Wizard's Funeral (16 page)

was covered in small handleless doors, compartments no doubt, behind which were secret contents. The elephants legs were fashioned from circular brass sheaths, which fitted into each much as did the sections of a retractable spyglass, so that the automaton could bend its legs when it walked or ran. One of the windows of the howdah opened and a fat, smiling man emerged. Someone rushed up with a golden ladder and the man descended from the back of the brass elephant. The man saw Soldier and Golgath still staring at the elephant and he laughed. Marvellous toy, isnt it? Same-same from Xilliope, the city of brass out in the sands of the Ja-ja Desert. Everything in Xilliope is made of brass. They make small-small toys and big-big clockwork. Their smelters, their moulders, their beaters cannot be surpassed. They are same-same artists as the great creator of the world, the one great God who made all the men and all the beasts of the field, all the birds of the skies, all the fishes of all the nine outer seas and two inner seas. Golgath knew they were being tempted into an argument as to whether the world was created by one god or many. Had he allowed himself to be drawn he might have pointed out that constructing a world was far too much work for a single god. The idea that the world had been created at all was ludicrous for intelligent men, no matter how many gods were involved. Most rational philosophers decided that the world was just there and that gods had arrived on it first, inhabited the mountaintops, then made some people to fill the valleys and lower lands. If the world had been made by anyone at all, the greatest of these philosophers had announced, it had been coughed out by a giant mudfish. It is a beautiful beast, said Soldier, running his hands over the brasswork and finding it burning-hot to the touch. You are indeed a fortunate man to own such a creature. The owner of the grand elephant beamed. Come, I am the Soldan of Ophiria. Please join me in my tent. There is hot-hot tea and biscuits. The soldan was dressed in green flowing silks, with a huge white turban on his head, pinned with a gem the size of Soldiers fist. He was barefooted but wore rings on his toes and tores around his ankles. There was a diamond-encrusted dagger dangling from a golden belt. In the dimple of his chin he wore an emerald, which flashed green fire in all directions as he walked. One of the soldans arms was pure gold, with mechanical inner parts. Golgath had already told Soldier that the arm had been bitten off by a crocodile when the soldan was a child playing in the river which ran through his fathers palace grounds. That same crocodile was now a pet, and inseparable from the soldan. It travelled everywhere with him, in a crystal tank hauled on a cart pulled by six beautiful dun oxen. No one knew the relationship between the soldan and his pet. Some said he kept the creature in order to torture it, day and night. Others, that since it carried a part of the soldan himself it was due the same rights and privileges as the ruler of Ophiria. One thing was certain, the soldan never fed his enemies to his crocodile, as he did to his beloved dogs, and therefore it was surmised that there was something mystical in the association, some sort of interdependence of souls. As the soldan walked to his tent, servants and slaves moved around him like anxious ants, soundlessly easing his passage from one spot to another men with giant parasols; women unrolling carpets so that his jewelled feet did not have to touch the ground; children with mist-fine watersprays, puffing away with antelope bladders attached to pierced bamboo rods. The tent was huge - almost as large as one of the military pavilions of the Carthagan Army and made of soft hide. It was dyed dark blue, and was decorated with tassels, and bells with pleasant jingling notes that justled in the breeze. There were awnings which stretched out twenty metres from the edge of the tent, under which were gathered many beautiful men and women, whose opulent garb suggested they were aristocrats of the soldans court. Just before they reached the trees Soldier witnessed a death. There was man in the clutches of the soldans bodyguards. These bodyguards blocked his mouth and nose with their hands. They held him there until his eyes bulged and his face began to turn blue. A look of terror was on the poor fellows features. Then, shockingly, the prisoners mouth was rammed against the opening to a hornets hive. Of course, he was desperate for a breath and sucked in air, and with that air came a cloud of hornets. Soldier watched the mans eyes go wide with pain, as the hornets stung him in his throat and lungs. Thrown to the ground, moaning incoherently, it was not long before the poor creature suffocated and died, his internal parts having swollen monstrously. What did he do? asked Soldier, horrified. The soldan spat on the body and hissed, He saw my wife. Just that? My darling Moona Swan-neck was bathing. That devil made a suit of dogskin and crept up to the edge of the pool. She thought him one of her same-same hounds. There his filthy lecherous eyes saw my dearest darling in her sweet-sweet nothings-on. This was one year ago. He knew he would die a horrible death, yet she is so beautiful men cannot resist throwing all caution to the winds to catch but a glimpse of her. Since