I took lolinda's face in my two hands and I bent and I kissed her forehead, and she kissed my lips and then she left.
'Shall I see you before I leave?' I asked as she reached the door.
'Yes,' she said. 'Yes, my love, if it is possible.'
When she had gone I did not feel sad. I inspected the armour once again and then I went down to the main hall where King Rigenos stood with many of his greatest captains, studying a large map of Mernadin and the waters between it and Necralala.
'We start here in the morning,' Rigenos told me, indicating the harbour area of Necranal. The River Droonaa flowed through Necranal to the sea and the port of Noonos where the fleet was assembled. 'There must be a certain amount of ceremony, I fear, Erekose. Various rituals to perform. I have already sketched them to you, I believe.'
'You have,' I said. 'The ceremony seems more arduous than the warfare.'
The captains laughed. Though somewhat distant and a trifle wary of me, they liked me well enough, for I had proved (to my own astonishment) to have a natural grasp of tactics and the warlike arts.
'But the ceremony is necessary,' Rigenos said, 'for the people. It makes a reality for them, you see. They can experience something of what we shall be doing.'
'We?' I said. 'Am I wrong? I thought you implied that you were sailing too.'
'I am,' Rigenos said quietly. 'I decided that it was necessary.'
'Necessary?'
'Yes.' He would say no more-particularly in front of his marshals. 'Now, let us continue. We must all of us rise very early tomorrow morning.'
As we discussed these final matters of order and tactics and logistics, I studied the king's face as best I could.
No one expected him to sail with his armies. He would lose no face at all by remaining behind in his capital. Yet he had made a decision which would put him in a position of extreme danger and make him take actions for which he had no palate.
Why had he made the decision? To prove to himself that he could fight, perhaps? Yet he had proved it already. Because he was jealous of me? Because he did not altogether trust me? I glanced at Katorn, but saw nothing in Katorn's face to indicate satisfaction. Katorn was merely his usual surly self.
Mentally, I shrugged. Speculation at this-point would get me nowhere. The fact was that the king, not an altogether robust man now, was coming with us. It might give extra inspiration to our warriors, at least. It might also help control Katorn's particular tendencies.
Eventually we dispersed and went our ways. I went straight to my bed and, before I slept, lay there peacefully, thinking of lolinda, thinking of the battle-plans I had hatched, wondering what the Eldren would be like to fight-I still had no completely clear idea of how they fought (save 'treacherously and ferociously') or even what they looked like (save that they resembled 'demons from the deepest pits').
I knew I would soon have some of the answers, at any rate. Soon I was asleep.
My dreams were strange dreams on that night before we sailed for Mernadin.
I saw towers and marshes and lakes and armies and lances that shot flames and metallic flying machines whose wings flapped like those of gigantic birds. I saw monstrously large flamingos, strange mask-like helmets resembling the faces of beasts…
I saw dragons-huge reptiles with fiery venom, flapping across dark, moody skies. I saw a beautiful city tumbling in flames. I saw unhuman creatures that I knew to be gods. I saw a woman about whom I could not name, a small, red-headed man who seemed to be my friend. A sword-a great, black sword more powerful than the one I know owned-a sword that perhaps, oddly, was myself!
I saw a world of ice across which strange, great ships with billowing sails ran and black beasts like whales propelled themselves over endless plateaux of white.
I saw a world-or was it a universe?-that had no horizon and was filled with a rich, jewelled mosaic atmosphere which changed all the time and from which people and objects emerged only to disappear again. It was somewhere beyond the Earth, I was sure. Yes-I was aboard a spaceship-but a ship that travelled through no universe conceived of by Man,
I saw a desert through which I stumbled weeping and I was alone-lonelier than any man had ever been.
I saw a jungle-a jungle of primitive trees and gigantic ferns. And through the ferns I saw huge, bizarre buildings and there was a weapon in my hand that was not a sword and was not a gun, but it was more powerful than either…
I rode strange beasts and encountered stranger people. I moved through landscapes that were beautiful and terrifying. I piloted flying machines and spaceships and I drove chariots. I hated. I fell in love. I built empires and caused the collapse of nations and I slew many and was slain many times. I triumphed and I was humiliated. And I had many names. The names roared in my skull. Too many names. Too many…
And there was no peace. There was only strife.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE SAILING
Next morning I awoke and my dreams went away and I was left in an introspective mood and there was only one thing that I desired.
That thing was an Upmann's Coronas Major cigar.
I kept trying to push the name from my mind. To my knowledge John Daker had never smoked an Upmann's. He would not have known one cigar from another! Where had the name come from? Another name came into my head-Jeremiah… And that, too, was vaguely familiar.
I sat up in bed and I recognised my surroundings and the two names merged with the other names I had dreamed of and I got up and entered the next chamber where slaves were finishing preparing my bath. With relief I got into the bath and, as I washed my body, I began to concentrate once again on the problem at hand. Yet a sense of depression remained with me and again for a moment I wondered if I were mad and involved in some complicated schizophrenic fantasy.
When the slaves brought in my armour I began to feel much better. Again I marvelled at its beauty and its craftsmanship;
And now the time had come to put it on. First I donned my underclothes, then a sort of quilted overalls and then I began to strap the armour about me. Again it was easy to find the appropriate straps and buckles. It was as if I had clad myself in this armour every morning of my life. It fitted perfectly. It was comfortable and no weight at all, though it completely covered by body.
Next, I strode to the weapons room and took down the great sword that hung there and I drew the belt of metal links around my waist and settled the poisonous sword in its protecting scabbard against my left hip, tossed the scarlet plume on my helmet, lifted the visor and was ready.
Slaves escorted me down to the Great Hall where the Peers of Humanity had assembled to make their final leavetaking with Necranal.
The tapestries which had earlier hung on the walls of beaten silver had now been removed and in their place were hundreds of bright banners. These were the banners of the Marshals, the Captains and the Knights who were gathered there in splendid array, assembled according to rank.
On a specially erected dais the throne of the king had been placed. The dais was hung with a cloth of emerald green and behind it were the twin banners of the Two Continents. I took my place before the dais and we waited tensely for the arrival of the king. I had already been coached concerning the responses I was to make in the forthcoming ceremony.
At last there came a great yelling of trumpets and beating of martial drums from the gallery above us and through a door came the king.