Calis said, ‘How long before they reach the city?’
Praji said, ‘I only have a rough idea where the hell we are.’ He thought and said, ‘Maybe a week, ten days at the outside. If they don’t waste their horses, two weeks.’
‘Can we get there before them?’
‘No,’ came the flat answer. ‘If we had wings, certainly, or if we hacked our way through those Gilani and had fresh horses waiting for us on the other side, maybe, but if we keep going south, there’s no way we can reach the city within a week of those lizard men.’
‘Can the city hold out for a week?’
‘Maybe,’ answered Praji frankly. ‘It depends on how much chaos is going on due to the host that’s got to be fleeing southward. With so many people trying to get in, they may already be under siege.’
Erik said, ‘Can we get around them?’
Vaja said, ‘If we can get to Chatisthan, we might be able to find a ship that could take us up to the City of the Serpent River.’
Calis said, ‘Too many maybes. We’re going to strike for the coast, then we’ll try for the City of the Serpent River.’ He called out to Hatonis, ‘Do you want to try for Chatisthan, or head overland to home?’
Hatonis shrugged, and grinned, looking youthful despite his grey hair. ‘One fight is pretty much the same as another, and if we don’t fight the snakes at Maharta we’re certainly going to have to fight them at our own door.’
Calis nodded. ‘Let’s go.’
Erik saw the others get into line, and he slapped Roo on the shoulder as his boyhood friend walked past. Roo gave him a crooked smile that showed there was nothing to smile about, and Erik nodded in agreement. Erik waited until the last man had passed, then picked up the rear guard position. Suddenly he realized he had taken Foster’s place in line without being told. He looked ahead to see if de Loungville was signaling or if another was coming to take his place, but when no word came down to give up the corporal’s place, he continued along, returning his mind to the business at hand: staying alive.
Providence smiled upon them, as they found a southern trail. It looked to be a miners’ trail, for it was wider than any goat herder. would have needed, and at several places along the way areas of bare rock proclaimed those workers who had hacked their way through the soil and stone to make it easy to get carts up and down the road.
For Calis’s company it was as if at last they were running into some good luck. The men moved along swiftly, at a trot for a time, then a walk, the pace designed to cover the maximum distance by the end of each day.
The wounded were able to keep up, though the man with the injured leg was almost unconscious with pain and loss of blood by the end of the day. Nakor dressed his wound and told Calis that with him and Sho Pi working on it all night, the man would be slightly better each day.
They found water and were clearly able to increase their speed, as they moved quickly to a rising crest. A rumbling warned them as they climbed the rise; then as they topped the crest, in the distance they saw the falls.
De Loungville swore. They faced a gorge cut through the mountains; below them by a hundred feet a great fall of water cascaded into a small lake another two hundred feet below that. From there the river meandered southeast toward the ocean.
Ancient rocks marked where once a rope-and-wood suspension bridge had crossed the gap. Another pair of rock anchors rose up on the opposite side of the gorge.
‘The Satpura River,’ said Praji. ‘Now I know exactly where we are.’
‘Where are we?’ asked Calis.
‘Dead east across the Plain of Djams lies Maharta,’ said Praji. Turning to Calis he said, ‘I don’t know what sort of magic was in that tunnel, but we’re one hell of a lot farther away from where we entered the grasslands than I thought.’
‘What do you mean?’ said de Loungville. ‘We were fifty, sixty miles away from where we entered when we got to that big grotto.’
‘More like three hundred,’ answered Vaja. ‘It would take you a month on a good horse to get back to that mound out in the grass,’ he observed, ‘if you could get past the Gilani.’
Nakor said, ‘It was a very good trick, then, for I felt nothing of it.’ He smiled as if this was a major feat. Then he grinned. ‘Bet it was as soon as we moved from the barrow. Bet you there is no tunnel there. It must be an illusion.’ He shook his head. ‘Now I really want to go back and look.’
Calis said, ‘Some other time. How far to Maharta?’
Praji shrugged. ‘By caravan from Palamds to Port Grief, a month. No one goes from there to Maharta overland – they take a ship. But there is that old coast road, if you don’t mind the bandits and other low-lifes that haunt it.’
‘Where’s our best course?’ asked Calis.
