The Treasured One

‘You’re not serious!’

‘I’m afraid so. The peculiar thing is that it worked out quite well. The Maags are undisciplined, but they’re very good fighters.’

‘They’re monsters, Gunda!’

‘Maybe, but they’re not nearly as monstrous as the things we were fighting.’

‘Barbarians, I take it?’

‘Several steps below barbarians, Andar. I don’t think they even qualified as animals.’

‘Could you be a bit more specific, Gunda? I want to know just exactly what we’re likely to be coming up against.’

‘You’re not going to like it much,’ Gunda said glumly. ‘I think Narasan should have held out for more gold.’

‘That bad?’

‘Even worse, I think. If I understood what I was told correctly, the things we were fighting were only part human. The rest was a mixture of bugs and snakes.’

‘I think your load’s starting to shift,’ Andar scoffed.

‘Everybody’s load shifts up in that part of the world, Andar. We kept coming up against a nightmare while we were still awake. One little nip from those bug-snakes will put you in your grave right there on the spot.’

‘That’s not the least bit funny, Gunda.’

‘Do you see me laughing? I’m not making this up, Andar. You’d better take everything I tell you seriously, because your life could depend on it.’

‘Are the natives up there as helpless as our employer suggested?’ Andar asked.

‘The natives of Veltan’s Domain might be, but there’s an archer up in Zelana’s Domain who doesn’t seem to know how to miss. He was the one who told us how to use the enemy’s own venom to kill other enemies.’

‘Is that really ethical, Gunda?’

‘We were fighting bugs, Andar, not people. Ethics aren’t relevant when your enemy isn’t human.’ Gunda paused. ‘It’s going to take you a while to hire enough ships to carry all of our men on up to Veltan’s Domain, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Quite a while, I’m afraid. Sea-captains love to haggle, for some reason, and sometimes it takes half a day to hire just one ship. Were you planning an extensive visit to the local taverns to celebrate your homecoming?’

‘Not really,’ Gunda replied. ‘I’m fairly certain that I know approximately where the Commander and the rest of the advance force is likely to be bound for, but I’m not sure that’s where we’ll be fighting the next war. I think I might want to drift around the waterfront just a bit and find one of those dinky little fishing-sloops - like the one Veltan used to take Narasan on up to the Land of Dhrall before the rest of us in the advance force went on up there. I’ll have one of the clerks draw you a copy of my map so that you’ll be able to find your way through the channel to the southern part of the Land of Dhrall. Then I’ll go on ahead and talk with Narasan and find out just exactly where he wants us to go ashore. Then I’ll come on back. I’ll probably meet you somewhere in that channel through the ice, and I’ll be able to guide you to the place where Narasan wants us to land.’

‘That probably would save us quite a bit of time, Gunda.’ Andar squinted slightly. ‘Did we lose very many men up there?’

‘Several thousand at least.’

‘I don’t suppose that Jalkan happened to be one of the casualties,’ Andar said rather hopefully.

‘I’m afraid not. The Commander had to reprimand him a few times, but that’s about as far as it went.’

‘What a shame,’ Andar said regretfully.

‘Don’t give up hope, my friend,’ Gunda said with a tight grin. ‘It’s only a question of time. Sooner or later, somebody will kill Jalkan, and then we’ll be able to mark the date on our calendars.’

‘What for?’

‘I was thinking along the lines of something in the nature of a national holiday.’

‘I’d be more than happy to celebrate that one, my friend,’ Andar agreed.

Gunda moved around the seedy-looking waterfront of Castano looking for a reasonably priced fishing sloop for the next few days while Andar went through the tedious business of hiring enough merchant ships to carry the bulk of the army up to Veltan’s Domain. Although Andar had access to the army treasury, Gunda was fairly certain that his friend would go up in flames if his sloop cost the army too much.

Gunda finally located a yawl that seemed to suit his purpose, and then he introduced Andar to the scruffy old fisherman who wanted to sell it. The two of them were haggling spiritedly when Gunda left the shabby waterfront tavern to have a word with his distant cousin, the captain of the Ascendant, about the rudiments of steering a boat. Despite his family background, Gunda knew next to nothing about boats.

The sun rose bright the following morning, and there was not a cloud in the sky, so Gunda went down to the harbor of Castano to play with his new toy.

He was moderately inept right at first, and he stirred up quite a few curses from other ships as he floundered around in the harbor, but after a few days he grew more practiced. He was quite certain now that, barring some natural disaster, he’d be all right at sea.

Then he went back to the army compound to see how Andar was coming along.

‘I’ve still got a ways to go,’ Andar admitted. ‘I’m having a bit of trouble finding enough ships.’

‘How many more do you think you’ll need?’

‘At least a hundred. You’re not going to move eighty thousand men on a handful of ships.’

‘I’ll take the Albatross and go on ahead then.’

‘Albatross?’

‘It’s a nice, seagoing sort of name, wouldn’t you say? I mean, an albatross is a sort of second cousin to a seagull, isn’t it?’

‘I don’t know if I’d use that name, Gunda. I’ve heard that sailors aren’t really very fond of those particular birds. They seem to think that the presence of an albatross is bad luck, or something like that.’

‘That’s just a superstition, Andar.’

Andar hesitated slightly. ‘Has Narasan finally got his head back on straight?’ he asked quite seriously. ‘He sort of went all to pieces after his nephew was killed in that war on down to the south.’

‘He seems to be pretty much all right now. I think taking on this war in a different part of the world has helped him get over what happened to his nephew. Padan’s keeping an eye on him, and he’ll let us know if our glorious leader’s still all in one piece. I’ll go on up there and find out where Narasan wants us to put the army ashore, and then I’ll come on back to lead you on in.’