by Hugh Cook
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When Yen Olass managed to push her way into the centre of the crowd, she found a large ugly man, bound hand and foot to a pole. Yen Olass recognized him without any troubled at all: Volaine Persaga Haveros, sometime Lord Commander of the Imperial City of Gendormargensis. A violent argument was going on as to what should be done with him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The army was camped on open ground between the Hollern River and Castle Vaunting. This must have been a reasonably pleasant spot when the advance guard had arrived. Now that some five thousand men had trampled over it, dug holes and fireplaces, put up earthwork defences, unloaded carts and driven in hitching posts for oxen and horses, it looked ugly. The town of Lorford, just to the west, was now mostly burnt-out ruins; what remained was being demolished for firewood. Soldiers had already crossed the bridge leading north from Lorford to fell trees for extra firewood.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The embassy consisted of one man, a hard-faced professional soldier who announced himself as Morgan Gestrel Hearst, son of Avor the Hawk, veteran of the wars of the Cold West, Chevalier of the Iron Order of the city of Chi'ash-lan, warrior of Rovac, dragon-killer and blood-sworn defender of the Prince of Estar, Johan Meryl Comedo.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
While the struggle for control of the battlements proceeded, two members of the besieging army seized the opportunity to indulge in some close-quarter tactics of their own. Haveros and the Princess Quenerain had been apart for too long; now, at last, they were together, secluded within the tent set aside for the princess to prepare herself for the Rite of Purification. Nobody would disturb them while the battle raged: nobody would even think of them.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Yen Olass Ampadara woke in the early hours of night. She was cold, but the cold was not intolerable; wool, even when wet, tends to give warmth. She extracted herself from the hole she had been sleeping in, and scooped cold water from the river to appease the protest in her belly.
CHAPTER TWENTY
An otter woke in the forest. How had it got there? What was it doing there? Why did everything hurt so much? Why was the cold so vicious? Cold, hurt, and dazed by a mix of fatigue and dreams, the otter rolled onto its hands and knees and lay there, suffering. A piteous mewling sound escaped it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When the three fugitives were halfway to'Lake Armansis, they ran into a Melski patrol. After some bloody clashes with the Collosnon army near Lorford, the Melski had withdrawn to the depths of the riverforest, where the odds would favour them. With a Melski to provide them with introductions, Yen Olass and Resbit were spared the indignities of interrogation. Otherwise, they might have found life rather unpleasant for a day or so, for the Melski were in an ugly mood.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
With escape to the west cut off, Yen Olass would have liked to stay with the Melski, but she was a minority of one, The big, green animals made the others uneasy, and, as Haveros said, 'Once they start killing humans, there's no telling where they'll stop.' Even Resbit allowed herself to be persuaded by that argument. So, when the river forked north of Lake Armansis, the humans chose the westerly branch while the Melski took the easterly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Early the next day, it began to rain. As they marched, steep banks forced them into the river, where they waded knee-deep; few things are more disgusting than soaking wet boots just after breakfast, but nobody complained.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
'Mellicks!' shouted Toyd.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Upriver from the castle, they encountered more of the strange starstone mushrooms growing in bunches of two or three. Further north, they found an ominous array of holes in the riverbank. These, big enough for a man to walk inside without bending, snorted steam and scalding water intermittently. There were seventeen of them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lord Alagrace was weary. He knew the truth: he was too old for campaigning. In particular, he was too old to go tramping for league after league through wet, damp forest in pursuit of mutinous officers. He said as much.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Two men were fighting.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The two men met by the river within a semicircle of spectators. Even the men directed to guard Lord Alagrace and the others had come to watch, bringing their prisoners with them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The escapers were caught, dragged back to camp, roughed up a little, and tied up to improvised torture posts. A big bonfire was lit. Chonjara had an extra ration broken out and shared around. Some of the soldiers produced a little wine or hard liquor which had been stored away in the bottom of their packs. A festive atmosphere prevailed.
