admitted that Guest was very much a prisoner of his barbarous upbringing. Guest Gulkan was born into the household of a warlord, and received the upbringing appropriate to a warlord's son, and therefore lived and thought as a warlord. His imagination revolved around power; and struggle; and swords; and horses; and the clash of armies. And, as he butchered his way from one disaster to another, Guest comported himself very much like the archetypical swordsman. He dared his caverns; he slew his monsters; he slaughtered his crocodiles; he bedded his women; and he did grievous damage to the irregular verbs wherever he encountered them.
So it was that the Weaponmaster lived in ignorance of his true historical significance – which was, to be an instrument to unlock the power which lay latent in the city of Dalar ken Halvar.
It was Guest, after all, who decided that the world should be conquered by the militant religion of Nu-chala- nuth rather than by the Swarms. When the wisdom of wizards could see no way into the future, it was Guest who bethought himself of Plandruk Qinplaqus, and of Asodo Hatch – so diligently supervising the construction of a machine designed to tame the x-x-zix and bring effective weather control to Dalar ken Halvar – and of the wealth of knowledge protected and preserved by Paraban Senk in the caves of Cap Foz Para Lash.
Only when Guest had unlocked the Circle of the Partnership Banks did he really realize what he had done. Only then did he realize that he had put an end to the old and ancient cyclic dynamic of feudal history which had for so long dominated the world.
It is a new world now.
Precisely what kind of world?
It is hard to say.
It is early days yet, and we cannot tell what shape the future will take. But this we know: the forges of Stokos, matched to the knowledge of Dalar ken Halvar, looks in its own right to be a combination which will prove potent against the Swarms.
As for Guest Gulkan's story, that has been told, at least to the extent which it can be told. There may be more yet to come, for Guest has declared his intention of venturing once more to the Shackle Mountains, and there entering the Cave of the Warp for a second time, and passing again through the Veils of Fire, protected by the mazadath which he yet wears around his neck. For Guest wishes to have further knowledge with the Lobos, a thing which does not figure in the writings of wizards, a thing which is unknown to demons such as Iva-Italis, and of which Paraban Senk can give no explanation.
As to the rest of Guest's life, why, no account need be given of it. For, as soon as Guest had opened the Circle of the Partnership Banks, he had initiated a new phase of history – a phase in which a dynastic struggle between father and son is of little consequence.
Still, for the sake of mere completeness, let us spare a few words to sketch out an account of events which seekers of sensation have elsewhere dealt with at weary length.
On opening the Circle of the Doors of the Partnership Banks, Guest Gulkan returned to Alozay, as has been recounted; and on Alozay he learnt of the doings of his father.
While Guest and his allies had been preparing for the reopening of the Circle, a rabble of pirates and Rovac warriors had been preparing to invade the Collosnon Empire from the south.
Dim rumors of this impending invasion had reached as far as Gendormargensis, a city then in some considerable disorder as a consequence of the brawling disorder of its Yarglat rulers, who had been making coups and counter-coups against each other for the better part of half a year.
Hearing of the disorder in Gendormargensis, and of the threat of invasion from the south, the Witchlord Onosh thought the moment ripe for his return.
This may be thought presumptuous.
For, surely, Lord Onosh had been defeated; and disgraced; and discredited. Lord Onosh had lost his empire to Khmar, and had been reduced to the rule of the Safrak Islands, paltry pieces of rock in the wash of the Swelaway Sea. How then could he aspire to reconquer the Collosnon Empire?
The answer is simple.
During the long years in which he had lived in exile on the Safrak Islands, Lord Onosh – ever counseled by the wisdom of Bao Gahai, the steadfast companion of his defeat – had prepared for his return.
Preparation had been difficult during the reign of the Red Emperor Khmar, whose rule of terror had restricted speech, thought and movement. But, under the rule of Khmar's son Celadric, the Collosnon Empire had become a milder place; and the Witchlord's agents had taken advantage of freedoms of speech, assembly and movement to sound out inclinations, to spy, to suborn, to bribe and to subvert.
In particular – ever remembering the cause of the disorder which had precipitated his overthrow! – Lord Onosh had cultivated the leaders of Stranagor and Locontareth. He had studied in great length the question of taxation, and had covertly promised the provinces a just share of fertilization.
Regarding the question of taxation, it must be admitted that Khmar's son Celadric had been no better than any of the rulers who had preceded him. There were many good things which could be said of Celadric – one notes in particular his scholarship, and the courageous manner in which he subdued even the most wickedly barbed of the irregular verbs – but it has to be admitted that he had one or two exceedingly vicious vices.
The most vicious of all Celadric's vices was that of architecture. Much has been made of the manner in which so many great men have destroyed themselves with strong drink, or with opium, or with gambling, or with an over-indulgence in orgasmic pursuits – but the great vice of architecture is potentially as ruinous as all of these put together.
There are many individuals, families, companies and cities which have come to ruin through over-indulgence in oak, cedar, granite, marble and mortar; and, though Celadric had not exactly ruined the Collosnon Empire through such indulgence, it must be allowed that he had grievously over-taxed such provincial centers as Locontareth and Stranagor to pay for the aggrandizement of his capital.
Furthermore, the very length of time which Lord Onosh had been away from his former empire had worked to his advantage.
Memories had mellowed and softened to his advantage. Compared to Khmar, he was a golden saint, and his reign a time of peace and plenty. Those who were threatening the invasion of Tameran from the south had made Khmar's daughter Monogail their figurehead – which meant, in effect, that they were proposing the conquer in the name of Khmar. However rational and reasonable that may have seemed in Estar, it met with little favor in the empire's heartland.
So, with Gendormargensis disordered by coup and countercoup, and with a bloodthirsty invasion threatened from the south, Lord Onosh decided to make his move.
Locontareth declared for Lord Onosh, and raised an army for him; and, by the time Guest Gulkan reopened the Circle of the Partnership Banks and made his way to Alozay, Lord Onosh was once more ruling the Collosnon Empire from Gendormargensis.
Had Bao Gahai survived to see the Witchlord's triumph, things might thereafter have turned out differently. But Bao Gahai died within sight of the walls of Gendormargensis. Years earlier, she had made a terrible sacrifice to fulfill the greatest desire of her heart; and this sacrifice had so aged and weakened her that it is a wonder that she had survived for so long.
In sight of the walls of Gendormargensis, Bao Gahai perished, falling victim to one of those contagious fevers which are so much a part and parcel of campaigning. Therefore, when Lord Onosh learnt that his son Guest was upon Alozay, Lord Onosh lacked Bao Gahai's counsel.
As was noted at the outset of this history, the Witchlord Onosh had been at odds with the world for so long that he had quite lost the art of showing the world kindness and affection.
This was the flaw which doomed him to destruction.
For, when Lord Onosh heard that Guest was on Alozay, and was leagued with wizards, and was often in conference with the demon Iva-Italis, and was in discourse with the Shabble whom Italis held as a prisoner, and was arming the soldiers of Parengarenga with the swords of Stokos, why, Lord Onosh did not think to praise his son, or congratulate him on his success, or make him a gift of some of the more transportable pieces of Celadric's architecture.
No.
When Lord Onosh heard that Guest had arrived upon Alozay, he interpreted this arrival as invasion, and feared the conquest of Alozay to be but the opening move of the conquest of Tameran. And, once Lord Onosh began assembling an army to strike against Alozay, what option was then left to his son?
