by Glen Cook
An Invincible shouted. Not one of those touched by a violet pellet, of course. Those would make no sound again, ever.
Still creating and releasing the killing pellets, Haroun crept forward... and found himself face to face with a giant in white. A giant not misled by his feeble spell of concealment. A scimitar howled down. Haroun hurled himself aside, stumbled into a low tent, tripped, scrambled into a shadow, crouched, stared back at the Invincible. The man lost him, but only for an instant. Scimitar raised, he charged.
Haroun drew his blade.
The camp was coming to life. Men shouted questions. In the circle guarded by Invincibles—a dozen of whom lay dead—tent flaps whipped open. Officers demanded reports. Haroun spotted a man who had to be el Nadim. He tried to unleash another lilac bead. But the giant was upon him again.
He blocked a stroke so strong his whole arm went numb.
The Invincible left himself open to a counterstroke, but Haroun hadn't the strength to deliver it.
Another blow fell. Haroun rolled with it. Again he could not take advantage of an opportunity. His weapon had been forced too far out of position.
Men shouted at his opponent, who shouted back.
The third stroke was as overwhelming as its predecessors. This time Haroun kicked as his blade was driven down and away. His toe connected with the giant's knee. The man staggered. He was slow getting his guard up. Haroun struck before he did so.
He whirled and ran a short way, banging bewildered warriors out of his way. He dived into a shadow behind a tent. The tent was unoccupied. He slithered under the fabric's edge.
The uproar grew. There were cries that the Wahlig was attacking. Men rushed to the stockade. As many ran hither and thither in panic. A very few sought the interloper who had slain the Disciple's guards.
The halloo moved away. Haroun peeped outside, saw no one. He crept out and slid from shadow to shadow, toward the Disciple's tent. He knew which it was now.
Behind him flames rose. In their panic some of the enemy had scattered a fire. Some tents had caught. The blaze was spreading.
The fallen Invincibles had been replaced. Haroun cursed. There was no way, now, that he could deliver the stroke he had been anticipating all day.
He would have to use the Power. He hadn't wanted to do that. He wanted the Disciple to see death coming, wanted the man to look into his eyes and recognize the boy from Al Rhemish. Wanted him to know who as well as why.
The lilac killer would not do. It would take the nearest Invincible, not a man cowering inside a tent. It had to be something else. His arsenal of petty magicks contained little that was apt. Again he cursed the chain of circumstance that had prevented his achieving his full potential as a shaghûn.
He selected a spell that would induce the symptoms of typhoid, ran through the chants softly, visualized the El Murid he recalled from Al Rhemish. He loosed the spell.
A cry of agony answered it.
Some Invincibles rushed to their master. And some rushed toward Haroun.
"What the hell is going on?" Haaken asked.
"I don't know," Bragi replied. "But he's sure got them stirred up."
"Maybe we ought to help. Maybe if they think they're under attack he can get out in the confusion."
Bragi doubted that. He had written Haroun off. The decision he faced was whether or not to rush back to el Aswad in hopes he hadn't been missed. It had to be too late. Might as well do some good here.
Some of the enemy were fleeing the camp. Within, the fires were spreading. Horses were making panic noises.
"All right. Let's go. Harass the ones running away. You guys with the bows. Shoot a few over the wall."
Alarms awakened Megelin Radetic. Groggy, he staggered from his cubicle, his seldom used sword dragging. A night attack? He hadn't anticipated that. It wasn't to the Disciple's advantage. The man merely needed to wear the defense down with hammerings like yesterday's.
He paused, listened. Plenty of people running around yelling, but no thunder. No crash of lightning striking the fortress. Maybe it wasn't an attack.
What, then?
He reached the north court to find it aboil with men rushing out the gate. He grabbed a soldier. "What's happening?" The man pulled away. So did the next he caught. Nobody wanted to spare a moment. Radetic dragged his weary bones to the ramparts.
The Disciple's camp was ablaze. Men were scurrying everywhere. Animals were stampeding with the men. There was fighting. The defenders of el Aswad were falling on their foes in a great disorderly rush. The anthill simile occurred to him. "Trite," he murmured.
