The Tides of Kregen [Dray Prescot #12] Page 12

And another, younger, with a strong determined face, spoke out.

  “And yet she is very beautiful."

  I reeled. I gripped the nearest Krozair and he grunted and shifted his sword hilt out of the way.

  Mercy is a commodity in relatively short supply on Kregen. Zair does not teach mercy to a Grodnim. And Grodno teaches only implacable hatred for all Zairians. Even in my kingdom of Djanduin the pantheon of warrior gods led by the divine Djan must have the case for mercy argued and won before they deign to nod their heads in merciful acquiescence. For the religion of Opaz, the Invisible Twins, mercy is a guiding light, but that too is a mercy tempered with forethought for the welfare of those of Opaz. As for Lem the Silver Leem—they should receive the same mercy they show and they would all be extinct. For old Mog, the high priestess of the religion of Migshaanu, away there in Migladrin, mercy was a known and valued component of the religion, used with care as a precious unction.

  I could expect no mercy from these men who had been my Krozair Brothers, men for whom I would have fought and men who would have given their lives for me in like manner, before I had been tried and judged and condemned.

  I would not plead.

  But through all the agony of spirit I felt the fire in my blood. The agony refreshed itself at the wellspring of a new agony.

  I knew.

  We hustled toward the rock of the side wall. The guards spoke in harsh whispers. “Keep quiet,” and “Careful with the light,” and “He should be thrown to the chanks.” I stumbled along. A lenken door opened and closed, silently. An iron bolt dropped into place, silently.

  A pitchy darkness confronted my groping fingers. My chains clanked. I heard a panel squeal and a voice, hoarse, say, “One bur only, my lady. Not a mur more."

  A form moved. A soft pearly light shone across a littered floor of discarded impedimenta, fishing gear, a broken trident, crumbling floats, a scattering of canvas, wooden tubs and withy baskets. The light wavered.

  I looked up.

  It is a long time ago, I was in torment, I do not recall—I remember her soft arms, her lips, the touch of her hair, the thrilling whisper of her voice. Oh, I felt as poor and downtrodden and useless there as ever I have felt. That it should come to this! A beaten man, chained, thrown out of all he held dear, yet daring to clasp in his arms the most wonderful woman in two worlds!

  “Dray, oh, my heart..."

  No, I cannot tell more.

  Delia—my Delia of Delphond, my Delia of the Blue Mountains.

  Of all we babbled I remember little. She said these terrible Krozairs of Zy were incapable of being bribed. Nothing would move them to deny their duty. I could have told her that. There was no easy escape through gold here. She was well. She held a great pride in her sons and daughters. Krozairs, Sisters of the Rose, Princes and Princesses of Vallia. I could hardly talk. She wanted to talk of the youngsters, but I kissed her and we clung together, warm, warm, and again she wailed that there was no way of contriving my escape.

  I do remember, in a pale pathetic reflection of my old arrogance: “I will win free, my Delia. I will. And I will tell you why sometimes I go away even if you do not believe."

  “If you tell me I will believe."

  I was charged afresh with a ludicrous determination. ‘I will win free. I will prove I am a true Krozair."

  She held me. “Yes, yes, that is what you will do. I know. They are wrong..."

  “It is a thing I must do. I must."

  How different this, from all my grandiose expectations! I had waited twenty-one dreary years, and all for this! My Delia, the most perfect woman of two worlds, how cruel that she should thus be tormented on my account. I held her close and my thoughts were clouded. I remember ... I remember little then.

  No, I cannot tell more.

  The panel scraped and the pearly light strengthened. I held her close, but she was gone, gone, and the panel closed and the light darkened and I was alone.

  The outer lenken door was flung back and rough hands grasped me and, with my chains clanking about me, I was led down to the stone quay and up the gangplank. So once more I entered on the life of a galley slave of the Eye of the World, which is the inner sea of the continent of Turismond on Kregen, spinning beneath the Suns of Scorpio.

  A galley slave may survive if he can last out the first week.

  My memory of that time remains hazy. I recall that the work came as a shock; I had grown slothful. My strength remained, but it was not as easy as I might have been forgiven for thinking. It took me some time to regain all my old toughness and hardness, to endure the incessant toil, and all that time I remained sunk in a spiritless slough. I cared little for anything. I even came to regard that dark meeting with my Delia as an hallucination. Had I really once more clasped Delia of Delphond in my arms? Could it truly have been my Delia of the Blue Mountains? Or was I gripped by the Drig-driven phantasms of the madness I know claimed me?