then he has been tortured little-little every day, until now when in my mercy I have granted him escape from his pain. Golgath said, in a sincere voice, You are very kind, my lord. Hands went up in an expansive gesture. Of course I am, I am the soldan. Precisely. They went into the tent and sat on carpets, any one of which could have purchased a small kingdom. In the shadows at the back of the tent was the dim shape of a long crystal tank, from which came the occasional splashing sound. Having sipped tea, Soldier asked a boon of the soldan, saying his own dear wife was captive somewhere in Uan Muhuggiag and he required the soldans help in finding her. The soldan was enthusiastic. How much it is in the stars that you come to me with this request, he said, excitedly, for my own sweet-sweet wife is also missing and captive of that brigand swine, Caliphat-the-Strong. He swooped on my palace in my absence and bore her away on a horse. That same-same night I tore my hair and swore he would die. You will help me get my own beloved back and I will help you find yours. Soldier thought about this for a few moments, knowing he had to answer quickly, and eventually agreed. I shall indeed try to help you wrest your wife from this robber, thief and abductor, Caliphat. The-strong. Caliphat-the-Strong. There are many-many Caliphats in the desert. You must get the right one, or I shall have an ugly wife I will not know what to do with. If you steal the concubine of Cahphat-the-Fierce, I shall have to send her back, which will humiliate her and me also. If you take the courtesan of Caliphat-the-Red, I shall have to throw her to the crocodiles, which will hurt my sensitivity. If you steal the paramour of Caliphat-the-Crucifier, who is my brother, you will cause a family war and many people will be put to the sword. No, no. Caliphat-the-Strong has my Moona Swan-neck, the loveliest women in the whole world. Soldier glanced at Golgath, whose face bore the blessed, blank look of a holy man returned from a pilgrimage. Yes, Caliphat-the-Strong. I shall find your wife Moona -is there more than one Moona? A Moona Gazelle-neck, perhaps? The soldan looked shocked. No, of course not. There is only my Moona. In which direction lies the territory of this Caliphat-the-Strong? To the west. The soldan peered hard into Soldiers face. Yes, I heard you had blue-blue eyes. How strange. How very strange. Yet only last week I heard of a man travelling east with those same-same eyes. Caravan owners met him on the road. He spoke with an odd-odd tongue. Do you know this man? I know of him, but his identity is a mystery to me. I saw him myself. He wanted to kill me, I think. Yes, I heard he is looking for one with your eyes, eyes like his own. Still, he has gone east and you go west. It is likely the twain of you will never meet again. His face, I am told, was hard-hard and cruel - not a face like mine or yours but full of malevolence. Bitter thoughts have scarred his features. His heart, I am told, is full of hate. Not like you and I, my lord. No, we are sweet-sweet men. We do not bear rancour. We are as full of kindness as these same-same cups are of wine. See, through the open flap. It is time. Drink, drink, for that evening cloud, shaped like a hunter, has caught yon sultans turret in a noose of light. The three men raised golden goblets to their lips and tasted wine that would have had a nightingale trilling for more. Those words of yours, said Soldier, I seem to have heard such somewhere before. It sounded like poetry. I have some dim memory caught in the recesses of my mind. I too, murmured Golgath, with furrowed brow. And I, also, said the soldan, astonished, and I never remember poetry. All three of them pondered on the majesty of these fine words. Three great sighs followed - none of them could remember where they first heard them or from whom. It was one of lifes deep-deep mysteries, said the soldan, and no doubt one of them would wake in the middle hours and call out the poets name, only to forget it again before morning climbed out of the bowl of night. Again, they all stared at one another, in wonder. Soldier woke just before dawn and found himself unable to sleep. He had been dreaming of Layana and was distressed on waking to find she was not there beside him. The others still being asleep, he went for a walk over the sand dunes. Just as the rays of the sun were striking the crest of a high dune, two demons came strolling arm in arm over the top, laughing about how one of them had recently possessed a human and caused that man to dash his brains out on a rock. Soldier halted in his tracks. The demons came on, their eyes yellow slits in their long and ugly faces. In such circum-stances^a man would expect to be torn to pieces by two such creatures. They did not like their private perambulations interrupted by mortals. But as they approached the expression of one of the demons changed, and with his arm still hooked in that of his companion, he said to Soldier a he passed, Didnt I see you at the wizards funeral? You did indeed, replied Soldier in a very tight voice, conscious of his good luck. I believe we exchanged a few words. I thought so. I never forget a shape, And with that the demons went on, still joking about the recent encounter which had ended in a suicide. Soldier walked on, wondering at his good fortune. Marvelling at the opening of the day.

