The Eternal Champion

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN NECRANAL AGAIN

Although the king refrained from further outbursts against either myself or Ermizhad, it could not really be said that he warmed to me again, though he grew more relaxed as the shores of Necralala drew closer.

And eventually Noonos was sighted and we left the better part of the fleet there to refit and reprovision and sailed back up the River Droonaa to come again to Necranal.

The news of our great sea victory was already in Necranal. Indeed it had been amplified and it seemed that I had sunk some score of ships and destroyed their crews single-handed!

I did nothing to deny the truth of this for the reason that I was worried King Rigenos would begin to work against me. The adulation of the people, however, meant that he could not be seen to deny me anything. My power had grown on my return, for I had achieved a victory, I had proved myself the Champion the people wanted.

It now seemed that if King Rigenos acted against me, he would arouse the wrath of the people against him-and that wrath would be so great it could lose him his crown-and his head.

This did not mean, of course, that he had to like me, but in fact when we had once again reached the Palace of Ten Thousand Windows he was almost in an affable mood.

I think he had begun to see me as a threat to his throne, but the sight of his palace, his people and his daughter, reassured him that he was still the king and would always be the king. I was not interested in his crown-only his daughter.

Guards escorted Ermizhad away to her quarters when we arrived and she had departed before lolinda came running down the stairs into the Great Hall, her face radiant, her carriage graceful, kissing first her father and then myself.

'Have you told Father of our secret?' she asked.

'I think he knew before we left,' I laughed, turning to Rigenos upon whose face there had come something of an abstracted look. 'We would be betrothed, sire. Do you give us your consent?'

King Rigenos opened his mouth, wiped his forehead and swallowed before nodding. 'Of course. My blessings to you. This will make our unity even stronger.'

A slight frown came to lolinda's brow. 'Father-you are pleased, are you not?'

'Of c-yes, naturally I am pleased-naturally. But I am weary with travelling and with fighting, my dear. I need to rest. Forgive me…'

'Oh, I am sorry, Father. Yes, you must rest. You are right. You do not look well. I will have the slaves prepare some food for you and you can dine in bed…'

'Yes,' he said, 'yes…'

When he had gone lolinda looked at me curiously. 'You, too, seem to have suffered from the fighting, Erekose. You are not hurt, are you?'

'No. The battle was bloody. And I did not enjoy much of what we had to do.'

'Warriors kill men-that is the way.'

'Aye,' I said hoarsely. 'But do they kill women, lolinda? Do they kill children? Babies?'

She moistened her lips with her tongue. Then she said: 'Come. Let's eat in my apartments. It is more restful there.'

When we had eaten, I felt better, but I was still not completely at ease.

'What happened?' she asked. 'At Mernadin?'

'There was a great sea fight. We won it.'

'That is good.'

'Yes.'

'You took Paphanaal. You stormed it and took it.'

'Who told you we "stormed" it?' I asked in astonishment.

'Why you do-the returning warriors. We heard the news shortly before you came back…'

'There was no resistance in Paphanaal,' I told her. 'There were some women there and there were some children there and they were butchered by our troops.'

'Some women and children always get harmed in the storming of a city,' said lolinda. 'You must not blame yourself if…'

'We did not storm the city,' I repeated. 'It was undefended. There were no men there. Every one of the male inhabitants of Paphanaal had sailed with the fleet we destroyed.'

She shrugged. Evidently she could not visualise the true picture. Perhaps it was just as well. But I could not resist one further comment:

'And, although we should have won anyway, part of our sea victory was due to our treachery,' I said.

'You were betrayed, did you say?' She looked up eagerly. 'Some treachery of the Eldren?'

'The Eldren fought honourably. We slaughtered their commander during a truce.'

'I see,' she said. Then she smiled. 'Well, we must help you forget such terrible things, Erekose.'

'I hope you can,' I said.

The king announced our betrothal the next day and the news was received with joy by the citizens of Necranal. We stood before them on the great balcony overlooking the city. We smiled and waved but, when we went inside again, the king left us with a curt word and hurried away.

