Fallowblade (53 page)

Seated amongst his lieutenants, Zaravaz cast William a glance of bitter irony. ‘Here’s to your continued good health, Your Royal Highness,’ he said, raising high a chalice. ‘I trust the wine is to your taste.’ He took a deep draught from his cup.

It is probably poisoned
, thought Asr
ă
thiel, but it was too late now, for William had already sipped. He took no ill effects, however, and soon proposed a toast to the health of Zaravaz. King and prince exchanged nods with impeccable etiquette, each salutation representing a stab to the centre of the heart and a twist of the knife in the wound.

William cleared his throat. ‘I, at least, was not aware,’ he said to the eldritch knights, ‘until you spoke to us in parley on the battlefield, why you felt such animosity towards our race. Now that the reason is clear, allow me to point out that in Narngalis certain laws have always been enforced. Earlier generations of Wyverstones banned the lighting of fires under downed carthorses to make them get up, the chaining of dogs, the use of steel-jawed spring traps, cockfighting, bear-baiting, the tying of chickens by their feet in markets, and the beating of animals. Of all kingdoms, Narngalis is the most humane.’

Lieutenant Zaillian remarked acidly, ‘Better to ban cages, chains, wagon shafts and captivity altogether.’

‘Better to ban those who deal in such depravities,’ said Zande, scowling.

Men and goblins watched each other, seething with resentment.

‘One is overjoyed to hear your news,’ said Zaravaz, replying to the prince’s declaration, ‘though I am not certain
which
one. For our part, we have also banned similar abuses of human beings. When our draught-men collapse in exhaustion between the shafts, our kobolds merely prod them until they rise to their feet and stagger a little further. Fire-goading is
so
outmoded.’

‘I perceive that nothing I can say will satisfy you,’ said William, the blood rising to his cheeks. ‘You consider human beings to be no better than animals. That is where man and goblin can never agree.’

‘If your heart and mind were not closed against logic,’ said Zaravaz, ‘you would not speak thus. You say your kind is
better
than other species. Can you navigate like a pigeon, swim like a dolphin or track like a hound? Can you run as fast as deer or see ultraviolet, like bees?’

William glowered.

‘Animals, sir,’ Torrington declared, ‘are not as intelligent or as advanced as human beings. Therefore they are inferior.’

Leaning towards the foremost of his lieutenants, Zaravaz spoke to them in the goblin language. He bestowed a look of utmost contempt upon Torrington before sitting back in his chair, placing one booted foot on the table and proceeding to whittle an apple with a knife, as if absorbed in the pastime.

Taking up the debate on his liege’s behalf, Lieutenant Zande said to Torrington, ‘You are gravely mistaken, guest of Zaravaz. But even should you be correct, does possessing superior intelligence entitle one of you
boanlagh ny theayee
—as is one of our terms for human beings—to abuse another? If, for example, I gave you a blow to the head that addled your brains, would clever men have the right to trample over you because of your stupidity?’

‘Nay, but—’ Before King Warwick’s lieutenant-general could frame a reply Zaillian interjected, ‘In any case, there are animals who are unquestionably more intelligent, creative, aware and communicative than some
boanlaghyn
.’

‘I do not believe it!’ Torrington said.

‘Perhaps you know what a chimpanzee is?’

‘Indeed. They are a species once found in remote areas of Ashqalêth.’

‘Before the
boanlagh ny theayee
rendered them extinct,’ murmured Zwist, helping himself to a slice of ‘Moonlight is Cruelly Deceptive’, a spicy cake profusely decorated with edible leaves of thinnest silver foil.

‘Compared to a human infant,’ said Zaillian, ‘or to one of your village idiots, an adult chimpanzee is far more advanced. By your reasoning the monkey should take precedence over the tot,
red ommidjagh
.’

‘That is not what I meant,’ Torrington replied with some asperity. ‘You fail to perceive the point. The druids teach that the Fates gave humankind dominion over all other forms of life, and therefore it is our right to treat animals as we please.’

Apparently paying scant heed to the exchange, the goblin king chopped off a portion of fruit with swift precision.

