Wizard's Funeral (7 page)

his wife, then a messenger arrived to say he had an audience with the queen. Humbold was not in attendance. The chancellor was doing other things. Qintara, Lady of the Ladders, was there. And Maldrake, Lord of the Locks. Queen Vanda praised Soldier for the success of his expedition, but she had not the compassion of a loving wife, and told him he should not have lost the new King Magus in the first place. Go then, she finished, with a more gentle tone, we are not displeased with you, Soldier. You will not be punished. I dont have to undergo Ordeal by Fire? No but the next time, I shall have you burned alive, whole. Soldier was relieved. I understand. When he left the Palace of Birds it was night. Soldier decided to walk the cobbled streets, over to the palace of the queens sister. Taking a short cut through an alley, he saw a rat in the moonlight. Seeing a rat in an alley at night was not in itself an extraordinary thing. But this creature appeared to be ignoring the offal thrown out by a house-servant. It was sitting on its haunches, its red eyes gleaming as little points of light. Soldier passed the creature warily. Rats were as prone to fits of madness as humans. He did not want some crazed rodent leaping at his throat in the darkness. Rats. In make-up they were very close to the human form, having the same number and type of bones, and who knew how nearly their minds were to human? Creatures of the midden they might be, but they were crafty survivors, with strong instincts that linked them to humans. It was said that in all worlds at all times humans were never more than two metres away from a rat. It therefore followed that a rat was never far from a human, no matter how much the two creatures hated each other. Soldier was almost past the rat when it spoke to him. I come with a message from someone who has made your welfare his concern, squeaked the rat. Soldier reeled in shock. He quickly recovered himself. In this world ravens talked. Rocks spoke. Why not rats, too? Soldier remembered what Ixonnoxl had said. That his father had sent out messengers to those who might be useful to him. Was this a messenger from OmmullummO? What do you want? he asked the bright-eyed rodent, as it sat on its hindquarters, staring at him. How many messengers are there? In answer to the first, I have some words for you. In answer to the second, why, how many rats and spiders are there? Rats and spiders? The sewers and tunnels below the city were infested with rats and spiders. Was OmmullummO somewhere in Zamerkands sewers? If he was that close, he could surely move in at any time. Ixonnoxl was in grave danger. Soldier had been in this world long enough to know that OmmullummO would have no compunction in killing his son, his child, having destroyed his own progeny many times over the centuries. It seemed that once a wizard had gone bad, there was no end to the atrocities he would commit in order to gain power. What are your words? he asked the rat. My master wishes to know if you will stand with him once he is ready to emerge into the light once more. Emerge? Definitely the sewers. The man I stand with is the only man I trust myself. You wish me to tell my master you are against him? You must be either for or against. There is no middle ground. Against then. Yes. Where is he, your master? I shall tell him myself. No, no, you cant trick me like that, squealed the rat, making off into the shadows. Youve had your chance. You will suffer a terrible fate along with the rest of them, once my master is in control. Prepare to be quartered. Prepare to be crushed. Prepare to die. Death is no great fear, Soldier said, into the now empty shadows. We all have to face that at some time. Nevertheless, he was troubled. OmmullummO would be gathering supporters. There were always roughnecks and villains in any society who were ready to have their bullying legitimised. Once the thugs of society are unleashed, within the scope of the law, absolute terror is abroad. Murder is then no longer murder, but lawful killing. Innocents are swept into a furnace of violence, and mayhem rules. The first rat must have reported very quickly, for OmmullummO sent another directly, to menace Soldier before he reached home. Prepare to meet the Prince of Terror! squealed the rat. Soldier was unimpressed. I am the Prince of Terror, he replied, cutting the rat in two with his sword. Layana was still temporarily sane, and he spent a blissful night with her. In the morning Soldier went to the market, to find Spagg. The hand-seller was back at his stall. Soldier had to admire his resilience. Spagg had stuck a semi-precious stone in the hole in his skull and was showing off in front of other stall-holders. Something fluttered over the square and landed on a weather-vane, up amongst the rooftops. Soldiers mouth tightened. He strode over to Spagg. Have you got your slingshot in your pocket? he enquired. Spagg looked up. He was remarkably good with the shepherds weapon, having proved so to Soldier once before. Always got it, Spagg confirmed. Here. He produced the slingshot. Soldier bent down and picked up a piece of flint. He gave it to Spagg with the words, Kill that bird up there, on the weathervane. Spagg looked up, saw the target. The raven? he said. You want me to kill the raven? Just so, replied Soldier, firmly. Spagg whirled the slingshot round his head. The bird took off on seeing this activity, but Spagg had allowed for that. The stone whizzed through the air and struck the raven on the head, just at the end of his beak. It fell onto the tiles of the