Praji rubbed his chin a moment. ‘I think we send Sho Pi and Jadow that way,’ he said, pointing down the slope near the gorge, ‘to see if there’s a trail down nearby. If so, we take it. If we follow the river, we should be less than a week from Palamds. We can find a caravan or buy horses, and then we ride to Port Grief. From there a ship, and we’re on our way to wherever you need to go.’
‘I need to get back to Krondor,’ said Calis, and several of the men nearby cheered when they heard that.
Nakor said, ‘No, first we must go to Maharta, then to Krondor.’
‘Why?’ asked Calis.
‘We haven’t stopped to ask why the Emerald Queen is taking the river cities.’
Vaja said, ‘Good question.’
‘Hatonis, Praji, you have any ideas?’ asked Calis.
Hatonis said, ‘Conquest for its own purposes is not unknown in this land – for booty, to enlarge one’s domain, for honor – but this simple taking of everything …’ He shrugged.
Praji said, ‘If there was something I wanted in Maharta, and I couldn’t trust to have those other cities at my back …’
Erik said, ‘Maybe it has to do with getting every sword under one banner?’
Calis looked at him for a long minute, then nodded. ‘They plan on bringing the biggest army in history against the Kingdom.’
Then Roo said, ‘How are they planning on getting there?’
Nakor slowly grinned as Calis said, ‘What!’
Roo looked embarrassed as he repeated, ‘How are they planning on getting there? You needed two ships to get us here, with stores and all. They’ve got, what? A hundred thousand, two hundred thousand soldiers? And a lot of horses and equipment. Where are they going to get the ships?’
Hatonis said, ‘The shipbuilders at Maharta are the finest in Novindus. Only the shipwrights in the Pa’j-kamaka Islands are their equal. Our clan has long purchased our ships in Maharta. It is the only shipyard that could possibly produce enough transports in a short time, perhaps in two years or so.’
Calis said, ‘Then we must make a stop there.’
Nakor said, ‘Yes. We must burn the shipyards.’
Hatonis’s eyes widened. ‘Burn … But the city will be under siege. They will have put hulks into the harbor mouth to keep the Emerald Queen’s ships from sailing in, and it will be impossible to get within twenty miles of the city for the patrols on both sides.’
‘How long will it take to rebuild those yards if they’re destroyed?’ asked Calis.
Hatonis shrugged. ‘The yards are massive, and have been built up slowly over the last few centuries. It would take years to restore them. Lumber must be harvested up here and in the Sothu and Sumanu mountains and shipped downriver or carried in wagons. The great keels take a year or more to be cut and brought down, at great expense.’
Nakor almost danced, he was so excited. ‘If we burn the yards, we get five, six, maybe as many as ten years before ships can be built here. Many, many things can happen in that time. This Emerald Queen, can she keep her host together that long? This I think unlikely.’
Calis’s eyes seem to light with the prospect. Then he fought back his enthusiasm and said, ‘Don’t sell her short, Nakor.’
Nakor nodded. The two had spoken at great length about what they had seen, and knew they were dealing with the most dangerous foe since the Tsurani invasion of the Riftwar. ‘I know, but men are men, and unless the Pantathian magic is so powerful as to make their hearts change, many of these soldiers of hers will forsake her banner without payment.’
‘Still,’ said Hatonis, ‘denying her the shipyards would be a major victory. My father ran the most successful trading consortium in the City of the Serpent River. We can send men to the Pa’jkamaka Islands and ensure they do not sell her ships. I will personally guarantee no shipwright in the City of the Serpent River will work on her behalf.’
Calis said, ‘You know that after Maharta she will march on you? It’s logical.’
‘I know we shall have to fight her. If we must, we can abandon the city and live again in the wild. We men of the clans were not always city men.’ Hatonis smiled a dark smile. ‘But many of her greenskins will die before that day comes.’
Calis said, ‘Well, first things first. Jadow, Sho Pi, see if you can find us a way down from here.’
The two men nodded and trotted back along the trail, looking for another way down.
‘As long as we wait,’ said Nakor, opening his bag, ‘anyone want an orange?’ He grinned as he pulled out a large one and stuck his thumb in, squirting juice on Praji and de Loungville.
