Domes of Fire Part 36

'Can you make her stop doing that to me, Vanion?' Sparhawk appealed. 'She's called me both a pagan and a barbarian so far today.'

'Well, aren't you?' she said.

'Maybe, but it's not nice to come right out and say it like that.'

'It's the presence of the Trolls that has concerned me since you told me about it at Sarsos,' Zalasta told them. 'They are not drawn from the past, and they have but recently come to this part of the world from their ancestral home in Thalesia. I know little of Trolls, but it was my understanding that they are fiercely attached to their homeland. What could have provoked this migration?'

'Ulath's baffled,' Sparhawk replied. 'I gather that the Thalesians are so happy that the Trolls have left that they didn't pursue the matter.'

'Trolls don't habitually co-operate with each other,' Sephrenia told them. 'One of them might have decided on his own to leave Thalesia, but he'd never have persuaded the rest to go with him.'

'You're raising a very unpleasant possibility, love,' Vanion said. They all looked at each other. 'Is there any way they could have got out of Bh.e.l.liom?' Vanion asked Sephrenia.

'I don't know, Vanion. Sparhawk asked me the same question quite some time ago. I don't know what spell Ghwerig used to seal them inside the jewel. Troll-spells aren't the same as ours.'

'Then we don't know if they're still inside or if they've somehow managed to free themselves?'

She nodded glumly.

'The fact that the Trolls banded up and left their ancestral home all at the same time suggests that something with sufficient authority over them commanded them to leave,' Zalasta mused.

'That would be their G.o.ds, all right.' Vanion's face was as glum as Sephrenia's. 'Trolls wouldn't obey anyone else.' He sighed. 'Well, we wanted to know who was opposing us. I think we may have just found out.'

'You're all full of light and joy today, Vanion,' Sparhawk said sourly, 'but I'd like something a little more concrete before I declare war on the Trolls.'

'How did you force the Troll-G.o.ds to stop attacking you in Zemoch, Prince Sparhawk?' Zalasta asked him.

'I used the Bh.e.l.liom.'

'It rather looks as if you'll have to use it again. I don't suppose you happened to bring it with you, did you?'

Sparhawk looked quickly at Sephrenia. 'You didn't tell him?' he asked with a certain surprise.

'It wasn't necessary for him to know, dear one. Dolmant wanted us all to keep it more or less to ourselves, remember?'

'I gather that it's not with you then, Prince Sparhawk,' Zalasta surmised. 'Did you leave it in some safe place in Cimmura?'

'It's in a safe place all right, learned one,' Sparhawk replied bleakly, 'but it's not in Cimmura.'

'Where is it then?'

'After we used it to destroy Azash, we threw it into the sea.' Zalasta's face went chalk white. 'In the deepest part of the deepest ocean in the world,' Sephrenia added.

Chapter 21.

'It is along the north coast, Ehlana-Queen,' Norkan translated Queen Betuana's reply. 'These s.h.a.ggy ones you call Trolls have come across the winter ice in large groups for the past two years. At first our people thought they were bears, but it was not so. They avoided us at first, and the snow and fog of winter made it hard for our people to see them clearly. When there were more of them here, they grew bolder. It was not until one of them was killed that we realised they were not bears.'

King Androl was not present. Androl's intellectual gifts were not profound, and he much preferred to let his wife deal with state matters. The Atan King looked very impressive, but he was at his best in ceremonial situations where no surprises were likely to come up.

'Ask her if they've seen any Trolls farther south,' Sparhawk murmured to his wife.

'Why don't you ask her?'

'Let's keep things sort of formal, Ehlana. This is technically a conversation between the two of you. I don't think the rest of us are supposed to join in. Let's not take a chance of violating a propriety we don't know about.'

Ehlana posed the question, and Oscagne translated.

'No,' Norkan repeated Ehlana's answer. 'The Trolls appear to have settled in the forests along the north slopes. So far as we know, they haven't come deeper into Atan.'

'Warn her that Trolls are very good at hiding in forests,' Ulath advised.

'So are we,' the reply was translated.

'Ask her if some advice on tactics would offend her,' the Genidian Knight said then. 'We Thalesians have had many experiences with Trolls-most of them bad.'

'We are always willing to listen to the voice of experience,' came the Atan queen's reply.

'When we encounter Trolls in Thalesia, we usually stay back a ways and shoot some arrows into them,' Ulath informed Ehlana. 'It's hard to kill them with arrows, because their fur and their hides are so thick, but it's a good idea to slow them down if you can. Trolls are much, much quicker than they look, and they have very long arms. They can s.n.a.t.c.h a man out of his saddle quicker than the man can blink.' Ehlana went through the formality of repeating his words.

