CHAPTER FIFTY SIX

CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE

Chaldez next thought of Doo only when Reard had been taken and the army was once more on the road to Felewith. The idea that he might have found her seemed absurd now: Doo was not in Reard; she was not in Felewith. She was almost certainly dead.
In his own mind he was still the foolish boy whose behaviour had so often, in retrospect, appalled him. To the men of Sigmar's army, however, he was a hero.
The fall of Reard had quickened once the Theigan fleet began to burn, for the ships were a potent symbol of Theigan power, and their destruction mangled the remaining defenders' morale. Lacking a coherent command, some gave themselves up while others fought on with such recklessness that they all but thrust themselves on the swords of Sigmar's troops.
Chaldez willingly handed over his own small group of prisoners to Saminad, and was indifferent when he learned that they were to hang, along with the other defenders who had been taken alive. He knew that they would have shown no mercy if the gods had given them the victory. And in his mind, each one that died was a blow against Havil, as though some part of him were being lopped off. He hoped his cousin would hear of what had happened.
Sigmar must have approved of his action in firing the ships because when the fighting was over he asked Chaldez to be at his side as he toured the streets. Together they entered the temple to Histigga, the Murak's god, and together they pushed over a large, crudely-carved wooden image of the god. As a gesture, Sigmar hacked at it with his sword. "I want it hewn into pieces," he said. "And burnt." He turned to Vanchis, standing behind him. "See that it is done. This place is to be levelled."
Chaldez exchanged glances with Vanchis, whose place beside Sigmar he had temporarily taken. If the Laifyan was resentful he gave no hint of it, but from Saminad he caught a hostile glare.

* * * *

The march to Felewith took the army due north, the road passing quite close to the great cascade. Because the noise was so constant Chaldez ceased to notice it; he was not even conscious of having to raise his voice to be heard above it, but he marvelled at the cloud of spray which sometimes came into view above the tree tops.
The road veers east and winds up a hillside, and at the top a fantastic landscape comes into view. It stretches as far as the eye can see, flat and partially flooded, the river having divided and sub-divided into countless channels and lagoons so that it is neither lake nor land, and above it, clouds of birds rise and descend, swirl and undulatedin synchronised manoeuvres. Only at the cascade does the river escape, and there, with a roar, it crashes into the gorge.
Saminad came up beside Chaldez and pointed to the distant horizon. Way over there, he said, lay Morden Mire, and beyond that Bedekka's Bog. Chaldez looked at him with surprise, and tried to recall the details of the crude map scratched into the sand by Azrat, the guide. He was sure he had depicted both the bog and the mire, and he said to Saminad "In that case it's over there, somewhere, that I left Zahkahn Jeng and the Imperial Horse."
"We're aware of that," Saminad said. "Let's hope they're still alive."
"Of course they are!" Chaldez snapped.
"The Danbedekkan is concerned. He cannot fight the barbarians without them; it was always his intention that they should reinforce us. He wants you to find them."
"He said that?"
"He'll want to speak to you about it."
"Now, do you mean?"
Saminad shrugged and moved away, leaving Chaldez with the uneasy feeling that he was being blamed for something. But no summons came from Sigmar and Chaldez decided, eventually, that it was Saminad's invention, a way of avenging himself for what had happened in Reard when for a moment Chaldez had displaced him and the other karmikvals at Sigmar's side. He did, though, wonder about Dan. The possibility that he was dead had not entered his head, until now.
The river which tumbles into the gorge at the cascade, Chaldez found out, is the Put, the same one which he and the Imperial Horse had followed on their journey through Sair Jy-Din. Above the swamp it meanders lazily across a wide flood plain where the primeval forest has been cleared to make space for fields and pastures, towns and villages. It must have been a thriving and prosperous country, once, but now it stank of smoke and death. The Muraks were once again retreating as the army advanced, and once again they burnt and slaughtered all that they left behind. The killing was on a horrifying scale because here almost the entire population had been retained to work the fields in order to feed the slaves of Kroya. In every smouldering dwelling lay the piteous remains of murdered men and women; bodies littered the fields and choked the streams, and always in the distance plumes of smoke betrayed the Murak's frenzied retreat.
The army's progress through this ravaged countryside was tortuously slow and it was almost two days before it reached the Kell, a tributary of the Put which marks the border between Eujinni and Sair. The Kell is crossed at the town of Metsarn, half a day's journey up river from its confluence with the Put. In the meadows outside the town, Chaldez, who was riding with Tsem in the vanguard, came upon the scene of a very recent struggle. Arrows and discarded weapons littered the ground, and among them lay numerous casualties. He and his companions stopped and in silence gazed about them.
An officer rode up to find out why they had stopped, but he too was silenced. Chaldez urged his horse into a walk, and almost at once saw a group of mounted figures advancing from a distant clump of trees. They approached slowly, as though ready to turn at any moment. Chaldez saw that they were carrying bows, and he called out in Laifyan that he was Zakarrah of the Empire.
Their caution went and they came forward at a canter, and behind them a much larger crowd of horsemen emerged from the trees. Chaldez estimated their number at about 70. As the first group came closer he recognised its leader, a Laifyan called Abrikal, and he gave instructions for Sigmar to be informed immediately that they had met a unit of the Imperial Horse. When they were within speaking distance he asked about Zahkahn Jeng. Abrikal said he had seen him but six days ago and that he was well.
Soon Chaldez, the other karmikvals and Sigmar, were hearing about the exploits of the Imperial Horse in the period since Chaldez had left it.
Everything which passed along the Felewith road, including columns of captives being marched towards the Cy Gorge for a life of slavery in Kroya, had come under attack, Abrikal said. The released slaves, with nowhere to go but the forest, formed their own companies, known as the Feet because they were without horses. Zahkahn Jeng armed them with weapons seized from the convoys coming out of Kroya, and for food they plundered the supply columns heading towards it.
The Muraks reacted by strengthening the armed escorts travelling with the convoys, and when that failed - the Imperial Horse simply attacked in greater strength - they moved large numbers of troops into the area. Zahkahn Jeng dispersed his forces, each unit being responsible for its own survival. Day and night they attacked the enemy's garrisons and columns, coming together and breaking up as necessary.
The Muraks destroyed the forest, whereupon the mounted units scattered farther, some riding north towards Felewith, some west into Laifya, and others, such as Abrikal's, to the east. The Feet retreated into the swamps and marshes of Bedekka's Bog and Morden's Mire.
Abrikal said "Every day our strength increases. The last I heard, Feet units crossed into Kroya itself and released four or five colonies of slaves and killed many of the slavemasters."
Sigmar asked him about the battle which had just taken place in the fields surrounding them.
His tone still matter-of-fact, Abrikal told him "I heard that barbarians were fleeing your army and I was determined to stop them reaching the town. The gods assisted us and gave us an easy victory. We have two or three prisoners, I think. The rest are here, as you see," and he indicated the many visible casualties of his ambush. After a pause, he turned to one of his lieutenants. "The Danbedekkan would see his prisoners. Bring them, and bring Kraeger."
Kraeger, he explained, was a Murak who had been with his unit for some time. "He speaks my language, a little, and will translate if you wish to question your prisoners."