They found a trail down, a narrow rocky pathway as treacherous as the first one had been kind. Three men fell to their deaths when a ledge of stone, seemingly solid, had collapsed under their feet. Now the remaining sixty men huddled in a narrow defile, huddled around two campfires, vainly trying to withstand the cold as a sudden change in weather sent the temperature below freezing.
Calis and another three men had gone hunting, for the remaining rations were gone, but could only come back reporting no game was near. The company was too large, said Calis, and game was staying clear. He said he’d leave before first light and try to get as far down the trail as possible, to see if he could find a deer or other large game.
Praji said there were bison roaming the plains and many of them lived in the woodlands of the foothills. Calis said he’d keep that in mind.
Erik and Roo sat shoulder to shoulder, holding out their hands to the fire, while others huddled miserably as close together for warmth as they could.
The only exception was Calis, who stood a short distance away, unmindful of the chill.
Roo said, ‘Captain?’
Calis said, ‘Yes?’
‘Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?’
De Loungville, from near the next fire, said, ‘Keep your mouth shut, Avery!’
Roo spoke through chattering teeth. ‘Hang me now and get it over with, why don’t you? I’m too cold to mind.’ To the Captain he said, ‘You and Nakor have been thick as fleas on a beggar since you came back, sir, and, well, if we’re going to be getting killed, I’d like to know what for before I close my eyes.’
A few other men said, ‘Yes,’ and ‘That’s right,’ before de Loungville’s bellow silenced them.
‘Next man opens his gob will find my boot in it! Understood?’
Calis said, ‘No, there’s some justice in what he said.’ He looked at the men nearest him and said, ‘Many of you will not get home. You knew that when you were given reprieve from your sentence. Others of you are here because you’re loyal to the Lion Clan or because you’re old friends of Praji’s. And some of you are just in the wrong place.’ He glanced at Greylock, who smiled a little at the last.
Calis knelt and went on, ‘I’ve told you some of what we face, and I’ve warned you that should this Emerald Queen prevail, this world as we know it ends.’
The clansmen and Praji’s mercenaries hadn’t heard that, and several muttered disbelief. Hatonis silenced his own men, and Praji shouted, ‘He’s telling the truth. Shut up and listen.’
Calis said, ‘Long ago the Dragon Lords ruled this world. You may have heard legends of them, but they were not legends. They were real.
‘When the men of the Kingdom fought the Tsurani a half century ago, a door was opened, a door between the worlds. The Dragon Lords, who had left this world ages ago, tried to use that door to return. Some very brave and resourceful men stopped them.
‘But they’re still out there.’ He pointed into the night sky, and several men looked up at the distant stars. ‘And they’re still trying to get back.’
Nakor suddenly spoke. ‘This woman, the Emerald Queen, she was once someone I knew, a long time ago. She is what you would call a sorceress, a magician. She made a pact with the serpent men and they promised her eternal youth. What she didn’t know was that she would lose her soul, her spirit, and become something else.’
Nakor continued, ‘There is very bad magic under that mountain.’
Calis said, ‘You don’t believe in magic.’
Nakor smiled, but there was little humor in his expression. ‘Call it tricks, then, or spirit force or anything you like, but those serpent men, they use their powers in a very twisted way. They do evil things that no sane man would think to do, because they are not sane.
‘These are not the creatures that mothers tell children of, to make them mind. These are very bad creatures who think that one of the Dragon Lords, named Alma-Lodaka, is a goddess. More, they think she is the mother of all creation, the Green Mother, the Emerald Lady of Serpents. She created them as servants, living decoration, nothing more, but they think they are her “favorites,” like children she loves, and once they open a door for her return, she will elevate them to the status of demigods. They will never believe that if they do this terrible thing, this Alma-Lodaka will sweep them away along with everything else.’
Nakor fell silent a moment, then said, ‘Calis makes no stories. If this woman, this Emerald Queen, is behaving as I think she is, then things are very bad. Calis, tell them of your father.’
Calis nodded. ‘My father is called Tomas. He was a human boy as all here were. He came to own some artifacts of power, ancient armor and a golden sword once the property of a Valheru, by name Ashen-Shugar. My father wore that armor and carried that sword through the Riftwar, against the Tsurani, and over the years he changed.