It took Megelin just seconds to guess how it had started. "Haroun! You fool!" He panicked. His own Haroun... He practically threw himself off the wall in his haste to get down there.
The observer within was amused. The boy isn't your child, it said. He's only on loan to you.
Even so, his heart was ripped by fear that the boy had destroyed himself in some romantic scheme for rescuing his father's fortunes.
Bragi kept his men close together, unbroken by the human stampede. Two score bodies lay around them. The enemy was easy in this state.
A rabble from the fortress arrived, as disorganized as the foe, but with blood in their eyes. The area became a slaughter yard. Bragi urged his men toward the gateway.
Entering was easy. The enemy simply ran away or piled over the stockade. Guildsmen and the Wahlig's warriors followed Bragi's squad.
What now? Where to look? Haroun wanted the Disciple. El Murid's quarters should be near the center of camp. "This way. On the double." Haaken kept the men together while Bragi ran off to the right, skirting the fires. His squad left a trail of enemy injured. Wild-eyed horses proved a greater danger than enemy weapons.
Bragi found an aisle of encampment unthreatened by flames. He turned toward the camp's heart.
Haroun stifled a cry when the Invincibles slammed him to the earth at El Murid's feet. He spat at their chieftain. The man cuffed him.
"The Wahlig's brat, Lord."
"You're sure, Mowaffak?"
"The very one who attacked you in Al Rhemish."
"He was just a boy."
"That was a long time ago, Lord. He's learned more shaghûn tricks, it seems."
Haroun watched the Disciple's face darken. He compared it with the face he recalled. The man had aged beyond his years. He looked old. "You'd damn me when you use a fouler sorcery yourself?"
The Invincible hit him again. Blood filled his mouth. He bit down on the pain, spat scarlet on the man's robe. "Pig eater."
"You delude yourself. I use no sorcery." El Murid puffed up with offended dignity. "I call upon the might of the Lord, as vested in me by his angel."
"Somebody is deluding himself."
El Nadim arrived. "Lord, the camp is total chaos. The fires can't be contained. Guild soldiers are inside the stockade. We'd best get out."
The Disciple's face darkened further. "No."
"Lord!" Mowaffak snapped. "Be reasonable. This scum panicked the men. The enemy are upon us. We can't make a fight of it. It's get out or be destroyed. Now, before the panic infects the Invincibles."
El Nadim agreed. "We can rally the survivors on the road, then return." He exchanged a look with the Invincible.
Haroun caught it. Both knew there would be no second attempt on the fortress. This night would see their strength leeched. "None of you will escape," he gurgled. "You're dead men." Big talk. But maybe they would be destroyed. He heard the fighting now.
Agony lanced across the Disciple's features. Bodyguards rushed to support him. The Invincible captain snarled, "Get him onto a horse. Get everybody you can mounted. Riding double if you have to." He faced Haroun. "What did you do to him?"
Haroun said nothing.
The Invincible hit him. "What did you do?"
Haroun gritted his teeth and willed the pain away.
The blows fell steadily. The Invincible became workmanlike, telling him the pain would stop only when he un
did whatever he had done.
The minutes felt like hours. The pain got worse and worse. Only stubbornness kept Haroun from yielding.
An Invincible rushed up. "They're headed this way."
"How close?"
"Right behind me."
The captain dragged Haroun to his feet. "We'll take him along. Is the Lord safe?"
"They're leaving through the back way now, sir. The General and some of his men are with them."
"Help me carry him." Haroun hadn't the strength to support himself. He sagged between the men, his feet trailing in the dirt. He could not see well, now. Everything was out of focus, distorted and fire-tinted.
He was going to die. They would make him break the spell, then they would kill him...
He was not afraid. Despite the pain, he felt only triumph.
"There he is!" Bragi yelled. "The white robes have him. Let's go." He charged, bloody sword overhead.
One of the Invincibles looked back. His eyes widened. He ran. The other turned, assessed the situation, released Haroun and drew a dagger. He grabbed the youth's hair, pulled his head back for a throat slash.
