by Robert Adams
“For nearly one hundred years now, Sam, the bulk of the truly effective troops in the armies of the Ehleenee states has been of you and your kind. To your credit, your people have learned from us, learned selectively though. You have taken the good grain that we were and rightly discarded the poisonous chaff that we are become. Could your people but unite, you could easily sweep all this coast clear of the useless parasites called Ehleenee, regain your ancient holdings, and — pray God — prove yourselves better masters of land and peoples than those you dispossess. For long have I said that your folk needed but a strong and resolute leader, perhaps this man you name, this western barbarian with his uncanny battle-skill, he whom our friend Hwil Kuk now serves, is the man I have prophesied and you have awaited.
“In any case, I think that, can it be arranged, we four should quickly meet with him and decide for ourselves whether to enlist in his service.”
The three mercenaries exhibited broad smiles. “You will join us then, Lord Alexandros?” queried Djeen Mai anxiously. “You will be our strahteegos once again?”
Lord Alexandros smiled. “Why, of course, I’ve been champing at the bit, since first I laid eyes upon you all again.”
17
Within a fortnight of Lord Alexandros’ fateful meeting with his three old friends, the god-haunted ruins of Lintchburk were beginning to come to life again. His ready acceptance of the proffered generalship had been all that was required to send messengers at the gallop north, south, east and west. Their guarded communications had been whispered into just the proper ears, ears which had been awaiting such a communication for nearly five years.
And the word spread like wildfire. In ones and twos and dozens and occasional scores, old soldiers — those who remembered and some who had only heard — dodged roving bands of Horseclansmen or probing patrols of Karaleenee to ride or tramp into the growing camp. But there were more. Before the new moon, Rahdnee, Prince of Ashbro, rode in with two hundred troopers, apologizing that he could not bring more, but the bulk of his fighting men were already contracted to the High Lord of Karaleenos and their contracts would not expire for six months yet. The next large arrival was that of a contingent of veteran mercenaries — one and one-half thousands of heavy infantry, the mercenaries of Djim Brawuh, dusty and tired from over two weeks of forced marches, which had brought them from the vicinity of Pitzburk. These were put to immediate work, training the spear-levy caliber peasants who kept wandering in — all having heard of Lord Alexandros’ resurgence and drawn by the undimmed luster of his name and fame.
By the time that Hwil Kuk arrived to emotionally greet his old strahteegos and conduct him, Djeen Mai, and Sam Tchartuhz to Green-Walls and a meeting with Milo Moral, the well-built castra had become home to some thirty hundreds of foot and nearly eighteen hundreds of cavalry. The nomads with Kuk’s escort were visibly impressed.
* * *
“Understand,” said Milo, “that my last contact with the Ehleenee was some two hundred years ago, and that was with the North Ehleenee, not with these people. If I’m to deal with this man — and, along with Hwil Kuk, you seem almost in awe of this Alexandros, dear wife — I’ll want to know as much as is possible about him.”
Mara drew a puff from the stem of her jeweled pipe. “My love, before the chaos which resulted from the Great Earthquake, all these lands — from the barbarian kingdoms a few days’ ride north of here to the very borders of the ill-omened Witch Kingdom — was one domain called Kehnooryos Ehlas; the Ehleenee with whom you lived were, even then, a separate state and the Sea Islands had not yet been settled.
“Though located upon the Blue River, the capital of this huge realm, Kehnooryos Atheenahs, was only some twenty miles from the sea. It was all but obliterated and thousands of its population died when the first huge wave struck in the middle of the night. Of the entire ruling family, only the High Lord and two of his sons survived the disaster — and they, only because at the time of the calamity, they happened to be campaigning in the mountains with their troops; his second wife and two younger sons, also, because they were in a villa near here.
“It was weeks before the High Lord and his forces could win back to the location of the capital. Passes had been partially or completely blocked, rivers had changed their courses, inland cities had been shaken down, and almost every coastal city had been drowned. Stretches of coastline had sunk many feet, creating the Salt Fens of today, and much of the richest and most productive farmland in the realm had been rendered sterile by saltwater. More than nine-tenths of the then sizable fleet was destroyed and the only army left was the twelve thousand or so who had been campaigning with the High Lord.
