Domes of Fire Part 40

'Its species roamed the earth millions of years ago,' the Styric replied. 'Before mankind or even the Trolls emerged. Our opponent appears to be very gifted in resurrecting the ancient dead.'

'Was that him inside that ball of fire?' Kalten asked.

'I can't be positive about that, Sir Kalten. It seems that we have many layers of enemies out there. If the one in the orb wasn't our main enemy, though, he was probably very high up in the opposing councils. He was most skilled.'

'Let's see to the wounded,' Vanion said crisply. Despite his protestations that Sparhawk was now in charge of the Pandions, the habit of command still ran deep in Vanion's blood.

'We might want to barricade that gap as well,' Ulath suggested, 'just to keep the surviving Trolls from paying us any unannounced visits during the night.'

'I'll go advise the ladies that the worst of this is over,' Sparhawk told them. He turned Faran and rode back to the cave. He was a bit surprised and more than a bit exasperated to find Ehlana and the rest of the party from the cavern standing out in the open. 'I told you to stay in the cave,' he reprimanded his wife sharply.

'You didn't really expect me to do it, did you?'

'Yes, as a matter of fact, I did.'

'Life's just filled with these little disappointments, isn't it?' Her tone was challenging.

'That will do, children,' Sephrenia said wearily. 'Domestic squabbles shouldn't be aired in public. Do your fighting in private.'

'We weren't fighting, were we, Sparhawk?' Ehlana said.

'We were just about to start.'

'I'm sorry, dear,' she apologised contritely. 'I couldn't bear to stay inside while you were in such terrible danger.' Then she made a wry face. 'Right now I'm going to have to choke down my royal pride and eat a large dish of crow. I've wronged Zalasta dreadfully. He saved the day for us, didn't he?'

'He certainly didn't hurt us,' Talen agreed.

'He was stupendous!' the queen exclaimed.

'He's very, very skilled,' Sephrenia said proudly. Perhaps unconsciously, she was holding Danae in her arms. Their centuries of sisterhood had made the small Styric woman's responses instinctive.

'What was that awful face at the edge of the woods?' Sir Berit asked with a shudder.

'Ulath says it was Ghworg, the Troll-G.o.d of Kill,' Sparhawk replied. 'I sort of remember him from the Temple of Azash back in Zemoch. I didn't really look at him that closely then, though. I was a little preoccupied at the time.' He made a face.

'Well, little mother,' he said to Sephrenia, 'it looks as if we might have been right. I'd say that Ghwerig's spell wasn't quite as iron-clad as we originally thought. The Troll-G.o.ds are loose-at least Ghworg is. But what baffles me is why they didn't escape earlier. If they could get out at any time, why didn't they break free when I threatened to smash Bh.e.l.liom in the temple?'

'Maybe they needed help,' she shrugged. 'It's altogether possible that our enemy was able to enlist their aid by offering to help them escape their imprisonment. We'll ask Zalasta. He might know.'

More of the knights had been injured during the fight with the Trolls than Sparhawk had originally thought, and some fifteen of their number had been killed. As evening settled into the canyon, Engessa came to Sparhawk, his eyes hard.

'I'll leave now, Sparhawk-Knight,' he said abruptly. Sparhawk looked at him, startled. 'I must go have words with the clan of this region. Their failure to be at the boundary was inexcusable.'

'There was probably a reason for it, Atan Engessa.'

'No reason that I'll accept. I'll be back in the morning with enough warriors to protect Ehlana-Queen.'

'There are Trolls out there in the forest, you know.'

'They will not greatly inconvenience me, Sparhawk-Knight.'

'Just be careful, Atan Engessa. I'm getting very tired of burying friends.'

Engessa suddenly grinned at him. 'That's one of the good things about fighting Trolls, Sparhawk-Knight. You don't have to bury dead friends. The Trolls eat them.' Sparhawk shuddered.

