Automatically he acknowledged a cheery greeting from a passing official and, somewhat to his surprise, the involuntary smile that had come to his lips re-mained. This is an ancient building, he thought. Many others in the long distant past must have walked this way and pondered similar thoughts, and indeed faced worse problems. He was not alone, nor ever would be. Somehow, Fyordyn society had acquired a great momentum through the ages and it was even now righting itself, recovering from the blows that Dan-Tor had inflicted on it over the years. And though it was still sorely hurt and weakened, it would become whole again.
Eldric felt his step lighten a little. Later, he knew, this optimism would be plagued by doubts and worries: about Dan-Tor and his Mathidrin in Narsindalvak; about the banished Lords, the continuing trials, the great bitterness and anger that could taint all the country’s affairs for many years to come. These and many others would conspire to bear him down and make him look to a bleak and wearisome future.
His smile became at once a little grimmer and more amused. These moods were as much to do with his liver as the state of the country, he decided pragmatically. There was a path to be trodden that was for the most part quite clear. How he felt about it was irrelevant.
His brief inner discourse ended as, passing through an elaborate archway, he reached his destination: the Crystal Hall.
He stopped and gazed around, immediately glad to be in this remarkable place with its shimmering inner carvings that flickered and changed endlessly to a mysterious rhythm seemingly beyond analysis. Around him, farmers ploughed their fields and harvested their crops, scholars sat and debated, soldiers fought, castles and cities fell, craftsmen worked at their trades, great boats sailed majestically on sun-sparkling seas-a source of some puzzlement to the land-locked Fyordyn-mountains filled horizons and great skyscapes billowed to the heights and welled over on to the elaborate vaulted ceiling.
It was not a place he visited very often, but each time he did, he regretted his neglect and promised resolutely that in future he would spend more time here. Circumstances, however, seemed to be conspiring to ensure that that particular future was slipping further and further away from him.
‘Lord Eldric,’ said a voice. ‘Will you join me?’
Eldric looked across the hall towards the glittering image of the great tree. Sat in front of it was the Hall’s sole occupant, Dilrap. Eldric brought his mind to the matter in hand, and walked over to him.
‘I was looking for you, Dilrap,’ he said, sitting down next to the Secretary with a little grunt of effort.
Dilrap smiled. ‘You catch me malingering, Lord,’ he said, turning his attention back to the tree. ‘I make a deliberate point of coming to this place every few weeks to just sit and watch. It’s a place that holds very special memories for me.’
Eldric laughed gently. ‘You’re a stronger man than I, Honoured Secretary. I’m afraid I too easily allow the urgent to displace the important,’ he said, adding anxiously. ‘But am I disturbing you?’
Dilrap shook his head. ‘No, Lord,’ he said. ‘Nothing can truly disturb me now.’
Eldric looked at the portly figure beside him. Dilrap looked the same as ever, yet in some way he was utterly different. For one thing, Eldric had noted, with an untypical awareness for such matters, someone had ‘done something’ to Dilrap’s formal robe of office, and it was no longer necessary for the poor man to be eternally twitching and tugging at it to ensure that it remained on his shoulders. But that was superficial. The man was changed from the inside.
Almost as if sensing his thoughts, Dilrap turned to him and answered his unspoken question.
‘I’ve known such terrors these past months, Lord,’ he said. ‘It was frightening enough when he was just Dan-Tor the schemer, but after he stood exposed in his true form… ’ He shivered.
Eldric nodded. Hitherto he had always felt sorry for Dilrap, seeing him as a man thrust by tradition into a role for which he was far from well suited. Now, however, he saw him as a man who had been forged by circumstances and who had not merely filled that role, but transcended it heroically.
And, to crown this with dignity, Dilrap had quietly declined all the honours that the Geadrol would have granted him for his silent and relentless opposition to Dan-Tor.
‘Lords, I am the Queen’s Secretary,’ he said. ‘That is honour enough for any man, and to be allowed to retain that post and fulfil my duties is all I ask for.’
Reluctantly the Geadrol had bowed to this wish and Dilrap had set to with relish repairing the damage that Dan-Tor had wrought to the elaborate machinery of Fyorlund’s government. It was of great help to him that he had been an unwilling party to much of it.
It was not unfair to say that Eldric stood in some awe of Dilrap’s achievement. On an impulse, he said, ‘It defies me how you were able to stand so close to… Dan-Tor… Oklar… for so long without him sensing your defiance. I always found him alarmingly percep-tive.’
Dilrap raised his eyes so that he was looking at the topmost branches of the tree. Despite the overcast and chilly weather outside, the Crystal Hall had found a grey winter brightness against which to set the tree, now a sharp, black, many-veined silhouette waving slightly in response to some breeze unfelt by the watchers.
‘I think perhaps my constant terror confused him,’ he said. ‘I don’t think he could see through it.’ He turned and looked straight into Eldric’s eyes. ‘Forgive my interfering, Lord,’ he said. ‘But I’ve seen how the Goraidin work, and should you ever think of sending a man secretly into the Mathidrin with the intention of coming close to him either to deceive or assassinate, rid yourself of the notion now. I was fortunate. I was of some use to him but he despised me and presumably didn’t see me as a threat so he never asked the questions that would have made me betray myself. He cannot be lied to. And, as I said, I think my constant terror blurred his vision. I fear a braver man would fare far less well.’
‘And I fear you see straight through me, Dilrap,’ Eldric said. ‘That was indeed an idea that Yatsu and I had considered.’
Dilrap shook his head slowly to confirm his absolute rejection of the idea.
‘However,’ Eldric went on. ‘There are other related matters that I’d like to discuss with you. Could I ask you to join me and Commander Yatsu in a leisurely ride about the City while we talk.’
Dilrap looked alarmed. ‘Ride, Lord?’ he exclaimed, briefly his old twitching self. ‘I’m an unhappy horseman; a poor specimen to ride in such company. I’d hinder you.’
Eldric laughed and the branches of the tree seemed to sway in approval. ‘I’m not proposing a tournament, Dilrap,’ he said. ‘Still less a cavalry charge. Just a gentle ride through the City. I need some air, some space, and some blunt company about me to clear my mind. Besides,’-his voice became a little more serious-‘it’s important that you be seen in my company. Not everyone in the City understands why you remained as Dan-Tor’s adviser.’
‘You understand, Lord,’ Dilrap replied. ‘That’s suffi-cient for me.’
Eldric stood up and held out his hand. ‘It’s not suffi-cient for me, Honoured Secretary,’ he said. ‘And it would be a sorry happening if some cringing inadequate who’d spent his time cowering in his cellar sought to redeem himself by stabbing you for aiding the enemy.’
Dilrap eyed him uncertainly. There had been such attacks against individuals immediately after the battle, and though Eldric had dealt with them with uncharac-teristic ruthlessness, they still occurred from time to time. And it was true, he knew, that despite the widespread proclamation of his help in opposing Dan-Tor, there would be some who could not or would not understand.
He heaved himself to his feet. ‘Well, I suppose I should do more riding,’ he said. ‘Had I been able to ride better, I could have fled with you and your son in the first place and spared myself much pain.’
Eldric laughed again.
A little later saw Eldric and Yatsu accompanying an anxious Dilrap mounted on a sturdy chestnut mare, carefully selected for her placid demeanour. As promised by Eldric, their pace was indeed leisurely but it was some time before Dilrap eased his tense-knuckled grip on his reins and stopped looking down nervously at the ground far beneath him.