‘It will not be!’
Both Urssain and Aelang had seen the anger of the Uhriel rise up within the Ffyrst before, and even though its terrible purpose had never been directed towards them, they found it terrifying beyond words. It was as if they were falling into the infinitely deep maw of some flaring, malevolent, volcano.
Neither dared to move. Both knew that if one had committed some inadvertent folly, then for the other to seek to aid him would be to do the same, and meet the same fate.
But, as quickly as it had come, the awesome pres-ence faded until it was like a thunderstorm in some far distant valley. Both men remained silent.
‘Why do you bring this to me?’ Dan-Tor said even-tually, his voice and presence normal again. ‘You’re more than able to attend to such… administrative… problems without my aid.’
‘With respect, Ffyrst, this is more than a minor problem,’ Urssain said, speaking for the first time. ‘We knew something was being plotted, but we presumed it was against us, as usual. It was only when two of our informants in Faron’s company met with "accidents" that we even began to suspect how serious it was… ’ He paused.
‘And?’ Dan-Tor prompted.
Urssain looked quickly at Aelang, who nodded.
‘They intend to seize the tower and attempt to make a peace with the Lords.’ Urssain concluded his denun-ciation more hurriedly than he had intended.
There was a long silence. Eventually Dan-Tor raised a hand delicately. ‘And where am I in this… new peace?’ he asked quietly.
Urssain hesitated momentarily. ‘You are to be… assassinated, Ffyrst.’
Dan-Tor frowned uncertainly at his mist-shrouded double hovering outside as a long forgotten sensation stirred within him. It took him some time to identify it. It was amusement.
Its rebirth however, was brief, as Dan-Tor’s black corrosive scorn choked its faltering sunlight.
He turned away from the window and sat down.
‘And you are concerned for my welfare, command-ers? he inquired, looking first at Urssain and then Aelang.
Urssain had stood next to the Ffyrst too long to even attempt the lie that the question seemingly sought. He could however risk an oblique statement of the stark truth.
‘You destroyed half of Vakloss with a gesture of your hands, Ffyrst,’ he said. ‘You have powers beyond our understanding. No one could assail you and hope to live. It’s a measure of Faron and Groniev’s folly that they should even contemplate such an idea. But if their treason is allowed to take too strong a root in the men before it’s torn out then we could find ourselves fighting our own, and that would be disastrous for our cause.’
Dan-Tor appreciated Urssain’s attempted subtlety, especially the reference to ‘our cause’, but suddenly he felt irritated.
It was as if Dilrap was buzzing about him again with his eternal mind-clogging swathes of regulations, procedures, ‘respected traditions’, and who knew what other petty restrictions that he deemed necessary for the quiet, subtle overthrow of Fyorlund.
Here, however, on the borders of Narsindal, Dan-Tor’s vision and purpose were clearer and he refused to have either clouded by such pettifogging human trivia. Yet Aelang and Urssain were correct. A major upheaval amongst the Mathidrin and the renegade High Guards would risk destroying them as a fighting force, espe-cially if it occurred within the claustrophobic confines of Narsindalvak. It might be a measure of Faron and Groniev’s folly that they imagined they could eliminate him as though he was just another Mathidrin officer standing in their ambitious way, but it was also a measure of the seriousness of their intention that he had not detected it himself.
In dwelling too long on the fate that had brought him here and on the deep, silent, purpose of his Master, he had allowed himself to drift too far away from these unreliable and fickle creatures upon whose backs he must necessarily ride to achieve victory.
It was a salutary reminder, he realized. Now, it seemed, others too were in need of the same.
‘Come with me,’ he said, standing up abruptly.
Faron and Groniev were holding an officer’s meeting when Dan-Tor entered with Aelang and Urssain in his wake. On the wall behind the two conspirators was a large map showing Narsindalvak and most of what had been Dan-Tor’s estates in northern Fyorlund. Marked on it were the dispositions of the watching High Guards.