'What does the Troll do then?' Betuana's expression was curious.

'First he pulls off the man's head. Then he eats the rest of him. Trolls don't like to eat heads for some reason.' Ehlana choked slightly on that.

'We do not use the bow in war,' Norkan translated Betuana's flowing Tamul. 'We only use it in the hunt for creatures we intend to eat.'

'Well,' Ulath said a bit dubiously, 'you could eat a Troll if you wanted to, I guess. I won't guarantee the flavour, though.'

'I refuse to repeat that, Sir Ulath!' Ehlana exclaimed.

'Ask her if javelins would be acceptable in the Atan culture,' Tynian suggested.

'Javelins would be quite all right,' Norkan replied. 'I've seen the Atans practising with them.'

Betuana spoke to him rapidly and at some length. 'Her Majesty's asked me to translate in narrative,' Norkan told them. 'The sun is well up, and she knows you should be on the road. Oscagne tells me that you're planning to take the road leading to Lebas in Tamul proper. Atan society's organised along clan lines, and each clan has its own territory. You'll be pa.s.sed along from clan to clan as you ride east. It's a breach of etiquette for one clan to intrude on the territory of another, and breaches of etiquette are avoided at all costs here in Atan.'

'I wonder why,' Stragen murmured.

'Oscagne,' Norkan said then, 'as soon as you reach civilisation, send me a score or so of imperial messengers with fast horses. Her Majesty wants to keep in close contact with Matherion during the crisis.'

'Very good idea,' Oscagne agreed.

Then Betuana rose, towering over all of them. She affectionately embraced Ehlana and then Mirtai, clearly indicating that it was time for them to continue their journey eastward.

'I will cherish the memory of this visit, dear Betuana,' Ehlana told her.

'And I will as well, dearly-loved sister-queen, Betuana replied in almost flawless Elenic.

Ehlana smiled. 'I wondered how long you were going to hide your understanding of our language, Betuana,' she said.

'You knew?' Betuana seemed surprised.

Ehlana nodded. 'It's very hard to keep your face and your eyes from revealing your understanding while you're waiting for the translation. Why do you keep your knowledge of Elenic a secret?'

'The time the translator takes to convert your words into human speech gives me time to consider my reply,' Betuana shrugged.

'That's a very useful tactic,' Ehlana said admiringly. 'I wish I could use it in Eosia, but everybody there speaks Elenic, so I couldn't really get away with it.'

'Bandage your ears,' Ulath suggested.

'Does he have to do that?' Ehlana complained to Sparhawk.

'It's only a suggestion, your Majesty,' Ulath shrugged. 'Pretend to be deaf and have some people around to wiggle their fingers at you as if they were translating.'

She stared at him. 'That's absurd, Ulath. Do you have any idea of how awkward and inconvenient that would be?'

'I just said it was a suggestion, your Majesty,' he said mildly. 'I didn't say it was a good one.'

Following a formal farewell which was once again primarily for Mirtai's benefit, the queen and her party rode eastward out of Atana along the Lebas road. Once they were clear of the city, Oscagne, who had insisted on riding a horse that day, suggested to Sparhawk, Stragen and Vanion that they ride forward to confer with the other knights. They found them near the head of the column. Tynian was entertaining them with a much-embellished account of a probably imaginary amorous adventure.

'What's afoot?' Kalten asked when Sparhawk and the others joined them.

'Sparhawk and I conferred with Sephrenia and Zalasta last night,' Vanion replied. 'We thought we might share the fruits of our discussions-out of Ehlana's hearing.'

'That sounds ominous,' the blond Pandion observed.

'Not entirely,' Vanion smiled. 'Our conclusions are a bit tenuous, and there's no point in alarming the .queen until we're a bit more certain.'

'Then there is something to be alarmed about, isn't there, Lord Vanion?' Talen asked.

'There's always something to be alarmed about,' Khalad told his brother.

'We've sort of concluded that we're facing a G.o.d,' Vanion told them. 'I'm sure you've all more or less worked that out for yourselves.'

'Did you really have to invite me to come along this time, Sparhawk?' Kalten complained. 'I'm not very good at dealing with G.o.ds.'

'Who is?'

'You weren't so bad at Zemoch.'

'Luck, probably.'

