by Hugh Cook
Miphon touched needle to nail again.
is that a Rovac sword?' said Ohio. 'How much is it worth?'
'The sword is from Stokes, where all the best steel comes from,' said Hearst. 'As to what it's worth, well, there's no price that would buy it.'
And he looked hard at Ohio. 'I've no designs on your property,' said Ohio, i was just curious.'
Miphon touched needle to nail one last time. Blood welled up from the hole he had made.
'That should take the pressure off,' said Miphon. 'There's no reason now why you should lose the nail, so long as you're careful with it.'
'Good,' said Hearst.
'Tell me about Rovac,' said Ohio.
'About Rovac?' said Hearst.
'Yes.'
'It's a place where the ground's the ground and the sky's the sky,' said Hearst. 'The people there are born of women, some nine months after their parents couple. To live they eat and drink; at the end of living they find they die.'
"But seriously,' said Ohio. 'Tell me -'
There was a shout as a pirate cried out in alarm. Looking to sea, they saw a Collosnon warship rounding a point of land. It was about five hundred paces away. Some of the crew cried out in panic.
•Stand fast!' shouted Ohio. 'We'll be afloat before long! Stand fast, you - we can outfight that ship. Stand fast!'
There were murmurs of protest still among the crew. With their ship stuck fast they were in a bad position, unable to manoeuvre. They had taken heavy casualties in their last battle. Under the circumstances, they had little stomach for facing up to the Collosnon yet again.
On the enemy ship a battle-banner was run up high. Marines on the deck could be seen arming and armouring. Then four harpoon-head arrows slammed into the deck of the Skua. Each was armspan-long; they had been hurled by arbalests, winch-cranked crossbows used most commonly in siege warfare.
The Skua's crew began to take to the water. Ohio
shouted at them, but four more outsize bolts hit the deck. This time each was wrapped around with fiercely burning rags saturated with whale oil. Fires started. A few men tried to put them out. Then one was cut down by a crossbow bolt. The enemy ship was three hundred paces away and closing.
The death completed the rout of the pirates. Ohio was left standing on deck, bellowing obscenities at those who were fleeing. They were clumsy swimmers, most using dog-paddle; their labouring efforts disturbed the dog-brown seals which lay on rocks near the shore. The fire on the ship was now out of control.
T could swear this ship is afloat,' said Ohio.
'It is,' said Hearst.
A small wave rocked the ship, scraping it against the rocks beneath. Only Miphon, Hearst, Blackwood and Ohio were left on deck. Four men could scarcely hope to put out the fire, let alone sail the ship.
'I'm going,' said Hearst, with a glance at the enemy craft. It was approaching slowly, with a man at the bows dropping a lead line to make sure the warship did not run aground on a shoal; it was too close for comfort.
Hearst, Miphon and Blackwood took the plunge to the cold shock of the sea. Burdened by clothes, boots and swords, they floundered through the bitter chill of the sea.
Ohio swore, then, drawing a knife, cut his thigh-high seaboots down to ankle length, then jumped. And was dragged straight down, for he wore a heavy treasure-belt at his waist. Ohio cut the belt free and bobbed up to the surface, a pauper. Trying to breathe, swear and spit out water at the same time, he almost drowned himself.
In the end, Ohio gained the shore, and, shivering uncontrollably, followed the other three up the tidal rocks, finding graspholds and footholds amidst slippery seaweed. Limpets and chitons clung to the rocks, armoured against the sea. Crabs retreated, some sidling into pools of water, others clattering into deep crevices.
Then the climbers reached the higher rocks, bare but for barnacles.
Ohio, gasping, sat down to catch his breath.
'You'd better hurry,' said Miphon to Ohio, 'or you'll never catch your crew.'
'What?' said Ohio. 'That cut-throat mob of Scourside eagermouths? What good's a crew without a ship? And where do they think they're running to? There's no fireside to the east for a hundred leagues. Would you run that way?'