CHAPTER THIRTY
They chose the river rather than the forest because navigating through a forest at night is a difficult undertaking; with the need for speed, and the promise of pursuit, it becomes nightmarish. They could not go through the forest without leaving footprints and breaking branches; blundering round in the dark they would inevitably be noisy; they might run into a hostile Melski patrol, or walk round in circles, and they would certainly leave a clear trail for the pursuit to follow.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Daylight.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The men were gone. All of them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Resbit and Yen Olass built a house by the lakeside. They put up a woodshed and a storehouse. They designed and built traps for rats, not to secure skins for making clothes, but to protect their store of food. They were rich, and did not hesitate to deny their wealth to the bushrats of Penvash.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
In the days that followed, the two women learnt what had happened in the south. The army laying siege to Castle Vaunting had been destroyed by madness. Leaving madness guarding the castle, the garrison had marched away to the east. There were rumours to say that they had conquered more Collosnon troops at the High Castle in Trest by another application of madness. After that, their movements were not known. They had disappeared.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
In the spring of the year Celadric 4, when Monogail was three years old and a bit, the Rovac came north to Lake Armansis. There were three hundred of them, the ragged remnant of a rearguard which had fought the Collosnon forces while covering the retreat of the Rovac armies down the Hollern River to ships waiting to take them to the Lesser Teeth.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
'Bears!' said Yen Olass.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Living by the sea, Yen Olass had to take special care to prevent her fingernails rusting away. She painted them with imported lacquer and wore gloves when she was working out on the flats.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Arriving at Skyhaven, Yen Olass dumped her pack down by the door, which had been left ajar.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Yen Olass woke to find morning sunlight streaming through a window of white waxed paper. Somewhere, someone was drilling troops, shouting harsh commands in Ordhar.
CHAPTER FORTY
On a ship in the harbour of Brennan on the island of Carawell in the archipelago known as the Lesser Teeth, the oracle Yen Olass Ampadara said goodbye to her child Monogail, who was given over to the care of a young Rovac warrior by the name of Altol Stokpol. The warrior was scarcely twenty years old, and to Yen Olass he looked like a boy. His wife was even younger; Yen Olass had briefed her successfully on the care of frogs and fish, but had found it difficult to convey the niceties of the feeding, grooming and sleeping habits of the ghosts of long-departed dragons. Yen Olass could only hope that Monogail would be all right.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
After sailing some distance south, the good ship Ebonair turned east, on a course designed to take it to Iglis. Before getting there, they were intercepted. A sleek patrol boat overhauled them and challenged them. The Ebonair hov
e to and was boarded. The swaggering Collosnon intruders came to order promptly when Yen Olass emerged from her stateroom in the guise of the Silent One of the Sisterhhood, and, carrying off her role with an enviable degree of panache, called on them to obey her and do her bidding, in the name of the emperor.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
By tradition, the Yarglat did not eat with their womenfolk. It was true that, during the reign of the Witchlord, the dralkosh Bao Gahai used to dine with Onosh Gulkan on a regular basis -- but she had been an exceptional woman in more ways than one.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
At the banquet that evening in Castle Celadric, Yen Olass sat in a place of honour, on York's right; from time to time he thumped his fist on the table and shouted out, calling for special treats and titbits to be brought forth for her. Serving maids scurried to obey.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The castle was in darkness, except where flaming brands burnt here and there in the flagstone corridors. As York led Yen Olass to his own suite of rooms, a slave went in front bearing a lantern. In the bedroom, the slave smoothed the feather mattress and turned down the feather duvet. Then York dismissed her, and she departed. Yen Olass was alone in the suite with Celadric's brother.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
The castle was asleep, and Morgan Hearst was ready to move. His cell was pitch black, as the torch they had left with him had long since expired. But by now he knew this prison intimately. He had tested the door for weaknesses, finding none. Climbing up onto the heavy lintel above the door, he had probed the stonework. Again he had been disappointed. But the floor and the walls had yielded up interesting secrets.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Garabatoon was crowded for the river festival. Just upstream of the bridge, a clutter of rafts and small boats jammed the Hollern River. Then there was a long stretch of river which had been left clear for boat races, river crossing competitions and so forth. Then, further upstream, there were three rafts.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
They sailed first to the Greater Teeth, and it was there that Yerzerdayla helped Yen Olass put the finishing touches to her plan for taking over the Collosnon Empire.
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