Anna von Wessen (31 page)

“Fraud!” he cried.

“Keep your hands off of me!”

“Filthy liar!”

Again he came towards her, and seized her by the arm; whereupon an involuntary growl issued from her throat, and her skin became suddenly very hot. Griel released her, watching her in bewilderment.

In less than a moment, she towered whole feet above him, standing on her hind legs, and striking out with her forepaws. Griel changed once more to the wolf (though still he was not quite so large as she), and countered her blows. When he spoke, however, it was with no more bitterness. Rather, he only laughed briefly, and then addressed Anna, almost courteously.

“Anna von Wessen,” he said, “I cannot say rightly that I know what you are – but it is clear that I judged you too soon. Vaya Eleria claims you are known to King Xeros. I shall take her word for truth! But understand –” (here he put forward one of his great, heavy arms, and draped it over Anna’s enormous shoulder) “– that you are expected from this night at the Weld. Come when it is safe.”

Anna nodded, and fell away from him. Vaya came to her quickly, put a hand to either side of her face, and spoke to her calmly, till finally she managed to change herself back. Vaya doffed her cape, and threw it round Anna’s bare shoulders.

Though she felt very weak, Anna raised herself a little off the ground, and held out her hand to Hyro. “Don’t go back,” she begged him. “Go with Griel. Go to the Weld!”

“I can’t do that,” he answered solemnly. “I would betray my comrades who remain at Drelho.”

Anna put a shaking hand to her face, and fell back against Vaya. Already Hyro was racing again down the forest road, towards the castle.

“He will be all right,” Vaya told her. “He will be all right, Anna.”

Griel’s company was dividing now, with eight of its members going into the hut, and the rest taking their posts across the road. But one remained in the very same spot where he had stood, while all the above events were taking place. It was the dark wolf called Esa.

He had not taken his eyes from Anna. “Yes,” he said now, nodding very slowly. “Yes – Hyro will be all right for now. Yet I am not so certain about you.”

“Esa!” said Griel, who did not hear the dark wolf’s words to Anna. “Go into the hut. Take your sleep.”

“I’ll not be sleeping this night,” said Esa.

Griel looked at him uncomprehendingly.

Esa dashed suddenly towards Anna, and fastened his jaws round her arm. So surprised was Vaya by his movement (his thoughts, even Anna noticed, had been very quiet; and neither she nor Vaya had heard what he intended), that Anna was jerked immediately from her grasp.

Esa dropped down on all fours, took Anna up by her waist, and set off at a run. All the Narken pursued him, with Griel in the lead; but none could match his incredible speed. Only Vaya remained just behind him, flying as a burst of wind down the wide path, sometimes shifting to gain pace with him. But Anna had never seen a wolf so fast. She tried to shift; but for whatever reason, she was still without the power. She pushed at Esa’s jaws, attempting to prise her body from their grasp; but he held her tightly, with his teeth cutting far past the skin. Her blood showed shining upon the dirt in his wake.

He was quick to veer from the forest road. He strayed into the dark wilderness on its left-hand, his own blackness melding completely with the night. For a while, Anna’s thoughts kept Vaya ever on his trail; but as the blood continued to stream down, and the sharp teeth pressed farther into the centre of her body, the pain became almost unbearable, and she felt herself slowly losing consciousness.

No!
came Vaya’s voice, resounding like a gong inside her skull.
Keep awake, Anna! He can only be one of Wolach’s. If I lose you –

But her voice was cut short as Anna fainted. Her body went limp in Esa’s jaws. He ran on with redoubled speed; but here Vaya lost the line of Anna’s thoughts. She changed for a little to tracking by scent, following the familiar odour which emanated from the line of blood drawn upon the fallen leaves. But Esa must have devised some way to keep it from falling; for soon even this disappeared. What he had done, and where he had gone she knew not, but quite suddenly she could not find even the stink of his dirty fur upon the air. All trace of Anna, too, was gone. She could almost feel it, as the wires of her brain crossed with confusion and overexertion – and when she next shifted, she found that she had returned to the empty road, with the cold moon shining down over a multitude of wolf tracks which ran in either direction. She hung her head in despair.

XXXII:

The Narkul Kings

A
nna remained lost for long hours within the black, deadened sleep engendered by Esa’s fierce jaws. When he suspected that he had thrown off Vaya’s pursuit, he crawled finally from the long tunnel (running some twenty feet below the earth) which had taken him several weeks to dig, and set off again with his unconscious prisoner. He obtained a Turin from the first place where he was known, and fastened it round Anna’s neck, before continuing on to meet the vessel where his master waited.

But none of that would take place for some hours; and Anna, of course, was unaware of all of it. So we shall take a step back, and return to the place where Vaya was left standing helpless upon the silver forest road, with Griel and his company coming up fast to meet her.

“The night is early still,” she said to Griel, when he had drawn alongside of her. “All of you return to the pass. I will go alone to the Weld.”