The two commanders came smartly to attention and there was a great scraping and clattering of chairs as their officers hastily stood up.
‘Sit down,’ Dan-Tor said tersely. ‘I have something to show you which it will be in your best interests to take full note of.’
Aelang and Urssain kept their faces impassive, though Aelang’s eyes gleamed at the tone of the Ffyrst’s voice.
‘Ah, you’re still studying our position, I see,’ Dan-Tor went on. Walking to the map he turned his back on Faron and Groniev and began to study it thoughtfully.
‘What’s your assessment of our position, gentle-men?’ he said after a moment.
Faron’s eyes flickered uneasily to Aelang and Urs-sain. He was visibly disconcerted by this unexpected appearance of the Ffyrst, so long ensconced and distant in his eyrie. Groniev however, answered calmly and immediately.
‘It’s adequate for our present needs, Ffyrst,’ he said. ‘But leaves much to be desired if the High Guards move against us in force, as they probably will when the snows have cleared.’
Dan-Tor continued examining the map. ‘This tower fortress is the symbol of the High Guards’ faith and strength, commander,’ he said. ‘It’s generally regarded as being unassailable. Do you think it can be lightly taken from us?’
Urssain quailed inwardly at Dan-Tor’s reasonable tone. Groniev shook his head. ‘No, Ffyrst,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think it has to be. Narsindalvak’s a watch tower and barracks. Enemy movements can be seen at great distances and forces launched against them, but until we join up with the Mandroc divisions we’re in no position to venture out against numerically superior forces. And if we don’t venture out, we’ll be besieged and by-passed, and the Lords will be able to march into Narsindal to find the Mandrocs leaderless.’
Dan-Tor nodded. ‘You think that superior force in an enemy is everything, commander?’ he said.
Groniev looked at him uncertainly. ‘Not everything, Ffyrst,’ he risked. ‘Though it depends on the extent of the superiority. Knowledge of the enemy, leadership, terrain, are also important factors.’
‘Vastly superior force, then,’ Dan-Tor offered, turn-ing slightly.
Groniev nodded. ‘Vastly superior force must tri-umph, Ffyrst,’ he said.
‘And vastly superior force together with knowledge of the enemy, leadership, etc?’ Dan-Tor continued.
Groniev, relaxing now, shrugged a smiling conces-sion of the obvious.
‘What would you call a leader who knowingly led his men against an opposition so armed, commander?’ Dan-Tor said.
Groniev frowned a little, still uncertain about the direction of this conversation. He searched for an answer. ‘Insane,’ he decided. ‘Or suicidal.’
‘Yes,’ Dan-Tor said quietly, as if wearying of the subject. ‘Of course.’
A whirring silence filled the room.
Then, turning to Faron, Dan-Tor said, ‘What insan-ity prompted you to move against such odds, commander? Or are you, as your co-conspirator suggested, suicidal?’
Urssain felt a faint twinge of sympathy for the as-sailed commander.
Faron did not reply but gazed back at Dan-Tor like some timid animal held by the gaze of a predator. Groniev, spared Dan-Tor’s gaze, understood their position immediately.
Urssain watched in disbelief as the man drew a knife.
With seemingly timeless slowness however, Dan-Tor turned and, before Groniev could lunge at him, seized his tunic, dragged him forward and hurled him into the paralysed Faron. The two men staggered across the room and crashed brutally into the wall.
Urssain found himself almost gaping at the specta-cle. He had stood and quaked before the Ffyrst many times, in fear of some terrible, if unknown, retribution, and he had seen others worse affected; but he had never seen him resort to actual personal violence. Strangely he felt the action should have demeaned the man in some way; but it did not. Both Faron and Groniev were heavy and powerful men, well used to dealing with physical assaults, but Dan-Tor had hurled them across the room as effortlessly as if they had been mere playthings. Urssain noticed that he was not even breathing heavily.