saluted and noticed he looked keyed up. He paced about, as he spoke, over the priceless carpet, well pleased over some matter.
The imposing many-peaked tent provided for his lady had been taken down long before the king arrived, and the tent, the lady, her retinue, and a strong guard of Pachaks had left the camp, no man would say where. I had seen the king’s Crebent wandering about looking exceedingly bilious. He was one Grodnim among many we could do without.
'Such news, Gadak!' Gafard greeted me. 'We are on the move. The king approves — but these are matters not fit for the ears of a mere aide. Look-' He gestured to a side table. 'Help yourself to a drink. It is all Grodnim stuff.'
I refused politely. He’d had to stock Grodnim wine when the king came here.
'The King also brought me an item of information interesting to him; an item of supreme importance to me!' He was expansive; I had never seen him more febrile, alert, restless, pacing about, a flush beneath his mahogany suntan giving him even more of that voracious carved beakhead look I know so well from the mirror.
'Yes, gernu?'
'You asked me once if it was sure the great Krozair, Pur Dray, the Lord of Strombor, was surely dead. And I answered it was sure. Well, Gadak-' Here, he stopped pacing and turned and glared at me with a look of unholy triumph. 'There is news, sure news! The king’s spies brought it; it cannot be doubted. Pur Dray has reappeared in the inner sea from — from where no man knows. He is still alive!'
'You honor me with your confidence-' I began. He brushed that aside.
'It is no confidence. The news will soon circulate. The greater the news the faster it travels. But, Gadak, there is more. . Pur Dray has been ejected from the Krozairs of Zy! He is Apushniad!' Gafard shook his head in bewilderment. 'I cannot understand how they can be such fools, such stupid idiot onkers; but the fact remains.'
'Then if he is Apushniad,' I said, speaking slowly, sizing him up, 'you think, perhaps-?'
'Aye, I do! There is a certain matter between us. I must meet him. Now that I know he is alive and not dead I am overjoyed!'
How badly he wanted to overmatch the old reputation of that Krozair of Zy who was dead and was now alive!
I said, 'You would seek to come to hand-strokes with him, to slay him, to prove yourself a greater Ghittawrer than he is a Krozair?'
He looked at me as though I were a mewling infant, or a crazy man screaming at the lesser moons to halt in their tracks. He opened his mouth, but the tent drapings ripped up and Grogor, his second in command, appeared, throwing a quick salute, butting in, interrupting: 'Gernu! The king! He calls for you
— at once, gernu!'
Gafard’s mouth snapped shut. He whipped up his green cloak and threw it over his shoulders. His longsword clanked once as he strode past me. He said, 'Get about your duties, Gadak. Serve me well and you will be rewarded.'
'Your orders, my commands, gernu!' I bellowed blankly.
That small incident had shown me in more revealing drama the situation between these two, between King Genod and Gafard, the King’s Striker. For all the talk of brain and hand, of genius and executive, still when the king whistled Gafard ran. Gafard was tough and strong and ruthless and high-handed and all the things a man needed to be to survive upon Kregen and attain a position of comfort — quite apart from power and wealth — and his authority within the army was unquestioned. Still, King Genod whistled and Gafard ran.
Then I checked. Did I not run when Gafard whistled?
The answer to that question should be satisfactorily answered this very night. After the suns had gone down and the Maiden with the Many Smiles began to climb the heavens, I found Duhrra thinking about wandering down to the infantry lines after more dopa, and told him what I was going to do.
His broad idiot face broke into one huge grin. 'About time, master! Huh — I’m with you, by Zantristar the Merciful!'
I said, 'We will take both the flying boats, for that will be easier. The little one will rest on the big one’s deck.'
We gathered up all our fighting gear we would ordinarily use on duty and left our sleeping silks and spare clothing scattered about as though we had just left casually. I wanted to leave a bolthole in case the damned voller was not a first-class example and played up. That is a thing anyone of foresight would do, even though I did not expect to see this place again for a long time. The Maiden with the Many Smiles, Kregen’s largest moon, gave more light than we needed for a desperate enterprise of this nature. But I would not wait. The king might leave on the morrow after his inspection. And my impatience had now boiled over. Rashness and recklessness — they are a mark of my own stupidity, I own.
Acting perfectly normally we walked through the moon-drenched shadows to the edge of the bluffs overlooking the beach. In one of the curved beach hollows fenced on its seaward side the Zairian prisoners had been lodged. They would be chained and the chains stapled to stakes driven deeply into the sand. Here lay one chance; the sand would give more easily than earth. I had brought a length of iron filched from the engineers’ stores, just in case. As it turned out we were lucky here. One of the Rapa guards, who toppled over after Duhrra hit him on top of his crested head, carried keys on a large bronze ring. Cautioning silence, we went among the prisoners, releasing them. They gathered about me in the pink and golden shadows, breathing hard, hardly believing.
'You are men from Zandikar. I salute your prowess. Now we strike a blow for Zair and we strike in absolute silence!'
'I am Ornol ti Zab, ley-Hikdar, third officer of
'We are with you in this escape. But — you and this giant with one hand wear the green.'
'Aye,' I said. 'Aye, Hikdar, we do. And if there is a scrap of red about we will gladly wear that! By Zair, yes!'
There were dead men in the dunes. Red cloth was to hand. I wound the crimson about my loins, over the green, draped an end over the green tunic. There was no time for more. We all stole silently across the sand. The Hikdar halted as I put my hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear.
'Not that way, Hikdar.'
'But,' he whispered back, 'that way lies our swifter, our fleet
'There is a greater Jikai tonight. You are a ley-Hikdar.[4]Success this night will leap you at a bound to Jiktar. I promise you. Your king Zinna will do no other.
He looked doubtful. I did not blame him. I could be a part of a trap, devilish sport of the Grodnims with Zairian captives.
'King Zinna is an old man now, dom. He would sooner see his swifter back in the ship-sheds of Zandikar.'
'Yet the way I show you will deliver up a greater prize. Did you not see the flying boats land?' He gasped. 'Aye — aye! This will be a great Jikai!'
So we went on through the moonlight in the way I directed. Of course, King Zinna must be old — I’d last seen him fifty years ago and he’d been middle-aged then. The cities and states of the Red southern shore hang together in a sketchy alliance against the Greens, but they are touchy of their national honor. I didn’t care to which Zairian city-state the voller went just so long as I stopped off at Zy first. Although, come to think of it, my allegiance should go to Mayfwy of Felteraz and through her to King Zo of Sanurkazz. That was, if I had any allegiances left.
The night guard on the two vollers had been changed from Pachaks to Fristles. No doubt apims and Chuliks and any other diffs on the roster might have been used as required. My sea-leems of Zair dealt with the Fristles; the cat-faced diffs swiftly disposed of, the Red swamped over the Green. The moon glistered on the ornate scrollwork gilding of the sternwalk. The hull bulged with power. Yes, this was a fine handy craft, equipped with varters, decked, a superb fighting machine of the air. We swarmed up like ants, climbing up onto the deck and taking by surprise the remnant of the guard sleeping off watch there.
With brands in their fists, with their blood up, these men of Zandikar showed their mettle. Their captain and