“Then in his early forties, Pavlos of the House of Pahpahs was a man of tremendous vitality and purpose and, had he lived longer, he might have held his shattered realm together despite all that had happened and all that was to come. He established his military headquarters in the relatively undamaged area some fifty miles up the Blue River from the ruins of Kehnooryos Atheenahs at the place where the river ceased to be generally navigable — the Kehnooryos Atheenahs of today occupies that same site. There, he began to gather together the salvage of this portion of the realm, began to reorganize the government and reestablish lines of communication with the other provinces.
“Most members of the hereditary ruling families of Karaleenos and the Southern Province had been extirpated along with their capital cities, both of which had been located on the ocean coast, lacking the relative protection of headlands and bays and rivermouths enjoyed by Kehnooryos Atheenahs. The disaster had taken place a month or so prior to harvest time, so — in addition to the chaos resulting from a total breakdown of the central authority and ever more punishing raids by the mountain barbarians — the gaunt specter of starvation was approaching with the winter.
“It only required some three months for Pavlos to restore some semblance of order to the capital and its province. When it was secured, he left it under the coregency of his young second wife and one of his ablest strahteegoee, Vikos Pohtahmas; he left them half his army, and he and his two sons marched south with the other half, reinforced by two thousand mountain barbarian horsemen — these being the first mercenaries ever hired by an Ehleenee lord — who were with his army not so much because he felt he needed them, as because he preferred to have them with him than behind him.
“He marched right through Karaleenos, leaving only Hamos, his youngest adult son and a thousand troops at Kehnooryos Theevahs to establish a temporary capital and do what they could to re-institute some semblance of order. This was necessary because the Southern Province — the largest and, formerly, by far the richest of his principality — was being severely menaced from two sides. Within three months of his arrival, Pavlos cornered and exterminated no less than five barbarian hosts, each as large as or larger than his own! By late winter, the Southern Province was secure in all ways and well along the road to complete recovery. So, he left Petros Eespahnohs, another of his strahteegoee, as trial-lord and marched back to Karaleenos.
“Once in Karaleenos, he discovered why he had never been sent a messenger by his son and why none of his messengers bad ever returned. Hamos Pahpahs, twenty-two and head strong, cocksure of Ehleenee arms and his own prowess and abilities, had over-ridden the advice and objections of older and wiser heads and allowed himself and his small command to be tricked into open battle against far superior barbarian forces and annihilated, less than a month after his father had left him. When Pavlos arrived, the few strong points still holding out were under constant and heavy siege by the barbarians and over most of the devastated province, Ehleenee were being hunted like rabbits by troops of whooping barbarian horsemen. Memories of this time is why barbarians, and especially horse-barbarians, are so hated and ill-used by the Ehleenee today.
“If his campaign in the south had been a whirlwind one, what he did in Karaleenos could be likened to the speed and destruction of a tornado! Not content with simply driving the barbari
ans back into their mountains and hills and swamps, he and his avenging army pursued them, slew them and their families, and burned or pulled down their hovels and villages and forts. Such havoc did they wreak that full many a barbarian kingdom or principality required two or three generations to recover and some never did! Only one of the nearer barbarian domains escaped — Ashbro, the principality from which Pavlos’ two thousand mercenaries had been hired — and, seeing what had been done to his neighbors, the Prince of Ashbro was more than happy to sign a long-term treaty with this terrible Ehleen. Pavlos selected a site for a new capital for Karaleenos and left his eldest son, Philos, as regent, along with the survivors of his two thousand mercenaries and another thousand of his Ehleenee troops, leaving himself a force of just over two thousand veterans.
“He arrived back in the new Kehnooryos Atheenahs almost six months to the day from the date he had quitted it to find his wife about five months pregnant, conditions in Kehnooryos Ehlas even worse than they had been when he left, the army racked by desertions and mutinies, and the treacherous Vikos Pohtahmas to have decamped with all that was left of the treasury.