Bragi threw his sword. It smacked the white robe's shoulder, doing no harm, but did foil the murder attempt.
Bragi went for the Invincible's legs. Haaken roared and wound up for a two-handed swordstroke. The white robe flung Haroun into their path. Bragi smashed into the youth. Haaken leapt over. The Invincible tripped him, flung the next Guildsman down atop him, sprinted into the night. Bragi's squadmates charged after him.
Bragi untangled himself. "What a mess. Haaken?"
"Right here."
"Look at this. They really worked him over."
"He asked for it. Better see if I can make a litter."
"Asked for it? You don't have a sympathetic bone in your body."
"Not for fools."
"Not that big a fool. He broke the siege." The fighting in the camp was slackening. The Disciple's men were fleeing. Had the Wahlig been able to mount a controlled pursuit none would have escaped. In the chaos, Hali and el Nadim rallied enough men to shield El Murid's withdrawal.
"That's two I owe you," Haroun croaked. Bragi and Haaken stood over him, flexing muscles tightened from carrying the litter.
"Yeah," Bragi grumbled. "Getting to be a habit."
"Here comes the old guy," Haaken whispered.
Radetic came puffing up, features oddly adance in the firelight. He dropped to his knees beside Haroun.
"Don't let the blood worry you," Bragi said. "They just slapped him around."
Haroun tried to grin. "I almost got him, Megelin. Stuck him with a spell, anyway. He's going to hurt a lot."
Radetic shook his head. Bragi said, "Let's get rolling. Hoist him up, Haaken."
Two riders came up, stared down. "Father," Haroun croaked.
"Haroun." The Wahlig eyed Radetic. "He start this, Megelin?"
"He did."
The Wahlig sucked spittle between his teeth. "I see." He considered Bragi and Haaken. "Aren't these the lads who brought him out of the pass?"
"The same. Making a career, aren't they?"
"So it would aeem. See to Haroun's injuries, then get their stories. And I'll want to talk to you once we're finished down here."
"As you will."
"Fuad. Let's go." The Wahlig and his brother rode on into the confusion.
"Can we go now?" Bragi asked.
"By all means." Megelin eyed Haroun, who could not conceal his trepidation. "It'll be all right, lad. But you did get out of hand. Just as you did at Al Rhemish."
Haroun forced a laugh. "Didn't have a choice."
"That's debatable. Nevertheless, it turned out well. Assuming we save your teeth. I hope you have it out of your system now."
"What?"
"The rebellion. The foolishness. You're young. You have a lot of years left, if you don't squander them. These lads won't always be around."
Haroun closed his eyes, shivered. He had been a fool, throwing himself in like he was one of El Murid's Invincibles, with never a thought to how he would get away. There were a lot of tomorrows, and through thoughtlessness he'd nearly squandered his share. He owed the northerners more than he had realized.
Megelin scowled.
"Well?" the Wahlig demanded.
Radetic looked at Hawkwind. The General's leathery countenance remained blank. His vote was "present," nothing more. Megelin considered Fuad. The Wahlig's brother was abubble with rage. He had an ally there, but he and Fuad made a pathetic marriage of purpose.
Megelin recalled an instructor who had intimidated him terribly in his youth. It had taken him a decade to conquer his unreasoning fright. And only then had he been able to analyze what the man had done. He adopted the fellow's method now.
"For more years than I care to recall I have slaved thanklessly in this armpit of the world." Excessive ferocity and bombast were the keys, accompanied by exaggerated gestures and body movement. These wakened the father-fear in one's listeners. "Time and again have you asked my advice. Time and again have you ignored it. Time and again have I prepared to return home, only to have my will thwarted. I have fought for you. I have suffered for you. I have wasted a career for you. I have endured ceaseless, senseless humiliation at the hands of your family and men. All for the sake of salvaging a rockpile in the middle of nowhere, a rockpile that protects a godforsaken wasteland, inhabited only by barbarians, from the predations of bandits whose mercies the land most assuredly deserves."
His blood was rising, responding to years of frustration. "How many hundreds, nay, how many thousands of men have lost their lives over this abomination upon a hill? I have grown old here. Old before my time. Your sons have grown up here, made ancient by endless hatred and treachery and war. And now you want to abandon the place to the Disciple. For shame!"
