CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

Doo reached Budenrath as dusk was settling. She was taken to the castle which dominates the capital, put into a suit of rooms, provided with a Kroyan maidservant, and brought food and a change of clothing.
She spent a sleepless night, and the next day was summoned to Havil's chamber. He was sitting up in an enormous bed, eating in a desultory manner while courtiers milled around him. At one side was a splendidly dressed nobleman and at his other was an elderly man whose appearance was distinguished by three features: a bald, shiny pate, a grey stubble on the lower half of his face which extended all the way down his throat, and extreme thinness. Doo had not seen him before but recognised him from descriptions she had heard as Taddig the Law Maker.
Her arrival was announced by a servant, and Havil at once beckoned her to his bedside.
"Doo!" he exclaimed. "I didn't believe it could be you when they told me. 'Some mistake' I told Taddig, here. You know the Lord Taddig, do you? My right hand man, eh Taddig? The cleverest man known to the gods. He told me you were in Raggan! What, my dear Doo, where you doing in Raggan? What are you doing in Kroya at all?
"Ah, but of course, you came to see your Chaldez . . . Now, there's a mystery! A mystery, eh, Taddig? Doo, my child, your prince has behaved in a very strange way. Why did he suddenly leave us? Upped and off, without a word! I was astonished when they told me. Astonished and terribly disappointed. You see, his disappearance put me in such a very difficult position. His grandfather, as you know, was to have come here to be restored to his throne. That's what we've all been working for: the restoration of King Taigram. It's why we came here, as you know. He was sent a message to say everything was ready for his arrival, and he sent back that he would not be coming! No; he wishes to remain in Jeggan! I understand he has not been in the best of health recently, and I can only put his change of mind down to that.
"But you understand, do you, the invidious position I now find myself in? Grandfather won't assume the throne, and the next in line is my dear cousin, Prince Chaldez. But where is Prince Chaldez? Not in Kroya, we know that much! Perhaps you will be able to enlighten us? You see, until he makes an appearance I must reluctantly assume the mantle of government; that's why you find me here, surrounded by all this," and he waved his hand to indicate the magnificent bed-chamber. "They are now asking me to be king! What I am to tell them? Is Kroya to be without a properly constituted government until Chaldez can be found? Where is he? You see my problem? One king won't come here; another came but didn't stay!"
Doo said "Chaldez has always considered Sair to be his prize. The usurper Sigmar murdered his beloved parents and stole his crown. He sent for me so that I should be at his side when he claims his throne, but he has been the victim of treachery and has had to go into hiding. I do not know where he is. He sent me back here for my own safety."
"Goodness me!" said Havil. "Nothing goes smoothly for poor Chaldez, does it? What a life that boy has led! And now he is in hiding! As King of Kroya he could have assaulted Sigmar with his own army, surely he knew that?"
"He told me nothing," said Doo. "He looks to Dan-Pemmel for advice, not to me. I have done as he instructed, and await for the gods to reveal their scheme."
"And that scheme . . . " asked Havil, "do you suppose it includes his return to this kingdom?"

Doo laughed. "I am not a priestess, my lord. I cannot divine the will of the gods!"
"Did Chaldez speak of returning to Kroya?"
He did not, my lord."
Havil looked at Taddig.m "You are welcome to remain here at the castle," he said. "But you do understand, do you, that in the absence of my inestimable cousin it may be necessary for me to accept the crown? It is not natural for a sovereign state to be without a sovereign; there must be a settlement, and a settlement soon."
He interpreted Doo's smile as a signal that she understood him; in fact she understood more than he realised.
When she had gone, Havil dismissed his courtiers. He turned to Taddig. "We won't have any trouble from her, will we?"
Taddig stroked the stubble on his throat. "She is friendless," he said, "and therefore harmless. You were wise to invite her to stay. Chaldez is no danger while she is with you."
"I know that" retorted Havil.
Doo returned to her chambers feeling a great sense of relief. She knew now for a certainty that Havil had intended to be king all along. If Chaldez had not fled he was sure to have been murdered; she had been right to warn him.
This comforting thought sustained her for the next few days. Then one night she woke up, suddenly, convinced that Chaldez was dead. She never knew what it was that put the thought into her head, but once there it was indestructible. Afterwards she went into a sort of mourning. She refused to leave her bedchamber and ate little. A message from Havil inviting her attend his coronation went unheeded. He even called upon her himself. She was in bed and refused to speak. He was infuriated, but Taddig advised him not to punish her.
The mid-summer festival approached and passed, and still she remained in seclusion.
Gradually her sense of loss gave way to anger, which was focused upon Sigmar. She believed that all Chaldez's misfortunes, and his ultimate death, were directly attributable to him. The hatred she felt for him began to fill the empty space left by Chaldez; she longed for revenge, but the revenge which fate made possible was very different from anything she imagined.
*******
It came about with the arrival in Kroya of some refugees. A fleet of small boats landed them on the shore not far from where the Theigan army had disembarked before defeating Babra. They were found by a company of Cregitzig's soldiers, rounded up and brought to Budenrath where their leader, a tall, powerfully-built man with shoulder-length hair, was interviewed by the king.
It was not a success, neither man being able to speak the other's language.
In exasperation, Havil turned to Taddig. It's ridiculous," he complained, "the man doesn't speak a word of Theigan. Can you make out what he's saying?"
For once Taddig had to disappoint his master.
"They are a primitive people," he said. "Their weapons are of bronze, and you will have noticed that their clothes consist entirely of animal skins."
Havil found these observations highly satisfactory. "We don't need to bother with them, then!" he exclaimed.
Taddig said: "Not at present. But let them remain so that we can discover more about them. Keep this man separate from his followers. From his bearing I would say he is accustomed to being obeyed, and I doubt that his friendship is to be relied upon."

"If he and his friends would murder us," said Havil, "I would rather they were all confined."
"It will be sufficient," said Taddig, "to confine his followers."
The chieftain, for so he proved to be, had arrived in Kroya with his dark, handsome wife and their striking-looking daughter, who was about the same age as Doo. The three of them were given quarters in the castle, and it was not long before Doo and the daughter met.
Doo decided at once that they were going to be friends; she found out from her that her name was Jivvae and that her father was called Jaejisir, and soon she was teaching her simple Theigan words and phrases. Jivvae was both eager and quick to learn.
Taddig told Havil, and Havil congratulated himself on his decision to have both women in his household.
As Jivvae learned to express herself in the Theigan tongue, so she was able to tell Doo about herself and what had brought her and her family to Kroya.
Her story was one of constant upheaval; her clan had been on the move ever since she could remember. Always they travelled towards the rising sun.
"Why did you never settle?" asked Doo.
"We were never allowed to. As soon as we found enough land for ourselves and our animals another clan took it away from us. Our warriors are brave, but ours is a small clan."
She said that they had conquered many peoples, sometimes in alliance with other clans, sometimes on their own account, but that recently their progress had been held up. "They call themselves Sairians. They have a king named Sigmar and no one can destroy him. We were in a territory with the sea on one side, this Sigmar on the other and when the Haesitz, a clan which has long been our enemy, descended on us there was no where for us to go except into the sea. That is why we are here."
Jivvae's pronunciation of Sigmar's name was such that Doo did not immediately recognise it, but when eventually she did it seemed to her that the gods themselves had brought her and Jivvae together.