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"By Grodno! It is him! I know! Pur Dray, the Lord of Strombor!"
I hauled the scarf up and took a running dive into the middle of a pack of calsanys.
It was damned unpleasant.
But in the hullabaloo, the shouting and yelling, the braying and honking, the dust flying up, and the general
effluvium upon everything, I managed to get out the other side, knock over a stall covered with calsany
brasses and bells, and disappear running up an alley. People turned to gawp. I yelled "Stop, thief!" and
pointed and one or two turned out to run with me. Earth or Kregen it is a useful ploy.
I may make this sound lighthearted, with calsanys doing what calsanys always do when frightened and
pots and pans rolling and people yelling and running, but it was a deucedly serious business. By the Black
Chunkrah, yes!
I did think that after fifty years people might forget what my ugly old face was like. But fifty years to a
Kregan is not like fifty years to an Earthman. And some of those people had cause to remember Pur
Dray, the most renowned Krozair upon the Eye of the World. It was not so surprising, after all. But it
was most inconvenient. I think, also, that so many rumors of the return from the dead of Pur Dray had
swept over Magdag that people s nerves were keyed up. Certainly, the very next day, the day before the
plot was to go into operation, some poor devil was shouted up as Pur Dray and set on and stabbed to
death in the Souk of Silks. When he was dragged out by the heels, his green tunic a mass of bloody stab
wounds, inquiries revealed no one anxious to own to the first shout of alarm. A lesson had been learned
there by all Magdag.
So the day dawned.
Gafard said to me, standing in his armory with the wink and glitter of his priceless collections of arms
upon the bare walls, speaking harshly: "Is all prepared?"
"Aye, gernu. The poison has been poured down a drain. The guards know their parts. Grogor "
"I will answer for his conduct this day. I do not wish to miss this charade. Perhaps, one day soon, the
king will relish the telling at a party. He must one day realize the position and relinquish this pursuit of my
Lady."
He didn t sound convinced.
"As for the greater news," he said, and he fired up at once, as he always did when he spoke of the
notorious Krozair, "I believe Pur Dray to be in the city! It must be. He is a man who will be up and
doing, always scheming, working for Zair."
How mean and small he made me feel!
"I must meet him. Somehow it must be arranged. There is a matter between us."
Nowadays I would have been reminded of the famous if fatuous walk up the High Street at noon. As it
was, he reminded me of a bull chunkrah pawing the ground and tossing his horns, ready to face the
challenge of who was to be top chunkrah of the herd.
I said, and not altogether to goad him, "You as a Ghittawrer, gernu, have the lustre now. All the
accolades won by Pur Dray lie in the past, sere and shriveled. There have been no great Jikais done by
him since he returned from the dead."
He stared at me.
"You speak of things you do not understand, Gadak. You do not understand. Pur Dray was the greatest
Krozair of the Eye of the World. No one doubts that or seeks to challenge it. And, today, I am the
greatest Ghittawrer of the Eye of the World. Any who seek to dispute that will feel my heavy hand."
"Yet is one of the past and the other of today."
He clapped me on the back, at which I forced my hands to remain clamped at my sides.
"You mean well, Gadak. You mean well. Yet there are matters of honor that are past your
comprehension."
If he meant he wanted a good ding-dong with Pur Dray to prove who was the better man, I understood
that. But I was beginning to think it was not as simple as that. There was more to it than a straightforward
confrontation. Gafard was fighting a legend. That is always more difficult than fighting a flesh-and-blood
opponent.
So, in my cleverness, I worked it all out.
Stupid onker, Gadak the Renegade!
If only. . .
But, then, we d all be rich and happy onif onlies.
Looking back as I do speaking to you into the microphone of this little machine here in the Antipodes, I
try to visualize it all with calmness. I try to maintain a balance. I blamed myself bitterly for many and many
a year afterward. I took the guilt. I did not luxuriate in guilt, as some weak people do. And yet, today, I
know I was not to blame, not really, not when the situation was as it was.
Gafard had no doubts.
"The king is a wonderful man, Gadak. He is built in a different mold from Pur Dray and myself. He has
the true genius for war, the yrium, the power over us all. Yet he has this weakness, this fault which is
not a fault, for has he not the yrium, and does not that excuse all?"
If ever there was a man trying to make excuses to himself for some other cramph, there he was now,
talking to me.
"Gernu," I said. I spoke with seriousness, for the answer to my question intrigued me. This man revealed
more of himself to me than he realized. And, I did not forget that he was loved by the Lady of the Stars.
"Gernu. What do you think would happen were the king and Pur Dray to meet, face to face?"
He did not let me finish. A little shiver marked his shoulders and he put a hand to his face. Then he
rallied. "It would be in the manner of their meeting. Were it blade to blade, or sectrix to sectrix, or in
council chamber, or wherever it might be, I " He pulled down his moustaches, for, like the Zairian
moustaches they were, they insisted on growing upward and jutting out arrogantly, like mine. "I would
give everything I own both to be there and yet never to have to witness that confrontation."
Around about then he remembered he was a rog and the King s Striker and a great overlord of
Magdag, and I was a mere renegade looking to him for everything. He bade me clear off and make sure
my Genodder was sharp for the night, just in case.
My orders were simple, for I was to open the doors and then make myself scarce. Gafard knew as well
as I that the king s kidnappers might seek to slay me to silence me. My own plans called for a somewhat [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
"By Grodno! It is him! I know! Pur Dray, the Lord of Strombor!"
