The Hidden City (31 page)

‘I wonder if they've got ears,' Kring said, drawing his saber. ‘If they do, we might just want to gather them up. I haven't given up on friend Oscagne yet.'

‘There's one way to find out,' Tikume said, hefting his javelin and leading the charge.

The standard Peloi tactics seemed to baffle Klæl's soldiers. The superb horses of the nomads were as swift as deer, and the eastern Peloi's preference for the javelin over the saber was an additional advantage. The horsemen split up into small groups and began their attack. They slashed forward in long files, each group concentrating on one of the steel-masked monsters and each Peloi hurling his javelin into the huge bodies at close range and then swerving away to safety. After a few such attacks, the front ranks of the enemy warriors bristled like hedgehogs with the short spears protruding from their bodies.

The armored soldiers grew increasingly desperate, and they flailed ineffectually at their swift-charging tormentors with their brutal maces, savaging the unoffending air and almost never striking a solid blow.

‘Good fight!' Kring panted to his friend after several charges. They're big, but they're not quite fast enough.'

‘And not in very good condition either,' Tikume added. ‘That last one I skewered was puffing and wheezing like a leaky bellows.'

‘They
do
seem to be having some trouble getting their breath, don't they?' Kring agreed. His eyes suddenly narrowed. ‘Wait a minute, let's try something. Tell your children to just ride in and then wheel and ride out again. Don't waste any more javelins.'

‘I don't quite follow, Domi.'

‘Have you ever gone up into the high mountains?'

‘A few times. Why?'

‘Do you remember how hard it was to get your breath?'

‘Right at first, I suppose. I remember getting a little light-headed.'

‘Exactly. I don't know where Klæl went to recruit these soldiers, but it wasn't from around here. I think they're used to thicker air. Let's make them chase us. Why go to all the trouble of killing somebody if the air's going to do the job for you?'

‘It's worth a try.' Tikume shrugged. ‘It takes a lot of the fun out of it, though.'

‘We can have fun with the Cynesgans later,' Kring told him. ‘Let's run Klæl's infantry to death first.
Then
we can go slaughter Cyrgon's cavalry.'

‘Sort of follow my lead on this,' Stragen told Talen as the two mounted the rickety stairs leading up to the loft. ‘I've gotten to know Valash fairly well, so I can gauge his reactions a little better than you can.'

‘All right,' Talen shrugged. ‘He's your fish. I'll let you play him.'

Stragen opened the door to the stale-smelling loft,
and the two of them threaded their way through the clutter to Valash's corner.

The bony Dacite in the brocade jacket was not alone. A gaunt Styric with open, seeping sores on his face slumped in a chair at the table. The Styric's right arm hung limply at his side, the right side of his ulcerated face sagged, and his right eyelid drooped down to almost totally cover the eye. He was mumbling to himself, evidently completely unaware of his surroundings.

‘This isn't a good time, Vymer,' Valash said.

‘It's quite important, Master Valash,' Stragen said quickly.

‘All right, but don't take too long.'

As they approached the table, Talen's stomach suddenly churned. An overpowering odor of putrefying flesh emanated from the comatose Styric.

This is my master,' Valash said shortly.

‘Ogerajin?' Stragen asked.

‘How did you know his name?'

‘You mentioned it to me once, I think – or maybe it was one of your friends. Isn't he a little sick to be out and about?'

That's none of your concern, Vymer. What's this important information you have for me?'

‘Not me, Master Valash. Reldin here picked up something.'

‘Speak up then, boy.'

‘Yes, Master Valash,' Talen said, ducking his head in a sort of half-bow. ‘I went into a waterfront tavern earlier today, and I heard a couple of Edomish sailors talking. They seemed very excited about something, so I slipped a little closer to find out why they were so worked up. Well, you know how Edomishmen feel about the Church of Chyrellos.'

‘Get on with it, Reldin.'

‘Yes, sir. I was only trying to explain.
Anyway,
one
of the sailors had just reached port, and he was telling the other one to get word to somebody in Edom – Rebal, I think his name is. It seems that the first sailor had just come in from Valesia, and when he'd been leaving port there, his ship passed a fleet coming into the harbor at Valles.'

