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hundred miles an hour. There were many slates and tiles strewing the flags of the city. I prowled, restless
as a caged leem. Katrin wanted to talk about the problems of her Kovnate of Rahartdrin, but I was in no
mood for that, and kept out of her way. Most of the time I spent drinking and talking with Inch.
On the morning of the fourth day Katrin s captain reported the weather fit for us to fly. The wind had
veered and dropped and the clouds were piling back into the sky from which the twin suns put in a
watery appearance. We went to the airboat, climbed aboard, and took flight for Delka Dwa. I was not in
a happy mood. For some reason I did not wish to fathom I felt cut off, isolated, marooned from events.
 I had made up my mind what I was going to do, and the elements were merely holding me back. They
could not change my mind.
I would fly to Delka Dwa, take Delia and whoever she wanted to accompany her aboard this airboat.
Seg would join us. I would place my hands on this calsany of a captain s throat and he would fly Katrin s
airboat to Vondium. We would pick up Thelda and little Dray, and then we would take flight for
Strombor.
Yes. That was the plan. Simple, direct, and brutal.
The plan did not work out like that. You must remember that Kregen is not Earth. Oh, yes, most of its
geography, customs, and people are like some of those of the Earth; but much there is strange and
awe-inspiring and as different from Earth as an Eskimo is different from an Amazonian Indian.
We slanted down to a landing where green fields of cabbage ended, their rows wide-spread beneath the
suns. On the other side of the landing field rose the craggy pile of Delka Dwa, a dun-colored mass of
stone, roofed with pointed witches hats, moated, a triple-gate opened ready to receive us. I had the
impression the gates would be slammed shut the instant we were inside over the drawbridge. Across the
town hung shadows of high clouds. Beyond lay a rising stretch of land, mostly of a yellow dust-rock in
which the glimpses of gray-green vegetation served only to emphasize the barrenness of that land, the
emptiness of it, as it rose and became drier and gradually turned into the true Ocher Limits.
All was in turmoil.
The blood was still being scrubbed from the cobbles and the flagstones, scraped from the walls, washed
from the costly tapestries and carpets.
The bodies had been collected and lay in rows beneath the walls, hurriedly wrapped in makeshift
shrouds fashioned from sheeting.
Delka Dwa had been attacked four days ago, just before the great storm. Savage men and beast-men
wearing colors of green and purple, their badge a hangman s noose, had ravaged the place searching for
the Emperor.
I forced myself to hold on to my sanity.
Pallan Eling, with a bloody bandage around his head, lay in a long chair, and his scrawny frame shook. I
asked him the questions torturing me.
 I do not know where the Princess is, Strom, he said. His voice quavered. I thought he shook no more
than did I.  Now we know the colors and the badge of the third party! By Vox, I hope their bones rot
and slime on the Ice Floes of Sicce.
In the corridors bowmen lay mingled with mercenaries, all wounded, all the Emperor s men who had
fought. They had been overwhelmed.
A Hikdar told me, a Hikdar with a broken left arm strapped across his chest and acupuncture needles in
him, dulling the pain. At his side lay his great longbow.
 Pallan Eling should go back to caring for the canals, the Hikdar said.  And leave fighting to warriors.
  Yes, I said, in a voice I did not recognize.  What happened?
I was aware of Inch busily taking in what had happened and talking to the survivors. The Hikdar s head
lolled.
 I was told to wait here. As soon as we arrived from Delka Ob the Emperor must have heard news, for
he took to the air again at once. Half his force he took with him. We who stayed here received the attack
designed to kill him. That is sure.
The real fear took me then and gripped my guts with a pain that made me cry out and rush upon the
shrunken form of the Pallan Eling, the man responsible for canals. His face looked like an old potato left
out in the sun for a week. He whimpered when I gripped him.
 You must tell me, Pallan Eling. Where is the Princess Majestrix?
He cried out, and gazed on the scene about him as though reliving the scenes of horror. Then he closed
his eyes and a shudder racked through his body.  Gone. He moaned, barely audible, and his old lips
fluttered.  They came wearing the white and black, and said they were my friends, and asked for the
Emperor  and I told them! I told them!
 What did you tell them, old man?
 Vomanus of Vindelka, it was; he knew. He warned the Emperor! They fled to The Dragon s Bones.
There, Vomanus said, they would be safe. Eling abruptly sat up, gripped what was left of his hair, and
tore at it like a madman.  And I told them where Vomanus had gone!
I tried to calm myself, to think clearly, and, Zair knows, that was nigh impossible with the blood roaring
in my head.
 And the Princess? Where is she?
 She took an airboat with the others  with the Emperor 
 Inch! I bellowed.
He came running, swinging his ax.
 We go to The Dragon s Bones.
 Aye, Drak. Where may that be, then?
I stared at him like a loon. I had no idea.
A Chulik sat with his back against a wall. One eye had been gouged out and the tusk on that side
broken off. His chest was broken and a girl was trying clumsily to ease his pain. He stared up at me with
that stoic calmness the Chuliks boast against pain.  The Dragon s Bones, he said, in a whisper. He wore
sleeves of white and ocher, so he was of Vindelka.
I bent down.  By Likshu the Treacherous! Tell me where lies The Dragon s Bones, Chulik.
 Into the Ocher Limits  northwest  twenty, twenty-five dwaburs, more. There are bones there,
millions of bones.
A Chuktar whose once-brilliant uniform was now mere rags, bloody and ripped, leaned up on an arm
and coughed out:  There is no hope for the Emperor now. The third party has suborned good men. We
stayed loyal to the Emperor, and this is our thanks. There is no one in the whole of Vallia who will fight
for him now.
 No, no! shrieked the Pallan Eling, and then he looked around furtively.  But it is true. I should have
joined Trylon Larghos! I was asked  I was asked! All have turned against the Emperor! He rocked
to and fro in his agony.  Why did I not do so? My loyalty has destroyed me!
Well, the whole sorry story was out in the open now. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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