'No,' said Hearst, getting the words out with difficulty because his teeth were chattering so hard. 'We'll go west.'
'Then I'll come with you, unless you object.'
i don't mind,' said Miphon.
'The more swords the better,' said Hearst.
From the Collosnon ship came a shout:
'Sagresh!'
'I wish I knew what they were saying,' said Ohio.
'They're calling on us to surrender,' said Hearst. 'But they'll never catch us in the hills. Come on, let's go.'
They set off quickly to try to generate enough heat to warm themselves. Ahead lay a steep, rocky climb leading toward a high ridge. Mosses, lichens and stubborn salt-wind grasses grew amongst the rocks, but there was not a scrap of vegetation that could reasonably be considered as cover. The four knew they could be seen by the Collosnon, and that their progress would be followed closely; gaining the heights, they did not immediately try and hide, but instead turned to survey the shore.
The incoming tide had allowed the Collosnon warship to come right in beside the rocks of the shore.
'There's nobody ashore yet,' said Miphon.
'They won't follow us,' said Hearst. 'We've got too much of a start: they'd never catch us.'
But even as they watched, the ship started to disembark large white animals.
'Horses!" said Ohio.
'They must be dreaming." said Miphon. 'They'll never get horses up that slope.'
i don't think they're horses.' said Blackwood.
'I know a horse when I see one,' said Miphon. 'Even at this distance.'
Riders mounted up; a party of twenty turned east to follow the pirate crew, while eight started to make their way up the slope toward Hearst, Miphon, Ohio and Blackwood.
'Those aren't horses,' said Ohio.
'What did I tell you?" said Blackwood.
'They're the size of horses,' said Hearst, 'but they climb like goats. Miphon, what do they look like to you?'
Miphon listened, trying to catch the thoughts of the animals, but they were still far away. Besides, his powers were at a low ebb. He had been forever seasick on their voyaging, and had scarcely been able to practice the meditations at all.
T don't know what they are.' said Miphon.
'Who cares?' said Ohio. 'Let's run!'
Inland, a few leagues south, mountains rose abruptly from a landscape of peat bogs, lakes, pools and tarns: the broken country in between, with its skull-smooth outcrops of grey rock, offered no vegetation of any height.
if we can make it to the mountains,' said Blackwood, 'we'll be safe.'
'You go then,' said Hearst, iil make my stand here. With luck I can hold them up long enough to give you a chance.'
'Don't be a fool,' said Ohio. 'For all we know, they'll turn back rather than chase us inland. Come on.'
And they began to run. There was only a light wind; there was no sound of bird or insect. Their feet went soft over grass and the worn-down nubs of rock outcroppings. Jogging south, they wasted no breath on talk.
Arriving at the top of a small bluff overlooking a tarn, they disturbed two gulls, which rose from the dark waters, leaving silent circles spreading ripple by ripple across the surface. The gulls wheeled silently overhead, grey feathers in flight in a grey sky, and then were gone.
The four scrambled down the rock face of the bluff and skirted round the edge of the tarn; underneath grass, mud quaked beneath their weight. Another slope confronted them; up they went.
The hunted men began to feel they were moving in a dream, where there was no end to the cool, odourless air, the black pools, the salt-wind grasses, the silent grey rocks and the grey sky reaching away to the horizon.
Then they heard the white riders hallooing behind them:
'Sa-say!'
Then it was no dream any more: it was sweat, heat, strain and gut-wrenching effort as they tried to force themselves along faster. Finally they paused on a high point, panting, faces flushed, limbs shaking with fatigue.
'We can't outrun them,' said Miphon. Hearst drew his sword. 'So it ends, then,' he said.
- So make a stand, song-singer, sword-master, leader of men. Make a stand, Hast, my hero, my brother in blood.
'Lpt's split up,' said Ohio. 'If we separate, one of us might get away, if we run quick enough.'
'You run,' said Hearst. 'I'll take my chances here.'
if you take odds like that, I'll gamble against you any time,' said Ohio. 'Don't be a fool: run.'
