The Champion of Garathorm Read online

  'Call them Eldren, call them Vadhagh, call them Melniboneans,' Jhary-a-Conel had said to her, 'but remember that these are renegades all of some kind, else they would not league them­selves with Ymryl. And doubtless they also serve Chaos as wil­lingly as does Ymryl. Feel no regret for what you do."

  Ilian drew the flame-lance off her back, then began to work her way round to the far side of the unhumans' enclave. On this side dwelled a group of warriors who had all been born at the end of or immediately after the Tragic Millenium. As a group, they were one of the best armed. Each man had at least one flame-lance.

  It was about an hour to dusk. Ilian judged her moment the right one. She picked out an unhuman warrior at random, pointed the flame-lance with a skill she had no right to possess and touched the jewelled stud. Immediately a beam of red light issued from the ruby tip and burned a clean hole through the breastplate of the warrior, through his torso and through the backplate on the other side. Ilian released the stud and moved back into the leafier branches to watch what would happen next.

  Already a crowd had gathered around the corpse. Many of the eldritch-featured men pointed at once towards the neigh­bouring camp. Swords slipped from scabbards. Ilian heard oaths, a babble of rage. Her plan had worked so far. The un­humans had drawn the obvious conclusion that one of their number had been murdered by those to whom the flame-lance was their first weapon.

  Leaving the corpse where it lay about thirty of the unhum­ans, all dressed in a variety of styles of clothing and armour, each looking faintly different to the other, began to run to­wards the neighbouring camp.

  Ilian smiled as she watched them. Her old pleasure in fight­ing and tactics was returning.

  She saw the unhumans gesticulating as they reached the other camp. She saw warriors come running out of their houses, buckling on swords. She knew that Ymryl had banned the use of power weapons within the confines of the camp and that this made the crime doubly treacherous. Yet she did not expect a fully-fledged fight to develop yet. She had noticed that the discipline of the camp though crude was effective and designed to stop such squabbles between different factions.

  Now Tragic Millenium swords flashed in the dying light of the sun, but still they were not used. A man who was obviously the leader of the unhumans was deep in argument with the chief of the humans. Then both groups trooped back to the un­humans' camp to inspect the corpse. Again the Tragic Millen­ium leader was plainly denying that his men had anything to do with the murder. He indicated that they were all only armed with swords and knives. Still the unhuman leader was not mol­lified. The source of the beam seemed obvious to him. Then the human chief pointed in the direction of his own camp and again the warriors stalked across the space between their camps. Here the human pointed to a sturdily built house whose doors and windows were heavily padlocked. He sent one of his men away. The man returned with a bunch of keys. The keys were used to open one of the doors. By straining her eyes Ilian could just see inside. As she had hoped, this was the house where the flame-lances were stored. It was one of the necessary things she had to know before she could continue. Now, as the two factions separated, not without exchanging many scowls, she and her band settled down to wait for night.

  They lay in the boughs overlooking the Tragic Millenium camp, almost directly over the flame-lance storehouse.

  Ilian signed to the nearest youth who nodded and drew an exquisitely made dagger from his shirt. This was a captured dagger, belonging to the unhumans. Silently, the young man dropped down through the trees until he stood in the shadows of the street. He waited for nearly half-an-hour before a war­rior came strolling by. Then he leapt from the dark. One arm went around the throat of the warrior. The dagger rose. The dagger fell. The warrior screamed. Again the dagger struck. Again the warrior screamed. The young man was not striking for the death, but to inflict pain, to force the warrior to yell out.

  The third blow was the death blow. The dagger jutted through the man's throat as his corpse fell to the ground. The youth jumped up and began to climb up the side of a house, jumping into the lower branches of a tree and then disappearing as he climbed higher to rejoin his comrades.

  This time the scene was enacted from the point of view of the Tragic Millenium soldiers who came running to discover the body with the unhuman dagger sticking in its throat.

  It was obvious to them what happened. In spite of their innocence. In spite of their protestations, the unhumans had taken a cowardly vengeance on them for a crime they could not possibly have committed.

