Banners of The Sa'yen, page 20
And above, we heard the sounds of a massive lock being broken and the protesting of a hasp, long forgotten and unoiled for years, being pulled open by stout hands.
XIII
The Prince Plots a Trap
Above us we heard the voice of Bazar, the officer in charge of these men, bark a sharp command and quickly the men hurried up the stairs, leaving us behind. Hakba wanted to quickly follow the rushing troops, but I stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking my head no.
“We have come to the lofts. And this Bazar is deploying his men above the Grand Hall. If we enter now, we will be seen and cut down by his crossbowmen in seconds. Let us wait until he has positioned all his men and then perhaps we can foil the plans of Hasdrubal and Bahir Randan”
The pirate nodded, though reluctantly, and we waited for what seemed like hours. Dimly from above we could hear the voices of a large crowd drift faintly to our ears. The grand hall of the palace of Bahir Kandar was quickly filling with the loyal followers of the prince and the Hakadian Admiral Hasdrubal. As we stood just around the winding curve of the spiral stairs which opened to the door that would lead into the lofts of the palace, I could not help but wonder if the Lord had entered the palace yet. Nor could I help but wonder if the Sa’yen was entering the palace not believing that some form of trap was waiting for Him. How could He not assume that Prince Kandar would refrain from planning a trap? Knowing the Lord, I could only believe that the Sa’yen had a plan of His own to counter the evil plans of His enemies.
“Come, Magdar, surely they are in place now! Let us hurry or your lord shall soon meet face to face with Lady Death!”
I nodded at the bearded pirate’s words, and, gripping my sword with a determination to succeed in the impossible, I moved up the spiral stairs slowly. With Hakba Baru behind me, we found the wide, plain and rough-hewn door of the lofts swung open and left without a guard. I smiled at this lapse of elementary precaution by the officer in charge. He no doubt felt that in the palace of his own prince there would be little need to take such a precaution. As it was, the door to the loft was open and unguarded. We entered the cramped, dark loft high above the grand hall of the palace unchallenged. We found a dark, cramped place of huge wooden beams holding the palace roof up and large, thick ropes weaving back and forth across the space directly above the grand hall, each rope holding up massive chandeliers and other paraphernalia of the royal house of Kandar. Below, the din of a thousand voices echoed, the noise so intense it seemed to have life all its own. Smells of age and centuries of dust, mingled with the odors of all the small rodents that typically inhabit the dark comers of any large palace, assaulted our nostrils. But we silently moved deep into the wooden balcony that was known as the palace loft, high above the grand hall. Leaning up against an age-blackened beam of stout Kakla wood, I peered over the railing of the balcony and gazed downward at the sight below. And what I saw confirmed my fears, for the large marbled hall of the prince was packed with a throng of richly dressed royalty that claimed the House of Kandar as the liege lord. And there were hundreds upon hundreds of armed warriors, each dressed in their finest and most luxurious robes, milling about. Yet I felt certain that underneath all the fine silk and thick fur each wore mail and corselet of steel. For Bahir Kandar would not solely rely upon the marksmanship of his crossbowmen for the foul deed he planned. He would also have many others waiting to finish off those of the Lord’s entourage that might somehow miraculously escape the first onslaught. I shook my fist silently in fury at the figure of Bahir Kandar as he sat on his raised throne amidst the splendor of his wealth.
“Careful, foolish warrior!” Hakba Baru hissed urgently in my ear, gripping me firmly by my arm and shaking me. “Yonder is the first of the crossbowman! What shall we do now?”
He nodded in the direction and I swiftly looked and found the unwary assassin with his back to us, leaning up against another massive crossbeam of aged wood. In his hands he held the plain, though extremely deadly, crossbow tenderly, as if it was a fond pet or delicate woman. At his feet were three others exactly like the one he held, cocked and waiting only for a feathered bolt to be placed up against the drawn string to make it deadly. Smiling, I glanced af the bearded pirate and nodded in satisfaction as I quickly unsheathed my sword.
“We must silence as many as we can, Hakba. But we must not utter a sound in doing so. Sheathe your sword and use your hands! I shall take this fool while you seek out the next and silence him.”
The fierce, brown-eyed pirate nodded and quickly sheathed his bare blade in stark silence, and then blended into the darkness of the high loft as if he were a mirage. I smiled to myself in satisfaction. The assassins waiting to cut down the Sa’yen mercilessly with their crossbows would not suspect that two even more deadly assassins lurked among them, killing them one by one in the din of noise from below which would hide their movements. The warrior I first downed with the edge of my bare hand across the base of his neck knew nothing of the death that approached him. A swift, powerful blow and the man collapsed lifelessly into my arms. Quickly stripping him of his uniform and weapons, I hurriedly donned the uniform and gear in the hopes that I might more easily approach the others of his unit without being looked upon with suspicion. And it worked much as I hoped. In a few short moments I downed five strong yet unknowing crossbowmen with my bare hands. None even uttered a groan when he fell from the blow. As the throng below continued to grow in excitement over the arrival of the Lord and the Princess Saphid, I continued on my task of circling around the high, smoked-filled lofts, silently downing those that would have killed the Lord without mercy.
