In the Earth Abides the Flame (25 page)

'When is the invasion scheduled?'

'I'm not allowed to say,' the youth replied.

I bet he doesn't know, Leith thought.

'But it will be soon, and then we'll show them.'

'Show them what?' He was talking for the sake of talking. I've done what you wanted, he said to the voice. Enough? No reply. There wouldn't be. It was all his imagination. He was going mad.

'Show them the Watchers should never have been driven down here, that's what.' The youth thrust his pointed chin forward. 'They need us. Only we can look after Faltha.'

It actually took Leith a moment to realise what had been said. 'The Watchers?' he said in a surprise-filled voice. 'What do you know of the Watchers?'

'The Watchers are an ancient order, more important than kings, warriors or wise men,' the boy said proudly. 'Ever since the Bhrudwan invasion of Faltha over a thousand years ago, the Watchers have sought to warn people of decline and deca — dessa — I can never say that word,' he said, flushed with embarrassment. 'Anyway, we warn people when things get bad, and we watch for evil and corruption, and try to put it right. About ten years ago the Council of Faltha stole our houses and lands - well, my father's house and lands, actually; his and those of others like him. We escaped to Escaigne and ever since we've been planning how to get back again.'

Out of the corner of his eye Leith saw Kurr sit up.

'I've heard of the Watchers,' Leith said, trying to keep his voice level. 'But I thought they were spread throughout Faltha.'

'Yes, they are, but the others don't really count. Just old men playing games, my father says.

We're the only ones who can bring the Council to justice.'

The old farmer walked over casually, sat on his haunches and asked the youthful guard: 'How many of the Escaignians belong to the Watchers?'

'Most of them,' he responded. 'My grandfather is one, of course, so is my father, and so are all the Elders.'

'Your grandfather? Who is he?' Leith could tell that Kurr was angry, and thought he had just cause. The youth saw nothing untoward, and carried right on talking.

'My grandfather is the Presiding Elder,' he said with satisfaction. 'He rules Escaigne, and one day soon he will rule all of Instruere.'

'You,' Kurr pressed, 'you call yourself a Watcher. Do you know why we are called Watchers?'

'Because we—'

'Because we watch and we don't talk!' The farmer shook his head in disgust. 'The First Rule of the Watcher is that all names and identities remain secret, to be shared only with fellow Watchers, yet you have revealed your membership, and that of your father and your grandfather. How could you do such a thing?'

'But you are going to die soon! It can't do any harm! I - how do you know the First Rule?'

Comprehension began to settle on the mind of the slow-witted youth.

'There is only one way I could possibly know the First Rule. Now, remind me: what is the Third Rule?'

'No Watcher - no Watcher may knowingly injure or prejudice the life of any fellow Watcher,'

the boy replied. 'But - if you know the Rules, you must be Watchers. That means we cannot carry out the sentence.' Leith imagined he heard regret in the words.

Still Kurr pressed the boy. 'And the Second Rule?'

'All Watchers shall respond to the need of a fellow Watcher with whatever aid lies within their power.'

'At least you learned your Rules,' Kurr said. 'A pity your teachers forgot to train you to listen and remain silent. Or perhaps they themselves have forgotten the skill? Certainly your grandfather showed little evidence of it.

'Now, boy, if you please, I'd like to speak to him, as one Watcher to another. Bring him to me!

He cannot refuse: I am a Watcher of the Sixth Rank, and he must hear and honour my request with all diligence. And ask as many Elders as possible to attend. Be off with you now, boy!'

His voice was as gruff as Leith had ever heard it, but that voice held few terrors for him now.

The youth, however, was thoroughly cowed, and scurried away.

Kurr turned to Leith and slapped him on the leg. 'I haven't enjoyed anything as much in a long time,' he said. 'Pompous fool! In a land of fools! I can understand ordinary folk finding their way here so as to avoid capture or death, but the Watchers made a covenant to resist evil, not to flee from it! No wonder I saw no sign of Watchers in Instruere. They were all hidden in Escaigne!' Leith had just about caught up with events when the old farmer finished by clapping calloused hands on his young shoulders. 'Well, my friend; we are back in business!'

