In this last respect the enemy too had had some success. He had created in each kingdom a subject army large enough to dominate the populace, at least in the major cities and towns.
The new temples, however, with their promise, was th« prime enemy weapon… . The priests, interestingly enough, were drawn mainly from renegade sorcerers and warlocks; men whom we’d been unable to recruit. They’d been given a book, supposedly of holy writ. This book told of the one god, the only-god, Diis, to be called by all, the Unseen One. Diis, it was explained, was everywhere and in all things (the pattern was all too familiar). He was the creator and the taker of life. To worship Diis was to accept the concept that Fregisians could again aspire to the heights from which then forefathers had fallen as the result of some great and unmentionable sin. The promise was that the day would come when their piety and service to Diis would grant them a return—if not collectively, then at least individually—to that pantheon of greatness. In the meantime the priest-sorcerers of Diis would be the purveyors of his word; though the true go-betweens would be the immortal angels, the sky lords; i.e., the Alphians!
The central temple, of course—and it was now under construction—would be in Glagmaron City in Marack. It was to be the site of the physical body of Diis—the abode of the blue sphere!
On the plus side, and despite this apparent consolidation of Alphian power, there had been many victories for the five kingdoms. A singular part of these, I was told, had been inspired, by the “Collin’s” return and his seizure of the temple of Ormon in the very heart of Glagmaron City. More! The villages and towns now rang with the name of Fel-Holdt, Marack’s Lord Commander of the armies, and the enchantress, the Lady Elioseen, sister to King Caronne. And, to fur-flier plague the Alphians, it was now known everywhere that Fel-Holdt’s H.Q., great Castle Gortfin, had simply vanished from Marack and the world, though the enemy sought it every day, and failed.
Fel-Holdt himself outlined the implementation of the strategy so far, and the tactics used.
With rare exception all villages were held by us. Traffic, in the form of merchants’ caravans and the like, plus the entourages of those lords who’d taken the “white tab”, even companies of the sky lord’s troops, were generally denied the high roads. All were attacked. A goodly hah7 had already been destroyed. Moreover, those who would camp at night to await the day for travel, would find themselves magicked and terrorized by the phantom images of wraithlike dead-alives—all ringing them in!
As for the Alphians themselves, well, wherever they rode, to inspect their domain, as it were, there clouds formed and rain, snow and hail fell in prodigious quantities. Wherever sky lords camped to picnic, a dank mist came. The water of a previously sparkling stream would turn brackish, its taste akin to raw sewage. No birds would sing for the sky lords; nor was there game for their weapons. Food, too, in any town or village, could only sicken them. What they had thought to enjoy had, in essence, become anathema.
I learned too that of the five ships, just three seemed active. This did not mean that the remaining two were incapable of lift-off, though the possibility of such was there. As Hooli’s description of them had indicated, they obviously knew how to operate a ship. But, if a servo-mechanism failed for whatever reason, and was incapable of repairing itself, well, that was the end of the mechanism. The Alphians knew absolutely nothing as to the actual workings of anything… . Which led me to wonder about the possibility of disabling all of the ships without actually doing so—just turning them off, as it were. Matter-to-energy conversions, a la Elioseen, should work as easily in putting a man inside a skyship as it did in putting us in a square in Glagmaron City.
The key to it all was still the question of the sphere and its relationship to the Alphians. Since Hooli had essentially refused any solid data in this respect, I had no recourse but to continue to do everything in a way not to attract the sphere’s attention. At the last moment, of course, we would do what we had to do; hopefully, we would knock out the Alphians and the sphere!
For the moment, then, we would continue to do only that which seemed feasible, while continuing to study the weak points that the struggle would surely disclose. As Fel-Holdt put it: We were halfway there. The sky lords controlled half the country by day. Marack and its magick controlled all of it at night!
While listening with pleasure to these facts, I’d noted a face in the group which, though familiar, still seemed a bit odd. His clothes were like those of most young lords, excepting that he wore a purple flat-cap to jauntily cover one eye. It was precisely that eye, merrily winking, that caught me as I turned to make some remark to Rawl… . The eye was brown!
I hesitated, peered sharply. Bloody Jesu! I arose and with hands on hips and a grin wide enough to span a tappimelon, said, “Well, now. I see, sirs, that with my death, you’ve at least recruited a good man to take my place. May I greet my good friend of the lost ship Deneb? I promptly stepped down to grasp Kriloy in a firm embrace; for it was Kriloy! He’d dared to follow through, so I later learned; had actually picked up and delivered the Ferlachian and Gheesian sorcerers, as well as those of Kelb on his own and, in the face of my possible death, had volunteered the scoutship in certain other tasks.
I said simply, “Good to have you aboard, junior.”
He shrugged, grinned. “Something to do on a rainy day.”
Prior to dinner, and with most of my well-wishers drifting away so that, excepting Fel-Holdt, Kriloy and Elioseen, the only ones left were my companions of the attack on the temple, I quietly broached the subject of the danger to Murie and Caroween and the need to free them immediately. Not a one of them questioned me as to my sources, excepting Kriloy, who did so with his eyes.
