by Hugh Cook
Ulix of the Drum, who knew that Lord Onosh was but a poor and ignorant Yarglat barbarian, ventured on a further full and complete explanation.
"Enough!" said Lord Onosh, when he thought his head had suffered injury sufficient for a single day. "This thing cannot be understood, that much I see clearly. But what it does, ah, that's simple enough. With a Door like this – well, enough of that! The important thing is to keep this secret, is it not? For with this – with this we can conquer the world, if we go about it softly."
"Softly, yes," said Guest, "for we would not wish to spoil our chances. I think to use this to conquer the world indeed, then to win back my empire in Tameran from Khmar."
"Your empire?" said Lord Onosh in astonishment.
"Why, yes," said Guest. "The demon made the Guardians swear their fealty to me, did it not? Does it not therefore follow that I am their lord? And does it not equally follow that the mainrock is mine, yes, and Alozay as a whole, and the Safrak Islands likewise mind?"
"You have an enormous and arrogant conceit about you today," said Lord Onosh coldly. "That you happened to accept the surrender of some prisoners, why, that is but one of the commonplace incidents of war."
"Commonplace incidents!" said Guest, with explosive force.
"Yes!" said Lord Onosh. "A commonplace! A nothing!"
Now all this time, Banker Sod had been keenly watching Witchlord and Weaponmaster, and eyeing the disposition of the others. As father and son squared up to each other, looking as if they would be hacking at each other in moments, Sod abruptly moved.
Sod grabbed the dwarf Glambrax.
And threw him.
It may be that Sod had previously had some opportunity to practice the ancient and noble art of dwarf-tossing, for he threw Glambrax with uncommon force and accuracy, skittling both Witchlord and Weaponmaster. Then Sod threw himself onto the plinth, flung himself into a forward roll, and vanished through the Door.
Hot with rage, Guest scrambled up from the floor and leapt onto the plinth.
"No!" cried Ulix. "You – "
But it was too late.
For Guest plunged through the Door in hot pursuit of Banker Sod.
"My son!" cried Lord Onosh, in anguish. "My son!"
And with that cry the Witchlord drew his sword, as if intending to immediately revenge himself for the loss of his son.
Fearing the temper of this stranger, Thayer Levant nimbled onto the plinth and bolted toward the Door.
"Levant!" said Ulix of the Drum. "You – "
But Levant was gone.
"Get him back!" said Lord Onosh. "Now! Now! You! Zozimus! Sken-Pitilkin! My son! He's – "
Then Lord Onosh broke off, for a barrage of fighting men came shouldering through the Door. They were men dressed in the most sinister suits of black, their faces masked so that nothing showed but the whites of their eyes. They were Zenjingu killers, and they were bent on murder.
Immediately, Ulix of the Drum grabbed for the star-globe, yanking it from its socket. The Door closed. As the Door scissored shut, one of the Zenjingu killers was sliced clean in half by its abrupt closure.
"Cha-thara!" cried Ulix of the Drum, raising his pelican- headed walking stick.
At this Word, the Zenjingu killers began to stumble in blind disorientation, for Ulix of the Drum had neatly disabled their sanity. The Lord of the Silver Pelican was a wizard of Ebber, and his were powers over the mind.
Taking advantage of the disorientation of his enemies, Lord Onosh hacked and cut, slaughtering every last one of them. But that did not alter the facts. Guest Gulkan was gone, missing, vanished, wandering amidst the perils of some unknown foreign land, and there was no way for his father to get him back.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Door: an archway of what appears to be steel, set on a plinth of what appears to be marble. When activated by a star-globe, the Door fills with a humming silver screen. Each such Door typically forms part of a Circle, the separate parts of which can be continents apart. To physically interfere with such a screen is, in effect, to open a one-way valve to the next Door of the Circle.
To step through such a valve is to find oneself Elsewhere.
With Sod having followed Guest Gulkan through the Door, and with Ulix of the Drum having closed down that Door, Lord Onosh took personal possession of the Door's controlling star-globe.
Setting aside all questions of the fate of the Weaponmaster and the potential of the Door, he then set about consolidating his conquest.
