Across the Face of the World (72 page)

If the pre-dawn had taken an age, the day itself seemed to Leith to last an eternity.

Phemanderac took him from place to place, trying every possible avenue first to obtain charity, then to gain work. 'We need money to rent lodgings large enough for your compatriots,' he explained. 'If the Instruian guards find you on the streets after dark they put you in prison until the next morning.'

'What sort of place is this?' Leith wanted to know. His village had never needed guards to keep order.

'The more people who live in one place, the more evil things happen. Therefore the more organised must be the enforcers of the law.'

'I don't like it here. It was foolish to think we might find help here.'

At first the Great City had simply been a melange of images so foreign his brain could make no sense of what his eyes were seeing. Gradually the shapes and colours resolved into buildings and people, far more of either than he had ever imagined could be found in one place, and much more tightly packed together. Broad thoroughfares flanked by vast ornate civic edifices gave way to narrow lanes, overflowing with pedestrians and overshadowed by tall tenement buildings, into each of which seemingly hundreds of people had been crammed.

Through the centre of these cobbled lanes ran foetid open sewers choked by the spoil of the congested city, amid which children played with dogs and rats ran unchecked. Here and there a market spread, attracting Instruians like ants to honey. But ranking above the swirling colours and the pungent smells was the overwhelming noise: the sheer inten¬sity of it seemed calculated to set a boy from a small village on edge. To his left a pack of mangy dogs barked and howled as they fought over something unspeakable; some distance ahead another market was the scene of squabbling as shrill voices competed for attention; while somewhere to his right, at the top of a building taller than the Common Oak back home, a baby screamed and screamed, almost unnoticed in the din. Leith found himself clenching his teeth and making fists as though to repel this many-pronged assault.

Instruere seemed to have the opposite effect on Phemanderac. The tension of weeks on the run drained from him, to be replaced by the excitement of the city. With the increasingly reluctant Leith in tow, he went from one market to the next, searching for some way of obtaining food and shelter for the two of them. Leith suspected that he deliberately took them to the loudest and most colourful spots, irrespective of the likelihood of getting what they needed. Phemanderac revelled in the colour and light in a way Leith could not comprehend.

Late in the afternoon, at yet another stall of still another market, the philosopher finally succeeded. An old woman who operated a shoe stall needed some assistance in tidying up her property. Apparently her husband had passed on a year ago, leaving their three-storeyed residence in some disrepair, a state which had compounded since. In exchange for restorative labour on the house, the woman (whose name was Foilzie) agreed to allow Phemanderac and Leith to live in the basement and to supply them with two meals a day.

'Only if you're in, mind,' she cautioned them. 'I'll not keep food for anyone. I didn't for old Ferdie and I won't for you. Be sure you keep the place tidy or you'll be out on your ear, no second warning.'

Their first night in the basement was a trial. The room was windowless and dank, and had been neglected for some time. Leith could hear the scuffling of some small animal - probably a rat, or more than one - and found himself unable to sleep in spite of extreme tiredness. Some time during the night he complained to Phemanderac.

'At least we're here within the walls and not still waiting on the far end of that accursed bridge,' came the weary reply. 'We'll clean up the room tomorrow. You'll see, it will be fine once we've been through it. We'll probably only be here for a few days, until the others come and we can arrange our audience with the Council of Faltha.'

It took them most of the next day to clean out the basement, hauling many seemingly useless artefacts off to the market, where Foilzie insisted they would fetch a good price. There was no sign of the rats, nor of where they might have entered.

It was the middle of the afternoon when they finished in the basement, and Phemanderac went to tour the markets. Leith tried to rest on his mattress for a while, but kept imagining he heard the sound of small animals at the far end of the room, so he gave up and headed for the city wall.

While it would be many weeks before Leith became used to the layout and the sheer size of the city, he used Instruere's geography to his advantage. Foilzie's tenement was within view of the city wall, and so he was able to find the Inna Gate by simply heading to the wall and working his way around it. Later he was to learn that he had passed through a particularly dangerous quarter of the city, but no one was bold enough to accost him in the harsh after¬noon light.

