Word had spread through Ulatos with the coming of dawn: The conqueror, Captain-General Cordell himself, once again commanded the great fortress! By now the streets were filled with the news, mostly spoken by Mazticans with a mixture of trepidation and awe.
lb Hal, however, the news had carried the prospect of hope, which now led him to seek out Cordell. Erixitl remained unconscious, guarded by Gultec and Jhatli, while Daggrande had started over to the fortress on foot. Halloran had not wanted to wait.
Still, how would Cordell receive him? Now that the captain-general had regained an army and once again held a position of command, would he cooperate with the request of a former fugitive?
Pulling in the reins as he neared the entrance to the fortress, he nodded to the two halberdiers flanking the wide notch in the earthwork. Their polished breastplates and clean, unpatched leggings looked odd to Halloran, whose own equipment and clothes wore the marks of more than a year’s campaign.
They regarded him with suspicious frowns until he spoke.
“I’m here to see the captain-general” he barked. “Where will 1 find him?”
Blinking in surprise, the guard quickly pointed to the large headquarters building. “He’s in there now.”
Halloran wasted no time, spurring Storm into a speedy trot across the huge courtyard of the fortress. Around hint he saw companies of horsemen drilling, while other troop) did laundry or polished armor. The harquebuses worked at cleaning their cumbersome muskets.
Before the headquarters building, he reined in and dismounted quickly. Two guards barred the door, but the portal suddenly opened to reveal the captain-general himself. Cordell wore a shining breastplate. His black hair and beard were neatly trimmed, and a long green plume danced from his gleaming helmet.
“Halloran! Good work, man. What a surprise to see you here!”
“And a surprise for me as well,” Hal replied, taking the hand that his old commander offered. “How fared the Nexalans at Tukan?”
Briefly Cordell recounted the tale of the horde’s withdrawal, coupled with the discovery of Don Vaez’s arrival. “And this is where the eagle brings you now?” Cordell finished with an inquiry.
“I haven’t time to explain. I come for a different purpose.” Quickly Halloran described their experience at the City of the Gods and the mission that now sent them to Twin Visages. He told of the mysterious affliction that struck Erixitl. “I need a cleric, the best one you have, to see if he can bring her out of it! As long as she remains unconscious, we don’t have a chance!”
“This might explain the giant the eagles observed with the Beasts of the Viperhand,” said Cordell, describing the image of the looming stone monolith as told to him by Chical
“Yes-that’s Zaltec himself. We must get to Twin Visages before him to allow Qotal to return to Maztica. He’s the only one who can battle his brother! And only Erixitl can open the path for him!”
Cordell looked thoughtful, a hand stroking his beard. “It’s true that there are several clerics among these men. They could offer some aid, I’m certain. One of them, in fact, just healed himself after an unfortunate… accident. He is a pryat in the service of Helm.”
“Please-send him to the temple!” Hal blurted.
But Cordell’s eyes narrowed. “But tell me now, why should I? After all, you have renounced service in my legion. You made that very clear”
Halloran’s face flushed. His anger nearly compelled his fingers toward Cordell’s throat, but he forced himself to hold still- “It’s important that she recover-not just for me, but for all of us!”
Cordell acted as though he hadn’t heard. “Of course, I’m sure we could work something out.” He smiled, as if a pleasant idea slowly took shape in his mind.
“You know, I’m short of good horse captains! It’s no secret that you were one of the best, Captain Halloran. Now, if you were to join with me quickly-now-I would have no cause for denying you the services of these faithful men of god.”
Halloran looked at Cordell in disbelief. Unconsciously his hands clenched into fists, yet he forced his voice to remain calm as he replied.
“You know that I can’t do that. I am a man of Maztica now, Whatever the purpose of this new army of yours, I can make no pledge to support it-or even to stand aside when you march.”
Cordell sighed. Halloran waited, wondering what the captain-general would do next. The door to the building opened again, and Hal looked up to see a fully-cloaked Eagle Warrior emerge.
“Chical,” Halloran said, with a bow.
“It is good to see you, my friend,” replied the knight. Then Chical turned to Cordell. “You must give him the help he seeks. He is right when he says that his wife’s task is important to all of us.”
Cordell looked at the Eagle Knight sharply, annoyance creasing his brow. Clearly he didn’t like the interference of another in what he considered to be his own prerogatives of command. Then he looked back at Halloran.
“I shall send them immediately-as I was about to do. My ploy was just that, an attempt to get you back. I meant what I said, Hal-you were the best.”
Halloran studied Cordell, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or merely attempting to save face. Finally Hal held his hands up. “I’ll take the help you send, and
gratefully.”
Kardann groped his way through the tangled forest, propelled only by fear-fear of what lay behind him. AH of his nightmares, all the terrors that Maztica had aroused in him in the past, seemingly endless months were as nothing compared to the dread in which he now held Cordell.
Didn’t he see? Couldn’t the captain-general understand? Kardann was loyal to the merchant princes of Amn. They had hired him, he had responsibilities’. Now, Don Vaez was clearly the duly appointed representative of those worthy nobles. Kardann’s loyalty belonged to him, not Cordell!
Yet truly Kardann realized that Cordell would never understand. Just when it had seemed his nightmare was about to end, when the actual prospect of sailing home again loomed before him, catastrophe had to strike.
Indeed, Don Vaez had promised to send the assessor home on the first ship, with the shipment of gold they had been about to unearth. Then somehow the treacherous Cordell had escaped, and Kardann’s future became a ruined shambles. Don Vaez’s men had turned to the new commander with no thought toward legalities or even common decency!
What was the matter with those men, anyway? How could they renounce an oath of loyalty and accept a new commander in the middle of a campaign? But such they had done.
Immediately Kardann had understood that the new organization would have no place for him, or if it did, that place might well be found at the end of a rope. Without thinking, he had fled from the fortress, from the eager hands of fickle soldiery suddenly so anxious to do Cordell’s bidding.
So now he found himself in this infernal, eternal jungle. He pressed forward, cursing as thorns pricked his hands but not slowing his pace as his robes were slowly torn away. All he could think of, all that drove him now, was the thought of getting as far as possible from the madman who now commanded Helmsport.
*****
Ether had assumed the dimensions of infinity to Poshtli. For a timeless era-an entire lifetime of a man, for all he knew-he had ridden the shoulders of the god Qotal. Bright plumage surrounded him, softly cushioning and comfortably warm. His body craved neither food nor drink.
Yet still the god remained little more to him than a great transport, carrying him across the worlds, yet conveying little of his mission or his might.
Indeed, Poshtli had begun to sense that the god needed little from humans, save that they open the passage for him again to return to the world. Once he reached Maztica, however, Qotal would feel no compulsion to heed the pleas of his worshipers. They were puny mortals to him, and as such, beneath his cosmic concerns.
But now Poshtli sensed a nearness again, a form of substance somewhere, not too distant, but still invisible within the ethereal fog. For just once, briefly, that mist parted.
He saw revealed before him a shore of verdant green surrounding a small, lichen-encrusted pyramid. Below the pyramid, on a high, seaward bluff, two faces gazed impassively outward. And then Poshtli understood.
They looked seaward, and they searched for the return of the God.
