But what was done was done, and repenting of it would be of no help to anyone. At least they had escaped through to the city of Dalar ken Halvar.
It had been deep night when the stormforce had abstracted Guest Gulkan from the Witchlord's stronghold on the island of Alozay. It had been night in the Monastic Treasury of Inner Adeer when Guest Gulkan had been delivered to the healers waiting in that Bank. Night had likewise ruled Galsh Ebrek and Obooloo, and night reigned still on his arrival in Dalar ken Halvar, for all these places are to be found on the same side of the planet, and one span of night can encompass them all.
Know you the meaning of 'planet'? A planet is a globe roped invisibly to the sun, the sun being a metaphorical giant which whirls this globe around his head at the end of a rope. Such is the length of the rope that a single circuit of the giant's head takes a year. This is the lunatic scale to which our reality is built, from which fact many have concluded that the Gods of Construction were deranged; and your historian sees no reason to bicker some dispute with such conclusion.
So it was by night that the stormforce came forth from the Bralsh, emerging onto the surface of their planet like ants exiting from a tiny fissure in the rind of a rotten watermelon.
Bearing Guest Gulkan with them, the stormforce ventured the night from the Bralsh of the Good neighbors to the halls of the demonmountain, Cap Foz Para Lash.
Through the streets of Childa Go they went; they skirted the western slopes of Cap Ogo Botch, which hill sustains the ruling palace of Dalar ken Halvar; and then, avoiding Actus Dorum, the commercial center of the Silver Emperor's city, they took a back way between the yawning abyss of the Dead Mouth and the upthrust fortifications of the Frangoni Rock.
Thus they went, and arrived at the great gate known as the lockway, where Plandruk Qinplaqus secured their admission into the mountain.
The mountain was ruled by a demon, and the demon commanded a place which was designed for the refurbishment of the bodies of those injured in battle. This demon, the genius loci of Cap Foz Para Lash, went by the name of Paraban Senk. Unlike the demon Iva-Italis of Safrak and the demon Ko of Chi'ash-lan, Paraban Senk had no body of green-burning stone, but, rather, was caged invisibly in some hidden part of the cave-works of Cap Foz Para Lash. That much is sure, and all are agreed upon it; but of the demon's true nature it is hard to give a reasoned account.
Now there are demons and demons, just as there are ghosts and ghosts – and, for that matter, gods and gods. To know things in their true categories is hard enough even when we deal with those mundane entities which breathe the same air as we do, and mate and breed meet their deaths manner like unto that of men. Is the whale a fish or is it (as the eccentric opinion of certain naturalists would have it) a species of cow? Having considered the whale, consider the woman. Is she like a whale in her milk, a scorpion in her wit or a day of moody weather in her humors?
On such questions the greatest intellects have bruised themselves without securing conclusive resolution, so, since such difficulties attend such things as simple as the analysis of organic life, it is only natural that to win a certain knowledge of things demonic is more problematical yet.
Hence your historian stakes out no definite position as regards the nature of the demon known as Paraban Senk, but merely contents himself with here recording the most peculiar account which this demon gave of itself. Senk was a man, or had been. Yet Senk was presently merged with the life of a species of computational device – that is to say, a kind of self-powered abacus so monstrous in its complexity that the intricate shuttlework of its beads could create patterns complex enough to rival those of a human mind engaged in higher thought.
What is certain is that Senk was an entity which had survived from the dark times hidden behind the veils of the Days of Wrath.
When questioned, Senk spoke of worlds linked to worlds and locked in war; of ships of destruction which could rival thought in their speed; of living metal which bestrode the field of battle and demolished cities in its wrath; of peoples devastated by fire and plague; of planets shattered and of suns burst asunder – and of Senk's knowledge of pain, and death, and trial by horror, there seemed to be no ending.
While a degree of mystery surrounds Paraban Senk's origins, nature, powers, function and nature, there is no doubt that this demonic entity wielded much power within the underground fortress of Cap Foz Para Lash, even though (and here your historian relies on the testimony of the Ashdan warrior Asodo Hatch, Senk being mute on the matter) it had no way in which to project such power beyond the lockway.
