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alone."
His eyes blazed in both anger and fear for me. He shouted, "By Ormon, Collin, and
do you do it alone, I'll never call you friend again."
The lords around us all drew back not knowing why Rawl said what he did, or what he
meant.
"Do you think," I said harshly, "that I make this choice myself? Nay, swordsmen. Not
this time. My word, sir. If I'd a choice, I'd let you do it ten times over...."
"Now hear me, all!" I cried aloud, rising in my stirrups. "It is written, sirs, on the palm
of my hands that 'the Collin' must fight that dread beast yonder. Therefore I ask that no man
bar my way, nor seek to join me in what I have to do, for his honor's sake. Only these Yorns
will I take with me, and my swordsmen Griswall and Hargis....
"My Prince Til-Keeves, who is the true Lord Rawl Fergis of Marack, nephew to
Marack's queen, will command in my absence, is it agreed?"
And they, expecting miracles, cheered. And why should they not agree?
But my Princess, sensing something rotten in the state of Om, seized a skin of small
javelins from the nearest warrior and said strongly to me, "I go to live or die with you, my lord,
for yon 'beast' is not Gol-Bades, nor is it a frozen meeg. And if you try to stop me, sir, I'll
draw first blood from you. So speaks your Queen. Now lead, and I will follow."
I swallowed hard and nodded, bade the three of them to ride close on my dottle's
rump.
At the stream's edge I called the Yorns to me. "There are twelve wizards over there," I
nodded, "and fifty of you. Each wizard is guarded by many Yorns. Do you stay to the rear of
us. If a wizard approaches, send some of yours to stop him. They must speak with the
wizard's guards; tell them that I and this new Omnian army bring them their freedom to live
as men; that they must not defend the wizard."
"Must we then attack the wizards?" Unghist and the others asked in awe.
Without your fellows there's nought to attack," I said bluntly. "Strike at the cowls. You'll
find them empty, filled only with the Dark One's voice."
Unghist, hesitating, looked to the others. They nodded. He said, 'We will do it, Lord."
"You will do more than that," I snapped. 'For if this princess, my companion, is
attacked, you will defend her to the death. Is that understood?"
"It is."
"Good!"
I turned then toward the Hishian host, my spear above my head, and shouted in an
amplified roar to be heard in all direction:
"HEAR ME NOW! I AM THE PRINCE TIL-CARES OF THE SELIG ISLES: HE WHO
IN THE NORTH IS KNOWN AS THE 'COLL1N' OF MARACK! I WILL SEEK NOW IN
SINGLE COMBAT TO TEST YOUR MONSTER, THE DARK ONE'S IMAGE, ON THE
FIELD OF BATTLE.. . . DO YOU HEAR ME, FIEND OF DARKNESS?"
I roared dramatically to the skies. "I COME TO KILL YOUR SKAID1NG! DARE TO SEND
HIM FROM YOUR RANKS, NOW!"
And I sent my mount, an aging but heavily muscled dottle, to dash through the
knee-deep stream in a froth of spume and water. As the others plunged in after me the very
earth around us shook again. The Dark One's answer?
The Hishian kettle-drums began anew. I rode arrogantly toward their mounting roar;
headed directly to where the great standards of this lord and that hung limply in the heated
air. Some pranced their mounts and made as if to charge us. Two did, ponderous in their
armor. They rode full at us, spears crouched, each twelve foot shaft tipped with a full two
feet of fine-honed steel.
Hargis and Griswall rode instantly against them, the red burnt earth a cloud of dust
around their pounding dottle paws.
Griswall, whose every move was completely professional, was a delight to watch; that
is, if you like that sort of thing. With this inept opponent, he simply rose in his stirrups,
whirled the great spear's blade this way and that, dodged his adversaries' points-then took
the man's head with the tip of his spear alone.
Young Hargis-he'd left his shield to his back-also whirled his spear, disdaining the
thrust. He knocked his man's shaft to one side, then, as the fellow rode by, whacked the
back of his helm with his spear's butt. The helm flew off. The skull was crushed. A spatter
of brains flew out to damp the dust.
A roar of shouts and applause went up from our sharpeyed Omnian army.... An
interesting thing happened then. The two dottles, freed of their enemy riders, did not turn [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]