  As one man the Tragic Millenium soldiers raced towards the unhumans' camp.

  And that was when Ilian dropped from her tree onto the roof of the armoury. Swiftly she slung her own flame-lance from her back and directed its beam close to her feet, cutting a circle large enough to admit her body. Meanwhile the others had joined her on the roof. One of them held her flame-lance as she lowered herself into the building.

  She was in a loft. The lances were plainly stored in the rooms below. She found a trap-door and eased it open, dropping into deeper darkness. Slowly her eyes became used to the gloom. A little light came through chinks in the shutters on the win­dows. She had found some of the lances, at least. She went back the way she had come and signalled for all but one of her band to follow her. While they began to remove the lances, forming a human chain to take them out of the opening she had carved, she explored the lower rooms, finding more lances there, as well as a variety of edged weapons, including some fine throwing axes. These she had to ignore, and it would not be possible to steal more than sixty or so of the lances in the time they had, for there was also the question of carrying them back to their own camp. As she turned to go something came to mind. How did she know that the tips of the lances unscrewed from their shafts? She did not stop to wonder on this but crossed to where she had seen the lances stacked and began to unscrew the ruby tips. As she unscrewed them she picked up a well-balanced axe, placed the tip upon the floor and smashed the axe not on the ruby, which would not break, but upon the stem which screwed into the shaft, denting it so that they would have con­siderable difficulty in repairing their lances. It was the best she could do.

  She heard voices outside. She crossed silently to the nearest window and looked down.

  Other soldiers had appeared in the street. These looked like those Ymryl had made into his personal guard. They had doubtless been sent to quell the trouble. Ilian admired Ymryl's efficiency. He never seemed to care about such things, yet he always reacted swiftly when there was any danger of disruption in his camp. Already the soldiers were yelling at the embattled unhumans and Tragic Millenium humans, forcing them to lay down their weapons.

  Ilian climbed back to where her band was getting the last of the flame-lances through the hole.

  'Go,' she whispered. 'The danger increases. Leave now.'

  'You, Queen Ilian?' said the youth who had killed the sol­dier.

  'I'll follow. There is something I must try to finish here.'

  She watched until the last of her band had disappeared and then she went back to unscrew the tips of the few remaining flame-lances. Smashing the axe down on the last, she heard a yell, a commotion. Again she peered through the crack in the shutter.

  Men were pointing at the roof of the building. Ilian looked round for her own flame-lance and then realised that it had gone with her comrades. She had only her sword. She ran up the stairs, reached the loft, jumped and swung up through the hole she had herself made.

  They had seen her.

  And that was when an arrow whistled past her shoulder, so close that involuntarily she ducked back, lost her footing on the roof beam and fell down the sloping roof towards the ground on the other side of the house. But men were already running here. She managed to grasp a gable as she went over the edge. Her arms were almost pulled from her body as she swung there with arrows whistling on all sides. One or two arrows struck her helmet and mail, but did not penetrate. She got a foothold somewhere and
pushed herself back up again, crouching behind the gable as she ran along, searching for a branch low enough to jump for. But there was no such branch. Now figures were appearing above her. They had found what had happened to their weapons and where she had entered. She could hear their angry shouts and she was glad she had gone back to destroy every one of the flame-lances. If they had had them now, she would be dead already. She reached the far end of the roof and prepared to jump to the next. It was her only means of escape.

  She launched herself into space, hands clutching for the gable of that house. She grasped the carved wood and felt it give sickeningly beneath her weight. She hung there, thinking she would fall, but the gable held and she hauled herself up. They had realised where she was and more arrows sought her. She jumped from that roof to another, closer, realising with despair that she was moving deeper and deeper into the city as they pursued her. She prayed that she would eventually come to a spot where a branch brushed the roofs. In the trees she had a much better chance of escape. She was consoled, at least, that her comrades were getting away in the other direction.

  Three more roofs and they had lost her for the moment. She breathed in relief. But it was a matter of time before they caught her, she was sure.