To that lockway, the wounded warrior Guest Gulkan was conveyed; and there he was placed in the healing room run by the demon of the mountain, and his cure commenced.
Then Plandruk Qinplaqus, who had no knowledge of what might have happened in Dalar ken Halvar since he had been kidnapped by Banker Sod and imprisoned in a time pod in Alozay's Hall of Time, set about the business of reinstalling himself in the city which he had formerly been accustomed to rule as emperor.
The task Qinplaqus had set himself was potentially difficult, for, in his absence, there had been a revolution in the city; and civil disorder had seen all power in Dalar ken Halvar fall to an Ashdan warrior named Asodo Hatch, who ruled in the name of the militant religion known as Nu-chala-nuth.
Yet Hatch proved uncommonly relieved at the abrupt reappearance of Plandruk Qinplaqus, for the difficulties of ruling Dalar ken Halvar – and the realms of the Empire of Greater Parengarenga which were commanded from that city – were of such complexity and intensity that they almost exceeded Hatch's abilities.
So it was that Plandruk Qinplaqus, rightful lord of the Empire of Parengarenga, returned to his capital city, made an alliance with the revolutionary leader Asodo Hatch, and reinstalled himself in the great palace of Na Sashimoko.
And Guest Gulkan's cure proceeded. Guest Gulkan's cure was slow, because to start with he had no arms or legs to speak of. As his body had been injured, so too had his mind; and night after night he endured nightmares in which he lost both arms and legs, in which the Great Mink mauled the hair from his head while Thodric Jarl swordbooted his cleats into the blood-gash grin of his face. He dreamt of rivers awash with blood and head made into pyramids, of floods of roiling eyeballs and hailstorms of bloodstained teeth, and of hectic voyages on ships which catapulted themselves skywards then shattered themselves to toothpicks on the grim-beak heights of mountains.
Yet as Guest's body began to heal, and as his arms and legs began their slow regrowth under the subtle tutelage of the demon of the mountain, his dreams slowly changed; and more and more he dreamt of women rather than of war.
In his dreams he imagined Yerzerdayla, her hair flowing around his ribs, her mouth nourishing his strength, her lips swallowing pearls, her heat-warmth perfume blossoming around her, her whispers hot with admiration, and her unlimited delights matching his ardor.
Thus Guest began to heal, body and mind; and as time went on he had long sessions with Hostaja Sken- Pitilkin, who thought this an excellent opportunity to re-inspire young Guest with a love of the irregular verbs. Much of their time together was given to arguing over precisely what animal it was which had mauled Guest Gulkan in the arena at Chi'ash-lan.
'It was a bear,' said Guest, and he said it not once but repeatedly.
'That was no bear,' said sagacious Sken-Pitilkin. 'That was a mink.'
'Not so,' said Guest. 'A mink is a small animal which bites, and as punishment for its temperament is commonly made into gloves. Or coats, if the man is fool enough and the woman nags long enough.'
'There is a Great Mink which is like unto the lesser minks in its temperament,' said Sken-Pitilkin, 'and which also bit, just as it bit you. It was the Great Mink you met, and not any kind of bear.'
But Guest Gulkan was firmly decided. If one is going to be mauled, then it is better for one's honor to be mauled by a bear than a mink, and so in defiance of zoological science he proclaimed his assailant to have been a bear. Though in truth the Great Mink of the snows of the Cold West is a bloodier monster than any bear, for your average bear is bent on grubs and honey, or has its mind on fish, whereas the Great Mink hunts with deadly purpose, and will as lief hunt men as any lesser game.
So Guest Gulkan was a fool to dispute his tutor's wisdom. But Sken-Pitilkin was not distressed at this folly. Rather, it was a relief to see the young man coming into possession of some spark of life.
When Guest had been some months recovering, he had the first of his formal audiences with Plandruk Qinplaqus, lord of the Empire of Greater Parengarenga.
'Is there anything you need?' said the Lord of the Silver Pelican.
