost World in search of
slaves. She had painful memories
of these warriors, having been taken prisoner by them in Larra’s first
visit to the Lost World. That
experience had been humiliating and painful in the extreme. She wanted revenge,
and this was her opportunity to get it.
Another warrior fell before her. And then
another. Around her Sir Archibald
and his men were also taking a deadly toll of their
enemies.
Staggered by the unexpectedly fierce response, the Ullabomba fell
back. They had underestimated
their enemies, seeing only a small weak
party. They had not expected
to encounter trained warriors who were more than capable of defending themselves
or even taking the fight to the enemy.
The black warriors retreated into the
trees. The horses of the knights
could not follow them there. But
the fight was not over. The Ullabomba
were not cowards, but they were not stupid
either. Fighting mounted men
on open level ground was something that they simply could not
handle. They had underestimated
the military effectiveness of horses; animals that they had never before
encountered, and they had misjudged the bravery and fighting skills of the
party they had ambushed.
Sir Archibald and his men pulled up as the Ullabomba retreated into the
trees. They knew that their horses
had no advantage there. A dozen
ebony warriors lay sprawled in bloody heaps on the forest
path. Sir Archibald and his men
had suffered no casualties although several had taken spear wounds to their
unarmored arms and legs.
Sir Archibald looked appreciatively at Jia
Li. What a
woman! She had fought better
than any of his men, and without armor or a proper
weapon.
Jia Li caught his glance. She
flashed him a warm smile. Then
it was back to business. The
Ullabomba were rallying.
Kazamba called his men to him. His
first attack had failed, but he was not one to give
up. He had led many raids into
enemy territory and had been in many a tight
situation. He had led this
expedition, far out of his normal territory to follow up rumors of a strange
race of brown-skinned warriors. He
had now found those warriors and he was not about to be beaten by so small
a band of men.
He barked out orders. Several
of his men moved to the side, seeking to come in on their adversaries from
the rear. Another group ran ahead
through the trees. The Ullabomba
were masters of woodcraft and very skilled at moving through the dense
undergrowth of the rainforest and jungle that lined the trail traveled by
Sir Archibald and his party. The
Remainder stayed with Kazamba.
Their first attack had failed, but they would try again, using different
tactics.
After an interval of a few minutes, Kazamba shouted the attack
order. With thirty men he moved
back toward Sir Archibald and his men, but this time he did not close with
the enemy. Instead they stood
at the edge of the trees and hurled their weapons at the
riders. Each Ullabomban warrior
carried three spears. The long
heavy weapon that Jia Li had picked up, and two
short five-foot throwing spears that were slung over their
back. Sir Archibald and his men
were inundated under a deluge of spears.
Most of the missiles missed, but those that struck had the desired
effect, striking the unarmored parts of their
bodies. But even more damaging
were those spears that struck their unprotected
horses. Even horses as highly
trained as these were not immune from pain and they reacted as any horses
would when struck by spears. The
injured animals bucked and reared, threatening to throw their
riders. Only with great difficulty
did their riders manage to bring them under control, but the attack had served
its purpose. The horses, the
best weapon Sir Archibald and his men had, were
now temporarily out of the fight.
At that precise moment the men that Kazamba had sent around to the
side and rear of the Sir Archibald’s force charged
in. Now they were able to get
close enough to use their long stabbing spears
effectively.
Sir Archibald and his mounted warriors fought
valiantly. They still had the
advantage of height and they cut down with their swords with brutal
effectiveness. But now Kazamba
led the bulk of his men to the attack.
Surrounded by fifty stabbing warriors, Sir Archibald’s forces
were overwhelmed. They fought
bravely, but one by one either they or their horses were brought
down. Eventually only Sir Archibald
and Jia Li remained. The press
of warriors against them had pushed them over to the side of the trail, nearly
into the trees. It was this that
saved them. Two massive forest
giants protected their backs and they only had to contend with the warriors
pressing against them. But it
soon became obvious that they could not hold out much
longer. The ground about them
was littered with the corpses of dead and wounded men, but still the enemy
came on. The giant black warriors
could sense that complete victory was at hand and they pushed forward regardless
of the cost.
Sir Archibald cut down with his sword, cleaving the skull of an advancing
warrior. Then he took a second
to give a brief glance toward Jia Li.
She was just pulling her spear from the throat of her latest
victim. Out of the corner of
her eye she caught Sir Archibald’s
glance. She
nodded. It was time to get out
of there.
With a yell, both riders spurred their horses forward and up the
trail. At the same time they
cut down at the encircling horde of black
warriors. The tactic
worked. Those warriors who did
not back off were either knocked out of the way by the charging horses or
trampled underfoot. They were
clear, but they did not go far.
Only a few hundred feet up the trail Jia Li’s horse
stumbled. The poor animal had
been grievously wounded, a spear protruding from its
throat. Leaping from the back
of her mount, Jia Li avoided injury.
Immediately, Sir Archibald scooped Jia Li up with his free arm, but
his horse too was lamed. He was
able to ride the animal only a few more feet up the trail before it gave
out.
Both riders leaped from the back of the injured
horse. Now they would have to
proceed on foot. Already, several
of the Ullabomban warriors were hot on their
trail. They had no choice but
to run. Moving off the trail
they forced their way into the thick forest
growth. But now they were in
the environment most favored by the
Ullabomba. It was unlikely that
they would be able to outrun their enemy in the environs of the rainforest.
But they had no choice. There
was no other place for them to go.
And so they ran, trying to keep ahead of the pursuing
black warriors. Jia Li
soon found she was outdistancing Sir Archibald, and slowed her
pace. She stopped and pulled
him behind a tree. “Your
armor,” she said, “it’s slowing you
down.”