  Reason had fled. I pulled my oar. I lived like a vosk sunk in swill. I endured.

  Even thoughts of Zorg of Felteraz, and Nath and Zolta, my two oar comrades still living, penetrated like a nightmare, so that often and often I would call their names, thinking them laboring at the loom at my side.

  As for the five other wights on the loom with me, I knew nothing of them nor cared how they regarded me. I was the madman of the benches. I shouted for Zorg when the swifter went into action, yelling for Nath and Zolta, cursing the Overlords of Magdag, pulling with frenzy so that I could drown out the blackness of a despair I had forgotten tormented me, or why, or how, sunk in the blazing mania of madness.

  When I had been a slave in the Magdaggian swifters I had gradually surfaced from near-insanity. I had taken an interest in what went on, noting the galleys, their construction, their methods of working and sailing and fighting. Now I cared for nothing. I pulled. When the lash fell on me I yelled out in abandon, uncaring, all pride forgotten.

  It is all a fragmentary scattering of scarlet memories.

  One time we were rammed and the apostis crumpled in deadly splinters and the side caved in and three of the poor devils chained with me were crushed to red pulp. One time arrows sought down into the slave benches, for this craft was rigged anaphract, and I saw a shaft sprout suddenly from the back of the slave in front of me. I saw with perplexity and no sensations of pain an arrow pinning my foot to the deck. I wrenched the thing out with a jerk of my leg, seeing blood, feeling nothing, pulling, pulling, pulling. I must have been sent down to the sickbay and recovered of the wound. I remember nothing of that.

  There was a space when I felt the rain and the wind on my face, and the heat of the suns, and then a space when I did not. Now I realize I must have been transferred from the upper bank to the lower; it made no difference to my madness.

  Once, I dimly recall, I awoke to look up and see the immense arch of the rock harbor of the Island of Zy above my head and I cried out “Krozair!” in a terrible voice. I strove to rise and could not, for I was chained and manacled and the chains were stapled to the deck.

  Now, later, I know it was after that experience that I was vaguely aware of people bending over me, of shadowy forms, of a shielded light, of whispers.

  I recalled these fragments of the night as I labored at the oar by day. The suns scorched my back, my hair grew wild, I fined off the excess weight that being a prince and king brings. I know I was as hard and tough and enduring as ever I had been.

  In the full circle of vaol-paol all things must come to pass.

  One night I felt my chains shaking, and I cursed and turned over irritably, for sleep was a precious boon to a slave. I heard a whisper and a curse, and someone said, “Sleep, you Grodno-gasta!” and the soggy sound of a blow. Another voice hailed, it seemed from a distance. Closer at hand the first voice said with great viciousness: “May Makki-Grodno devour his intestines!"

  The chains shook again, I heard a clink of metal, and then all was silent. I turned over and found a softer patch on the ponsho-fleece c
overed sack of straw and slipped back to slumber.

  No use to ask me where the swifter in which I slaved sailed. I had no idea. I had no desire to know. I believe I did not even understand quite what this all meant, somehow regarding all the toil and agony as a part of a dream in which Zorg, Nath, Zolta and I slaved and labored through all eternity.

  During the periods when the breeze blew fair and the square sails on the two masts could be set, the slaves might rest. On one evening when the suns sank into a metallic sea and sheened from horizon to keel in a single sheet of burnished bronze, I realized we were at sea. I thought Zorg must have the better share of our onion. Nath and Zolta would share theirs. We were down to half rations. As for water, a mere mouthful and no more must last us.

  We pulled ourselves up on the benches as the sails were furled and we settled to the looms. The drum-deldar beat out his rhythm and, all as one, like beating wings, the oars dipped and rose to dip again. Silently we stole into the coast.

  Nothing meant anything. When the final beat from the drum and the oar-master's whistle signaled a cessation to our labors, every slave drooped over his loom. I squirmed about for a softer spot on the ponsho-fleece, for without these sacks and the fleeces a man could never last at the rowing benches. I prepared for sleep and knew I would dream my nightmares.

