The Eternal Champion

The king straightened his shoulders. 'I called you. And I held you to your vow.'

I knew of no vow. I was surprised. 'What vow?' I said.

Now the king looked astonished. 'Why, the vow that if ever the Eldren dominated Mernadin again, you would come to decide the struggle between them and Humanity.'

'I see.' I signed to a slave to bring me a cup of wine and I sipped it and stared at the map. As John Daker I saw a meaningless war between two ferocious, blindly hating factions, both of whom seemed to be conducting a racial jihad, one against the other. Yet my loyalties were clear. I belonged to the human race and should use all my power to help defend my kind. Humanity had to be saved.

'The Eldren?' I looked up at King Rigenos. 'What do they say?'

'What do you mean?' Katorn growled. 'Say? You speak as if you do not believe our king…'

'I am not questioning the truth of your statements,' I told him. 'I wish to know the exact terms in which the Eldren justify their war against us. It would help if I had a clearer idea of their ambitions.'

Katorn shrugged. 'They would wipe us out,' he said. 'Is that not enough to know?'

'No,' I said. 'You must have taken prisoners. What do the prisoners tell you?' I spread my hands. 'How have the Eldren leaders justified their war against humanity?'

King Rigenos smiled patronisingly. 'You have forgotten a great deal, Erekose, if you have forgotten the Eldren. They are not human. They are clever. They are cold and they have smooth, deceitful tongues with which they would lull a man into a false sense of tranquillity before tearing his heart from his body with their bare fangs. They are brave, though, I'll give them that. Under torture they die, refusing to tell us their true plans. They are cunning. They try to make us believe their talk of peace, of mutual trust and mutual help, hoping that we will drop our defences long enough so that they may turn and destroy us, or get us to look them full in the face so that they can work the evil eye upon us. Do not be naive, Erekose. Do not attempt to deal with an Eldren as you would deal with a human being, for if you did so, you would be doomed. They have no souls, as we understand souls. They have no love, save a cold loyalty to their cause and to their master Azmobaana. Realise this, Erekose-the Eldren are demons. They are fiends to whom Azmobanna in his dreadful blasphemy has granted something like a human form. But you must not be blinded by the form. That which is inside an Eldren is not human-it is everything, in fact, that is unhuman…'

Katorn's face twisted.

'You can't trust an Eldren wolf. They are treacherous, immoral and evil. We shall not be safe until their whole race is destroyed. Utterly destroyed-so that not a fragment of their flesh, not a droplet of their blood, not a splinter of their bone, not a strand of their hair is left to taint the Earth. And I speak literally, Erekose', for while one finger-clipping of an Eldren survives upon our world, then there is the chance that Azmobanna can re-create his servants and attack us again. That demon brood must be burnt to the finest ash-every man, every female and every youngling. Burnt-then cast to the winds, the clean winds. That is our mission, Erekose. The mission of Humanity. And we have the Good Ones' blessing for that mission.'

Then I heard another voice, a sweeter voice, and I glanced towards the door. It was lolinda.

'You must lead us to victory, Erekose,' she said candidly. 'What Katorn says is true-no matter how fiercely he declaims it. The facts are as he tells you. You must lead us to victory.'

I looked again into her eyes. I drew a deep breath and my face felt hard and cold.

'I will lead you,' I said.

CHAPTER FOUR IOLINDA

The next morning I awoke hearing the sounds of the slaves preparing my breakfast. Or was it the slaves? Was it not my wife moving about the room, getting ready to wake the boy up as she did every morning?

I opened my eyes expecting to see her.

I did not see her. Nor did I see my room in my apartment where I had lived as John Daker.

Nor did I see slaves.

Instead I saw lolinda. She was smiling down at me as she prepared the breakfast with her own hands.

I felt guilty for a moment, as if I had betrayed my wife in some obscure way. Then I realised that there was nothing I could be ashamed of. I was the victim of Fate-of forces which I could not hope to understand. I was not John Daker. I was Erekose. I realised that it would be the best for me if I were to insist on that. A man divided between two identities is a sick man. I resolved to forget John Daker as soon as possible. Since I was Erekose now, I should concentrate on being Erekose only. In that I was a fatalist.

lolinda brought a bowl of fruit towards me. 'Would you eat, Lord Erekose?'

I selected a strange, soft fruit with a reddish yellow skin. She handed me a small knife. I tried to peel it but since the fruit was new to me, I was not sure how to begin. She gently took it from me and began to peel it for me, sitting on the edge of my low bed and concentrating rather excessively, in my opinion, on the fruit she held.

At last the fruit was peeled and she quartered it and placed it on a plate and handed the plate to me, still avoiding my direct gaze, but smiling a little mysteriously as she looked about her. I picked up a piece of the fruit and bit it. It was sharp and sweet at the same time and very refreshing.

'Thank you,' I said. 'It is good. I have never had this fruit before.'

'Have you not?' She was genuinely surprised. 'But the ecrex is the commonest fruit in Necralala.'

'You forget I am a stranger to Necralala,' I pointed out.

She put her head on one side and looked at me with a slight frown. She pushed back the flimsy blue cloth that covered her golden hair and made a great play of arranging her matching blue gown. She really did seem to be puzzled. 'A stranger…' she murmured.

'A stranger,' I agreed.

'But'-she paused-'but you are the great hero of humanity, Lord Erekose. You knew Necranal as it was in its greatest glory-when you ruled here as the Champion. You knew the Earth in ancient times, when you set it free from the chains the Eldren had bound around it. You know more of this world than I do, Erekose.'

I shrugged. 'I admit that much of it is familiar-and growing increasingly familiar. But until yesterday my name was John Daker and I lived in a city very different from Necranal and my occupation was not that of warrior or, indeed, anything like it. I do not deny that I am Erekose-the name is familiar and I am comfortable with it. But I do not know who Erekose was, any more than do you. He was a great hero of ancient times who, before he died, swore that he would return to decide the issue between Eldren and Mankind if he were needed. He was placed in a rather gloomy tomb on a hillside along with his sword, which only he could wield…'

'The Sword Kanajana,' murmured lolinda.

'It has a name, then?'

'Aye-Kanajana. It-it is more than a name, I believe. It is some sort of mystic description-a description of its exact nature-of the powers it contains.'

'And is there any legend that explains why only I can bear that blade?' I asked her.

'There are several,' she said.

'Which do you prefer?' I smiled.

Then, for the first time that morning, she looked directly at me and her voice lowered and she said: 'I prefer the one that says that you are the chosen son of the Good One, the Great One-that your sword is a sword of the Gods and that you can handle it because you are a God-an Immortal.'

I laughed. 'You do not believe that?'

She dropped her gaze. 'If you tell me that it is not true, then I must believe you,' she said. 'Of course.'