Part 6 (1/2)
”They are brave hearts,” Anigel murmured.
”There is small chance of an attack by Star Men so soon,” Antar rea.s.sured her. ”Nor is Orogastus likely to a.s.sail a huge, well-armed column such as ours. We are merely taking due precaution.”
”Within two tennights,” said one of the little Nyssomu scouts, ”our Folk dwelling in this part of the Mazy Mire will have secured that viaduct, as the White Lady and the Lady of the Eyes have commanded. We will heap a tall mound of stone and soil over the site and set a guard.”
”It will be very hard for Star Men to emerge unnoticed from a viaduct after this is done,” said the other scout. ”They will have to resort to powerful magic to dig their way out. This we will surely detect, and then sound the alarm in the speech without words.”
Anigel looked again at the map. ”It seems there are no more viaducts near to the road until we reach the mountains. We can be thankful for that.”
A ragged cheer now arose from the Oathed Companions as the raft with Sir Olevik and his men pushed off from the sh.o.r.e. ”May the Flower bless you,” the Queen called, sketching the sign of the Trillium in the air beyond the bridge railing, ”and bring you back safely to our company.”
Those on the raft responded with spirited cries of their own, brandis.h.i.+ng their arms. Then the raft rounded a bend and was lost to sight behind a dense stand of trees.
The advance riders resumed their slow progress through the rain, with Anigel and Antar riding side by side amidst the troop of knights, and Immu trailing behind the Queen. Coming after them at a fair distance was a parade over two leagues in length: volumnial-drawn wagons loaded with baggage of the court, more carts carrying food and supplies, fine coaches and carriages bearing the n.o.bility and civil servants, royal officers and knights on fronial-back, and nearly a thousand other retainers both mounted and afoot. Double files of soldiery plodded along on either side of the main column, and the sound of their singing came softly through the swamp to the ears of those riding ahead.
The Queen was well content now, making proud inspection of her mireway. What had been from time immemorial an indistinct and hazardous track only negotiable in the Dry Time (and then, only by those possessing local knowledge or the secret maps of the Master Traders) was now a handsome paved road. Its elevated bed, formed of alternate layers of crushed rock and ma.s.sive logs from the Ta.s.saleyo Forest, stood three ells or more above the swamp and was surfaced with cobblestones. Wooden bridges had replaced the old fords of streams and rivers, save for the crossing of the broad Virkar at the edge of the Dylex country, where there was a ferry. Hostels with guardposts, sited a day's journey apart, provided secure places where smaller parties of travelers or merchant caravans might rest; but the huge royal train perforce camped on the road itself, with only the royalty and elderly or infirm n.o.bles taking shelter beneath hostel roofs.
The middle section of the mireway that the entourage now traversed was more narrow than the rest since it had been so difficult to build. Twisting nearly a hundred leagues between Bonar Castle and the Dylex city of Virk, this part of the road crossed a wilderness devoid of human habitation. Soaring trees and dense tangles of thorn-fern, vines, and nearly impenetrable vegetation hemmed in the mireway and even overhung it in many stretches, so that it sometimes seemed to Queen Anigel that they rode through a green tunnel curtained by misty rain.
The advance party made a halt at midday, eating cold food and resting while a welcome sun broke briefly through the clouds, causing the roadway to steam. But by the time the riders remounted, storm clouds had returned, together with a rising wind. Nevertheless Anigel found herself dozing in the saddle as the patient fronials moved slowly onward, their antlered heads bobbing, the tendons in their legs clicking, and their splayed hooves clip-clopping on the mossy stones. Overhead, the leaden sky became more and more oppressive, although the heavy rain held off.
The Queen was jolted into wakefulness when occasional whiffs of stomach-turning stench began to contaminate the wind. No one was much surprised when General Gorkain came riding back through the ranks of knights and saluted the King and Queen before delivering grim news.
”A scout reports freshly scoured raffin bones on the mireway ahead, and the cobbles show sign of Skritek sp.a.w.n. We will halt here in order to close up the gap between our advance group and the main body of the caravan. The Lord Marshal and the Oathed Companions will provide Your Majesties with close escort, and foot-soldiery will come forward to accompany us until the danger is past. I have also sent a messenger to summon Crown Prince Nikalon and Princess Janeel. It is no longer safe for them to range up and down the procession casually with their young friends.”
”Very well,” said Antar. ”You may carry on.”
The General touched his helm-visor in salute and spun his fro-nial about. But before he could ride away there were shouts from the knights ahead. ”Sp.a.w.n! Sp.a.w.n on the road!”
Gorkain swore and spurred his mount forward, drawing his two-handed sword. Marshal Lakanilo and a dozen Oathed Com-panions closed in around the King, the Queen, and Immu, lances couched, while others of the elite group followed the General.
An excruciating foul odor spread through the air. For a time everyone was quiet and the only sounds were distant hoofbeats, the creak of harness, and the hiss and patter of the rain.
Then Immu whispered, ”See there!” She pointed to a dark slough at the right of the mireway, half-screened by thornless fodderfern twice the height of a man.
Rising from the sc.u.mmy water were dozens of glistening white shapes, some nearly the size of a human body, others much smaller. They resembled odious fat worms or grubs, lacking obvious heads but having stubby limbs equipped with razorlike claws. Their foreparts lifted as they reached the narrow verge beside the roadbed, revealing wide-open mouths with green teeth that dripped venom.
The blind monsters swayed from side to side questing for prey, which they tracked with their keen hearing.
For an instant the riders were frozen with horror. Then one young knight exclaimed, ”Zoto's Stones, what detestable things! Like giant corpse-maggots!”
At the sound of his voice the Skritek sp.a.w.n began humping and wriggling up the embankment toward the road.