‘Even if that were true, Sir Gilead,’ Asr
ă
thiel said, joining the debate for the first time, ‘a king has dominion over his subjects but that does not mean he has the right to ill-use them.’

Torrington lapsed into silence, perhaps in deference to the weathermage, perhaps digesting her words, perhaps thinking of Uabhar and his fate, of which Asr
ă
thiel had notified them in her letters.

William said, ‘I have learned much on this topic from the Lady Maelstronnar.’

The knife of Zaravaz suddenly slipped right through the apple, as if he had miscalculated an incision. It flew out of his hand and stuck, quivering, in the table. Every head in the hall turned to look.

‘Pray pardon the interruption,’ the goblin king said pleasantly, retrieving the implement and resuming his new hobby.

Clearing his throat the prince continued, ‘The Lady Maelstronnar has expounded on this subject at length, and her argument has largely won me to your cause. She has told me of certain crows that invent tools, for example, and rats that learn to navigate. I have come to realise that animals are not so very different from us after all—’

‘Your breed,’ Zaravaz interrupted abrasively, looking up from his task, ‘takes the position that animals and
boanlaghyn
can only be said to be similar if animals are found to be doing amazing things, rather than when
boanlaghyn
are found to be doing surprisingly mundane things. This implies that respect for other species should be measured in proportion to how humanlike their abilities are. It also suggests that animals are only worthy of esteem inasmuch as they are similar to human
donnanyn mooar
.’ Having tossed aside the apple he uttered the last three words in thundering tones, pounding the table with the flat of his hand, as if unwilling to forbear any longer, even for etiquette’s sake. The noise of the blows resounded throughout the hall, and the owls took flight, swooping and soaring into the cavernous vaults of the ceiling.

William and several of his men half started out of their seats. A menacing silence enveloped the multitude. Even the daemon horses stood poised like graceful statues. Only a few owls’ feathers drifted down in a lazy rain.

Then Asr
ă
thiel leaped to her feet. ‘The Glashtinsluight code of honour,’ she cried, ‘requires that the host protects invited guests while they bide with him. Cool-headedness in debate will ensure this code is maintained.’ She looked around, deliberately bestowing her gaze on both parties equally.

‘Indeed you have become exceedingly
intimate
with our ways, Sioctíne,’ Zauberin said with a sneer. ‘Patently you presume to lecture us on our own precepts.’

But Zaravaz, who now seemed to be intent on paring his fingernails with the knife, said, ‘And the Lady Stormbringer is perfectly right,
aachionard
.’

The moment had passed. The Narngalishmen subsided, and the further regions of the hall reverted to their convivial hum. A trow sat at the goblin king’s feet eating the remains of the apple. Asr
ă
thiel made herself swallow some food for the sake of appearances, but she could not taste it.

At length Zauberin turned to the prince and said, ‘Returning to our previous argument, we grant that your kind possess some benevolent qualities, but all in all, the human race is evil.’

‘Quite the contrary!’ William cried.

‘Oh, but you
are
,’ said Zaravaz. ‘Innately. Irredeemably. The eradication of such exorbitant evil must inevitably be an act of moral goodness.’

The men growled their outrage and disapprobation. Foreseeing the imminent escalation of further antagonism, Asr
ă
thiel intervened again, changing the subject. Loudly she asked William, ‘Your Highness, have you seen the man Fionnbar Aonarán? He was here in these mountain halls but they sent him forth.’

With her eyes she beseeched the prince to forsake the intensifying argument. He glowered at his host, but eventually decided that circumspection was the wiser choice. ‘Yes, I have seen him,’ he said reluctantly, ‘for he wandered into northern Narngalis. He is deranged, methinks. When first he was found roaming without purpose, he kept seeking ways to end his life. His attempts became increasingly bizarre. By rope and fire and blade he hunted death. He picked fights with swordsmen, cast himself into bonfires, and hanged himself by the throat. Always he survived, yet not unscathed. His body is blackened, his hair burned from his skull, his flesh scarred and puckered. The pain he must have suffered is unimaginable. His person is warped, and his mind also.’

