The Best of E E 'Doc' Smith

by E E 'Doc' Smith

"Hola, Tedric!" Rhoann called. "Wouldst speed a flight with us?"

  Tedric glanced at the target. Rhoann was beating her father unmercifully-her purple-shafted arrows were all in or near the gold, while his golden ones were scattered far and wide-,and she had been twitting him unmercifully about his poor marksmanship. Phagon was in no merry mood; this was very evidently no competition for any outsider-least of all Lomarr's top-ranking armsmaster-to enter.

  "Crave pardon, my lady, but other matters press..."

  "Your evasions are so transparent, my lord; why not tell the truth?" Rhoann did not exactly sneer at the man's obvious embarrassment, but it was very clear that she, too, was in a vicious temper. "Mindst not beating me but never the Throne? And any armsmaster who threwest not arrows by hand at this range to beat both of us should be stripped of badge?"

  Tedric, quite fatuously, leaped at the bait. "Wouldst permit, sire?"

  "No!" the king roared. "By my head, by the Throne, by Llosir's liver and heart and brain and guts-NO! 'Twould cost the head of any save you to insult me so shoot, sir, and shoot your best!" extending his own bow and a full quiver of arrows.

  Tedric did not want to use the royal weapon, but at the girl's quick, imperative gesture he smothered his incipient protest and accepted it.

  "'One sighting shot, sire?" he asked, and drew the heavy bow. Nothing whatever could have forced him to put an arrow nearer the gold than the farthest of the king's; to avoid doing so-without transparently missing the target completely-would take skill, since one golden arrow stood a bare three inches from the edge of the target.

  His first arrow grazed the edge of the butt and was an inch low; his second plunged into the padding exactly half way between the king's wildest arrow and the target's rim. Then, so rapidly that it seemed as though there must be at least two arrows in the air at once, arrow crashed on arrow; wood snapping as iron bead struck feathered shaft. At end, the rent in the fabric through which all those arrows had torn their way could have been covered by half of one of Rhoann's hands.

  "I lose, sire," Tedric said, stiffly, returning bow and empty quiver. "My score is zero."

  Phagon, knowing himself in the wrong but unable to bring himself to apologize, did what he considered the next-best thing. "I used to shoot like that," he complained. "Knowst how lost I my skill, Tedric? 'Tis not my age, surely?"

  "'Tis not my place to say, sire." Then, with more loyalty than sense, "And I split to the teeth any who dare so insult the Throne."

  "What!" the monarch roared. "By my...."

  "Hold, father!" Rhoann snapped. "A king you-act it!" Hard blue eyes glared steadily into unyielding eyes of green. Neither the thoroughly angry king nor the equally angry princess would give an inch. She broke the short, bitter silence.

  "Say naught, Tedric-he is much too fain to boil in oil or flay alive any who tell him unpleasantnesses, however true. But me, father, you boil not, nor flay, nor seek to punish otherwise, or I split this kingdom asunder like a melon. 'Tis time-yea, long past time-that someone told you the unadorned truth. Hence, my rascally but well-loved parent, here 'tis. Hast lolled too long on too many too soft cushions, hast emptied too many pots and tankards and flagons, hast bedded too many wenches, to be of much use in armor or with any style of weapon in the passes of the High Umpasseurs."

  The flabbergasted and rapidly-deflating king tried to think of some answer to this devastating blast, but couldn't. He appealed to Tedric. "Wouldst have said such? Surely not!"

  "Not I, sire!" Tedric assured him, quite truthfully. "And even if true, 'tis a thing to remedy itself. Before we reach the Marches wilt regain arm and eye."

  "Perhaps," the girl put in, her tone still distinctly on the acid side. "If he matches you, Tedric, in lolling and wining and wenching, yes. Otherwise, no. How much wine do you drink, each day?"

  "One cup, usually-sometimes-at supper."

  "On the march? Think carefully, friend."

  "Nay-I meant in town. In the field, none, of course."

  "Seest, father?"

  "What thinkst me, vixen, a spineless cuddlepet? From this minute 'til return here I match your paragon young blade loll for loll, cup for cup, wench for wench. Ist what you've been niggling at me to say?"

  "Aye, father and king, exactly-for as you say, you do." She hugged him so fervently as almost to lift him off the ground, kissing him twice, and hurried away.