“The steadying influences of his and his veterans’ arrival and presence settled the bulk of the army’s problems overnight. It did not take him long to discover the paternity of his wife’s bastard, and but a little more to learn that Vikos Pohtahmas was in Petropolis, attempting to repair and refurbish a partially wrecked ship in which to flee. With the speed of the swooping falcon, he and two hundred of his veterans were in Petropolis and had taken Vikos and his followers and the stolen treasury.
“Hardly had he and his prisoner returned to Kehnooryos Atheenahs, however, when he received word that three barbarian kinglets and their armies were in coalition and despoiling the northern themes of his capital’s domain; whereupon, he had Vikos’ eyes burned out and threw him into the new city’s jail, had all his officers and men swear loyalty to the young twin sons his second wife had borne him before she became adulterous, then marched out to his death.
“In the fury of the first charge, a barbarian’s arrow pierced his breast-mail, but few observed and he plucked it out with a jest on the lack of strength of barbarian bows. He led two more charges before he crashed from his chariot, dead. After completing the slaughter, his men marched back to Kehnooryos Atheenahs, bearing his body.
“When informed of his father’s death, Philos, leaving his new wife in Kehnooryos Theevahs, rode to claim his patrimony. He was duly installed as High Lord and was on the point of sending for his bride, when he was mysteriously poisoned. At this, a clique of strahteegoee took over. Their first step was to have the blind prisoner, Vikos, strangled, then they imprisoned Pavlos’ unfaithful wife in seclusion — they were loath to kill her openly, but fully intended doing so, should her bastard prove a son.
“Next, they designated themselves regents for Alexandros and Nikos, Pavlos’ twin sons, then aged seven years, and right well they ruled. Philos’ bride bore a son, six months after his death, him the regents confirmed as Lord of Karaleenos, despite his tender years and he was the direct ancestor of Zenos, the present Lord.
“Pavlos’ widow’s bastard was a female and so, rather than slaying her, the regents simply banished her and her spawn, regardless of her plea that the child had been gotten on her in rape. They felt that there was division enough in the empire without adding one more dissident element in the form of a girl, marriage to whom might give some ruthless and ambitious man ideas. When
“Alexandros was eighteen, he was confirmed as High Lord and the regents gracefully stepped back into the position of advisers. He was married to a female of the ruling house of the Southern Province, whose loyalty had become rather shaky after Pavlos’ death. For all else that he was and was not, Alexandros was a first-class stud! By the time it became frighteningly obvious that he was too mentally and emotionally erratic to rule, he had sired three legitimate and the gods alone know how many illegitimate children, most of them sons. He was not quite twenty-three when he fell in a battle against the mountain barbarians.
“Now, Milo, allow me to explain something. Among the Ehleenee, inheritance is strictly by primogeniture, the oldest son, no matter how unfit he may be, falling heir to everything. Pavlos had had four sons: Philos, Hamos, Alexandros and Nikos. Hamos died before his father. Upon Pavlos’ death, Philos was confirmed as High Lord, though murdered shortly thereafter; so, by law and custom, his son, not his younger brothers should have fallen successor to him. But the regents had — for a number of very laudable and highly practical reasons — circumvented law and custom some fifteen years prior to Alexandros’ death. While Nikos — who wanted confirmation as High Lord, not simply as regent until the majority of Alexandros’ oldest son, Pavlos, then aged three years — was disputing with the aging strahteegoee, who had been regents for Alexandros, a messenger arrived from Kehnooryos Theevahs bearing a communication which struck with the impact of a thunderbolt.”