Griel nodded, and without a word, turned with his companions to retrace their steps to the unmanned gate. Vaya vanished from the spot, and appeared a moment later in a wide field, which was settled at a high point of a broad-faced range of lonely mountains. Before her there was a strange sort of cave which formed what looked very much like a stone awning, and which seemed only to hang without purpose over the blank wall of the mountain. But of course Vaya knew better. She approached the cave, entered betwixt its close sides, and tapped upon the stone wall at its back – which was, in fact, the entrance to the Weld.

“Who goes there?” came a voice from within.

“Vaya Eleria comes to speak with King Xeros.”

“Wait where you are. I will deliver the message.”

The sentry was gone for some minutes, before returning with the order to admit Vaya. There was a harsh sound of scraping stone; and a moment later, a dark passage was revealed.

“Come,” said the sentry. “Xeros is ready for you.”

Vaya followed the sentry into the passage. He led the way through a maze of darkness; after perhaps a half-mile of which, torches appeared finally on the walls, spreading a light that felt nearly cold within the damp confines of the tunnels.

Soon the tunnel widened, and became even more brightly lit. The walls rose higher, and great arches opened up at intervals, entrances to dozens of darkened chambers.

The sentry deposited Vaya at the doorway of Xeros’ own chamber, nodded quickly, and then ran again to resume his post at the entrance. Vaya turned towards the open doorway, rapped upon the stone, and entered without pausing for invitation.

“Vaya!” said Xeros, as he rose slowly from his tall armchair. “How good to see you.”

Xeros’s human form was very large; and his wolfen one so much so, that he sometimes struck fear into even the hearts of his own people. Yet he was exceedingly kind, and quite as gentle as someone of his immense physical strength had the capacity to be. He came to Vaya now, held out a great hand to her, and drew her towards the little
fire which burnt in the grate, before which sat his own armchair, and another one beside it.

“Please sit,” he said.

Vaya sat, and watched the King’s face as he did the same. His hair was grown silver, and hung to the shoulders of his thick cloak. Certainly no one would patronise him so much as to call him young; but neither was he yet so very old. There was a glimmer of power in all his movements, and no weakness, no fragility whatever. He sat with his heavy arms draped across the sides of his chair, staring very contentedly into the fire. It seemed he did not even intend to ask Vaya why she called upon him.

“Xeros,” she said immediately, “I come to you on an urgent errand.”

“An urgent errand!” he repeated. “Whatever could it be?”

“Anna von Wessen has been taken.”

“Taken! By Wolach, I presume?”

“I can think of no other.”

“Well,” said the King, as he shifted slightly – but not as a demonstration of discomfort – in his chair. “That is very unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate!” Vaya cried, with her voice ringing loudly between the walls of stone. “Is that all you can say, Xeros?”

“Certainly it is not a fortunate event,” Xeros replied evenly. “In that case it must be an unfortunate one. Therefore I said it was so.”

“This is no time for jesting!”

“Of course it isn’t!”

His voice rose as he spoke, nearly to a shrill bark. Vaya watched him with narrowed eyes.

“I am sure you do not begrudge me for coming,” she said doubtfully.

“Begrudge you!” he replied, with an instant return of his smile. “Of course I don’t.”

“I came to you for help,” Vaya explained desperately.

“My poor child!” said Xeros, as he turned to pat Vaya’s hand, so very small beneath his own. “I know what you came for.”

“Then you will help me?”

“I know not how I can.”

“If I had known you would refuse me this way – I would have tried to find the trail myself! Perhaps if I had . . .”

“You would not have found it. The one who took her would have made sure of it.”

Vaya turned from him, doubled over as if having been struck through the stomach, and hid her face in her hands.

“Do not despair, my dear,” said Xeros kindly. “I think very much that everything will be all right.”

“How can you know that?” asked Vaya, looking at him with wide eyes, as if amazed by his audacity.

“Well,” he said, with a look of profound thought etched across his brown, wrinkled face; “I cannot say I know it for certain. But I can tell you something now, Vaya, which may ease your grief just a little.”

“I doubt that very much.”

“Doubt it you may! But listen just the same.”

“I can think of nothing else to do,” said Vaya miserably.

So Xeros began to tell her a tale. We will not tell you now what it consisted of; for you shall hear it later, from someone else.

Now we return to Anna.

~

When she woke finally from her sick sleep, she thought that only a little time had passed; but in fact all the night was gone, and the day which followed, as well. Again it was dark, and she found herself in a small, musty-smelling bed, rocking gently to and fro, as if trapped in an oversized cradle.

She leapt to her feet, but stumbled from dizziness, and fell against a rough wooden wall. She put a hand to her head, and looked carefully all about; but it did not take a great deal of inference to understand just where she was.

Even after her head had ceased spinning, and she stood with both feet planted firmly on the floor, still the world continued to sway. The little room was lined on either side with a double-rack of berths; and directly before her, there was a dirty porthole at the top of the wall, outside which the splashing of the sea could be clearly seen.

She fell back into the berth where she had waked, and tugged with both hands at the thick chain wrapped tightly round her neck, from which hung the Turin Esa had furnished. But it was bolted at the back, and she could not loosen it.

