"I have made a long journey," Haroun said. His voice was surprisingly soft. "I couldn't find him."
"Balfour?"
"Him I found. He told me what he knew."
Which wasn't strictly true. Balfour had answered only the questions asked, and even in his agony had shaded his answers. The Colonel had been a strong man.
All during his ride Haroun had pondered what he had learned. And he had planned.
"I didn't find my friend."
"There is this that I cannot understand about you, my father. These two men. Mocker and Ragnarson. You let them shape your life. With victory at your fingertips you abandoned everything to aid Ragnarson in his war with Shinsan."
"There is this that you have to learn, my son. Into each life come people who become more important than any crown. Believe it. Look for it. And accept it. It cannot be explained."
They stared at one another till Haroun continued, "More-over, they have aided me more than I them, often when it flew in the face of their own interest. For this I owe them. Question. Have you ever heard Beloul-or any of my captains -complain?"
"No."
"Why? I'll tell you why. Because there would be no Peacock Throne for anyone, even El Murid-may the jackals gnaw his bones-if Shinsan occupied the west."
"This I understand. But I also understand that that was not your motive for turning north when you were upon the dogs at Al Rhemish."
"One day you will understand. I hope. Tell me about your mother." Pain marred his words. His long love with the daughter of his enemy made a tempestuous epic. Her defection seemed anticlimactic.
"That, too, I try to understand. It is difficult, my father. But I begin to see. Our people bring scraps of news. They draw outlines for a portrait."
Eyes downcast, Megelin continued, "Were she not my mother, I would not have had the patience to await the information."
"Tell me."
"She means to forge an armistice with the Beast. She went to your friend, Ragnarson. He sent her."
"Ah. She knows my anger. My other friend vanished. She knew I would swoop on the carrion at Al Rhemish. She knew I would destroy them. They have no strength now. They are old men with water for bones. I can sweep them away like the wind sweeps the dust from the Sahel."
"That too."
"She is his daughter."
"The head understands, my father. The heart protests."
"Listen to your head, then, and do not hate her. I say again, she is his daughter. Think of your father when you think to judge her."
"So my head tells me."
Haroun nodded. "You are wise for your years. It is good. Summon Beloul."
When the general returned, Haroun announced, "I am leaving my work to my son. Two duties war for me. I pass to him the one that may be passed. The one that came upon me in Al
Rhemish, so long ago, when Nassef and the Invincibles slew all others who had claim to the Peacock Throne."
"Lord!" Beloul cried. "Do I hear you right? Are you saying you abdicate?"
"You hear me, Beloul."
"But why, Lord? A generation, more, have we fought.... We have it in our grasp at last. They are waiting for us, shaking in their boots. They weep in the arms of their women, wondering when we will come. Ten thousand tribesmen have buried swords beneath their tents. They await our coming to dig them up and strike. Ten thousand wait in the camps, eager, knowing the tree of years is to bear fruit at last. Twenty thousand more stir restlessly in the heathen cities, awaiting your summons. Home! A home many have never seen, Lord!"
"Beseech me not, Beloul. Speak to your King. It is in his hands. I have chosen another destiny."
"Should you not consult with the others? Rahman? El Senoussi? Hanasi?..."
"Will they oppose me? Will they stop me?"
"Not if it is your will."
"Have I not said so? I am compelled in another direction. I must discharge old debts."
"Whither, my father? Why?"
"The Dread Empire. O Shing has my friend."
"Lord!" Beloul protested. "Sheer suicide."
"Perhaps. That is why I pass my crown before I go." He knelt before a low table. His hands went to his temples. Immense strain clouded his face. His neck bulged.
Beloul and Megelin thought it a stroke.
Haroun's hands rose suddenly. Something hit the table with a thud.
Lo! A crown materialized.
"The crown of the Golmune Emperors of Ilkazar," Haroun said. "The Crown of Empire. And of what survives. Our Desert of Death. It is incalculably heavy, my son. It possesses you. It drives you. You do things you would loath in any other man. It's the bloodiest crown ever wrought. It's a greater burden than prize. If you take it up your life will never be your own-till you find the strength to renounce it."
Megelin and Beloul stared. The crown seemed simple, almost fragile, yet it had scored the table.
"Take it up, my son. Become King."
Slowly, Megelin knelt.
"This is best for Hammad al Nakir," Haroun told Beloul. "It will ease the consciences of men of principle. He is not just my son, he is the grandson of the Disciple. Yasmid's story should be well-known by now."
"It is," Beloul admitted. The return of El Murid's daughter was the wonder of the desert.
Megelin strained harder than had Haroun. "My father, I cannot lift it."
"You can, have you but the will. I couldn't lift it my first try either."
His thoughts drifted to that faraway morning when he had crowned himself King Without a Throne.
He, at fifteen, with the man for whom Megelin had been named, and a handful of survivors, had been fleeing El Murid's attack on Al Rhemish.
His father and brothers were dead. Nassef, El Murid's diabolical general, called Scourge of God so terrible was he, was close behind. Haroun was the last pretender to the Peacock Throne.
Ahead, in the desert, the ruin of an Imperial watchtower appeared. Something drew him. Within he found a small, bent old man who claimed to be a survivor of the destruction of llkazar, who claimed to have been charged with protecting the symbols of Imperial power till a proper candidate arose among the descendants of the Emperors. He begged Haroun to free him from his centuries-long charge.
Haroun finally took the crown-after having as much difficulty as would Megelin later.
Though he was to encroach upon Haroun's life many times, bin Yousif never again encountered that old man. Even now he had no idea whom he had met then, and who had defined his destiny.
Nor did he suspect that the tamperer was the same "angel" who had found a twelve-year-old desert wanderer, sole survivor of a bandit raid on a caravan, had named him El Muridandhad given him his mission.
That old man meddled everywhere, more often than anyone suspected. He often added a twist on the spur of the moment. He remembered, kept his plot-lines straight, and got found out only in retrospects of a century or more.
Things didn't always go his way, though, because he worked with a cast of millions. The imponderables and unpredictables were always at work.
Haroun wouldn't give up his crown just to rescue a friend. Would he?
Beloul's feeling exactly. He became quite difficult while Megelin wrestled the crown.
"Enough!" Haroun declared. "If you won't accept it, and follow Megelin with the faith you've shown me, I'll find an officer who will." Haroun wasn't accustomed to having a decision debated.
"I'm just concerned for the movement...."
"Megelin will lead. He is my son. Megelin. If you feel the need, go to my friend in Vorgreberg. Explain. But tell no one else. Westerners have tongues like the tails of whipped dogs. They wag all the time, whether there is need or not."
With that a barrier broke. Though Megelin's strain remained herculean, he raised the crown, stood, hoisted it overhead, crowned himself.