Ships from the West

Ten

The Bladehall was crowded, bubbling with talk that rose to the tall roof beams in a babble of surmise. Virtually every senior officer in the country was present with the exception of Aras of Gaderion, but he had sent a staff officer-cum-courier to represent him and to inform the High Command of recent events at the gap.

The King entered without ceremony, limping a little as he always did when he was tired. It was common knowledge about the palace that most nights lately he slept in a chair by the Queen's bed. She was very low now, and would not last more than a few more days. Only the day before, a formal embassy had been sent out to Aurungabar on her express orders, and the court was still in a feverish frenzy of specu shy;lation as to what it might signify. It was as well to steer clear of the King, though. His temper, never particularly equable, had become truly savage of late.

The hall hushed as he entered, flanked by General Formio and a tall, horribly scarred old man in travel-stained robes who bore a haversack on one shoulder. Corfe's personal body shy;guard, Felorin, brought up the rear, watching the stranger's back warily. The little group came to a halt in front of the map-table and Corfe scanned the faces of the assembled officers. They were staring at his aged companion with avid curiosity.

'Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the mage Golophin of Hebrion, one-time chief advisor to King Abeleyn. He is here with tidings from the west which take precedence over all other matters for the moment. Golophin, if you please.'

The old wizard thanked Corfe and then stared at the hungry faces which surrounded him much as the King had done. His mellifluous voice was without its customary music as he spoke.

'King Abeleyn of Hebrion is dead, as is King Mark of Astarac, and Duke Frobishir of Gabrion. The great naval armament which they commanded is destroyed. The fleet of the westerners has made landfall in Hebrion, and that king shy;dom has surrendered to the foe.'

A second of stunned silence, and then everyone began talking at once, a tumult of horrified exclamations, questions lost in the clamour. Corfe held up a hand and the noise tailed away. The Torunnan King's face was grey as marble.

'Let him continue.'

Golophin, unbidden, had filled a glass from the decanter on the table, and drained it at a draught. He smelled of wood-smoke, sweat, and another evocative stink much like the charged air of a thunderstorm. A vein throbbed like a blue worm in the hollow of one temple.

'Himerian troops are on the march. They are riding out from Fulk, down both sides of the Hebros towards Imerdon and the northern Hebrionese coast. An army has crossed from Candelaria into East Astarac and has defeated the Astarans in the foothills. Garmidalan is about to stand siege, if it is not besieged already. And if my information is correct, another Himerian army is making for the passes of the Malvennors as we speak, to take Cartigella from the rear.'

'How do you know all this?' General Comillan asked, his thick moustache bristling like a besom.

'I have a – a reliable source in the Himerian camp.'

'Won't they at least put up some resistance?' one Torunnan asked incredulously.

'Not in Hebrion. It has been agreed that there will be no pillage, no sacking of Abrusio, in exchange for a bloodless occupation. In Astarac the military has been caught off-guard, as have we all. They are in full retreat westwards. The garrison of Cartigella is capable enough, though, and will probably stand siege under Cristian, the Crown Prince.' Golophin filled his glass again, peered into it as though it were hemlock, and tossed it off.

'But Cartigella's fall is only a matter of time.'

'Gentlemen,' Corfe said softly, 'we are at war. The general mobilisation is under way. I signed the Conscription Decree not half an hour ago. As of now, this kingdom is under martial law, and every able-bodied man in the country is being called to the colours. No exceptions. Comillan, Formio, in the morn shy;ing you will begin processing the first batch of conscripts. I want them knocked into shape as quickly as possible. Com shy;illan, the Bodyguard will act as the kernel of the new training cadre-'

'Sir, I protest.'

'Your protest is noted. Colonel Heyd, I am drawing up a command for you which you will take north to reinforce Aras within two days. Colonel Melf.'

'Sir?'

'You also are to have an independent command. Once the Merduk contingents arrive from Aurungabar you will set off, and take it south, to the port of Rone. Your area of operations will be the southernmost foothills of the Cimbrics, where the mountains come down to the Levangore itself. The enemy may well try to sneak a column round our southern flank that way. You will be liaising with Admiral Berza.'

'Sir!' Melf, a tall, lean man who looked like a peasant farmer, beamed.

'What of the main body of the army, sir?' Formio asked.

