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Authors: Alan Burt Akers
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between you and your neighbors, which has extended into Vallia—”
“Yes. Vallia is recalcitrant. The Hyr Notor has the command there. But the news is — odd, to say the least. We have had to recall a number of regiments.”
“So I believe. They have a new emperor up in Vallia now, do they not? Tell me, Tyfar, what are your views on this new and fearsome emperor of Vallia, this Dray Prescot?”
Chapter five
“Dray Prescot, Vile Emperor of a Vile Empire!”
One of the tethered fluttrells let out a squawk, and Hunch gentled him with quick, sympathetic skill. A small branch broke and fell from the fire. Nath and Barkindrar suddenly laughed, and I caught a coarse reference to Vajikry. The light of the moons shone exceedingly brightly upon the dusty land.
“The Emperor of Vallia?” said Tyfar, Prince of Hamal. “Well, now. A hyr-lif might be written about that great devil.”
“Tyfar,” I said, “did you see this great devil Dray Prescot paraded through the streets of Ruathytu lashed to the tail of a calsany? In the Empress Thyllis’s coronation procession?”
“Aye, Jak, I did.”
“And, Tyfar,” said Quienyin, and he looked at me as he spoke to the Prince, “your thoughts on that occasion?”
Tyfar poked at the fire with a stripped branch.
“This Emperor Dray — it was just, that he should be brought down and humbled, but the way of the doing of it...”
Quienyin took his penetrating gaze from my leem’s-head of a face and stared questioningly at Tyfar.
“Yes?”
“By Krun! The rast deserved what he got, did he not?”
“He deserves all he gets,” I said.
“But, all the same...” And, again, Prince Tyfar did not complete his sentence. I wondered if he was unwilling to face the consequences of his own thoughts, or unwilling to reveal them to us.
He pulled his shoulders back and threw the branch on the fire.
“Anyway, Quienyin. Why do you question me, now, about the great devil Dray Prescot?”
The nasty suspicion gathered in my mind that I knew the answer to that. But, then, why was it nasty? If Deb-Lu-Quienyin had discovered the truth about Phu-Si-Yantong, then surely he would understand the horrendous problems confronting Paz? Yantong’s insane dream was to encompass all of Paz, to take over and control and dominate all of the grouping of continents and islands on our side of the world of Kregen. He had made a start with Pandahem and other places, was destroying Vallia even now, even though we Vallians fought back, and had, under the alias of the Hyr Notor, achieved much with Hamal.
If Quienyin knew all this, as I now suspected he did, then of a certainty he must see the justice of the fight being waged by those opposed to Phu-Si-Yantong.
One of the chiefs of that opposition to the maniacal Wizard of Loh was Dray Prescot, Emperor of Vallia. This, I believed, was what Quienyin was leading up to, what he was telling me in this way. And, cunning old leem-hunter that he was, he had his reasons.
“Well, Quienyin? I fly to join my people. We have been through much together, surely you can find a more enjoyable subject of conversation?” Tyfar stood up and stretched his legs. “By Krun! When Princess Thefi hears what has been going on—”
“Will you join the army of Hamal, or the Air Service, and fight in Vallia, Tyfar?”
Quienyin’s question drew a down-drawn and hesitating look from Tyfar.
“We are comrades, Quienyin, and therefore — for anyone else to question me thus would touch—”
“Your honor?”
And then, characteristically, Tyfar laughed. “I do not know! My whole view of the world has changed.
What is honor? It can get you killed, that is sure, certain sure.”
I said, “But that knowledge would not stop you from acting in honor, Tyfar? You would not let those vakkas be hounded to death by the flutsmen without an effort to help them.”
“That is true. It was foolish. But Jak, and you know it, I would do it again.”
“Then,” said Quienyin,
“Yes. Vallia is recalcitrant. The Hyr Notor has the command there. But the news is — odd, to say the least. We have had to recall a number of regiments.”
“So I believe. They have a new emperor up in Vallia now, do they not? Tell me, Tyfar, what are your views on this new and fearsome emperor of Vallia, this Dray Prescot?”
Chapter five
“Dray Prescot, Vile Emperor of a Vile Empire!”
One of the tethered fluttrells let out a squawk, and Hunch gentled him with quick, sympathetic skill. A small branch broke and fell from the fire. Nath and Barkindrar suddenly laughed, and I caught a coarse reference to Vajikry. The light of the moons shone exceedingly brightly upon the dusty land.
“The Emperor of Vallia?” said Tyfar, Prince of Hamal. “Well, now. A hyr-lif might be written about that great devil.”
“Tyfar,” I said, “did you see this great devil Dray Prescot paraded through the streets of Ruathytu lashed to the tail of a calsany? In the Empress Thyllis’s coronation procession?”
“Aye, Jak, I did.”
“And, Tyfar,” said Quienyin, and he looked at me as he spoke to the Prince, “your thoughts on that occasion?”
Tyfar poked at the fire with a stripped branch.
“This Emperor Dray — it was just, that he should be brought down and humbled, but the way of the doing of it...”
Quienyin took his penetrating gaze from my leem’s-head of a face and stared questioningly at Tyfar.
“Yes?”
“By Krun! The rast deserved what he got, did he not?”
“He deserves all he gets,” I said.
“But, all the same...” And, again, Prince Tyfar did not complete his sentence. I wondered if he was unwilling to face the consequences of his own thoughts, or unwilling to reveal them to us.
He pulled his shoulders back and threw the branch on the fire.
“Anyway, Quienyin. Why do you question me, now, about the great devil Dray Prescot?”
The nasty suspicion gathered in my mind that I knew the answer to that. But, then, why was it nasty? If Deb-Lu-Quienyin had discovered the truth about Phu-Si-Yantong, then surely he would understand the horrendous problems confronting Paz? Yantong’s insane dream was to encompass all of Paz, to take over and control and dominate all of the grouping of continents and islands on our side of the world of Kregen. He had made a start with Pandahem and other places, was destroying Vallia even now, even though we Vallians fought back, and had, under the alias of the Hyr Notor, achieved much with Hamal.
If Quienyin knew all this, as I now suspected he did, then of a certainty he must see the justice of the fight being waged by those opposed to Phu-Si-Yantong.
One of the chiefs of that opposition to the maniacal Wizard of Loh was Dray Prescot, Emperor of Vallia. This, I believed, was what Quienyin was leading up to, what he was telling me in this way. And, cunning old leem-hunter that he was, he had his reasons.
“Well, Quienyin? I fly to join my people. We have been through much together, surely you can find a more enjoyable subject of conversation?” Tyfar stood up and stretched his legs. “By Krun! When Princess Thefi hears what has been going on—”
“Will you join the army of Hamal, or the Air Service, and fight in Vallia, Tyfar?”
Quienyin’s question drew a down-drawn and hesitating look from Tyfar.
“We are comrades, Quienyin, and therefore — for anyone else to question me thus would touch—”
“Your honor?”
And then, characteristically, Tyfar laughed. “I do not know! My whole view of the world has changed.
What is honor? It can get you killed, that is sure, certain sure.”
I said, “But that knowledge would not stop you from acting in honor, Tyfar? You would not let those vakkas be hounded to death by the flutsmen without an effort to help them.”
“That is true. It was foolish. But Jak, and you know it, I would do it again.”
“Then,” said Quienyin,
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