I lost count when I reached fifteen. I was positive all that I had downed were not dead but none would be able to rise and fight this day. I was pleased with my efforts but was in much haste to complete my mission. I knew the Lord would soon enter the grand hall below, into the midst of his enemies’ camp actually, and I had no idea how many men the bearded pirate had downed. So with frantic haste I began taking reckless chances.
One crossbowman heard my approach and turned halfway to see who came to his position. The edge of my hand caught him in his throat, spinning him around and downward in pain, where the edge of my hand again hit him, but this time on the base of his neck and cracking it in two with a sharp crack. He fell to the wooden floor of the loft before I had time to catch him, but I was already moving swiftly to another unsuspecting warrior. Coming up behind the next warrior I lifted my hand to strike swiftly when from nowhere the sharp twang of a crossbow string sang in the dark air of the loft and a bolt from a crossbow buried itself deep into a heavy beam of Kakla wood only an inch from my head! Jumping in fury, I caught the still unsuspecting warrior with the right blow just as two more crossbow bolts tore past me in a blur, missing me only by a hair’s breadth. I saw Bazar, the officer of the crossbowmen, point at me from across the far side of the lofts, and crossbowmen standing beside him aimed their weapons at me. I ducked under the railing just as ten feathered bolts smashed into the heavy wooden beam above my head only inches away. Picking up the dead warrior’s crossbow I stood up suddenly and fired without aiming. A man yelled on the far side of the lofts, staggered back and sank to the wooden floor. I dived for protection and suddenly the air was filled with the twang of many crossbows going off at the same time.
But the sound of all the fighting above the hall was smothered completely by the blaring of a hundred trumpets and the crash of drums and cymbals. The Lord was entering the grand hall of Bahir Kandar as if He was, even to Bahir Kandar and the Hakadian Hasdrubal, of royalty more regal than that of the host. As was the tradition of the city’s royalty, the blaring of trumpets and the crash of drums and cymbals marked the entrance of such high nobility into the house of a lower nobleman. Yet, unbeknownst to Bahir Kandar and Hasdrubal, as the trumpets blew and the drums and cymbals crashed, above them a swift and deadly battle was fought with their own men’s crossbows, the noise covered by the honor the prince of this house bestowed casually upon the Lord. And when the fanfare of drums and trumpets and cymbals ceased, not a sound stirred above. For in the savage melee in the lofts, the forty picked men of Bazar, not knowing who was friend and who was foe, had turned upon each other with their own weapons and wreaked deadly havoc. And as they fought,among themselves, the bearded pirate and myself quietly hid in the darkness that abounded and killed those who survived swiftly and silently.
A silence complete and strangely malevolent fell upon the throng below the moment the fanfare ceased. Above, the bearded pirate joined me, our mission supposedly complete, and we had by far the best view of the whole procession below us. I saw the Lord, His yellow hair combed and pulled back over His wide shoulders, His beard a golden marvel to view, for upon this land it is rare to see the color of gold in a man’s beard and hair as was the Lord’s. He was dressed in the mail the old armorer Fadah had given him, the fabulous sword made from the secret steel of the Ancient Kings strapped to His side. Over the mail He had on the plain brown sarat, a thin cloth smock that covered chest and hips but left arms and legs below the knees bare, that He was so fond of. Head bare, His golden hair falling down past His shoulders and standing tall and straight as always, He was the Lord! The Sa’yen! And my heart filled with worshipping awe and thankfulness that I was one of His followers. Around Him stood the hard, stout hearts of old Fidor and tall, thin Tallsus. And in the midst of them stood a woman with long, lustrous brown hair. But not just a woman. A woman of such beauty that even I, one who usually has little appreciation for a woman’s beauty, caught my breath! She was without a doubt the most beautiful woman I or any other mortal had ever looked upon. She stood dressed in flowing robes that befitted her royal personage, but such was her beauty that a simple peasant’s dress would have been enough to mark her as a queen. She stood tall and straight, her head held high, her delicately upturned nose in the air. She barely came to My Lord’s shoulders but she held herself in such a way that none, not one soul in the entire throng of the grand palace of Bahir Kandar, doubted who she wa6. She was Princess Saphid, daughter of Hassan, Emperor of the Hakad Empire!
I saw Hasdrubal, the Hakadian admiral, step up to the raised dais of Bahir Kandar and bend down to whisper something urgent into the prince’s ear. I was sure the admiral was informing the prince that the Lord, contrary to what they had supposed happened, had indeed rescued the real Princess Saphid from the burning flames of the frigate I had leaped from over a month back! I saw surprise and consternation come across the face of Bahir Kandar plainly. But the evil prince was a master and quickly regained his composure and even smiled down upon the Lord from his throne. The packed throng made no sound but watched the Lord standing before the dais of the throne of Bahir Kandar. The Lord, in His magnificence, stood with His arms folded across His chest, apparently in no hurry to remove Himself from out of the hands of His enemies. And, from above, I wondered if the stalemate of silence that now gripped all below would continue indefinitely. The bearded pirate seemed as confused as I and shrugged his narrow shoulders. Looking downward again, we both saw the princess make the first effort and end the silence that had gripped everyone’s hearts.
