Shadow

shuddered.

    Then the final five struck simultaneously, and the ancient timbers on the darkward side collapsed, crumpling and folding and taking much of the barred wall with them.

    The hoods started coming off--and the battle of Ninar Foan was over.

    Shadow did not cheer. Never had there been a peace treaty in the Old Times struggle between man and bird--it had merely decayed into guerrilla warfare as the eagles abandoned the middle slopes and retreated to places where men could not follow. The killing had become random terror, when a wild saw a chance to take an unarmed man or the skymen a wild. There had never been a peace, and now the full fury of war was about to erupt again.

    Never before had the eagles captured an aerie. But this time they had a skyman on their side.

    A traitor.

    Bong!

    More like a prisoner than a victorious general, Shadow marched along a corridor with three swordsmen in front of him and another three behind. Each one of them was a head taller than he was, and most were twice as wide; he did not trust the hospitality of Ninar Foan.

    Bong!

    Instinctively he was keeping time. Every third step of his left foot coincided with a stroke from the great bell as it echoed mournfully through the stones and the passages, drifting out over castle and town, wafted away in the wind toward the Great Salt Plain.

    Bong!

    'This one, I think,' he said. The door was opened, the room inspected before he could enter.

    It was well furnished yet cluttered with a lifetime of personal effects: paintings, shelves covered with souvenirs, inlaid wooden chests, a dozen trophy heads decorating the walls. The drapes were partly drawn. The air was stuffy and stank of death.

    Bong!

    Leaving his guard by the door, he advanced to the big bed and wondered if he was too late. The tiny mummy face was yellow, and the good eye closed; the dead eye was half-open and blank as usual.

    Bong!

    Then the eye opened slightly. 'Why don't you turn that damned thing off and let a man die in peace?' the old voice wheezed.

    Shadow reached down and took one of the limp hands. It was cold as the High Rand. 'I am sorry you are unwell, Sir Ukarres.'

    There was a pause while the eye studied him. 'I am sorry you are well.'

    Bong!

    'I have a score to settle,' Shadow said. 'You tried to kill me. You sent me to Dead Man's Pass, but you did not tell me that it had never been done from this side.'

    The old man stared at him contemptuously. 'There had to be a first. But go ahead--settle.'

    Shadow shrugged.

    'Pah!' Ukarres sneered. 'You wouldn't settle anyway.'

    'Probably not,' Shadow agreed, and smiled. 'Now the king will be proclaimed, and then we shall leave and not disturb you further.'

    Ukarres licked his lips and gestured toward a table. Shadow reached for the beaker of water and held him up while he took a sip. In contrast to his hands, his body burned, but the water seemed to revive him a little. The funereal tolling had ended.

    Ukarres coughed feebly and sank back. 'So you have liberated twelve eagles? How many left to go?'

    Shadow sat on the edge of the bed. 'No idea. The king alone has thousands.'

    'Vonimor is a fool,' Ukarres wheezed. 'You would not have had it so easy had I been there. Yes, the aerie, maybe; but not the castle itself.'

    'It was only the birds we wanted,' Shadow said. 'We could have just bypassed the castle and gone on.'

    Ukarres frowned. 'And when Jarkadon comes, he will burn and pillage because we surrendered to Vindax. Such is war. Well, I shall not be here.'

    'Jarkadon will not come,' Shadow said. 'The duke will not be returning either. You may never hear from the capital again, Ukarres.'

    'Bah!' the old man said mildly. 'Karaman may win battles, but he will lose in the end. How is my old friend?'

    That was better. 'He is well, purring over a new great-grandson. He stayed in Allaban. But his health seems excellent.'

    'I am glad,' Ukarres said with surprising grace. 'And your prince--or king?'

    'He was less lucky than you,' Shadow said grimly. 'He will not be visiting this place.' Vindax had gone on ahead days before, strapped in a litter and well guarded by men and eagles. He would stop only at isolated farms, but would needs make slow time because of his weakness. He could traverse the sparsely populated Rand without other men knowing. Birds, yes; men, no.

    Ukarres did not speak, so Shadow said, 'And Elosa? She has gone to court, I hear.'

    'The duke forbade her to go with him, and we kept her shackled, almost. But the king's orders became more demanding.' The eye glinted. 'The last one was specific: Alvo would hang by his thumbs if the child did not go. Elosa was ecstatic, of course. She will be there by now.'

    'Why?' Shadow mused. 'What does Jarkadon want with her? To thank her, do you suppose?'

    Ukarres flicked his faint eyebrows in a sort of shrug. 'A hostage for the duke's good behavior if he sends him back, perhaps.'

    That made sense. The gaunt duchess had refused to discuss her husband or daughter. She would be down at the gate now, attending the proclamation of Vindax VII.

    Ukarres closed his eye as though the conversation were ended. Shadow waited. After a minute the old skyman's curiosity got the better of him, and the eye opened again.

    'You have taught the birds to throw rocks--that is a dangerous innovation, lad. What if the wilds copy them?'

    'They are wilds! Karaman was right, and you have known it for years. You were keeping slaves, not beasts of burden.'

    'So?'

    'No repentance?' Shadow asked sadly.

    Anger brought back some life to the shriveled corpse. 'None! It is the eagles that make it possible. Do you think I would rather be a sheepherder in a hovel, or a skyman living in a castle with servants and comfort? How is it in Allaban? Did Ryl make his paradise?'

    'They have a republic. All men are equal.'

    Ukarres snorted. 'If you believe that, then I have some young lunks here to wager against you, pipsqueak. Arm wrestling? Boxing? All men equal? Feathers!'

    'They have no masters--put it that way.' In truth, Shadow had found Allaban very strange.

    Ukarres was about to make some angry retort but was seized by a fit of coughing and then needed more water. He sank back weakly. 'They eat lettuce, I suppose. Did you have much steak when you were there?'

    'I stayed with Karaman,' Shadow confessed. 'The eagles are constantly offering him kills. But you are right, I admit--most men in Allaban see little meat.'

    'I knew that would be the way of it,' Ukarres said with some satisfaction. 'Who would tend livestock if he were not allowed to defend it against the birds? And what of us? There is not much grows up here except sheep and goats. The children are going to starve in Ninar Foan, boy, while your precious birds eat the meat.'

    Shadow squirmed uneasily. The Range was fertile and could support its human population easily on its crops. The Rand, admittedly, was not. 'There will be few birds around here for a while. You had better make your plans quickly.'

    'I have only one plan now,' Ukarres said. 'And that is to die as soon as I can. But with luck the fighting will kill off most of the birds. We got plenty of them in Allaban.'