The Eternal Champion

I woke up and felt very calm. And then, gradually, a sense of terror possessed me as the implications of my thoughts began to dawn on me.

Had the Eldren sent this dream-with their sorcery?

I did not think so. This dream was the dream that the other dreams had sought to hide from me. I was sure of it. This was the stark truth.

And the stark truth horrified me.

It was not my fate to wage eternal war-it was the fate of my entire race. As part of that race-as its representative, in fact-I, too, must wage eternal war.

And that is what I wished to avoid. I could not bear the thought of fighting for ever, wherever I was required. And yet whatever I did to try to end the cycle would be hopeless. There was only one thing I could do…

I buried the thought.

But what else?

Try for peace? See if it would work? Let the Eldren live?

Arjavh had expressed impatience with idle speculation. But this, too, was idle speculation. The human race was sworn to destroy the Eldren. This done, of course, it would then turn upon itself and begin the perpetual squabbling, the constant warring that its peculiar destiny decreed for it.

And yet-should I not, at least, attempt to make the compromise?

Or should I continue with my original ambition, destroy the Eldren, let the race resume its fratricidal sport. In a way it seemed to me that while some Eldren lived, the race might hold together. If the common enemy remained, at least some sort of unity would exist in the human kingdoms. It seemed critical to me then that some Eldren be spared-for the sake of humanity.

I suddenly realised that there was no conflict in my loyalties all. What I had thought was contradictory was, in fact, two halves of a whole. The dream had merely helped me unite them and see everything clearly.

Perhaps this was a complex piece of rationalisation. I shall never know. I feel that I was right, though it is possible that subsequent events proved me wrong. At least I tried…

I sat up in my bed as a servant came in with water for me to wash and my own clothes freshly laundered. I washed, dressed myself and when a knock came at the door I called out for the person to enter.

It was Ermizhad. She brought me my breakfast and set it on the table. I thanked her and she looked at me oddly.

'You seem to have changed since last night,' she said. 'You seem more at one with yourself.'

'I think I am,' I told her as I ate. 'I had another dream last night…'

'Was it as terrifying as the others?'

'More terrifying in certain aspects,' I said. 'But it did not raise problems, this time. It offered me a solution.'

'You feel you can fight better…'

'If you like. I think it would be in the interests of my race if we made peace with the Eldren. Or, at least, declared a permanent truce…'

'You have realised at last that we offer you no danger.'

'On the contrary, it is the very danger you offer that makes your survival necessary to my race.' I smiled, remembering an old aphorism from somewhere. 'If you did not exist, it would be necessary to invent you.'

A look of intelligence brightened her face. She smiled, too. 'I think I understand you.'

'Therefore, I intend to present this conclusion to Queen lolinda,' I said. 'I hope to persuade her that it is in our interest to end this war against the Eldren.'

'And your terms?'

'I see no need to make terms with you,' I said. 'We will merely stop fighting and go away.'

She laughed. 'Will it be so easy?'

I looked squarely at her, deliberated for a moment, and then I shook my head. 'Perhaps not. But I must try.'

'You have become very rational, suddenly, Erekose. I am glad. Your sleep here did do you some good, then…'

'And the Eldren, too, perhaps…'

She smiled again. 'Perhaps.'

'I will return to Necranal as soon as possible and speak with lolinda.'

'And if she agrees, you will marry her?'

I felt weak, then. At last I said: 'I must do that. Everything would be negated if I did not. You understand?'

'Entirely,' she said and there were tears in her eyes as she smiled.

Arjavh came in a few minutes later and I told him what I intended to do. He received the news rather more sceptically than Ermizhad.

'You do not think I mean what I say?' I asked him.

He shrugged. 'I believe you completely, Erekose. But I do not think the Eldren will survive.'

'What is it? Some disease? Something in you that…?'

He laughed shortly. 'No, no. I think you will propose a truce and that the people will not let you make it. Your race will only be satisfied when every Eldren has perished. You said that it is their destiny always to fight. Could it not be that secretly they resent the Eldren because the presence of the Eldren means that they cannot go about their normal activities-I mean by that their fighting among themselves. Could this not be nothing more than a pause while they wipe us out? And if they do not wipe us out now, they will do it very soon, whether you lead them or no.'

'Still, I must try…' I said.

'Try by all means. But they'll hold you to your vow, I'm sure.'

'lolinda is intelligent. If she listens to my arguments…'

'She is one of them. I doubt if she will listen. Intelligence has little to do with it… Last night when I pleaded with you I was not myself-I panicked, I know, really, that there can be no peace.'

'I must try.'

'I hope you succeed.'

Perhaps I had been beguiled by the charms of the Eldren, but I did not think so. I would do my best to bring peace to the wasted land of Mernadin, though it meant I could never see my Eldren friends again-never see Ermizhad…

I put the thought from my head and resolved to dwell upon it no longer.

Then a servant entered the room. My herald, accompanied by several marshals, including Count Roldero, had presented himself outside the gates of Loos Ptokai, half certain that I had been murdered by the Eldren.

'Only sight of you will reassure them,' Arjavh murmured. I agreed and left the room.

I heard the herald calling as I approached the city wall. 'We fear that you have been guilty of great treachery. Let us see our master-or his corpse.' He paused. 'Then we shall know what to do.'

Arjavh and I mounted the steps to the battlements and I saw relief in the herald's eyes as he noted I was unharmed.

'I have been talking with Prince Arjavh,' I said. 'And I have been thinking deeply. Our men are weary beyond endurance and the Eldren are now only a few, with just this city in their possession. We could take Loos Ptokai, but I see no point to it. Let us be generous victors, my marshals. Let us declare a truce…'

'A truce, Lord Erekose!' Count Roldero's eyes widened. 'Would you rob us of our ultimate prize? Our final, fierce fulfilment? Our greatest triumph? Peace!'

'Yes,' I said, 'peace. Now go back. Tell our warriors I am safe.'

'We can take this city easily, Erekose,' Roldero shouted. 'There's no need to talk of peace. We can destroy the Eldren once and for all. Have you succumbed to their cursed enchantments again? Have they beguiled you once more with their smooth words?'