Chapter Sixteen

Spagg declined to join the two intrepid adventurers on their quest to retrieve Moona Swan-neck. Ive bin on an adventure with him before, he said, pointing at Soldier with a fork loaded with mutton, an not much of it was what youd call a jolly outing. The fork went into his mouth and the lump of mutton vanished down his throat. Soldier said, It would be well if you did stay here then, in case the raven returns with more messages from Ixonnoxl. In the meantime . . . In the meantime Ill be enjoying myself They left Spagg carving himself some more slices of mutton. The hand-seller was growing fat and happy in this warm, lazy climate. Goods were much cheaper here than in Zamerkand, especially mutton and goats meat, both of which Spagg loved. He couldnt get wheat bread, of course, but there were substitutes. Maize bread. Rice bread. And there was always some kind of fruit in season. Spaggs stomach would not go empty. Then there were the infrequent visits from his hefty paramour, who always rushed to see him immediately her ship hove into port. Spagg had stigmata. He had bragged to the other two - in a rash moment of weakness - that when he and Marakeesh made love she pushed her forefingers through the holes in his hands. To their utter disgust, Spagg told them that it made her more excited. Soldier was beginning to get used to his dromedary. He had been trying to ride it like a horse, but now he allowed the animal its lolloping gait, its casual swagger, and he rolled with its movements. Both men were fully equipped for a journey through the desert. They took with them two extra camels, laden with supplies. They both carried astrolabes in case they became separated in one of the frequent dust storms which plagued the region. As with all deserts, water was the biggest problem. The soldan had given them a map of wells, but waterholes are but small specks on large open spaces and the pair prudently took several extra full goatskins, just in case. Both men were swathed in cloth, such as the desert tribes wore, and at a distance would not be taken for foreigners to the land. My friend, said Soldier, you didnt need to come with me on this quest. I should be searching for this woman alone. You saved my life I am indebted to you. Im glad of your company, please dont mistake my meaning, but I wonder how many times you need to repay me. A man might save many others on the battlefield, simply by being there, fighting alongside them. How long are you going to be indebted to me? I shall tell you when I think I have repaid you in full. My life is worth more to me than you think. Besides, I am a man for adventure. My brother is the one with all the ambition. Let him stick at home and stoke the watchfires on the walls of Zamerkand. I would rather seek the fabled city of Xilliope, from which such wonders as brass elephants come. Out here there are two-headed leopards. Out here are the winged lions. Out here the white rock-rose blooms and its fragrance is everywhere. Why would I want to go home to a testy wife and squawking brats, when I can be out here in the tranquil desert air, my mind mulling on odd poems? You havent got a wife, let alone children. I might have, if I stayed home. A bored man will do anything to liven his day. Soldier had never been in a real desert before. Once they were on their way he was surprised at the amount of wildlife. There were snakes, lizards, scorpions, and a dozen different small mammals. Gazelle were not infrequent visitors to the eye and there was bird life in the form of ragged-looking buzzards, tiny birds that sought the beetles and spiders that emerged from under the rocks at night, and the occasional hawk. The days were hot, with a fierce sun hammering down upon their heads. At night the temperatures dropped below freezing, turning the water in the goatskins to ice. The rapid change in temperatures caused the rocks to split apart with whipcrack sounds. Sometimes it was impossible to sleep with the clatter of stones that went on around them, with the bitter cold that dug into their bones, and the shuffling of animals. One night they camped by a sweet-water well. In the distance were the dark, hunched shapes of a mountain range. They were weary and in need of rest. Some unusual clouds had formed in the sky and Soldier was afraid they were in for another storm. I always imagined deserts to be desolate places where nothing was going on, he complained to Golgath. How wrong I was about the lack of activity. How right about the solitude. I shouldnt be surprised to find a lost and lonely angel out here in these forsaken fields of grit. I find it interesting. See how the horizons stretch in every direction. A man could feel the world was empty. Yet we know back there are sprawling cities, swarming with people as numerous as maggots. I find it refreshing to be alone in such a crowded world. What is an angel? Soldier looked surprised. You dont know? Perhaps thats something from my own world