CHAPTER SIXTY ONE

Chaldez buried his friends Tsem, Rassi and Zikir according to the rites of their religion, and felt guilty that he was still alive, and angry that they had died. From somewhere Dan found him a zaratha, and on it he played mournful tunes to himself.
Sigmar allowed his men free reign to pursue and slaughter the fleeing Murak warriors, and on the third day after the battle he sent horsemen out into the countryside to round them up, and then marched on Felewith. At his approach the Muraks who had settled there streamed out. Only the priests of Histigga remained. They mounted the death tower and from its top hurled imprecations upon Sigmar and his army, watching at a distance. The stench of rotting flesh was so overwhelming that no-one wanted to go near. Eventually Dan and his chief lieutenants in the Imperial Horse put an end to the impasse by riding up to the tower with lighted torches. Flames licked up the wooden structure and the priests, when they smelt the smoke and felt the heat, began to jump off, some of them landing among the same sharpened staves on to which they had hurled their living sacrifices to Histigga.
Not a sound came from the watching army.
Flames enveloped the tower, and the great stone altar crashed to the ground. The tower leaned and then began to twist, quite slowly, burning timbers falling off and sending up showers of sparks when they hit the ground. There was no sudden collapse, but rather a gradual crumpling, and all the while the structure was being diminished as the flames consumed it.
A shout from the ranks of the watching army was joined by another, and then another, and soon every man was giving hoarse, angry voice to his disgust and hatred for the demon god of the invader. Chaldez too found himself joining in, but Sigmar was silent.
The city was found to be in good order but very changed, the Muraks having rebuilt according to their own traditions the parts that they had destroyed during its fall. The grandest building was the temple to Histigga, with a huge wooden statue of the god inside it. Sigmar ordered it to be dragged out of the city and burnt. The temple was demolished.
Sigmar sent for Asheek, who had remained behind with the Ashtaks, and also for his wife and son, and announced that he would march at once on Kroya to "root out the heart of the beast."
Shortly before the army was to leave there was a stir and much excitement in the royal compound where Sigmar and his senior staff had their lodgings. In the early hours of the morning Vled, who slept in Sigmar's quarters, was woken by a disturbance and going into the ante-chamber discovered Morgfest, the Murak, and, at his feet, the body of a royal servant called Cadzil. Cadzil had been stabbed many times and was dying, and in Morgfest's hand was a bloodied dagger. Vled raised the alarm and Morgfest was seized, but in his halting Sairish he insisted that he was innocent. Sigmar, who had woken up by now, ordered him to explain himself and he claimed that he had been sleeping in the ante-chamber and been woken by Cadzil who was about to enter Sigmar's bed chamber. Cadzil was armed with a dagger; there was a fight and Morgfest, managing to get the dagger, stabbed him with it.
Morgfest was held over-night but the next day Sigmar ordered his release. To everyone's consternation he said that he believed his story, which made it necessary to discover who else was involved in Cadzil's plot. Had Morgfest been guilty there would have been no loose ends, a Murak having motives enough to murder the man who had slighted his god and vanquished his race.

In a remarkably short space of time a connection was discovered between the dead servant and Oogkal, one of the few surviving karmikvals. He was arrested, and under torture confessed to having recruiting Cadzil, but his explanation, that he hated Sigmar for having seized some disputed property from his family before the Murak invasion, was hardly credible.
Chaldez told Dan that he believed the truth of the matter was exactly as it appeared to be: that Cadzil had died saving Sigmar's life. Dan listened to him with a certain detachment but agreed that reason was on his side. Encouraged, Chaldez asked for an audience with Sigmar, and granted one, began to repeat his argument. Sigmar sat with his eyes closed and all of a sudden thumped the arm of his seat. Oogkal had confessed, he shouted; how many more confessions did Chaldez require?
"He died on the rack," Chaldez said calmly. "They tell me he was tearing apart when he confessed. If he hated you, why did he fight at your side instead of joining the Muraks? Many did."
Sigmar only repeated "I have his confession." He paused, and when next he spoke his voice was full of menace. "Be gone," he growled, "or I'll have you put on the rack."
Chaldez left, as convinced as ever that Morgfest was the would-be assassin.
His broodings on the matter were interrupted by the need to prepare for the coming campaign against the Theigans in Kroya. He told Dan "This is what I've been waiting for. Havil will pay for what he's done, you see!"
Dan said "What about Sigmar? Is he coming?"
Chaldez looked at him with surprise. "Of course," he said.
Dan grunted, leaving Chaldez to guess if he were pleased or not.
On the march south, Dan spent some of the time in Sigmar's entourage and the rest with the Imperial Horse, and Chaldez noticed how very differently he behaved when surrounded by his own people. In the presence of Sigmar he was like someone reluctant to leave the shelter of a wood; he did nothing to reveal himself. When he could he escaped to the Imperial Horse, and then he was transformed. Among these men he was a harsh and autocratic commander, and the first time Chaldez witnessed it he was taken aback, as though Dan had no right to impose himself so emphatically without the support of his own authority and prestige. Later he was aware that the relationship was more complex than he had at first thought. Like the boldest colour in a woven pattern, the strand which stood out most obviously was Dan as leader, demanding and receiving unquestioning obedience; making no allowances and giving no concessions. A less obvious strand was Dan as brother; as collaborator; and having seen it, Chaldez became increasingly conscious of it and unsettled by it. In a certain mood, Dan seemed to enter a private world with his chief lieutenants; they spoke together in undertones, laughing and implying secret meanings with numerous little gestures. This Dan was not the same Dan whom Chaldez had grown up with and shared so many adventures with. He felt separated from him, as though a hedge stood between them. It was not so dense that they were completely cut off, but it was a barrier nevertheless; it prevented Chaldez from perceiving his old friend with real clarity. The intimacy which he remembered and had expected to be re-established was gone; he felt like a stranger.
The Imperial Horse and Feet regiments, although part of Sigmar's army, remained distinct; an army within an army, their loyalty was to Dan. Chaldez thought he understood why, Dan having been their sole commander for so long and in so many engagements. He looked for no other explanation, and for a while was not aware that there might be one. Dan himself, however, would have shown him that there was, if he had let him; since shortly after their reunion he had often hinted at, or referred directly to the gold he had accumulated, and on each occasion Chaldez had changed the subject. He suspected Dan of boasting or exaggerating, and had no wish to encourage him by showing an interest. But gold, he belatedly realised, had an especial mystique for the Imperial Horse, and that mystique attached itself to Dan.
Quantities of the metal, along with silver and gems, had been seized during his successful war against the Murak convoys, and everyone had had a share of it. The men of the Imperial Horse, and to a lesser extent those of the Feet, had grown rich, and Dan was to be thanked for it. The gods had blessed him, and through him, his men; reason enough for their loyalty.

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