"I don't know. Longer than it took you to get across the strait, I dare say."
He pulled a splinter from the log. A turn of the breeze blew the smoke into his face but he ignored it. Kelderek stirred the fire and shifted his feet. At length he said, "Most of the Tuginda's stuff is still on the other side. The women left it this morning when they followed us across the river."
There was another silence.
"It puzzles me," said Kelderek, "that last night, in spite of his hunger, Lord Shardik would not go on through the forest. He must have caught the scent of food from Ortelga, yet he turned back from the Dead Belt and took to the river."
Ta-Kominion shook his head as though the matter were of little interest to him.
"What has happened to Bel-ka-Trazet?" asked Kelderek.
"Oh, he took to the water, like you; not quite so quickly."
Kelderek drew in his breath and clenched his hand on the stake. After some moments he said,
"Where has he gone?"
"Downstream."
"Do you mean to pursue him?"
"It's not necessary. He isn't a coward, but to us he can be no more dangerous now than if he were." He looked up. "Where is Lord Shardik?"
"Over there, not far from the road. He reached the road this afternoon but then went back into the forest. I was near him until moonrise, but I returned to meet you."
"What road?"
"The road to Gelt. We are not far from it here."
Ta-Kominion got up and stood squarely in front of Kelderek, looking down into his face. His back was to the fire and, with his long hair falling forward, he seemed to be wearing a mask of heavy shadows, through which his eyes burned cold and harsh. Without turning his head he said, "You may leave us, Numiss."
"But where are we to go, my lord?"
Ta-Kominion said nothing more and after a moment the red-haired fellow and his companion slipped away among the trees. Before Ta-Kominion could speak again Kelderek burst out,
"My place is with Lord Shardik, to follow and serve him! That is my task! I am no coward!"
"I did not say you were."
"I have walked beside Lord Shardik, slept beside him, laid my hands upon him. Is that work for a coward?"
Ta-Kominion closed his eyes and passed his hand once or twice across his forehead.
"I did not come here, Kelderek, either to accuse you or to quarrel with you. I have more important things to speak of."
"You think I'm a coward. You have as good as said so!"
"What I may have let slip is nothing to do with our affairs now. You'd do better to put such personal ideas out of your mind. Every man in Ortelga who can use a weapon is across the Telthearna and ready to march on Bekla. They'll start soon--before dawn. I shall join them from here--no need to return to the camp. We shall be at Bekla in five days--perhaps sooner. It's not only surprise we need. We've got no more than three days' food, but that's not the whole of it either. Our people have got to take Bekla before they can lose the power that's burning in their hearts. Whose, do you suppose, is that power?"
"My lord?" It had slipped out before Kelderek could check himself.
"It was the power of Shardik that took Ortelga today. We were lucky--there were many who saw him before he crossed the causeway. Bel-ka-Trazet was driven out because he was known to be Shardik's enemy. The people have seen for themselves that Shardik has returned. They believe there's nothing he won't give them--nothing they can't do in his name."
He took a few uncertain steps back to the log and sat rigid and frowning, fighting a sudden fit of giddiness. For an instant his teeth chattered and he pressed his chin upon his open hand.
"Shardik has been sent to restore us to Bekla, peasant and baron alike. The peasants need to know no more than that. But I--I have to find the right way, the way to bring about victory through Shardik. And this is the way--or so it seems to me. Either we take Bekla within seven days or not at all."
"Why?"
Ta-Kominion paused, as though choosing his words.
"Common people can sing a song only when they are dancing, drinking or about some occupation--then it rises to their lips without thought. Ask them to teach it to you and it's gone from their heads. While their hearts are full of Shardik our men will do the impossible--march without sleep, fly through the air, tear down the walls of Bekla. But in the hearts of common men such power is like mist. The wind or the sun--any unexpected adversity--may disperse it in an hour. It must be given no chance to disperse." He pause
d and then said deliberately, "But there is more besides. Out of sight, out of mind. You understand children, I'm told. So you'll know that children forget what is not kept before their eyes."
Kelderek stared, guessing at his meaning.
"Shardik must be with us when we come to fight," said Ta-Kominion. "It is all-important that the people should see him there."
"At Bekla--in five days? How?"
"You must tell me how."
"Lord Shardik cannot be driven a hundred paces and you are speaking of five days' journey!"
"Kelderek, Bekla is a city more rich and marvelous than a mountain made of jewels. It is ours by ancient right and Shardik has returned to restore it to us. But he can restore it only by means of ourselves. He needed my help to take Ortelga today. Now he needs your help to bring him to Bekla."
"But that is impossible! It was not impossible to take Ortelga."
"No, no, of course not--an easy matter, I dare say, to those who did not happen to be there. Never mind. Kelderek, do you want to cease to be a simpleton playing with fatherless children on the shore? To see Shardik come in power to Bekla? To bring to its right end the work you began on that night when you faced Bel-ka-Trazet's hot knife in the Sindrad? There must be a way! Either you find it or we are fast on a sheer cliff. You and I and Lord Shardik--it is we who are climbing, and there is no way back. If we do not take Bekla, do you think the Beklan rulers will let us alone? No--they will hunt us down. They will not be long in dealing with you and your bear."
"My bear?"
"Your bear. For that is what he will become, Lord Shardik of the Ledges, who is ready at this moment to give us a great city and all its wealth and power, if only we can find the means. He will shrink to a creature of superstition, over which some rough fellows on Ortelga have made trouble and turned out their High Baron. A stop will be put to him--and to you."