CHAPTER FIFTY

Chaldez was reminded of the mission which Sigmar intended for him when Vanchis came to his tent the following day, bringing with him a slightly-built youth with straw-coloured hair whom he introduced as Nopin. Chaldez looked at him and wondered what he was supposed to say.
After a pause, Vanchis said "The king wishes you to hear what he has to say about the Muraks. He was in Felewith when it fell. He speaks Sairish, but I will translate."
At a signal from Vanchis, the youth launched into his account. He spoke in a monotone, as though reciting something he had learnt by heart. His mechanical delivery, his lack of hyperbole, made his story sound almost routine, and only gradually did Chaldez become aware of its true horror. He nevertheless felt detached from it, until he remembered that Doo had probably gone to Felewith from Reard, there to wait for him, and in that instant it became excruciatingly personal. And he was not comforted then, or later, by the thought that she might, after all, have gone somewhere else; everywhere would have been dangerous. Speculating on her fate proved to be so unrewarding that after a couple of days he consciously tried to stop doing it, but it was a wasted effort because he could not stop her coming to mind, and when she did his thoughts had nowhere to go but round and round.
After Nopin had finished his story and gone, Chaldez might have spent the rest of the day brooding, but Vanchis returned later to announce that the Lord Gemle wished to meet the men of the Imperial Horse.
The archery training began in earnest the following day, Gemle bringing with him several instructors, and they met with considerable hostility. Archery was deemed by the horsemen of Sei and Laifya to be beneath their dignity; the sword and battleaxe were their weapons.
Dan watched their deliberate ineptness, then snatched a bow from one of the men; he had never used one before, but his first arrow thudded into the target. He prepared to let fly again, but this time he aimed at one of the Laifyans who had been especially uncooperative. "Shoot!" he commanded, "and if you miss, I shan't!"
The Laifyan may not have understood exactly what was being said to him in the Sei language used by Dan, but he grasped its meaning, and when he shot his arrow he aimed it in earnest - and with dismay watched it fall to the ground some distance short of the target. Dan swung his bow around on to the target, and for a second time his arrow struck home. Turning back to the wretched Laifyan he shouted "Do that before this day is out or you'll leave this camp without horse or sword. That goes for every one of you. Now get on with it."
They needed no further encouragement.
Dan's natural talent was accepted by his men as just another example of his over-all superiority, and when Gemle took them through to the next stage, of being able to shoot from the saddle, he again was the first to master that art.
Chaldez had some private lessons, well away from the eyes of the men. And just as well because he was abysmal. With his feet firmly on the ground he could rarely get anywhere near his target, and when he tried shooting from horseback no one was safe. It seemed to him that he was good at nothing; his skills as a military tactician and at languages were no compensation. They came so naturally that he instinctively underrated them and all he could think of was that once more he had proved himself useless, and he sank into self-pitying gloom.
Gemle's requirements became increasingly exacting; two manoeuvres in particular called for extraordinary horsemanship and even Dan wondered if too much was not being asked of his men.
Gemle demanded that they be able to form three or four long lines, the horsemen in the front rank loosing their arrows as though into advancing infantry, then retiring in such a fashion as to reform at the rear, while the horseman in the second rank loosed their arrows, then performed the same manoeuvre so that the third rank was now able to shoot, and so on, each successive rank facing the enemy, letting fly their arrows, and retiring.
The initial chaos all this produced was too much for Dan; when he wasn’t shouting and berating the men for their incompetence, he had either turned away or was covering his eyes with one hand.
Gemle, however, gave no hint of being discouraged, and doggedly carried on.
Incessant practice did, eventually, smooth out the operation until the lines of horsemen were able to send a more or-less continuous stream of arrows at the imagined enemy.
The horsemen were trained to keep a set distance between the enemy and themselves until, if the enemy advance continued unabated, they were to perform Gemle‘s second difficult manoeuvre.
In close-quarter combat, they were to draw swords and form large circles protecting five or six comrades who would continue to use their bows, letting fly at short range wherever a target presented itself.
Finally, the men of the Imperial Horse were trained in the art of picking off targets at the gallop, as might be possible when a battle was in a state of flux and the battlefield full of movement. The training continued throughout the winter, and included the necessary technical skills of selecting woods and making bows and arrows.
Chaldez had little to do, so he pretended to learn the Sairish and Eujinni languages, and he fell to the temptation of playing an instrument similar to a zaratha which he heard one day being played by a Soan.
