Shardik (42 page)

‘And this we can now put to her strongly,’ said Ged-la-Dan to the other members of the baronial council, ‘for make no mistake, she is no longer the figure we once feared in the days of Bel-ka-Trazet. She was wrong about the will of Lord Shardik, while Ta-Kominion and Kelderek were not. Her honour is as great and no greater than we are ready to accord to her, and will be commensurate
with
the extent of her use to us. But since many of
the
people still accord her honour, it will be prudent to add to our own security by bringing her here. In fact, if she will not come I will bring her myself.’

Kelderek
had said nothing in dissent from this harsh assessment, since he felt sure that the Tuginda would be glad to accept her offered reinstatement, and that once she was in Bekla he would be able to help her to restore her former standing in
the
eyes of the barons.

The messengers had returned without Neelith. It seemed
that
on Quiso she had broken off her prepared speech to kneel at the Tuginda’s feet in tears, begging her forgiveness and crying passionately
that
she would never leave her again as long as she lived. After hearing what the rest had to say, the Tuginda had merely reminded them
that
she had been sent back to Quiso as a prisoner. She had, she said, no more liberty than that now accorded to Shardik to determine for herself whether or not she would go to one place or another.

‘But,’ she added, ‘you may tell them in
Bekla
that
when Lord Shardik takes that liberty once again, I will take mine too. And you may also tell Kelderek that whatever he may think to the contrary, I am bound as he, and he is bound as I. And that he will one day discover.’

With this reply they had been obliged to return.

‘The bitch!’ said Ged-la-Dan. ‘Docs she think she is in any position to disguise her sulky mood with impudent speeches - she in the wrong of it and we in the right? I will be as good as my word; and I shall not be long about it either.’

Ged-la-Dan was absent for a month, which cost
the
army a serious tactical reverse in Lapan. He returned without the Tuginda and remained silent about the reason, until the tale told by his servants, under questioning from the other barons, began to make him a laughing-stock behind his back. It turned out that he had made two separate and unsuccessful attempts to land on Quiso. On each occasion a stupor had fallen upon himself and those with him and his canoe had drifted below
the
island. On
the
second occasion it had struck a rock and sunk, and he and his companions had barely escaped
with
their
lives. Ged-la-Dan lacked neither pride nor courage, but for his second attempt he had been forced to make use of fresh servants,
the
original paddle
rs having utterly refused to go a second time.
Kelderek
, shuddering at his own memories of the night journey to Quiso, could only marvel at the baron’s stubbornness. It was plain that it had cost him dear indeed. For many months afterwards, even in the field, he contrived to avoid sleeping alone and would never again travel by water.

Was it, then, to expiate the memory of the Tuginda that Kelderek cared little what he ate and drank, remained chaste and left to others
the
spending of the wealth considered proper to the king’s grandeur? Often he felt that this was indeed the reason, even while he wondered for the thousandth time what he could have done to help her. To have intervened on her behalf would have been to declare himself against Ta-Kominion. But despite his reverence for the Tuginda, he had passionately supported Ta-Kominion and been ready to follow him into any hazard. The Tuginda’s conception of Shardik’s power he had never understood, while Ta-Kominion’s was plain. And yet he knew that at bottom, it had been to vindicate his own courage in Ta-Kominion’s eyes that he had thrown in his lot with what must surely have been the most desperate campaign that had ever proved successful. Now he was priest-king of Bekla, and he and not the Tuginda was the interpreter of Shardik. Yet how much understanding did he truly possess, and how much of the Ortelgan conquest was really due to him as Shardik’s elect?

The thought of the Tuginda was never far from his mind. As, after a few years of marriage, a childless woman cannot be free from her disappointment, reflecting, ‘What a beautiful morning - but I am childless,’ or ‘Tomorrow we go to the wine festival — but I am childless,’ so Kelderek’s thoughts were troubled continually by the recollection of himself standing silent while the Tuginda was bound and led away. She had known her own mind as he had not known his: and he had deceived himself in believing that she would ever consent to become a party to Shardik’s captivity in Bekla. Sometimes he felt ready to renounce his crown and return to Quiso to entreat, like Neelith, her forgiveness. Yet this would be to give up both his power and his search for the great revelation, of the imminence of which he was sometimes almost sure. Besides, he suspected that if he attempted the journey the barons would not suffer one so disloyal to themselves to live.

From this dilemma his one retreat was to Shardik. Here was no undeserved reward of luxury, flattery or complaint, whispering pleasure by night, no riches or adulation - only solitude, ignorance and danger. While he served Lord Shardik in fear and suffering of mind and body, at least he could not accuse himself of having betrayed the Tuginda for his own gain. Often, during the years that had passed, he had half-hoped that Shardik would put an end to his perplexity by taking the life which was so continually offered to him. But once only had Shardik attacked
him
, striking suddenly as he stepped through the gate in the bars and breaking his left arm like a dry stick. He had fainted with the pain, but Sheldra and Nito, who had been at his back, had saved his life, dragging him away on
the
instant. The arm had set crooked, though he still had the use of it Yet although, setting aside the pleadings of the girls and the warnings of the barons, he had continued, as soon as he was able, to stand from time to time before Shardik, the bear had never again shown him violence. Indeed, he seemed indifferent to
Kelderek
‘s approach and often, having raised his head as though to assure himself that it was he and none other, would continue merely to mope in the straw. At these times Kelderek would stand beside him, deriving comfort, as he prayed, from the knowledge that in spite of all that had passed, he and only he remained the human companion and mediator of Shardik. And thus, out of his unaccountable safety, were born his terrible visions of desolation, his conviction that he was still far wide of the mark and his belief that Shardik had some great secret to reveal.

