Eldric nodded, but when he spoke, his tone was stern. ‘Hawklan has told us, and you’ve confirmed yourself, some of the things that have happened because of your actions. The City ravaged, with rapine, murder, looting. That’s an appalling price to pay just for our freedom. How can you justify it, Goraidin?’
Hawklan watched Yatsu closely. Eldric’s blunt ques-tion forced the man’s pain to the surface, and for all his control, he could not keep it from his face. ‘I can neither justify it, nor account for it, Lord,’ he said. ‘We planned carefully. We studied the City patrols. We chose reliable High Guards officers.’ He emphasized reliable. ‘The older ones. We arranged an extensive series of diver-sionary riots and the firing of one of Dan-Tor’s workshops to draw out the garrison from the Palace. We knew there was a risk that we wouldn’t succeed. We knew there was a risk that some civilians would be hurt. That I would have laid to my accounting. But what’s happened… ’ He shook his head and clenched his hands together. ‘I don’t understand. The Mathidrin seemed to have run amok and, vicious though they are, they’re not undisciplined. It makes no sense. Why should they do that?’
‘I’m afraid that’s obvious.’ Hreldar’s voice was cold. ‘Dan-Tor ordered it.’
‘Your Gathering’s premature, Lord,’ said Eldric quickly.
Hreldar waved the comment aside. ‘No,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Dan-Tor intends to seize all power to himself-that, we’ve decided, even if we don’t know why. The Law and its many manifestations in our society are his greatest obstacles. Anything that disturbs them is to his advantage. He merely played the pieces that Goraidin Yatsu and his companions laid out.’
‘I agree,’ said Darek. ‘We have much rumour and gossip here today, but the speed with which events appear to have moved can only be because Dan-Tor has had such a blow long planned-probably one of many. He was never short of an alternative in debate, if you recall, Lords.’
Eldric rested his forehead in his hand. Then he nod-ded. ‘I fear you’re right,’ he said. ‘Goraidin Yatsu, I know I can’t lift the burden of these events from you, but my own feeling concurs with that of my friends. You can’t accept responsibility for what someone else has done with your sword.’
Finally came Hawklan. The strange Orthlundyn. The healer? The man who held the loyalty of the outland Goraidin, Isloman. The man whose very presence had virtually commanded their loyalty. Following Yatsu’s grim distress, the atmosphere in the room became jagged with attention when Eldric motioned him to speak.
He told of Dan-Tor’s strange incursion into Orthlund and of its tragic conclusion. The group listened quietly and patiently until at the end he mentioned the name of Jaldaric and revealed the true nature of the patrol that had attacked them. For a moment there was a stunned silence and then uproar broke out, and Hawklan found himself assailed by disbelief and anger on all sides.
Eventually Eldric calmed the din. Shaking his head as if to silence the babble of his own thoughts, he leaned forward urgently, his face a mixture of many emotions. ‘Hawklan, this is madness. Mandrocs armed… and liveried… marching into Orthlund! Killing! Madness! And my son, my son, what… ’
He stopped, unable to continue. Hawklan caught his gaze and held it. ‘Lord Eldric. I’ve told you the truth. I’ve little comfort for you if that Jaldaric was indeed your son. When I saw him last he was captive but alive, and the man Aelang seemed anxious that he remained so.’ He looked round at the other Lords and the Goraidin, their questions restrained only by Eldric’s will. Hreldar alone seemed unmoved. ‘You have only my word for this, and that of Isloman. But we saw what we saw, and we’re here because of it. Of your own kind only Fel-Astian and Idrace survived and they left us to return here. I don’t know where they are now.’
Under his gaze, the anger and disbelief in the watch-ers began slowly to fade. The enormity of his tale seemed to sound like a deep underscoring note that transformed the chaos of recent events into an even more sinister discord. In its wake came only uncertainty and bewilderment, hanging stagnant in the air.
Eldric’s voice cut through the eerie silence. ‘We’re a logical people, Hawklan, but over the past months we’ve had to come to terms with many happenings apparently beyond logic. When we spoke together earlier I said I’d judge you by your deeds, and that judgement tells me you’re our friend and ally. My heart tells me that also. Lords? Gentlemen?’ He looked enquiringly around the room.
There was no dissent.
He continued. ‘But, Hawklan, you tell us an appall-ing tale. We must decide… ’
‘Hush.’ The sound came from one of the Goraidin standing by the window. Carefully he eased back the edge of the curtain and peered out. Then equally carefully he replaced it. The others noted the signs. Sudden movements attract attention. They fell silent. Those who were seated, stood up quietly and reflexively checked their weapons.
‘Mathidrin,’ the man whispered. ‘Probably a couple of hundred. It looks as if they’ve closed the street and are searching each house in turn.’
Chapter 38
Hreldar and Darek were correct in their assessment of the reason why such horror had arisen so apparently spontaneously from the tight-knit diversionary tactics devised by the Goraidin. The Mathidrin did indeed have orders to aggravate any large-scale disorders in the City. Dan-Tor adjusted the details as the day developed, but the overall plan was one of many he had prepared against different contingencies.
Now the men gathered in the upstairs room over-looking a Vakloss street saw another plan being implemented: the systematic and thorough searching of all parts of the City. It was a massive operation, and Mathidrin had been brought in from many of the nearby towns and villages to implement it. Yatsu looked at the speaker. ‘Archers or horsemen?’ he asked. The man shook his head. ‘I didn’t see any bows. And only one or two officers are on horseback,’ he said.
‘Two hundred?’ continued Yatsu.
‘Thereabouts,’ came the confirmation. ‘Com-mander,’ said Eldric to Yatsu. ‘Do you have any plan for an escape from this house?’ Yatsu shook his head. ‘Not under these circumstances,’ he said. ‘We should have been away from the City early last night, but it wasn’t possible.’
Eldric nodded. ‘You have groups waiting outside the City?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ replied Yatsu. ‘And more friends inside the City. But that’s all they’ll be doing-waiting. They’ve no way of knowing where we are or how they can help us.’
Yatsu signalled one of his men to check the back of the house. Within seconds he returned saying this was guarded also. ‘As far as I can see. The alley’s narrow. It’s hard to get a clear view.’
There was an intake of breath from the man by the window.
‘They’ve found the horses,’ he hissed. ‘They’ll be on us in minutes.’
An anxious scurrying in the doorway announced the woman of the house. She was flushed and agitated.
Yatsu raised his hand before she spoke. ‘Yes, we know,’ he said, walking over to her and laying a hand reassuringly on her shoulder. ‘Is there any way we can get into the houses on either side?’
The woman fluttered her hands helplessly.
‘Yatsu,’ said one of the men. ‘These houses are old. They might have common roof spaces.’
The woman nodded her head. ‘Yes, they have, and there’s a trapdoor… ’ She stepped backwards out of the room and pointed to a panel in the carved ceiling.
Unbidden, one of the Goraidin clambered on to the shoulders of a companion and pushed back the carved trapdoor. Small flurries of dust floated unhurriedly down on to the heads of the watchers below.