The riders were having difficulty getting their animals down a slope that was almost sheer, but soon they would be past that obstacle.
'They will remember me as a brave man, at least,' said Hearst.
'I'd rather be remembered as an old man,' said Ohio.
'No chance of that,' said Hearst.
'Yes,' said Blackwood. 'There's still one chance.'
He held up the green bottle which they had been carrying with them, and which they had avoided entering for all these days, believing Elkor Alish to be waiting inside.
'If we go in there, we'll have to face Alish,' said Hearst.
'He's one man, we're four,' said Miphon. 'It's a good idea - the only idea. Come on.' "What's this about?' said Ohio. 'Follow,' said Blackwood.
They left the high point and plunged down a slope, so they were out of sight of the pursuers. Blackwood threw the green bottle so it fell into the dark waters of a tarn.
'Ohio,' said Blackwood, 'Hold my shoulder.'
'Why?' said Ohio.
'Do as you're told.'
When they were all in contact, Miphon, who was wearing the ring commanding the green bottle, turned the ring.
Green went the world.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
'The man who rules this rules the world,' said Elkor Alish.
He held the death-stone in his hand; in the green bottle, it could do no harm.
'It's a greater thing for a man to learn to rule himself,' said Blackwood.
'So our woodsman plays philosopher,' said Alish. 'How did he come by such pretensions?'
They could talk freely and without fear: they were in separate halves of a room divided by a wall that was covered with carvings of wizards, warriors, dragons and creatures of the Swarms; a portcullis blocked the only way through that wall.
'Do you think me ignorant?' said Blackwood. 'I remember the council of war in Castle Diktat on the island of Ebonair, the battle of the Bluesky Waters, the wreck of the Dalmanasturn. I remember the Long War, the Empire of Wizards, the court of Talaman. You know what I know.'
Ohio hung back, watching. Miphon stood beside him, letting Hearst and Blackwood do the talking.
'What's this nonsense?' said Ohio. 'There's no castle on Ebonair. The Dalmanasturn is only a children's story. And what and where are the Bluesky Waters? And who was -'
'Listen,' said Miphon. 'Weil explain later.'
Elkor Alish was pacing backwards and forwards on the other side of the portcullis, declaiming in a loud voice:
'. . . then south to conquer. Ancient wrongs will be righted. The battle-banners of Rovac will fly from the
towers of the Castle of Controlling Power. The Confederation of Wizards will be broken, destroyed.'
'You're mad,' said Hearst, and meant it.
'Mad?' said Elkor Alish. He laughed. 'No, Morgan, this isn't madness. It's destiny! In me you see the manifest destiny of Rovac. I have proof.'
'Proof?' said Hearst. 'And how did you come by it? From eating the moon and drinking salt water? Or -'
'Ahyak Rovac!' screamed Alish, drawing his sword.
Keen steel glittered in the gloom.
'I see,' said Hearst, 'that you've not yet lost your voice along with your sanity.'
T found this sword,' said Alish, his voice hissing, 'deep in the red bottle.'
'It's a wonder that you can find anything,' said Hearst, 'seeing that you're navigating with your head stuck half way up your backside.'
Alish screamed at him:
'Ahyak Rovac!'
Echoes woke in the gloom of the green bottle. The sword swept toward the portcullis. Metal met metal with a rending scream. Fire blazed white and blue. Five bars of the portcullis, each as thick as a man's thumb, were cut through by that single sword-blow.
'Now bite off your prattling tongue,' said Alish, his voice intense. 'Or use it to name this blade.'
'Raunen Song,' said Hearst, unwillingly.
The sword figured in the Black Blood Legends, the song cycle telling of wrongs suffered by the people of Rovac, and past attempts to right them.
'That is one of its names,' said Alish. 'Arbiter is another - and it has others. But, yes, Raunen Song names it well. Look. See? Rune-writing on the blade. A death-pledge from our yesterdays.'
