‘Some of you might think that such chaos would be your perfect chance to escape.’
Erik glanced around and saw that more than one expression confirmed Calis’s remark.
‘If you attempt to leave without permission, at any point along our line of march, Robert de Loungville and I will personally hang you from the nearest tree.
‘If you manage to escape, know that you are living on stolen time, for eventually that army will reach any part of Novindus you may hide in and you will serve or you will die.
‘Why chance dying now rather than later?’
He was silent as the men thought on his question. ‘Because,’ answered Calis, ‘these creatures, these serpent men, will not end at conquest. They will eventually destroy everything, and you will die.’
There was a bit of muttering at this, and to Calis’s surprise it was Nakor who spoke next.
The bandy-legged little man said, ‘You foolish men! Listen to me! I have seen what these creatures do. They sought to send a plague to us nearly twenty-five years ago. They sought to kill everything in the Kingdom.’
Jerome made bold to speak. ‘Why would any creature do such a thing?’
Nakor shrugged. ‘I could tell you, but I scarcely think you’d understand.’
Jerome, whose temper was as bad as Luis’s, narrowed his gaze at the Isalani. ‘I may have to take abuse from my officers, little man, but I’m not as stupid as you might think. If you speak slowly enough, I just might understand.’
Nakor glanced at Calis, who nodded. Nakor said, ‘Very well. The Pantathians are not natural beings.’ When Jerome Handy gave him a puzzled look, Nakor said, ‘I’ll speak slowly.’
Some of the men laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. Calis said, ‘Continue.’
‘There was, ages ago on this world, a race called the Dragon Lords.’
Some of the men made signs against evil and others scoffed openly. ‘Legends!’ shouted one.
‘Yes,’ said Calis. ‘Legends, but based upon history. Those beings once ruled this world.
‘And one of them, a powerful member of her race, created the Pantathians as her servants. They are an ancient race, raised up by this Dragon Lord from serpents in the swamps of Novindus. Artificial they may have been in their beginning, but they were bred to serve this one. She was called Alma-Lodaka.
‘When the Dragon Lords vanished, this race of twisted creatures believed that they were to abide until her return. By means I will not reveal, they have found a way to call her back from the place she resides.
‘The unfortunate consequence of such an act would be to destroy all life on this world.’
‘No,’ said several men. ‘That can’t be possible,’ said another.
‘Possible?’ asked Nakor. ‘What is possible?’ He reached into his sack and drew out an orange. He tossed it to Jerome. Then he took out another and threw it to Erik, and another to another man. After a few minutes, at least a score of oranges came out of the sack.
Calis said, ‘I thought it was apples?’
‘I went back to oranges a few years ago,’ said Nakor as he kept pulling more and more oranges out of the little sack. He held up the sack and showed everyone that it was empty, even turning it inside out. Then he reached in and drew more oranges out and started throwing them to the other soldiers, until more than five dozen oranges had come out of that small sack. ‘Possible?’ he asked.
He walked up to Jerome Handy, looked up at the big man, and said, ‘Do you think it possible that I could force you to your knees with one hand?’
Jerome’s eyes narrowed and his complexion flushed, and he said, ‘No, I don’t!’ Erik cleared his throat, and when Jerome turned to look, Erik nodded once toward Sho Pi, who stood behind him. Jerome saw the other Isalani raise a questioning eyebrow; then he turned to Nakor and stared at him for a long moment. Lowering his voice, he said, ‘But maybe you could do it with two hands.’
Nakor glanced over at Sho Pi and grinned. Turning away, he said, ‘Only need one.’
To the assembled company he said, ‘Take it on faith, you desperate men. This the Pantathians can do: they can end life as we know it on this world. No bird will sing to greet the dawn, and no insect will buzz from flower to flower. No seed will take root. No child will cry for his mother’s breast, and no thing that crawls, walks, or flies will survive.’
A young man Erik didn’t know well, David Gefflin, said, ‘Why would they do such a mad thing?’
‘Because they think this Dragon Lord, this Alma-Lodaka, is a goddess. A powerful being she was, but no goddess. Yet to these sick creatures, whom she created from snakes, she was. Their Mother-Goddess they call her. And they believe that to return her to this lifeless world will bring them into a state of grace with her, that she will make them first among all the new creatures she creates. So they believe and so they act. And this is why they must be opposed.’
‘How can they do this?’ asked Billy Goodwin.
‘How we will not say,’ answered Calis. ‘We will only say that the King and a few others know this secret. No others need know. All we need know is that it is our job to stop them.’
‘How?’ demanded Biggo. ‘You lost almost two thousand men, and from what you’ve said, their army is now twice the size of the one you faced.’
Calis looked around. ‘Because we don’t travel to Novindus to face this conquering army, Biggo. We travel to Novindus to join it.’
Erik winced.
The roundhouse kick Nakor caught him with had been pulled, but it still stung.
‘You still charge like a mad bull,’ scolded the Isalani. His face was like wrinkled leather, but his eyes showed a youthful merriment. Sho Pi watched closely as his older countryman spun again, unexpectedly. Erik moved just in time to keep from getting kicked in the chest again, and snapped off a kick of his own, coming quickly back to a defensive position.
‘Why!’ shouted Nakor, scolding. ‘Why did you draw back?’
Erik blew out hard, sucking in air as perspiration poured from his face and body. Puffing, he said, Because … I would have been … off balance. That kick … was to get you to back off … not to hurt you. If I had followed up, you would have broken my neck.’
Nakor grinned, and once more Erik was struck by how this strange man, aboard their ship for less than a month now, had come to be so liked by everyone. He told outrageous stories, almost certainly all lies, and his habit of winning consistently at cards caused Erik to think him probably a cheat as well. But if a liar and cheat could be said to be trusted, Nakor was.
Sho Pi came to stand next to Nakor. ‘It is wise to know when to regroup, just as it is wise to know when to press.’ He bowed, and Erik returned the bow. At first, like the others, he had thought all the rituals strange, and had mocked them, but now, also like the others, he performed them without thought. In fact, he now admitted to himself that the rituals helped keep him focused.
‘Master –’ began Sho Pi.
‘I tell you again, boy, don’t call me master!’
The men laughed. Sho Pi had decided at some point during the week following Nakor’s arrival that Nakor was the master he had been sent to find. This had brought a consistent stream of denial from Nakor that was now in its third week. At least once in every conversation, Sho Pi called Nakor master and Nakor demanded he stop.
Sho