  If she could get into one of the houses and hide, then they would assume she had escaped. When the pursuit died down it would not be too difficult to leave at her leisure.

  She saw an unlit house ahead.

  That would do.

  She jumped across the gap between the roofs, landed, swung over the edge of the roof and down to a window ledge. Crouch­ing on the ledge she forced open the shutters and crept in, drawing the shutters to behind her.

  She was tired. The chain-mail was heavy on her body. She wished she had time to remove it. Without it, she could jump higher, climb faster. But it was too late to worry about such things now.

  The room in which she found herself smelled musky as if the windows had not been opened for a long time. As she moved across it, she bumped her knee against something. A chest? A bed?

  And then she heard a stifled moan.

  Ilian peered into the gloom.

  A figure lay upon a rumpled bed. It was the figure of a wo­man.

  And she was bound.

  Was this some fellow-citizen whom one of the invaders was keeping prisoner? Ilian bent forward to remove the gag which had been tightly drawn about the girl's mouth.

  'Who are you?' Ilian whispered. 'Do not fear me. I'll save you if that's possible, though I'm in great danger myself.'

  And then Ilian gasped as the gag came free.

  She recognised the face.

  It was the face of a ghost.

  Ilian felt terror shiver through her body. It was a terror that she could not name. A terror which she had never felt before, for while she recognized the face, she could not name it.

  Neither could she remember where, in all her life, she had seen it before.

  She tried to stop her impulse to shrink away from the bound figure on the bed.

  "Who are you?' said the woman.

  6

  The Wrong Champion

  Ilian controlled herself. She found a lamp, found flint and tin­der and lit the lamp while she took deep breaths and tried to rationalise what was happening to her. The shock of recognition had been strong - yet she could swear she had never seen the woman before.

  Ilian turned. The woman was dressed in a filthy white gown. She had evidently been kept prisoner here for some time. She began to try to struggle into a sitting position on the bed. Her hands were locked in front of her, in a complicated leather har­ness which also bound her throat, her legs and her feet.

  Ilian wondered if this were a madwoman. Perhaps it had been foolish to cut the gag without thinking. There was some­thing wild about the woman's eyes, but again that could merely be because she had been captive so long.

  'Are you of Garathorm?' Ilian asked, holding up the lamp to peer once more at the woman's pale features.

  'Garathorm? This place? No.'

  'You seem familiar.'

  'You, also. Yet...'

  'Aye,' said Ilian feelingly. 'You have never seen me before either.'

  'My name is Yisselda of Brass. I am Baron Kalan's captive and have been since I came here.'

  'Why are you his prisoner?'

  'He is afraid I might escape and be seen. He wants me for himself. I seem to represent some sort of talisman for him. He has done me no great harm. Can you cut this harness, do you think?'

  Reassured by Yisselda of Brass's level tones, Ilian bent and sliced through the straps. Yisselda gasped as feeling returned to her limbs. 'I thank you.'

  'I am Ilian of Garathorm. Queen Ilian.'

  'King Pyran's daughter!' Yisselda seemed astonished. 'But Kalan drew your soul from you, did he not?'

  'So I gather. But I have a new soul now.'

  'Indeed?'

  Ilian smiled. 'Do not ask me to explain. So not all who came so suddenly to our world are evil.'

  'Most are those whom we should call evil. Most are pledged to Chaos, Kalan tells me, and believe they cannot be slain. But he hardly believes that theory himself. It is what he is told."

  Ilian was trembling, wondering why she had the impulse to embrace this woman, to hold her in a way that was more than comradely. She had never felt such impulses before. Her knees shook. Without thinking, she sat down on the bed.

  'Fate,' she murmured. 'They say I serve Fate. Do you know aught of that, Yisselda of Brass? I know your name so well -and that of Baron Kalan. It seems to me I have been searching for you - searching all my life - and yet it is not I who searched. Oh ...' She was close to fainting. She put a hand to her brow. 'This is horrifying.'

