The Eternal Champion

CHAPTER SEVEN THE ARMOUR OF EREKOSE

The slave led us to my apartments. They were empty of anyone save my retinue.

'But where is King Rigenos?' I asked.

'He said to wait here, master.'

I smiled at lolinda again. She smiled back. 'Very well,' I said. 'We shall wait.'

We did not wait long. Presently slaves began to arrive at my apartments. They were carrying bulky pieces of metal wrapped in oiled parchment and they began to pile it in the weapons room. I watched them with as little expression as possible, though I was greatly puzzled.

Then at last King Rigenos entered. He seemed much more excited than usual, and Katorn was not, this time, with him.

'Greetings, Father,' said lolinda. 'I…'

But King Rigenos raised a hand and turned to address the slaves. 'Strip off the coverings,' he said. 'Hurry.'

'King Rigenos,' I said. 'I would like to tell you that…'

'Forgive me, Lord Erekose. First look at what I have brought. It has lain for centuries in the vaults of the palace. Waiting, Erekose-waiting for you!'

'Waiting…?'

Then the oiled parchment was torn away and lay in curling heaps on the flagstones, revealing what was to me a magnificent

'This,' said the king, 'is the armour of Erekose. Broken from its tomb of rock deep beneath the palace's lowest dungeons so that Erekose can wear it again.'

The armour was black and it shone. It was as if it had been forged that day and forged by the greatest smith in history, for it was of exquisite workmanship.

I picked up the breastplate and ran my hand over it.

Unlike the armour, worn by the Imperial Guard, this was smooth, without any kind of raised embellishment. The shoulder pieces were grooved, fanning high and away from the head, to channel a blow of sword, axe or lance away from the wearer. The helmet, breastplates, greaves and the rest were all grooved in the same manner.

The metal was light, but very strong, like that of the sword. But the black lacquer shone. It shone brightly-almost blindingly. In its simplicity, the armour was beautiful-as beautiful as only really fine craftsmanship can be. Its only ornament was a thick plume of scarlet horsehair which sprang from the crest of the helmet and cascaded down the smooth sides. I touched the armour with the reverence one has for fine art. In this case it was fine art designed to protect my life and my reverence was, if anything, that much greater!

'Thank you, King Rigenos,' I said-and I was honestly grateful. 'I will wear it on the day we set sail against the Eldren.'

'That day is tomorrow,' said King Rigenos quietly.

'What?'

'The last of our ships has come in. The last member of the crew is on board. The last cannon has been fitted. It will be a good tide tomorrow and we cannot miss it.'

I glanced at him. Had I been misled in some way? Had Katorn prevailed upon the king not to let me know the exact time of sailing? But the king's expression showed no sign of a plot. I dismissed the idea and accepted what he said. I turned my gaze to lolinda. She looked stricken.

'Tomorrow…' she said.

'Tomorrow,' confirmed King Rigenos.

I bit my lower lip. 'Than I must prepare…'

She said: 'Father…'

He looked at her. 'Yes, lolinda?'

I began to speak and then paused. She glanced at me and was also silent. There was no easy way of telling him and suddenly it was as if we should keep our love, our pact, a secret. Neither of us knew why.

Tactfully, the king withdrew. 'I will discuss last minute matters with you later, Lord Erekose.'

I bowed. He left.

Somewhat stunned, lolinda and I stared at each other and then we moved into each other's arms and we wept.

John Daker would not have written this. He would have laughed at the sentiments, just as he would have scoffed at anyone who considered the arts of war important. John Daker would not have written this, but I must:

I began to feel a rising sense of excitement for the coming war. The old exultant mood started to sweep through me again. Overlaying my excitement was my love for lolinda. This love seemed to be a calmer, purer love, so much more satisfying than casual, carnal love. It was a thing apart. Perhaps this was the chivalrous love which the Peers of Christendom were said to hold above all other.

John Daker would have spoken of sexual repression and of swords as substitutes for sexual intercourse and so forth.

Perhaps John Daker would have been right. But it did not seem to me that he was right, though I was well aware of all the rationalist arguments that supported such a view. There is a great tendency for the human race to see all other times in its own terms. The terms of this society were subtly different-I was only dimly aware of many of the differences. I was responding to lolinda in those terms. It is all I can say. And later events, I suppose, were also played out in those terms.