  "A thing I would like to talk to you about, sire," Tedric said quickly, before the king could bring up any of the matters just past. "Armor. There was enough of the godmetal to equip three men fully, and headnecks for their horses. You, sire, and me, and Sciro of your Guard. Break precedent, sire, I beg, and wear me this armor of proof instead of the gold; for what we face promises to be worse than anything you or I have yet seen."

  "I fear me 'tis true, but 'tis impossible, nonetheless. Lomarr's king wears gold. He fights in gold; at need he dies in gold."

  And that was, Tedric knew, very definitely that. It was senseless, it was idiotic, but it was absolutely true. No king of Lomarr could possibly break that particular precedent. To appear in that spectacularly conspicuous fashion, one flashing golden figure in a sea of dull iron-grey, was part of the king's job. The fact that his father and his grandfather and so on for six generations back had died in golden armor could not sway him, any more Than it could have swayed Tedric himself in similar case. But there might be a way out.

  "But need it be solid gold" sire? Wouldst not an overlay of gold suffice?"

  "Yea, Lord Tedric, and 'twould be a welcome thing indeed. I yearn not, nor did my father nor his father, to pit gold 'gainst hard-swung axe; e'en less to hide behind ten ranks of iron while others fight. But simply 'tis not possible. If the gold be thick enough for the rivets to hold, 'tis too heavy to lift. If thin enough to be possible of wearing, the gold flies off in sheets at first blow and the fraud is revealed. Hast ideas? I listen."

  "I know not, sire... ." Tedric thought for minutes. "I have seen gold hammered into thin sheets ... but not thin enough ... but it might be possible to hammer it thin enough to be overlaid on the god-metal with pitch or gum. Wouldst wear it so, sire?"

  "Aye, my Tedric, and gladly: just so the overlay comes not off by hands breadths under blow of sword or axe."

  "Handsbreaths? Nay. Scratches and mars, of course, easily to be overlaid again ere next day's dawn. But hands breadths? Nay, sire."

  "In that case, try; and may Great Llosir guide your hand."

  Tedric went forthwith to the castle and got a chunk of raw, massy gold. He took it to his shop and tried to work it into the thin, smooth film he could visualize so clearly.

  And tried-and tried-and tried. And failed-and failed-and failed.

  He was still trying-and still failing-three weeks later. Time was running short; the hours that bad formerly dragged like days now flew like minutes. His crew had done their futile best to help; Bendon, his foreman, was still standing by. The king was looking on and offering advice. So were Rhoann and Trycie. Sciro and Schillan and other more or less notable persons were also trying to be of use.

  Tedric, strained and tense, was pounding carefully at a sheet of his latest production. It was a pitiful thing lumpy in spots, ragged and rough, with holes where hammer had met anvil through its substance. The smith's left hand twitched at precisely the wrong instant, just as the hammer struck. The flimsy sheet fell into three ragged pieces.

  Completely frustrated, Tedric leaped backward, swore fulminantly, and hurled the hammer with all his strength toward the nearest wall. And in that instant there appeared, in the now familiar cage-like structure of shimmering, interlaced bars, the form of flesh that was Llosir the god. High in the air directly over the forge the apparition hung, motionless and silent, and stared.

  Everyone except Tedric gave homage to the god, but he merely switched from the viciously corrosive Devossian words he had been using to more parliamentary Lomarrian.

  "Ist possible, Lord Sir, for any human being to do anything with
this foul, slimy, salvy, perverse, treacherous" and generally-be-damned stuff?"

  "It is. Definitely. Not only possible, but fairly easy and fairly simple, if the proper tools, apparatus, and techniques are employed." Llosir's bell-toned-organ pseudo voice replied. "Ordinarily, in your lifetime, you would come to know nothing of gold leaf-although really thin gold leaf is not required here-nor of gold beater's skins and membranes and how to use them, nor of the adhesives to be employed and the techniques of employing them. The necessary tools and materials are, or can very shortly be made, available to you; you can now absorb quite readily the required information and knowledge.

  "For this business of beating out gold leaf, your hammer and anvil are both completely wrong. Listen carefully and remember. For the first, preliminary thinning down, you take... "

  Lomarr's army set out at dawn. First the wide-ranging scouts: lean, hard, fine-trained runners, stripped to clouts and moccasins and carrying only a light bow and a few arrows apiece. Then the hunters. They, too, scattered widely and went practically naked: but bore the hundred pound bows and the savagely-tearing arrows of their trade.

