Shardik

Ortelgan who kept talking about a message to or from Bekla. This morning we found this on him and 1 thought best to come and show it to you at once.'

Elleroth took the stag emblem, looked at it, started, frowned and then examined it more closely. 'What does he look like, this man?' he asked at length.

'Like an Ortelgan, my lord,' replied Tan-Rion, 'spare and dark. It's hard to say much more – he's pretty well exhausted – half-starved and worn out. He must have had a very bad time.' 'I will see him immediately,' said Elleroth.

At the sight of Elleroth Kelderek's memory, by this time half-restored – like the safety of a swimmer whose limp feet, as he drifts, have already touched bottom here and there; or the consciousness of an awakening sleeper whose hearing has caught but who has not yet recognized for what they are the singing of the birds and the sound of rain – cleared as immediately as the misted surface of a mirror wiped by an impatient hand. The voices of the Yeldashay officers, the starred banner floating on the walls above the garden, the cognizances worn by the soldiers standing about him – all these assumed on the instant a single, appalling meaning. So might an old, sick man, smiling as his son's wife bent over his bed, grasp in a moment the terrible import of her look and of the pillow poised above his face. Kelderek gave a quick, gasping cry, staggered and would have fallen if the soldiers had not caught him under the arms. As they did so he struggled briefly, then recovered himself and stood staring, tense and wide-eyed as a bird held in a man's hand. 'How do you come to be here, Crendrik?' asked Elleroth. Kelderek made no reply. 'Are you seeking refuge from your own people?' He shook his head mutely and seemed about to faint. 'Let him sit down,' said Elleroth.

There was no second bench and one of the soldiers ran to bring a stool from the house. As he returned, two or three of the guard off duty followed him and stood peering from among the trees, until their tryzatt ordered them sharply back to the house.

'Crendrik,' said Elleroth, leaning towards him where he sat hunched upon the stool, 'I am asking you again. Are you here as a fugitive from Bekla?' 'I -I am no fugitive,' replied Kelderek in a low voice.

'We know that there has been a rising in Bekla. You say that that has nothing to do with your coming here, alone and exhausted?'

'I know nothing of it. I left Bekla within an hour of yourself – and by the same gate.' 'You were pursuing me?' 'No.'

Kelderek's face was set The guard commander seemed about to strike him, but Elleroth held up his hand and waited, looking at him intently.

'I was following Lord Shardik. That is my charge from God,' cried Kelderek with sudden violence and looking up for the first time. 'I have followed him from Bekla to the hills of Gelt' 'And then-?' 'I lost him; and later came upon your soldiers.' The sweat was standing on his forehead and his breath came in gasps. 'You thought they were your own?' 'It's no matter what I thought'

Elleroth searched for a moment among a bundle of scrolls and letters lying beside him on the bench. 'Is that your seal?' he asked, holding out a paper. Kelderek looked at it. 'Yes.' 'What is this paper?' Kelderek made no reply.

'I will tell you what it is,' said Elleroth. 'It is a licence issued by yourself in Bekla to a man called Nigon, authorizing him to enter Lapan and take up a quota of children as slaves. I have several similar papers here.'

The hatred and contempt of the men standing near by was like the oppression of snow unfallen from a winter sky. Kelderek, hunched upon the stool, was shaking as though with bitter cold. The scent of the planella came and went evanescent as the squeaking of bats at twilight.

'Well,' said Elleroth briskly, getting up from the bench, 'I have recovered this trinket, Crendrik, and you have nothing to tell us, it seems; so I can resume my work and you had better return to your business of seeking the bear.'

Tan-Rion drew in his breath sharply. The young Yeldashay officer started forward. 'My lord-' Again Elleroth raised his hand. *I have my reasons, Dethrin. Surely if anyone has the right to spare this man, it is I?'