At the command of the demon of Safrak, the Guardians had sworn themselves to Guest Gulkan's service. By isolating the demon, setting guards to prevent anyone from entering the Hall of Time, Lord Onosh ensured that the demon of Safrak did not give anyone leave to retract such an oath of fealty. By blurring the question of Guest's whereabouts – initially the world was led to believe that both Guest and Sod were still in residence in the heights of the mainrock – Lord Onosh neatly circumvented the possibility of any legalistic nitpicker pointing out that an oath to the Weaponmaster did not compel loyalty to the Witchlord.
Having thus temporarily shored up his position, Lord Onosh swiftly moved to reorganize the Guardians, combining his own men into that force, extracting personal oaths of loyalty from all and sundry, and diluting the old blood with new recruits.
In all of this, the Witchlord was advised by the dralkosh Bao Gahai, and, to a lesser extent, by the wizards Pelagius Zozimus and Hostaja Sken-Pitilkin.
So it was that Lord Onosh came to the Swelaway Sea in the winter of the year Alliance 4307, and, through a combination of courage, luck and studied brutality, made himself the undisputed lord of Alozay.
Notwithstanding all the reversals of the past, the Witchlord Onosh still claimed himself ruler of the Collosnon Empire. He hoped to use the islands of Safrak as a base from which to recover his empire. So he labored mightily to secure his power base, soon reaching out from Alozay to bring all the Safrak Islands under his sway. recognizing that the greater number of his potential subjects spoke Toxteth, Lord Onosh set himself to master that tongue.
Having mastered Alozay by the sword, he brought the lesser islands to heel by threat of violence, then chose sound-tempered Guardians to hold each of these islands in fief. Meanwhile, he despatched ambassadors and a trade delegation to the free city of Port Domax.
Since no army makes its passage through any land without leaving wreckage and complaint in its wake, Lord Onosh sent other representatives to the west, to meet all claims consequent upon his armed withdrawal to the shores of the Swelaway Sea. In the west, his agents dispensed much good gold to settle claims for murder, and rape, and arson, and looting, and pillaging, and poaching, and blasphemy, and the desecration of temples, and horse rustling – all of which claims were well-founded, for the Yarglat are not gentle in either victory or defeat.
Furthermore, all those to north, south, east and west were invited to prove out any claims they might have against the Safrak
Bank, since Lord Onosh recognized that he was now a Banker and must look to banking for his cash flow. In this spirit, he undertook to guarantee the safety of all trade through the Swelaway Sea, and confirmed Safrak's schedule of fixed and moderate charges for pilotage, provisioning, dock facilities and armed protection.
All in all, Lord Onosh conducted himself as a model ruler, which proved decidedly expensive in the short term. There were, for example, a full twenty merchants from Port Domax who had managed to get themselves killed during the Witchlord's armed seizure of the mainrock Pinnacle and the associated city of Molothair, and in the fullness of time Lord Onosh paid full and generous compensation to the widows of each.
In such many and varied acts of mercy, peace, justice and generosity, the Witchlord Onosh expended the last of the treasure brought with him from Gendormargensis, which left him bitterly impoverished, though his wizards assured him he would recoup his losses a dozen times over in the years ahead.
"Recoup, recoup!" said Lord Onosh furiously. "I
was born to loot, not to recoup!"
Justice, mercy, peace and generosity had not come naturally to the Witchlord Onosh, and each dispensing of gold had cost him dearly, as if he was paying his many creditors in lumps of flesh torn hot and bleeding from his protesting bones.
"We know your propensities, for you have told us of them often, my lord," said Pelagius Zozimus calmly. "But, believe me, recouping is the greatest looting of them all."
"If I'd been not so weak in my defeat," said Lord Onosh, bitterly regretting the delicacy of his position on Alozay, the smallness of the forces at his disposal and the greatness of his enemies, "you'd never have forced me to this folly."
"Forced!" said Zozimus, looking at Sken-Pitilkin. "Did we do any forcing?"
"I would count it impossible," said Sken-Pitilkin, "for it is well known that the weakest of the Yarglat warlords is a match for any ten wizards in the world, and the great Lord Onosh is not a weak warlord but one mighty in the courage of his sword."
