CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

The three spent a gloomy evening exchanging futile suggestions as to how they might free Dan. Chaldez, after several drinks, said: “I’m royalty. The ruler here should let Dan go as a favour to me,” but he knew at once that it was not a winning idea: Habre ignored it, and Eonni gave him a pitying look. “A minstrel claiming to be a prince,” she said, and shook her head.
That night Chaldez drank more than he had ever done before, and grew steadily more depressed.
The next morning he felt ill and would have stayed in bed if Habre had not insisted he get up and listen to Eonni’s latest idea. Eonni was wide-eyed with excitement, and spoke so quickly that Habre had to repeat what she said.
It appeared that the person who had given her the ruby when she had danced at the prince’s banquet in Droth was an emissary of Boa-Isgaad who normally resided in Ibre-shad.
“He will help us” she said. “I only have to ask him. I have already seen his palace here. They call him Zhak Ajabbi. He is a man of great influence. Everyone knows.”
They found out that Zhak Ajabbi had indeed returned to his palace; they stood at the gate while a guard reported Eonni’s arrival, and eventually they were ushered into the compound and from there to an ante-chamber where they waited until after midday - Chaldez still suffering acutely from the night before.
Eonni’s audience was, it seemed, short and to the point; she had been gone hardly any time when a palace servant summoned Chaldez to the audience chamber. Zhak Ajabbi, a fat middle-aged man, gorgeously robed, was seated amidst a mass of cushions on a wide marble throne. Eonni was standing in front of him. She turned and smiled at Chaldez as he approached. Zhak Ajabbi spoke, and it was apparent that she was to be his interpreter.
“I’ve told him who you are,” she said, “and he wants to know what proof you can offer. As a result of travelling with Eonni and Habre, Chaldez was able to speak some of their language, but he was unwilling to test his knowledge of it at such a crucial moment. The locket hung inside his shirt. He pulled it out and once again exhibited the Roe Aada ruby. “Tell him it comes from the hilt of the sword used by my forefather, the great Bedekka, King of all Sair. Tell him it was given to me as proof of my birthright when I had to flee from the usurper who stole my father’s throne. Tell him he murdered my father, and my mother, the queen. Tell him I will return to my kingdom and take my revenge.”
Zhak Ajabbi listened to Eonni and asked some more questions, and after she had translated Chaldez’s further answers, he rose and declared that he believed Chaldez to be the person he claimed to be, and he kissed him on both cheeks. Eonni then told him about Dan.
Zhak Ajabbi shrugged. He would, he said, do what he could, and in the meantime would Chaldez and his companions do him the honour of staying at the palace at his guests?
Dan was released the next day.
The relief of seeing his friend again brought tears to Chaldez’s eyes, but Dan wore an air of mild surprise that they should have been so concerned about him. And he was not very impressed that they had secured his freedom. He referred to Ajabbi as “that fat slob.”

Chaldez lost his patience. “How can you say that?” he demanded. “You’d still be in the dungeons if it wasn’t for him. I don’t understand you.”
Dan said nothing.
******