'I have few alternatives, then, than to render you the aid you seek,' the sallow-faced man said heavily, and the Elders lined up behind him frowned.

'You have none at all,' Kurr corrected him.

'Sixth Rank! You have given me the secret words, so I am forced to believe you. How came you by six ranks in such a place as Firanes?'

Kurr shook his head. 'Such arrogance! The world neither begins nor ends here, and many things of importance happen without Instruere being involved. Indeed, you are in danger of being passed by altogether. Nevertheless, 1 will tell you where I came by my rank. Three ranks I inherited from my father, Lornath of Sivithar; three I earned in forty years' service on the uncouth margins of the world, as you would have it. You yourself, the foremost Watcher in Instruere - sorry, in Escaigne - are only Sixth Rank. Know this: within a morning's ride of my home lives another Watcher, of the Seventh and highest Rank, my teacher; possibly the greatest of our order still alive in Faltha.'

'Lornath of Sivithar? Your father?' The face of the Presiding Elder had turned a sickly yellow.

'Sivithar on the banks of the Aleinus?'

'You know it? I am surprised! You appear to have spent your life hidden behind cowardly walls, not openly on the bank of the Great River. Sivithar is the place I was born. I am Straux by birth, and a southlander, yet have lived the greater part of my life in the north, and have not regretted it. Indeed, now that I look on the south, I see little to make me regret my father's choice.'

Something was wrong with the Presiding Elder. 'Lornath of Sivithar is my uncle,' he muttered, choking on the words.

Now Kurr's face drained of colour. 'Your uncle?' The words were pulled with reluctance from his mouth. 'Then you - it cannot be! Say it is not!'

'Your name was Kurnath in those days,' the sallow-faced man said quietly, and with ill-disguised malice, and took a step back from the old farmer. 'Cousin!' He spat the word out. 'I never thought to see you again.'

'Nor I you,' Kurr responded hoarsely. 'Your name I remember, but I will not sully my lips by repeating it. A final proof! Hold up your right hand!'

The hand was held up, and all could see the top joints of the third and fourth fingers were missing.

'You should have moved more quickly,' was Kurt's only comment, but it was squeezed out from between compressed lips.

'And your aim should have been truer,' came the bitter response.

'Had it been, you would not be here.'

'Your manners have deteriorated with age,' the sallow man said, his voice deep with anger.

'As has your wit.'

The others, Company and Eldership alike, gaped in astonishment at this interchange.

Clearly, these two knew each other, and neither enjoyed the knowing. What evil chance had thrown them together, and what hope of agreement did they have?

The Presiding Elder smiled then, a worse sight than his frown, as the obvious thought occurred to him. 'I remind you of your position here. You are the prisoner, and I am your jailer. I have no doubt the Most High brought you here to provide me with entertainment in my final years, and entertainment I will extract from you.'

'And I remind you of your duty as a Watcher, which must override all other claims, including those of revenge. There are witnesses here, Watchers themselves, who are duty-bound to hold you to your oath, should you feel inclined to break it. You may have me imprisoned in Escaigne, but I have you caged in something far stronger.'

Mahnum stood. 'Enough!' he cried. 'This furthers nobody's agenda! Let us reduce this to the essentials. You, Kurr, have claimed assistance from the Watchers, a claim the Elders apparently cannot refuse; while you, the Presiding Elder, wish to refuse the claim. We have therefore reached an impasse. What does your Eldership say?'

'The laws of the Watchers were written for the Sunlands outside, and do not apply to the Escaignian darkness,' said one.

'Yet if we abandon all law, what have we left to bring to Instruere save a regime more lawless than that which now holds sway?' another answered him.

'If we do not displace the Council of Faltha, we must resign ourselves to a dark doom!' the sallow-faced Presiding Elder growled. 'Years we have spent plotting our endeavour, and yet at the last you would abandon it all for the sake of a few words from unwelcome strangers!'

'Though not all are strangers to you, at least,' said the bald man who had been the Company's original guide. 'It is plain that you hold strong grievances against this man, and our rules say that such grievances should be aired and judged by the Eldership. In this fashion we may perhaps discover which of you is blameless in this matter, if either, and therefore which is to be trusted; and so we will decide our course. I would certainly vote as a Watcher myself, and a servant of Watchers, to support Kurnath in his request, even if it means disobedience to the Presiding Elder. But let us hear the stories behind this enmity, and so be guided in making our decision! What say the Eldership?'