roof. It lay fluttering for a few moments in the breeze, then the body rolled down to the edge of the roof and dropped down into the square. Soldier went over to it and stamped on it, just to make sure. There, he said. Damned traitor! A crushed red-and-black lump was stamped into the cobbles. Spagg pursed his lips. You dont forgive easily, do you? Whats the bird gone and done? That which I accused you of. Gave us away to the Hannacks, did he? cried Spagg, now incensed. Ill ave a stomp on him too. Once the deed was done, Soldier felt some pity, even sympathy, for the creature. What an unhappy boy was in that bird. Yet, in truth, if he had still been human he would have grown to a man long since. It was only because he was trapped in the ravens form that he remained what he was, a street urchin. Yet remorse swept over Soldier. Perhaps that was a little hasty. I should have waited, thought things over a little more. He deserved it, true, but I should have listened to explanations, excuses even. It is a pity you didnt, agreed Spagg, also feeling contrite. The raven had shared many adventures with them. I always say you act a bit too hasty for your own good, Soldier. Youre the one who killed him. Yes, but you asked me to. Do you always do as youre told? Spagg nodded, firmly. Youre the captain. If you was to tell me to go and jump in a lake, I would. Thats the trouble with you leader types. Once things goes a bit wrong, you start to blame your troops. Well, I aint taking no blame on this one. Get out your slingshot, you says. Kill that there raven. Well, orders carried out, sir. Now you can take full responsibility for em. Im just a common soldier, Soldier. Soldier was about to remonstrate with the hand-seller, when a bird landed on his shoulder. Whats going on here? asked the bird. Raven? cried Soldier. That that isnt you on the cobbles? Her? No, she was a just a good friend.

Chapter Seven

After a private audience with the queen, Uthellen took her son secretly from the city at night. Disguised as a crone, she left Zamerkand driving a cart in the back of which Ixonnoxl was hidden. Her destination was the same forest where Soldier had taken them many years before. Queen Vanda had been entirely sympathetic to Uthellens fears that the city was not the place to keep her son safe until his inauguration. Zamerkand, like any walled city of the time, was seething with spies, cut-throats and agents of foreign powers. There were too many people grasping at power in such times, and Ixonnoxl was still very vulnerable. It would not be until he was installed in the Seven Peaks that he would have the full protection of the gods. The trouble with the gods is, grumbled Uthellen to herself, they are amoral. Its all one to them whether the world is ruled by good, evil or a mixture of both . . . She drove the cart several miles from the city, before she and Ixonnoxl took to their feet. Once in the forest, which most people did not visit due to the fact that a giant boar called Garnash roamed within its pale, she felt they could hide themselves from harm. The one she feared the most IxonnoxIs father, OmmullummO - had great powers. However, he too would have to seek them out. He could not know their whereabouts except through his agents. The fewer animals, supernatural creatures, birds and, above all, people, that the pair came into contact with, the less chance OmmullummO had of finding them. Where is my father? wondered Ixonnoxl out loud, as they trudged along, over the meadowland towards the forest fence. If we only knew where he was! He had asked his mother the same question a thousand times, and a thousand times she had replied that she did not know, could not even guess. She had a feeling that OmmullummO was somewhere near or in Zamerkand, but that was just a nagging worry in the back of her mind. She didnt know whether to heed it or not, but certainly they needed to be cautious. If the old wizard were in Gwandoland, across the Cerulean Sea, or high up somewhere in the Unknown Region, she could afford to relax a little. But there was no way of knowing. Only when HoulluoHs funeral was over and Ixonnoxl was installed could they drop their guard. When they finally reached their forest home, a fairy glade in the middle of the woodland region which stretched a hundred miles in each direction, Uthellen thought of Soldier. They were fond thoughts. At one time she had been in love with Soldier - when they had shared this woodland place together but that feeling had subsided. It had drifted away to be replaced by a less urgent and compelling feeling: a sense of fondness and love of a different kind. She knew Soldier would be her dearest friend for the rest of her life. She knew that, had he not been married to the princess, he would have made love to her, and would have been just as happy in her arms as he was in the arms of another. It was an accident of fate that he had ended up in the bed of a princess. It pained Uthellen greatly filled her with such agony sometimes that she could hardly bear to be herself that she had betrayed him once. It had been in the market-square not long after she had met him, when he had begged her to marry him and save his life. She had denied him. She had turned her back. Why? To protect her child of course. There had been a choice actually there was no choice between saving Soldier and protecting her weak and vulnerable childs life. Still, Uthellen felt a sense of betrayal, a sense of turning away, which brought a pang to her heart as sharp as the point of an arrow. How cruel destiny could be. If she had not been raped by a