As the guest of Zhak Ajabbi, an immensely wealthy nobleman of Boa-Isgaad, Chaldez once again enjoyed the pleasant experience of sudden and unexpected elevation.. He was reminded of the first time it had happened; then he had been in the household of Datzcrig the Theigan. And memories of Datzcrig brought to mind Doo again. Since that moment in Droth when he thought he saw her, she had been hovering on the edge of his awareness, but now she moved back to the very centre of it, and his emotions were in turmoil. His fortunes were transformed and he was filled with excitement, but underlying it, and overlying it were his longings to be with her, and the feelings of guilt that thoughts of her invariably brought on. He had abandoned her and betrayed her, and if he never saw her again it was no more than he deserved. Chaldez was exhilarated and miserable at the same time.
Ajabbi liked Chaldez. Dan said “Watch him or he’ll have you in his bed.”
Chaldez was astonished. “He’s any number of wives,” he said.
“And even more pretty boys,” said Dan.
Chaldez began to notice then that Ajabbi had indeed surrounded himself with beautiful young men, but towards Chaldez he behaved with impeccable propriety. He did, however, insist that Chaldez dine with him daily, and accompany him on his frequent visits to Adreem IV, Parzine and autocratic ruler of Ibre-shad. Chaldez had no objection He enjoyed Ajabbi’s company and his dry, sardonic wit. Dan, too, grew less hostile, and he and Ajabbi seemed to amuse one another.
“Watch him,” said Chaldez, “or he’ll have you in his bed.”
Whether deliberately or unconsciously, Dan missed the irony. He gave Chaldez a humourless look and snapped: “he knows better than to try any tricks like that.”
Sometimes Ajabbi spoke to Chaldez about his plans. Remembering what Tradzer, the ropemaker had said, Chaldez told him how the usurper Sigmar had despoiled the Sei Empire by his incursions in Laifya. “In Sigmar,the Empire and I have a common enemy” he said. “I feel certain that we are destined to act together.”
“If I were you, I’d stick to your songs,” said Ajabbi. “They’re as likely to make Sigmar give up his throne as the Empire is. It’s been falling apart for years.”
Chaldez refused to believe him, and Ajabbi was sensitive enough not to persist in the demolition of his hopes.
“You go to the Empire,” he said on another occasion. “Don’t expect anything from the Mo Wa; he’s no better than a corpse, but there are others who might help you.”
It seemed improbable to Chaldez that the ruler of so great a power as the Sei Empire was “no better than a corpse”, and he was impatient to visit him. Ajabbi said “I’m returning to Boa-Isgaad soon. Come with me; I may ask you to perform a task that will take you to the Empire, if that is what you wish.”
Chaldez tried to extract from him what the task was, but Ajabbi made it clear that he had no intention at that stage of telling him. Chaldez decided to say nothing to Dan; nor did he mention the remark Ajabbi had made to him about his horsemanship and valour of which, he said, he had heard from Eonni.
Chaldez had no idea what he was talking about until he remembered his reckless assault on the bandits, and then he was shocked and embarrassed to think it had made him seem heroic; he could guess how Dan would have reacted if he knew of it.
They sailed for Boa-Isgaad towards the end of the summer, Eonni and Habre travelling with them.
The vessel, The Hissya, had 30 oarsmen working below decks and a single mast. Its course followed the mountainous mainland coast.
Chaldez was awe struck by the great snow-capped peaks; he had never before seen such mountains. Dazzling white beneath a clear blue sky as the sun climbed to its zenith, when it sank into fiery splendour beyond the opposite horizon, their jagged summits were bathed in pink.
“Look at that!” he exclaimed when Dan came and stood next to him on the open deck one evening.
“It’s the most dangerous coast in the world,” Dan said.
Chaldez turned his back on the spectacle and asked Dan about Eonni.
“I’ve hardly seen her since we got on board. Does he feel like you do about sailing?”
“Dan shrugged. “I don’t mind it so much,” he said, then asked aggressively “What’s Eonni to you, anyway?”
Surely he no longer suspected he had designs on her? Chaldez was dismayed, and turned back to the mountains. Dan left him.
The next day Dan’s behaviour was quite different.. All hostility was gone. He talked about Eonni and how much he loved her. “I can’t help shaking when she comes near,” he said. “That can’t be normal, can it? Is something wrong with me?”
Chaldez laughed and shook his head. Then they talked about Ajabbi.
“He’s the one who had me jailed,” Dan said.
Chaldez was incredulous. “You swindled him!” he exclaimed.
“No. That steward of his. Gabes. I was doing alright but something made him suspicious and he must have complained to the Fat One. That’s how it happened. I didn’t think I’d ever get out. I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for Eonni.”
Chaldez was disappointed that he, apparently, had had nothing to do with it, but it was enough that he had Dan’s friendship, if not his gratitude.
On the third day out from Ibre-shad, at about midday, a boat closed in fast on The Hissyo.
“Pirates!” cried the look-out.
At once, members of the crew were swarming up the mast, taking in the sail. And at the same time The Hysio swung round into the wind. Ajabbi, standing legs apart on the open deck, said “They’ll regret this day. We’re going to ram them.”
Chaldez was horrified.
We’ll split them in half,” asserted Ajabbi, noticing his pallid face.
The pirate vessel, its single sail billowing, bore on; too late did its captain realise what was happening. At the last moment it changed course, but a collision was now inevitable.
“Brace yourselves!” shouted the master of The Hysio.
A moment later it had ploughed into the side of the smaller vessel. Chaldez, holding on to a rope for support, remembered afterwards that he was very nearly thrown to the deck, but of the collision itself he had little recollection.
Mayhem was instantaneous. Dan seized Chaldez by the arm. “Use you sword!” he bellowed.
The attackers, their boat smashed and beginning to sink, had no alternative but to try boarding their intended victim. The deck hands, with the long-bladed daggers they carried tucked into their waist bands, and Chaldez and Dan with their swords, greeted them with bloodied blades while Ajabbi shouted encouragement.
Some pirates managed to get aboard but by now the oarsmen, armed with whatever weapons they could find, were on the open deck and fighting ferociously. Those whom they caught were cut to pieces, those who could escape leapt into the sea.
he pirate vessel began to drift off the prow of The Hysio on which it had been broken, and slowly it sank. As finally it vanished, a roar went up from The Hysio.
Ajabbi praised Dan and Chaldez for their work. “We’d have been overrun if it hadn’t been for you. I’d heard of your value, and now I have seen it with my own eyes.”
Chaldez glanced at Dan, and was relieved to see him beaming. Hurriedly changing the emphasis, he said: “Once The Hysio hit them they were finished.”
It was a verdict which delighted Ajabbi, and he described at length and many times afterwards how he had had his vessel built to his own specifications so that it could ram an enemy. Furthermore, his crew were all free men, paid in gold for their labours. “Slaves” he said, “are unreliable. What do they care if their masters are slaughtered by pirates. My crew have their freedom to defend.”
That evening he spoke again about the task that he had in mind for Chaldez, but now he was specific. His daughter, he said, was betrothed to a nobleman of the Sei Empire but at present she was on the island of Boa-Isgaad: would Chaldez and Dan escort her to the Empire? He knew they were valiant warriors, and he could think of no-one to whom he would more readily entrust her safety.
Chaldez could not pretend that he was anything but thrilled. Dan was pragmatic; he wanted to be sure that Ajabbi would suitably reward them.
“It is in my power,” Ajabbi said, “to make you rich men. But more than riches, you will have my personal recommendation. Never more will His Highness Chaldez and his chief lieutenant have to beg in the streets.”