I took lolinda's face in my two hands and I bent and I kissed her forehead, and she kissed my lips and then she left.

'Shall I see you before I leave?' I asked as she reached the door.

'Yes,' she said. 'Yes, my love, if it is possible.'

When she had gone I did not feel sad. I inspected the armour once again and then I went down to the main hall where King Rigenos stood with many of his greatest captains, studying a large map of Mernadin and the waters between it and Necralala.

'We start here in the morning,' Rigenos told me, indicating the harbour area of Necranal. The River Droonaa flowed through Necranal to the sea and the port of Noonos where the fleet was assembled. 'There must be a certain amount of ceremony, I fear, Erekose. Various rituals to perform. I have already sketched them to you, I believe.'

'You have,' I said. 'The ceremony seems more arduous than the warfare.'

The captains laughed. Though somewhat distant and a trifle wary of me, they liked me well enough, for I had proved (to my own astonishment) to have a natural grasp of tactics and the warlike arts.

'But the ceremony is necessary,' Rigenos said, 'for the people. It makes a reality for them, you see. They can experience something of what we shall be doing.'

'We?' I said. 'Am I wrong? I thought you implied that you were sailing too.'

'I am,' Rigenos said quietly. 'I decided that it was necessary.'

'Necessary?'

'Yes.' He would say no more-particularly in front of his marshals. 'Now, let us continue. We must all of us rise very early tomorrow morning.'

As we discussed these final matters of order and tactics and logistics, I studied the king's face as best I could.

No one expected him to sail with his armies. He would lose no face at all by remaining behind in his capital. Yet he had made a decision which would put him in a position of extreme danger and make him take actions for which he had no palate.

Why had he made the decision? To prove to himself that he could fight, perhaps? Yet he had proved it already. Because he was jealous of me? Because he did not altogether trust me? I glanced at Katorn, but saw nothing in Katorn's face to indicate satisfaction. Katorn was merely his usual surly self.

Mentally, I shrugged. Speculation at this-point would get me nowhere. The fact was that the king, not an altogether robust man now, was coming with us. It might give extra inspiration to our warriors, at least. It might also help control Katorn's particular tendencies.

Eventually we dispersed and went our ways. I went straight to my bed and, before I slept, lay there peacefully, thinking of lolinda, thinking of the battle-plans I had hatched, wondering what the Eldren would be like to fight-I still had no completely clear idea of how they fought (save 'treacherously and ferociously') or even what they looked like (save that they resembled 'demons from the deepest pits').

I knew I would soon have some of the answers, at any rate. Soon I was asleep.

My dreams were strange dreams on that night before we sailed for Mernadin.

I saw towers and marshes and lakes and armies and lances that shot flames and metallic flying machines whose wings flapped like those of gigantic birds. I saw monstrously large flamingos, strange mask-like helmets resembling the faces of beasts…

I saw dragons-huge reptiles with fiery venom, flapping across dark, moody skies. I saw a beautiful city tumbling in flames. I saw unhuman creatures that I knew to be gods. I saw a woman about whom I could not name, a small, red-headed man who seemed to be my friend. A sword-a great, black sword more powerful than the one I know owned-a sword that perhaps, oddly, was myself!

I saw a world of ice across which strange, great ships with billowing sails ran and black beasts like whales propelled themselves over endless plateaux of white.

I saw a world-or was it a universe?-that had no horizon and was filled with a rich, jewelled mosaic atmosphere which changed all the time and from which people and objects emerged only to disappear again. It was somewhere beyond the Earth, I was sure. Yes-I was aboard a spaceship-but a ship that travelled through no universe conceived of by Man,

I saw a desert through which I stumbled weeping and I was alone-lonelier than any man had ever been.

I saw a jungle-a jungle of primitive trees and gigantic ferns. And through the ferns I saw huge, bizarre buildings and there was a weapon in my hand that was not a sword and was not a gun, but it was more powerful than either…

I rode strange beasts and encountered stranger people. I moved through landscapes that were beautiful and terrifying. I piloted flying machines and spaceships and I drove chariots. I hated. I fell in love. I built empires and caused the collapse of nations and I slew many and was slain many times. I triumphed and I was humiliated. And I had many names. The names roared in my skull. Too many names. Too many…

And there was no peace. There was only strife.