Part 30 (1/2)

'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 conciliatory.

'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. 'd.a.m.n 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 pa.s.s. 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, Sirs.h.i.+ant 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 unforgettable.'

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 c.o.c.kroaches 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 Hawklan. '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 leaders.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sing 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.'

Turning to his friends, he held up the crumpled notice. 'This alone shows the rightness of Commander Yatsu's actions and of the conclusions we ourselves have reached. No further debate is necessary except on the strategy and tactics of how we rid ourselves of Dan-Tor. Do you agree?' The three Lords nodded without speaking.

Eldric turned to Hawklan and Isloman. 'You're bound to neither me nor my country by any oath or tie, but will you help us further?'

'We've a common foe, Lord Eldric,' Hawklan replied, taking his hand. 'You'll have our help and probably that of all Orthlund should the need arise, though in what manner time alone will tell.' He looked at the old man. 'But what are you going to do?'

Eldric, satisfied, turned to the crowd. He held up the notice again and addressed them all. 'According to this, my son's to be executed if we four don't surrender. Executed! After a secret trial! No man's been executed in Fyorlund for three generations.' He paused and looked intently at the crowd momentarily silenced by his pa.s.sion. Then he continued more quietly, 'I can't begin to understand what Dan-Tor wants of us. However, it behoves us to remember that he's a man of great cunning and deviousness. A man who turns all eventualities to his own ends. A man capable of anything. I can only imagine that he wants the City rent by riots again, for surely few Fyordyn could let such infamy pa.s.s unhindered.'

Some of the crowd shouted their approval, but Eldric waved them to silence, and then pointed to Yatsu and the others. 'These men are not what they seem. They're High Guards and it's due to their courage that we four are free today. You all heard the orders I gave them. Publicly and openly announced, in the Fyordyn manner, for all to hear. I'll offer no one violence but I fear that superior force will be the only way this man's hand can be stayed.'

More shouts of agreement came from the crowd.

Eldric continued. 'But there must be no rioting. No random, ill-judged violence. We must not hand this man weapons to strike us down with. While my one hand arms itself, I'll offer the other in peace, if not friends.h.i.+p. Two days hence, on the day set for my son's . . . execution, I shall present myself before the Palace and demand a public Accounting of my accuser, according to the Law. I ask you all to accompany me to witness this.'

The crowd fell suddenly silent, and then began to shout and applaud.

Hawklan looked at Darek in puzzlement. 'What does this mean?' he asked.