******

When Chaldez met Ajabbi’s daughter, Poiniffinni, a dumpy 13-year old, his first thought was that her betrothed had a shock in store for him. Not only was she plain, but self-centred and spoilt. Her father did not pretend that he liked her, and it was soon clear that he was paying a vast dowry so as to be rid of her.
Dan said “I don’t think Ajabbi would mind if we lost Poinni on the way. He just wants to be sure he’d get the dowry back. That’s what he’s paying us for.”
Chaldez smiled.
In the event, Poiniffinni was neither mislaid by her escort, kidnapped nor murdered, but within days of having delivered her and her dowry to the great palace which was to be her new home, Dan and Chaldez became caught up in momentous events.
As the Sei Empire had grown weaker over the years, so the neighbouring kingdom of Karandi had grown bolder, and now a Karandi army had invaded across the River Orbis. Zhak Zoaden, the young nobleman destined to marry Pionifffini, went through a hurried wedding ceremony and announced immediately that he was going to war. Through an interpreter he invited Chaldez and Dan, whose valour he heard from his father-in-law, to join him.
Dan said: “Why not? ‘Til this Karandi business is settled we’ll get no help against Sigmar. A little war might do us some good, and anyway, it might be fun.”
Chaldez doubted that, but had to agree that the Empire would be unlikely to concern itself in his affairs while it was distracted by a war on its own soil, and he realised that a willingness to be of service would give him some useful leverage later on. The Empire would be in his debt - but he could have no idea how much.