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

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СКАЧАТЬ the waist with a bit of dirty rope. ‘To the north of us lie Hansh and Aigul; to the south is the Nashthalan. That’s mostly desert now, and you’ll want to stay well to the north of it if you’re to come to Khaisham safely.’

      While his two young sons watered our horses, he advised us to make our way directly east along the hills above the Nashthalan; after crossing through Sarad, he said, we should turn north along the dip in the White Mountains and so come to Khaisham that way.

      But even as we were sharing a cup of brandy with him and eating some dried figs, a knight wearing a green and white surcoat over his gleaming mail came riding down from the rock formation above us. He had the same browned skin and dark beard as the goatherd, but he rode with an air of confidence as if his lord commanded the lands hereabouts. He presented himself as Rinald, son of Omar the Quiet; he said that he was in the service of Lord Nicolaym, who had a castle hidden in the rocks above us.

      ‘We saw you ride up to the well,’ he told us, looking from me to my friends. ‘We were afraid that you would pass this way unheralded.’

      He came down from his horse and broke bread with us. He was only too happy to share some of our brandy, too, which was nearly the last of the vintage we had carried from Tria.

      ‘Lord Nicolaym,’ he said to us, ‘would like to offer his hospitality, for the night or as many nights as you wish.’

      I thought of the golden cup that likely awaited us in Khaisham. An image sprang into my mind of time running out of it like the sands from an hourglass. If we came to Khaisham too late, I thought, we might find the Library emptied of the Lightstone, perhaps carried away by another.

      ‘Sar Valashu?’

      I looked up at the sun, still high in the cloudless sky. We had many hours left that day that we might travel, and I told Rinald this.

      ‘Of course, you’re free to ride on as you please,’ Rinald said to us. ‘Lord Nicolaym doesn’t order the comings and goings of pilgrims or charge them tolls as some do. But you should be careful of where you go. Not everyone welcomes pilgrims these days.’

      With an apology to the goatherd, he went on to dispute his advice that we should journey east through Sarad.

      ‘Baron Jadur’s knights are jealous of their borders there,’ Rinald told us. ‘Although they hate Count Ulanu, they’ve no love of Khaisham and the Librarians, either. It’s said that for many years they’ve turned pilgrims away from their domain – those they haven’t plundered or imprisoned.’

      At this news, the goatherd took a drink of brandy and shrugged his shoulders. His business, he said, was keeping his goats fat and healthy, not in keeping apprised of the injustices of distant lords.

      As for injustice, Rinald informed us sadly that there was too much of that in his own domain. ‘Duke Rasham is a good enough man, but some of his lords have gone over to the Kallimun – we’re not quite sure which ones. But there have been murders of those who speak for joining arms with Khaisham. We caught an assassin trying to murder Lord Nicolaym just last month. You should be careful in Karkut, I’m sorry to say, Sar Valashu. These are evil times.’

      ‘It would seem that we must take care wherever we go in Yarkona,’ I told him.

      ‘That is true,’ he said. ‘But there are some domains you must avoid at all costs. Aigul, of course. And to the west of those crucifiers, Brahamdur, whose baron and lords are practically Count Ulanu’s slaves. And Sagaram – you were lucky to cross it unmolested, for they’ve been forced into an alliance with Aigul. To the north of us, between here and Aigul, Hansh has nearly lost its freedom as well. It’s said that soon Count Ulanu will press Hansh levies into his army.’

      Maram, of course, didn’t like the news that he was hearing. He looked at me a long moment before asking Rinald, ‘How are we to reach Khaisham, then?’

      ‘The route through Madhvam would be the safest,’ Rinald said, naming the domain just east of us. ‘There’s strength there for opposing Count Ulanu; their knights would join Khaisham in arms but for their bad blood with Sarad. That feud occupies all their attention, I’m afraid. I haven’t heard, though, that they have any quarrel with pilgrims.’

      But Madhvam, as Maram learned, adjoined Aigul to its north, and that was too close for him. ‘What if this Ulanu the Handsome attacks Madhvam while we’re crossing it?’

      ‘No, that’s impossible,’ Rinald said. ‘We’ve just had word that Count Ulanu has marched against Sikar. The fortifications of that city are the strongest in all Yarkona. He’ll be at least a month reducing them.’

      Sikar, he said, lay a good sixty miles north of Madhvam up against the White Mountains, with the domain of Virad partially squeezed in between. He told us then what Duke Rasham and Lord Nicolaym supposed would be Count Ulanu’s strategy for the conquest of Yarkona.

      ‘Khaisham is the key to everything that Count Ulanu desires,’ Rinald told us. ‘Other than Aigul, it’s the strongest domain in Yarkona, and Virad, Sikar and Inyam all look to the Librarians to lead the opposition against the Count. If Khaisham falls, the whole of the north will fall as well. Count Ulanu already has the west under his thumb. Hansh, too. The middle domains – Madhvam and Sarad, even Karkut – can’t stand alone. And once Aigul has swallowed us all up, it will be nothing for the Count’s army to take the Nashthalan.’

      His words encouraged us to finish our brandy in quick swallows. And then Maram said, ‘Ah, well, I should think that the Count’s invasion of Sikar would lead all the free domains to join against him.’

      ‘That is my lord’s hope, too,’ Rinald said. ‘But I’m afraid that many lords think otherwise. They say that if Count Ulanu’s conquest is inevitable, they should join with him rather than wind up nailed to crosses.’

      ‘Nothing’s inevitable,’ Kane growled out, ‘except such cowardly talk.’

      ‘That is so,’ Rinald said. ‘Even Sikar’s fall is uncertain. If only Khaisham’s knights would ride to its aid …’

      ‘Will they?’ I asked.

      ‘No one knows. The Librarians are brave enough, and none better at arms. But for a thousand years, they’ve used them only in defense of their books.’

      ‘Then what about Virad? What about Inyam?’ I asked, naming the domain north of Virad and between Sikar and Khaisham.

      ‘I think they’ll wait to see what Khaisham does,’ Rinald says. ‘If the Librarians stay behind their walls and Sikar falls, then likely they’ll sue for peace.’

      ‘You mean, surrender,’ Kane snarled.

      ‘Better that than crucifixion, many would say.’

      Because Kane’s flashing eyes were difficult to behold just then, I turned toward Maram, who was looking for reasons to abandon his courage.

      ‘If the Red Dragon desires the conquest of Yarkona so badly,’ he said, ‘I don’t see why he doesn’t just send an army to reduce it. Sakai isn’t so far from here, is it? What could stop him?’

      ‘Niggardliness could,’ Atara said perceptively. ‘I think the Lord of Lies is very careful: he hoards his forces like a miser does gold.’

      ‘Just so,’ Rinald СКАЧАТЬ