Zalasta was clearly the hero of the day. All of the Peloi and most of the Church Knights were obviously in awe of him. The vision of his explosive duel with the hooded figure in the blazing purple orb and the spectacular demise of the vast reptile was vividly etched on the minds of the entire party. He bore himself modestly, however, shrugging off his stunning accomplishments as if they were of no moment. He did, however, seem very pleased that Ehlana's animosity had dissolved and that she was now whole-heartedly cordial toward him. His somewhat stiff manner softened-Ehlana had that effect on people-and he became somehow less reserved and more human.

Engessa arrived the next morning with a thousand Atan clansmen. The faces of their officers clearly showed that Engessa had spoken firmly with them about their failure to be at the clan-border at the appointed time. The wounded knights were placed on litters borne by Atan warriors, and the much enlarged party moved slowly on back to the road and continued eastward toward Lebas in Tamul proper. Hindered as they were by the wounded, they did not make good time-or so it seemed. After what had apparently been two full days of travel, Sparhawk spoke very briefly with his daughter, advising her that he needed to talk with her at some point while the minds of the others were asleep. When the blank faces of his companions indicated that Aphrael was compressing time again, he rode back to the carriage.

'Please get right to the point, Sparhawk,' the little G.o.ddess told him. 'It's very difficult this time.'

'Is it different somehow?'

'Of course it is. I'm extending the pain of the wounded, and that's very distasteful. I'm making them sleep as much as possible, but there are limits, you know.'

'All right then, how much of what happened back there was real?'

'How could I possibly know that?'

'You mean you can't tell.'

'Well, of course I can't, Sparhawk. When we create an illusion, n.o.body can tell. It wouldn't be much of an illusion if someone could detect it, would it?'

'You said 'we'. If it was an illusion, there was a G.o.d behind it then?'

'Yes-either directly or indirectly. If it was indirectly, though, someone has a great deal of influence with whatever G.o.d was involved. We don't surrender that much power very often-or very willingly. Don't beat around the bush, Sparhawk. What's bothering you?'

'I don't really know, Aphrael,' he confessed. 'Something about it didn't seem quite right.'

'Specifics, Sparhawk. I need something specific to work with.'

'It just seemed to me that it was overdone, that's all. I got a distinct feeling that someone was just showing off. It was adolescent.'

She considered that, her bow-like little mouth pouting. 'Maybe we are adolescent, Sparhawk. It's one of the dangers of our situation. There's nothing powerful enough to make us grow up, so we're at liberty to indulge ourselves. I've even noticed that in my own character.'

'You?'

'Be nice, father.' She said it almost absently, her small black brows knitted in concentration. 'It's certainly consistent,' she added. 'Back in Astel, that Sabre fellow showed a rather profound lack of maturity, and he was being rather tightly controlled. You may just have hit upon one of our weaknesses, Sparhawk. I'd rather you didn't apply the notion to me directly, but keep the idea that we're all just a bit immature sort of in the front of your mind. I won't be able to see it myself, I'm afraid. If it is one of our failings, I'm just as infected with it as the others. We all love to impress each other, and it's polite to be impressed when someone else is showing off.'

She made a little face. 'It's automatic, I'm afraid. Keep a firm hold on your scepticism, Sparhawk. Your cold-eyed lack of gullibility might be very useful. Now please go back to sleep. I'm very busy right now.'

They crossed the summit of the mountains of Atan and moved on down the eastern slopes toward the border. The demarcation between Atan and Tamul was abrupt and clearly evident. Atan was a wilderness of trees and rugged peaks, Tamul was a carefully-tended park. The fields were excruciatingly neat, and even the hills seemed to have been artfully sculpted to provide pleasing prospects and vistas. The peasantry seemed industrious, and they did not have that expression of hopeless misery so common on the faces of the peasants and serfs of the Elene Kingdoms.

'Organisation, my dear Emban,' Oscagne was telling the fat little churchman. 'The key to our success lies in organisation. All power in Tamul descends from the emperor, and all decisions are made in Matherion. We even tell our peasants when to plant and when to harvest. I'll admit that central planning has its drawbacks, but the Tamul nature seems to require it.'

'Elenes, unfortunately, are much less disciplined, Emban replied. 'The Church would be happier with a more docile congregation, but we have to make do with what G.o.d gave us to work with.' He smiled. 'Oh, well, it keeps life interesting.'