‘After becoming immortal,’ said Torrington, ‘he came to realise that immortality has not given him happiness. Unable to find happiness, he wishes to “end it all”.’

The goblins were listening, many smirking, some chuckling.

Zaravaz, however, did not smile. ‘For your kind the most wonderful gift of all is life,’ he said quietly, ‘and it should be enjoyed to the fullest. Having received life, the most wonderful gift is the promise of death at the end.’

The chamber became noiseless, save for the crackling of flames and the patter of kobolds’ feet as they removed empty platters from the tables.

‘Aonarán Toadstone was not born for immortality,’ Zaravaz went on, ‘and is unable to come to terms with it. You, however, Lady Stormbringer,’ he said, ‘were born to it.’

Asr
ă
thiel was seized by sudden concern for her parents. ‘What of my father,’ she asked, ‘and my mother, who might also have become immortal?’

‘Your mother is not immortal, for she never drank the draught. She is merely long-lived. Extremely long-lived. For now, she sleeps, and nothing troubles her pleasant dreams. I daresay your father roams somewhere in the frozen lands of the north. In contrast to Toadstone he has a purpose—to find a way to awaken Jewel to the watch. It might be supposed that his purpose sustains him, even in the face of the nightmare of deathlessness.’

‘My wish,’ Asr
ă
thiel murmured, ‘is to journey to those lands and find him, some day. I long to help him and give him condolence.’

Zaravaz shrugged. ‘Then go with us,’ he said. ‘We have sojourned here long enough. It is time for us to seek adventure elsewhere. Besides, the glories of this place now pall, due to recent intrusions and our memories of the golden caves in which your ancestors so hospitably entertained us.’

Shocked by this announcement Asr
ă
thiel said, ‘Do you truly mean to depart from the kingdoms of Tir?’

‘We have been contemplating the notion of riding out, of travelling north again. We might ride to Ellan Istillkutl where dwell our kith the Ice Goblins, or to
Cheer ny Yindyssyn
or beyond, seeking the other clans. It is time we rejoined the
liannyn
. For too long have we been away from them.’

Recalling that the
liannyn
were she-goblins, Asr
ă
thiel suffered a pang of jealousy.

‘What of your noble mission to save the world from the evil scourge of humanity?’ demanded William.

‘We have plans,’ Zaravaz said coldly. ‘You will later learn of them. Do not be in a hurry.’

He called for music then, and as the bagpipes of the fridean began to wail beneath the floor, the susurration of discontented conversation thrummed through the hall.

When at last the feast was over, the men, summoning much resolution, formally expressed appreciation to their hosts before they left Sølvetårn. It was no easy task, declaring gratitude to those whom they would much rather be putting to the sword. The lips of the human knights moved, and words were forced forth, but no conviction accompanied the sounds.

‘And thus,’ said Zaravaz, conducting his guests through the corridors on the way to the front gates, ‘as I promised to demonstrate, we dwell quite comfortably here, apparently living on worms and beetles in our dank burrows. As you have witnessed, your weathermage is diligently waited upon by her attendants and lacks no comfort.’

‘Let her go with us,’ said William.

‘You overreach the terms under which we made you welcome,’ Zaravaz said scathingly. ‘Beware. You agreed to keep silent on that matter. If you rescind your side of the bargain, our temporary treaty shall be annulled, and the lives of you and your cohorts shall be forfeit.’

‘Prithee, speak of it again, man,’ muttered Zauberin.

After this threat William resentfully remained silent, and they passed through the galleries of Sølvetårn until they exited from the front gates and stood upon the approach to the wonderful bridge that seemed fashioned of glass, and whose stanchions—if stanchions they were, and not weird decorations—resembled icicles dripping from a twig. Alpine gusts whipped their garments and hair, and the sky, cold and remote, seethed with cloud like pourings of steam and smoke and liquid pewter. Beneath the bridge the crevasse dived into dark and secret mouths where the wind whistled like a lost bird.
Somewhere in those depths
, Asr
ă
thiel thought fleetingly,
lies the Sylvan Comb. Or perhaps it is still falling . . .