Yet the truth of the matter is that Sken-Pitilkin and Zozimus – acting in concert with Bao Gahai – had indeed forced the Witchlord Onosh to follow a path of reason, moderation, compromise and diplomacy, encouraging him to secure the peace of his own domains and appease his neighbors before making his next move.
The Witchlord's obvious, necessary and unavoidable next move was to open the Door in the uppermost chamber of the mainrock
Pinnacle, the Door which was still a tightly-guarded secret known to only a chosen few. With that Door reopened, Lord Onosh could then negotiate with the Banks of the Circle. Nightly the Witchlord sat in conference with Ulix of the Drum, who told him much of that Circle. Only from that Circle could Lord Onosh draw the power he needed to overthrow the invader Khmar and reclaim his empire. Only the Banks of the Circle could provide him with the warriors he needed, warriors in their thousands, and weapons, and horses, and all necessary gear of war.
"Including, one hopes," said the sagacious Sken-Pitilkin, when appraised of the Witchlord's plans for war, "a good supply of cushions and collapsible armchairs."
Yet if Sken-Pitilkin spoke lightly of the Witchlord's plans for conquest – he cared not a whit who ruled in Gendormargensis, and would happily have traded all the lands of Tameran for a pair of sheepskin slippers and a baked onion – Lord Onosh was in deadly earnest.
In the earnestness of his intent, the Witchlord took care to neutralize all his potential enemies. The greatest of these was surely the demon Iva-Italis. For that uncannily intelligent block of jade-green stone commanded the only stairway leading to the highest chamber of the mainrock Pinnacle, and had proved its ability to enforce its rule of those stairs by eating men at whim.
Lord Onosh did not trust the demon-thing, and, with his wizards supporting him in his distrust, the Witchlord had his carpenters build him an outer stairway. This outwork climbed from the floor below the Hall of Time to the floor above, thus allowing one to bypass the demon. Thereafter, the Hall of Time was forbidden to all, and even the Witchlord and his wizards never went there, for after long conference they were mutually agreed that the demon should be shunned, and that all people of all rank should be kept well away from it lest it suborn the weak-willed in conspiracy.
So it was done.
As for the secret of the Door, it was agreed that this secret should continue to be held in the smallest circle possible. So men of rank such as Thodric Jarl got a tour of the uppermost room in the mainrock Pinnacle, and were there shown the metal arch and the marble plinth, and were told that it was a mystery -
"Most probably," said Zozimus gravely, giving the standard lecture which he gave to all and sundry when he conducted these tours, "a secret shrine sacred to a great god, but what god we cannot tell, and will probably never know."
Thus Thodric Jarl and others saw the greatest secret of the Bank, and, finding nothing there of any note, thereafter forgot about it; whereas, had the room been banned to them, they would doubtless have been afire with curiosity about it for the rest of their lives.
Now since the Witchlord was dynamic in his execution of his policies, and since he was well supported by men of talent, and by the womanly talents of the witches Bao Gahai and Zelafona, and by a wizard mighty in wisdom, and by a slug-chef, and by a dwarf, and by Ulix of the Drum as well, all these things were accomplished with surpassing rapidity, and news of the accomplishments spread equally as quickly.
When all is said and done, the Swelaway Sea is but an overgrown lake, and a ship at a speed of fifty leagues a day can reach from its central islands to its shores in a matter of four to six days. If one buys a rotten boat from the villainous villagers of Ink, or if one is forced to interpolate an airship adventure into one's travels, then such a journey has the makings of an unfortunate epic; but, as in all things, concerted professional organization reduces epic potential to routine.
And though it had been woefully difficult for Lord Onosh and his army to make the march to the Swelaway Sea, when they knew not quite where they were going, and had no conception of what paths or roads they should be looking for, and were poorly clad, ill- shod, short-rationed and grotesquely overloaded with treasure, overland journeys in all directions were a thing of ease to organize from Alozay.
For, after all, Alozay was in business as a Bank, and a trading bank at that; and hence the Guardians of Safrak were veteran travelers able to bodyguard and guide the innocent and the ignorant alike over any piece of country between Port Domax and Gendormargensis.
