"'...they have...grown weak in sheerly material ways. They help us withstand the aggressions from Ulan Baligh; they can do nothing against the might of Merseia.'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 377.
The Ice Folk can do a lot against the human enemies of Juchi's tribe. They somehow detected and destroyed hostile aircraft at a distance. When Flandry defaced the Prophet's Tower, he was carried by an aeromedusa controlled by a Dweller who had to cling to a block of ice in order to survive this flight to the tropics.
When the enemy attacks on motor bikes, a Dweller calls through the roots to alert the forest. Hundreds of aeromedusae descend either to electrocute soldiers or to lift them and drop them into a lethally cold lake. Medusae hit by gunfire burst into hydrogen flame and seek men to burn. The retreat becomes a rout.
Making Love, Not War
Bourtai, a nomad woman, wants to be with Flandry but does not know how to initiate a sexual liaison so she just puts herself in his presence until he gets the message but then they are interrupted and Flandry will leave anyway. But he leaves her in the capable hands of his rival.
For background on Altai, see here.
1 comment:
Hi, Paul!
I suggest, however, that while the Ice Folk could help the Tebtengri Shamanate resist Oleg Khan, that was largely because, as long as both sides on Altai had only the modest resources of that planet to draw on, then the Ice Folk could make a difference. But, not against space ships or nuclear weapons. Or even the increasingly modernized forces Oleg could field armed with weapons and equipment supplied by Merseia.
Sean
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