The Prophet Of Lamath

by Hughes, Robert Don

  "All right," Vicia said. "Let's do as that merchant fellow suggested. Send both armies into Ngandib-Mar to fight one another. Then the victor can go find that Pelman person for us." Heinox snorted, and cocked his head. "That's the best idea you've had since the Pelman first passed this way!" Suddenly, much to Vicia's surprise, the dragon was in the air again. Heinox happened to be controlling their bodily functions that day, and he wanted to speak with Talith. "We'll send his army through the pass first," Heinox said. "After all, they've been waiting for days." "Agreed." Vicia was trying to steer his head into the wind to keep from feeling so pulled about. He was already plotting the best way to get Asher through to Chaomonous instead, to pillage throughout the Chaon homeland and teach Heinox a lesson.

  Talith had bristled at the first appearance of Asher across the pass, but now he was cowering again. If only the dragon didn't whiz around so fast! It took his breath away each time he saw the monster hurtling toward him.

  "We've decided what you're going to do," Heinox began, and Vicia immediately interrupted him.

  "Yes, we've decided to send you to Ngandib-Mar." "I was going to tell him!" Heinox roared.

  Vicia sneered, "But I beat you to it." As the heads berated one another, Talith sought to clear his mind and to consider his options. Tahli-Damen had suggested the possibility of moving into Ngandib-Mar, but the small group of warriors across the pass had inflamed him, and he surprised even himself by breaking into the dragon's argument. "And what if I say no? What if I decide I want to attack that pitiful troop of Lamathians yonder?" The dragon looked at him with four eyes; then the two heads chorused, "We'll eat you." In moments, Talith was saddled and his army ready to march. The long, golden column began again to wind its way westward through the pass. Vicia-Heinox took to the air again, planning to explain the situation to Asher.

  "Where is he?" Vicia asked. Then he demanded, angrily, "Where is he?" "Perhaps he grew frightened and ran home." Heinox laughed and dropped his head close to their body to escape Vicia's snapping teeth. Vicia knew better than to bite his twin, but in his rage he wasn't thinking straight. His army, the army of Lamath, was nowhere to be seen.

  The warriors of Lamath waited at the foot of the mountain for some signal. When they saw their General and his small troop break into view from the bowels of the pass, all of Lamath drew their swords, and commanders began forming that blue line that had proved such an invincible defensive barrier in the northland campaigns. Tension mounted as they waited for the enemy to gallop into sight-but no enemy appeared. Nor did Asher give any sign to charge. Instead he came right through the ranks, shouting loudly for his falconer as he rode to the signal wagon. Once there, he leapt from his horse and grabbed the stylus and parchment his signaler offered. His chief of wings sprinted toward them with a bird cupped in his hands.

  "My best, General Asher." "It had better be so," Asher snapped back, and the General held the bird skillfully as the falconer affixed the message to its leg. Asher shut his eyes and imagined the square of the capital, and the dungeon, and the office of the warder. When the picture was clear in his mind he tossed the bird skyward with a shout, and the blue flyer made swiftly for the north, carrying the words that would save Pelman's life.

  Serphimera did not watch the execution. She waited it out on the dining plaza of one of those small mansions that overlooked the square. It was the home of a staunch supporter-one who could not quite bring himself to give his body to the dragon and who sought to assuage his guilt by giving his home to the Priestess. He, along with his family, watched and cheered from a balcony high above her. But Serphimera could only pace and mourn, already missing this one who had held so much promise, but who had failed so completely.

  Though she wasn't watching, Serphimera was in touch with all that happened beyond the wall through the cries of the crowd. When the laughter and cheers turned sour, she cupped her hands to her mouth and called out, "What's happening? Tell me!" "It is incredible, Priestess!" her outraged supporter yelled back. "The King has stopped the execution!" A moment before, she had been mourning Pelman. Now, abruptly, she hated him again. "This sorcerer has witched even the King!" Before anyone could stop her she dashed out the garden gate and into the street. The crowd parted before her, giving her free passage to the dungeon.