  Then the Heavy Horse, comparatively few in number, but of the old blood all, led by Tedric and Sciro and surrounding glittering Phagon and his standard-bearers. It took a lot of horse to carry a full-armored knight of the Old Blood, but the horse-farmers of the Middle Marches bred for size and strength and stamina.

  Next came century after century of light horse mounted swordsmen and spearmen and javelineers-followed by even more numerous centuries of foot-slogging infantry.

  Last of all came the big-wheeled, creaking wagons: loaded, not only with the usual supplies and equipment of war, but also with thousands of loaves of bread hard, flat, heavy loaves made from ling, the corn-like grain which was the staple cereal of the region.

  "Bread, sire?" Tedric had asked, wonderingly, when Phagon had fast broached the idea. Men on the march lived on meat-a straight, unrelieved diet of meat for weeks and months on end-and all too frequently not enough of that to maintain weight and strength. They expected nothing else; an occasional fist-sized chunk of bread was sheerest luxury. "Bread! A whole loaf each man a day?"

  "Aye," Phagon had chuckled in reply. "All farms men along the way will have ready my fraction of ling, and Schillan will at need buy more. To each man a loaf each day, and all the meat he can eat. 'Tis why we go up the Midvale, where farms men all breed savage dogs to guard their fields 'gainst hordes of game. Such feeding will be noised abroad. Canst think of a better device to lure Taggard's ill-fed mercenaries to our standards?"

  Tedric couldn't.

  There is no need to dwell in detail upon the army's long, slow march. Leaving the city of Lompar, it moved up the Lotar River, through the spectacularly scenic gorge of the Coast Range" and into the Middle Valley; that incredibly lush and fertile region which, lying between the Low Umpasseurs on the east and the Coast Range on the west, comprised roughly a third of Lomarr's area. Into and through the straggling hamlet of Bonoy, lying at the junction of the Midvale River with the Lotar. Then straight north, through the timberlands and meadows of the Midvale's west bank.

  Game was, as Phagon had said, incredibly plentiful; outnumbering by literally thousands to one both domestic animals and men. Buffalo-like lippita, moose-like rolatoes, pig-like accides-the largest and among the tastiest of Lomarr's game animals-were so abundant that one good hunter could kill in half an hour enough to feed a century for a day. Hence most of the hunters' time was spent in their traveling dryers, preserving meat against a coming day of need.

  On, up the bluely placid Lake Midvale, a full day's march long and half that in width. Past the Chain Lakes, strung on the river like beads on a string. Past Lake Ardo, and on toward Lake Middlemarch and the Middlemarch Castle which was to be Tedric's official residence henceforth.

  As the main body passed the head of the lake, a couple of scouts brought in a runner bursting with news.

  "Thank Sarpedion, sire, I had not to run to Lompoar to reach you!" he cried, dropping to his knees. "Middlemarch Castle is besieged! Hurlo of the Marches is slain!" and he went on to tell a story of onslaught and slaughter.

  "And the raiders wore iron," Phagon remarked, when the table was done. "Sarlonian iron, no doubt?"

  "Aye, sire, but how couldst... ."

  "No matter. Take him to the rear. Feed him."

  "You expected this raid, sire," Tedric said, rather than asked, after scouts and runner had disappeared.

  "Aye. 'Twas no raid, but the first skirmish of a war. No fool, Taggad of Sirlon; nor Issian of Devos, barbarian though he is. They knew what loomed, and struck first. The only surprise was Hurlo's death ... he had my direct orders not to do battle 'gainst any force, however slight seeming, but to withdraw forthwith into the castle, which was to be kept stocked to withstand a siege of months ... this keeps me from boiling him in oil for stupidity, incompetence, and disloyalty."

  Phagon frowned in thought, then went on: "Were there forces that appeared not? ... Surely not-Taggrd would not split his forces at all seriously: 'tis but to annoy me ... or perhaps they are mostly barbarians despite the Sarlonian iron ... to harry and flee is no doubt their aim, but for Lomarr's good not one of them should escape. Knowst the Upper Midvale, Tedric, above the lake?"

  "But little, sire; a few miles only. I was there but once."