'This is the way our reasoning went,' Vanion continued. 'You've been seeing that shadow again, and the cloud. On the surface at least, they seem to be divine manifestations, and these armies out of the past-the Lamorks and the Cyrgai-couldn't have been raised by a mortal. Zalasta told us that he'd tried it once and that it all fell apart on him. If he can't do it, we can be fairly sure that n.o.body else can either.'

'Logical,' Bevier approved.

'Thank you. Now then, the Trolls all left Thalesia a while back, and they've started to show up here in Atan. We more or less agreed that they wouldn't have done that unless they'd been commanded to by someone they'd obey. Couple that fact with the shadow, and it seems to point at the Troll-G.o.ds. Sephrenia's not positive that they're permanently locked inside Bh.e.l.liom, so we more or less have to accept the fact that they've somehow managed to escape.'

'This isn't going to be one of the good stories, I gather,' Talen said glumly.

'It is a bit gloomy, isn't it?' Tynian agreed.

Vanion raised one hand. 'It gets worse,' he told them. 'We sort of agreed that all of this plotting involving ancient heroes, rabid nationalism and the like is somewhat beyond the capability of the Troll-G.o.ds. It's not likely that they'd have a very sophisticated concept of politics, so I think we'll have to consider the possibility of an alliance of some kind. Someone-either human or immortal-is taking care of the politics, and the Troll-G.o.ds are providing the muscle. They command the Trolls, and they can raise these figures from the grave.'

'They're being used?' Ulath suggested.

'So it would seem.'

'It doesn't wash, Lord Vanion,' the Thalesian said bluntly.

'How so?'

'What's in it for the Trolls? Why would the Troll-G.o.ds ally themselves with somebody else if there weren't any benefits to the Trolls to come out of the arrangement? The Trolls can't rule the world, because they can't come down out of the mountains.'

'Why not?' Berit asked'd him.

'Their fur-and those thick hides of theirs. They have to stay where it's cool. If you put a Troll out in the summer sun for two days, he'll die. Their bodies are built to keep the heat in, not to get rid of it.'

'That is a fairly serious flaw in your theory, Lord Vanion,' Oscagne agreed.

'I think I might be able to'suggest a solution,' Stragen told them. 'Our enemy-or enemies-want to re-arrange the world right?'

'Well, at least the top part of it,' Tynian amended. 'n.o.body I know of has ever suggested turning it all the way upside down and putting the peasantry in charge.'

'Maybe that comes later,' Stragen smiled. 'Our friend out there wants to change the world, but he doesn't have quite enough power to pull it off by himself, He needs the power of the Troll-G.o.ds to make it work. but what could he offer the Trolls in exchange for their help? What do the Trolls really want?'

'Thalesia.' Ulath replied moodily.'

'Precisely. Wouldn't the Troll-G.o.ds leap at an opportunity to wipe out the Elenes and Styrics in Thalesia and return total possession of the peninsula to the Trolls? If someone's come up with a way to expel the Younger Styric G.o.ds-or at least claims he has-wouldn't that be fairly enticing to the Troll-G.o.ds? It was the Younger G.o.ds who dispossessed them in the first place, and that's why they had to go hide. This is pure speculation, of course, but let's say this friend of ours came up with a way to free the Troll-G.o.ds. Then he offered an alliance, promising to drive the Elenes and Styrics out of Thalesia and possibly the north coasts of both continents as well-in exchange for the help he needs. The Trolls get the north, and our friend gets the rest of the world. If I were a Troll, that would sound like a very attractive bargain, wouldn't you say?'

'He may have hit on it,' Ulath conceded.

'His solution certainly answers my objection to the idea,' Bevier concurred. 'It may not be the precise arrangement between our friend and the Troll-G.o.ds, but it's a clear hint that something could have been worked out. What's our course, then?'

'We have to break up the alliance,' Sparhawk replied.

'That's a neat trick when you don't know who one of the allies is,' Kalten told him.

'We do sort of know about one part of it, so we'll have to concentrate on that. Your theory narrows my options, Vanion. I guess I will have to declare war on the Trolls after all.'

'I don't quite understand,' Oscagne confessed.

'The G.o.ds derive their strength from their wors.h.i.+ppers, your Excellency,' Bevier explained. 'The more wors.h.i.+ppers, the stronger the G.o.d. If Sparhawk starts killing Trolls, the Troll-G.o.ds will notice it. If he kills enough of them, they'll withdraw from the alliance. They won't have any choice if they want to survive, and we found out at Zemoch that they're very interested in surviving. They went all to pieces when Sparhawk threatened to destroy Bh.e.l.liom and them along with it.'