‘What's so significant about that?' Valash demanded.

‘I was just coming to that. What made the first sailor so excited was the fact that the ships he saw were all flying the banners of the Church of Chyrellos and the rails were lined with men wearing armor. He kept babbling something about Church Knights coming to impose heresies on the people of Tamuli.'

Valash was staring at him in open-mouthed horror.

‘As soon as I heard that part, I slipped away. Vymer here thought you might want to know about it, but I wasn't so sure. What difference should it make to us that the Elenes are arguing about religion? It doesn't involve us, does it?'

‘How many ships?' Valash demanded in a half-strangled tone. His eyes were bulging.

‘The sailor wasn't too specific, Master Valash.' Talen smiled. ‘I sort of got the impression that he ran out of the numbers that he knew the names of. I guess that fleet stretched from horizon to horizon. If those men in armor
are
Church Knights, I'd say that
all
of them are on board these ships. I've heard things about those people.
I
certainly wouldn't want to be the one they're coming after. How much would you say this information's worth, Master Valash?'

Valash reached for his purse without any protest.

‘Have any messengers from those camps out in the woods come by lately, Master Valash?' Stragen asked suddenly.

‘That's none of your concern, Vymer.'

‘Whatever you say, Master Valash. All I was getting at
is that you ought to warn them about talking in public. I came across a couple of men who looked as if they've been living in the woods. One of them was telling the other that they couldn't do anything until Scarpa got instructions from Cyrga. Who's Cyrga? I've never heard of him.'

‘It's not a who, Vymer,' Talen said. ‘It's a where. Cyrga's a town over in Cynesga.'

‘Really?' Stragen's expression grew curious. ‘This is the first time I've ever heard the name. Where is it? What route would you take to get to Cyrga?'

‘The pathway lies close by the Well of Vigay,' the diseased Ogerajin announced in a loud, declamatory voice.

Valash made a slightly strangled noise and ineffectually tried to wave his hands warningly in front of his master's face, but Ogerajin brushed him aside. ‘Keep morning at thy back,' the Styric continued.

‘Master Ogerajin,' Valash protested in a squeaky tone.

‘Silence, knave,' Ogerajin thundered at him. I will answer this traveler's question. If it is his intent to present himself and bow down to Cyrgon, he must know the way. Proceed, traveler, past the Well of Vigay and trek northwesterly into the desert. Thy destination shall be the Forbidden Mountains where none may go without Cyrgon's leave except at their peril. When thou dost reach those black, forbidding heights, seek ye the Pillars of Cyrgon, for without them to guide thee, Cyrga will remain forever hidden.'

‘Please, Master.' Valash was helplessly wringing his hands as he stared in chagrin at the raving old lunatic.

‘I have commanded thy silence, knave. Speak once more and thou shalt surely die.' He turned back to fix Stragen with his single wild eye. ‘Be not dismayed, traveler, by the Plains of Salt which nomads fear to cross. Ride, boldly ride across the dead whiteness,
empty of life save only where miscreants labor in the quarries to mine the precious salt.

‘From the verge of the Plains of Salt wilt thou behold low on the horizon before thee the dark shapes of the Forbidden Mountains, and, if it please Cyrgon, his fiery white pillars will guide thee to his Hidden City.

‘Let not the Plain of Bones disquiet thee. The bones are those of the nameless slaves who toil until death for Cyrgon's chosen, and, having served their purpose, are then given to the desert.

‘Beyond the Plain of Bones wilt thou come to the Gates of Illusion behind which lies concealed the Hidden City of Cyrga. The eye of mortal man cannot perceive those gates. Stark they stand as a fractured wall at the verge of the Forbidden Mountains to bar thy way. Bend thine eye, however, upon Cyrgon's two white pillars and direct thy steps toward the emptiness which doth lie between them. Trust not the evidence which thine eye doth present unto thee, for the solid-seeming wall is as mist and will not bar thy way. Pass through it and proceed along the dark corridor to the Glen of Heroes where lie the unnumbered regiments of Cyrgon in restless sleep, awaiting the trumpet call of his mighty voice summoning them forth once more to smite his enemies.'