Radetic planted himself in front of the Wahlig, fists on hips. He almost grinned. Even Fuad was shaken by his fury. "What have we lived for? What have we died for? If we go now, have we not wasted all those years and sacrifices?"
"We fought for an ideal, Megelin." Yousif's voice was soft and tired. "And we lost. The Disciple did not overthrow us physically. We ran him off again. But the ideal lies dead beneath his heel. The tribes are deserting us. They know where the strength lies, where the future lies. With the man we couldn't kill. With the man who, in a few weeks, will command hordes eager to swarm over our broken walls to plunder our homes, defile our women and murder our children. There is nothing we can do here—unless we want to die valiantly in a lost cause, like the knights in your western romances."
Megelin could not sustain his anger in the face of the truth. He and Fuad were being stubborn out of sentiment and pride. Death could be the lone reward for harkening to either. The Wahligate was lost in all but name.
Yousif continued, "Things aren't yet hopeless up north. Aboud opened his eyes enough to see the need for the General. Maybe reports from his own men, who have seen the enemy, will widen the crack in the wall around his reason. He still commands the strength and faith of the kingdom—if he'd just use them."
Torment and despair muddied the Wahlig's words, pain he would never confess. The decision to flee had cost him. It may have broken him as a man.
"You'll have your will, Lord. I haven't the strength to deny it. But I fear you'll find more heartbreak in Al Rhemish. There's nothing else to say. I must pack. It would be a sin if my labors of years were destroyed by ignorant fools in white."
For an instant torment controlled the Wahlig. His face reflected the horrors of hell. But he steadied himself, like the great lord he was. "Go, then, teacher. I'm sorry I've been a disappointment."
"Not that, Wahlig. Not ever." Radetic surveyed the others. Hawkwind remained inscrutable. Fuad was a study in inner conflict, an almost trite portrait of a man compelling himself to remain silent.
"Megelin," Yousif called as Radetic neared the door. "Travel with Haroun. I have very little else left."
Rade
tic nodded, stamped out.
"There you go," Kildragon said. "March all the way from High Crag, forced march, killing ourselves, so we can save this dump, and what do we do? Walk away. Why do they always let the morons do the military planning?"
"Listen to the old strategist," Haaken mocked. "He don't have sense enough to hold his spot in the line, but he knows better than the General and Haroun's old man, who've only been leading armies since before he was a twinkle in his father's eye."
"Keep it down," Bragi said. "We're supposed to be sneaking out of here."
"With all this racket? You could probably hear these wagons four miles away, they're making so much noise."
The Wahlig's horsemen had ridden out at nightfall, several hours earlier, in hopes of scouring the area of enemy spies. Now the main column was under way. The Guildsmen would guard its rear. The Wahlig hoped his getaway would not be noticed till he could not be overhauled.
"Ragnarson."
Bragi faced Lieutenant Sanguinet. "Sir?"
"Too much noise from your crowd. Tell Kildragon to keep it down or I'll leave him for the jackals."
"Yes sir. I'll gag him if I have to, sir."
That should have been it. But Sanguinet remained rooted, staring. Bragi began to wilt. Once the man finally did leave, Bragi told Haaken, "He knows. He has to pretend he don't on account of if he doesn't he'll have to do something about it. Even if we did save the Wahlig's kid. We're going to be walking on eggs. He'll be looking to get us on something else. Reskird, you better pretend you never learned to run your mouth."
"What did I do? I just said what everybody is thinking."
"Everybody else has sense enough to keep it to themselves. Let's move out." Bragi left el Aswad and never looked back. A glance over his shoulder would have been a glance into his past, and he did not want to rue his decision to enlist. A fool's decision, that, but he was here now, and he was of that stubborn sort which insists on enduring the consequences of its acts.
Looking ahead, he saw nothing promising. He expected to shed his life's blood somewhere on the sand of this savage, alien, incomprehensible land.
Haroun did look back. He had no choice. The litter he rode, despite insisting he could ride a horse, faced the castle.
