Description
Short Science Fiction Collection 033
The Barbarians
by Algis Budrys
It was just as he saw The Barbarian’s squat black tankette lurch
hurriedly into a nest of boulders that young Giulion Geoffrey realized
he had been betrayed. With the muzzle of his own cannon still hot from
the shell that had jammed The Barbarian’s turret, he had yanked the
starboard track lever to wheel into position for the finishing shot. All
around him, the remnants of The Barbarian’s invading army were being cut
to flaming ribbons by the armored vehicles of the Seaboard League. The
night was shot through by billows of cannon fire, and the din of
laboring engines, guns, and rent metal was a cacophonic climax to the
Seaboard League’s first decisive victory over the inland invaders. Young
Geoffrey could justifiably feel that he would cap that climax by
personally accounting for the greatest of the inland barbarians; the
barbarian general himself. He trained his sights on the scarlet bearpaw
painted on the skewed turret’s flank, and laid his hand on the firing
lever.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of another tankette
rushing up on his port side. He glanced at it, saw its graceful
handcrafting, and knew it for one of the League’s own. He could even see
the insigne; the mailed heel trampling a stand of wheat; Harolde Dugald,
of the neighboring fief. Geoffrey was on coldly polite terms with
Dugald–he had no use for the other man’s way of treating his serfs–and
now he felt a prickle of indignant rage at this attempt to usurp a
share of his glory. He saw Dugald’s turret begin to traverse, and
hastily tried to get the finishing shot into The Barbarian’s tankette
before the other Leaguesman could fire. But Dugald was not aiming for
The Barbarian. First he had to eliminate Geoffrey from th
Product ID: 9781776778836
Sku: 9781776778836