18
“When the Lady Petrina — she who had been the wife of the High Lord, Pavlos — had been exiled, all had assumed that she had journeyed to Kehnooryos Mahkedohnya in the north as she was a noblewoman of that land. Such, however, had not been the case. A branch of her house resided in Karaleenos and to them she had flown, to reside there for nearly fifteen years, she and her bastard daughter. Not quite a year before Alexandros’ death, Lady Petrina took seriously ill and, when she realized that she was dying, she had her relatives send for Paiohnia, widow of Pavlos’ son, Philo, and mother to Zenos — he who had at birth been confirmed Lord of Karaleenos by the strahteegoee-regents. In return for a promise that the Lady Paiohnia would take in and provide for her bastard daughter, Lady Petrina gave her certain information and swore her Death Oath as to its veracity. On the basis of this information, Zenos’ mother dispatched agents to begin lengthy and exacting investigations in various quarters. Of course, as years had passed and men had died and records had been destroyed or lost, and Paiohnia and Zenos — whose mind had been that of a man, even while his body had still been that of a boy — were fully aware that any hope of success lay in the provision of overwhelming proof at the outset, and the received information must needs be sifted and weighed and placed in order. Some thirteen moons were required to effect their purpose. When all was collected and arranged, they entrusted copies of their documents to a noble of their court, a man but newly arrived from Pahl’yos Ehlas, Lukos Treeah by name. As he was unrelated to any of the principals, they felt that he would tend to make a better emissary than a member of any of the older families.
“When received privately by the strahteegoee, Lukos’ skillfully delivered message-backed, as it was, by irrefutable proofs — first shocked and stunned, then overjoyed the driven-to-distraction old men. Harried by Nikos, who insisted that, as they had once set precedence over custom in the case of Philos’ son, they not only could, but should do so again and set aside the claims of Alexandros’ legitimate issue, in favor of confirming him, Nikos, to the position of High Lord. Furthermore, he had broadly hinted that should they be so unwise as to foil him, he was not above raising sufficient armed might to take what they would not give! The strahteegoee had, in recent times, oft repented their rashness in disinheriting Zenos, however good an idea it had seemed at the time. Now, Lukos Treeah had saved them.
“The painstaking efforts of Zenos and his mother and their agents had produced solid substantiation of one earth-shaking fact: Alexandros and Nikos had been born bastards! On her deathbed, the Lady Petrina had sworn that never had she conceived of her husband, Pavlos, and that the true paternity of Alexandros and Nikos had been the same as that of her girl-child — namely, the strahteegos, Vikos Pohtahmas. One of the strongest proofs of the brothers’ bastardy was the fact that never — never in any living person’s memory and never in any existing records — had a Pahpahs man or woman sired or produced twin offspring, and the same was true in the noble house of which the Lady Petrina had been a scioness; on the other hand,
four of Vikos’ brothers had been twins, as had his mother, his maternal grandfather, and other near relations, and his father’s father had been one of triplets. In addition, the Pahpahs stock had been mentally and physically sound, until Alexandros; but many of Vikos’ ancestors were known to have been rather peculiar. Therefore, the strahteegoee commenced preparations to announce all this to the Council of Nobles and to pave the way for exiling all of the spurious Pahpahs and inviting Zenos — proved to be Pavlos’ only legal heir — to assume his rightful status.
“But Lukos Treeah moved first! His initial lightning-maneuver was to marry the widow of Alexandros, then to have every one of the old strahteegoee murdered. As first one, then another of Alexandros’ illegitimates met with a variety of fatal ‘accidents,’ Nikos saw how the wind was blowing and took certain measures of his own. When his attempt on the lives of Lukos and his wife and adoptive children failed, Nikos took his household and retainers and possessions aboard a speedy ship and fled.
“Now Zenos and his mother were unaware of the murders of the strahteegoee and the other developments in Kehnooryos Ehlas, so Lukos was able to continue putting them off for some little time — at least until all conditions were to his satisfaction. When at last he saw fit to apprise his erstwhile employers of the radical changes he had effected, their foreseen reactions were such as to play directly into his hands. Lukos Treeah was gifted with a silver tongue. It is said that he could have talked a viper out of biting him and, after a few more minutes, have persuaded said animal to make him a present of its skin! So it was that, by the time Zenos and his mother awakened to the fact that they had been duped and bamboozled out of the game, Lukos had both the Council of Nobles and the army and navy solidly on the hip. When Zenos and his Karaleenoee marched across the border, Lukos had himself declared dictator, imposed martial law, and set about jailing or killing, as suspected supporters of Zenos, all those who had opposed him in his meteoric ascent to power. Feeling his position to be secured, he then led his troops to meet Zenos’ advancing host.
