Banners of The Sa'yen, page 19
“Aye, such a pity!” the hidden guard said firmly, his sword’s sheath scraping up against the cold, hard stone of the corridor outside.
“And what is so sad is that if we could warn Him of
His peril, he who helps us escape could ask for anything from Him and it would be granted to him freely!”
“Anything?”
“Anything the Lord, in His limited powers, could reward. It could have even been you, warrior. What would you do, friend, with a jar as tall as yourself filled with gold and jewels? Why, I know many a royal house in Triisus that does not have such a fortune in its treasure vaults.”
“Aye, such a fortune!” the hidden warrior answered, his voice sounding far off and unsteady. “A fabulous fortune!”
“Aye, and all he would have to do to get it would be to help us escape and he would have such a gift,” Hakba Baru said, fingering his black beard eagerly as his eyes blazed on the locked cell door. “What say you, warrior?” “Me?” the warrior stammered, as if suddenly caught doing a terrible deed. “Me? Well, uh, escape is, uh, impossible, isn’t it? I mean, uh, down this hall to your left is the dungeon guard’s day room. It is staffed at all times with at least twenty men, except for this coming Monday, when the prince and the Hakadian admiral plan to spring the trap on the Lord. They will have only a few, no more than three, men in the day room plus, uh, me down in the dungeons on that day to supervise the prisoners. So, if, uh, by some impossible set of circumstances yonder door is left unlocked on a certain day and, uh, if perhaps a key is dropped too close to a cell door and two certain prisoners escape, how can one foresee the future in such things?” “And, supposing such an impossible set of deeds did actually happen, warrior, how would the Lord recognize such a faithful servant?” the bearded, hawk-faced pirate smoothly asked, smiling through his beard as his eyes lingered on the heavy Kakla wood of the cell door.
“Recognize? Hmmm, well uh, such impossible deeds rarely happen. But they do sometimes, don’t they? Yes. Well, perhaps if one matched one half of the feather from a Triisusian pigeon with the other half a certain servant might bring forward, the proper rewards might be funded?”
And a portion of a feather, broken neatly in half, appeared through the crack in the cell door at the bottom.
The black-bearded pirate looked at me and nodded, and I nodded too. As boot steps quickly hurried away from our cell down the corridor, we both understood that the Monday next would be the day we could escape from our chains!
When he came, he came on wings of silence! All through the night that we believed to be Sunday—for we knew not the actual day since neither calendar nor sand clock was part of our cell—I and the bearded, black-haired pirate sat with our ears cocked and our senses keyed on hearing the approach of the traitorous guard. But when he came, we did not hear him until he roughly pushed the key under the door of our cell and made it fly across the floor and straight into Hakba Baru’s hands. The bearded pirate held the bronze, heavy-looking key up with both hands and turned to face me. Standing, we both heard the boots of the mysterious guard hurry down the stone floors of the corridor outside our cell. With growing excitement, I watched the fierce pirate take the large key and, with trembling hands, unlock the massive chains from around his wrists and ankles. With a smothered shout of glee he stepped to my side and quickly freed me and together we stood unbound from our chains for the first time in weeks.
“Freedom!” the Aggarian pirate shouted, taking my shoulders and shaking me in his excitement.
“Aye, Hakba! Freedom and a chance to save the Lord! We must hurry!”
The door to our cell we found unlocked and swiftly we moved out into the corridor. There waiting for us was my sword of Fadah’s old armory and one for the pirate with accompanying scabbards and belts. We quickly strapped these on. The hook-nosed, bearded pirate took from the wall the torch which was burning brightly, and with swords gripped firmly in our hands, we moved slowly down the stone corridor in single file. The torch, held high over our heads by Hakba Baru, flickered with every gust of wind that seeped through the stone of the walls, creating huge and fantastic images and shadows which danced and twirled for our benefit on the walls, ceiling and floors of the dungeon. But we paid little heed to these mirages and hurried on in silence. Turning a corner, we stopped, the bearded pirate glancing over his shoulder to have a look at me and then nodding down the corridor in front of him. Ahead of us, bracketed by two brightly burning torches, was the heavy wooden cell door that would open into the dungeon guards’ day room. What had the mysterious Kandarian guard said about how many unsuspecting guards would be lounging in the room behind that door? Only two or three? Had he spoken the truth? Or was this the first test of a possible trap of such subtleness that even we could not fathom? Glancing at the bearded pirate I saw the same suspicions being reflected in his eyes. Was this a trap? And if so, why was it necessary to trap two prisoners already safely under lock and key? Would there be only two or three guards in the room when we opened the door and suddenly entered? Or would we find a large contingent of Kandar household guards and die fighting valiantly but uselessly against impossible odds? Finding my mouth bitterly dry from fear and suspicion, I called myself a fool, gripped my sword more firmly and whispered to the bearded pirate to move on. We could not linger in the narrow, confining corridor of the dungeon in indecision. We had to press on and confront whatever grand and elaborate designs Bahir Kandar and Admiral Hasdrubal had created if we were to save the Lord! I nudged the bearded pirate to hurry him on, and we approached the heavy door of Kakla wood and halted just in front of it.
