Shardik (40 page)

‘Why hasn’t she been murdered?’

‘Ah, dear Mollo, the penetrating realist - always straight to the point. Why, indeed, has she not been murdered? I don’t know, but I dare say
they
fear her as a sorceress. What she has undoubtedly retained is her reputation as a healer. That was why my brother-in-law travelled a hundred and fifty miles to consult her at the end of last summer.’

‘Your brother-in-law? Ammar-Tiltheh is married, then?’

‘Ammar-Tildieh is married. Ah, Mollo, do I see a slight shadow cross your face, stemming, as it were, from old memories? She has the kindest memories of you, too, and hasn’t forgotten nursing you after that wound which you were so reckless as to get through saving me. Well, Sildain is a very shrewd, sensible fellow -
I
respect him. About a year ago he got a poisoned arm. It wouldn’t heal and no one in Lapan could do it any good, so at last he took it into his head to go and see this woman. He had a job to get on the island - she’s kept pretty well incommunicado, it seems. But in the end they let him,
partly
because he bribed them and
partly
because they saw he’d probably
di
e
if they didn’t He was in a bad way by that time. She cured him all right - quite simply, appar
ently
, by applying some sort of mould; that’s the trouble about doctors, they always make you do something revolting, like drinking bats’ blood - have some more wine? - but while he was there he learned a little - not much -about the extent to which these Ortelgans have abused the cult of the bear. I say not much, because appar
ently
they’re afraid that the priestess’s very existence may stir up trouble against them and she’s watched and spied on all the time. But Sildain told me more or less what I’ve told you - that she’s a wise, honourable and courageous woman; that she’s the rightful head of the cult of the bear; that according to her interpretation of the mysteries there was no sign that
they
were divinely intended to attack Bekla; and that this man Crendrik and that other fellow — Minion, Pinion, whatever he called himself - appropriated the bear by force for their own purposes and
that
everyth
ing
that
‘s been done since
then
has been
nothing
but blasphemy, if that is the right term.’

‘I wonder still more why they haven’t murdered her.’

‘Appar
ently
it’s rather the other way round - they feel the lack of her and they haven’t yet given up hope of persuading her to come to Bekla. In spite of all he’s done,
the
Crendrik man still feels
great respect for her, but alth
ough he’s sent several times to beg her to come, she always refuses. Unlike you, Mollo,
she
won’t be a party to
their
robbery and bloodshed.’

‘It still doesn’t alter their extraordinary success and the confidence
with
which they fight. I’ve got every reason to support
them
. They’ve made me governor of Kabin and if they go, I go.’

‘Well, they’ve left me as Ban of Sarkid, if it comes to that. Nevertheless, the number of hoots I give for them is restricted to less than two. Do you think I’d sell the honour of Sarkid for a few meld from these dirty, murderous -‘

Mollo laid a hand on his arm, and glanced quickly sideways without moving his head. The landlord w
as standing just behind the settl
e, appar
ently
absorbed in trimming the wick of a lamp fixed to the wall.

‘Can
we
have some bread and cheese?’ said Elleroth in Yeldashay.

The landlord gave no sign that he understood.

‘We have to go now, landlord,’ said Elleroth, in Beklan. ‘Do we owe you anything further?’

‘Nothing at all, good sirs, nothing at all,’ said
the
landlord, beaming and presenting each of
them
with a small model, in iron, of the Great Scales. ‘Allow me - a
little
souvenir of your visit to “The Green Grove”. A neighbour makes them - we keep them for our special customers - gready honoured - hope we shall have the pleasure on another occasion - my poor house - always glad

‘Tell Tarys to buy herself something pretty,’ said
Elleroth
, putting ten meld on the table.

‘Ah, sir, too kind, most generous - she’ll be delighted - a charming girl, isn’t she? No doubt if you wished -‘

‘Good morning,’ said
Elleroth
. They stepped out into the colonnadc. ‘Do you think he may perhaps make a point of hiding his linguistic abilities from the common light of day?’ he asked, as they strolled once more across the market.

‘I’d like to know,’ answered Mollo. ‘I can’t help wondering why he trims lamps at noon. Or why he trims lamps at all, if it comes to that, seeing its women’s work and he has that girl to help him.’

