Shardik (85 page)

‘Radu,
’
said
Kelderek,
‘I’m
going
to
die.
I’m
sure
of
that
The pool
and
the
trepsis
-
they’re
sent
as
a
sign
to
me.
Even
if
the
soldiers come
I
shall
still
die,
because
they’ll
kill
me.’

‘Genshed,’
said
Radu,
‘Genshed
means
to
make
sure
of
killing
us. Or
the
devil
that’s
using
his
body
now
-
he
means
to
kill
us.’

‘You’re
light-headed,
Radu.
Listen
to
me.
There’s
something
I need
to
ask
you.*

‘No,
it’s
true
about
the
devil.
It’s
because
I’m
light-headed
that
I can
see
it
If
a
man
loves
hell
and
does
hell’s
work,
then
the
devils take
over
his
body
before
he
dies.
That’s
what
our
old
gate-keeper told
me
once
in
Sarkid.
I
didn’t
know
what
he
meant
then,
but
I
do now.
Genshed’s
become
a
devil.
He
frightens
me
almost
to
death
-the
mere
sight
of
him
-
1
believe
he
could
kill
me
with
fear
if
he
set about
it*

Kelderek
groped
for
his
arm
like
a
blind
man.

‘Radu,
listen
to
me.
I
want
to
ask
your
forgiveness,
and
your father’s,
too,
before
I
die.’

‘My
father’s?
But
you
don’t
know
my
father.
You’re
as
lightheaded
as
I
am.’

‘It’s
for
you
to
forgive
me
in
your
father’s
name,
and
in
Sarkid’s name.
I’ve
been
your
father’s
greatest
enemy.
You
never
asked
my name.
My
name
is
Kelderek
of
Ortelga
,
but
you
knew
of
me
once
as Crendrik.’

‘
Crendrik,
the
priest-king
of
Bekla
?’

‘Yes,
I
was
once
the
king
of
Bekla.
Never
mind
how
I
come
to
be
here. It’s God’s justice, for it was I that brought the slave-trade back to Bekla and licensed the slave-dealers in return for money to pay for the war against Santil-ke-
Erketlis
. If it’s true that death settles all debts and wrongs, then I beg you to forgive me. I’m no longer the man who committed those deeds.’

‘Are we really to die, are you sure? There’s no help for it?’ It was a frightened, staring child who looked up at
Kelderek
in the last light.

‘A/y time has come to die - I know that now. The Ikat soldiers would have killed me in Kabin, but your father stopped them. When he sent me across the Vrako, he told me that if ever they found me again they’d kill me. So I shall die, either at
the
soldiers’ hands or at
Genshed
‘s.’

‘If my father could forgive you then, Crendrik, I can forgive you now. Oh, what does it matter? That
little
girl’s going to die! Genshed will kill her
-I
know it,’ cried the boy, weeping.

Before
Kelderek
could answer, Genshed was standing over them, silent in the darkness. He sna
pped his fingers and they both cl
imbed slowly to their feet, trembling and shrinking like beasts from a crud master. He was about to speak when Lalloc approached and he turned towards him, leaving them where they stood.

‘You wouldn’
t have gotting moch for them, Ge
nsh,’ said Lalloc. ‘So don’t worry, no, no. Even I couldn’t be guvving you moch for those. You’ll lose vorry
little
, vorry
little
indeed.’

‘I’m keeping these two by me, all the same,’ answered Genshed.

‘No good keep onny of ‘em, Gensh, not now. You novcr gotting ‘cm out and if we got caught with ‘em, thot’s it, eh? Hard enough we gotting out at all, but we got nothing to eat, Gensh, we got to try gotting out. We try to go across to Deelguy, other side, thot’s all we gotting the chonce now.’

Genshed sat down
on the broken wall, staring listl
essly before him. Lalloc’s rings clicked as he rubbed his hands nervously together.

‘Gensh, we can’t try tonight. Morning we try it; soon what it’s light. You come inside over there, that one got a bit of roof on. We make a fire - won’t show outside. Losten,
Gensh
, I got some drink - good, strong drink. We stay there, by and by it’s morning, then we gotting across the river, eh?’

Genshed
rose slowly to his feet and stood pressing the point of his knife against the ball of one finger and then
another
. At length he jerked his head towards Radu and said, ‘I’m keeping him by me.’

‘Well, jost what you say, Gensh, yoss, yoss, but he’s no good to you now, none of them’s any good to you now. Jost leave them, eh, we don’t want them ony more, they don’t got away anywhere in the dark, they’re all worn out, fonish. Morning we gotting away.’