  'I understand you. Kalan thinks that his experiments in time distortion have created this situation. Our lives are mixed up so much. One possibility clashes with another. It must even be possible to meet oneself, under these conditions.'

  'Kalan was responsible for letting Ymryl and the rest through?'

  'So he believes. He spends his whole time trying to restore the balance which he himself disrupted. And I am important to him in his experiments. He has no wish to go with Ymryl on the morrow.'

  'Tomorrow? Where does Ymryl ride?'

  'Against the west. Against one called Arnald of Grovent, I understand.'

  'So they fight at last!' Ilian forgot everything but that fact for a moment. She was exhilarated. Their opportunity was coming sooner than she had hoped.

  'Baron Kalan is Ymryl's mascot,' said Yisselda. She had found a comb somewhere and was trying to comb out her tangled hair. 'Just as I am Kalan's. I survive thanks to a chain of super­stition!'

  'And where is Kalan now?'

  'Doubtless in Ymryl's palace - your father's palace, is it not?'

  'It is. What does he there?"

  'Some of his experiments. Ymryl has set him up with a laboratory, though really Kalan prefers to work from here. He will take me with him when he works, sitting me down and talking to me as if I were a pet dog. It is the most attention he pays me. Needless to say I understand little of what he talks about. I was present, however, when he stole your soul. That was horrible. How did you recover it?"

  Ilian did not answer. 'How did he - steal my soul?'

  'With a jewel, similar to that which threatened to eat my Hawkmoon's brain when it was imbedded in his skull. A jewel of similar properties, at any rate ...'

  'Hawkmoon? That name ...'

  'Aye? You know Hawkmoon. How does he fare? Surely he is not in this world ...?

  'No - no. I do not know him. I do not know why I should. Yet it sounded so familiar."

  'You are unwell, Ilian of Garathorm?"

  'Aye. Aye. I could be.' Ilian felt faint. Doubtless the exertions she had had to make to escape Ymryl's soldiers had tired her more than she had at first realised. Again she made an effort to recover. 'This jewel, then? Kalan has it? And my soul, he beli­eves, is in it?'

  'Yes. But he i
s plainly wrong. Somehow your soul was re­leased from the jewel."

  'Plainly,' Ilian smiled grimly. 'Well, we must consider a means of escaping. You do not look fit enough to climb roof­tops and swing through trees with me."

  'I can try,' said Yisselda. 'I am stronger than I seem.'

  'Then we must try, then. When do you expect Kalan's re­turn?"

  'He only recently left.'

  'Then we have some time. I will use it in resting.' Ilian leaned back on the bed. 'My head aches so."

  Yisselda reached forward to massage Ilian's brow, but Ilian drew away with a gasp. 'No!' She licked dry lips. 'No. I thank you for your consideration.'

  Yisselda went to the still shuttered window and cautiously opened it a little, breathing in the cooler night air.

  'Kalan is to try to help Ymryl make contact with this black god of his, this Arioch.'

  'Whom Ymryl believes responsible for placing him here?'

  'Yes. Ymryl will blow that Yellow Horn he has and Kalan will try to concoct some form of spell. Kalan is cynical con­cerning their chances of raising the demon."

  'Ymryl's horn is dear to him. Does he never let it off his per­son?"

  'Never, so Kalan says. The only one who could make Ymryl give up his horn is Arioch himself."

  The time passed with painful slowness. While Ilian tried to rest, Yisselda extinguished the lamp and watched the streets, noticing that patrols of soldiers still searched there for Ilian. Some were even on the rooftops at one stage. But eventually they seemed to have given up the search and Yisselda went to rouse Ilian, who was by now sleeping fitfully.

  Yisselda shook Ilian's shoulder and Ilian shuddered, waking with a start.

  'They are gone,' said Yisselda. 'I think we can risk leaving. How shall we go? Into the street?'

  'No. But a coil of rope would help. Is there one in the house, do you think?'

  'I will see.'

  Yisselda returned in a few minutes with a length of rope coiled over her shoulder. 'It is the longest I could find. Is it strong enough?"