Mother of Demons by Eric Flint

There are two darts sticking in her eye, realized Guo. She must be totally blind, now, on her left side.

Suddenly, she heard a great drumming from the plain. The Utuku, watching their enemy retreat into the swamp, had finally made their decision. Guo recognized the meaning of the drumroll. She had heard it three times earlier that day—attack.

The last of the Kiktu warriors were now filing through the clearing, moving past the creeping Oroku, toward their positions of ambush beyond. Not all of the warriors were being positioned on the edge of the clearing—where there would have been no room for them, in any event. Many warriors, in small squads, were being led to other places of ambush by swamp-dweller guides.

Guo suddenly realized that she had seen several eights of swamp-dwellers.

Kopporu has been preparing this trap for days, she realized. She was filled with admiration for her leader’s cunning.

The last Kiktu to enter the clearing was Kopporu herself, along with Aktako and her personal guard. As soon as she saw the figure of Oroku—the battlemother was still only halfway through the clearing—Kopporu came to an abrupt halt.

There was no sign in Kopporu’s mantle, but Guo knew the emotions that coursed through her leader’s heart. Dismay; uncertainty; what to do?

Guo came to a sudden decision. She laid down her mace and shield and re-entered the clearing. Kopporu turned and stared, as she lumbered her way forward.

When Guo reached the center of the clearing, she said simply:

“She can no longer fight, Kopporu. I will take her to safety.”

Guo did not even wait for Kopporu’s agreement. She simply reached out her tentacles and picked up the huge form of Oroku.

“Leave your mace here,” she commanded. Weakly, Oroku obeyed. Guo turned and carried the wounded battlemother out of the clearing.

Even had Kopporu opposed her action—which she did not—she would have been unable to speak, so great was her astonishment. Not so much at the action itself, but at the very fact of it. She would never have believed any being could be strong enough even to pick up a battlemother, much less carry one.

Yet, when Guo returned to the clearing, after placing Oroku in the cycads beyond, she was not even breathing heavily. Upon reaching the center of the clearing, Guo picked up Oroku’s mace. It was a common flint-bladed mace, she saw. But it would do.

“Leave it there,” commanded Kopporu. “When the Utuku see it, they will be convinced we are routed.”

For the first time in her life, Guo defied her battle leader.

“No, Kopporu. They will be convinced, anyway. And I will need the mace.”

“Have you lost—” Kopporu stopped, realizing the truth. Guo would cast aside her shield, and wield a mace in both palps.

Guo turned, then stopped. A gukuy had suddenly entered the clearing. A Kiktu, not an enemy. The carvings on her cowl identified her as one of the Great Mother’s attendants. The gukuy came to a halt before Guo, breathing heavily. Guo was astonished to see the tiny figures of several males. Two of the males were riding within the attendant’s mantle cavity. The other four (one of them a eumale, as was Kiktu custom) were perched atop the attendant’s cowl. Somehow, on that strangest day of her life, Guo was not surprised to see that they were bearing pipes and darts.

She recognized them, of course, although she did not know their names. They were the Great Mother’s own childcluster—the young and still-infertile males, bonded together, who were destined to be the Great Mother’s most precious bequest to her successor.

After catching her breath, the attendant extended her arms. Held in their grasp was a small bundle, wrapped in precious layers of oucloth. She proferred the bundle to Guo.

“The Great Mother bade me give this to you.”

Guo had no need to open the bundle to see what was contained within. It was the Mothershell—the beautiful, jewel-encrusted, ceremonial shell of an orkusnail. Symbol of the Great Mother’s guardianship of the tribe.

Stunned, she extended her arms and took the bundle. Dimly, she heard Kopporu whisper: “She knew.” But the remark did not register on Guo’s consciousness, at the time.