which hasnt crossed into this one? An angel is a very exotic creature. Some say they are the winged messengers of God, bringing not just words, but fire and death, to mortals. They are full of goodness and mercy. They sound like it, Golgath said, with their gifts of fire and death. Thats only for evil people. Angels are beautiful creatures, who stand on a knights shoulder when he battles with his foes. That should help, snorted Golgath. A big fat ain-gel sitting on your back, weighing you down. Angels are light and airy beings, more spirit than substance. I see you are determined to scoff and sneer, Soldier said, stiffly. I dont know why. Golgath at last lit the campfire, after many attempts with a tinderbox, and stepped back to watch the flames in satisfaction. We could have done with your angel to start that, now couldnt we? It would have saved a lot of work. Its not the angels which I regard with contempt, but your idea of a single deity. It wouldnt work ... Golgath then went on to explain that the tasks of running the weather, making sure the seas did not overflow, filling the rivers, all that sort of thing, could not possibly be left to one single entity. There were far too many chores, far too many prayers going up, for one god to deal with. It was so obvious there had to be many gods to deal with multifarious earthly and heavenly problems. Surely Soldier could see that? Depends how much divine power the entity has. They continued to argue for an hour or two after the sun went down and the cold crept across the wasteland. Then they fell asleep, almost simultaneously. In the early hours of the morning there was a storm. They huddled with their animals under makeshift tents, keeping the dust and grit out of their lungs, until they felt the morning sun strike their coverings with a gentle but warming palm. Golgath went out first and his gasp brought Soldier directly on his heels. Look at that! breathed the Guthrumite. Soldier could not help but see it. A whole city, sparkling in the sunlight. Towers, turrets, spires, domes, just like Zamerkand. Actually, it was unlike Zamerkand in that it had no curtain wall. You could walk right into this city without being stopped at the gates by guards. It looked fresh and dewy, as if it had been covered by the sand many aeons past, when it was quite new, then uncovered in the night. Certainly it had emerged during the storm. No doubt this was a lost city which waxed and waned with the shifting sands of time and tide. Last nights storm had uncovered it. A storm tonight could cover it again, or simply leave the pinnacles of its tallest structures standing proud on the back of the world like the spines of a porcupine. Theres movement in there, said Golgath in an astonished voice. I can see figures in the streets, at the windows. That is no ordinary city. Its a magical place. A land of faerie. We should be gone from this spot as quickly as our camels will carry us. Wait. Wait, replied the entranced Soldier. This is all experience. Perhaps some good will come of it. This is not some heavenly city full of your angels. Only bad can come of it. It doesnt look beautiful because it has a beautiful heart. It looks like that to draw foolish men inside. Its a lure, a bright feather and shiny spoon to attract a curious fish. Come, let us go. I can recognise a snare when I see it. Why do you think it appeared now, just as we were passing by? We would only regret pausing here. No, no, I must go in. They may know something. You wait here, Golgath. If I dont return by midday, then fetch help. Fetch help? cried the frustrated Guthrumite warrior. Where from? Anywhere, said Soldier, unable to take his eyes off the glittering buildings. Ill be back in a short while. With that he ran towards the mysterious city. Golgath was tempted to run after him, clout him on the head and drag him back, but Soldier was a leaner, faster runner than Raffs brother. It would have been futile. All he could do was watch helplessly as his friend ran into an obvious trap. Sometimes, thought Golgath, Soldier was as innocent and naive as a baby. This was one of those times. It would be a second act of extreme foolishness to follow Soldier into that web of wonderful, tinctured architecture, so he had no choice but to wait here, outside, and hope that Soldier emerged unscathed before that bright clapper of a sun struck the vertical bell of noon. Soldier entered the city, walking past sentinels on the outskirts. Remember! warned the nearest sentinel. What? Remember what? Not to forget. This made no sense to Soldier, nor did the words etched into the marble of an arch. ENTER SOMEBODY, LEAVE NOBODY. Soldier passed the first building, then the second, until he was in a central square, a kind of park where the trees were made of onyx and jasper, and the flowers of opal with malachite stems and leaves. It appeared that nature had petrified in this enchanted city, to allow its beauty to survive beneath the sands. There were