  The warder listened silently to her protests, then shrugged. "Priestess, I can only do as I am ordered. I cannot explain the reasons why some sentences are commuted and others carried out. It is the will of the dragon." "It is not the will of Lord Dragon!" Serphimera stamped, and the warder looked away, embarrassed. "I thought that the King understood the need for this man's execution! It was my understanding that Asher had ordered this death, and that the King had agreed! Why would the King overrule his Chieftain's order!" "The King did not overrule Asher." "Then who?" Serphimera snarled.

  "It was Asher himself who stopped the drawing of this Prophet. He seems to believe the Prophet is right." Serphimera stood rigid, her body frozen as her mind wrestled to make some sense of this new information. "Asher?" she said at length. "The Prophet has convinced even Asher?" The warder nodded curtly and turned away, hoping the woman would take the hint and leave. He hated to get involved in religious politics. Give him the dirt and blood of true crime any day. At least then, the killing made some sense.

  Serphimera gave him his wish. She went out the door of the dungeon with her mind aswhirl. She gazed downward, and the cobblestones seemed a million miles away. She kept walking, putting one foot before the other, fearing that if she stopped she would plunge to her death on those distant rocks below. She walked no more in Lamath, but in a world of dreams too suddenly shattered. Serphimera felt hopelessly lost amid a universe of yelling people. It was only her reputation and her characteristic dress that saved her from the riot begun by the rampaging tugolith. Fighting crowds would clear out of the way for the dazed Priestess to pass, then would fall back to fighting. Her supporters finally found her, and guided her through the flood of angry citizens to the safety of the secluded garden.

  "Pelman, are you awake?" "Yes . . ." He really wasn't, but he was getting there. Pelman's eyes opened, and he gazed up into Bronwynn's face.

  She beamed back at him, and shouted, "Rosha! He's awake!" Rosha came and knelt down in the straw by Pelman's side as Pelman struggled to sit up. The Prophet yelped in pain as his weight shifted onto his left arm, and he would have fallen back had Bronwynn not supported his head.

  "Why don't you just lie there a while?" the girl asked sensibly, and he smiled.

  "Where am I?" "In the dungeon." "They didn't kill me?" "You really need me to answer that?" "No," he murmured. He thought for a moment. "Do you know why they didn't?" "We've no idea," Bronwynn answered.

  "B-but the warder was m-m-most gentle with you when he carried you in. He s-said something about Asher wanting you whole." Then Pelman remembered. He nodded, and forced himself to sit up without using his left arm. Then he moved across the floor to lean against the damp wall.

  "Does that make any sense?" Bronwynn asked.

  "I think so, yes. Somehow Asher discovered that I was only telling the truth about the dragon. That means he has probably been into Dragonsgate." "Then Asher is marching on Chaomonous?" Bronwynn worried aloud, a bit surprised at herself for even caring.

  "He's probably been in Dragonsgate. Through Dragonsgate, and into Chaomonous? I doubt it. Vicia-Heinox has never before allowed an army to pass Dragonsgate- never in his history. Why should he do so now?" "B-but if he has?" Rosha wondered.

  Pelman raised an eyebrow. "If he has, I would truly like to know what's happening now. For if any army has passed Dragonsgate, into any other land, then the world has just witnessed the gravest battle since the time before the dragon-the grandest clash since the parting of the One Land." "It is clear now," Serphimera murmured much later, after the sun had left the sky and the garden's torches had been lit. "I see my responsibility clearly." "And what is it, my Priestess?" begged one disciple. "What can we do, now that
this charlatan is again free to roam the streets?" "Too long I've wandered these delightful fields of Lamath, sending others to make the ultimate devotion in my place." "No, Priestess-" one began, and another follower wept aloud in anticipation of her words.

  "It is time for the Priestess herself to journey to Dragonsgate." "No, Priestess, you cannot! Asher's warriors line every section of road from here to the Lord Dragon's nest! You'll not be allowed to pass. Please, stay and reconsider!" _ "It's time, I tell you!" All the protestors saw the fire in her eyes. They sat quietly then, watching. When she spoke again, Serphimera was once more in control of herself.