'It will remain here in Torunn for the time being, under my command. That means the Cathedrallers, your Orphans For shy;mio, and the Bodyguard, of course. Ensign Roche, my apolo shy;gies for keeping you waiting. What news from Aras?'

The young officer seemed to gulp for a second, then jerkily proffered a dispatch case. 'Sir-'

'Read it out, if you please. All present needs must hear it.'

Ensign Roche flipped off the lid of the leather tube and unrolled the paper within. He cleared his throat. 'It is dated six days ago, sir.

' "Corfe, I write in haste and without ceremony. The bearer of this dispatch will give you a fuller picture of conditions up here than my penmanship ever can. He has experienced them first-hand. But you must know this – we have been swept out of the plains entirely by a large-scale advance of the enemy. Not one patrol can be sent out without encountering huge numbers of the foe, and in the past week we have lost heavily in men and horses. I have been tempted to essay a large-scale sally myself, but prefer to wait for your approval before attempting so major an operation. The Finnmarkans and Tarberans are still not yet up, thanks to our bridge-burning, but the Himerians have numbers enough without them it seems. I would hazard that they have already stripped Charibon of much of its garrison. They mean to take Gaderion, that much is plain.

"There is more. We are encountering something new, something which the bearer will be able to inform you of more fully. These Hounds, as they are called – they are beasts of some kind, or men that can become beasts at will. The rumours have been flying about the continent for years, as we all know, but I have had patrols, demi-tercios of good men, slaughtered like rabbits by these things, always in the night, half-glimpsed. Our intelligence-gathering is non shy;existent now. I believe that soon we will be under siege.

"Man for man, we are better soldiers than the foe, but this new thing we do not know how to fight, and there are no Dweomer-folk about to advise us. I need reinforcements, but also I need a way to fight back. I need to know how to kill these things.

"Officer Commanding Gaderion, Nade Aras."'

There was a concussive silence, as though the wind had been taken out of all their mouths. Corfe spoke first. 'Ensign Roche, you have encountered these things General Aras speaks of?' ‘I have, sir.'

Corfe flapped a hand impatiently. 'Tell us.'

Briefly, tonelessly, Roche recounted the fate which had befallen his patrol two sennights before. The attack of the fearsome, half-seen beasts, the death of his sergeant.

'We found the bodies in the wood after it had gone, sir.

They had been torn into pieces, twelve men. We had only heard that one shout. We saddled what horses remained, doubled up in the saddles and made our way back into Gaderion that same night.'

'You left the bodies unburied?' Comillan snapped.

Roche ducked his head. I am afraid so, sir. The men were panicked, and I-'

'It's all right, Ensign,' Corfe said. He turned to the old mage who stood at his side listening intently. 'Golophin, can you enlighten us?'

The wizard sighed heavily and stared into his empty glass. 'Aruan and his cohorts have been experimenting for years, perhaps centuries. They have taken normal men and made them into shifters. They have taken shifters and twisted them into new forms. They have bred unnatural beasts for the sole purpose of waging war, and these are now being unleashed upon the world. They destroyed the allied fleet, and now they will take part in the assault upon Torunna.'

'I ask you Aras's question: how do we kill these things?'

'It's quite simple. Iron or silver. One nick from a point or a blade made of either and the Dweomer which flows through the veins of these creatures has its current disrupted, and they die instantly.'

Corfe seemed slightly incredulous. 'That's it?'

'That's it, sire.'

'Then they are not so fearsome after all. You hearten me, Golophin.'

'The swords and pike-points of the army are made of tempered steel,' Formio said wryly. 'They will not bite, it seems. Nor will the lead of our bullets.' He looked quizzically at the old wizard.

'Correct, General.'

'We must get the smithies busy, then,' Corfe broke in. 'Iron blades and pike-points. And I'm thinking maybe some kind of iron barbs which can be fitted on to armour. We'll make of every man a deadly pincushion, so that if these things so much as lay a paw on him, they'll send themselves off to hell.'

The mood in the Bladehall lightened somewhat, and there were even some chuckles. The news from the west was bad, yes, but Hebrion and Astarac were not Torunna, and Abeleyn was no Corfe. The very sea itself might be subjugated to the will of Aruan and his cohorts, but there was no force on earth that would stop the Torunnan army once it had begun to march.