'But, my lord,' protested Tan-Rion, 'this evil man – the priest-king of Shardik himself – Providence has delivered him into our hands – the people -'

'You may take my word for it that neither he nor the bear can harm us now. And if it is merely a matter of retribution that is troubling you, perhaps you will persuade the people to forgo it, as a favour to me. I have certain information which leads me to conclude that we should spare this man's life.'

His mild words were spoken with a firm directness which plainly admitted of no further argument. His officers were silent.

'You will go eastward, Crendrik,' said Elleroth. 'That will suit us both, since not only is it in the opposite direction from Bekla, but also happens to be the direction your bear has taken.'

From the square outside could now be heard a growing hubbub – murmuring, broken by angry shouts, raucous, inarticulate cries and the sharper voices of soldiers trying to control a crowd.

'We will give you food and fresh shoes,' said Elleroth, 'and that is as much as I can do for you. I can see well enough that you are in poor shape, but if you stay here you will be torn to pieces. You will not have forgotten that Mollo came from Kabin. Now understand this plainly. If ever again you allow yourself to fall into the hands of this army, you will be put to death. I repeat, you will be put to death. I should not be able to save you again.' He turned to the guard commander. 'See that he has an escort as far as the ford of the Vrako, and tell the crier to give out that it is my personal wish that no one should touch him.'

He nodded to the soldiers, who once more grasped Kelderek by the arms. They had already begun to lead him away when suddenly he wrenched himself about.

'Where is Lord Shardik?' he cried. 'What did you mean – he cannot harm you now?'

One of the soldiers jerked back his head by the hair, but Elleroth, motioning them to let him go, faced him once more.

'We have not hurt your bear, Crendrik,' he said. 'We had no need.'

Kelderek stared at him, trembling. Elleroth paused a moment. The noise of the crowd now filled the garden and the two soldiers, waiting, looked at one another sidelong.

'Your bear is dying, Crendrik,' said Ellerodi deliberately. 'One of our patrols came upon it in the hills three days ago and followed it eastward until it waded the upper Vrako. They were in no doubt. Other news has reached me also – never mind how – that you and the bear came alive from the Streels of Urtah. Of what befell you at the Streels you know more than I, but that is why your life is spared. I have no part in blood required of God. Now go!'

In the steward's room, one of the soldiers threw back his head and spat in Kelderek's face.

'You dirty bastard,' he said, 'burned his mucking hand off, did you?'

'And now he says we're to let you go,' said the other soldier. 'You damned, rotten Ortelgan slave-trader! Where's his son, eh? You saw to that, did you? You're the one that told Genshed what he had to do?'

'Where's his son?' repeated the first soldier, as Kelderek made no reply but stood with bent head, looking down at the floor.

'Didn't you hear me?' Taking Kelderek's chin in his hand, he forced it up and stared contemptuously into his eyes.

'I heard you,' mouthed Kelderek, his words distorted by the soldier's grip,' I don't know what you mean.' Both the soldiers gave short, derisive laughs. 'Oh, no,' said the second soldier. 'You're not the man who brought back slave-trading to Bekla, I suppose?' Kelderek nodded mutely.

'Oh, you admit that much? And of course you don't know that Lord Elleroth's eldest son disappeared more than a month ago, and that our patrols have been searching for him from Lapan to Kabin? No, you don't know anything, do you?' He raised his open hand, jeering as Kelderek flinched away.

'I know nothing of that,' replied Kelderek. 'But why do you blame the boy's disappearance on a slave-trader? A river, a wild beast -'

The soldier stared at him for a moment and then, apparently convinced that he really knew no more than he had said, answered 'We know who's got the lad. It's Genshed of Terekenalt.'

'I never heard of him. There's no man of that name licensed to trade in Beklan provinces.'

'You'd make the stars angry,' replied the soldier. 'Everyone's heard of him, the dirty swine. No, like enough he's not licensed in Bekla – even you wouldn't license him, I dare say. But he works for those that are licensed – if you call that work.' 'And you say this man has taken the Ban of Sarkid's heir?'