From the other side of the door we heard men laughing. The laughter came from two men obviously at ease and unsuspecting of danger being so immediately upon them. We waited for a few seconds to listen and possibly hear more voices, our ears close to the heavy wooden door. But we heard only two voices and no others and it pleased us. The bearded, hook-nosed pirate quietly slid the torch he held in one hand into a torch ring in the wall and then glanced at me. I nodded, stepped up to the door and placed a hand around the sliding bolt which kept the door locked in place, being careful not to make any sounds. Glancing at each other again, each nodding to the other and with a swiftness of desperation driving me, I slid the bolt of the door back and threw the door open in one motion. Together, Hakba Baru and I leaped into the large day room of the dungeon guards and fell onto the unsuspecting Kandarian guards with a deadly swiftness that left them without any hope of defending themselves. It was over before they realized death was upon them and as we stepped back and wiped our blades with the cloth that had been spread over a large table burdened with much bread and food heaped in many bowls, we surveyed the room quickly. I was, at the first sight of so much food straining the legs of the table before us, attacked with a ravenous desire to fill my stomach. But I checked myself and only took a large loaf of black bread and tore into it. As I chewed eagerly on this tough but tasty bread, the bearded pirate cut a huge chunk of meat from a ham and started tearing it to pieces with his teeth. I grinned, threw the bearded pirate a bottle of wine from the table, took a bottle for myself, and motioned for the pirate to follow me.
“We must hurry, Hakba. Already it may be too late to warn the Lord that He enters a trap if He attempts to enter the city again!”
“Aye! Your words speak true, Magdar. But where do we go? What can we do? We yet know little of what Prince Kandar and that ragged, bearded thief of an admiral, Hasdrubal, plan.”
“Then we must hurry and leave the palace and make our escape even more quickly, Hakba. Hurry, follow me.”
We fled from the day room and entered a wider, more brightly lit dungeon corridor. We hurried down this corridor and then down another, neither I nor the bearded pirate sure of what direction we had to take to make our escape. Several times we almost ran into a party of household troops as they marched in double file down wide, tiled floors under the command of a squad leader, but each time we somehow found places to conceal ourselves from them. The palace of Bahir Kandar was sumptuous and grand. The higher we fled from the dungeons the more grand and noble the palace became. Tiled floors, of the deepest blue in color and waxed to mirror finishes, lay under our feet as we fled farther and higher into the upper floors of the palace. Large columns of Byrlian marble, intricately inlaid with gold and silver, lined the major corridors of the palace, affording us easy avenues of concealment when we came up onto officials of the palace. Rich, colorful tapestries of the most remarkable artistry hung from the ceiling on many walls, giving the palace an overall feeling of immense wealth and power to the onlooker. I knew the wealth and power of the House of Kandar was almost unlimited and yet I was impressed and even awed by the splendors I saw in the brief time I lingered to stare in the Kandar palace.
