CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

The Imperial Horse, over 300 strong, left Sigmar's encampment while the last patches of snow on the higher ground were still lingering where the sun could not reach them. But the days were becoming warmer, and the countryside was greening under the first, tentative touch of spring.
The eve of their departure was taken up by religious rituals. Chaldez's companions from the Sei Empire performed a rite associated with the worship of their god, Rendaryk Toje, and afterwards Sigmar commanded the priests of Arwarnhi to conduct their own rituals of supplication. Chaldez asked to be allowed to observe them, and was so moved that tears came to his eyes. He glanced up, and saw that Sigmar was gazing at him. He immediately looked away.
The Imperial Horse was provided with four guides; Sigmar had chosen them personally, and said they were tough, self-reliant and well able to survive in hostile territory. Furthermore, when they were no longer needed as guides, they could be used as messengers between the Imperial Horse and his own headquarters.
The youngest was Nopin, the youth from Felewith, and judging by his appearance Chaldez wondered if he was either very tough or self-reliant. He was scrawny, with dark-rimmed eyes set deep and close together in a thin, pallid face; Chaldez had no intention of entrusting important messages to him.
The other three were more promising. Gudra, about his own age, was small and thick-set, and his tiny black eyes peered out of a heavily-bearded face like those of a wild animal. His teeth were crooked and rotten. Before joining Sigmar's army he had been a hunter and fur trapper in the forests of Sair Jy-Din, or Greater Sair.
Equally small, and rather similar in overall appearance, was Redz. He and Gudgar might almost have been brothers, except that he came from the border country between Sair Jisenner and Laifya, where his father had been steward to a petty nobleman. He had a ready smile, and was rather more prepossessing than Gudgar.
The features of Azrat, the fourth guide, were distorted by a long scar down the right hand side of his face; Chaldez thought him to be the least trust-worthy of the group. He was friendly enough, obsequiously so, and there was something about the furtive way he constantly looked about him that put Chaldez on his guard. Sigmar had been able to say of him only that he was familiar with the country between Felewith and Kroya, where the Imperial Horse would be operating against the Murak supply columns.
The route south lay across a range of snow-covered hills; when Chaldez saw them for the first time he was reminded of his bad time in the Na Pass. He sent for Redz and asked him if they had to cross them. Redz said that Nopin had made the journey south a number of times and would know better than he did.
"Get him," said Chaldez; he was feeling increasingly apprehensive.
Nopin had a direct manner; he looked Chaldez in the eyes, as though he were his equal, and he gave his answers in short, hard bursts, quite different from the speech he had delivered about the fall of Felewith. He seemed reluctant to put his thoughts into words, but having done so, he expelled them with bad-tempered vehemence. He said that the hills were no problem, and when Chaldez pointed out that winter was barely over, his attitude betrayed disdain. He had many friends who would look after their needs, he said.
Later, Chaldez sent for Redz again, and told Gudgar to come too. He wanted to find out how reliable Nopin was; at first they were uneasy and not very forthcoming, but he encouraged them to drink some wine, and they became franker. They told him that Nopin was known as the Stoat.
Chaldez gave them a look of exaggerated amazement.
Redz said simply "He has a blood lust. Perhaps no one has killed more Muraks, except in battle."
Chaldez was incredulous. "He's killed Muraks?"
"He keeps trophies," said Gudgar, as though to clinch the matter. "I've not seen them, but they say he carries them in that pouch of his."
The next time Chaldez had occasion to speak to Nopin he noticed, for the first time, the pouch slung at his waist. He asked him what he kept in it. Nopin loosened the draw string, put in his hand and held out a shrivelled, grey object.
"Penises," he said. "Off the Muraks. I've thrown lots away. If they don't dry properly they stink. I've thrown lots away."
Chaldez needed to get this clear. "You've killed Muraks - and cut off their penises?"
Nopin put his hand back in the pouch and pulled out a handful; Chaldez backed away, appalled now. Never in his life had he encountered such naked hatred as he did now in this pallid, sunken-eyed youth. He said "You can put them away," and to change the subject, reminded him that he had said he had friends among the hill people. "I am relying on you to find us provisions," he said.