Rawl grew pale at my words, and actually ground his teeth in rage.
“I propose,” I told them bluntly, “to move on this at once and with a minimum of fanfare. To attack a temple within a city is one thing. To attack within a castle is another. Secrecy, under the tightest of circumstances, is seldom kept for long. As we have spies within the ranks of the enemy, be sure that he has spies in ours. There are always those who will sell themselves or their country for money or power.
Fel-Holdt, that grim old warrior, frowned darkly at this, telling me in swift rebuttal that security was tighter than it had ever been.
“Agreed,” I told him. “Among those you control. But I speak of witches, warlocks and sorcerers, who are a breed apart What of your magick workers, my lady?” I asked of Elioseen. “Can you honestly vouch for them all?”
She frowned. “Nay, Collin, I cannot But if magick of any kind is at work upon these premises, I’ll surely know it”
I took the opportunity, to question her. “What of Glagmaron Castle? Does it function in an orderly way? Are there nightly feasts, a gathering where the new elite can mingle with the sky lords? And is there any kind of court held during the day?”
Her reply held the slightest trace of anger. “You are indeed recovered, my lord. You ask too much. To watch them that closely is not an easy task.”
“But you do check from time to time?”
“I do.”
“Then my question?”
“There’s feasting every night as usual. As for holding court, there’s no such formality.”
“Not even council?”
“If ‘tis done, it takes place within their ship. They have been seen to take Marackians and priests aboard.”
“What of your mirror? Is the ship safe from its prying eye?”
“There’s an aura beyond which we cannot penetrate. And we’ve yet to come up with the proper sounds.” She laughed then, amused, sensing my unspoken thoughts. “Nor will we be able to spirit you aboard until we do. The problem’s a hard one.”
“But you can put us in the castle?” The question was rhetorical, or so I thought.
“Nay, Collin. We cannot We risked too much the first time. You saw the condition of those of our coven before you, yourself, were struck down. Two died, sir, w
hile you were ill. Also, and this is the more important since we’ve accepted the risks as soldiers of Marack: At the time of the temple attack, we almost failed the lot of you, twice! To fail now, when there’s a chance to hold and then to win, would be terrible indeed. For you and your comrades to be lost now, to say nothing of the royal family who would perish with you, would be a disaster the like of which I doubt we’d survive.”
“Well now,” I exclaimed glumly, “there speaks an objective mind. I salute you my lady.”
Her great eyes had filmed with tears so that I marveled at her intensity. But even as I’d spoken, a sudden strobe flash of the hidden tunnel down the three-hundred-foot cliff of Glagmaron’s base prompted me to say, “But there’s still a way, my lady, if you can do just two things: keep us within your mirror’s sight from the first moment of sup and wassail to the last; and, at a given signal, materialize as many swords and shields in midair as we will need. If you fail in this, ‘tis true that we’ll most likely die. But if we win, why then, my lady, I’m bound to think that Marack will soon be rid of all its pestiferous ‘angels’.”
All of them seemed ecstatic.
“You think to use the passageway?” Fel-Holdt, his eyes alight with the adventure he immediately envisioned, seemed suddenly half his age. I knew he’d give his soul to go with us.
“I do.”
“Both ways, coming and going,” Gen-Rondin put in solidly. For he knew, as did we all, that that was the only way it could be….
Except that it wasn’t.
Rawl—his honest eyes had been screwed up painfully so that I knew he’d been thinking hard—spoke swiftly to Fel-Holdt. “My lord,” he said, “our Kelbian ambassador reported three armed parties of merchants, new priests and the like to be on the road for Glagmaron. They no doubt ride with the permission of the sky lords, and will thus be received within the castle on arrival. As the ambassador put it, the first group should arrive at Glagmaron tonight. The second, with luck, will make it at the fifteenth hour tomorrow; the third and last, tomorrow night. “Now how would it be,” and he turned to me with a hard gleam in his eyes—blood still flecked his lips where he’d silently bitten them at my news of Caroween’s peril—”if our men in the area are ordered to attack the second group, and to slay them all? Then we, old comrade, will join the third and last group as the sole survivors of the second, the brave merchant remnants who dared defend themselves against the bandits and murderers led by the evil Collin and the mad Gen-Rondin.”
His suggestion got a solid round of applause.
I joined in their enthusiasm. “It’s good,” I said, exuberantly, deliberately building on their fervor. “We’ll do it! We’ll need to disguise ourselves, in any event. And what better way than to adopt the faces and the purses of those already expected? We’ll take their gear, dottles and goods—along with the guild blazonry of those we most resemble.”
Elioseen had yet to reply to my request that she supply us with weapons. I chose the moment to again dwell upon the danger to Murie and Caroween. Again, none questioned me as to how I knew this, for I, too, in their minds, was a wizard; though my magick, inclusive of that of my new surrogate, the friendly sky lord, Kriloy, was simply but totally beyond their ken.
I’d sensed that Elioseen did know somewhat of the plight of our two ladies; for when I’d described the need and the form such a rescue should take, I could not help but feel that knowledge in her steady gaze.
