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for morale  but in the reflected radiance of the mineral oil lamps limning those slender girls out there I
seemed to see the clumped and solid ranks and files of the Phalanx and heard the awful clangor of battle.
Playacting, make believe, a light-hearted evening s entertainment  why should I make such heavy
weather of it and refuse to take the joy? Why this continual questioning of my motives, when I had made
up my mind, grimly, and intended to unite Vallia once again and then hand all over to Drak? Why? Why
torture myself with regrets? Life is life, and it whirls along and we all get dragged with it willy-nilly no
matter how desperately we cling to the deceptively substantial acts of everyday.
I half-expected to see that damned Gdoinye come sticking his arrogant scarlet-feathered head out over
the proscenium arch and summon me off to jump about for the Star Lords. By Krun! But that would stir
the old blood up.
Delia sensed my mood, half-desperate, half-defiant, and she pressed my hand, and so I turned my
fingers over and gripped hers.
 We sail in the morning.
 I think I shall be glad to shake the dust of Vondium out of my head. I felt her fingers in mine, warm and
trembling slightly.  I wish Drak were here.
 He will come home with Queen Lush, she said, and I caught the amused puzzlement in her voice.  I
have invited Silda to visit us. Her work  well, she will have news of Lela.
 When that young lady deigns to return home to give a Lahal to her father, I shall have a few words to
say 
 Now, then, you grizzly old graint!
 Then the mock-soldiers on the stage, their crimson draperies swirling and their bodies gleaming
splendidly, performed their final triumphant charge, and vanished into the wings, and the rest ofThe
Scarron Necklace began.
* * * *
So, here we were, a little army flying off with the wind across Vallia toward Bryvondrin to meet these
upstart foemen who would not leave us alone.
The wind held fair and we bowled along. Standing on the quarterdeck I looked around on the empty
spaces of the sky. How odd, how weird, thus to see an armada of sailing ships billowing grandly through
the air! Their sails did not gleam, for they were patched brown and pale blue, dappled with camouflage.
But the sight of massive ships upheld in the air, bowling along with all sails spread... incredible.
A sniff at the air and a closer look at the cloud formations ahead gave me unwelcome news. The captain
came over at my call and he agreed that we were in for a change in the weather.
 In for a blow, majister  and the breeze will back, I think.
 Aye, captain. I am not as sanguine as I was that we will reach Kanarsmot before the gale strikes.
 We can but pile on all canvas and trust in Opaz, majister.
 Aye.
The plan had been to land near Kanarsmot, a town on the Great River situated where, on the
southeastern bank of the river, the boundaries of Mai Makanar to the north and Mai Yenizar to the south
marched. By this stratagem we would array our forces in rear of the invaders, cut their supply lines, free
the town, and then be in a position to hit them in flank and rear and dispose of them with little hope of
escape.
But the wind gusted and freshened. And, as we feared, it backed.
Well, weather is sent by the Hyr-Pallan Whetti-Orbium, the meteorological manifestation ofOpaz, and
we must do what we could. We battened down. There were no seas to come leaping and crashing in
over the bulwarks; but as the breeze blew with ever greater strength and backed around the compass,
our yards were hauled farther and farther around. Soon we were facing a stiff easterly. The rushing roar
of the wind stuffed our mouths and nostrils and half-blinded us. On the ships staggered, lurching as their
invisible keels gripped into the lines of force. At last, when we were within only three dwaburs of the
town, it was apparent that we could make no further headway.
The twin suns were sinking, flooding the land below with their mingled streaming lights. The jade and
ruby cast long tinted shadows. The country here was tufty, cut up by small hills and gullies, scrub country
and yet being well-watered festooned with traceries of forests. The clouds sent racing shadows
leapfrogging across the grass.
 Down, captain, I shouted, my words blown away. I pointed down and stabbed my hand urgently. If
we continued aloft we d be blown miles off course.
So, in the last of the light, we made our landfall.
 We came down fifteen miles short of Kanarsmot and we knew the enemy was in force somewhere
between us and the town.
Thus are the grandiose plans of captains and kings foiled by the invisible breeze.
A pretty bedlam ensued as the reluctant animals were herded from the capacious interiors of the ships.
The men disembarked and set about bivouacking. The wind tore at cloaks and banners. We pitched a
dry bivouac, no fires being lighted. Cavalry patrols, zorcamen, were sent out immediately.
When I gave firm orders that the flutduins, those marvelous saddle birds of Djanduin, were not to be
disembarked, Tyr Naghan Elfurnil ti Vandayha stomped across to me, raving.
His flying leathers were swirled about his legs by the breeze. He had one hand gripping his sword and
the other outstretched, palm up, as though he was begging for alms.
 Majister! My flyers can scout that Opaz-forsaken 
 Come now, Naghan  look at the weather!
 My flutduins can fly through the Mists of Sicce itself.
 I don t doubt, I said, dryly.  However, I shall need your aerial cavalry for the morrow. The breeze will
drop by then.
Naghan Elfurnil was a Valkan, and he had been trained up by expert flyers from Djanduin. An aerial
detachment was with us; but I was not going to throw them away in weather like this.
 The jutmen will be our eyes tonight, Naghan.
 They ll be outscouted, you mark my words.
 It would perhaps be best if Jiktar Karidge did not hear you say that, Naghan. He has a temper  [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]