Steep stairways ascended the interior of the wall at regular inter¬vals, and Leith chose the stairway nearest the gate to gain access to the broad walk at the top of the wall. From this vantage point he was able to see all those who entered or left the city by the Inna Gate.

Moreover, as the wall was very high, he could see through the hazy air above the north branch of the Aleinus River to the other end of Longbridge.

'What are you doing on the walls?' came a voice from behind him.

Leith started and spun around. There stood a man in the red-and-black livery of the Instruian Guard, hand resting easily on sword hilt, a slightly bored look on his face.

'I - I'm waiting for the rest of my party,' Leith explained, choosing the truth over any of the implausible stories that came to his mind. 'We became separated on our way here.'

The guard nodded his head, then took a closer look at him. 'Where are you from, boy? And what is your name? You don't look like you're from anywhere around these parts.'

Leith waited for a moment before answering. He was in a strange land, but what harm could there be in telling this man where he was from? 'My name is Leith, and my home is Firanes.'

The man's eyes widened. 'Firanes! What brings you this far?'

The youth cast his eyes down. 'I'm not sure,' he said eventu¬ally. 'My parents - my father is a Trader; he has some reason for coming here.'

The guard grunted, his curiosity satisfied.

Emboldened, Leith continued the conversation. 'How high is this wall? Tell me what I can see from here!'

The man paused for a moment, then began telling Leith about the wall. Built after the Bhrudwan invasion, he explained, it was sixty-five feet high and thirty feet thick, with two main gates: one here, one to the south. There were other small gates in the wall, openable only from the inside, after the fashion of all Falthan walled cities. From here one could see up and down the Aleinus, but the real sights were within the walls. There the spire of the House of Worship, the tallest building in the world; over there the bulk of the Hall of Meeting, where the Council of Faltha met, while further to the right. ..

Leith did not follow the pointing arm of the guard, choosing instead to keep his eyes on the Inna Gate. He did not turn even when the guard, understanding the anxiety of a youth who awaited his family, bade him goodbye and moved along the wall. Leith remained on the wall until sundown when, mindful of Phemanderac's warning about being on the streets after dark, he scurried back to the basement and the evening meal.

It was all he could do the next morning to stop himself stealing away to his 'place' on the city wall. What would they do, he explained to Phemanderac, if they missed seeing the Company enter the city? How would they find his friends among so many people? While the philosopher was sympathetic, he reminded Leith that they had made an agreement with Foilzie, without which they would not be able to stay in the city at all. At lunchtime Phemanderac relented, allowing Leith to go to the Inna Gate, as much because his not-unnatural preoccupation with his parents and the Company rendered him of little use in their task of cleaning and repairing the house. 'I'll finish up here,' the thin man said. 'Go on, off with you.' Before he had finished uttering the words, Leith had sprinted away round the corner and was gone.

This afternoon the usual heat haze was replaced by a cool sea breeze coming in over his left shoulder as he stood on top of the wall. Because of this, Leith found he could see much further, and more clearly, than yesterday. At first he watched every face care¬fully as they passed through the gate immediately below him and to his right, but he realised eventually that he would be able to detect a large group like the Company from a much greater distance, perhaps even from the far end of the bridge. He spent some time trying to trace the Westway north and west into the distance, where it eventually merged with the greys and folds of a range of low hills. ..

What was that? His eyes jerked back to a place roughly halfway between the hills and Longbridge, maybe three or four miles from where he stood. There was a group of people walking - no, running

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down the Westway, catching and passing others on the road.

Was this the Company? After twenty minutes, Leith decided it was not: there were far too many, perhaps twenty or thirty of them.

Or was that because there were two groups?

The road made a southward turn about a mile north of the bridge. Now the people were on the final straight of the Westway. He strained his eyes. It was difficult to tell, the sun was too bright-yes, there were two groups, one chasing the other - and in the first group of nine, the group being chased, he could see - could he be sure? He waited for some minutes, then yes, he was sure.

He could see Farr, and there was Kurr, and - his father and mother.