‘I’m keeping him by me,’ repeated Genshed.

Shara came slowly up to Radu, one arm held across her face. As she put her hand in the boy’s, Genshed stared down at her, his eyes, like those of a snake, full of a cold, universal malevolence. Radu stooped to pick her up but, too weak to lift her, dropped on one knee and in doing so encountered Genshed’s stare. He half-rose, appar
ently
about to run, but as Genshed seized him by the pierced ear he gasped, ‘No! No! I won’t-‘

‘See, you’re just a silly little boy, aren’t you, Radu?’ said Genshed, twisting slowly, so that Radu sank to his knees. ‘Just a silly
little
boy, aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’

Genshed drew the point of his knife along Radu’s eyelid but then, as though suddenly weary of what he had begun, thrust it back into
the
sheath, dragged him to his feet and led him away towards the ruined cottage where Lalloc was already kneeling and blowing his smouldering fire-pot into a flame. Shara tottered beside them, the sound of her weeping becoming inaudible as they entered the doorway. Left alone in the darkness,
Kelderek
sank down on the open ground; but later - how long afterwards he could not tell - crept on his hands and knees into the nearest hut; and here he fell asleep.

53
Night
Talk

He had been given a bundle of child slaves to take to the Barons’ Palace, but they were so heavy that he could not carry them and had to drag them behind him step by step. The way lay up a mountain and he was following Lord Shardik, up through the steep, dreary forests where
the
ghosts of the dead soldiers flickered and cackled among the branches. At last the way became so steep and the weight so heavy that he had to crawl on his hands and knees, and in this manner he came at last to the top. The Barons’ Palace stood on the extreme summit, but drawing nearer he realized that it was nothing but flat, painted wood upon a frame, and as he stood looking at it, it broke to pieces and fell away down the back of the mountain.

Waking, he crawled into the open air and tried to get a sight of the stars. Either leaves or clouds were obscuring
them
. As best he could, he considered. Ii it were now very late - the middle of the night or later - both
Genshed
and Lalloc might be asleep: if they were, he might just possibly be able to release Radu and Shara - might even, perhaps, be able to kill Genshed with his own knife.

The night was pitch black, but from one direction he could make out a distant glow of firelight,
partly
obscured, or so it seemed, by some kind of curtain. He took a few steps towards it and perceived that he had misjudged the distance, for it was close - close by. A cloak had been fastened across
the
doorlcss gap
through
which Genshed had led Radu at nightfall. He reached it, knelt and put his eye to one of the slits through which the glow was showing.

Dry stone walls and a floor of cobbles — nothing else - and a low fire burning in the fire-place opposite. Who had collected
the
wood, he wondered. The slave-dealers must have got it for themselves while he lay asleep. In the further corner Radu and Shara were sleeping on the
bare stones. Radu was lying moti
onless, but Shara whim
pered continually, fretful and e
vid
ently
ill. Beside her, on the wall, her shadow jumped and leapt, exaggerating each movement of the sick child as echoes in a ravine magnify and hurl back the cry of a man standing upon its brink.

Genshed, a long stick in one hand, was sitting on his pack, gazing into the flames and scraping moodily at a cluster of insects that had run to
the
top of a burning log. The fancy returned to
Kelderek
that he never slept, or that, like an insect, he became dormant only at certain seasons. Opposite, Lalloc was perched awkwardly on a log, with his wounded leg supported on another. A leather wine-skin was propped against
Genshed
‘s pack, and after a few moments the slave-dealer picked it up, drank and passed it across to Lalloc. Kelderek, seeing that any idea of rescue was hopeless, was about to creep away when Lalloc spoke. Curious, despite his light-headed, insect-devoured misery, he listened.

‘You wasn’t ollways in this line of business, was you?’ asked Lalloc, bending forward to rub his leg. ‘How long I know you, Gensh - three year?’

‘Not always,’ answered Genshed.

‘What you done - soldier maybe?’

Genshed le
ant forward and dislodged a beetl
e into the flames. ‘I was executioner’s mate in Terekenalt.’ ‘Thot’s a good job? Good money?’ ‘It was a living,’ said Genshed. There was a pause. ‘ Bit of sport, was it, eh ?’

‘Kids’ stuff,’ answered Genshed. ‘Got tired of it. You learn it all quick enough and you’re only allowed to do what you’re told.’