Выбрать главу

Sarazin stared at Glambrax. Could he tempt the dwarf within pitchfork range? If so, then he would kill him! Then Fox came into the barn.

'Are you ready to go?' said Fox. Your escort is nearly ready.' 'Almost,' said Sarazin.

Then embraced his father, who slapped him on the back and called him a man. Then left to supervise other activities. Whereupon Sarazin turned to Glambrax and said, with venom:

'All right then. I swear. I'll not ask you questions. I'll not harm you, either. Not for this. But if you step out of line again, I'll – I'll – I'll stuff your guts with biting vermin then broil you alive.'

Glambrax feigned fear, then laughed, and dropped both ring and bottle to Sarazin. Who, swearing softly to himself, tore those items free from the rope of bark. He put the ring's chain round his neck and pocketed the bottle. Then Glambrax produced the magic green candle and tossed it to Sarazin. Who finished packing then went outside, meaning to seek out the escort which was to accompany him to the border of Chenameg. Glambrax jumped down from the rafter and came jog-jog-jogging up behind him.

'M-m-mathter, m-mathter' said Glambrax, faking a lisp and a stutter simultaneously, 'd-d-don't leaf us, don't leaf us.'

TMara zabara jok!' said Sarazin, using the crudest Galish he knew.

Whereupon Glambrax, giggling, skipped in front of him, dared his boot, laughed when it missed, then started skipping backwards, keeping just out of range of Sarazin's wrath.

'I was very good, you know,' said Glambrax. 'I didn't meddle with ring or bottle, though I was tempted, tempted, oh, you can't imagine the temptation.'

'It's well that you resisted it,' said Sarazin, 'for this magic would have been your death if you'd tampered with it. It kills dwarves and mutants, and you're both!'

'Will it kill monsters, too, if we meet such on our journey?' said Glambrax.

'Our journey?' said Sarazin. "No, my journey. You're staying here. The last thing I need right now is a delinquent ankle-biter scuffling around at my heels.' 'You'll die without me,' said Glambrax.

'That's all right,' said Sarazin, with unfeigned non- chalance.

And Glambrax protested no more, for their colloquy had brought them in sight of the escort.

Shortly, Sarazin set out – without Glambrax! He had an escort of a dozen men to accompany him through the forest, and he had a string of four horses. Once they reached the border of Chenameg then Sarazin, with the forest's dangers behind him, would ride for Selzirk alone, with all possible speed.

Many dangers lay ahead. But surely nothing could defeat Sean Sarazin. Not now that he had recovered his magic.

His anger was already fading, and he was beginning to experience something close to joy. The power, the power! It was his! Again! And, this time, he would not lose it. His implements of power would never again leave him. He would keep them with him always.

Sarazin took his leave of Fox, Lod, Jarl and several soldiers he had come to know well during his sojourn in Chenameg, then swung up into the saddle, and, singing a snatch of a hunting song, rode forth into the future.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

One bloodshot dawn some long days later, Sean Sarazin sighted Selzirk's towers in the distance. Surely he would reach the city by noon. Then he would have news of all the world's affairs. He had spoken to nobody on his frantic journey, fearing recognition and arrest by some petty bureaucrat. -In the city I'll find men who will believe me. Or would he?

His tale was fantastic, like something out of legend. A tale of wizards and Doors, of fire-magic, of desperate danger in forested uplands, of combat with gigantic monsters. Sarazin had uncomfortable memories of his utter disbelief of similar stories told under torture by the pirate Drake Douay. -But they must believe me. Selzirk itself is in danger!

It was then that he remembered the prophecy. Long ago he had dismissed it. Yet – perhaps he had been a fool to do so. For, after all, the prophecy fitted his life in ways which could scarcely be explained by coincidence. -It might be true. It might be!

Was this then the time for the prophecy to be fulfilled?

With a sense of elation, he realised it quite possibly was. The fools in Selzirk who were likely to disbelieve him: those were doubtless the wicked and witless men he must overcome to save the city. -But what of Fox?

Sarazin was dismayed when he remembered the fate of Fox, which was to die. -To be killed. By me!

Sarazin knew, truly, he had no wish to murder his father.

– But it is written! It is fated through prophecy! So how can I help it? Yet Fox is far from Selzirk. So perhaps that's how I murdered him. By letting him dare the leagues to Voice. Perhaps he's dead already.

But Sarazin could not bear the thought of Fox dying. Fox: the one person in the world who had accepted him absolutely. Who had never tried to trick him, use him, manipulate him, exploit him. His father, his one and only.

– Perhaps Fox did die. When I hacked him open at Shin. It is said men sometimes die, leave their bodies, then return a little later to take up life once more. It is said. -It could be true.

Sarazin, weary unto death, struggled as best he could with the logic of prophecy, finally persuading himself that prophecy had indeed already been fulfilled as far as Fox was concerned, since he had for so long counted Fox as one of the dead.

– Alternatively… since Bizzie is such a wanton wench, perhaps Fox is not the father of my flesh at all. Perhaps some other fathered me. Maybe I've killed such a flesh-father already, in Tyte perhaps, or elsewhere. Or am to kill him, slaying him without ever knowing his identity. That was possible.

But, the more Sarazin thought about it, the less he liked the idea. He wanted a true father, a real father, not a half- father.

– Fox is my father. My one and only. And he will not die! He must not!

So thought Sarazin, and spurred the last of his four horses. When the nag collapsed under him and died a league short of the city, he started walking. But before he reached the city gates he was overtaken by a rider from the east. It was Glambrax, perched atop a pony stolen from the National Liberation Front.

"You,' said Sarazin wearily, without evidencing any surprise.

He knew he had been a fool to think he could rid himself of Glambrax so easily.

'Me,' said the dwarf cheerfully. With news! I've talked with villagers en route. I bet you never dared.'

'I'm not free to swap rumours at the beggar gates,' said Sarazin. 'Such is the penalty of fame. Well? Out with it! You're looking uncommonly happy today. So tell! What ails the world?'

'Oh, you'll love this,' said Glambrax, rubbing his hands together. 'Drangsturm has fallen! The Confederation of Wizards has broken apart in war. The Swarms march north. All civilization in Argan is doomed. What a beautiful day!'

'This is no day for jokes,' said Sarazin, too weary to countenance such levity. 'But it's true!' protested Glambrax.

Sarazin punched Glambrax's pony, hoping it would rear and throw the hand-rubbing dwarf. But the poor beast was far too weary. Such was its condition that Sarazin, lest he kill it with his weight, must perforce walk beside it while Glambrax rained the worst of rumour on his head.

Sarazin believed not a word of it. For thousands of years the Confederation of Wizards had guarded Drangsturm, the great flame trench which stretched the length of the isthmus between the Central Ocean and the Inner Waters, preventing the monsters of the Swarms from invading Argan North. Why should things so suddenly change?

But, to Sarazin's shock and horror, they were scarcely within the gates of Selzirk when they met people who confirmed the dwarf's claims.

There were still many people in Selzirk. Some sober, some drunk. Those who were sober were mostly too busy to talk, so Sarazin had to glean information from the drunks. What he learnt set his head spinning. Drangsturm had indeed been destroyed.