As Numiss cut his way out through the further side of the creepers, Kelderek followed Ta-Kominion through the gap. He found himself clear of the trees and looking across an open valley. Opposite perhaps half a mile away, the edge of the forest in the moonlight showed black and dry as a hide hung to cure on a line. Down in the bottom he could just make out the dark cleft of a brook, while far to his right the Gelt mountains showed dimly against the night sky.
Below the place where they were standing ran the road from Ortelga to Gelt – a track trodden along the hillside between scrub and bushes, with here and there the stump of a long-felled tree and here and there, to mend some muddy or broken place, a patch of stones carried up from the bed of the brook and laid haphazard, to settle to a level with use and time.
Down at the edge of the road Zilthe, her bow lying beside her, was bending on one knee over the dark shape of a body. As Kelderek watched she rose, turned her head and looked up towards him, but evidently could not perceive him among the trees and shadows.
The Tuginda came through the creepers. He pointed without speaking and together they began to make their way down. Ta-Kominion, motioning his servants to remain a little behind, muttered, 'A dead man – but where's the killer?'
The others made no reply. As they approached, Zilthe stepped back from the body. It was lying in blood which glistened viscous, smooth and black in the moonlight. One side of the head had been smashed into a great wound and from below the left shoulder blood was still oozing through lacerated rents in the cloak. The eyes were staring wide, but the open mouth and bared teeth were partly hidden by one arm which the man must have flung up to try to defend himself. He was wearing heeled boots, the boots of a messenger, and beneath the heels were dents in the ground, which he must have kicked as he died.
The Tuginda put her arm round Zilthe's shoulders, led her a little distance away and sat down beside her. Kelderek followed. The girl was weeping and terrified but able to speak.
'Lord Shardik, saiyett – he was sleeping. Then he woke suddenly and began to return towards the road, the same way that he went this afternoon. One would have thought that he had some purpose of his own. I tried to follow him but after a little he went fast, as though he were hunting – pursuing. When I reached the edge of the trees' – she pointed up the slope – 'he was already down here. He was waiting – crouching behind the rocks. And then, after only a little, I heard the man – I saw him coming up the road and I ran out of the trees to call out and warn him. But I caught my foot – I stumbled and felclass="underline" and as I got up, Lord Shardik came out from behind the rocks. The man saw him and screamed. He turned and ran, but Lord Shardik followed him and struck him down. He – he -' In the vividness of her recollection the girl beat at the air with one arm held out stiffly, open-handed, the fingers apart, rigid and curved. 'I might have saved him, saiyett -' She began to weep once more.
Ta-Kominion came over to them, his tongue protruding between his bared teeth as he shifted the position of his wounded arm in its sling. 'Do you recognize that man, Kelderek?' he asked. 'No. Is he from Ortelga?' 'He is from Ortelga. His name was Naron and he was a servant.' 'Whose?' 'He served Fassel-Hasta.' 'Served Fassel-Hasta? Then what could he have been doing here?'
Ta-Kominion hesitated, looking back at Numiss and his fellow, who had lifted the body to the other side of the track and were doing what they could to make it decent Then he held out a blood-spattered leather scrip, opened it and showed to the Tuginda two strips of bark inked with brush-written letters. 'Can you read this message, saiyett?' he asked.
The Tuginda took the stiff, curved sheets and held first one and then the other at arm's length in the moonlight Kelderek and Ta-Kominion could learn nothing from her face. At last she stood up, returned the sheets to the scrip and without speaking gave it back to the baron. 'You have read it, saiyett?'
She nodded once, rcluctantly it seemed, as though she would have preferred, if she could, to disown knowledge of the message.
'Docs it tell us what this man was doing here?' persisted Ta-Kominion.
'He was carrying news to Bekla of what happened in Ortelga today.' She turned aside and looked down into the valley.
Ta-Kominion cried out and the servants across the road looked up, staring.
'God! It tells that we have crossed the causeway and what we mean to do?'
She nodded again.
'I might have guessed it! Why didn't I post my own men to watch the road? That treacherous -'
'But the road was watched for us nevertheless,' said Kelderek. 'Surely it was no accident that Zilthe stumbled before she could warn the man. Lord Shardik – he knew what had to be done!'
They stared at each other as the long, moonset shadow of the forest crept lower down the hillside. 'But Fassel-Hasta – why did he do it?' asked Kelderek at last.
'Why? For wealth and power, of course. I should have guessed! It was always he who dealt with Bekla. "Yes, my lord." "I'll write it for you, my lord." By the Bearl I'll write on his face with a hot knife this morning. That for a start. Numiss, you can leave that body for the buzzards – if they'll touch it.'
His loud words, echoing, starded direc or four pigeons out of the cleft of the brook below. As they rose with a clatter of wings and flew across the road and up into the forest Ta-Kominion, watching their flight, suddenly pointed.
From the edge of the trees, Shardik was looking down into the valley. For a moment they saw him plainly, his shape, black against the line of the woods, like an opened gate in a city wall. Then, as Kelderek raised his arms in salutation and prayer, he turned and vanished into the darkness.
'God be thanked!' cried Ta-Kominion. 'Lord Shardik saved us from that devil! There – there is your sign, Kelderek! Our will is Shardik's will – our plan will succeed! No more children's games on the shore for you, my lad! We'll rule in Bekla, you and I! What is it you need? Tell me, and you shall have it within an hour of daybreak.' 'Hark!' said the Tuginda, laying a hand on his arm. From the forest above came faint calls. 'Saiyett!' 'Lord Kelderek!'
'Neelith will have woken Rantzay when she heard the man scream,' said Kelderek. 'They're looking for us. Zilthe, go up and bring them down. You are not afraid?' The girl smiled. 'Not now, my lord.' As she set off up the slope the Tuginda turned to Kelderek. 'What plan is he speaking of?' she asked.
'Lord Ta-Kominion is going to lead our people against Bekla, saiyett, to win back what is ours by ancient right. They have crossed the Telthearna -' 'By now they will already be on the march,' said Ta-Kominion.
'And our part, saiyett,' went on Kelderek eagerly, 'is to take Lord Shardik there, you and I. The baron will give us craftsmen to make a wheeled cage and men to draw it -'
He stopped a moment, meeting her incredulous eyes: but she said nothing and he resumed.
'He will be drugged, saiyett, as he was in the first days. I know it will be difficult – dangerous too – but I am not afraid. For the sake of the people -' 'I never heard such nonsense in my life,' said the Tuginda. ' Saiyett!'
'It will not be attempted. It is plain that you know nothing either of Lord Shardik or the true nature of his power. He is not some weapon or tool to be used for men's worldly greed. No -' she held up her hand as Ta-Kominion was about to speak '- nor even for the material gain of Ortelga. What God is pleased to impart to us through Shardik, that we should be holding ourselves ready to receive with humility and thanks. If the people believe in Shardik, that is their blessing. But you and I – we neither determine nor confer that blessing. I drugged Lord Shardik to save his life. He will not be drugged in order that he may be taken in a cage to Bekla.'