  "'Tis enough. Take half the Royal Guard and a century of bowmen. Cross the Midvale at the ford three miles above us here. Go up and around the lake. The Upper Midvale is fordable almost anywhere at this season, so stay far enough away from the lake that none see you. Cross it, swing in a wide circle toward the peninsula on which sits Middlemarch Castle, and in three days ... ?"

  "Three days will be ample, sire."

  "Three days from tomorrow's dawn, exactly as the top rim of the sun clears the meadow, make your charge out of the covering forest, with your archers spread to pick off all who seek to flee. I will be on this side of the peninsula; between us they'll be ground like ling. None shall get away!"

  Phagon's assumptions, however, were slightly in error. When Tedric's riders charged, at the crack of the indicated dawn, they did not tear through a motley horde of half-armored, half-trained barbarians. Instead, they struck two full centuries of Sarlon's heaviest armor! And Phagon the King fared worse. At first sight of that brilliant golden armor a solid column of armored knights formed as though by magic and charged it at full gallop!

  Phagon fought, of course; fought as his breed bad always fought. At first on horse, with his terrible sword, under the trenchant edge of which knight after knight died. His horse dropped, slaughtered; his sword was knocked away; but, afoot, the war-axe chained to his steel belt by links of super-steel was still his. He swung and swung and swung again; again and again; and with each swing an enemy ceased to live; but sheer weight of metal was too much. Finally, still swinging his murderous weapon, Phagon of Lomarr went flat on the ground.

  At the first assault on their king, Tedric with his sword and Sciro with his hammer had gone starkly berserk. Sciro was nearer, but Tedric was faster and stronger and had the better horse.

  "Dreegor!" he yelled, thumping his steed's sides with his armored legs and rising high in his stirrups. Nostrils flaring, the mighty beast raged forward and Tedric struck as he had never struck before. Eight times that terrific blade came down, and eight men and eight horses died.

  Then, suddenly-Tedric never did know how it happened, since Dreegor was later found uninjured-he found himself afoot. No place for sword, this, but made to order for axe. Hence, driving forward as resistlessly as though a phalanx of iron were behind him, he hewed his way toward his sovereign.

  Thus he was near at hand when Phagon went down. So was doughty Sciro; and by the time the Sarlonians had learned that sword nor axe nor hammer could cut or smash that gold-seeming armor fury personified was upon them. Tedric straddled his king's head, Sciro his feet; and, back to back, two of Lomarr's mightiest armsmasters wov
e circular webs of flying steel through which it was sheerest suicide to attempt to pass. Thus battle raged until the last armored foeman was down.

  "Art hurt, sire?" Tedric asked anxiously as he and Sciro lifted Phagon to his feet.

  "Nay, my masters-at-arms," the monarch gasped, still panting for breath. "Bruised merely, and somewhat winded." He opened his visor to let more air in; then, as he regained control, he shook off the supporting hands and stood erect under his own power. "I fear me, Tedric, that you and that vixen daughter of mine were in some sense right. Methinks I may be-Oh, the veriest trifle!-out of condition. But the battle is almost over. Did any escape?"

  None had.

  "'Tis well. Tedric, I know not how to honor... ."

  "Honor me no farther, sire, I beg. Hast honored me already far more than I deserved, or ever will ... Or, at least, at the moment ... there may be later, perhaps ... that is, a thing ..." he fell silent.

  "A thing?" Phagon grinned broadly. "I know not whether Rhoann will be overly pleased at being called so, but 'twill be borne in mind nonetheless. Now you, Sciro; Lord Sciro now and henceforth, and all your line. Lord of what I will not now say; but when we have taken Sarlo you and all others shall know."

  "My thanks, sire, and my obeisance," said Sciro. "Schillan, with me to my pavilion. I am weary and sore, and would fain rest."

  As the two Lords of the Realm, so lately commoners, strode away to do what had to be done:

  "Neither of us feels any nobler than ever, I know," Sciro said, "but in one way 'tis well-very well indeed."

  "The Lady Trycie, eh? The wind does set so, then, as I thought."

  "Aye. For long and long. It wondered me often, your choice of the Lady Rhoann over her. Howbeit, 'twill be a wondrous thing to be your brother-in-law as well as in arms."

  Tedric grinned companionably, but before he could reply they had to separate and go to work.

  The king did not rest long; the heralds called Tedric in before half his job was done.

  "What thinkst you, Tedric, should be next?" Phagon asked.