The Eternal Champion

It was our habit with the dead to leave them, no matter whom they had been, where they lay.

We took Rigenos's horse with us. It was a good horse.

The loss of the king did not disturb our warriors, though Katorn himself seemed a little perturbed, perhaps because he had had such great influence over the monarch. But the king had been a puppet of authority, particularly in this last year, for humanity followed a grimmer conqueror whom it regarded with awe.

Dead Erekose, they called me-the vengeful Sword of Humanity.

I did not care what they called me-Reaver, Blood-letter, Berserker-for my dreams no longer plagued me and my ultimate goal came closer and closer.

Until it was the last fortress of the Eldren left undefeated. Then I dragged my armies behind me as if by a rope. I dragged them towards the principal city of Mernadin, by the Plains of Melting Ice. Arjavh's capital-Loos Ptokai.

And at last we saw its looming towers silhouetted against a red evening sky. Of marble and black granite, it rose mighty and seemingly invulnerable above us. But I knew we should take it.

I had Arjavh's word for it, after all. He had told me we should win.

The night after we had camped beneath the walls of Loos Ptokai, I sprawled in my chair and could not sleep, but stared into the darkness, brooding. This was not my habit. Normally I would now slump into my bed and snore till dawn, wearied by the day's killing.

But tonight I brooded.

And then, at dawn the next day, my features cold as stone, I rode beneath my banner as I had ridden a year before into the camp of the Eldren, with my herald at my side.

We came close to the main gate of Loos Ptokai and then we slopped. Eldren looked down.

My herald raised his golden trumpet to his lips and blew an eerie blast upon it which echoed among the black and white towers of Loos Ptokai.

'Eldren prince!' I called in my dead voice. 'Arjavh or Mernadin, I have come to slay you.'

Then on the battlements over the great main gate I saw Arjavh appear. He looked down at me, a sadness in his strange

'Greetings, old enemy,' he called. 'You will have a long siege before you break this, the last of our strength.'

'So be it,' I said, 'but break it we shall.'

Arjavh paused. Then he said: 'We once agreed to fight a battle according to the Erekosian Code of War. Do you wish to discuss terms again?'

I shook my head. 'We shall not stop until every Eldren is slain. I have sworn an oath to rid the Earth of all your kind.'

'Then,' said Arjavh, 'before the battle commences, I invite you to enter Loos Ptokai as my guest and refresh yourself. You seem in need of refreshment.'

At this I bridled, but then my herald sneered. 'They become ingenuous in their defeat, master, if they think they can deceive you by such a simple trick.'

But now my mind had suddenly become a battleground of conflicting emotions. 'Be silent!' I ordered the herald. I took a deep breath.

'Well…?' called Arjavh.

'I accept,' I said hollowly. And then I added: 'Is the Lady Ermizhad therein?'

'She is-and is eager to see you again.' There was an edge to Arjavh's voice as he answered this last question. For a moment I was again suspicious. Perhaps the herald was right. Arjavh loved his sister, I knew.

Perhaps Arjavh was aware of my own buried affection for his sister. That affection which I did not now admit but which, of course, secretly contributed to my decision to enter Loos Ptokai.

The herald said in astonishment: 'My lord, Surely you cannot be serious? Once inside the gates, you will be slain. There were stories, once, that you and Prince Arjavh were not on unfriendly terms, for enemies, but after the havoc you have caused in Mernadin he will kill you immediately. Who would not?'

I shook my head. I was in a new and quieter mood. 'He will not,' I said. 'I am sure of it. And this way I can find an opportunity to judge the Eldren strength. It will be useful to us.'

'But disastrous for us, if you should die…'

'I will not die,' I said, and all the ferocity, the hate, the mad battle-anger, seemed to swell out of me leaving me, as I turned away from the herald so he should not see, with tears in my eyes.

'Open your gates, Prince Arjavh,' I called in shaking tones. 'I come to Loos Ptokai as your guest.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE IN LOOS PTOKAI

I rode my horse slowly into the city, having left my sword and lance with the herald who was now, in astonishment, galloping back to our own camp to give the news to the marshals.

The streets of Loos Ptokai were silent, as if in mourning, as Arjavh came down the steps from the battlements to greet me. I saw, now that he was closer, that he, too, wore the expression which showed upon my own harsh features. His step was not so lithe and his voice not quite so lilting as when we had first met a year before.

I dismounted. He gripped my hand.

'So,' he said in attempted gaiety, 'the barbarian battle-monger is still material. My people had begun to doubt it.'

'I suppose they hate me,' I said.

He seemed a little surprised. 'The Eldren cannot hate,' he said as he led me towards his palace.

I was shown by Arjavh to a small room containing a bed, a table and a chair of wonderful workmanship all slender and seemingly of precious metal but in fact of cunningly wrought wood. In one corner was a sunken bath, water steaming in it.

When Arjavh had gone, I stripped off my blood- and dust-encrusted armour and climbed out of the underclothes I had worn for much of the past year. Then I sank gratefully into the water.

Since the initial emotional shock I had received when Arjavh had issued his invitation, my mind had become numbed. But now, for the first time in a year, I relaxed, mentally and physically, washing all the grief and hatred from me as I washed my body.

I was almost cheerful as I donned the fresh clothes which had been laid out for me and, when someone knocked at my door, called lightly for them to enter.

'Greetings, Erekose.' It was Ermizhad.

'My lady.' I bowed.

'How are you faring, Erekose?'

'In war, as you know, I am faring well. And personally I feel better for your hospitality.'

'Arjavh sent me to bring you to the meal.'

'I am ready. But first tell me how you have fared, Ermizhad.'

'Well enough-in health,' said she. Then she came closer to me. Involuntarily, I leaned back slightly. She looked at the ground and raised her hands to touch her throat. 'And tell me-are you now wed to Queen lolinda?'

'We are still betrothed,' I told her.

Deliberately, then, I looked into Ermizhad's eyes and added as levelly as I could: 'We are to be married when…'

'When?'

'When Loos Ptokai is taken.'

She said nothing.

I stepped forward so that we were separated by little more than an inch. 'Those are the only terms on which she will accept me,' I said. 'I must destroy all the Eldren. Your trampled banners will be my wedding gift to her.'

Ermizhad nodded and gave a queer, sad and sardonic look. 'That is your oath you swore. You must abide by it. You must slay every Eldren. Every one.'

I cleared my throat. 'That is the oath.'

'Come,' she said. 'The meal grows cold.'

At dinner, Ermizhad and I sat close together and Arjavh spoke wittily of some of the stranger experiments of his scientist ancestors and for a little while we managed to drive away the knowledge of the forthcoming battle. But later, as Ermizhad and I talked softly to one another, I caught a look of pain in Arjavh's eyes and for a moment he was quiet. He broke into our conversation suddenly:

'We are beaten, as you know, Erekose.'

I did not want to speak of these things any more. I shrugged and tried to continue the lighter talk with Ermizhad. But Arjavh was insistent.