  I dreamed that Zorg was telling me how he had secreted a piece of cheese; he wanted to divide it between all four of us, but we must do it when the Rapas on the next oar could not see, for it had once been theirs and they could not understand where it had gone. Nath and Zolta had chingled their chains in one of the many signals we oarslaves used to pass messages.

  The thing must be done furtively. Not only must we not alert the Rapas, but the whip-deldars walking the narrow deck would delight in any excuse to lash us with old snake at a time when we should be resting.

  “Hold still, Stylor!"

  That was Nath, breathing in my ear.

  We spoke in whispers.

  “Split it fairly, Zorg,” I said, and instantly Nath said: “Quiet, Stylor! For the love of Zair! Quiet!"

  And Zolta, strangely near for his apostis seat, whispered: “Hurry it up, you great fambly!"

  And Nath, breathing hard: “It takes a man to do this, you nit of nits."

  Well, they would always argue and insult each other, and each ready to hurl himself to death to save the other.

  “Is the Grakki-thing free yet?"

  “In a mur—in a mur—"

  And I said, sleepily, “Make the cheese a nice juicy Loguetter, Zorg. In the name of Diproo the Nimble-Fingered, we've earned it."

  “Quiet, numbskull!” And: “Clap a fist over his wine-spout, Zolta, while I"—grunt of effort—"finish this."

  And, oddly, I felt a hand over my mouth. How, I wondered in my dream, could it be Zolta's? He sat at the apostis seat, almost fully over the water. But it was a dream; anything could happen in a dream.

  The night breathed about us, a night of Notor Zan, when no moon shines in the sky of Kregen. In the darkness I dreamed that Zorg partitioned up his cheese and the Rapas had not seen. I reached out for my portion. I felt a fist under my fingers, a fist that spread into a hand that grasped my hand.

  “Where—"I began, and the other hand clapped back over my face. I squirmed. My chains did not rattle.

  I was being lifted up.

  This was indeed a most miraculous dream. Was I astride a fluttrell or a mirvol or even a flutduin? I rose into the air and I felt hands grasping me and movement. I tried to turn over to find another comfortable place on the ponsho-fleece, but the hands gripped me so I could not move.

  The strange swaying persisted. Then I was being passed down like a sack from a freighter. I felt a bump and something hard struck into my backbone. Before I could do anything or cry out a great evil-smelling canvas was thrown over me. I lay there, wondering when I would wake up and, however nightmarish the dream, preferring it to the reality of slaving on the rowing benches.

  The softly swaying movement beneath me told me I lay in a small boat. Well, they might not ask me to pull an oar then.

  I heard a voice, somewhere high overhead.

  “Weng da![4] Speak up, speak up!"

  [4 Weng da: Who goes there?]

  From close by my head Nath bellowed back: “Provision party, sir!"

  “Carry on then, Palinter."

  I heard a low chuckle in the boat. Why should the officer of the watch call Nath Palinter? Palinter was the title for the fat and jovially wicked fellows who were the pursers in—but no matter. This dream intrigued me through my madness.

  The boat pushed off. There were two oars, I could hear.

  The stroke was steady, the kind of rhythm that only two old comrades who had slaved together could row. I moved beneath the odiferous canvas.

  “Lie still, Stylor. Only a few strokes more."

  I lay still. I wanted to go to sleep and sleep dreamlessly. But this dream persisted, it pursued me, it would not let me go. The boat grounded. The canvas cover was thrown back. The night sky blazed above. I stood up. Nath and Zolta gripped my arms and helped me from the boat.

  “All very nice, Nath, Zolta,” I said. “But where is Zorg?"

  They looked at me.

  “I need my sleep. Let me go back to sleep."

  Nath took my arm. “This way."

  “Grace of Grodno.” I stumbled along after Nath, with Zolta supporting me from the side. My legs felt like smashed bananas. “Zorg will row.” The dream began to coil in my head. I panted. I felt the pains in my chest, in my head. My legs weren't there. “Zorg! Nath! Zolta! We must row—must pull—pull—"

  “Nearly there, Stylor, nearly there."

  I tried to haul up but they pulled me on.

  “Nearly where, you two rascals? Is it wine and a wench you are after? I know you two, two oar comrades, two great rogues..."