Elleroth was turning the ugly little model over in his hands.

‘I feared it -
I
feared it He must take us for utter fools. Does he think we can’t recognize the Gelt iron-mark when we see it? So much for his neighbour who makes them - weighed in the Great Scales and found non-existent.’

He placed the model on a window-sill overlooking the street and then, as an afterthought, bought some grapes from a nearby stall. Having put a grape carefully into each scale, he handed half the remainder to Mollo and they walked on, eating grapes and spitting out the pips.

‘But does it really matter whether the fellow understood you or not?’ asked Mollo. ‘I know I warned you when I saw him standing there, but that’s become second nature after all these years. I can hardly believe you could be accused on his evidence, let alone convicted of anything serious. It’d be bis word again
st mine, anyway, and of course I
can’t remember hearing you say anything whatever against the Ortelgans.’

‘No, I’m not afraid of being arrested for that sort of thing,’ answered Elleroth, ‘but all the same, I’ve got my reasons for not wanting these people to know my true feelings.’

‘Then you’d better be more careful.’

‘Indeed, yes. But I’m rash, you know - such an impetuous boy!’ ‘I know that,’ replied Mollo, grinning. ”Haven’t changed, have you?’

‘Hardly at all. Ah, now I recall where we are. This brook is the outfall of the Barb, which runs down to what was once the Tamarrik Gate. If we follow it upstream along this rather pleasant path, it will bring us back close to the Peacock Gate, where that surly fellow let us out this morning. Later on, I want to stroll out beyond the Barb as far as the walls on the east side of Crandor.’

‘What on earth for?’

‘I’ll tell you later. Let’s talk of old t
imes for the moment Ammar-Tilthe
h will be delighted to hear that you and I have met again. You know, if ever you had to leave Kabin, you’d always be welcome in Sarkid for as long as you liked to stay.’

‘Leave Kabin? I’m not likely to be able to do that for at least a year or two, though you’re very kind.’

‘You never know, you never know. It’s all a question of what you can - er - bear, as it were. How straight the smoke is going up; and the swifts are high, too. Perhaps the weather is going to be kinder during our stay than I dared to hope.’

26
The King of Bekla

The bare hall, built as a mess for common soldiers, was gloomy and ill-ventilated, for the only windows were at clerestory level, the place having been intended for use principally at evening and after nightfall. It was rectangular and formed the centre of the barracks building, its four arcades being surrounded by an ambulatory, off which lay the store-rooms and armouries, the lock-up, lavatories, hospital, barrack-rooms and so on. Almost all the bays of the arcades had been bricked up by the Ortelgans nearly four years ago and the raw, un-rendered brick-work between the stone columns not only added to the ugliness of the hall but imparted also that atmosphere of incongruity, if not of abuse, which pervades a building clumsily adapted for some originally-unintended purpose. Across the centre of the hall, alternate flag-stones of one course of the floor had been prised up and replaced by mortar, into which had been set a row of heavy iron bars with a gate at one end. The bars were tall - twice as high as a man - and curved at the top to end in downward-pointing spikes. The tie-bars, of which
there
were three courses, overlapped one another and were secured by chains to ring-bolts set here and there in the walls and floor. No one
knew the full strength of Shar
dik, but
with
time and the full resources of Gelt at his disposal,
Baltis
had been thorough.

At one end of the hall the central bay of the arcade had been left open and from each side of it a wall had been built at right angles, intersecting
the
ambulatory behind. These walls formed a short passage between
the
hall and an iron gate set in the outer wall. From the gate a ramp led down into the Rock Pit.

Between the gate and
the
bars the floor of
the
hall was deep in straw and a stable-smell of animal’s manure and urine filled the air. For some days past Sh
ardik had remained indoors, listl
ess and eating little, yet starting suddenly up from time to time and rambling here and
there
, as though goaded by pain and seeking some enemy

THE KING’S HOUSE

on whom to avenge it. Kelderek, watching near by, prayed continually in the same words that he had used more than five years ago in the forest darkness, ‘Peace, Lord Shardik. Sleep, Lord Shardik. Your power is of God. Nothing can harm you.’