  "He has slipped away today. But I have seen this Prophet's doom! A time will come when this one clad in sky blue will be pulled into that sky by the mouths of Lord Dragon, and the Lord will tear him in two!" She glanced around at the circle of faces, her jaw set, her expression carved of stone. "Perhaps," she said, "my own sacrifice can somehow hasten that day." "Yet there is still the hazard of the journey! How will you come to Dragonsgate, if Asher's warriors hold the road?" Serphimera's eyelids flickered, and her gaze burned the speaker's cheeks pink. "Am I not able to plan my own passing?" she asked.

  "Forgive me, Priestess," he mumbled.

  "There is a man of hideous countenance who proved a fearsome enforcer in the cleansing of the Prophet's own monastery. Find me that man!" "Yes, Priestess," someone replied.

  In moments runners were in the streets, searching for word about an ugly man whose name no one knew, but whose face no one could forget.

  Serphimera climbed the stairs to the balcony, and gazed to the south. Humbly she saluted the dragon with crossed arms, and curtseyed. "I come. Lord Dragon," she murmured quietly, then slipped back into the, lighted interior of the mansion.

  Chapter Fourteen

  "THERE THEY ARE!" Doriyth said ominously, and he pointed with his sword. Through the pass below rode warriors armed from head to toe in plates and mail of gold. The afternoon sun reflected brightly off that highly polished metal, wrought by the finest artisans in the world--the craftsmen of Chaomonous. The line continued to come, clearly visible to Doriyth and his companions, who watched unobserved from the mountaintop above. "You see them, Pahd? Pahd? Pahd, are you sleeping again?" "Hunh?" Pahd awakened with a start. He sniffed, and glanced around him. "Where are we?" "We're preparing to: go into battle!" "Oh, yes." Pahd smiled drowsily. "I was just getting a little rest before the excitement starts. Not easy to do on horseback." He leaned over his mount's neck to watch the column a moment, and his eyes brightened. "Ohh. Lots of them, aren't there?" "Aren't you glad you chose to get up this morning?" Doriyth mocked. "You might have missed it." "Come now, Doriyth. You aren't still angry at me for not arriving in time to break Tohn's siege. Had we arrived sooner, I may well have killed the old gray merchant. Then he never would have had the chance to warn us of all this." "True enough, Pahd. But as I recall, you were more angry than I." "And understandably so!" Pahd complained. "To get out of bed and ride all that way just to watch two Lords make peace is not my idea of an exciting outing. You might at least have staged a duel of champions." The west mouth of Dragonsgate opened onto a large 309 plain. Far below them, on a slight rise in that expanse of green meadow, stood the castle of Tohn mod Neelis. Its gates were tightly shut, and Tohn and his people had gathered within to wait out the battle that would decide the future of the Mar. They had been waiting this way for weeks, for Tohn had expected Talith's army long before this. His young cousins chafed under his restrictions and mocked him behind his back. But Tohn would not change his mind. He had informed Dorlyth that he would open his gates for no one, either to enter or to exit. His keep would remain an island of calm in the midst of a stormy ocean of battling armies.

  Though they could not use Tohn's castle as a fortress, Dorlyth had decided to use it in a ruse to draw Talith into an initial charge. As the old warrior explained his strategy, Pahd just nodded. Strategy made little difference to Pahd, so long as he had an opportunity to exercise his greatsword.

  "We'll all have that opportunity, my Lord," Dorlyth said. "More, I'll wage, than even you might wish." "I doubt that's possible." Pahd smiled, drawing his weapon. "What is the signal for our attack?" "When Talith charges westward toward the three thousand on the plain and you hear screams from the pass as our archers move into position, then charge, Pahd mod Pahd-el. And may the powers favor you with great strength!" "I'd prefer that the powers favor me with great foes," Pahd chuckled. "I'll furnish the strength myself." Pahd rode down the mountain to rejoin his cavalry, which was hidden in the forest at its base.

  Dorlyth gazed across the pass to the mountains on the northern side and searched the woods atop those cliffs for some sign of Venad mod Narkis and his army of archers. He saw no movement at all-nothing that would betray to Talith that his grand column marched into an ambush.

