Rebuked, the wizard resumed his air of aloofness. His inner turmoil was reflected only in the agitation of the Unborn, which bobbed and flitted like a moth with indiges tion.
Lioantung was enough to gag a maggot, Bragi reflected. „Mist, this should be frozen in time. Made a memorial. Bring every would-be warlord in here and make him live with it for a week."
Mist answered with a weak smile. „It wouldn't do any good."
„Probably not. Human nature."
Shih-ka'i took a white flag from a soldier and headed out the gate. He set a brisk pace. Bragi hurried to stay close, so as not to seem less determined. These dread creatures in black had to be shown he was fearless. He laughed at himself. Human nature.
Ahead, an emaciated creature in rags rose atop a hum mock, ran his hand through his hair. A woman in white, who seemed fuzzy around the edges, helped him stand. He gestured. A panther, a bear, and a forest buffalo quickly joined him, assuming guardian stances. Mist and Shih-ka'i exchanged a few words. Mist told Nepanthe, „There he is."
That derelict is my godson? Bragi thought. That's the monster who wasted Shinsan's eastern provinces?
The boy looked ghastly, looked almost as dead as the corpses which supposedly fought for him.
Shih-ka'i halted. Bragi stopped beside him. Mist and the wizard stopped too. Nepanthe never slowed.
„Ethrian?" she said. „Look. See? This is your sister. Her name is Smyrena."
Bragi almost exploded from tension laughter. The incon gruity of it! And yet, how better to shock Ethrian back to reality?
Torment filled the boy's eyes. He started blubbering. „Mama. I thought they killed you. I thought they killed you."
Nepanthe held the baby in one arm, put the other around her son. „It's all right. It's over now, Ethrian. It's all right. You can come home."
The air was still, but... something was wrong, Bragi thought. The woman in white... her clothing fluttered as if stirred by a rising wind.
Suddenly, the beasts rose and loped away. Ragnarson sighed. He hadn't relished facing them.
Mother and son started toward the city.
Ethrian hurled his mother aside. A dark nimbus formed around him. The air crackled. Shih-ka'i bellowed. Varthlokkur caught Nepanthe before she fell. Ragnarson drew his sword, crouched, growled like a cornered beast.
Nepanthe shrieked at Ethrian. The Tervola tackled the boy, clamped fingers round his throat. From the corner of his eye Bragi saw movement on Lioantung's wall. He whirled, saw a long shaft arcing across the sky. Timing! he thought. His sword hammered the air above Shih-ka'i.
The Tervola bounced to his feet as Bragi pulled the broken spear from the earth. He said something which must have been a thank you, turned to the boy.
It all became confused, Bragi couldn't tell what was real and what was illusion: The woman in white apparently didn't exist in the flesh. Something equally fleshless appar ently possessed the boy. Mist and Shih-ka'i did a lot of yelling at one another. Ethrian kept trying to shout and Shih-ka'i kept stopping him. The woman in white kept helping her partner's enemies. At one point Varthlokkur spoke at length in the language of Shinsan. Then a great black cloud exploded from Ethrian, rushed upward in an oily pillar. At its base a glistening dome formed. And Mist said, „The devil in him has been forced out."
Baffled, Bragi stared up the pillar of black smoke-stuff. „I don't understand what's going on."
„We've won. We've conquered the Deliverer."
„I still don't understand. You said that before."
„I didn't... ."
The earth trembled beneath them. Maybe he couldn't understand everything, but he could sense that great forces were contending. He would have to be content to take Mist's word for the importance of the confrontation.
„It's over," she said. „Let's leave Nepanthe alone for a while. It was a slim hope, but she lost. Hell." She started toward the city. The Tervola was hurrying thither already, probably to find out about the shaft that had come within a whisker of killing him. Bragi walked beside Mist. She tried to explain.
Varthlokkur hovered uncertainly between his wife and Mist, finally halted two hundred yards from the site of Ethrian's fall. Bragi glanced back once, saw the woman in white fade away, saw Nepanthe standing tall and brave beside the gleaming dome. „I hope it comes out for them," he said.
„Who knows? He's too damned stiff-necked for his own good. And she has to learn... ."
Nepanthe shrieked. Bragi whirled. The dome had van ished. Nepanthe was down on the earth, clutching a body, shouting for Varthlokkur. The wizard raced toward her.
„Good gods," Mist murmured. „He's alive. He survived. I don't believe it. He survived the exorcism."
„What exorcism?"
„The ghost woman did it while... ."
„She never made a sound."
Mist chuckled weakly. „You didn't hear her? Then your witch blood isn't as thick as you claim. Come on. They need to be alone for a while."
„You can be halfway decent when you want, you know that?"
„Is that a compliment? Don't kick it around where the Tervola can hear it. I'm a princess of Shinsan now."
„Speaking of which... well, I was supposed to get my caravan people turned loose. Remember? Hsung hasn't come through. Michael says he's gone back to his old ways. We were supposed to get along, I thought."
„Lord Hsung is something of a problem. I'll straighten him out. Or get rid of him." She indicated the wall over the gate. Lord Ssu-ma was up there. „A dead man under Ethrian's control shot that spear. I have to run back to the war with Matayanga. Stay close to Lord Ssu-ma. Some of his staff would love to stick a knife in you. I'll see you in a few hours."
But Ragnarson didn't see her again. She went on to be Princess of the Dread Empire, and he went back to being King of Kavelin. To being King of a Kingdom where the news of his falling out with Varthlokkur quickly spread. To being King of a troublesome witch's cauldron almost eager to boil.
He never did understand everything that had happened before the walls of Lioantung. But he did understand what it had cost him.
The threat he never fully appreciated had been removed at the price of Varthlokkur's support. He sometimes won dered if ever he would be sure he had gotten a bargain.
17
Year 1016 AFE; The Great Championship Match
Dantice leaned back in a plush chair. His feet rested atop a table. To his right a mousey Siluro totalled columns of figures. Opposite him sat a man who weighed over three hundred pounds. Aral said, „The King can't cover any more bets."
The Fat Man rumbled, „I can draw another fifty thousand easy. Since you let it out he was betting heavy, Nordmen have been inventing money. They all want a piece of him. They'd be lined up outside if it wasn't for the weather." Thunder crashed. The building shook.
„Fifty thousand?"
„Minimum. Maybe a hundred."
„Tolliver. What're we carrying now?"
The clerk yanked a paper from the rat's nest atop the table. „King's money, a hundred ninety-six thousand, two hundred forty-three. All others, forty-three thousand, four hundred seventy-two."
„We get a commission on that?"
„Only on the King's money."
„How much belongs to Michael Trebilcock?"
„Forty thousand."