In the foetid twilight he, the Priest-King, was watching over the bear and waiting for news that Ged-la-Dan had reached the city. The Council would not begin without Ged-la-Dan, for
the
provincial delegates had been assembled first for the purpose of satisfying the Ortelgan generals about contributions of troops, money and other supplies required for the summer campaign, and secondly to be told as much as was considered good for them about Ortelgan plans for
the
enemy’s defeat. Of these plans Kelderek himself as yet knew nothing, although they had already, no doubt, been formulated by Zelda and Ged-la-Dan with the help of some of the subordinate commanders. Before the commencement of the Council, however, and certainly before any step was taken to put the plans into effect, the generals would seek his agreement in the name of Lord Shardik; and anything which, in his prayer and pondering, he might dislike or doubt, he could if he wished require them to alter in Shardik’s name.

Since that day when Shardik had struck down the Beklan commanders and disappeared into the rainy nightfall of the foothills,
Kelderek
‘s authority and influence had become greater than Ta-Kominion’s could ever have been. In the eyes of the army it was plainly he who had brought about the miracle of the victory, he who had first divined
the
will of Shardik and then acted in obedience to it. Baltis and his men had told everywhere the tale of his apparent folly in insisting upon the construction of the cage and of the single-mindedness with which he had conducted the desperate march over the hills, completed by less than half of those who had begun it. The breach broken through the Tamarrik Gate could hardly have been carried against a leader like Santil-ke-
Erketlis
, had it not been for the fanatical belief of every
Ortelga
n that Shardik, in mystic communion with
Kelderek
, was invisibly present, leading the assault and striking unseen at the hearts and arms of Bekla.
Kelderek
himself had known beyond doubt that he and none other was the elect of Shardik, whom he was ordained to bring to the city of his people. On his own authority he had ordered Sheldra and the other girls to set out with him, as soon as spring should come, to seek Shardik until he was found. The Ortelgan barons, while they did not dispute this authority, had vehem
ently
opposed the idea of his magical presence leaving the city as long as Santil-ke-Erkcdis remained undefeated in the citadel on Crandor; and
Kelderek
, impatient of delay as the warm days returned, had suppressed his personal revulsion at the methods by which Zelda and Ged-la-Dan had compelled the Beklan general to vacate his stronghold. Such revulsion, he considered, while it might be natural enough to the common man that he had once been, was altogether unworthy of a king, whose contempt and lack of pity for the enemy was a necessity for his own people, or how could wars be won? In any case the matter was below the sphere of his authority, for he was a magical and religious king, concerned with the perception and in
terpretation of the divine will
and certainly no religious question was involved in Ged-la-Dan’s decision to erect a gallows within view of
the
citadel and to hang two Beklan children every day until Santil-ke-
Erketlis
should agree to leave it Only when Ged-la-Dan had told Kelderek that he ought to attend each hanging in the name of Shardik had he exercised his own w
ill in the matter, replying curtl
y that it was he and not Ged-la-Dan who had been appointed by God to discern where and on what occasions there might be a need for his presence and for the manifestation of the power conferred on him by Shardik. Gcd-Ia-Dan, secredy fearing that power, had said no more and Kelderek, for his part, had profited by what been done without having to witness it. After some days the
Bekla
n general had agreed to march south, leaving
Kelderek
free to seek Shardik in the hills west of Gelt

From that long and arduous search neither the bear nor the king had returned unchanged. Shardik, snarling and struggling in his chains till he lay exhausted and half-strangled, had been drawn into the city by night and under an enforced curfew,
lest the people should see what
might appear to them as the humiliation of the Power of God. The chains had inflicted wounds on one side of his neck and beneath the joint of the left fore-leg; and these healed slowly, leaving him with something of a limp and with an awkward, unnatural carriage of his great head which, in walking, he now moved slowly up and down, as
though
still feeling the pressure of the chain that was no longer there. Often, during the first months, he was violent, battering at the bars and walls with enormous blows that thudded through the building like a smith’s hammer. Once, the new brickwork closing one of the bays split and collapsed under his anger and for a time he wandered in the ambulatory beyond, beating, until he was weary, at the outer walls. Kelderek had divined from this a portent of success for an attack towards Ikat; and in fact the Ortelgans, following his divination, had forced Santil-ke-
Erketlis
to retreat southward through Lapan, only to be compelled once more to halt their advance on the borders of Yelda.