‘My father is no longer human. He is something unique on this world, a human body changed by the spirit of the long-dead Dragon Lord who owned that armor and sword.’
‘Unique until now,’ said Nakor. ‘For this Emerald Queen may be another such as he.’
The men muttered, and Calis said, ‘For reasons I only half understand, my father’s nature is that of the human boy –’
Nakor interrupted again. ‘That is for another time. I know why, and these men don’t need to.’ To the men he said, ‘It’s simply true. Tomas is a man, with a human heart, despite his power. But this woman, this one who called herself Lady Clovis a long time ago –’
Hatonis said, ‘The Emerald Queen is Lady Clovis! It’s been nearly twenty-five years since she fled the city with Valgasha and Dahakon.’
Nakor shrugged. ‘It’s her body.’
‘The point,’ continued Calis, ‘is that if the Pantathians are using their magic to do with this woman what others did with my father …’
Calis spoke briefly of how his father, a boy from the Far Coast, had come to wear ancient armor that magically gave him the memories and powers of one of the ancient Dragon Lords. ‘Nakor is convinced,’ he finished, ‘that this Emerald Queen is a mortal woman he once knew, with magic ability, but still much like you, who is undergoing a transformation much as my father did more than fifty years ago.’
‘Then another Dragon Lord may soon be among us,’ finished Nakor.
Biggo said, ‘Why can’t your father settle her for once and for all – then we can all go home?’
Calis said, ‘There’s more to this than two Dragon Lords facing off. More than I’m willing to tell.’ He glanced at Nakor, who nodded.
Nakor said, ‘She’s not a Valheru yet.’ He nodded with certainty. ‘If she was, she’d come flying across the ocean on a dragon. She wouldn’t need an army.’
Calis said, ‘If you’re completely through?’
Nakor grinned, but without any self-consciousness. ‘Probably not.’
‘In any event, someone must return to Krondor and tell Prince Nicholas what occurs here.’
‘What if only one of us gets back?’ asked Luis. ‘What do we say?’
Calis was silent a moment, then told them, ‘You must say this: the Pantathians bring a host to take by force what they could not take before by guile. Leading them is one in the mantle of a Dragon Lord who may be able to seize the prize. Tomas and Pug must be warned.’
He looked at the faces of the men, orange and yellow from the flicker of the firelight, all discomfort from the cold forgotten. ‘Just those three things. That will be ample warning.
‘Now repeat them: the Pantathians bring a host to take by force what they could not take before by guile …’ The men repeated the sentence as if learning a lesson in school.
‘Leading them is one in the mantle of a Dragon Lord who may be able to seize the prize.’ The men repeated that.
‘Tomas and Pug must be warned.’ The company repeated that, too. ‘You may be asked a lot of other questions; answer truly and do not embellish or color your account. Truth is our only ally in this. But whatever else, you must remember these three things.’
Nakor said, ‘Now, I will help you understand what each of those three things means, so even if you’re too stupid to remember more than those three sentences, you might at least answer a question correctly.’
A few of the men laughed, but most remained quiet.
Calis turned away and started down the hillside on his hunt, and he wondered silently if he could truly make any of them understand.
Dawn saw shivering men making their way down the trail, frost crunching beneath their boot heels. More than one man had a fever, and all were weak from hunger. Calis had been ahead of them for two days now, and no sign of game had been seen.
Thankfully, water wasn’t a problem, but if they didn’t find food soon, men would begin to die. Nakor’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of oranges helped, but they would not be enough to keep the men alive in this climate. It was cold during the day, and colder at night, plunging below freezing. Without much body fat, through training and the rigors of travel, the men needed more substantial food. Already some were plagued by the stomach flux from eating too many oranges and nothing else.
Erik had never seen Roo look so pale, and he knew he must look the same. They were moving through fairly thick woodlands, devoid of color as the leaves of fall blanketed the ground.
De Loungville turned to signal a halt, when suddenly a shriek cut through the air and arrows came flying. ‘Defensive square!’ shouted de Loungville.
Erik snapped his shield to the front, kneeling to cover as much of his body as possible while the other men in his squad did the same, forming a large square, roughly fifteen men to a side, ready to take the attack.
The brush and nearby piles of leaves exploded with the forms of the men who had been hiding there, and others came running from nearby hiding places. Erik saw the green armbands and shouted, ‘It’s the snakes’ men!’
