"It's not work to be done in a day," growled Baltis. "No, not in three days. A cage to hold a bear? I was the first to see Lord Shardik come ashore yesterday morning, barring that poor devil Lukon and his mate--"
"How's the bear to be brought to the cage?" interrupted the carpenter.
"Ah, that's more than we know--"
"You are here to obey Lord Ta-Kominion," said Kelderek. "It is the will of God that Lord Shardik is to conquer Bekla, and that you will see with your own eyes. Make the roof of wood if it must be so, and bind the whole cage round with rope, twisted tight."
The work was finished at last by torchlight and Kelderek, when he had dismissed the men to eat, remained alone with Sheldra and Neelith, peering and probing, kicking at the wheels, fingering the axle pins and finally testing each of the six bars set aside to close the still-open end.
"How is he to be released, my lord?" asked Neelith. "Is there to be no door?"
"The time is too short to make a door," answered Kelderek. "When the hour comes to release him, we shall be shown the way."
"He must be kept drugged, my lord, as long as possible," said Sheldra, "for neither that nor any other cage will hold Lord Shardik if he is minded otherwise."
"I know it," said Kelderek. "We might as well have made a cart to put him in. If only we knew where he is--"
He broke off as Zilthe came limping into the torchlight, raised her palm to her forehead and at once sank to the ground.
"Forgive me, lord," she said, drawing her bow from her shoulder and laying it beside her. "We have been following Lord Shardik all day and I am exhausted--with fear even more than with fatigue. He went far--"
"Where is he?" interrupted Kelderek.
"My lord, he is sleeping on the edge of the forest, not an hour from here."
"God be praised!" cried Kelderek, clapping his hands together. "I knew it was His will!"
"It was Rantzay, my lord, who brought him back," said the girl, staring up at Kelderek as though even now afraid. "We came upon him at noon, fishing in a stream. He lay down near the bank and we dared not approach him. But after a long time, when it seemed that there was nothing to be done, Rantzay, without telling us what she intended, suddenly stood up and went out into the open where Lord Shardik could see her. She called him. My lord, as I live, she called him and he came to her! We all fled in terror, but she spoke to him in a strange and dreadful voice, rebuking him and telling him to return, for he should never have come so far, she said. And Shardik obeyed her, my lord! He passed by her, where she stood. He made his way back at her command."
"God's will indeed," said Kelderek with awe, "and all that we have done is right. Where is Rantzay now?"
"I do not know, my lord," said Zilthe, almost weeping. "Nito told us we were to follow Lord Shardik and that Rantzay would overtake us. But she did not, and it is many hours now since we last saw her."
Kelderek was about to send Sheldra up the valley when a challenge and answer sounded from farther along the road. After a pause they heard footsteps and Numiss appeared. He, too, was exhausted and did not ask Kelderek for leave to sit before flinging himself to the ground.
"I've come from beyond Gelt," he said. "We took Gelt easy--set it on fire--not much fighting but we killed the chief and after that the rest of 'em were willing enough to do what Lord Ta-Kominion told 'em. He talked to some of 'em alone and I dare say he asked them what they knew about Bekla--how to get there and all the rest of it. Anyway, whatever it was--"
"If he gave you a message, tell me that," said Kelderek sharply. "Never mind what you heard or suppose."
"This is the message, sir. 'I expect to fight the day after tomorrow. The rains can be no later and now the hours are more precious than stars. Bring Lord Shardik no matter what the cost.'"
Kelderek jumped up and began pacing to and fro beside the cage, biting his lip and smiting his clenched fist into his palm. At length, recovering himself, he told Sheldra to go and find Rantzay and, if Shardik had been drugged, to bring back word at once. Then, fetching some brands to start a fire, he sat down by the cage with Numiss and the two girls to wait for news. None spoke, but every now and again Kelderek would look up, frowning, to mark the slow time from the wheeling stars.