Hence Lord Onosh was able to economically accomplish his tasks, without lavishing generations on their achievement; and some news of his accomplishments spread with a similarly economical rapidity.
In particular, news of the raw and unadorned fact of the Witchlord's conquest of Alozay soon reached the Collosnon Empire, for some Guardians had escaped toward that Empire with news of the Witchlord's triumph. Those Guardians had thought that they would be well-rewarded for bringing that news to his enemies – and in this they were right.
The Guardians who carried that first raw news of conquest fled from Alozay to Ink; then dared down the Pig, riding the speed of the dog-drawn sledge, which is ever the favored transport of those few fur-merchants and such who trade the continental winter; then, believing Khmar to be still in Locontareth, expressed their sledges in that direction, and were favored by the confirmation of their belief.
Thus it was that Khmar learnt early of the Witchlord's success, and set in train the actions necessary to neutralize his enemies.
The winter of the year Alliance 4307 came to an end; and in the spring, emissaries from the Yarglat barbarian Khmar came to parley with the Witchlord Onosh. Khmar's embassy was led by one Lord Alagrace, who had been in Gendormargensis when Khmar invaded, and had chosen to give his loyalty to that invader. Lord Alagrace and his fellows presented the Witchlord with an offer from Khmar.
The usurper Khmar would grant Lord Onosh a peace if the Witchlord would order all parts of his empire to surrender to Khmar.
For it happened that some parts of the empire had yet to surrender to Khmar; and Khmar, who was great in ambition, wanted to consolidate his rule without further bloodshed. For Khmar wanted to save his soldiers for the great invasions and conquests which he planned to make in the future.
Lord Onosh was initially reluctant to agree to Khmar's demands.
"This implies," said Lord Onosh coldly, "that I am to surrender my empire to Khmar."
"As I see it," said Lord Alagrace, who was possessed of uncommon wisdom, even though he was a mere man, and no wizard, and had no especial command of the irregular verbs, "you do not have an empire to surrender. You have merely some poor and unsupportable claims to an empire. All Khmar asks you to do is to give up those claims."
"The claims and the empire are one," said the Witchlord stoutly.
The sagacious Sken-Pitilkin, who had the privilege of following this dialog, doubted that this claim was tenable in logic. But Lord Alagrace was too wise to argue with the barbarous
Witchlord on the grounds of logical consistence.
Instead, the mighty Lord Alagrace, Khmar's calm and intelligent ambassador, explained to the Witchlord that some of Khmar's men had dared to Ibsen-Iktus in winter. They had struck, had conquered, had imprisoned – and now held as prisoners both the Witchlord's son Eljuk Zala and the wizard Ontario Nol.
Now it was proved of a certainty that Eljuk was a prisoner, for Eljuk himself had written a letter confirming this, and had written that letter in foreign verbs of such pronounced irregularity that they were known to only two people on the entire continent of Tameran, those two being Eljuk himself and his former tutor Sken-Pitilkin. Furthermore, Ontario Nol had drafted a collaborative letter in the High Speech of wizards; and both these letters were beyond the power of Khmar to fake.
Then Lord Onosh was sorely oppressed.
For Khmar held his son as a prisoner, and -
If one's son be placed in the scales and weighed against an empire, then it will invariably be found that the empire is heavier. However, the Witchlord Onosh had personally seen the mountains of Ibsen-Iktus, and believed those heights to be surely impassable by winter. Khmar, by exercise of invincible will, had successfully commanded men into those mountains in the coldest of seasons. Driven by Khmar's will, those men had subdued a wizard, and had tamed him to accept his chains.
It was Khmar's defeat of the abbot of Qonsajara, rather than any over-tender concern for his son, which at last made Lord Onosh despair of defeating his enemy. In the short term, he lacked the strength to wrest the Collosnon Empire from Khmar's grasp. And, though future dealings with the Circle of the Banks might increase the Witchlord's strength, he might not be permitted time for such dealings – for the Khmar who could successfully organize the storming of the heights of Ibsen-Iktus could surely break the strength of a mere pin-spike like Alozay, and break it ten times over between breakfast and lunch.
"What are your terms?" said Lord Onosh to Lord Alagrace.