She sat for a while all alone, till finally the narrow door of the cabin opened, and a face peered in at her, thin and gaunt, and hung with a long dark beard.

“Come, Anna von Wessen.”

“Where will you take me?” she asked dubiously.

“Does it matter?” he returned. “Either follow, or I shall pitch you overboard.”

“You won’t,” Anna rejoined defiantly. “I am here because someone wants me. You would not be allowed to pitch me anywhere.”

“Perhaps that is true,” he hissed. “But nonetheless I would not hesitate to take a bite out of you. Now come!”

Anna rose reluctantly, and followed him out of the cabin, into a very small corridor which was laid with tattered brown carpet. Anna could see the spots of her very own blood, which must have fallen as she was carried aboard the ship. They went on only several paces, before her porter knocked upon the door of a neighbouring cabin, and stepped aside.

“Go inside,” he said.

Anna made no move.

“Go!”

The door was pulled open suddenly; and the bearded fellow jumped back. Anna looked ahead into the cabin, where a lamp burnt on a table, and a man sat in a chair beside it. It seemed he had opened the door without standing, with one of his very long arms.

“Come in,” he said to Anna.

Anna took a step into the room, and the brute behind her took immediate flight.

“A brave servant you have,” Anna said to the man.

“Ah!” he answered, as he gestured to the chair placed opposite him at the table. “Gorn is a useless creature enough. Never would I have entrusted him with the mission I bestowed upon Esa! He would have fouled it up straightaway.”

“I suppose it takes a clever beast enough to deceive the King of the Weld.”

“That it does, Anna von Wessen! But Esa is that very beast.”

He peered at her bare arms, over the skin of which could be made out the many puncture wounds made by Esa’s teeth. The worst of it was covered by the ragged clothes she had been dressed in.

“I hope he wasn’t too rough with you?” asked the man.

“On that score I can offer him no commendation,” Anna replied sourly.

“I was afraid of that. Esa is none too gentle a soldier – but then if he was gentle, I suppose he’d not be much of a soldier at all! But all that is past; it is irrelevant. Sit down, Anna von Wessen! I wish to speak with you.”

Anna sat in the empty chair, and spent a moment in surveying the person of her new companion. He was a great hulking thing, even larger than Xeros himself (that was, if Anna had known in the first place what Xeros looked like). It was hard to understand how he could stand to cram his bulk of muscles into that little cabin; and even harder to see, just exactly how he had fit himself through the door to begin with. His dark hair was trimmed neatly, and his face was clean-shaven. He could almost be called handsome; but there was something that lay just beneath his countenance, a slimy and slippery sort of something which turned Anna’s stomach, and vanquished any effort at charm he may have attempted to exercise upon her. He was dressed very simply, in faded trousers and a jersey, stretched mightily at the neck. His massive oilskin coat was folded up clumsily on the table.

“You know who I am?” he asked her.

“You are Wolach.”

“Indeed I am! That is very intelligent of you. But now I shall go one harder, and ask you – whether you know why you are here?”

“Either you wish to kill me,” Anna answered flatly, “or you wish for me to join you.”

He clapped his hands, and beamed at her. “You astound me more each moment!” he exclaimed. “But before we continue with our business, allow me to assure you of something, in order that you might be more comfortable. Killing you, at present, is the absolute farthest thing from my mind. You understand?”

Anna nodded.

“Which only leaves,” he went on, “your second guess. It was very humble of you, you know, not to make it your first! But I will tell you now, with no reserve whatever, that that is exactly what I wish. I wish for you to join me, Anna von Wessen.”

“You have been here all along?” she asked him. “All this time?”

“Yes.”

“It was you who destroyed Drelho’s nursery?”

“Yes.”

“Why, then, only ours – and none other? Did you desire only to hurt King Ephram?”

“King Ephram!” said Wolach, with a careless wave of his hand. “I’ve nothing against him – save for the fact that he is a Lumarian! Really I wanted only to make a point.”

“What kind of a point?”

“I should think that would be fairly obvious.”

“Humour me.”

“Very well.” He paused, and looked at Anna with a single eyebrow arched. “But first – do you require anything? Some refreshment? Some sustenance?”

“Get on with your story.”

“Certainly I will. But I feel I should say this sooner, rather than later – that my admiration for you does not give you leave to speak so roughly, or so freely, with me. Were you to accept my offer, still I would be your King.”

“You are not my King.”

“Still I am your superior! I tell you this only to help you, not to offend you, Anna von Wessen. You would do well to correct your tone. My patience is equipped with a very short fuse.”

“Gratify me, then, by accepting my sincerest apologies. I wish very much, King Wolach, to hear what you have to say.”

“You are a quick learner! I knew you would be.”

He flung the door open once more, and called into the dark corridor for whiskey. Gorn was not long in delivering it, a great tall decanter of the stuff with two glasses.

“Will you partake in a wetting of the whistle?” Wolach asked politely.

“I don’t see why not.”

He poured out two measures of the liquid, and slid one of the glasses across the table to Anna. He took up the second in his thick fingers, sat back in his chair, and began to speak.