When at last Zilthe started and laid a hand on his arm, he had heard nothing. He turned to meet her eyes and she stared back at him, holding her breath, her face half firelit, half in shadow. He too listened, but could hear only the flames, the fitful wind and a man coughing somewhere in the camp behind them. He shook his head but she nodded sharply, stood up and motioned him to follow her along the road. Watched by Neelith and Numiss they set off into the darkness, but had gone only a little way when she stopped, cupped her hands and called, "Who's there?"
The reply "Nito!" was faint but clear enough. A few moments later Kelderek caught at last the girl's light tread and went forward to meet her. It was plain that in her haste and agitation she had fallen--perhaps more than once. She was begrimed, disheveled and scratched across the knees and one forearm. Her breath came in sobs and they could see the tears on her cheeks. He called to Numiss and together they supported her as far as the fire.
The camp was astir. Somehow the men had guessed that news was at hand. Several were already waiting beside the cage and one spread his cloak for the girl across a pile of leftover planks, brought a pitcher and knelt down to wash her bleeding scratches. At the touch of the cold water she winced and, as though recalled to herself, began speaking to Kelderek.
"Shardik is lying insensible, my lord, not a bowshot from the road. He has been drugged with theltocarna--enough to kill a strong man. God knows when he will wake."
"With theltocarna?" said Neelith, incredulously. "But--"
Nito began to weep again. "And Rantzay is dead--dead! Have you told Lord Kelderek how she spoke to Shardik beside the stream?
Zilthe nodded, staring aghast.
"When Shardik had passed her and gone, she stood for a time stricken, it seemed, as though, like a tree, she had called lightning down to her. Then we were alone, she and I, following the others as best we might. I could tell--I could tell that she meant to die, that she was determined to die.
I tried to make her rest but she refused. It is not two hours since we returned at last to the edge of the forest. All the girls could see her death upon her. It was drawn about her like a cloak. None could speak to her for pity and fear. After what we had seen by the stream at noon, any one of us would have died in her place; but it was as though she were already drifting away, as though she were on the water and we on the shore. We stood near her and she spoke to us, yet we were separated from her. She spoke and we were silent. Then, as she ordered, I gave her the box of theltocarna, and she walked up to Lord Shardik as though he were a sleeping ox. She cut him with a knife and mingled the theltocarna with his blood; and then, as he woke in anger, she stood before him yet again, with no more fear than she had shown at noon. And he clutched her, and so she died." The girl looked about her. "Where is the Tuginda?"
"Get the long ropes on the cage," said Kelderek to Baltis, "and set every man to draw it. Yes, and every woman too, except for those who carry torches. There is no time to be lost. Even now we may be too late to reach Lord Ta-Kominion."
Less than three hours later the enormous bulk of Shardik, the head protected by a hood made from cloaks roughly stitched together, had been dragged with ropes down the slope and up a hastily piled ramp of earth, stones and planks into the cage. The last bars had been hammered into place and the cage, hauled in front and pushed behind, was jolting and rocking slowly up the valley toward Gelt.
20 Gel-Ethlin
IT COULD SURELY BE NO MORE THAN A DAY--two days at the most--thought Gel-Ethlin, to the breaking of the rains. For hours the thundery weather had been growing more and more oppressive, while rising gusts of warm wind set the dust swirling over the Beklan plain. Santil-ke-Erketlis, commander of the northern army of patrol, being taken sick with the heat, had left the column two days previously, returning to the capital by the direct road south and entrusting Gel-Ethlin, his second in command, with the task of completing the army's march to Kabin of the Waters, down through Tonilda and thence westward to Bekla itself. This would be a straightforward business--a fortification to be repaired here, a few taxes to be collected there, perhaps a dispute or two to be settled and, of course, the reports to be heard of local spies and agents. None of these matters was likely to be urgent and, since the army was already a day or two behind time for its return to Bekla, Santil-ke-Erketlis had told Gel-Ethlin to break off as soon as the rains began in earnest and take the most direct route back from wherever he happened to find himself.