Word of his prowess reached Sigmar. He expressed astonishment that a nobleman of the Empire should possess such a skill, but he seemed to admire it and he made Chaldez play for him, and Chaldez, to avoid playing any of the Sairish tunes he had learnt from Pau, composed his own. Most of them were inspired either by memories of Doo or regret at the way he had abandoned her, or sorrow. Sigmar was entranced by them, and would often make Regdag, Vanchis and his other karmikvals come and listen. Chaldez could see that not all them shared the Danbeddekkan's rapture, and it amused him to keep the likes of Regdag away from their preferred pursuits. They all had women, selected from among the camp followers; even Sigmar, Chaldez discovered, had a woman, but she was not a camp follower. Vanchis told him that Asheek had been his bed companion since before he had become king.
Chaldez was intrigued by her, although she was rarely seen. Then Sigmar asked Chaldez to play for him privately, and when he did she came and sat next to her lord. With dark wavy hair falling to her shoulders, a full-lipped mouth and great dark eyes set wide apart in a face with the sweetest chin and prettiest nose, she was, Chaldez thought, the very image of a goddess. He played his heart out for her.
Later, he was sitting alone in one of the small side tents of Sigmar's headquarters, working on a new tune, when he became aware of someone watching him. He looked up and saw, standing near the entrance, someone he took to be Asheek. He smiled and continued to play, although his mind was in a turmoil. When he looked up again the figure had advanced, and he saw now that it was not Asheek. His visitor looked very much like her, but was perhaps young enough to be her daughter. Chaldez stared at her, and stopped playing. That made her embarrassed. She apologised for interrupting him, and turned and went.
The tune he had been composing was a a particularly heart-felt one, for it recalled for him the time when he had been a slave of the potters, and Doo, at enormous risk, had come into the hut where he was locked up and had comforted him. He tried to pick it up again, but his concentration had gone, and he pretended to resent the intrusion of a stranger who was able to have such a disturbing effect upon him. She was extraordinarily pretty, and try as he might to concentrate on Doo and his music, his mind kept sliding back to the imprint of her face. It was a distraction, he told himself severely, which he could have done without.
Later, and quite casually, he thought, he mentioned her to Vanchis who told him that her name was Tamasi, and that she was indeed Asheek's daughter. She was married to Lam, Sigmar's chancellor.
Chaldez felt an urge to exorcise his mind of her, so instead of keeping to himself the vision which kept coming back to him he talked to Tsem about her.
"You should see her," he said. "There isn't a woman in the Empire to be compared with her."
"So . . . make love to her."
"I make love to her!" Chaldez was laughing, but tried to sound scandalised by the suggestion. "She is married to Lam, the Danbeddekkan's adviser. He isn't worthy of her, of course. I think you should take her off his hands, Tsem."
Just talking about her made him feel exhilarated, and Tsem went along with the game. "Why is she so wonderful?" he asked, and Chaldez revelled in being allowed to describe exactly the impression her appearance had made upon him.
Part of his own private game which he played out over the next few days was that Tamasi was forbidden him because of Doo; he even avoided practising in the tent at Sigmar's headquarters where she had discovered him, but when he played for Sigmar and Asheek he half hoped, half dreaded that Tamasi would be there too. She never was. He started using the little tent again to practise in, but either she did not hear his playing, or she could resist it.
Sigmar and his karmikvals often went falconing and when Chaldez was invited to join them he was pleased enough; it was one sport he enjoyed. Sigmar presented him with a bird of his own which was kept with the others. Chaldez took to visiting it, and on one such visit he was clicking his tongue and fussing over it when he realised he was not alone. Standing quite close, and apparently watching him, was Tamasi. He smiled, and after a moment he asked her if she liked falcons.
"You speak my language?" she said, surprised.
"A little," said Chaldez. "I am trying to learn it."
They chatted away about the falcons. Tamasi said she admired them and was sometimes allowed to go falconing.
As they spoke Chaldez basked in her beauty; he felt warm and comfortable with her and when, later, he was alone, he went over and over the things they had said to each other.
He went back to the falcons the next day, and she was there again. Her affect upon him was to make him bright and witty; she laughed readily at the things he said, and then her face was even lovelier. He could hardly bare to take his eyes off her; it was almost as though he was afraid she might vanish. She stood very close to him, and he felt the exciting sensation that she wanted him to hold her; to kiss her. Her presence intoxicated him. While they were together he wanted to consume her, every delectable bit of her, and when they had to leave he was hungry to see her again.
Back at his tent he faced the fact that he had fallen in love. The feeling was delicious. He only wanted one thing, and that was to be with her again.