The Horse Barbarians

19

Temuchin sprang suddenly into the camach, his drawn sword ready in his hand.

“Reveal yourself!” he cried. “My guard lies outside, struck down. Reveal yourself, spy, so that I may kill you.”

A hooded figure stepped from the darkness into the flickering light of the oil lamp and Temuchin raised his sword. Jason threw back the fur so his face could be seen.

“You!” Temuchin said in a hollow voice, and the sword slipped from his fingers to the ground. “You cannot be here. I killed you with these hands. Are you ghost or demon?”

“I have returned to help you, Temuchin. To open an entire new world to your conquest.”

“A demon, that you must be, and instead of dying, you returned home through Hell’s Doorway and gained new strength. A demon of a thousand guises, that explains how you could trick and betray so many peopie. The jongleur thought you were an off — wonder. The Pyrrans thought you were one of their tribe. I thought you a loyal comrade who would help me.”

“That’s a fine theory. You believe what you want. Then listen to what I have to tell you.”

“No! If I listen, I am damned.” He grabbed up the sword. Jason talked fast before he had to battle for his life.

“There are caves opening from the valley you call Hell’s Doorway. They don’t go to hell, but they lead down to the lowlands. I went there and returned by boat to tell you this. I can show you the way. You can lead an army through those caves and invade the lowlands. You rule here now, and you can rule there as well. A new continent to conquer. And you are the only man who could possibly do it.”

Temuchin lowered the sword slowly and his eyes blazed in the firelight. When he spoke, his voice was hushed, as though he were speaking only to himself.

“You must be a demon, and I cannot kill that which is already dead. I could drive you from me, but I cannot drive your words from my head. You know, as no living man knows, that I am empty. I nile these plains and that is the end of it. What pleasure in ruling? No wars, no conquests, no joy of seeing one’s enemy fall and marching on. Alone, by day and night I have dreamed about those rich meadows and towns below the cliffs. How even gunpowder and great armies could not stand against my warriors. How we would surprise them, flank them, besiege their cities. Conquer.”

“Yes, you could have all that, Temuchin. Lord of all this world.”

In the silence the lamp sputtered, tossing shadows of the two men to and fro. When Temuchin spoke again, there was resolve in his voice.

“I will have that, even though I know the price. You want me, demon, to take me to your hell below the mountains. But you shall not have me until I have conquered all.”

“I’m no demon, Temuchin.”

“Do not mock me. I know the truth. What the jongleurs sing is true, though I never believed it before. You have tempted me, I have accepted, I am damned. Tell me the hour and manner of my death.”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Of course not. You are bound as I am bound.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know how it was meant. By accepting all, I lose all. There is no other way. But I will have it like that. I will win first. That is true, demon, you will allow that?”

“Of course, you will win, and—”

“Tell me no more. I have changed my mind. I do not wish to know the manner of my end.” He shook his shoulders as though to remove some unseen weight, then thrust his sword back into the slings at his waist.

“All right, believe what you will. Just give me some good men and I’ll open up the passage to the lowlands. A rope ladder will get us into the valley. I’ll mark the route and take them through the caves to prove that it can be done. Then the next time we do it, the army will follow. Will they go-down there?”

Temuchin laughed. “They have sworn to follow me to hell if I order it and now so they wilL They will follow.”

“Good. Shall we shake on that?”

“Of course! I will take the world and win eternity in hell, so I have no fear of your cold dead flesh now, my demon.”

He crushed Jason’s hand in his and, despite himself, Jason could not help but admire the giant courage of the man.