Sir Archibald nodded. If they
were to escape, he needed to get rid of any excess
weight. Pulling off his surcoat,
he peeled off his chain mail shirt and dropped it on the
ground. Relieved of the dead
weight of twenty pounds of iron, he felt much
lighter. Now perhaps he could
keep up.
The momentary delay had allowed their pursuers to close the gap, but Jia
Li and Sir Archibald had one advantage.
As long as their pursuers could not actually see them, they could
move faster simply due to the fact that they did not have to try a follow
any trail. The Ullabomba had
to stop every now and then to check the direction their quarry was
heading. As a result, for the
next half-hour or so Jia Li and Sir Archibald made good progress, widening
their lead over the trailing warriors.
But then they came to an unexpected
barrier. Straight ahead of them
was a plume of spray from a spectacular waterfall that plunged into a deep
gorge. It presented a formidable
barrier that they could not immediately
cross.
Jia Li remembered that earlier in the day they had crossed a river at a
ford. It was probably the same
one they had come up against now, but they had crossed its tame downstream
section. Now they were presented
with a much more serious obstacle.
They considered their options. They
did not have much time. What
should they do?
Downstream to the
ford? Or upstream and
try to get around the falls from above?
And then Jia Li had a flash of
inspiration. Growing right next
to the edge of the gorge was another of the huge fig trees that were scattered
so widely thorough the rainforest.
This one was truly a giant, it aerial roots spreading out not only
into the ground around it, but down the steep walls of the gorge
itself. Without
waiting to discuss her plan.
Jia Li tapped Sir Archibald on the
shoulder. “Follow me!”
she shouted.
Sir Archibald looked a bit perplexed.
He had never taken orders from a woman before, and Jia Li was supposed
to be his prisoner, although he had stopped thinking of her that
way. He hesitated a second and
then did as he was told.
Jia Li was using the aerial roots to hide her
tracks. These roots stuck out
from the side of the tree trunk like the spokes on a wheel, curving down
to the ground where they widened the tree’s access to nutrients and
moisture. The roots were close
enough to one another that a person possessed of sufficient strength could
swing from one to the other of them, moving from one side of the tree to
the other. This was exactly what
Jia Li was doing. For her it
was a natural exercise. Her martial
arts training had given her excellent strength in her arms and she swung
from one root to the other with ease.
For Sir Archibald, it was considerably more
difficult. He had more body mass
and it was less well suited to that sort of activity than Jia Li was, but
he did have great upper body strength and was able to follow, although somewhat
more awkwardly than the Manchu girl.
Together they made their way to the side of the tree overhanging the
gorge. Below them was a sheer
drop of several hundred feet into a raging
river. They were not engaged
in an exercise for the faint of heart.
Now Jia Li began to work her way into the canyon, using the network of roots
like a ladder. Lower and lower
she went, until both she and Sir Archibald were well below the canyon
rim. And there as she had hoped,
was a small ledge jutting from the wall of the
gorge. It was well framed by
roots and was completely invisible from
above. It offered a possible
hiding place.
Jia Li swung onto the ledge. Sir
Archibald followed a few seconds later.
The ledge was just large enough for them to lie down on side by
side. The roots of the fig enclosed
them like wickerwork. They would
be both safe and secure in their hiding place.
Jia Li and Sir Archibald lay together, their bodies touching in the cramped
place. Now they would have to
wait. Either their ruse had worked
and their pursuers would move on without finding them, or they would be
discovered. But they would be
very difficult to get at. However,
if the Ullabomba did find them and simply chose to wait them out, they knew
that eventually they would have to face their
enemy. And so they lay there,
silently letting the time pass, hoping that there would be no shout of alarm
from the pursuing black warriors.
Fifteen minutes passed and then a
half-hour. And
then an hour. Jia Li
slept. The ledge was covered
in fallen leaves and these made a nice
bed. Tired both mentally and
physically after her adventurous day, sleep was too inviting to
ignore. Beside her Sir Archibald
Sir Archibald’s heavy breathing attested to the fact that he too had
dozed off.
Jia Li awoke. She was feeling
a little hungry. Beside her Sir
Archibald stirred, probably disturbed by her body
movement. He opened his eyes
and stared directly into hers. Jia
Li found the force of his stare almost
hypnotic. Without thinking about
what she was doing, she leaned toward him and kissed his
lips. Sir Archibald enfolded
her in his arms. They kissed
again, long and passionately.
The first kiss of a true
love. Jia Li felt Sir
Archibald’s hand move to her breast.
He cupped it and she made no effort to stop
him. Instead, she tugged gently
on his surcoat, pulling the loose-fitting garment off his right
shoulder. Sir Archibald moved
his hand from her breast to the neck of her shirt, and slowly began to unbutton
it. All the while they continued
to kiss one another on the lips and face.
Jia Li rolled onto her back, offering herself to the brown-skinned
warrior. He needed no second
invitation. Using both hands
now, Sir Archibald unbuttoned the rest of her shirt and then pulled it
open. Her bra baffled him for
a minute, but he soon located the clasp and slid the filmy garment from her
breasts. Jia Li breathed
deeply. She could hardly believe
what was happening. For the first
time in her life she was giving herself to a
man. And it was a man she hardly
knew.
Sir Archibald was experiencing similar
emotions. He had been charged
with bringing Jia Li back to New Wessex, not to make love to
her. That was a privilege reserved
for the king and other high-ranking
nobles. But somehow his mission
did not seem to matter any more.
All that mattered was the mysterious goddess who lay before
him. She was more of a woman
than he could have dared to hope for, and he had all afternoon and probably
as much of the night as he wanted to find out just how desirable she
was. He bent his head and took
one delicate pink nipple lightly between his
teeth. Jia Li gave a moan of
ecstasy. This was going to be
an afternoon and a night that he would never forget!
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