'Gentlemen,' Corfe said then, 'I believe you all know your duties for now, and Lord knows there's enough to be getting on with. You are dismissed. Ensign Baraz – you will stay behind.'

'Corfe,' Formio said in a low voice, 'have you thought any more on our discussion?'

‘I have, Formio,' the King replied evenly, 'and while you make very valid points, I believe that the possible gains outweigh the risks.'

'If you are wrong-'

'There is always that chance.' Corfe smiled, and gripped Formio by the shoulder. 'We are soldiers, not seers.'

'You are a king, not some junior commander who can be spared to hare off on a whim.'

'It's no whim, believe me. If it succeeds, it will bring down the Second Empire. That makes the gamble worthwhile.'

'Then at least let me come with you.'

'No. I need to leave behind someone I trust – someone who could be regent if the worst occurs.' 'A Fimbrian?'

'A Fimbrian who is my closest friend, and most trusted commander. It must be you, Formio.' 'The nobility will never wear it'

'The Torunnan nobility is not the fractious beast it once was. I have seen to that. No, you would have the backing of the army, and that is all that matters. Now let us hear no more of this. Continue the preparations, but discreetly.'

'Will you let him into our little secret?' Formio asked, nod shy;ding at Golophin, who was conversing with Ensign Baraz on the other side of the hall. Nearly all the other officers had left by now and the fire cracked and spat loudly in the sudden quiet. Felorin stood watchful as always in the shadows.

'I believe I will. He may be able to make some suggestion. There is always that bird of his anyway, a hell of a useful thing to have around.'

Formio nodded. 'There is something though, Corfe – some shy;thing about Golophin which does not feel right.'

'Explain.'

'Nothing, perhaps. It is just that sometimes I feel he should hate more. He has seen his king slain, his country enslaved, and yet I sense no hatred, hardly any anger in him.'

'What are you now, some kind of mind-reader?' Corfe grinned.

‘I find myself not wholly trusting him, is all.'

Corfe clapped him on the back. 'Formio, you are getting old and cantankerous. I'll see you later down at Menin Field. We'll go over those new formations again. But talk to the Quartermaster-General for me. Let's see how much scrap iron we can come up with.'

Formio saluted, spun on his heel, and left as crisply as a young officer fresh off the drill square.

'A good man, I think,' Golophin said, walking over from the fire. 'You are lucky in your friends, sire.'

'I have been lucky, yes,' Corfe said. Formio's words had unsettled him. He stared at the old wizard closely. 'Golophin, you said you had a reliable source in the Himerian camp. Would it be out of place for me to ask who it might be?'

'I would rather that his identity remained secret for now. He is an ambivalent sort, sire, a man unsure as to where his loyalties lie. They are sorry creatures, these fellows who can shy;not make up their minds what is black and what is white. Do you not think?' The mage's smile was disconcertingly shrewd.

'Indeed.' There was a brief moment where their eyes locked, and something akin to a struggle of wills took place. Golophin dropped his gaze first. 'Was there anything else, sire?'

'Yes, yes, there was. I was wondering if – that is to say-' Now it was Corfe who looked down. Quietly, he said, ‘I thought you might call in on the Queen. She is very low, and the physicians can do nothing. Old age, they say, but I believe there is more to it than that, something to do with your . . . realm of expertise.'

'I should be glad to, sire.' And here the wizard's eyes met Corfe's unflinchingly. 'I am flattered that you should trust me in such a grave matter.' He bowed deeply. 'I shall call on her at once, if that is convenient. Now, if you will excuse me sire, I have things to attend to.'

'Your suite is adequate?'

'More than adequate, thank you, sire.' The wizard bowed again, and left, his robes whispering about him.

The man had served kings faithfully and unstintingly for longer than Corfe's lifetime. Formio was merely being a cau shy;tious Fimbrian, that was all. The King of Torunna rubbed his temples wearily. God, to get clear of the palace, the city, to get back on a horse and sleep under the stars for a while. Some shy;times he thought that there were so many things contained in his head that one day it would bulge and burst like an over shy;ripe melon. And yet when he was in the field it was as though his mind were as clear as the tip of an icicle.

1 never should have been King, he thought, as he had thought so often down the years. But I am here now and there is no other.

He collected himself, strode across to the fire where Ensign Baraz stood stiff and forgotten.

'You've met the great Golophin, I see. What do you make of him?'