birds like gewgaws, of olivine, agate and jade, which sang prettily from the branches, and clustered on the statues of jet, with chalcedony eyes that followed Soldier wherever he walked. There were beetles like emeralds that crawled on the flagstones, and butterflies with frangible wings, and coloured-glass dragonflies. Brittle fallen leaves crunched underfoot, shattering, splintering like porcelain beneath the leather sole of his sandal. The square was full of people and Soldier attempted to speak to one of them. Sir . . . The man grasped his collar and stared into Soldiers face with vacant eyes. Who am I? he cried. Tell me who I am. I do not know, answered Soldier, prising the mans fingers from his clothes. Help me find my name! I cannot. The man left him, going on to someone else, asking them the same question, only to receive that question back in kind. Thinking he had been unlucky to find a madman, Soldier stopped a woman next, who stared at him with those same frightened and frightening eyes. Tell me who I am, she said, and you may have my body. Look, I am attractive, am I not? See how my figure curves. Look at my red lips, my damask cheeks, my gently-swelling breast. I must know, or I shall go insane. Perhaps I am already. I have been here, oh, I cant tell how long. But I cant leave unless I find my name. How can I? There was sand in her hair, in her clothes, on her skin. Soldier once more peeled away the fingers from his collar. He looked around him. All the citizens of this marvellous city were wandering around, as if in a daze. There was despair on their features, hammered there by misery. Soldier had entered this wonderful place expecting to be helped, only to find that it was full of citizens wanting his help. There was an air of doom about them. They said they were trapped, yet any one of them could have walked past the sentinels and out of the city, without looking back couldnt they? Soldier tried this, retracing his steps, leaving the city behind. No one stopped him. He could see Golgath waiting anxiously in the distance. The warrior waved to him. Soldier waved back, then to the consternation of his friend, re-entered the city. He still had not discovered the secret of this place and it intrigued him. It was a blessed puzzle. Please help me find my name? pleaded another woman, pulling Soldier down to sit on a park bench beside her. I shall go mad. He did not tell her she already looked mad. How many people are there here? he asked, looking round. Why dont they leave? Hundreds, perhaps thousands, they cannot until they find their names. Why not just walk out? Impossible. They would never know themselves again. She stared into his face. Youre not like one of us, are you? How fortunate you are. She brushed a grey-streaked wisp of hair away from her face. Its been so long since someone looked at me without asking me the same question, over and over again. A small agate bird landed on the end of the bench and began chirruping. It seemed irritated by something, pecking with its tiny needle-sharp beak at the womans arm. Its neb drew a bead of blood which hung there like a jewel. The woman gave the bird a hurt look and brushed it off the seat with her hand. A Piri, she said. Its annoyed because we arent milling around like the rest of them, doing what were supposed to do. They own this city. Its their invention, this place of torture. You could set fire to it, if you are indeed free from its influence. Burn us all here. It would be a blessing, a great favour. Grant me such a boon . . . As she was talking another woman, strangely familiar, caught the corner of Soldiers eye, momentarily, and he turned to look. But the figure had gone behind some amethyst trees overhanging a glistening jacinth lake, on which glided two beautiful tourmaline swans. The sun shone with changing brilliance on this scene, light was lost amongst light, as it danced from one point to the next. Bright, glassy colours flashed and flickered, entrancing, but playing havoc with the eyes. Everywhere the effulgence from the gem-stones produced a dazzling and bewildering effect. Soldier shook his confused head to clear it. His single brief glance at the woman, who had been just one amongst many thronging the square and surrounding parks, had suggested - what? Was this strange city playing tricks with him? Was he indeed falling into a trap from which it might be impossible to extricate himself? What if he were to go looking for this person? Perhaps she did not exist, in truth, and he might spend eternity walking these streets, searching? It did not follow that because his companion was trapped here without a name, that the city did not have other forms of snares. It might have a hundred different artifices to keep a free man from walking out. He took the womans hand. I must go, he said. Im sorry I cant help you. She stared into his eyes. You are a good man. I could, he said, impulsively, carry you out of this forsaken place and set you on the