King Antar's longsword sang as it left its scabbard. ”Follow me, Oathed Companions!”
He sent his fronial skidding down the steep slope, the Lord Marshal and the knights following closely after, and with a single sweeping stroke he smote one of the leading sp.a.w.n in two. It disintegrated, splas.h.i.+ng vile jellylike ichor all over the King. The Companions spitted other bloodthirsty Skritek young on their lances or put them to the sword, crying out in anger and disgust as they were also drenched by evil-smelling fluids from the sp.a.w.n bodies.
Lakanilo's fronial fell to the muddy ground, squealing in agony, its foreleg held fast in poisoned jaws. But the Companions raced to the Lord Marshal's rescue, hauling him to safety, slaying the tenaciously clinging sp.a.w.n, and granting merciful death to the doomed antilopine steed.
It was not long before all of the larvae were either killed or fled, leaving Antar and the knights beslimed from helm to heel. Victorious cries from the road ahead signaled that the other pod of immature Skritek had also been routed by Gorkain and his men.
”Well done,” cried Queen Anigel warmly.
But the King looked down upon his filthied person with a grimace. ”Only the Triune knows how we shall remove this mess from ourselves, unless we take a headlong leap into the swamp and exchange mud for sp.a.w.n-slime.”
As if in answer, thunder rumbled overhead and a deluge of rain pelted down. Antar removed his helm, tilted his head so water bathed his face, and laughed. ”Thank you, gracious Lords of the Air! By the time the main column catches up with us, we may almost be fit for civilized society again.”
”Perhaps you should return to your carriage, my Queen,” Lord Marshal Lakanilo suggested to Anigel. He was a tall man of spa.r.s.e flesh, whose manner was grave and dignified in spite of his befouled appearance. He had been appointed to his office following the heroic death of Lord Marshal Owanon in the Battle of Derorguila.
The Queen shook her head, dismissing the suggestion that she should retire. ”Heavens, no, Lako! With the smell of Skritek now stronger than ever, my ladies will wrap their faces in perfume-soaked veils. Frankly, my nose is less offended by the smell of the monsters.”
Princess Janeel and Crown Prince Nikalon came cantering up with a group of n.o.ble attendants and gave.noisy greeting to their parents and the Oathed Companions.
”Phew!” cried the Princess, pinching her nose. ”The sp.a.w.n-reek is much worse up here-oh!” She screamed at the sight of the slaughtered creatures.
”They are quite dead, my Lady,” the Lord Marshal said. ”There is nothing to fear.”
Prince Nikalon had drawn his sword, and his eyes were alight as he surveyed the noisome remains. ”Are you certain, Lako? Perhaps we'd better reconnoiter the swamp. I'm ready!” At fifteen, he had nearly attained a man's stature and wore a helm and breastplate and military cape.
”Ready ready ready!” Immu exclaimed crossly. ”Your royal parents and the Oathed Companions must now feel very relieved that such a great champion has arrived.”
”Oh, Immu,” groaned the Prince. The knights were laughing, but with good humor for they all were very fond of the impetuous Niki.
”There is no need for us to leave the road,” Antar said. ”Indeed, it would be foolhardy for us to do so, since the water continues to rise.”
”Well, I'm sorry I missed the fight. I never saw Skritek sp.a.w.n before.” The boy sheathed his sword and began questioning the knights about the attack, and the Lord Marshal sent off for another mount.
Janeel rode closer to her parents and the little old nurse, expressing relief when she was told that the only casualty was a single fronial. ”What horrible things the sp.a.w.n are! Is it true that they kill their dams at birth?”
”More often than not,” Immu said. ”Adult Skritek have the use of reason-more or less!-but the young are ravening and mindless. If the mother is lucky, she may leap to safety as each larval offspring drops from her womb, and the sp.a.w.n will feed upon meat she has provided. But it is more common for the offspring to awaken before birth and gnaw their way from confinement through the mother's body wall.”
”Ugh!” said Janeel. Her face had gone white within the hood of her raincape and she would gladly have departed the nauseating scene, were it not that Queen Anigel seemed unfazed. ”No wonder Skritek know nothing of love or gentleness.”
”And yet,” Prince Nikalon interposed with grisly relish, having rejoined his parents and sister, ”the Skritek are the oldest race in the world, and sages say all Folk are descended from them. Even you, Immu!”
”I thought humankind was the most ancient race,” the Princess said.
”We did not originate in this world,” said the Queen. ”Your aunt Haramis the Archimage learned that human beings came here from the Outer Firmament uncounted aeons in the past. The Vanished Ones were our ancestors.”
”What is even more amazing,” said King Antar very quietly, ”is that the Vanished Ones used the blood of both Skritek and humanity to fas.h.i.+on a Folk-race that might withstand the Conquering Ice.”
”But... why?” The Princess, unlike her older brother, had never heard the story; nor had most other people, for the Archimage had decided that it must be kept secret, except among the royal family and its most trusted confidants.
”The ancient humans felt guilty abandoning the world their warring had largely destroyed,” Antar said. ”You see, Jan, the Vanished Ones believed that the ice they had unwittingly created twelve-times-ten hundreds ago would devour all the world's land, save for the continental margins and some islands. They thought the Skritek would surely die, leaving the world devoid of rational beings. But that did not happen. The ice failed to conquer after all, and both the Skritek and the new race of hardy Folk lived on together. So did certain stubborn humans who had remained behind when the rest Vanished into the Outer Firmament.”
”Those aborigines that we call Vispi,” said the Queen, ”the high-mountain dwellers who aided your aunt Haramis in obtaining her talisman and who are now her special Folk, are the result of that long-ago experiment. They are the true firstborn, combining the Skritek and human lineage. Of course they give birth in human fas.h.i.+on, as other high races of Folk do.”