Baraz seemed startled by the question. 'He asked me about my grandfather,' he blurted out. 'But there was not much I could tell him that is not in the history books. He wrote poetry.'

'Golophin?'

'Shahr Ibim Baraz, sire "The Terrible Old Man" he was called by his men.'

'Yes. Sometimes we called him that too, and other things besides,' Corfe said wryly. 'Whatever happened to him?'

'No one knows. He left camp and some say he set out for the steppes of his youth, at the very height of his victories.'

'As well for Torunna he did. Baraz, Princess Mirren speaks very highly of you. She seems to think that you are a very gallant young officer and has asked that you accompany her on her daily rides from now on. What would you say to such a proposal?'

Baraz's face was a picture of pleasure and chagrin. ‘I am honoured by the lady's confidence, sir, and I would esteem it a great privilege to be her morning escort.' 'But.'

'But I had hoped to be attached to the field army. I have not yet commanded anything more than a ceremonial guard, and I was hoping to be assigned to a tercio.'

'You think your time spent with the General Staff is wasted then?'

Baraz's dark face flushed darker. 'Not at all sir, but if an officer has never commanded men in the field, what kind of officer is he?'

Corfe nodded approvingly. 'Quite right. I'll make a bargain with you, Baraz, one that you had best not give me cause to regret.'

'Sir?'

'You will remain Princess Mirren's escort for the time being, and will remain attached to the staff as interpreter. In fact I will have need of you in that capacity this very evening. But when the time comes I promise that you will have a combat command. Satisfied?'

Baraz smiled uncertainly. 1 am at your command, of course, sir – I merely follow orders. But thank you, sir.'

'Good. Dismissed.'

Baraz saluted and left. There was a jauntiness to his stride that made Corfe pause. Before Aekir, there had been some shy;thing of the young officer's eagerness in himself. That urge to make a name for himself, the desire to do the right thing. But in Aekir his soul had been re-tempered in a white-hot crucible, and had made of him someone else.

The face was like that of a bloodless doll, lost in the wasteland of blinding linen that surrounded it. So slight was the wizened form under the coverlet that it might not have been there at all, a mere trick of the lamplight perhaps, a shadow conjured up by the warm flames leaping in the hearth. But then the eyes opened, and life glistened out of them. Bloodshot with pain and exhaustion, they yet retained some of their old fire, and Golophin could well picture the beauty that had once filled the wasted face.

'You are the Hebrian mage, Golophin.' The voice was slight but clear.

'Yes, lady.'

'Karina, Prio, leave us.' This to the two ladies-in-waiting who sat silent as mice in the shadows. They curtseyed, their skirts scraping on the stone floor, and snicked shut the door behind them.

'Come closer, Golophin. I have heard a lot about you.' The wizard approached the bed and as the firelight fell on his ravaged face the Queen's eyes widened slightly. 'Hebrion's fall left its mark on you, I see.' 'It is a light enough burden, compared to some.' 'My husband asked you to come here?' 'Yes, lady.'

'That was thoughtful of him, but useless, as we both know. I would have sent for you in any case. There are so few folk of intelligence I can converse with these days. They all troop in here and look dutifully mournful – even Corfe – and I can get little sense out of them. I am near the end and that is that.' She hesitated, and said in a more ragged tone, 'My familiar is dead. He went before me. I had not imagined there could be such pain, such a loss.'

'They are part of us’ Golophin agreed, 'and with their passing goes something of our own souls.'

'You wizards, you can create them I am told, whereas we Dweomer-poor witches must wait for another to come along. Myself, I shall have no need of another. But I do miss poor Arach.' Then she seemed to collect herself. 'Where are my manners? You may sit and have some wine, if you do not mind drinking from a glass a queen has used before you. I would call a maid, but then there would be an interminable fuss, and I grow impatient with advancing years.'

'As do we all.' Golophin smiled, filling the glass. 'The old have less time to waste than the young.'

She stared at him in silence for a minute and seemed to be testing words in her mouth. Her eyes were bright as fevered jewels.

'What of you now, Master-Mage? Where do you call home?' 'I have none, lady. I am a vagabond.' 'Will Hebrion see you again?' 'I hope so.'

'You would be very welcome here as an advisor at court.'

'A Hebrionese wizard? I think you may exaggerate.'