'Father really does seem to disapprove of our match,' lolinda said in puzzlement, 'in spite of his consent.'

'A disagreement about tactics while at war,' I said. 'You know how important we soldiers think these things. He will soon forget.'

But I was perturbed. Here I was a great hero, loved by the people, marrying the king's daughter as a hero should, and something was beginning to strike me as being not quite right.

I had had the feeling for some time, but I could not trace the source. I did not know whether it was to do with my peculiar dreams, my worries concerning my origin or merely the crisis that seemed to be building between the king and myself. It was probably very little and my anxiety was baseless.

lolinda and I now went to the bridal bed together, as was the custom in the Human Kingdoms.

But, that first night, we did not make love.

Half-way through the night I felt my shoulder being touched and I straightened up almost instantly. I smiled in relief.

'Oh, it is you, lolinda.'

'It is I, Erekose. You moaned and groaned so in your sleep that I thought it better to wake you.'

'Aye…' I rubbed my eyes. 'I thank you.' My memory was unclear! but it seemed to me that I had been experiencing the usual dreams.

'Tell me something of Ermizhad, lolinda said suddenly.

'Ermizhad?' I yawned. 'What of her?'

'You have seen much of her, I heard. You conversed with her. I have never conversed with an Eldren. Usually, we do not take prisoners…'

I smiled. 'Well, I gather it's heresy to say so-but I found her quite-human.'

'Oh, Erekose. That's a joke in bad taste. They say she's beautiful. They say she has a thousand human lives to account for. She's evil, is she not? She had lured many men to their deaths…'

'I did not ask her about that,' I said. 'We discussed matters of philosophy, mainly.'

'She is very clever, then?'

'I do not know. She seemed almost innocent to me.' I added hastily, diplomatically. 'But perhaps that's her cleverness-to seem innocent.'

lolinda frowned. 'Innocent! Ha!'

I was disturbed. 'I only offer my impression, lolinda. I have no opinions, really, concerning Ermizhad or the rest of the Eldren, for that matter.'

'Do you love me, Erekose?'

'Of course.'

'You would not-you would not-betray me?'

I laughed and took her in my arms. 'How could you fear such a thing?'

We fell, again, asleep.

Next morning, King Rigenos, Count Roldero and myself got down to the serious business of planning our strategy. Concerning ourselves with maps and battle-plans, it became less strained and Rigenos was almost cheerful. We were in unison about what should be done. By now it was quite likely that Arjavh would be attempting to retake Paphanaal-and assuredly failing. Probably he would lay siege to it, but we could bring in supplies and weapons by ship and he would waste his time. Meanwhile, our expedition to the Ghost Worlds would attack Eldren positions there and, Roldero and Rigenos assured me, make it impossible for them to call on their halfling allies.

The plan, of course, depended on Arjavh's attacking Paphanaal.

'But he would have been already on his way when when we sailed in,' Rigenos reasoned. 'It would be pointless for him to turn back. What could he achieve by doing that?'

Roldero agreed. 'I think it's pretty certain that he'll concentrate on Paphanaal,' he said. 'Another two or three days and our fleets will be ready to sail again. We'll soon have the Outer Islands subdued, then we move on to Loos Ptokai itself. With luck, Arjavh will still have his main force concentrated on Paphanaal. By the end of this year, every Eldren position will have fallen to us.'

I was a trifle pessimistic about his over-confidence. I would give that to Katorn-he would have been less sure. I half wished, in fact, that Katorn was here. I respected his advice as a soldier and strategist.

And it was the next day, while we still pored over maps, that the news came.

It astonished us. It altered every plan we had made. It made nonsense of our strategy. It put us in a frightening position.

Arjavh, Prince of Mernadin, Ruler of the Eldren, had not attacked Paphanaal. A great proportion of our troops waited there to greet him, but he had not deigned to pay them a visit.

Perhaps he had never intended to march on Paphanaal.