wizard, if her sons life had not been in grave danger, if she had been free, she could have gathered Soldier in her arms and loved him to the end of his days. Blue eyes. His blue eyes had frightened her at first. No one not man, not wizard, not fairy nor giant, had blue eyes on this earth. Where had he got them from? He believed, she knew, that he came from some other world - perhaps a place where everyone had blue eyes. If that were true, she knew of another from that world. She had not told Soldier this, but there was someone she knew not whether man or woman who now dwelt in Uan Muhuggiag. A boatman had found this person on the uninhabited island of Stell, to the north of a string of islands of which Amekni, Begrom and Refe were three others. The blue eyes were all that were visible according to the boatmans story - for the rest was swathed in calico, hiding form, sex and all else. Blue Eyes had claimed to be shipwrecked, The boatman had taken the castaway to Gwandoland, the continent within which Uan Muhuggiag and Carthaga were bordered. Blue Eyes had then vanished into the interior of the former country. All this had not come to her directly from the boatmans lips, for he was found drowned not a week after the rescue. The boatmans story had been passed from his dying mouth into the ears of a lost wraith, who had turned up in a place of faery visited by her son. Ixonnoxl had listened to the wraiths tale, then asked that creature to forget all she had heard. When a witchboy told a creature like a wraith to forget, it was actually forgotten. Information had passed from one creature to another and a void replaced the knowledge in the messenger. The secret was now solely with Ixonnoxl and his mother. Uthellen had been told by her son not to impart this alarming news to Soldier. She did not know the reason behind her sons request he rarely gave her reasons for any of his decisions but she respected a knowledge which had access to sources far deeper and greater than those available to any mortal. Mother, will you ever marry? The question had come from Ixonnoxl while the pair of them gathered wood for their evening fire. She stopped, disturbed, knowing her son was asking for a reason, not just idle curiosity. I dont know why? You must not wait for Soldier. He will never be yours. She was annoyed by the sure tone of her sons voice. No one can know for certain what the future will bring, she replied, even a King Magus. Ixonnoxl was not upset by the sharpness of her words. Thats true. But even if Princess Layana were to die tomorrow, Soldier could not marry whom he chose. His path is set. His destiny preordained elsewhere. That is, until he reaches a point in his life when he will be free. The choice that he makes then will determine the fate of the world, and he will discover his identity. He will not be Soldier any more, but someone else, from another place. I dont care if he is called Soldier, or any other name. Its not just his name. He will be flooded with old memories. Memories of a childhood. Memories of his youth. Perhaps even memories of former loves. How do you know he does not love another woman on another earth? I have no knowledge of these things, Mother. A wizard is not subject to the same emotions as a mortal. But I see things, I witness what happens amongst you people, and I can gauge things. Soldier will have gone from us, once he gets his memory back, and another man will stand in his place, looking like him, speaking like him, but not him. A tear came to the eye of Uthellen. You are very cruel, son. I dont know what that means. I try not to hurt you, though I dont understand what being hurt means. All I can be is myself. I am from your body, but I am not of your body. I am a wizard. I know the ways of the superworld, but the feelings of mortals are to me like the twitterings of birds to humans. We think we understand, but we do not. We can only guess. I have a desire to see you in a state of what you call happiness but I cant share that state. She knew he was telling the truth but it did nothing for her feelings of sadness and yearning. The man she loved could not love her back, would never love her back in the way she might want if he were free. Nor did her son love her, for he also could not. She wept. Im sorry, Mother, said Ixonnoxl, but he was not sorry. He could not be. He had merely said what she wanted to hear. His nurturing had taught him that his mother, and others, liked to receive sympathy. She accepted the words, as a master accepts that his dog loves him, and was able to compose herself. That night they had a fire going in the forest. Uthellen could enjoy activities with her son, even if she could not understand him. They were like two creatures sharing something which excited them both. She had always been a person who liked the outdoors better than indoors. Four walls made a prison to her, while she yearned for the wind, the sun, the night sky, even the rain in her hair, on her face. The smell of woodsmoke in the forest was better to her than the aroma of spikenard oil. Fresh air, a sudden burst of wildflowers on a bank, a clutch of brightly coloured fungi, soft star moss beneath her feet, the pungency of fermenting fruit all these were as precious to her as her own health and vitality. That night, the first night, she lay under the stars and composed songs, to sing herself to sleep. When the rustlings and calls of the forest would not allow sleep, she threaded the stars in her head, making a necklace of them. The networks of branches formed cobwebs through which she viewed the dusty moon. Fireflies