Yet finally, knowing full well that we were lost and that time was running out on us, we again had to hurry and hide as another larger section of household troops almost found us fleeing from them. But fortune smiled upon us doubly as we hurriedly stepped into a small antechamber to hide from the marching boots of the guards. With swords still gripped firmly in our hands we both stood with our backs up against the doors and held our breath as the troops marched past. On the other side of the room were two large windows half hidden from view by thick curtains which fell from the ceiling to the floor. Leaping across the room I thought we might have at last found a route to escape, but pulling back the curtains my hopes were instantly smashed as I viewed the city of Triisus from one of the upper balconies of the palace of Bahir Kandar. Below us the city stretched out for miles, with hundreds of skyships floating moored to the thousands of landing towers. Much of the city was under a gigantic overhang of the huge cliff the city sat on. The side of the mountain that the city called its own possessed a huge lip of stone, ragged and radiating with craggy peaks on which the city itself sat. From one of the high craggy peaks that rose above the city in many locales of the city, the ancestors of Bahir Kandar had erected a fantastic, almost impregnable fortress-palace. It was rumored by many that this palace had nine hundred rooms as well as hundreds of secret passages that were both known and long-since forgotten by the current rulers of the palace. I could well believe this fortress had so many rooms! For the bearded, hook-nosed pirate and myself had been fleeing for it seemed like hours seeking a way out from under its high-ceilinged corridors unseen. And to no avail. And now, several hundred feet above the nearest street leading away from the gray, dreaded stone walls of the fortress, I thought all hope had at last run out for us.
I turned and faced Hakba Baru and shook my head in utter defeat. Trapped! Two hundred feet above the streets of Triisus and My Lord the Sa’yen soon to step into the waiting claws of the Hakadians and Bahir Kandar! The bearded, fierce-eyed pirate took hold of my arm to encourage me and started to speak. But on the other side of the room the large doors we had just ourselves entered opened and in came three officers of the palace guards. The pirate and I just had time to conceal ourselves in the large drapes that hid the windows from immediate view before the oldest looking and highest ranked officer began speaking to his subordinates.
“You know your instructions, Bazar? Kuuzi?”
“Aye, lord. We do! It will be like taking warm dew cakes from a child’s cup when these impostors enter the palace!”
“Aye, it sounds so easy, Bazar! But I for one cannot believe this so-called god, this madman who calls himself the Sa’yen, would agree to actually enter the grand reception hall of the prince to exchange the Princess Saphid for his prince. It is absurd! Surely he must suspect some form of trap to be tried?”
“Be not so worried, Kuuzi! This fool, who I will reluctantly admit possesses unbelievable courage and daring, now deludes himself to believe a whole city awaits to rise in rebellion for him and is a victim of his own mania. He believes he is the Sa’yen! And a god cannot be harmed, hey? He thinks he is a god and thus cannot be harmed by mere mortals! He is insane, this man. When the Prince’s plan begins to unfold, then we will show all the city who wish to follow this madman’s lust exactly what genius is! Eh?”
“Precisely!”
“Undoubtedly!”
“Exactly. Now, you, Bazar, you and your chosen men will take the upper loft positions and await the Prince’s command. You have selected your men well?”
“The best crossbowmen in our pay, lord.”
“Good! Assemble your men in this room, Bazar, and then take the south turret stairs to the lofts above the grand hall. Quickly now, this madman and his ship already approach the landing towers of the palace to dock! Come, Kuuzi, we have much to do!”
Through the thick folds of the drapes I saw the older officer, followed by the officer known as Kuuzi, leave. From my vantage point, hidden from view, I saw the guard known as Bazar walk across the room and open a second door that I had not noticed. He lifted his voice in a sharp command and quickly the room filled with forty men, all armed with large belt quivers of stout-looking crossbow bolts and in their hands were heavy, powerful-looking crossbows. It took only a few seconds for the section leaders to get the men sharply dressed down and in perfect formation. The small, dark-eyed officer known as Bazar waited until his subordinates had finished their work and nodded in satisfaction when the section leaders took their proper positions. With hands behind his back, he slowly walked up and down the lines in silence, inspecting each man closely. And after satisfying himself that each and every man was fully prepared, he strolled to the front of the formation of crossbowmen and looked at them fiercely before speaking.
“Each of you knows what we must do today. When the Prince rises from his throne to receive the woman whom this fool believes to be the Princess Saphid, and after the woman is clear from the charlatan rabble, we will then fire upon the rabble and kill them to a man. The Prince expects each of you to do his job without fail! Are there any questions?”
Not a voice stirred. Not one word to utter a protest over the fact the Lord would enter this palace under a flag of truce with the woman He believed to be the Princess Saphid to exchange her for myself and Hakba Baru. A flag of truce and Bahir Kandar was going to shoot the Lord down like a wild dog the moment He entered the Grand Hall. Rage filled every pore in my body and yet no sound stirred from my lips. Hidden behind the large, heavy drapes I made no sound, but the urge to leap into the room, with sword in hand, and kill all that filled it and who were enemies of the Lord consumed me and I had to strain to keep myself from doing something so foolish. Yet in a few short seconds this officer known as Bazar had his section officers march the men through the large door we had entered only moments earlier, leaving the room suddenly silent and empty. Stepping out from behind the curtains, a black rage filled my heart as the bearded pirate prince stepped up beside me.
