They circled away from the place where they thought the rabbit herd was cowering in the thickness of green grass, returned to the camp, retrieved their throwing knives, and made their way back again by an altogether circuitous route.
“Quietly, now,” Tedesco said.
But Jask needed no warning. They crept toward the slightly angled patch of grass and, shortly, were able to see a dozen of the animals nibbling at the roots of the buttercups.
“Choose one,” Tedesco said.
Jask pointed.
“Good enough. Don't miss.”
Neither of them missed.
The herd thundered away, chittering.
They gutted the dead animals on the spot, skinned them and carried them back to the camp, where they roasted them over a fire of dry branches and brittle blue moss. They ate slowly, relishing the greasy meat, and they followed the main course with fruits and berries, eating until they were quite uncomfortable.
In the past two days they had both gone hungry, for the last of their food had had to be fiercely rationed and few birds had flown over their camps to provide them with extra meat.
“You gutted and skinned like a genuine primitive.'' Tedesco said, speaking cautiously, watching Jask for a reaction.
“I only followed your directions,” Jask said, picking at his teeth with a stiff grass stalk.
“A couple of weeks ago,” the mutant said, “I wouldn't have thought you were capable of even that.”
“I wasn't, then.”
Tedesco nodded and dropped the subject. An hour later, Jask cursing him all the while, he called the exercise session to order.
The meadow was silent, except for the punctuation of cricket songs and the occasional howl of some beast that lived in the nearby woods.
A cool breeze shushed through the broad leaves on all sides and made the grasses bend and dance as if in worship of the night sky.
Many stars shone, and half a moon.
In the distance the bacteria jewels cast out lances of light to jab back the night. Most of the meadow was tinted with thin colors, though it was more dark than not. This was the first time in more than a month that Jask and Tedesco had been far enough away from the jewel sea to experience anything resembling darkness, and the absence of all those dazzling colors, so close at hand, was a decided blessing. Moments after they stretched out on the grass beside the limestone boulders, they were already beginning to drift into sleep…
Here was peace, a place they could trust…
Out of nowhere, with no warning, a voice twenty times as powerful as any a man could own, bellowed: “GAMES TO BEGIN!”
Jask and Tedesco leaped to their feet, sleep banished in the instant, turning this way and that in search of the enormous creature that had so much vocal power.
“NIGHT GAMES ON SITUATION KK.” The voice spoke in flawless English, a language that had survived almost intact from prewar days, thanks to the Pures' dedication to the preservation of prewar artifacts and ideas.
“What is this?” Jask wanted to know.
Tedesco waited, peering into the shadowy land around them.
“PARTICIPANT MECHANICALS PREPARED.”
“Something's moving out there,” Tedesco said, pointing into the vaguely colored darkness.
“GENERAL PROGRAM INDICATED, INDIVIDUAL MECHANICAL INITIATIVE TO INDUCE CHANCE FACTORS.”
Jask peered in the direction Tedesco was pointing, but he could not see anything there. “That's a machine talking,” he told Tedesco. “We have talking machines in the fortress, but none with voices so loud. Still, the very careful intonation is proof it's a machine.”
“BLUE FOR OFFENSIVE. RED FOR DEFENSIVE.”
“What's it babbling about?” Tedesco asked.
“I can't guess.”
The bruin grunted and pointed again, “Out there, toward the back of the meadow. See them?”
Jask saw them: fifty men advancing toward them, spread across the width of the open land.
“Better get the rifles,” the bruin said, stepping into the shelter of the gray boulders and grabbing up the two power guns. He came back and handed a weapon to Jask.
“They have rifles, too,” Jask said. “They can't be Pures, not here in the Wildlands.”
“Whoever they are, they aren't friends.”
Six of the front-rank soldiers fell forward, raised their guns and fired rapidly. Violet bolts of light sizzled along the length of the field, passed Jask and Tedesco with ten yards to spare.
“Terrible shots,” Jask said.
A group of soldiers split from the main pack and ran toward the woods under cover of a line of limestone rocks. Once in the trees, they ran forward in doubletime, hurried past Jask and Tedesco's post and on toward the open end of the meadow, as if their enemy lay that way.
Tedesco lowered his rifle and said, “Did you see them? Dressed in bright blue clothes, carrying blue rifles? I don't think they even know we're here.”
“Then what—”
At that moment half a dozen red-clad soldiers, toting red weapons, clambered into the limestone ring where Jask and Tedesco had made camp. They paid no heed to the espers, trod across the bulging rucksack and the fresh fruit that had been picked earlier in the day. Pears, apples and berries squashed beneath their feet. They took up positions at breaks in the limestone and began firing on the blue soldiers.
“INADEQUACY OF FORWARD MOVEMENT NOW PUTS BLUE ON DEFENSIVE AND RED ON OFFENSIVE.''
“I don't understand at all,” Jask said.
“I think I do,” Tedesco said. He walked up to the nearest red soldier and tapped him on the shoulder.
The soldier kept shooting at the enemy.
Tedesco tapped harder.
The soldier ignored him.
Tedesco lifted the steel barrel of his rifle and slammed it down on the top of the soldier's head.
The soldier didn't flinch.
Jask walked over and inspected the shallow dent in the top of the red soldier's head. He said, “They're just machines.”
“Unquestionably,” Tedesco said.
At that moment half a dozen blue soldiers appeared from the open end of the field, entered the limestone- circled camp behind the red troops holding it, and deactivated the enemy with several bursts of violet light. The six red troopers tottered a moment, without uttering a word of surprise or pain, then fell over with loud, metallic clanging noises. These triumphant intruders, Jask realized, were those who had earlier split from the main body of the blue army, had entered the woods and circled behind the advancing red soldiers.
“BLUE CAPTURES A VITAL STRONGHOLD AND STRENGTHENS ITS POSITION ON THE SOUTH END.”
“Some ancient form of entertainment?” Jask asked.
“More likely, a training ground for military strategists,” the bruin said. “The disembodied giant's voice you hear is to call observers' attention to special points of interest. The machines are set up to fire only at their own kind, with beams that probably wouldn't hurt a man. And since they ignore us altogether, while carefully avoiding us, we are able to walk among them for firsthand observation.”
A blue soldier, bent over to avoid the crisscrossing plentitude of purple lightning bolts, dashed for the opening to the limestone formation, gingerly sidestepped Jask and Tedesco as if they were not there, and joined his clockwork comrades behind the palisades. His face was set in a caricature of courage and determination, the steel
