Suddenly I felt something grapple my legs. I turned to meet this new adversary, wondering where he had come from. I raised my sword, striving to keep my balance.
More men jumped on me. I growled in fury, trying to fight them off. Then my head cleared for a moment and I realized that the one who had grappled me was none other than DarnadShizala's brother!
I could not understand why he should be attacking me. I cried out:
"Darnad-it is Michael Kane. Shizala-Shizalathey have…" Then came a blow on my head and I knew no more.
I awoke with a throbbing headache. I was in my room in the palace at Varnal. That much I could understand. But why?
Why had Darnad attacked me?
I fought to think clearly. I sat up rubbing my head.
The door suddenly opened and my attacker entered looking worried.
"Darnad! Why did you-?"
"How do you feel?"
"Worse than I would if your comrade had not knocked me out. Don't you realize that…"
"You are still excited, I see. We had to stop you, even though your madness resulted in the Argzoon fleeing in complete disorganization. As far as we can tell, they are now scattered. Your plan to slay their leader must have worked. They seem to have broken up completely. They no longer represent a threat to Varnal."
"But I slew the wrong man. I-" I paused. "What do you mean, my madness?"
"It sometimes happens that a warrior who has fought long and hard, as you did, is gripped by a kind of battle-rage in which-no matter how tired he might be-he cannot stop fighting. We thought this was what happened to you. There is another thing that concerns me. Shizala-"
"Don't you realize what you have done?" I spoke in a low, angry voice. "You speak of Shizala. Is she here? Is she safe?"
"No-we cannot find her. She piloted the ship that took you to the Argzoon camp, but the ship was empty when we recovered it. We think that…"
"I know what has happened to her!"
"You know? Then why did you not tell us?
Why-?"
"I was seized by no battle-rage, Darnad. I discovered that Shizala had been abducted. I was on my way to try to rescue her when you set upon me. How long ago was this?"
"Last night-about thirty-six shatis ago."
"Thirty-six!" I got up, giving an involuntary groan. Not only my head ached. The exertions of the previous two days had taken their toll of my body. It seemed a mass of bruises and minor wounds. My worst wound-the one on my armwas throbbing painfully. Thirty-six shatis-more than four hours ago!
As quickly as I could, I told Darnad all the details of what I had learned. He was as surprised as I had been to learn of Horguhl the Vladnyar woman.
"I wonder what part she plays in this?" he said with a frown.
"I have no idea. Her answers were ambiguous, to say the least."
"I am sorry that I made that mistake, Michael Kane," he said. "I was a fool. I heard you shouting something. I should have listened. With luck we should have rescued Shizala and all would be over.
The Argzoon are scattered. We and our allies will soon have cleansed Karnala of them. We will be able to question prisoners and discover how they managed to reach Varnal undetected."
"But while we are doing this Shizala could be taken anywhere! North-south-east-west. How are you to know where they will carry her?"
Darnad dropped his eyes and stared at the floor.
"You are right. But if you think Shizala is with this Vladnyar girl, then we must hope that some of our prisoners will have seen which way they went.
There is also the chance that in our general routing and capturing of the Argzoon we will manage to rescue Shizala."
"There is no time for recriminations of any kind,"
I said. "So let us forget the errors of judgment we have both made. The heat of the battle must be held to account. What do you intend to do now?"
"I shall be leading a force with the specific intention of capturing Argzoon and questioning them on the whereabouts of Shizala."
"Then I shall accompany you," I told him.
"That is what I hoped you would say," he said, patting my shoulder. "Rest while the last preparations are being made. I will call for you when we are ready to leave-there is nothing else you can do until then, and you had better regain as much strength as possible-you are going to need it. I will have food sent."
"Thank you," I said gratefully. He was right. I must make myself relax-for Shizala's sake.
As I lay back on the couch, I again wondered just why she had risked such danger by going into the Argzoon tent. There had been no need for itand as ruler of her folk she should have returned at once to Varnal.
I decided that the sooner we found her the sooner we should have answers to these and other questions.
I slept until a servant entered with food. Then I ate the food and, on receiving a message that Darnad and his warriors were ready, washed hastily and went down to join them.
The day should have been grim and stark and full of storm-clouds. It was not. It was a lovely, clear day with the pale sun brightening the streets of the city and obscuring most traces of the strife that had so recently ended.
At the foot of the palace steps was a company of warriors mounted on dahara. Darnad was at their head, holding the reins of a dahara that was evidently meant for me.
I mounted the beast, stretching my legs out along it. Then the whole company turned into the street leading towards the main gate.
We were soon riding across the Calling Hills, tracking our fleeing enemy.
It was still a mystery why the Argzoon had fled so precipitately-particularly in the face of such a small force.
But we did not ask ourselves these questions as we rode grimly after our quarry, even though it seemed that Ranak Mard had, indeed, been the master-mind behind the Argzoon attack-for it was plain that he was dead and the Argzoon were now in confusion.
Yet why had Horguhl told me otherwise?
No questions. Not yet.
Find the Argzoon-they will answer our questions.
On we rode.
It was not until late in the afternoon that we managed to surprise a group of some ten weary Argzoon who had camped in a shallow valley far, far from the Calling Hills.
They rose up at our approach and stood ready to fight. For once we outnumbered them. Normally, this would not please me but I felt that in this case it made a pleasant change to have the advantage over the Argzoon.
They put up a token fight as we attacked them.
About half were killed and then the others lay down their arms.
The Argzoon have no code of loyalty such as we understand it, and little sense of comradeship with one another. This made it easier to question them in one way-but harder in another.
They did not stay silent because they did not wish to betray their fellows. They stayed silent out of stubbornness.
It was not until Darnad significantly fingered his long dagger and hinted that, since they were no use to us, it would be as well to dispose of the Argzoon, that one of them broke.
We were lucky. He knew a great deal more than we had expected one simple warrior to know.
They had not crossed from Argzoon to Karnala by land at all but had spent over a year travelling by sea and river. They had gone round the coast, thousands of miles out of their way-for Varnal lay many thousands of miles inland-and then sailed down the Haal River, the largest of the rivers on the continent. They had assembled in a place called the Crimson Plain and then gone in small groups from there, moving at night all the time, until they reached Karnala undetected. We learned that one or two parties of Karnala warriors had discovered detachments of Argzoon, but the Karnala had been wiped out.
"Simple," Darnad mused after hearing this. "And yet we never credited the Argzoon with such ingenuity or patience. It just isn't in their nature to spend so much time and thought on a raid. It is good that you slew Ranak Mard, Michael Kane. He must have been a strange sort of Argzoon."