CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

The Sei and the Karandi backed off, neither willing to engage the other. Zoaden's army remained encamped outside the city of Arkyat; Taksiber took his to Zydan, the first of the imperial cities to have fallen to his army.
The last battle had helped the Sei recover some of their self-esteem, and for a while there was a cheerful camaraderie in the camp. But continuing inaction sapped morale, and it was fatally undermined when Zoaden ran out of funds. Despairing of being paid, whole companies just melted away. Zoaden confided in Chaldez that he feared a mutiny, and he surrounded himself with bodyguards.
Two of his officers, when they gave an order and tried to enforce it, were attacked; one was killed outright and the other so badly injured that he died soon afterwards.
Zoaden's reaction was to let the army loose on the city of Arkyat, and there followed an orgy of plundering, killing and rape. In the encampment outside the walls, Chaldez watched the smoke rising from the city, and he remembered the Soan woman whose whole family had been wiped out by rampaging soldiers. He felt physically sick and spoke to Dan about going in, but Dan said it would be madness. Towards noon of the second day Chaldez declared that he would go in because he preferred to die than stand by and do nothing.
Dan, still insisting that he was mad, got together a troop of about 20 men who for one reason or another had remained in the camp. Chaldez spoke to them briefly, and fired by his words they followed him and Dan through the city gates.
They were sober, comparatively fresh, and full of zeal, and the drunken, exhausted soldiery was no match for them. They moved in a body from quarter to quarter, shouting commands and summarily killing those who failed at once to obey. By and large they met little resistance, but when they did they were merciless. They worked all night long, and Dan estimated afterwards that he personally cut down 15 men with his own sword.
The next day Chaldez, exhausted and covered in other men's blood, confronted an enraged Zoaden.
"How dare you interfere!" shrieked his general.
Chaldez, his face white with fury, answered quietly that if ever the Sei army were allowed to go on the rampage again, neither he nor Dan would have any more to do with it.
Zoaden calmed down. He was genuinely astonished, but eventually accepted the prince's peculiar sensibilities.
"The soldiers have got to be rewarded one way or another," he said. "If you refuse to support my methods, we must think of another."
Chaldez suggested levying a tax on the local population, and this was done. It proved to be extremely unpopular and there was talk of revolt. Zoaden, angry at the impossible position he had been left in, asserted that the whole empire should be supporting its army. "The treasury is kept by the Grand Marshal. He must provide us with gold. I will speak with him," he said.
Chaldez suggested he take the army with him.
The march upon Nadim caused much excitement in the capital. Adnar the Grand Marshal sent an emissary to Zoaden, asking what he wanted. And when Zoaden's demand for gold was brought back to him he came out personally to meet him. He listened to what the young commander had to say and then informed him that only the Mo Wa himself could authorise payments to be made from the Imperial treasury.

Zoaden's response was as emphatic as it was unexpected. He arrested the Grand Marshal and seized the Treasury, and before the year was out Adnar was dead and Zhak Kassimo, Zoaden's uncle, was the new Grand Marshal of the Empire. With affairs now settled to his temporary satisfaction, Zoaden again turned his attention to Taksibar and the Karandi invasion.
The quick victory which he looked for eluded him, however, and a year later he had still failed to confront Taksibar in a decisive battle. There had been numerous minor engagements, and in these Chaldez confirmed his earlier promise as an original and an occasionally inspired tactician, Dan translating his plans into action.
Dan became known as Zahkahn Jeng, meaning Man of Battle. His horsemanship, strength, bravery and leadership all contributed to an almost-legendary reputation, and he was credited with some absurd feats. If they were mentioned in his presence, and they often were, he never repudiated them, but just shrugged and smiled, and Chaldez, when he was present, would exclaim "What rubbish! He never did that."
While an engagement was taking place, the two of them worked together almost as though they were in telepathic communication; Dan seemed to have an insight into Chaldez's intentions, and Chaldez judged to a nicety what Dan was capable of achieving.
In the intervals between operations they drew apart, going for days without speaking to one another, unless it was to have an argument.
One cause of tension between them was Dan's promiscuity and Chaldez's celibacy.
Dan, although he would never have admitted it to Chaldez, had remained a virgin right up until their arrival in the Empire. But once he discovered sex there was no stopping him, and wherever he went now he was surrounded by a throng of adoring women who were only too pleased to submit to so famous a warrior. Chaldez, on the other hand, had resolved to cut himself off from women altogether, and he became almost reclusive. He appalled Dan, and Dan shocked him; when they spoke - and it made no difference what the initial topic might be - the rights and wrongs of their respective attitudes sooner or later led them into a shouting match.
Zoaden, fearful that their quarrelling would impair their partnership on the battlefield, went so far as to give instructions that they were to be kept apart.
War had a contradictory affect upon the passage of time: Chaldez sometimes felt that he had spent his whole life fighting the Karandi; at other times it seemed he had arrived in the Empire only yesterday. In fact the campaign had consumed three years of his life, and was no nearer to coming to a conclusion than it had ever been.
Towards the end of its third year he fell ill, struck down by a fever. Shortly afterwards, Dan was wounded, and as though to emphasise their joint contribution to Zoaden's limited successes, while they were absent the Imperial army suffered a series of set-backs; territory that had been painstakingly won during the three years of intermittent fighting was lost in as many months, and Taksibar looked more dangerous than ever.
Chaldez was out of action right through the dry Hizattia winter with its warm days and bitingly cold nights, and by his 22nd birthday he was still too weak to re-join Zoaden's army.
Dan's leg wound - a gash from his upper thigh down to just above the knee - became infected and he too became seriously ill. His recovery, however, was quicker than Chaldez's, and as soon as he was able to, he visited him on the nobleman's estate outside Arkyat where he was being looked after.