They reached Lebas late one afternoon. It was a small, neat city with a distinctly alien-looking architecture that leaned strongly in the direction of artistic embellishment. The houses were low and broad, with graceful roofs that curved upward at the ends of their ridge-lines as if the architects felt that abrupt straight lines were somehow incomplete. The cobbled streets were broad and straight, and they were filled with citizens dressed in brightly coloured silks. The entrance of the westerners created quite a stir, since the Tamuls had never seen Elene knights before. It was the Queen of Elenia, however, who astonished them the most. The Tamuls were a golden-skinned, dark-haired people, and the pale, blonde queen filled them with awe as her carriage moved almost ceremonially through the streets.

Their first concern, of course, was the wounded. Oscagne a.s.sured them that Tamul physicians were among the finest in the world. It appeared, moreover, that the amba.s.sador held a fairly exalted rank in the empire. A house was immediately provided for the injured knights, and a medical staff seemed to materialise at his command. Additional houses were provided for the rest of their company, and those houses were fully staffed with servants who could not understand a single word of the Elenic language.

'You seem to throw a great deal of weight around, Oscagne,' Emban said that evening after they had eaten an exotic meal consisting of course after course of unidentifiable delicacies and sometimes startling flavours.

'I'm not the overweight one, my friend,' Oscagne smiled. 'My commission is signed by the emperor, and his hand had the full weight of the entire Daresian continent behind it. He's ordered that all of Tamuli do everything possible-and even impossible-to make the visit of Queen Ehlana pleasant and convenient. No one ever disobeys his orders.'

'They must not have reached the Trolls then,' Ulath said blandly. 'Of course Trolls have a different view of the world than we do. Maybe they thought Queen Ehlana would be entertained by their welcome.'

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

'Ulath? Yes, I think he does, your Excellency. It's something in the Thalesian nature, terribly obscure, I'm afraid, and quite possibly perverted.'

'Sparhawk.' Ulath protested.

'Nothing personal there, old boy,' Sparhawk grinned, 'just a reminder that I haven't yet quite forgiven you for all the times you've tricked me into doing the cooking when it wasn't really my turn.'

'Hold still,' Mirtai commanded.

'You got some of it in my eye,' Talen accused her.

'It won't hurt you. Now hold still.' She continued to daub the mixture onto his face.

'What is that, Mirtai?' Baroness Melidere asked curiously.

'Saffron. We use it in our cooking. It's a kind of a spice.'

'What are we doing here?' Ehlana asked curiously as she and Sparhawk entered the room to find the Atana spreading the condiment over Talen's face.

'We're modifying your page, my Queen,' Stragen explained. 'He has to go out into the streets, and we want him to be un.o.btrusive. Mirtai's changing the colour of his skin.'

'You could do that with magic, couldn't you, Sparhawk?' Ehlana asked.

'Probably,' he said, 'and if I couldn't, Sephrenia certainly could.'

'Now you tell me,' Talen said in a slightly bitter tone. 'Mirtai's been seasoning me for the past half hour.'

'You smell good, though,' Melidere told him.

'I didn't set out to be somebody's supper. Ouch.'

'Sorry,' Alcan murmured, carefully disengaging her comb from a snarl in his hair. 'I have to work the dye in, though, or it won't look right.' Alcan was applying black dye to the young man's hair.

'How long will it take me to wash this yellow stuff off?' Talen asked.

'I'm not sure,' Mirtai shrugged. 'It might be permanent, but it should grow out in a month or so.'

'I'll get you for this, Stragen,' Talen threatened.

'Hold still,' Mirtai said again and continued her daubing.

'We have to make contact with the local thieves,' Stragen explained. 'The thieves at Sarsos promised that we'd get a definite answer here in Lebas.'

'I see a large hole in the plan, Stragen,' Sparhawk replied. 'Talen doesn't speak Tamul.'

'That's no real problem,' Stragen shrugged. 'The chief of the local thieves is a Cammorian.'

'How did that happen?'

