The Eternal Champion

I shrugged. 'Let us wait, then,' I said, 'and see their sorcery.'

King Rigenos called up at the look-out. 'How big's the fleet you see?'

'About half our size, my liege!' he shouted back, his words distorted by the megaphone. 'Certainly no larger. And I think it is their whole fleet. I see no more coming.'

'They do not seem to be coming any closer at this moment,' I murmured to King Rigenos. 'Ask him if they're moving.'

'Has the Eldren fleet hove to, master look-out?' called King Rigenos.

'Aye, my liege. It no longer speeds hither and they seem to be furling their sails.'

'They are waiting for us,' Katorn muttered. 'They want us to attack them. Well, we shall wait too.'

I nodded. 'That is the strategy we agreed.'

And we waited.

We waited as the sun set and night fell and far away on the horizon we caught the occasional glimpse of silver that could have been a wave or a ship. Hasty messages were sent by swimmers back and forth among the vessels of the fleet.

And we continued to wait, sleeping as best we could, wondering when, if at all, the Eldren would attack.

Katorn's footsteps could be heard pacing the deck as I lay awake in my cabin, trying to do the sensible thing and preserve my energy for the next day. Of all of us, Katorn was the most impatient to engage the enemy. I felt that if it had been up to him, we should even now be sailing on the Eldren, having thrown our carefully worked out battle-plans overboard.

But luckily it was up to me. Even King Rigenos did not have the authority, except under exceptional circumstances, to countermand any of my orders.

I rested, but I could not sleep. I had my first glimpse of an Eldren craft, but I still did not know what the ships really looked like-or what my impression of their crews would be.

I lay there, praying that our battle should soon begin. A fleet of only half our size! I smiled without humour. I smiled because I knew we should be victorious.

When would the Eldren attack?

It might even be tonight. Katorn had said that they loved the night.

I would not care if it was at night. I wanted to fight. A huge battle-lust was building within me. I wanted to fight!

CHAPTER ELEVEN THE FLEETS ENGAGE

A whole day passed and another night and still the Eldren remained on the horizon.

Were they deliberately hoping to tire us, makes us nervous? Or were they afraid of the size of our fleet? Perhaps, I thought, their own strategy depended on us attacking them.

On the second night I did sleep, but not the drink sodden slumber I had trained myself to. There was no drink left. Count Roldero had never had a chance to bring his wineskins on board.

And the dreams, if anything, were worse than ever.

I saw entire worlds at war, destroying themselves in senseless battles.

I saw Earth but this was an Earth without a Moon. An Earth which did not rotate, which was half in sunlight, half in a darkness relieved only by the stars. And there was strife here, too, and a morbid quest that as good as destroyed me… name-Clarvis? Something of the sort. I grasped at these names, but they almost always eluded me and, I suppose, they were really the least important parts of the dreams.

I saw Earth-a different Earth again. An Earth which was so old that even the seas had begun to dry up. And I rode across a murky landscape, beneath a tiny sun, and I thought about Time…

I tried to hang on to this dream, this hallucination, this memory, whatever it was. I thought there might be a clue here to what I was, what had begun it all.

Another name-the Chronarch… Then it faded. There seemed to be no extra significance to this dream than to the rest.

Then this dream had faded and I stood in a city beside a large car and I was laughing and there was a strange sort of gun in my hand and bombs were raining from planes and destroying the city. I tasted an Upmann cigar…

I woke up, but was almost at once dragged back into my dreams.

I walked, insane and lonely, through corridors of steel and beyond the walls of the corridors was empty space. Earth was far behind. The steel machine in which I paced was heading for another star. I was tormented. I was obsessed with thoughts of my family. John Daker? No-John…

And then, as if to confuse me further, the names began. I saw them. I heard them. They were spelled in many different forms of hieroglyphics, chanted in many tongues.

Aubec. Byzantium. Cornelius. Colvin. Bradbury. London. Melnibone. Hawkmoon. Lanjis Liho. Powys. Marca. Elric. Muldoon. Dietrich. Arflane. Simon. Kane. Allard. Corom. Traven. Ryan. Asquinol. Pepin. Seward. Mennell. Tallow. Hallner. Koln…

The names went on and on and on.

I awoke screaming.

And it was morning.

Sweating I got out of my bunk and splashed cold water all over my body.

Why did it not begin? Why?

I knew that once the fighting started the dreams would go away. I was sure of it.

And then the door of my cabin burst open and a slave entered.

'Master-'

A trumpet voiced a brazen bellow. There were the sounds of running men all over the ship.

'Master. The enemy ships are moving.'

With a great sigh of relief I dressed myself, buckling on my armour as quickly as I could and strapping my sword about me.

Then I ran up on deck and climbed to the forward deck where King Rigenos stood, clad in his own armour, his face grim.

Everywhere in the fleet the war signals were being flown and voices called from ship to ship, trumpets snarled like metallic beasts and drums began to beat.

Now I could see for certain that the Eldren ships were on the move.

'Our commanders are all prepared,' Rigenos murmured tensely. 'See, our ships are already taking their positions.'

I looked with pleasure as the fleet began to form itself according to our much rehearsed battle-plan. Now, if only the Eldren would behave as we had anticipated, we should be the victors.

I looked forward again and gasped as the Eldren ships drew closer, marvelled at their rare grace as they leapt lightly over the water like dolphins.

But they were not dolphins, I thought. They were sharks. They would rend us all if they could. Now I understood something of Katorn's suspicion of everything Eldren. If I had not known that these were our enemies, that they intended to destroy us, I would have stood there entranced at their beauty.

They were not galleons, as most of our craft were. They were ships of sail only-and the sails were diaphanous on slim masts. White hulls broke the darker white of the surf as they surged wildly, without faltering, towards us.

I studied their armament intently.

They mounted a few cannon, but not so many as ours. Their cannon, however, were slender and silver and when I saw them I feared their power.

Katorn joined us. He was snarling with pleasure. 'Ah, now,' he growled. 'Now. Now. See their guns, Erekose? Beware of them. There is sorcery, if you do not believe me!'

'Sorcery? What do you mean-'

But he was off again, shouting at the men in the rigging to hurry their work.

I began to make out tiny figures on the decks of the Eldren ships. I caught glimpses of eldritch faces, but still could not, at that distance, discern any special characteristics. They moved swiftly about their ships as they swam steadily towards us.

Now our own fleet's manoeuvres were almost complete and the flagship began to move into position.

I myself gave the orders to heave to and we rocked in the sea, awaiting the Eldren shark-ships rushing towards us.

As planned, we had manoeuvred to form a square that was strong on three sides, but weak on the side facing the Eldren fleet.

Some hundred ships were at the far end of the square, set stem to stern with cannon bristling. The two other strong sides also had about a hundred ships a piece and were at a far enough distance from each other so that their cannon could not accidentally sink one of their own craft. We had placed a thinner wall of ships-about twenty-five-at the side of the square where the Eldren were drawing in. We hoped to give the impression of a tightly closed square formation, with a few ships in the middle flying the royal colours, to give the impression that this was the flagship and its escorts. These ships were bait. The true flagship-the one on which I stood-had temporarily taken down its colours and lay roughly in the middle of the starboard side of the square.