Chaldez was still very weak; he had been told of Dan's injury and he was moved to find him at his bedside. He held out his arm and Dan clasped his hand; there were tears in Chaldez's eyes and he was unable to speak.
Dan said "How are you, old friend? They told me you were going to die but I knew you wouldn't. We've still got an old score to settle, remember? No no!" he laughed, seeing the look of alarm in Chaldez's eyes, "not you and I! I'm talking about Sigmar. As soon as you are strong again we'll get after him. You won't disappoint me, will you? We've been through too much for it all to end here. Tomorrow I'll sacrifice to Arwarnhi - he'll give you the strength to get better."
Chaldez smiled weakly. The tears had now gone from his eyes. "Ah yes, Arwarnhi," he said. "There are no forests for him in this land, do you suppose he will hear you?"
"Hear me!" exclaimed Dan, "I'll shout so loud he'll hear me even if he's still in the forests of Soa."
Chaldez smiled again, and closed his eyes. He was very tired.

* * * *

As Chaldez got better, so did news of Zoaden's campaign. During the hot summer months the Karandi army suffered heavy losses from disease, and Zoaden's objectives, modest at first, grew increasingly ambitious. By the time Chaldez was able to join him, Taksibar's grip on Hizattia was slipping badly. He was eventually forced to give up the far northern city of Haffyn, and then Zoaden realised his great aim of bringing him to a decisive battle. Taksibar was killed and his army destroyed. Zoaden re-took the city of Zydan, which had fallen to Taksibar at the very outset of the invasion, crossed the Orbis river and marched on the Karandi capital. It surrendered without a fight, and with the Karandi king his captive, Zhak Zoaden returned in triumph to Nadim.
After the victory parades, Kassimo, Grand Marshal of the Empire, held a magnificent banquet for him, and during one of the intermittent entertainments Zoaden turned to Chaldez. His tone was confidential. “I will be Mo Wa, and then you, my gallant friend, shall be Nwodek of Hizattia."
It was a promise which deeply disturbed Chaldez. It meant wealth and power - at the expense of abandoning the course of his life. But why not? After all, what real chance did he have of overthrowing Sigmar and becoming king of Sair?
He decided not to consult Dan. Whatever he resolved, it would be his decision and his alone.
When next he saw Zoaden he told him that he could not accept his offer. Zoaden was suddenly hostile. "You doubt that I will be Mo Wa ?" he accused him.
"No I don't," said Chaldez, and then he told him that if he settled in the Empire he would be betraying his mother and father. Zoaden already knew something of his story. "I misunderstood you," he confessed. "I respect your choice, but you must allow me to help you. In return for what you have done, the Empire will make you a rich man, I will see to it. Furthermore I intend that you will leave us at the head of your own army. I might even come with you."
To Chaldez, that was more threatening than promising; Zoaden, he guessed, would not be content to help him gain a kingdom and then go quietly back home.
The "army" Zoaden promised turned out to be a force of about the same size as the company which Chaldez had originally commanded in the Sei army, and he knew then that Zoaden had no intention of going with him.
He thought that Dan would scoff when he knew the extent of Zoaden's generosity, but Dan, as so often happened, surprised him. "What did I say?" he enthused. "I told you fighting the Karandi would do us some good. We're on our way, Chaldez - we're on our way!"