The Eternal Champion

I did nothing to deny the truth of this for the reason that I was worried King Rigenos would begin to work against me. The adulation of the people, however, meant that he could not be seen to deny me anything. My power had grown on my return, for I had achieved a victory, I had proved myself the Champion the people wanted.

It now seemed that if King Rigenos acted against me, he would arouse the wrath of the people against him-and that wrath would be so great it could lose him his crown-and his head.

This did not mean, of course, that he had to like me, but in fact when we had once again reached the Palace of Ten Thousand Windows he was almost in an affable mood.

I think he had begun to see me as a threat to his throne, but the sight of his palace, his people and his daughter, reassured him that he was still the king and would always be the king. I was not interested in his crown-only his daughter.

Guards escorted Ermizhad away to her quarters when we arrived and she had departed before lolinda came running down the stairs into the Great Hall, her face radiant, her carriage graceful, kissing first her father and then myself.

'Have you told Father of our secret?' she asked.

'I think he knew before we left,' I laughed, turning to Rigenos upon whose face there had come something of an abstracted look. 'We would be betrothed, sire. Do you give us your consent?'

King Rigenos opened his mouth, wiped his forehead and swallowed before nodding. 'Of course. My blessings to you. This will make our unity even stronger.'

A slight frown came to lolinda's brow. 'Father-you are pleased, are you not?'

'Of c-yes, naturally I am pleased-naturally. But I am weary with travelling and with fighting, my dear. I need to rest. Forgive me…'

'Oh, I am sorry, Father. Yes, you must rest. You are right. You do not look well. I will have the slaves prepare some food for you and you can dine in bed…'

'Yes,' he said, 'yes…'

When he had gone lolinda looked at me curiously. 'You, too, seem to have suffered from the fighting, Erekose. You are not hurt, are you?'

'No. The battle was bloody. And I did not enjoy much of what we had to do.'

'Warriors kill men-that is the way.'

'Aye,' I said hoarsely. 'But do they kill women, lolinda? Do they kill children? Babies?'

She moistened her lips with her tongue. Then she said: 'Come. Let's eat in my apartments. It is more restful there.'

When we had eaten, I felt better, but I was still not completely at ease.

'What happened?' she asked. 'At Mernadin?'

'There was a great sea fight. We won it.'

'That is good.'

'Yes.'

'You took Paphanaal. You stormed it and took it.'

'Who told you we "stormed" it?' I asked in astonishment.

'Why you do-the returning warriors. We heard the news shortly before you came back…'

'There was no resistance in Paphanaal,' I told her. 'There were some women there and there were some children there and they were butchered by our troops.'

'Some women and children always get harmed in the storming of a city,' said lolinda. 'You must not blame yourself if…'

'We did not storm the city,' I repeated. 'It was undefended. There were no men there. Every one of the male inhabitants of Paphanaal had sailed with the fleet we destroyed.'

She shrugged. Evidently she could not visualise the true picture. Perhaps it was just as well. But I could not resist one further comment:

'And, although we should have won anyway, part of our sea victory was due to our treachery,' I said.

'You were betrayed, did you say?' She looked up eagerly. 'Some treachery of the Eldren?'

'The Eldren fought honourably. We slaughtered their commander during a truce.'

'I see,' she said. Then she smiled. 'Well, we must help you forget such terrible things, Erekose.'

'I hope you can,' I said.

The king announced our betrothal the next day and the news was received with joy by the citizens of Necranal. We stood before them on the great balcony overlooking the city. We smiled and waved but, when we went inside again, the king left us with a curt word and hurried away.

'Father really does seem to disapprove of our match,' lolinda said in puzzlement, 'in spite of his consent.'

'A disagreement about tactics while at war,' I said. 'You know how important we soldiers think these things. He will soon forget.'

But I was perturbed. Here I was a great hero, loved by the people, marrying the king's daughter as a hero should, and something was beginning to strike me as being not quite right.

I had had the feeling for some time, but I could not trace the source. I did not know whether it was to do with my peculiar dreams, my worries concerning my origin or merely the crisis that seemed to be building between the king and myself. It was probably very little and my anxiety was baseless.

lolinda and I now went to the bridal bed together, as was the custom in the Human Kingdoms.

But, that first night, we did not make love.

Half-way through the night I felt my shoulder being touched and I straightened up almost instantly. I smiled in relief.

'Oh, it is you, lolinda.'

'It is I, Erekose. You moaned and groaned so in your sleep that I thought it better to wake you.'

'Aye…' I rubbed my eyes. 'I thank you.' My memory was unclear! but it seemed to me that I had been experiencing the usual dreams.

'Tell me something of Ermizhad, lolinda said suddenly.

'Ermizhad?' I yawned. 'What of her?'

'You have seen much of her, I heard. You conversed with her. I have never conversed with an Eldren. Usually, we do not take prisoners…'

I smiled. 'Well, I gather it's heresy to say so-but I found her quite-human.'

'Oh, Erekose. That's a joke in bad taste. They say she's beautiful. They say she has a thousand human lives to account for. She's evil, is she not? She had lured many men to their deaths…'

'I did not ask her about that,' I said. 'We discussed matters of philosophy, mainly.'

'She is very clever, then?'

'I do not know. She seemed almost innocent to me.' I added hastily, diplomatically. 'But perhaps that's her cleverness-to seem innocent.'

lolinda frowned. 'Innocent! Ha!'

I was disturbed. 'I only offer my impression, lolinda. I have no opinions, really, concerning Ermizhad or the rest of the Eldren, for that matter.'

'Do you love me, Erekose?'

'Of course.'

'You would not-you would not-betray me?'

I laughed and took her in my arms. 'How could you fear such a thing?'

We fell, again, asleep.

Next morning, King Rigenos, Count Roldero and myself got down to the serious business of planning our strategy. Concerning ourselves with maps and battle-plans, it became less strained and Rigenos was almost cheerful. We were in unison about what should be done. By now it was quite likely that Arjavh would be attempting to retake Paphanaal-and assuredly failing. Probably he would lay siege to it, but we could bring in supplies and weapons by ship and he would waste his time. Meanwhile, our expedition to the Ghost Worlds would attack Eldren positions there and, Roldero and Rigenos assured me, make it impossible for them to call on their halfling allies.

The plan, of course, depended on Arjavh's attacking Paphanaal.

'But he would have been already on his way when when we sailed in,' Rigenos reasoned. 'It would be pointless for him to turn back. What could he achieve by doing that?'

Roldero agreed. 'I think it's pretty certain that he'll concentrate on Paphanaal,' he said. 'Another two or three days and our fleets will be ready to sail again. We'll soon have the Outer Islands subdued, then we move on to Loos Ptokai itself. With luck, Arjavh will still have his main force concentrated on Paphanaal. By the end of this year, every Eldren position will have fallen to us.'