“It appears that your lord is doomed the moment he steps into this foul palace, Magdar. And there is nothing we can do!”
“We must try, Hakba! We must try!” I yelled, losing control of my rage momentarily. “Come, Hakba. Let us follow these assassins to the hiding places and perhaps we may yet foil their plans.”
The bearded pirate nodded, but I saw little hope of success glowing in his eyes. Yet there was nothing else for us to do. The Lord, on the Black Falcon, was at any moment to moor at the royal landing towers of the palace of Bahir Kandar and time was rapidly running out for us and the Sa’yen! We did not hesitate. Opening the door the troops had so recently marched out of, we saw the corridor momentarily empty and we slipped out of the room. Down the long, wide corridor we heard the marching sounds of many boots and we quickly followed. Both I and the pirate gripped our swords and felt the impossibility of the deed we were about to do weigh upon us. My mouth was as dry as desert sands and my hands were moist and clammy to the touch. But as silently as we could move, we scurried along the walls of the corridor, right behind the marching troops, staying just out of sight Twice we had to step up behind a huge, carved column of rare Byrlian marble. Such marble, as I have stated before, is rare.—black and cold to the touch, streaked in intricate patterns of spidery webs of silver. To possess such amounts of marble alone was enough to make the House of Kandar exceedingly wealthy. And the palace had huge columns of such rare stone in abundant supply. Huge columns, fat at the bottom and tapering at the ceiling. And they made such excellent places to step behind and hide from the passing view of hurrying palace functionaries. But each time we had to hide ourselves from passing officers of the palace, we found it more difficult to hurry and catch up with the marching troops. And the second time we secreted ourselves, a band of servants, talking heatedly to themselves, took their time in passing down the corridor. Because of this, when leaving our hiding places and hurrying down the corridor to find the troops again, what we found was the corridor connecting with three other large corridors.
“Which way? Which way? I cannot hear their marching boots!” the bearded, hook-nosed pirate hissed, his face a grimace as he shook his fist in the air.
“I cannot hear their boots either, pirate. Yet, perhaps they did not take another corridor?”
“Eh? What madness do you mumble now, Magdar?” Hakba Baru growled, stepping closer to me to listen, yet not taking his eyes away from searching each connecting hall in hopes of finding some clue.
“Did you not hear their orders, Hakba? They were to take the stairs to the loft. The stairs in the southern turret. Each of these corridors leads to another part of the palace but none leads south!”
“Aye, perhaps you speak truthfully, Magdar. But where else could they have gone?”
My answer was to leap to one side of the large, wide hall and open one of the heavy, carved wooden doors. Many doors lined the halls that connected into the corridor we stood in and it took us some time of intense searching before we found the right door. Down deep into one hall off to our left was a heavy, plain-looking door with a hasp pulled to one side and a huge, ancient-looking lock of bronze hanging from the hasp, which gave us the clue we needed! Opening the door swiftly, we heard the sounds of boots marching up winding, twisting stairs of hard stone. From the stone beside the door we took from its holder a coarse-looking torch that barely danced with a flame but did so with much smoke. With torch in hand and sword in the other, I quickly started up the winding, dust covered stairs with the bearded pirate following close behind me. Above us we could hear the monotonous drone of heavy boots pounding up the stairs, and in this drone we hid the noise of our swiftness to catch up with them. But swiftly we closed the gap and slowed down, staying just one curve of the stairs behind the ascending troops. Ahead of us the noise of steel scraping against hard stone, and the shuffling sound of boots, mingled in with the smells of dark, moist layers of dust that had settled on the stairs over the years of no use, could be heard. We quickly extinguished our torch the moment we came within such close confines of the ascending troops, and the foul, strong odor of the extinguished torch was so strong our eyes watered. Yet we did not pause as we ascended further and further up the winding, spiraling stairs. And so close were we that when the troops did stop both I and the bearded Hakba almost stumbled into their midst! But luck held for us and we paused barely six feet behind the backs of the two crossbowmen that brought up the rear of the troops.