played in the beams which fell like soft, yellow dust by her pillow of grass. She was as happy in those moments as any woman could be who has given birth to a special child, but in doing so has denied herself earthly pleasures. Chancellor Humbold had been driven to distraction by the presence of the two princes from Bhantan. They ran rings round him. They heckled him in court. They whispered (in his earshot) slanderous remarks about him and his administration. Worst of all they stole things from his chambers. Small items: a hat, some quill pens, a dragons-tooth paperweight, a miniature portrait of himself in his chancellors robes painted by Minstrallus - the latter was considered quite valuable. When Humbold complained to the queen, she smiled indulgently and said, Oh, theyre just young pranksters - you cant take them too seriously. But Humbold did take them seriously. When he ran into them one day in a passageway he boxed their ears. In turn, they kicked his shins and told him they would pay him back at the first opportunity. One day well have our country back, Guido said, and youll be sent as an envoy. Well ask for you specially, said Sando, and the queen wont be able to refuse us, or itd be bad manners. Well stuff your bum with fresh rabbits guts and have you thrown into the wolf-pit, Guido said. Or well pump your ears and nose full of icing sugar, said Sando, and stake you out amongst the royal skeps. We havent made up our minds yet, Guido said. One or the other, said Sando. Perhaps both, finished Guido. Humbold went away raging with fury. In his chambers he calmed down once again. He had a great scheme, which was already in motion. One day soon there would be no queen to send him on errands. One day soon he would be King of Zamerkand. The timing was not yet quite right, but the day was not far off. Then those two squirts would have to watch their heads. Humbold had already been in contact with Bhantan. The princes, he had learned, had been banished for ever. No one wanted to see them again in that small distant land. They would not be missed. Their mother and nurse had already disappeared. One good thing about the officials of Bhantan was that they never forgave anyone, especially their own kind who had fallen out of favour. Layana had been out of the palace all day. Her sedan carriers, under the guidance of Corporal Tranganda, had taken her to see Butro-batan, the blacksmith. Gim, the blacksmiths son, now a stocky young man who stole the hearts of tavern maidens by the score, had brought her Wychhazel, a piebald horse which secretly belonged to the princess. Layana, when she was well, loved to hunt. It was not so much the killing of the game - though she saw no fault with that so long as it was to eat and not just for the sport but being in the fresh air, being free. A princess is a prisoner for most of her life, simply because of who she is. Out in the fields and forests of southern Guthrum, she had the wind in her hair and the sun and rain on her face, and she felt unencumbered. Corporal Tranganda and Butro-batan were taking huge risks by assisting Layana. If the queen found out that her sister was escaping Zamerkand, going out alone into the dangerous world outside the city, she would be very displeased. Queen Vanda still thought of Layana as her little sister who needed protecting. The queen herself would not go outside the city walls without a huge escort, and she did not expect her sister to, either. Layana was the only family she had left. However, with her hawk Windwalker on her wrist, Layana frequently swathed herself in blue calico sometimes wearing a light armour made by Butro-batan, as well and went outside to see the world as it really was. It was on one of these trips that she had met Soldier - found him shocked and vulnerable on a hillside - and had brought him back to Zamerkand. She spent the forenoon in her favourite hunting area, near the Petrified Pools of Yan, just west of the Ancient Forest. Right on the stroke of noon, however, there was a dead moon, an eclipse of the sun. It went dark within a few minutes and became very cold. Layana guessed that this phenomenon was to do with the death of HoulluoH. Come on, Wychhazel, she said to her palfrey, its time we were getting back to the palace and that husband of mine. Soldier knew nothing of these external adventures of his wife. In fact she had saved his life once or twice, by just being near him at the right time. He knew of the blue hunter, of course, but the riders identity was still a mystery to him. After waiting by the Petrified Pools of Yan, which were actually lakes of amber mined by the half-giants of Huccarra, she realised it was not going to grow gradually lighter as she expected. There was a glow coming from the blocked sun, but it was not bright enough to light the countryside back to Zamerkand. Layana usually found her way by the goat tracks, but they would be impossible to recognise in the dullness. The Huccarran half-giants were not unfriendly beings. They were not human of course, but they werent as vicious as faery folk, nor as belligerent as full-sized giants. Standing just nine feet tall, they looked as if they had been chiselled out of stone: squared muscles and thick strong bones made them appear as if they had been sculpted from gneiss. Their cropped hair did nothing to dispel this image, being sheared to within an inch of their heavy skulls and shaved around the neck and ears. Their hands were squarish and their fingers short and stubby. Those fingers - the muscles of those hands - could crush a rock to powder. They were immensely