Perhaps he had always planned to do what he had done now and it was we who were the dupes! Outmanoeuvred! Fooled!

'I said that the Eldren were clever,' said King Rigenos when we received the news. 'I told you, Erekose.'

'I believe you now,' I said softly, trying to grasp the enormity of what had happened.

'Now how do you feel about them, my friend?' Roldero said. 'Are you still divided?'

I shook my head. My loyalties lay with humanity. There was no time for conscience, no point in trying to understand these unhuman people. I had underestimated them and now it seemed that humanity itself might have to pay the price.

Eldren ships had beached on the coasts of Necralala, on the Eastern seaboard and reasonably close to Necranal. An Eldren army was pushing towards Necranal herself and, it was said, none could stand against it.

I cursed myself then. Rigenos-Katorn-Roldero-even lolinda-had all been right. I had been deceived by their golden tongues, their alien beauty.

And there was hardly a warrior in Necranal. Half our available force was in Paphanaal and it would take a month to bring them back. The fleet Eldren craft had probably crossed the ocean in half that time! We thought we had defeated their fleet at Paphanaal. We had only defeated a fraction of it!

There was fear on all our faces as we made hasty contingency plans.

'There's no point in recalling the troops in Paphanaal at this stage,' I said. 'By the time they got here the battle would have been decided. Send a fast messenger there, Roldero. Tell them what has happened and let Katorn decide his own strategy. Tell him I trust him.'

'Very well,' Roldero nodded. 'But our available warriors are scarce in number. We can get a few divisions by sending fast to Zavara. There are troops at Stalaco, Calodemia and some at Dratarda. Perhaps they can reach us in a week. Then we have some men at Shilaal and Sinana, but I hesitated to recommend their withdrawal…'

'I agree,' I said. 'The ports must be defended at all costs. Who knows how many other fleets the Eldren have?' I cursed. 'If only we had had some means of gathering intelligence. Some spies…'

'That's idle talk,' Roldero said. 'Who among our people could disguise himself as an Eldren? Who would be able to stomach their company long enough, for that matter.'

Rigenos said: 'The only large force we have is at Noonos. We'll have to send for them and pray that Noonos is not attacked in their absence.' He looked at me. 'This is not your fault, Erekose. I sympathise with you. We expected too much of you…'

'Well,' I promised him, 'you can expect more of me now, King Rigenos. I'll drive the Eldren back.'

Rigenos scowled thoughtfully. 'There's one thing we have to bargain with,' he said. 'The Eldren bitch-Arjavh's sister…'

And then an idea began to dawn on me. Arjavh's sister… We had thought that he must certainly march on Paphanaal and he had not. We had never expected him to invade Necralala. But he had. Arjavh's sister…

'What of her,' I said.

'Could we not use her in this way-tell Arjavh that if he does not retreat, we will slay her?'

'Would he trust us?'

'That depends on how much he loves his sister, eh?' King Rigenos grinned, his spirits rising. 'Yes. Try that, anyway, Erekose. But do not go to him in weakness. Take all the divisions you can muster.'

'Naturally,' I said. 'I have a feeling that Arjavh will not let sentiment stop him while there is a chance he can capture the capital.'

King Rigenos ignored this. Even I wondered about the truth of it, particularly since I was beginning to think there might be something more to Arjavh's decision.

King Rigenos put his hand on my shoulder. 'We have had our differences, Erekose. But now we are united. Go. Do battle with the Hounds of Evil. Win the battle. Kill Arjavh. This is your opportunity to strike the head from the monster that is the Eldren. And if battle seems impossible-use his sister to buy time for us. Be brave, Erekose, be cunning-be strong.'

'I will try,' I said. 'I will leave at once to rally the warriors at Noonos. I'll take all available cavalry and leave a small force of infantry and artillery to defend the city.'

'Do as you think fit, Erekose.'

I went back to our apartments and said farewell to lolinda. She had been full of sorrow.

I did not call on Ermizhad and tell her what we planned.