  We passed through a screen of trees, dark, massive and mysterious lumps in the star-flecked blackness. A clearing showed, with an arm of water curving into it hidden from the sea. A rickety hut of leaves and branches leaned over the water. I stopped, thunderstruck by a thought.

  “Why do you call me Stylor? You know my name is Dray—"

  “Yes, Dray, but we knew you first as Stylor. Now you are Dray Prescot...” Then, in a lower tone, Nath said, “Into the hut with him before he wakes the whole damned crew."

  “Where is Zorg?” I said again. And then the thought finally rooted. “Zorg is dead! We have roistered in Sanurkazz, many and many a time, with Nath and his wine and Zolta and his wenches—and Zorg is dead!"

  “Aye, Dray, Zorg is dead—and so will we all be if you don't stop yowling like a chunkrah in calf and get a move on!"

  I felt my legs then. I felt the ground beneath my feet.

  I trembled.

  I touched Nath. I touched Zolta.

  They were real!

  I wrenched away from them. I pawed my eyes. The trees, the hut, the stars, remained. I hit myself in the chest. I did not wake up.

  They were staring at me, there in the starlight.

  “Yes, Dray, who we called Stylor. You do not dream.” Nath smiled in the old reckless way.

  “By Zair, Dray Stylor! We've rescued you from the Krozairs of Zy and they'll have all our heads if they catch us!” And Zolta seized my arm and ran me into the hut.

  Rescued? Rescued? Rescued!

  * * *

  Chapter Thirteen

  Two rascals of Sanurkazz

  The succulent palines dropped one by one into my mouth: luscious cherry-like fruits, palines, sovereign remedies for the black dog.

  I lay back on the rough pallet of the hut and marveled.

  I was alone. Nath and Zolta, giving me no time to express my wonder, my fierce pride in them, my joy, had whispered ferociously that I was to stay hidden in the hut and they would be back as soon as they could.

  For the first time I noticed they were clad as Zimen, the lay brothers of the Krozairs of Zy. Their dull
red tunics bore the Krzy emblem decorously on the breast and back. Thick belts cinctured their waists and they swung seaman's knives there. They did not carry swords. They looked just the same as I remembered them—and then they were gone, melting back into the starlight.

  “If all goes well on Zulfirian Avenger," were Zolta's last words.

  And Nath's were: “By Zantristar the Merciful! Zair would not will it otherwise!"

  So I was learning. The name of the swifter was Zulfirian Avenger. Nath and Zolta were still alive, were Zimen, a fact which before my downfall I would have gloried to know, and were acting against all their vows to the Krzy in thus helping me, who was Apushniad.

  The penalties they faced were real and dreadful.

  The mere fact of freedom, for however short a duration, began in me a process of drawing back from that frightening and bottomless black pool of madness. I began to think again. Of course those two dearly beloved rascals had called me Stylor. That had been my name when we'd met, a name bestowed on me by the Overlords of Magdag in those festering warrens. But how had they come here? I knew it could not be by chance.

  I began to think of that tragic meeting with Delia. I had met her. I had spoken to her there in that dark cell in the rock wall with its trash of litter on the floor. Yes, yes, I had! I began to think of things she had said, items of information spoken quickly, in whispers, while I held her in my arms and tried to blot out the grim prospect of the future.

  The thought of her presence dizzied me. By Zair but she was marvelous!

  Yes, yes, she had said Drak and Zeg had written that the Call was out. As Krozairs of Zy they had responded. She had been engaged in a legal struggle over encroachments on Delphond, Dayra had received a bad report from the Sisters of the Rose—who the hell was Dayra?—the trouble with the scheming leem the Strom of Vilandeul, the samphron crop had been particularly bad in Valka and she had had to arrange to buy supplies from Vallia, her father the Emperor had been complaining bitterly that she neglected him—a myriad things of importance had been claiming her attention. She had cast them all to the winds.

  She had taken the fleetest voller to Esser Rarioch. There she had arranged as much as she could and, on the very night she was due to leave, she had been visited by Krozairs. They had sailed in a ship of Vallia all the way through the Grand Canal and the Dam of Days, around the west coast of Turismond and past Donengil, and so up the Cyphren Sea past Erthyrdrin and on to Vallia. From there they had flown to Valka. From this record of a perfectly ordinary sea passage of one of our galleons I knew the letters of my sons had been delayed. So now with two purposes, Delia had set out for Zy.