I hauled the scarf up and took a running dive into the middle of a pack of calsanys.
It was damned unpleasant.
But in the hullabaloo, the shouting and yelling, the braying and honking, the dust flying up, and the general
effluvium upon everything, I managed to get out the other side, knock over a stall covered with calsany
brasses and bells, and disappear running up an alley. People turned to gawp. I yelled "Stop, thief!" and
pointed and one or two turned out to run with me. Earth or Kregen it is a useful ploy.
I may make this sound lighthearted, with calsanys doing what calsanys always do when frightened and
pots and pans rolling and people yelling and running, but it was a deucedly serious business. By the Black
Chunkrah, yes!
I did think that after fifty years people might forget what my ugly old face was like. But fifty years to a
Kregan is not like fifty years to an Earthman. And some of those people had cause to remember Pur
Dray, the most renowned Krozair upon the Eye of the World. It was not so surprising, after all. But it
was most inconvenient. I think, also, that so many rumors of the return from the dead of Pur Dray had
swept over Magdag that people s nerves were keyed up. Certainly, the very next day, the day before the
plot was to go into operation, some poor devil was shouted up as Pur Dray and set on and stabbed to
death in the Souk of Silks. When he was dragged out by the heels, his green tunic a mass of bloody stab
wounds, inquiries revealed no one anxious to own to the first shout of alarm. A lesson had been learned
there by all Magdag.
So the day dawned.
Gafard said to me, standing in his armory with the wink and glitter of his priceless collections of arms
upon the bare walls, speaking harshly: "Is all prepared?"
"Aye, gernu. The poison has been poured down a drain. The guards know their parts. Grogor "
"I will answer for his conduct this day. I do not wish to miss this charade. Perhaps, one day soon, the
king will relish the telling at a party. He must one day realize the position and relinquish this pursuit of my
Lady."
He didn t sound convinced.
"As for the greater news," he said, and he fired up at once, as he always did when he spoke of the
notorious Krozair, "I believe Pur Dray to be in the city! It must be. He is a man who will be up and
doing, always scheming, working for Zair."
How mean and small he made me feel!
"I must meet him. Somehow it must be arranged. There is a matter between us."
Nowadays I would have been reminded of the famous if fatuous walk up the High Street at noon. As it
was, he reminded me of a bull chunkrah pawing the ground and tossing his horns, ready to face the
challenge of who was to be top chunkrah of the herd.
I said, and not altogether to goad him, "You as a Ghittawrer, gernu, have the lustre now. All the
accolades won by Pur Dray lie in the past, sere and shriveled. There have been no great Jikais done by
him since he returned from the dead."
He stared at me.
"You speak of things you do not understand, Gadak. You do not understand. Pur Dray was the greatest
Krozair of the Eye of the World. No one doubts that or seeks to challenge it. And, today, I am the
greatest Ghittawrer of the Eye of the World. Any who seek to dispute that will feel my heavy hand."
"Yet is one of the past and the other of today."
He clapped me on the back, at which I forced my hands to remain clamped at my sides.
"You mean well, Gadak. You mean well. Yet there are matters of honor that are past your
comprehension."
If he meant he wanted a good ding-dong with Pur Dray to prove who was the better man, I understood
that. But I was beginning to think it was not as simple as that. There was more to it than a straightforward
confrontation. Gafard was fighting a legend. That is always more difficult than fighting a flesh-and-blood
opponent.
So, in my cleverness, I worked it all out.
Stupid onker, Gadak the Renegade!
If only. . .
But, then, we d all be rich and happy onif onlies.
Looking back as I do speaking to you into the microphone of this little machine here in the Antipodes, I
try to visualize it all with calmness. I try to maintain a balance. I blamed myself bitterly for many and many
a year afterward. I took the guilt. I did not luxuriate in guilt, as some weak people do. And yet, today, I
know I was not to blame, not really, not when the situation was as it was.
Gafard had no doubts.
"The king is a wonderful man, Gadak. He is built in a different mold from Pur Dray and myself. He has
the true genius for war, the yrium, the power over us all. Yet he has this weakness, this fault which is
not a fault, for has he not the yrium, and does not that excuse all?"
If ever there was a man trying to make excuses to himself for some other cramph, there he was now,
talking to me.
"Gernu," I said. I spoke with seriousness, for the answer to my question intrigued me. This man revealed
more of himself to me than he realized. And, I did not forget that he was loved by the Lady of the Stars.
"Gernu. What do you think would happen were the king and Pur Dray to meet, face to face?"
He did not let me finish. A little shiver marked his shoulders and he put a hand to his face. Then he
rallied. "It would be in the manner of their meeting. Were it blade to blade, or sectrix to sectrix, or in
council chamber, or wherever it might be, I " He pulled down his moustaches, for, like the Zairian
moustaches they were, they insisted on growing upward and jutting out arrogantly, like mine. "I would
give everything I own both to be there and yet never to have to witness that confrontation."
Around about then he remembered he was a rog and the King s Striker and a great overlord of
Magdag, and I was a mere renegade looking to him for everything. He bade me clear off and make sure
my Genodder was sharp for the night, just in case.
My orders were simple, for I was to open the doors and then make myself scarce. Gafard knew as well
as I that the king s kidnappers might seek to slay me to silence me. My own plans called for a somewhat [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]