Nopin looked up at him. "I know that." His tone was matter-of-fact.
The hill people call themselves Osarians. Nopin spoke a little of their language and was able to tell Chaldez of their boast that an Osarian king in the far west had fought and defeated a Murak army. Chaldez became excited, but it became apparent that the Muraks were known to have re-grouped and were preparing to attack again.
Under these circumstances Sigmar was regarded as a valuable ally, and the Imperial Horse was given all the assistance it needed; crossing the exposed, wind-swept uplands was by no means the endurance test Chaldez had feared.
A series of dramatic escarpments, their forested sides deeply scored by torrential streams, mark the southern margins of the high ground, and on one such escarpment there is a tree-less bluff. Chaldez, with Dan at his side, rode out on to it, and found himself looking across a distant, forested plain which stretches away to the horizon. He called for Nopin to be brought to him, and asked him what country they were overlooking.
"Sair," was the single-word reply.
Chaldez turned to Dan. "My kingdom!" he said. He spoke in Theigian, his voice hardly more than a whisper.
"It will be," said Dan, "when we've killed the Muraks. And you've killed the usurper."
Those last words filled Chaldez with dismay, but he hoped he gave no hint of it to Dan. Quickly he called to Nopin. "Then we must be watchful for the enemy! We will move secretly, and keep to the cover of the forest."
Down on the plain they followed the course of a fast-flowing river. Nopin said it was the Put, which flowed through Felewith and on towards Kroya. Pockets of cultivated land occurred on either side of it and Chaldez was reminded of the great River So which he and Dan had followed through Eujinni and into Soar. The forest then had been tedious and sometimes menacing; now it was his friend and ally. It even provided meat. With their new-found skill with bows and arrows, men of the Imperial Horse were soon riding out in small hunting parties to bring back deer, wild pig and other game for the pot.
The scouts whom Dan sent ahead to report on the Muraks and their whereabouts said that the fields were being worked by slaves, over-seen by Sairish task-masters while a few Murak foot patrols kept guard. In some of the larger villages there were grain stores at which ox-carts could be seen loading up before setting off down the valley, each accompanied by a small escort of Murak soldiers.
Chaldez and Dan discussed their significance, and came to the conclusion that the grain was being taken to Kroya to help feed the huge population of slaves there. Dan said "The Muraks must be scouring the world for food."
Chaldez was silent; he knew that he had a hard decision to make, for if he attacked the grain supplies, the Muraks would have to bring extra men into the valley to protect them and that could only weaken their armies. On the other hand, by reducing supplies getting into Kroya he might well be condemning innocent people to hunger and perhaps starvation.
Dan said "You've a chance here; you're surrounded by subjects who have never heard your name. The only king they know of is Sigmar, and if he ever succeeds in defeating the Muraks they'll want no other! Supposing, though, they knew that you, Chaldez, their true prince, was in their midst and striking boldly against the oppressor. Sigmar's army is far away and of no help to them, but your name would be on everyone's lips."
Chaldez wanted to smile. Dan was sometimes quite comic. "So what would you have me do?" he asked.
"Attack the wagons! Open the grain stores - strike the Muraks where they're weakest. Let it be known that Chaldez is at large!"
"And when Sigmar hears of it," said Chaldez, "what then? You think he wouldn't try to destroy us?"
Dan shrugged.
Chaldez had now made up his mind. "We will attack the wagons," he said, "and we will open the grain stores and strike the Muraks when we can, but not in the name of Chaldez. I don't want them to know anything - who we are or how many men we have or what our intentions are."
If Dan was disappointed he did not show it. "You'll want a number of small, self-sufficient units, then, hitting whatever they can."
Once more Chaldez disagreed. "No. We'll remain together, but when we attack we won't reveal our full strength." He thought of something else. "We'll operate on both sides of the valley, which means we'll need craft to cross the river, and light enough to carry. Find out if there's anyone who knows about boat-building."