Thus my conquest of their bully must have seemed almost magical in the eyes of the other guards. They gaped in amazement as I dusted my fingers together, and stepped across the prone Bluto, and led my steed through the gates of the city.
Not a man among them raised his voice in protest. And thus, at last, I entered the city of my princess.
The quiet voice of a tall, gentlemanly young man accosted me as I passed the gates.
“That was indeed well done, stranger,” he smiled. “I believe I heard you express a desire to join the Chac Yuul. If that still holds true, permit me to guide you to the man to whom you should speak. For, in my estimate, the Black Legion has a place within its ranks for any warrior who can lay out the likes of Bluto with his bare hands!”
I laughed. “In my country, friend, we have a saying, which holds true, it seems, even in Shondakor. 'The bigger they are, the harder they fall.' ”
He was amused by my quotation and offered me his hand. “I am Valkar of Ganatol, a komor of the third cohort,” he said.
A komor is a chieftain, the leader of a cohort of warriors, which meant that my new-found friend was an officer of some importance in the Black Legion. I looked him over and liked what I saw. He was tall and trimly built, with dark skin, black hair, and green eyes―an odd combination I had not before come across during my adventures on Thanator; doubtless a half-breed, although he had the bearing of a noble or at least a gentleman of good family. His features were regular without being handsome to the point of prettiness, and he had a strong jaw, a good smile, and frank eyes. I liked him on sight.
I have discovered that I possess the unusual ability to measure a man’s qualities almost on first meeting, and I can make up my mind on a man’s honor and trustworthiness in moments after meeting him. This rare ability has saved my life ere now, and I have come to trust it. Hence I extended my hand to Valkar and we were friends from that moment to this, and will be friends, I trust, until Death, the great Dissolver of Companionships, comes between us at the end.
“I thank you for your friendly words,” I said, clasping his hand in a firm grip. “My name is Jandar.”
He eyed my blond hair, tan skin, and blue eyes with frank curiosity.
“Never have I seen a man with your coloring,” he admitted. “May I ask of what nation you are a citizen?”
“The United States of America, a far-distant land,” I said, and this was no more than the truth, as my country was at that moment distant by some nearly four hundred million miles, which I believe qualifies as “far.”
Valkar repeated the name, stumbling a little over the unfamiliar sounds. Then he shook his head. “It must be on the other side of Thanator, for never have I heard of it before, nor met a man from there.”
“That is quite understandable,” I said. “For it is my belief that I am the first of my people to travel in these lands.” This also, of course, was no more than the truth.
My new friend guided me through the streets of Shondakor to the citadel of the Black Legion. And as we conversed I took the opportunity to familiarize myself with the city. While Shondakor had been conquered by the Chac Yuul some months before, their new rulers seemed to reign with a light hand over the people of the city, for I saw citizens going about their business, opening their shops, conversing in the forum, purchasing goods in the bazaar, with a freedom of movement that denoted that the occupation of alien troops had imposed few limitations upon the natives.
The city was large and impressive, the buildings imposing and splendid edifices. Broad avenues lined with flowering trees were busy with traffic. Chariots clattered by, drawn by matched teams of finely bred thaptors. Wealthy merchants and their women went by in veiled palanquins supported on the shoulders of husky slaves. Urchins played and squabbled shrilly in the mouths of alleys, tattered and noisome beggars whined from doorways, Chac Yuul warriors spent their off-duty hours lounging in wineshops. The daily life of the city obviously went forward undisturbed, despite the change of dynasty.
The commandant of recruits―I shall not bore my readers, if any, with the title of this officer in the original Thanatorian―was a busy man, and since the komor Valkar vouched for me, I was signed tip and sworn in without delay or undue questioning. I gave my most recent place of service as the city of Soraba on the shores of Corund Laj, and gave as the reason for my leaving the service of the Quraan of Soraba a quite natural disgruntlement at the preference given to nobles of family connection over common-born warriors of superior command and combat ability, such as myself. This may have seemed a trifle immodest of me, but I guessed that among a bandit horde such as the Chac Yuul the usual gentlemanly code of self-depreciation, common to the other fighting men of Thanator, would be absent and that a man would be taken more or less at his own estimate.
This seemed to have been an accurate guess on my part. At any rate, within the hour I was a full-fledged warrior of the Black Legion, assigned, at my own request, to the cohort that lay under the command of my new friend, Valkar of Ganatol.
And thus I had accomplished the first part of my plan, and had managed to enter the city and join the forces of my enemy.
As for the remainder of my plan, only time would tell if luck and accident would conspire to permit me the opportunity of rescuing the woman to whom I had given my heart.
CHAPTER FOUR
I JOIN THE BLACK LEGION
And it was thus that I, Jandar of Callisto, entered upon my new career as a lowly warrior in the Black Legion, under the command of my newest friend, Valkar of Ganatol.
The third cohort, over which my friend was commander, was housed in a crude barracks along the southern side of a broad square or plaza which was called the Forum of Zeltadar. I later learned that the forum derived its name from the king of some remote era, an ancestor of Darloona’s dynasty.
The common warriors, myself among them, slept in one enormous room upon flat, hard pallets which, during the hours of daylight, were rolled up and hung out of the way on hooks riveted to the wooden walls of the building.
We customarily arose at dawn, and upon those days when guard duty was not assigned to our cohort, we trained in the great Forum under the sharp eye of our commander, Valkar. And I soon came to understand that there is much, oh very much more to being a soldier than merely the ability to wield a sword.
In brief, we marched. We drilled. We practiced maneuvers, some of them quite sophisticated. I began to discover a healthy respect for the martial prowess of the Chac Yuul; they were as well-trained a body of fighting men as any I had ever encountered, on this world of Thanator or on my own Earth, and they were under an iron discipline that never faltered.
And I began to realize why the folk of Thanator spoke of them in fear and trembling. They must have been the most splendid body of warriors on all this planet.
In the days that followed my entering the third cohort, I learned many tricks of warfare that I had never previously had reason to study.
For example, I mastered the technique of sword fighting while mounted on thaptor-back, which is a very different art from dueling on foot.
I became practised in the various tactics of using a Thanatorian weapon called the longspear, which, insofar as I know, is unique to the Thanatorians; at least, I have never heard of any such weapon ever being used by an earthly army. The longspear is just that, a long slender shaft of wood, measuring about twenty feet from heft to tip, ending in a steel claw or hook. The Thanatorian warriors use it on foot to dismount thaptormen in battle.