'Alish,' said Hearst, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. 'We're talking of ancient history. That was a different world. We're born into the daylight, not into the shadowland of memory.'
'You talk treason!'
'Treason?' cried Hearst, outraged. 'You talk of treason? You? An oath-breaker? You cost me my hand!'
'Yes! And you would have cost us a continent,' said Alish. 'You were too weak for our purposes. But now is your chance to serve your people. I've waited here for weeks, sleeping safe from assassins behind this portcullis - if it can be raised, I've not yet found the method -and I'm not disposed to wait any longer. Take the ring from the wizard so we can leave here.'
Slowly Hearst raised his right arm, bringing his steel hook up to the level of his face. The metal was green in the green light.
'First explain this."
'I already have,' said Alish. 'A hand is a small price for a continent.' 'You broke your oath!'
i was not born to serve my own words,' said Alish, his voice strong and clear, 'but to keep the oath sworn by my ancestors on this blade: Raunen Song. We have a dispensation for those times when we treat with the ancient enemy.'
'Oh yes? And to try to kill me along with the rest by using the death-stone?'
'You made an alliance with the enemy.'
T took the same vows that you took. We walked in the same shadow: then you betrayed all of us. The only way for you to make amends is to yield up the death-stone. Now!'
Elkor Alish screamed:
'Ahyak Rovac!'
Tortured metal screamed as Raunen Song cut through another half-dozen bars of the portcullis.
'Cut your way through if you wish,' said Hearst. 'There's four of us and one of you.'
'Yes,' said Ohio, stepping forward. 'And whoever you are, my blade will be happy enough to bargain for your head.'
"Bargain." said Alish, slowly, tasting the word. 'We could bargain, you know. Morgan, I can be gone from here any time I want.'
'He's lying!' said Miphon. 'There's no way out. If he starts down a drop-hole, the forces at work in the shaft will tear him from the walls and spit him out at the other end.'
Alish picked up the red bottle that was lying at his feet.
T can do it, Morgan. I've found ropes and chains. I can lower this bottle down a drop-shaft. Then use this ring on my finger here to get inside the red bottle. Then use the ring again - and I'll be outside the red bottle, at the bottom of the drop-shaft.'
'Can he do it?' said Hearst, turning to Miphon.
'What do you think?' said Miphon.
'From there I'll have to climb," said Alish. 'I'll be under the overhang of one of the wizard towers that rise from the walls of Castle Vaunting. It won't be easy, but I can do it.'
'You'd have done it already if you could,' said Hearst.
'No, Morgan. It would be death. The mad-jewel still commands Castle Vaunting; I lost the red charm that wards against it. When summer comes, a full year will have gone by
. Then I can leave safely.'
'You'll never know when it's summer,' said Miphon.
i count my sleeps,' said Alish. 'There may be an error, small or large, but if I err on the side of safety I'll survive. So you see, Morgan, I can leave before many months have passed. It's best that you give me the ring. Kill the wizard. Take it!'
'No,' said Hearst.
'Then give me the red charm from around your neck. Throw it to me. Then I can leave, now.'
'No,' said Hearst. 'We're going to Castle Vaunting. We'll set the flame trench ablaze so you'd burn if you tried to climb the castle walls. We'll keep it burning for
a thousand years if we have to. There'll be no way out of the bottle for you.'
'So you are a traitor.' said Alish. 'Argan is Rovac's rightful heritage - yet you deny your own people. What about you. stranger? Once I get out of here I can rule the world. Take your sword. Kill Hearst, and I can offer you - anything!*
'You're raving,' said Ohio.
'So rot you then,' said Alish. ill get out of here, whether you help me or not. You'll see.'
Turning on his heel, Elkor Alish strode away. He went to the stairs that led downwards, closing the hatch after him.
The travellers searched for the mechanism that would raise the portcullis. At last Ohio found it, but even once the portcullis had been lifted, they still had to cut their way through a hatchway bolted against them. They went down the stairs cautiously in case Alish was waiting to ambush them.