Steel clashed and swords answered and Erik was suddenly swinging with all his might at a man wearing a full helm. He cleaved through the man’s shield, his sword cutting deep into the left arm, then he was dodging a counterthrust as the man fell forward. Roo stepped behind him and took the attacker under the sword arm, killing him before he hit the ground.
Erik spun to his left and struck at another, while Roo turned to face one running at him full force. The second man leaped forward, smashing shield against shield, knocking the smaller Roo backwards.
In the hollow of the square, de Loungville, Greylock, and three other men formed a flying company, ready to plug any breech. De Loungville stepped forward and quickly killed the man on top of Roo, yanking him off and shouting, ‘Get back in line, Avery! You trying to avoid work?’
Roo rolled to his feet and shook off his dizziness, then half ran, half jumped back into place beside Erik. The battle hung close, with neither side taking the advantage, and Erik wondered how long he could keep this up, as weak from hunger as he was.
Then a shout, quickly followed by another, and men at the rear of the forward portion of the square saw attackers falling, struck from behind by arrows. Calis stood down the trail, quickly taking bead and letting fly, and before they knew someone was behind them, four attackers had fallen.
With the small pause on that one front, de Loungville shouted, ‘Charge them!’ and led his five companions toward the strongest section of the attack.
The attackers were expecting anything but a counterattack, which threw them off balance. Seconds later, they were running for their lives.
Erik chased two men down a narrow pathway, overtaking one and striking him down from behind. The other swung to face him, raising his sword high, and Erik sought to take him with a quick thrust.
The man anticipated this, and Erik’s head rang with the shock of a shield bash to the face. Red lights exploded in his vision and he staggered back, raising his shield in reflex.
Hours of training saved his life as an instant later a sword blow rang on the shield. Erik swung blindly, and felt his own sword strike his opponent’s shield. His vision cleared in time to avoid another strike and the two men backed away a step, acknowledging that, in the other, each faced a dangerous opponent.
From somewhere behind, Erik heard de Loungville’s voice cut through the woods: ‘I want a prisoner!’
Erik tried to shout, and found his mouth didn’t work. He spat and felt a tooth wiggle. He tasted blood and felt his right eye burning as it began to blur with the blood running into it.
Gathering his wits, he shouted, ‘Over here!’
The man facing him, a large weatherbeaten figure of middle years, stood hesitating for a moment, then took another step backwards. ‘Over here!’ Erik shouted again as he attacked the man, rushing him. The man stood to take the attack, but rather than strike an overhand blow, Erik ducked, threw his shoulder behind his shield, and bashed the man, hoping to knock him down.
The man staggered backwards, and Erik drew back his blade, then danced backwards as the other swordsman lashed out. Erik again yelled, ‘Over here,’ and circled to his right, attempting to cut off any avenue of escape.
The man tensed and Erik made ready to counter a blow, when suddenly the man let his sword fall from his hand. He quickly tossed down his shield and took off his helm, which he also threw to the ground.
Erik glanced behind and saw Calis drawing a bead on the man. Erik breathed hard. ‘Took you long enough.’
Calis looked at Erik and smiled slightly. ‘It just seemed like a long time.’
Once the man had surrendered, he was affable enough. His name was Dawar, and he was originally from the city of Hamsa, but for the last seven years a member of a company called Nahoot’s Grand Company.
Calis, de Loungville, and Greylock interviewed the man while Nakor and Sho Pi tended the wounded. Erik’s wounds were superficial: a small cut to the forehead, a cut lip, some loose teeth, and lots of bruises. Sho Pi gave him some herbs to take and told him to sit with his hands over his face doing reiki for at least a half hour, and he might keep those teeth.
He sat on a rock with his hands over his face, elbows on knees, while others around him groaned in pain, those able to do reiki on their own wounds or being cared for by others.
Seventeen men had died in the battle; of the enemy, twenty-four. When Calis had struck from their rear, they had assumed another company was coming and it had broken them, otherwise it would have been worse.
Dawar said that a hundred men had lain in wait. Having spotted Calis passing the day before, a scout of Nahoot’s had backtracked, seen the company coming down the trail above, and had returned in time for their captain to organize the ambush.
