Shardik

'I have walked beside Lord Shardik, slept beside him, laid my hands upon him. Is that work for a coward?'

Ta-Kominion closed his eyes and passed his hand once or twice across his forehead.

'I did not come here, Kelderek, either to accuse you or to quarrel with you. I have more important things to speak of.'

'You think I'm a coward. You have as good as said so!'

'What I may have let slip is nothing to do with our affairs now. You'd do better to put such personal ideas out of your mind. Every man in Ortelga who can use a weapon is across the Telthearna and ready to march on Bekla. They'll start soon – before dawn. I shall join them from here – no need to return to the camp. We shall be at Bekla in five days – perhaps sooner. It's not only surprise we need. We've got no more than three days' food, but that's not the whole of it either. Our people have got to take Bekla before they can lose the power that's burning in their hearts. Whose, do you suppose, is that power?' 'My lord?' It had slipped out before Kelderek could check himself.

'It was the power of Shardik that took Ortelga today. We were lucky – there were many who saw him before he crossed the causeway. Bel-ka-Trazet was driven out because he was known to be Shardik's enemy. The people have seen for themselves that Shardik has returned. They believe there's nothing he won't give them -nothing they can't do in his name.'

He took a few uncertain steps back to the log and sat rigid and frowning, fighting a sudden fit of giddiness. For an instant his teeth chattered and he pressed his chin upon his open hand.

'Shardik has been sent to restore us to Bekla, peasant and baron alike. The peasants need to know no more than that. But I – I have to find the right way, the way to bring about victory through Shardik. And this is the way – or so it seems to me. Either we take Bekla within seven days or not at all.'

'Why?' Ta-Kominion paused, as though choosing his words.

'Common people can sing a song only when they are dancing, drinking or about some occupation – then it rises to their lips without thought. Ask them to teach it to you and it's gone from their heads. While their hearts are full of Shardik our men will do the impossible – march without sleep, fly through the air, tear down the walls of Bekla. But in the hearts of common men such power is like mist. The wind or the sun – any unexpected adversity – may disperse it in an hour. It must be given no chance to disperse.' He paused and then said deliberately, 'But there is more besides. Out of sight, out of mind. You understand children, I'm told. So you'll know that children forget what is not kept before their eyes.' Kelderek stared, guessing at his meaning.

'Shardik must be with us when we come to fight,' said Ta-Kominion. 'It is all-important that the people should see him there.' 'At Bekla – in five days? How?' 'You must tell me how.'

'Lord Shardik cannot be driven a hundred paces and you are speaking of five days' journey!'

'Kelderek, Bekla is a city more rich and marvellous than a mountain made of jewels. It is ours of ancient right and Shardik has returned to restore it to us. But he can restore it only by means of ourselves. He needed my help to take Ortelga today. Now he needs your help to bring him to Bekla.' 'But that is impossible! It was not impossible to take Ortelga.'

'No, no, of course not – an easy matter, I dare say, to those who did not happen to be there. Never mind. Kelderek, do you want to cease to be a simpleton playing with fatherless children on the shore? To see Shardik come in power to Bekla? To bring to its right end the work you began on that night when you faced Bel-ka-Trazet's hot knife in the Sindrad? There must be a way! Either you find it or we are fast on a sheer cliff. You and I and Lord Shardik – it is we who are climbing, and there is no way back. If we do not take Bekla, do you think the Beklan rulers will let us alone? No – they will hunt us down. They will not be long in dealing with you and your bear.' 'My bear?'

'Your bear. For that is what he will become, Lord Shardik of the Ledges, who is ready at this moment to give us a great city and all its wealth and power, if only we can find the means. He will shrink to a creature of superstition, over which some rough fellows on Ortelga have made trouble and turned out their High Baron. A stop will be put to him – and to you.'

A great bat came hovering out of the darkness, flittered soundlessly along the edge of the fire, turned away from the crackling heat and vanished as it had come.

'Kelderek, you say I think you're a coward. Is it I that think it, or you? It's not too late for you to redeem yourself, Kelderek Play-with-the-Children: to show yourself a man. Find a way to bring Lord Shardik to the plains of Bekla – fight for him there with your own hands. Think of the prize – a prize beyond reckoning! Do this, and no one will ever call you a coward again.' 'I never was a coward. But the Tuginda -' For the first time, Ta-Kominion smiled at him.

'I know you are not. When we have taken Bekla, what reward do you suppose there will be for him to whom Shardik first appeared, for him who brought the news to Quiso? Why, there is not a man on Ortelga who does not know your name and honour it already.' Kelderek hesitated, frowning. 'How soon must we begin?'

'At once – now. There is not a moment to lose. There are two things, Kelderek, that a rebel leader needs above all. First, his followers must be filled with a burning ardour – mere obedience is not enough – and secondly he himself must be all speed and resolution. The second I myself possess. The first only you can ensure.'

'It may perhaps be possible: but I shall need every blacksmith, wheelwright and carpenter in Ortelga. Let us go and speak with the Tuginda.'

As Ta-Kominion rose, Kelderek offered him the support of his arm, but the baron waved him aside, staggered a few steps, hesitated, then himself put his sound arm through Kelderek's and drew himself upright, leaning hard until he found his balance. 'Are you ill?' 'It's nothing – a touch of fever. It will pass off.' 'You must be tired out. You ought to rest.' 'Later.* Kelderek guided him away from the fire. In the close darkness under the trees they paused, sightless after the flame-light. A hand plucked Kelderek's sleeve and he turned, peering.. 'Shall I guide you, my lord? Are you returning now to Lord Shardik?'

'Is it your watch, Neelith?' 'My watch is ended, my lord. I was coming to wake Sheldra, but it's no matter if you need me.' 'No, get to sleep. Who is watching Lord Shardik?' 'Zilthe, my lord.' 'Where is the Tuginda?' The girl pointed, 'Down yonder, among the ferns.' 'Is she asleep?' 'Not yet, my lord; she has been praying this hour and more.'

They left the girl and, their eyes becoming accustomed to the dark, moved on more easily. Soon the trees grew fewer and the close growth overhead opened here and there to reveal clouds and moonlight. The white beams faded and reappeared continually between the branches as the clouds drifted eastward across the moon. The turbid heat of the forest, a single block of dense air lying all about them, seemed now to begin to be assailed, whittled, rifted, encroached upon by gusts and momentary, cooler currents coming and going like the first wavelets of flood-water lapping round a dry shoal. As the leaves and light shifted in response to the breeze outside, the mass of the hot darkness on the ground sdrrcd, slow and heavy as a bed of weed under water. As yet unpenetrated, it felt already on its outskirts the first impulse of that appointed, seasonal force that soon would grow to split it with lightning and storm.

Ta-Kominion stopped, lifting his head and sniffing the fresher air. 'The rains can't be long now.' 'A day or two,' replied Kelderek.

'That's the strongest reason of all for speed. It's now or never. We can't march or keep the field in the wet and nor can they. Even Bekla lies low in the rains. The last thing they'll be expecting is any sort of attack at this time of year. If they have no warning and we get there before the rains break we shall have complete surprise.' 'Have they no spies?'