Yet despite his hours of solitude and austerity he was no mere recluse, brooding always upon the ineffable. During the four years since his return to Bekla with Shardik, he had played a full part in the counsels of the Ortelgans, and maintained not only a number of intelligence agents but also his own body of advisers with special knowledge of the various provinces, their features and resources. Much of the information that reached him was of military importance. A year before, he had received warning of a daring plan to damage
the
iron workings at Gelt, so that Ged-la-Da
n had been able to arrest the Ye
ldashay agents on their way north through Thettit, disguised as traders from Lapan. More rec
ently
, not three months ago, there
had come from Dari Palte
sh the disturbing news that a force of more than two thousand Deelguy irregulars, whose leaders had evid
ently
realized the impossibility of crossing the mountains by the strongly-guarded Gelt pass, had made their way along the north bank of
the Telthearna, crossed into Te
rekenalt (whose king, no doubt being well paid, had done nothing to stop them), and then, by a swift march through Katria and Paltesh, succeeded in reaching the rebel province of
Bel
ishba, there being no provincial force strong enough to dispute their passage before they were gone. At this setback the Ortelgan leaders had shaken their heads, seeing at work the long and resourceful arm of Santil-ke-
Erketlis
and speculating on the use to which he would put this cleverly-won reinforcement

In matters relating to trade, customs and taxation, however, Kelderek had quickly came to feel that his own insight, though faulty and inexperienced, was essentially surer than the barons’. It
was, perhaps, precisely because he had never been either a baron or a mercenary living on tenants’ dues and the plunder of war, but had made his rough living as a hunter and had known what it wa
s to be dependent on iron, leath
er, wood and yarn for the artifacts of his craft, that he perceived more plainly than they the vital importance to the empire of trade. For months he had argued, against the indifference of Zelda and Ged-la-Dan, that neither the life of the city nor the war against the southern provinces could be maintained solely by spoil and that it was essential to keep open the recognized trade routes and not impress into military service every able-bodied young craftsman, merchant and caravaneer within the empire
‘s
boundaries. He had proved to them tha
t in a year, two prosperous cattl
e-breedcrs and their men, thirty tanners or twenty shoe-makers could not only earn their own living but pay a tax large enough to keep in
the
field twice their own number of mercenaries.

And y
et trade had declined. Santil-ke-Erketl
is, an adversary more shrewd and experienced than any of the Ortelgan leaders, had taken steps to see that it did. Bridges were broken and caravans attacked by paid bandits. Warehouses and their contents were mysteriously destroyed by fire. The finest craftsmen - builders, masons, jewellers, armour
ers, even vintners — were secretl
y approached and persuaded, sometimes at a cost equal to that of a year’s pay for ten spearmen,
that
it would be in their best interests to travel south. The king
‘s
son of Deelguy was invited to Ikat, treated as befitted a prince and, perhaps not altogether fortuitously, found himself in love with a noble lady of that city, whom he married. The resources of the rebel provinces were less than those of
Bekla
, but Santil-ke-
Erketlis
possessed a flair for perceiving where a
little
extraordinary expenditure would prove effective. As time went on, merchants and traders became less and less ready to hazard
their
wealth in a realm so subject to the uncertainties and fluctuations of war. Taxes became increasingly difficult to collect from a people feeling the pinch and
Kelderek
was hard put to it to pay the contractors and craftsmen who supplied the army.

It was in this difficulty that he had had recourse to a wide extension of the slave-trade. A slave-trade of sorts had always existed in the Beklan empire, but for about ten years before the Ortelgan conquest it had been restricted, having been allowed to get out of control to
the
point of provoking reaction
through
out the provinces. It was traditionally accepted that prisoners taken in war, unless they could pay a ransom, might be sold as slaves. Sometimes these men would succeed in gaining their liberty, either returning home or else making a new life in the country to which they had been brought.

Despite the harshness and suffering involved, this practice was regarded, in a hard world, as fair between peoples at war. During the latter days of Bekla’s high prosperity, however, the number of large estates, households and businesses had increased and conscqu
ently
the demand for slaves had grown until it became worthwhile for men to turn professional dealers and cater for it. Kidnapping and even breeding had become widespread, until several of the provincial governors had felt themselves driven to protest in the name of towns and villages living in fear — not only from raiding dealers but also from escaped slaves turned brigand - and of respectable citizens outraged. The slavers, however, had not been without
their
supporters, for the trade could not only afford to pay heavy taxes but also provided work for such craftsmen as clothiers and blacksmiths, while buyers visiting Be
kla brought money to the inn-kee
pers. The issue had come to the boil in the civil conflict known as the Slave Wars, when half-a-dozen independent campaigns had been fought in as many provinces, with and without the help of allies and mercenaries. From this confusion Santil-ke-
Erketlis
, formerly a Yeldashay estate-owner of ancient family but no great wealth, had emerged as the most able leader on either side. Having defeated the slave-trade supporters in Yelda and Lapan, he had sent help to other provinces and finally succeeded in settling matters in Bekla itself to the entire satisfaction of
the
He
ldril (‘old-fashioned people’), as his party was called. The cost to the state of extraditing the dealers and freeing all slaves who could prove themselves native to the empire had been met
partly
by fresh encouragement of the builders’, masons’ and carvers’ trades for which Bekla had always been famous and
partly
by measures (of which the cons
truction of the great Kabin rese
rvoir had been one) to increase the prosperity of the peasants and small farmers.