The Lightstone: The Silver Sword: Part Two. David Zindell

Чтение книги онлайн.

       1

      With a strong wind blowing at our backs, it took us only a day and a night of fast sailing to cross the Dragon Channel to Surrapam. There, the following morning, at Artram, the last of Surrapam’s free ports and therefore crowded with ships coming and going through its bustling harbor, we said goodbye to Captain Kharald and the Snowy Owl. After the horses had been led onto the dock, he stood by us telling of the news that had just been brought to him.

      ‘King Kaiman,’ he said to us, ‘is making a stand near Azam only forty miles from here. It seems our wheat is needed very badly.’

      I watched the lean, hungry-looking Surrapam dockmen unloading the bags of wheat from the Snowy Owl’s holds. From nearby smithies down Artram’s busy streets came the sounds of hammered steel and the clamor of preparations for war.

      ‘Your swords are needed badly, too,’ he said to us. ‘Would you be willing to raise them against the enemy that you say you oppose?’

      I remembered Thaman’s request to the Valari in Duke Rezu’s castle; in the months since then, I thought, it had gone very badly for his people.

      ‘Oppose the Hesperuk armies with this?’ I asked him, showing him the wooden sword I had carved.

      ‘Some,’ he said grimly, looking around at the desperate Surrapamers, ‘would fight him with their nails and teeth. But I think you have a better weapon than that piece of wood.’

      The day before, when we had first returned to the ship, a chance gust of wind had whipped back my cloak, and Captain Kharald’s quick eyes had fallen on Alkaladur’s jeweled hilt. Since then, I had taken pains to keep it covered.

      ‘You haven’t told me what occurred on the island, and that’s your business,’ he said to me. ‘But it’s my business to help save the kingdom, if I can.’

      Captain Kharald’s new conscience had changed the direction of his efforts but not their vigor: I thought he would pursue his new business with all the cunning and force that he had applied toward making money.

      ‘We failed to gain the Lightstone,’ I said to him as Kane prowled about the horses, checking their loads. The others stood near me awaiting their turns to say goodbye as well. ‘What more is there to tell?’

      ‘Only you know that, Sar Valashu.’

      Because I hoped it might give him courage, I finally confided in him the story of my receiving the Bright Sword. He looked at me with wonder lighting up his hard, blue eyes. ‘Such a sword and a Valari knight to wield it would be worth a company of men. And with Kane and your friends behind you, a whole regiment.’

      I smiled at this flattery, then told him, ‘Even a hundred regiments arrayed against the Red Dragon wouldn’t be enough to bring him down. But the finding of the Lightstone might be.’

      ‘Then you intend to continue your quest?’

      ‘Yes, we must.’

      ‘But where will you go? It won’t be long before the Hesperuk warships close the Channel.’

      Kane, stroking the neck of Alphanderry’s white Tervolan, shot me a warning look. Although our journey lay to the east, we hadn’t yet decided its course.

      ‘We’ll go wherever we must,’ I said to Captain Kharald.

      ‘Well, go in the One’s light then,’ he told me. ‘I wish you well, Valashu Elahad.’

      I wished him well, too, and so did the others. And then, after clasping Captain Kharald’s rough hand, we mounted our horses and rode north through Artram’s narrow streets.

      The choice of this direction was Kane’s. Ever alert for enemies and Kallimun spies, he spared no effort in trying to throw potential pursuers off our scent. Artram was a rather small city of stout wooden houses and the inevitable shops of sailmakers, ropemakers and sawyers working up great spars to be used in fitting out the many ships docked in her port. There were many salteries, too, preserving the cargoes of cod and char that the fishing boats brought in from the sea. Most of these shops, however, were now empty, their stores having been requisitioned by King Kaiman’s quartermasters. In truth, there seemed little food left in the city, and little hope for defeating Hesperu’s ravaging armies, either.

      Everywhere we went, we saw marks of woe upon the Surrapamers’ gaunt faces. It pained me to see their children eyeing our well-fed horses and full saddlebags. Like Thaman and Captain Kharald, they were mostly red of hair, fair of skin and thick of body – or would have been in better times. Though nearly beaten, they carried themselves bravely and well. I resolved that if I ever returned to Mesh, I would speak out strongly for helping them, if only by taking the field against the Red Dragon.

      Maram surprised us all by stopping to pull off his rings one by one and giving them to various beggars who crossed our path. After slipping his third ring into the hand of a one-legged old warrior, Kane chided him for such conspicuous largesse. And Maram chided him, saying, ‘I can always get more rings, but he’ll never get another leg. I regret that I have only ten fingers, with ten rings to give.’

      The afternoon found us a few miles outside of the city, in a region of rich black earth and once-prosperous farms. But the King’s quartermasters had come here, too. Smokehouses that should have been stuffed with hanging hams were empty; barns that should have been full of dried barley and corn held only straw. Most of the grown men having been called to war, or already laid low by it, the fields of ripening wheat were tended by women, children and old men. They paused in their labor to watch us pass, obviously wondering that an armed company should ride unchallenged through their land. But there were few knights or men-at-arms left to stop and question us – or to offer us hospitality. I thought that the widows and worried wives who nodded to us would have been willing to share all they had, even if it was only a thin gruel. The Surrapamers were as generous of heart even as they were sometimes greedy, like Captain Kharald. But that day, we didn’t put it to the test: we rode along in silence, exchanging nothing more than a few kind looks with those who watched us.

      When we were sure that no one had followed us out of Artram, we turned east toward the mountains. Although the great Crescent Mountains were said to be very tall, we could not see even the tallest of their peaks, even though they lay only sixty miles away. Surrapam, it seemed, was a land of clouds and mists that obscured the sky – and sometimes even the tops of the trees pushing up into it. Master Juwain told us that here the sun shone only rarely. The Surrapamers’ pale, pink skin drank up what little light there was; their thick bodies protected them from the sempiternal coolness clinging like moistened silk to its lush fields. But we were not so fortunate. That day, a thin drizzle sifted slowly down through the air. Although it was full summer, and the height of Marud at that, its chill made me draw my cloak tightly around me.

      And yet, despite the gloom, it was a rich, beautiful land of evergreen forests and emerald fields glowing softly beneath the sky’s gentle light. I could see why the Hesperuks might wish to conquer it. The farther we rode across its verdant folds, the more it seemed that we were journeying in the wrong direction. But three times that day I drew Alkaladur, and each time its faint radiance pointed us east. And east we must continue, I thought, even though great battles and the call to arms lay behind us.

      We camped that night in a stand of spruce trees beside СКАЧАТЬ