CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

Chaldez stared at him blankly, and Sigmar said, still looking at him "I suppose we're going to have to speak to him using signs" Then he turned to the thin, grey-haired man and said "Lam - you're better at this than I am. Take him away and see what you can find out about him."
Suddenly Chaldez did not want to leave. The moment of panic had passed and now he was trying to take in as much as he could; he thought that if he allowed himself to be taken away he might not be able to observe his enemy at such close quarters again.
Sigmar's imperious manner was at odds with almost everything else about him. He was small and wiry, with a thin, pinched face and a beak of a nose, a bony promontory between black, close-set eyes. Matted hair fell to his shoulders and he wore a short beard. His clothes were ordinary, even dull, and a trifle shabby. In a different context he might have been taken for a moderately well-off tradesman.
Chaldez, speaking Laifyan, asked if anyone spoke that language, and Sigmar cried "Ha! Now we can get somewhere," and he told Lam to ask him who he was, where he was from and what his intentions were. Lam put the questions and translated Chaldez's replies, which intrigued Chaldez because Sigmar's reactions to them made it obvious that he had no need of a translation.
Chaldez said that he was Zakarrah of the Sei Empire and that he was commander of an imperial army which had been sent by the Mo Wa to drive the Murak barbarians out of its Laifyan possessions. Weakened by the mountain crossing, and then all but wiped out by the Stachaxi ambush, he had been forced, he said, to form an alliance with Prince Feldak of Itsia. Together they had resolved to put themselves and their men at the disposal of the commander in whose presence he now was.
Sigmar wanted to know precisely how many men they had between them, and how they were armed and equipped. In telling him, Chaldez made sure that he knew that his own men were seasoned soldiers, having fought in the long and ultimately victorious campaign against the Karandi.
"Tell your commander," he told Lam, "that we fought the Karandi for five years, and that in the Imperial army I was second only to Zhak Zoaden, general and nephew of the Grand Marshal of the Empire."
Sigmar's eyes narrowed as he heard this, and he did not wait for Lam's translation. "Am I supposed to be impressed?" he said. "Ask him what sort of commander loses an army before he has even begun his campaign?"
Chaldez wondered afterwards if his flush of anger and embarrassment had been premature, bearing in mind his supposed ignorance of the language. After Lam had given his translation he said: "I did not come this great distance to be insulted by one who has abandoned his people to the virminous barbarians. You are safe enough here, I think! We have been mutilated by hardship; destroyed by treachery - must I now endure insults?"
His final words were drowned. "Silence!" roared Sigmar. His face was grey with anger. "I don't want to see this boy again. Send him back to his puny army. He and his Laifyan Prince can fight the Muraks on their own. And give him back the men we took - he'll need them!"
Chaldez went through the pretence of listening to Lam's translation, then turned away
contemptuously.
Lam called out a name, and after an interval, the officer who had met him outside the royal pavilion appeared. Sigmar said "Send him the men we are holding and escort them back to his army. And send Regdag to me."
Chaldez now regretted losing his temper and giving Sigmar an excuse to be rid of him, but to apologise to the murderer of his mother and father, the usurper of his throne, was impossible. As he left, he was at once angry, disgusted and despondent, and his mood was not improved by being kept waiting for Tsem and the others to be brought to him. It was dusk before they were re-united.
They were about to leave when an officer rode up and said that as it would soon be dark they should spend the night in the camp, and leave the following morning. Food and beds would be found for them.
Chaldez felt extremely uneasy, but the officer made it clear that they might not be allowed to leave the camp, even if they had wanted to.
That evening Tsem told Chaldez how he and his two comrades had been surprised by 20 or so armed men and brought before Sigmar.
"They were a bit rough," he said, and showed Chaldez a livid bruise on his arm. "I think they thought we were the Murak barbarians but eventually they found someone who could understand a little of our language and after that they treated us better."
Chaldez said nothing about his argument with Sigmar, but hinted that he was not happy about joining him. Tsem was amazed. "Do you mean you'll go back to the Stenovin?" he asked.
Chaldez was mysterious. "Not necessarily," he said. "Sigmar's army is not the only one facing the Muraks, and from what I hear it is by no means the most powerful."
Tsem did not know what to make of that, but he guessed from Chaldez's tone that there was no point questioning him.
The next morning Chaldez had a visitor. He spoke Laifyan and introduced himself as Kudrah Vanchis, and said he was a karmikval of the Danbedekkan, as though it should mean something. Later Chaldez found out that Sigmar was referred to by everyone as the Danbedekkan; only when he had regained his kingdom would he resume his royal title. Those who would have been courtiers and councillors had he still been a king were known, formally, as his karmikvals, a Laifyan hunting word meaning, literally, "companions in the chase."
The Danbedekkan, Vanchis said, was pleased that Zakarrah had considered joining forces with him, and he hoped that their little disagreement of the day before would not cause him to change his mind. "He asks that you send for your men and your allies," he said.
Despite what he had said to Tsem during the previous evening, Chaldez had known all along that he was bound to join Sigmar, if he could; he and Feldak had no future on their own, and as far as he knew, Sigmar's was the only army opposing the Muraks. Anxiety about what he was going to do, and what he was going to tell Dan, had kept him awake most of the night, so his immediate reaction to the news that Sigmar had not been serious was one of enormous relief. He did not think it necessary to explain his change of mind to Tsem. "There is shelter here, and food," he said. "I have decided to send for Dan and Feldak."
Almost as soon as he had done so, he began to worry that Sigmar was tricking him. His apparent change of mind might only have been a ruse to make Chaldez think he had nothing to fear; perhaps he had found out who he was and intended to murder him and all his men?
Tsem noticed that he was agitated, and when he asked him if everything was all right, Chaldez told him that he was not sure the commander of the army could be trusted. "I think," he said, "there may be an attempt on our lives."

Tsem was confounded. "Why would he kill us when he's already asked us to join him?" he asked.
Chaldez said "It's just a feeling I've got. I think we should be wary. We should keep together and stay alert."
Towards evening Vanchis returned and said that Chaldez's men and allies were coming into the camp; only then was Chaldez sure he was not in danger. He and Tsem went to meet them. Feldak embraced him as though he were a long-lost brother; Dan smiled and allowed Chaldez to clasp his arm. "What have we here?" he asked, and Chaldez, in a whisper, said "Sigmar," and added "Don't say anything. I'll explain later."