'We have all manner of foreigners in Torunna these days. Formio is Fimbrian, Comillan a Felimbric tribesman, Admiral Berza a Gabrionese. Our Pontiff, Albrec, is an Almarkan. The flotsam and jetsam of the world end up in Torunna. You know why?'

'Tell me.'

'The King. They are moths to his candle. Even those haughty Fimbrians come trickling over the mountains to join him, year by year. And in his heart he hates it. He would rather be the simple nobody he was before Aekir's fall. I have watched him these seventeen years and seen the joy leech out of him day by day. Only Mirren lifts his heart. Mirren, and the prospect of leading an army into battle.'

Golophin stared at Odelia wonderingly. 'Lady, your can shy;dour is disarming.'

'Candour be damned. I will be dead within the week. I want you to do something for me.'

'Anything.'

'Stay here with him. Help him. When I go there will be only Formio left for him to confide in. You have spent your life in the service of kings. End it in the service of this one. He is a soldier of genius, Golophin, but he needs someone to guide him through the silken quagmire that is the court. He, also, is less patient than he was, and will brook no opposition to what he sees as right. I would not have such a man end his days a tyrant, hated by all.'

'Surely that is not possible.'

'There is a black hole in his soul, and once he sets his mind to something he will shift earth and heaven to accomplish it, recking nothing of the consequences. In the years he has been King I have tried to make him see the value of compromise, but it is like trying to reason with a stone. He must have someone of experience in the darker wiles of the world beside him, to help him see that a sword is not the answer to everything.'

'You flatter me, lady. But the confidence of a king is not an easily won thing.'

'He admires competence and plain speaking. From what I have heard you possess both. But there is another thing. When I am gone there will not be a single practitioner of the Dweomer at court, save only my daughter. She also needs guidance. There is a wellspring of power in her that quite eclipses anything in my experience. I would not have her explore the Dweomer alone.' Odelia looked away. Her with shy;ered hands picked restlessly at the heavy weave of the cover shy;let. 'I would she had been born without it. It would make her life easier.

'Your people and mine have chosen a different side in this war, Golophin. The wrong side. They had little choice in the matter, it is true, but they will suffer for it. They may even be destroyed by it.'

Something astonishing dawned on Golophin.

'You are against this war.'

Odelia managed a tight smile. 'Not against it, but I have my doubts about fighting it to the bitter end. The Dweomer runs in my blood as it does in yours, and in my daughter's. I believe this Aruan to be evil, but many of the aims he espouses are not. We will not be fighting Merduks in the time to come, but fellow Ramusians – not that there is much to tell between us all now, I suppose. And I do not want a pogrom of the Dweomer-folk to stain Corfe's victory, if he should gain one. There must come an end to this senseless persecution of those who practise magic'

Golophin felt a wave of relief. He was not a traitor then. His doubts were not his alone. And Bardolin might not be the evil puppet he had feared, but a man trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. The thing he had so wanted to be true might well be so.

'Lady,' he said, 'you have my word that when the time comes I will be by your husband's side. If needs be I will make myself his conscience.'

Odelia closed her eyes. ‘I ask no more. Thank you, Brother Mage. You have eased an old woman's mind.'

Golophin bowed, and as he did he found himself thinking that here in Torunna he had found a king and queen who were somehow larger than the monarchs he had known hitherto. Abeleyn, who had become a good ruler before the end, even a great one, seemed now but a boy beside Corfe of Torunna, the soldier-king. And this frail woman breathing her last before him: she was a worthy consort. There was a greatness here in this country that would remain the stuff of legend, no matter how many centuries passed it by.

He laid a hand on the Queen's forehead and her eyes fluttered open, the lashes feathering against his palm.

'Hush now.'

The Dweomer in Odelia had sunk down to a smoking ember. It would never kindle into light again, but it was all that was keeping her alive. That, and this woman's indomit shy;able will. She might have been a mage – the promise was there – but she had never undergone the training necessary to make her powers bloom. Anger stirred in Golophin. How many others, humble and great across this blinkered world, had wasted their gifts similarly? Bardolin was right. The world could have been different, could still be different. There might still be time.

He gave Odelia sleep, a heavy healing sleep, and with his own powers he stoked up that last ember glowing within her, coaxed it into a last flicker of life. Then he sat back, poured himself some more of the fragrant wine, and mused upon the crooked course of this darkening earth.