“Admiral, what means this rudeness? Attend to me.”
Her words were those of a royal princess long used to commanding the most powerful of her father’s commanders. And Hasdrubal, the curled, perfumed courtier of the princess’s father, reluctantly came down the raised dais of Bahir Kandar and knelt to one knee in front of the princess, lowering his curled locked in submission. From the throng rose a muffled exclamation of surprise and wonder at seeing the admiral of the powerful Hakadian fleet, that now dotted the landing towers above the city, so readily acknowledge the power the Princess Saphid held over him. But neither the princess nor the admiral paid any attention to the muffled exclamations and whispers that had erupted like a whispering wind throughout the throng. The princess, in her regal haughtiness, offered her hand and the admiral took it and kissed it gently. She motioned the admiral to rise, and the perfumed, darkly bearded Hakadian rose and stepped to one side.
uMy princess, I rejoice that you indeed are alive and well. A miracle has happened. A true miracle.”
“Indeed a miracle! With little effort from my faithful servants or from even my betrothed to rescue me from the clutches of this vagabond, I must be insulted by being brought to the court of my future husband like a slave, to be bartered like cattle no less for more vagabonds. It is an insult, Hasdrubal! An insult! And I will not stand for it Neither will my father when he hears of it.”
I saw the curled-haired, perfumed admiral stagger a bit from her veiled threats, and surprised was I that she felt such hostility toward the person who saved her life from the flaming wreck of the burning frigate. But the Lord, even more strangely, had a mysterious smile on His thin lips and I found myself growing more confused. It appeared to me that much had happened between the princess and the Lord while He held her hostage. Yet I knew nothing and burned with an eagerness to find out Grinning, I continued watching and saw the Lord take a step forward to speak.
“Prince, I come to your palace with the Princess Saphid, as was the conditions laid down by me, for the release of my friends, Magdar the Bull and the pirate prince Hakba Baru. I have fulfilled my promise. The Princess Saphid, as you see, is alive and very much herself. I now demand that my friends be released to me under the flag of truce we still stand under so that we may withdraw in peace.”
From the crowd came a heavy mumble and a few shouts of anger. The throng was rapidly turning against the Lord, and fears new and strong gripped me. But the mumbling fury of the crowd was silenced in an instant by the shattering, high shrieking anger of the prince himself as he leaped from his throne and dashed madly, his robes whirling about him, down the raised dais to confront the Lord.
“Demand? Demand? You demand from me the fools I hold in my dungeon? Ha! You are a larger fool than I even thought at first. You demand from me? How can a charlatan, a leader of rabble, demand from a Prince of the House of Kandar? I shall show you what power is, you dog! Your flag of truce means nothing to me in my own house. Today you die! And so dies your rabble within the city!”
And with these words Bahir Kandar leaped back up to his throne and lifted his hand and dropped it rapidly, grinning in evil delight in what he thought would be the sudden fury of crossbow shafts filling the air in front of him and cutting down the Lord with a swiftness that would have startled all in the unsuspecting throng. But no crossbow shafts came! Surprise lit the prince’s face, as well as that of the Hakadian admiral, and both lifted their faces upward to see what had happened to their elaborate trap. I saw Tallsus and Fidor leap in front of the Lord, their swords drawn to protect Him. I saw the Lord draw His sword and push His faithful servants aside and leap for Bahir Kandar. And then from behind me came a blood-curdling scream of rage and pain, and then a bloodied form was clawing for my throat. I fell to the wooden floor of the loft and fought with the demon that gripped me with steel fingers. From below, the throng exploded into a sustained scream of fear and terror and mass hysteria gripped one and all. As I fought and rolled with whatever it was that clawed at me like some mad animal, I heard from below the ringing crash of steel flying against steel and the roar of furniture and chandeliers being destroyed in one huge melee. Yet even as I fought I had more concern for the Lord’s safety than for my own. Desperately I tried to free myself from whatever gripped me, but it fought with a desperation that bordered upon insanity. Hakba Baru, caught surprised and startled by the onslaught of the form that now struggled to kill me with steel fingers, regained his senses and jumped to my rescue. But the thing slapped the pirate to one side viciously, making the pirate slam his head up against a wooden beam, knocking him unconscious. Yet the pirate’s efforts to render assistance saved me. For, in knocking the attacking pirate to one side senselessly, the thing had to let go of his death grip around my throat. With a heave, I used an old Ha’valli wrestling hold my father had taught me as a youth and threw the man-thing off of me. With a piercing, inhuman scream of defeated rage, Bazar sailed over the balcony railing of the high loft and went screaming to his death below. Struggling to my feet, I quickly found the unconscious Hakba Baru and threw him over my shoulder. And then with one swift sweep of my sword I severed one of the many ropes that held chandeliers above the grand hall below. Leaping to the railing of the loft balcony, I gripped the rope firmly, wrapping much of it tightly around one leg. And then holding on tightly to the still unconscious Hakba Baru 1 shot out into the air high above the grand hall itself and went sailing downward with a swiftness that startled me.