The sallow-faced man turned on the bald man with a red gleam in his eye. 'You were ever my opponent on the Eldership, and have never overcome the bitterness of my rulership over you.

Why should we follow your advice?'

'Because it is good advice,' Kurr said firmly. 'I at least am prepared to have my case weighed, and I am confident that, even though I will make every effort to be fair, the Elders will decide right is on my side.' He turned to his enemy and stared full into his face. 'Do you have such confidence? Knowing what I do, you should not.'

The Presiding Elder was backed into a corner, and he knew it. Desperately he looked from one face to another, and read that the Eldership had decided upon this course of action.

Though he had been challenged, this was still his domain. The thought comforted him. It would simply be a matter of telling the story to his advantage.

The Elders met that night with the Company in a small brick-lined room, an annexe to the great hall where the Collocation had been held, and there they listened, first to Kurr, then the sallow man.

The old farmer told them of life in Sivithar, of the many children who played by the south bank of the great River Aleinus, and of the hard times that befell them there. For a severe famine took hold in Straux; the crops failed, then failed again; the river shrank from its banks; and traders ceased bringing their goods to market. The people of Sivithar and the surrounding lands saw their prosperity and livelihoods evaporate. Gangs of hungry youths roamed the streets, menaced the already hard-pressed citizens, threatened property and took life. The leader of the foremost gang, Kurr told them, was none other than their Presiding Elder, his own cousin, the black sheep of the family.

Along with many others, Kurr joined one of the vigilante groups raised to counter the depredations of the gangs. Some of these groups, he admitted, were little better than those they opposed, but others maintained at least a semblance of integrity. As the drought and famine pinched in more tightly, the young Kurnath had been forced to learn swordplay, and on occasion defend his life. It had been on one such occasion that he faced the ruthless, unruly gang leader his cousin had become. He wounded him with a slashing blow of his sword as he drove him off.

'Some months after this the rains came,' Kurr said, 'and the famine ended in Sivithar. Then raiders from the west, out of Mercium and Instruere, came to steal our new-grown crops, for the drought still held in Westrau. Then all the gangs joined forces to repel these men, and for many days we were successful. Yet during the late-night watch they found a way through our defences, killed many of us, and took the rest prisoner. Ever after it was believed we were betrayed. One of our number sold information to the raiders, enabling them to breach our defences. This betrayer would have received neither imprisonment nor death as his reward, but riches and a new identity in another town - perhaps the one from where the raiders came.

For a long time I believed my cousin perished in Sivithar, but now I learn that it is not so. Yet he was not among the prisoners. Not dead, nor a prisoner. The question I wish to ask him is this. How did he secure his escape?'

The sallow man rose slowly to his feet. Leith could see by the loose folds of skin round his throat that the Presiding Elder was old, at least as old as Kurr, and as the two men faced each other the family resemblance was obvious to all those in the room.

With gentle voice, and a subtlety of speech far beyond that which Kurr could manage, he outlined a story similar to that of the old farmer, but with a reversal of roles. It was Kumath who headed a marauding band in the river city of Sivithar, and he who resisted him. As for the betrayal, he would not accuse the old farmer of it, but ever after, doubt had lingered in his mind. Why should Lornath have left Straux if not to protect his troublesome son? How could Lornath have afforded the journey north and west to Firanes? And now, beyond all belief Kurnath had returned, and his sins had caught up with him.

'The sentence of death on Kurnath and his gang will stand,' said the Presiding Elder, 'for it seems to me his new friends are like unto his old; violent and apt to evil. Why else would a Bhrudwan, a sworn enemy of all Falthans, take up with them? Fellow Elders, it is my belief The Pinion breakout was merely a staged event in order to allay our suspicions, and to provide an excuse to have them brought to Escaigne. This man is ready now to betray us to the Arkhos of Nemohaim and the Council of Faltha, just as he betrayed Sivithar so many years ago.'