Liberty Roar

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The beads clicked in a gust that flattened the lamp-flame and made the shadows dart on the wall like fish startled in a deep pool. The High Chief was silent, collecting himself with the air of a man repulsed by an obstacle but still determined to overcome it by one means or another. When he spoke again it was in a quieter tone.

"Well, so far as I am any judge, Tyrion, you may be an honest man, though you are a great fool with your talk of children and God. Could you not have asked for one single friend to come here, to testify to your honesty?'

'My lord-'

'No, you could not, it seems, or else it never occurred to you. But let us assume that you are honest, and that something took place today which for some reason you have neither concealed nor revealed. If had you gone about with cunning to conceal it alto gether, I suppose you would not have been compelled to come here you would not be standing here now. No doubt, then, you know very well that it is something that is bound to come to light sooner or later, so that it would have been foolish for you to try to hide it.'

'Yes, I am sure enough of that, my lord,' replied Tyrion without hesitation. Bel-ka-Trazet drew his knife and, like a man idly passing the time while waiting for supper or a friend, began to heat the point in

the lamp-flame. 'My lord,' said Tyrion suddenly, "if a man were to return from hunting and say to the Darmain, or to his friends, "I have found a star, fallen from the sky to the earth," who would believe him?" Bel-ka-Trazet made no reply, but went on turning the point of

the knife in the flame.

"But if that man had indeed found a star, my lord, what then? What should he do and to whom should he bring it?"

"You question me, and in riddles, Tyrion, do you? I have no love for visionaries or their talk, so be careful.'

The High Chief clenched his fist but then, like a man determined to exercise patience, let it fall open and remained staring at Tyrion

with a sceptical look.

"Well?' he said at length.

"I fear you, my lord. I fear your power and your anger. But the star that I found-it is from God, and this, too, I fear. I fear it more. I know to whom it must be revealed-' his voice came in a strangled gasp-'I can reveal it - only to the Tugindal'

In an instant Bel-ka-Trazet had seized him by the throat and forced him to the floor. The hunter's head bent sharply backwards, away from the hot knife-point thrust close to his face. I will do this-I can do only that! By the Bear, you will no longer choose what you will do when your bow-eye is out! You'll end in Zeray, my child!'

Tyrion's hands stretched upwards, clutching at the black cloak bending over him and pressing him backwards from knee to wounded shoulder. His eyes were closed against the heat of the knife and he seemed about to faint in the High Chief's at length he spoke-Bel-ka-Trazet stooping close to catch the words - he whispered, grasp. Yet when 'It can be only as God wills, my lord. The matter is great greater, even, than your hot knife.'

The beads clashed in the doorway. Without relinquishing his hold the Chief peered over his shoulder into the gloom beyond the lamp. Zelda's voice said,

My lord, there are messengers from the Tuginda. She would speak with you urgently, she says. She requests that you go to Quiso tonight.' Bel-ka-Trazet drew in his breath with a hiss and stood straight, shaking off Tyrion, who fell his length and lay without moving. The knife slipped from the High Chief's hand and stuck in the floor, transfixing a fragment of some greasy rubbish, which began to smoulder with an evil smell. He stooped quickly, recovered the knife and trod out the fragment. Then he said quietly,

To Quiso, tonight? What can this mean? God protect us! Are you sure? 'Yes, my lord. Would you speak yourself with the girls who brought the message?'

'Yes - no, let it be. She would not send such a message unless - Go and tell Ankray and Faron to get a canoe ready. And see that this man is aboard.' pu Lt This man, my lord?" "Put aboard.'

The bead curtain clashed once more as the High Chief passed through it, across the Sindrad and out among the trees beyond. Zelda, hurrying across to the servants' quarters, could see in the light of the quarter moon the conical shape of the great fur cloak striding impatiently up and down the shore.

To Quiso by Night

Tyrion knelt in the bow, now peering into the speckled gloom ahead, now shutting his eyes and dropping his chin on his chest in a fresh spasm of fear. At his back the enormous Ankray, Bel-ka Trazet's servant and bodyguard, sat silent as the canoe drifted with the current along the south bank of the Telthearna. From time to time Ankray's paddle would drop to arrest or change their course, and at the sound Tyrion started as though the loud stir of the water were about to reveal them to enemies in the dark. 

Since giving the order to set out Bel-ka-Trazet had said not a word, sitting hunched in the narrow stern, hands clasped about his knees. More than once, as the paddles fell, the swirl and seethe of bubbles alarmed some nearby creature, and Tyrion jerked his head towards the clatter of wings, the splash of a dive or the crackle of under growth on the bank. Biting his lip and clutching at the side of the canoe, he tried to recall that these were nothing but birds and animals with which he was familiar - that by day he would recognize each one.

 Yet beyond these noises of flight he was listening always for another, more terrible sound and dreading the second appearance of that animal to whom, as he believed, the miles of jungle and river presented no obstacle. And again, shrinking from this, his mind confronted dismally another life-long fear the fear of the island for which they were bound. Why had the Chief been summoned thither and what had that summons to do with the news which he himself had refused to tell?

They had already travelled a long way beneath the trees over hanging the water, when the servants evidently recognized some landmark. The left paddle dropped once more and the canoe checked, turning towards the centre of the river. Upstream, a few faint lights on Ortelga were just visible, while to their right, far out in the darkness, there now appeared another light, high up; a flicker ing, red glow that vanished and re-emerged as they moved on. The servants were working now, driving the canoe across the stream while the current, flowing more strongly at this distance from the bank, carried them down. Tyrion could sense in those behind him a growing uneasiness.

The paddlers' rhythm became short and broken. The bow struck against something floating in the dark, and at the jolt Bel-ka-Trazet grunted sharply, like a man on edge. 'My lord' said Ankray. 'Be silent!' replied Bel-ka-Trazet in stantly.