Valash stepped back a pace and urgently beckoned to Talen to follow him.

Curious, Talen followed the Dacite. ‘Don't pay any attention to Master Ogerajin, boy,' Valash said urgently. ‘He hasn't been well lately, and he has these spells quite often.'

‘I'd already guessed that, Master Valash. Shouldn't you get him to a physician? He's really raving, you know.'

‘There's nothing a physician could do for him,' Valash shrugged. ‘Just make sure that Vymer understands that
the old man doesn't know what he's talking about.' Valash seemed unusually concerned about Ogerajin's ravings.

‘He already knows, Master Valash. Any time somebody starts throwing the “thee”s' and “thou”s' around, you can be fairly sure that his saddle's starting to slip.'

The diseased Styric was still raving in that hollow, declamatory voice. ‘Beyond the Glen of Heroes wilt thou see the Well of Cyrgon, sparkling in the sun and sustaining the Hidden City.

‘Close by the well in fields laced with channels thou wilt see black Cyrga rising like a mountain within its walls of night. Go boldly there and into the city of the Blessed Cyrgai. Mount the steep streets to the summit of that enclosed peak, and there at the Crown of the known world thou wilt find amid that blackness the white, where columns of chalk bear the lintels and roof of the Holy of Holies wherein Cyrgon burns eternal upon the sacred altar.

‘Fall upon thy face in that awful presence, crying
“Vanet, tyek Alcor! Yala Cyrgon!”
and, should it please him, he will hear thee. And should it please him not, he will destroy thee.

‘Thus, traveler, is the way to the Hidden City which lieth at the heart of Mighty Cyrgon, King and God of all that was, all that is, and all that shall ever be.'

Then the crazed Styric's face contorted into a grotesque mask of glee, and he began to cackle in a shrill, meaningless giggle.

‘All right, Sparhawk, you can turn round now.'

‘Are you dressed?'

She sighed. ‘Just a minute.' There was a satiny rustle. ‘Will
this
do?' she asked tartly.

He turned. The Goddess was wrapped in a shimmering white robe. ‘That's a little better,' he told her.

‘Prude. Give me your hand.'

He took her slender hand in his and they drifted upward, rising out of the forested hills just east of Dirgis. ‘Sarna's somewhat to the west of due south,' he told her.

‘I know where it is.' Her tone was crisp.

‘I was just trying to be helpful.'

The ground beneath them began to flow back as they sped southwesterly.

‘Can people see us from the ground?' he asked curiously.

‘Of course not. Why?'

‘Just wondering. It occurred to me that if they can it might explain a lot of the wild stories that crop up in folklore.'

‘You humans are very creative. You can invent wild stories without any help from us.'

‘You're in a disagreeable frame of mind today. How long is it going to take us to get there?'

‘Just a few minutes.'

‘It's an interesting way to travel.'

‘It's overrated.'

They drifted on in silence for a while. ‘That's Sarna just ahead,' Aphrael said.

‘Do you think Vanion's reached here by now?'

‘I doubt it. Later today probably. We're going down,' They settled gently to earth in a clearing a mile or so from the northern edge of the city, and Aphrael returned to the more familiar form of Flute. ‘Carry me,' she said, reaching up to him.

‘You know how to walk.'

‘I just carried you all the way from Dirgis. Fair
is
fair, Sparhawk.'

He smiled. ‘Only teasing, Aphrael.' He lifted her into his arms and started through the forest toward town. ‘Where to?' he asked her.

‘The Atan barracks. Vanion says that Itagne's there,' She frowned. ‘Oh, that's
really
impossible!' she burst out.

‘What's wrong?'

‘Sir Anosian's hopelessly inept. I can't make any sense out of what he's saying.'

‘Where is he?'

‘At Samar. He's trying to tell me about something Kring and Tikume just discovered, but I'm only getting about every third word. Why
won't
the man concentrate on his studies?'

‘Anosian's sort of – ah -'

‘The word you're looking for is “lazy”, Sparhawk.'

‘He likes to conserve his energy,' Sparhawk defended his fellow Pandion.

‘Of
course
he does,' She frowned. ‘Stop a minute,' she said.

‘What's the matter?'