  With Pahd's indifferent blessing, Dorlyth had divided the army of assembled Mari chieftains into three units. The smallest force was composed of Dorlyth's own veteran fighting men, supported by the most powerful warriors from every other fief in the land. This group, only three thousand strong, waited on the plain between Tohn's castle and the pass. The other sixteen thousand Mari warriors had been divided equally, half waiting in the foothills on the northern edge of the pass and the other half waiting in the southern hills. Dorlyth had assembled a group of powerful archers out of each of these divisions, and the two units of archers faced each other across the valley. Each archer carried a plentiful supply of arrows; if the confederation of Mari lords were to win, it would have to win in the pass. Battle hardened though they were, Dorlyth knew his Mari brethren would never defeat twice as many Chaons in a direct confrontation on the field. He hoped to deplete and demoralize Talith's army before it ever reached the plain.

  Dorlyth glanced around at the men who waited with him in the shelter of a small clump of trees. "Remember-our task is to fill the air with a shower of arrows, not to shoot individual Chaons. Fire quickly-the powers will make our bow-shots accurate." From the pass below came the echo of a great shout, and Dorlyth walked out to the edge of the cliffs to take a look. He turned and nodded, shouting, "Talith has taken the bait!" Hundreds of archers sprang from cover and launched a deadly flock of feather-tipped missiles. An answering volley filled the sky on the far side of the pass, and the first screams of shock and terror began issuing up from the valley. Dorlyth smiled coldly, and arched his own first arrow into the sky. It joined a thousand of its fellows in flight.

  Talith and Rolan-Keshi rode through the pass side by side. Talith's heart pounded furiously. A few moments before, the dragon itself had given him leave to conquer Ngandib-Mar. Now, for the first time, he beheld that beautiful mountainous land, and knew at once that he had to possess it.

  "Look at this! Look at it! It shall be mine, Rolan-Keshi - this land shall be mine!" "We must conquer it first, my Lord. And it appears there will be some resistance. Look." They had ridden . far enough through the gap to see the small Mari contingent on the field, and Tohn's castle beyond them.

  "A tiny force, not to be compared to my army!" Talith laughed, his excitement building. His mount began to trot, as did Rolan-Keshi's, and the riders behind them picked up speed as well.

  "Why are they here?" Rolan-Keshi wondered suspiciously. "No one in this land should know of our coming!" "They are defenders of that fortress yonder!" Talith shouted. "We must take them before they reach its shelter!" Talith kicked his horse and jerked his sword free from its scabbard. He raised it high above him and shouted at the top of his lungs; the answering shout from the warriors charging behind him drowned Rolan-Keshi's protests. The army of Chaomonous streamed out of the pass, pursuing its King into battle, as the three thousand Maris on the open plain below broke and ran for Tohn's castle.

  Talith rode the proudest mount in all his many stables, and it was a far stronger horse than any of those who followed him. Soon he was twenty yards in advance of the charge, shouting. "They're running! They're running
!" The General rode hard to catch him. It was a foolish charge, and Rolan-Keshi knew it, but it was certainly far more thrilling than the night raids and border skirmishes that had been his only previous battle experience. But Talith was much too far in advance of the main line of thundering riders. If the King should be the first man cut down, it would have a-brutal impact on the morale of his army. Rolan-Keshi screamed at his horse and drove his heels violently into the animal's flanks, even as the General saw a few hundred Man warriors wheel around to face them.

  Talith saw them too, when he was but thirty yards away. He almost dropped his sword as he jerked back suddenly on the reins of his war-horse. His charging warriors faltered when their King faltered, and the first blows exchanged between Maris and Chaons went badly for the golden warriors. Talith stood where he was, frozen by the cold metal of those drawn greatswords, suddenly so very near, and he surely would have been hacked from his saddle had not his supporters swarmed around him. Little blood was drawn in this initial impact, but the clashing and clanging and shouting that filled the air kept Talith from hearing the screams of falling warriors in the pass. He found the handle of his sword again and waved it in the air, shouting encouragement to the soldiers who fought to defend him. His courage soared once more when he saw the Maris break off the fight and ride on to join the rest of the Man force.