Suddenly there was an angry noise from the crowd and Hawklan looked down to see several of its members approaching purposefully towards them. Their leader, a tall rangy man, seized Yatsu’s bridle. He had the mien of a scholar rather than a warrior and, to Hawklan, his actions indicated he had been considerably provoked. Yatsu, too, was surprised but, before he could speak, this man burst out angrily.
‘Get out! Get out! Get away from here. You’re not wanted, nor any of your kind. Clear off!’
His cry was taken up by several others. Hawklan looked at the growing crowd. It was different from that which had greeted him in the border village. That had been hostile, but calm and quite curious. These people, however, were in the first flush of anger and a powerful animal sense of threat surged over him. He knew it would take very little to make them push aside the normal social restraints that controlled their dealings with others.
To his relief, however, Yatsu’s response was con-ciliatory.
‘Come now, sir,’ the Goraidin said, leaning forward slightly to stroke his horse and at the same time nudging it gently into restlessness, ‘you’re frightening my horse. We’ll be gone as soon as you let us through.’
The tall man hesitated at Yatsu’s quiet response but Hawklan sensed his rage uncoiling. Something had released a long-held anger in the man and, unleashed, it would run its course like an overflowing river, sweeping aside anything that stood in its way.
The man shook the bridle violently and the horse reared its head up in alarm. ‘Curse you and all your kind,’ he said through clenched teeth. The small act of misdirected violence seemed to calm him a little and, still glowering at Yatsu, he stroked the horse’s cheek, regretful of any small hurt he might have done the animal. ‘Damn you all. You make us all like yourselves,’ he muttered.
Yatsu waited uncertainly. Like Hawklan, he too understood the nature of the man’s anger and knew that it was neither fully expended nor yet controlled. There was no saying what he might do next. He looked like a teacher; a man unused to violence and, as such, unused to its control. That made him unpredictable and very dangerous, both to himself and to anyone else who got in the way. Yatsu wished he were somewhere else.
He let out a long low breath. ‘Please let go of my horse,’ he said gently, bending forward and looking directly into the man’s eyes. ‘We’re off duty. Look, some of us aren’t in uniform. We just want to get back to our billets. And I’ve two injured men here. Let us pass. We mean you no harm.’
For a moment the two stared at one another. Yatsu’s quiet reason and his unseen but implacable will stood like a cliff face before the surge of the man’s anger. Subtly it offered both unmoving resistance and a way out.
The flood abated and the man released the bridle. ‘Get out,’ he said again, quietly and viciously, striking his clenched fist impotently against his own leg. ‘Get out.’
‘No,’ cried another voice as Yatsu prepared to urge his horse forward. ‘No, wait. Keep hold of him, Mendar.’
A figure pushed determinedly through the crowd until it was by Lord Eldric’s horse. Eldric looked down into the round earnest face of a middle-aged man. It was familiar, and his memory immediately started tracking back and forth to identify it.
‘By Ethriss, it is,’ said the man. ‘The Lord Eldric. I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Too long under that brown streak’s globes.’ Then he stepped back and saluted smartly.
Eldric’s memory arrived at the face, not without some pride. ‘At ease, Sirshiant Astrom,’ he said, returning the salute and then leaning forward, hand extended. ‘Good to see you again, man,’ he went on, smiling. ‘It’s some years since we last met, isn’t it? Not as trim as you used to be, I see, but just as unforgetta-ble.’
Impressive, thought the cold part of Hawklan’s mind.
‘Indeed, Lord,’ said the man, beaming and patting his stomach in mock regret. Then, urgently, ‘My Lord. I don’t know what’s going on, but we none of us believe those rumours about you. Just give me the signal and we’ll have these cockroaches down and we’ll march with you to the Palace to free your son.’
Yatsu interrupted quickly. ‘Lord, if this man’s known to you, have him ask these people to let us through. Time’s against us.’
Eldric raised his hand to silence him and leaned further forward towards Astrom. ‘Free my son, Astrom. What do you mean?’ he said.
Yatsu looked at Hawklan almost desperately. ‘Lord,’ he said urgently.
‘A moment, Commander,’ Eldric said firmly. ‘My son, Astrom?’
Someone thrust a crumpled paper into Astrom’s hand and he handed it to the Lord. Eldric pressed out the creases and held up the paper to read it. He became very still.
When he had finished, he handed it to Darek and turned to Yatsu. ‘You knew of this, Commander?’ he said stonily.
Yatsu met his gaze unwaveringly. ‘Yes, Lord,’ he replied.
‘And you’d have led me from the City without telling me?’
‘Yes, Lord.’
‘You took a heavy responsibility on your shoulders. Did you think I didn’t know my duty?’
Yatsu’s eyes narrowed slightly. ‘That’s unjust, Lord,’ he said. ‘You’re human. I took the decision, as I’ve taken all the others. You were rescued because of your value to the people and I put that value before your feelings for your son, and before your son’s life. I took nothing but pain in doing it, but it was right, and I’d have accounted for it to you in due course, as you know.’
Eldric seemed to shrink a little. He looked at Hawk-lan. ‘And you. Did you know?’ he said.
‘Yes,’ replied Hawklan quietly.
‘And you’ve met my son?’
Hawklan lowered his eyes. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. I liked him. But Yatsu was Commander. He knew you, and the people, and all your needs far better than I.’
Eldric sat up stiffly and gazed into the sky. Hawklan could feel the struggle within him. An old conflict. That between duty to the people who looked to him for leadership and duty to his family.
Finally Eldric let out a deep breath. ‘Yatsu, I and my family absolve you from blame,’ he said. ‘And I apologize for my reproach. It was just an old man’s reaction to sudden pain. You were, and still are, Commander here. You’ve done well.’
Yatsu’s face creased in pain and he bowed.
Eldric reached out for the notice, which had been passed around his companions. He read through it again, lips pursed.
‘The Lord Dan-Tor’s demanding that we four return to the Palace and throw ourselves on the mercy of the King. Not the Law, you’ll note.’ He looked at Darek. ‘But the King’s mercy. Which means, of course, Dan-Tor’s. The nature of which can be determined from the statement that my son-my son,’ he emphasized, ‘"having been found an enemy of Fyorlund by the King’s Special Court sitting in closed session", will be publicly executed if we don’t return within two days.’
He paused for a moment and bowed his head to hide his face from the watching people. Unconsciously he screwed up the notice. ‘This is an abomination,’ he said unsteadily, almost to himself. ‘Secret trials. Public executions, for Ethriss’s sake. I begin to dread the very passing of time. Each second seems to sink our poor country further and further into some bottomless mire.’
He was silent for some time, his hands fidgeting idly with the crumpled paper. Then he looked up and raised and lowered his shoulders as if he were adjusting a great burden.
‘Still,’ he said, his voice almost matter-of-fact. ‘It’s good to know the lad’s alive.’ Then, very purposefully, ‘Commander Yatsu, here are your orders. Go with the Lords to my stronghold in the hills as fast as you can. Commander Varak’s in charge there. Find out what’s happened to the estates and High Guards of the Lords Arinndier, Hreldar and Darek. Then raise the old hands, the veterans, and start work on recruitment and training. We have to forge a weapon large and strong enough to face Dan-Tor and his Mathidrin and… ’ He caught Hawklan’s eye, and the terrible image of the armed Mandroc patrol and all it implied appeared before him. ‘… and whatever other forces he may have.’