He couldn't make out the others - except the limping one must be Hal. He was falling a little way behind. It was all Leith could do not to cry out from the battlements.

His eyes lifted slightly to the pursuing party, and for a moment he ceased breathing. He would never forget the uniform of the Widuz. Why do they chase the Company? What was happening? The sun flickered on the edges of their drawn swords; there was no doubting their murderous intent. Surely they would overtake their quarry before they got to the bridge.

At that moment, Leith felt an arm on his shoulder, forcing a frightened cry from his lips. It was Phemanderac, who said: 'What's wrong? I just came up to see if there was anything. ..'

His voice tailed off as he looked out over the plain.

'Your friends?' he asked.

Leith could only nod in reply.

'We can't leave Hal behind!' Kurr cried, looking over his shoulder.

'I'll go back for him!' Mahnum said, and turned away. Kurr watched as the Trader bravely snatched his son from just in front of the pursuing warriors and dragged him forward out of their reach - for the moment.

'Achtal, Achtal!' Hal was shouting as he struggled forward, as though the pursuit had tipped him into some pit of madness. 'Let Achtal go!'

'Who's Achtal? Do you mean the Bhrudwan? Do you want us to free him? You can't be serious!'

'Yes, yes, I am serious! Please,' Hal begged his father as they ran, 'please untie his hands and give him a sword. Achtal could save us from these men!'

'Has he bewitched you?' Mahnum asked his son incredulously, drawing deeply on his reserves in order to speak. 'He'd likely slay anyone between him and freedom. That murdering monster must never touch a weapon again. The only time he'll ever feel a sword will be when I finally end his life - after he's spoken to the council. Hal, you weren't there. You never saw what he did to your mother!'

'There will be a price to pay for your fear,' Hal gasped out. He was completely out of breath.

'Less of a price than that we would pay for your foolishness.'

Unperturbed, unhurried, the Widuz were spreading out. Those to the right and the left of the Westway were almost level with the Company. The bridge was close now, close but too far away. Kurr bit his lip in frustration. So close! It seemed so unfair, yet there was nothing he could do. This is all a matter of timing; if we hadn't tarried so long in Treika . . .

'We must stand and fight!' Farr called out.

'Not far now to the bridge,' Perdu answered him. 'If we can get to the bridge, we will be safe.'

'Surely the men of the city will come to our aid!' Stella cried.

There were now perhaps fifty paces between the Company and their pursuers; both flanks were beginning to close in. Cruel smiles spread across their faces as they anticipated their moment of revenge.

Suddenly Mahnum came to a stop. 'Go on ahead!' he shouted at the rest of the Company. 'It's me they want anyway! I'll hold them here!'

'Mahnum, no!' Indrett cried, and made to rush to his side, but Parlevaag grabbed her arm and dragged her on towards the bridge.

Behind them the Widuz closed in more slowly now on the man they sought; warily, cautiously they approached, for they had been travelling hard on foot for many days, and each man was suddenly aware that this warrior had defeated their champion. For a moment there was a standoff; then Tala lost patience with his men and drew his sword. 'Follow me!' he cried, leaping at Mahnum. 'Make his blood flow over the cobbles of this road!'

Mahnum drew the sword of Jethart from its jewelled scabbard, and immediately felt courage flow through his veins. 'Come on then!' he challenged them. 'Come and test yourself against me!' He waved the sword in their faces.

One after another the Widuz halted in their tracks. Even Talon's brother stood still, consternation on his face. There was no doubt, they all knew that infamous sword, its deeds woven into the tales of their great defeats; the sword of Jethart, Thunderbolt of the East, the Avenger of the Plains. By some magic it had appeared again, after many years. No wonder Talon fell to this man. Could this be Jethartl Surely not! He would be an old man by now even if he were still alive.

Seizing on their confusion, Mahnum turned and ran towards the bridge. The spell of the sword held the warriors for a moment longer, then they gave a shout and streamed down the road after the Company, too late. By the time the Widuz came to the bridge, the Company had pushed past the frightened gatekeeper and were making their way towards the city.