She said finally to my previous question: “There’ll be no problem with your swords and such, Lord Collin. But there could be problems elsewhere. You may gain entry to the castle, win your battle, and even flee safely with my niece and her friend. But, sirs! How will you return to Gortfin within an acceptable period? You must admit, Collin, that this is not the time to absent yourself from council. There’s heavy fighting now in all the kingdoms. Draslich, Chitar, the lords of Kelb and Great Ortmund, depend upon you. You must know that we had not, indeed, dared not tell them of what we thought was your impending death. Obviously, had you died, we would have told them; tonight, as a matter of fact, if such had been the case. But surely you can see the problem.”
Fel-Holdt said strongly, “Tis true, my lord. Our friendly enemies have done and will do things in the field {hat they would not do if they knew that you were somehow no longer at the helm with the rest of us. And, as our lady says, the next few days can be critical.”
Elioseen picked it up. “Marack, Sir Collin, can scarce afford to have you wandering in the forest, or anywhere else at such a time.”
Puzzled, I objected, “But my lady, you have the mirror. I can be contacted.”
“Again, ‘tis not that simple. One finds Glagmaron City with the mirror, and then moves from there. One traces the line of a road to find those who ride on it. To find someone just anywhere is at best extremely difficult. What we need, my lord, is a point of departure, a general plan—a map of the course you’ll take….”
I smiled wryly. “And if I know not that course?”
“Well, there’s the problem.”
But there was no problem, really; at least the kind they were concerned with. I turned to Kriloy, winked and said, ” Tis that my comrade here will do the job. We’ll use our own skyship to pick us up, the one we would have used to get us there and back had we not decided to travel with Kelb’s merchants.”
I stared solemnly at Kriloy, and waited.
Startled, caught off balance, he could only nod and mumble. “Hell, Kyrie. Of course. Why not?” But he’d swallowed hard. The shadow of fear again touched his eyes. Sir Dosh, and he’d been looking straight at Kriloy, saw it, and turned instantly to me. But I ignored his warning eyes, pretending that I’d seen nothing.
“What our Lord Fel-Holdt and our Lady Elioseen are suggesting,” I said soberly, “and rightly so, is that the risk may be too big for the effort. Normally, I’d agree. In this case, however, I sense the presence of an outside force that has aided us in the past. I’ve a strong feeling that parallel developments beyond our knowledge require out being precisely there and engaged in exactly such an attempt so as to exploit our potential victory in other ways—should these developments mature. In all of this, comrades, you will have to trust me. For one thing, you must know by now that I am not a fool. I will, however, since my reasons may still seem more personal than objective, ask only those with a similar interest in the matter to accompany me. … These are: Sir Fergis, Caroween’s betrothed, Sir Alten Dosh, her brother. And,” I smiled grimly, “Sir Lors Seraas, to keep him from any serious trouble during our absence.”
“My lord,” Gen-Rondin instantly spoke up, his blue eyes . twinkling in his heavy, florid face, “I’m not to be put aside, sir, like a used but ugly chambermaid. Moreover, other than your suggested force’ and its supposed actions on our behalf—and, might I add that I’m pleased to learn of its existence—I say that there’s still sufficient priority for such an attempt. You yourself, my lord Collin, together with our Princess Murie Nigaard Caronne, will eventually be the royal house. None can deny that. So I, too, will come with you—to guarantee that fact.”
Our three students—they’d been allowed at my death-watch, and had been with us all the afternoon—fell to their knees before Fel-Holdt. These were Rogas and Tadee, both excellent swordsmen, dottle handlers and trainers, and Kodder, a young would-be warrior-chief, for he dearly admired the many ways to prepare and serve gog steaks and chitty-greens. At five-by-five feet of solid bone and muscle, his fighting style was the strangest ever; indeed, it had been Kodder’s faldirk that had joined with Sernas’s to slice the sky lord’s throat in the square of the temple. Now they piteously beseeched Fel-Holdt that they be allowed to accompany us, pleading that they had fought hard at the temple and had damned well earned the honor.
Fel-Holdt, glowering at first like an unamused head waiter, shrugged finally, winked and agreed. He then turned to me.
“A last question in two parts, my lord: How can you possibly counter those weapons th
at the sky lords carry; especially since there will not be just two this tune, but a roomful; and now can eight swords win against such odds as you will find there?”
I smiled. “Hopefully, it will be like this: First, I’ve a means to cancel the power of their weapons. Second, we have two of their weapons which can be used, though as a last resort only since I’ve no desire to taunt the real power, the sphere into action. That we are but eight, well, so be it. Tis not my purpose, sirs, to take on the whole garrison. Well seat ourselves as closely as possible to the exit corridor for the royal chambers. It is within that corridor, so I understand, that the door to the secret passage can be found. It is there too that the sliding door, built to block all access to the king’s chambers, can be used to block pursuit. Depending upon the time and the circumstances, we have but to take our ladies, and the king and queen, too, if they so desire, and make a running fight for that corridor…. ‘Tis not impossible.”
The Magick of Camelot Page 18