'We're very cosmopolitan, Sparhawk. All thieves are brothers, after all, and we recognise the aristocracy of talent. Anyway, as soon as he can pa.s.s for a Tamul, Talen's going to the local thieves' den to talk with Caalador-that's the Cammorian's name. He'll bring him here, and we'll be able to talk with him privately.'

'Why aren't you the one who's going?'

'And get saffron all over my face? Don't be silly, Sparhawk.'

Caalador the Cammorian was a stocky, red-faced man with curly black hair and an open, friendly countenance. He looked more like a jovial innkeeper than a leader of thieves and cutthroats. His manner was bluff and good humoured, and he spoke in the typical Cammorian drawl and with the slovenly grammar that bespoke back-country origins.

'So yet the one oz has got all the thieves of Daresia so sore perplexed,' he said to Stragen when Talen presented him.

'I'll have to plead guilty on that score, Caalador, Stragen smiled.

'Don't never do that, brother. Alluz try'n lie yet way outten thangs.'

'I'll try to remember that. What are you doing so far from home, my friend?'

'I nought ax you the same question, Stragen. It's a fur piece from here t' Thalesia.'

'And quite nearly as far from Cammoria.'

'Ain, that's easy explained, m' friend. I started out in life oz a poacher, ketchin' rabbits an' sick in the bushes on land that weren't rightly mine, but that's a sore hard kinda work with lotsar risk and mighty slim profit, so I tooken t' liftin' chickens outten hen-roosts-chickens not runnin' near oz fast oz rabbits, especial at night. Then I moved up t' sheep-stealing-only one night I had me a set-to with a hull pa.s.sel o' sheep-dawgs which it wuz oz betrayed me real cruel by not stayin' bribed.'

'How do you bribe a dog?' Ehlana asked curiously.

'Easiest thang in the world, little lady. Y thrum 'em some meat-sc.r.a.ps t' keep then attention.

'Well, sir, them there dawgs tore into me somethin' fierce, an' I lit out leavin', misfortunate-like, a hat which it wuz I wuz partial 'to an' which it wuz oz could be rekonnized oz mine by half the parish. Now, I'm gist a country boy at hert 'thout no real citified ways t' get me by in town, an' so I tooken t' sea, an' t' make it short, I fetched up on this yore furrin coast an' beat my way inland, the capting of the s.h.i.+p I wuz a-sailin' on wanhn' t' talk t' me 'bout some stuff oz had turnt up missin' tum the cargo hold, y' know.' He paused.

'Have I sufficiently entertained you as yet, Milord Stragen?' he grinned.

'Very, very good, Caalador,' Stragen murmured. 'Convincing-although it was a trifle overdone.'

'A failing, Milord. It's so much fun that I get carried away. Actually, I'm a swindler. I've found that posing as an ignorant yokel disarms people. No one in this world is as easy to gull as the man who thinks he's smarter than you are.'

'Ohh.' Ehlana's tone was profoundly disappointed.

'Wuz yet Majesty tooken with the iggernent way I wuz 'atalkin?' Caalador asked sympathetically. 'I'll do 'er agin, iff'n yet of a mind-of course it takes a beastly long time to get to the point that way.'

She laughed delightedly. 'I think you could charm the birds out of the bushes, Caalador,' she told him.

'Thank you, your Majesty,' he said, bowing with fluid grace. Then he turned back to Stragen. 'Your proposal has baffled our Tamul friends, Milord,' he said. 'The demarcation line between corruption and outright theft is very clearly defined in the Tamul culture. Tamul thieves are quite cla.s.s-conscious, and the notion of actually co-operating with the authorities strikes them as unnatural for some reason. Fortunately, we Elenes are far more corrupt than our simple yellow brothers, and Elenes seem to rise to the top in our peculiar society natural talent, most likely. We saw the advantages of your proposal immediately. Kondrak of Darsas was most eloquent in his presentation. You seem to have impressed him enormously. The disturbances here in Tamuli have been disastrous for business, and when we began reciting profit and loss figures to the Tamuls, they started to listen to reason. They agreed to co-operate grudgingly, I'll grant you, but they will help you to gather information.'