Читать книгу Crystal Gorge - David Eddings - Страница 12

They went a short way out into the meadow where nobody was near and then stopped.

‘I’ve heard some of the men of your clan referring to you as “Prince Ekial”,’ Dahlaine said. ‘That means that you’re the ruler here, doesn’t it?’

‘Well, sort of, I suppose,’ Ekial replied. ‘Actually, it’s a term we picked up from the Trogites a while back. It impresses the Trogite cattle-buyers, so we use it to get the price we want when we sell cows to them. When you get right down to it, the clan doesn’t really have what other people call “rulers”. We talk things over before we make any decisions. The clan-chief is older than the men and boys who do the work, and we usually follow his suggestions, but we’re quite a bit more relaxed than the Trogites are. Let’s talk about this war that’s going on in your part of the world and how much gold you’ll be willing to pay us to go there and fight your enemies.’

‘How many horsemen would your clan be able to send to help us?’

Ekial squinted across the open grassland. ‘I’d say about ten thousand – or so. We can’t take all of the men, you understand. At least half of the men of the clan have to stay here to tend the cattle.’ Ekial hefted the gold block. ‘I’m sure that I’ll be able to get the interest of other clans if I show this to them, though,’ he added.

‘We can get into that somewhat later,’ Dahlaine said. ‘There’s a war in progress in my brother’s Domain right now, and I think it might not be a bad idea for me to take you there as an observer. That should give you a chance to see the enemy and come up with some tactics that might help us push them back.’

‘That’s not a bad idea,’ Ekial agreed. ‘Now, then, how are we going to get there?’

‘Leave that to me, Prince Ekial,’ Dahlaine replied with a faint smile.

It seemed to Ekial that he’d drifted off to sleep for some reason during his conversation with Dahlaine, and he woke up suddenly just outside a strange-looking structure that quite obviously was not anywhere in the meadowland. It was also quite obvious that it was night-time here. ‘What’s going on, Dahlaine?’ he demanded suspiciously.

‘Don’t get excited, Ekial,’ Dahlaine replied. ‘We just made a little journey, that’s all. We’re in the southern part of the Land of Dhrall, and our enemies will begin their attack before long. That building is the house of my younger brother, Veltan, and there are people in that house that you need to know.’

‘Just exactly what do you mean by “a journey”, Dahlaine? I’m not going anyplace until you tell me what just happened.’

Dahlaine sighed. ‘We went from one place to another in a very short period of time. I just happen to have a mount that can go even faster than Beast. She’s a little noisy, but she can take me to where I want to go almost instantly.’

‘I don’t think I’d call it “instantly”, Dahlaine,’ Ekial persisted. ‘It was morning when we were talking in the Land of Malavi, but it’s night-time here.’

‘That’s because we traveled east. We’re quite a ways to the east of your homeland.’

‘A couple hundred miles, maybe?’

‘Quite a bit farther than that. We can talk about that later, Ekial. It’s night-time now, so you’ll need a place to sleep – and probably something to eat as well. Let’s go on inside and get you settled in for the night. You’ll be meeting people tomorrow that you should get to know. They’re on our side in this war, and that means that they’ll be your friends.’

Ekial shrugged. ‘You’re the one who’s paying,’ he said, ‘so we’ll do things your way – for now, anyway.’

They went on into the stone house and down a long, torch-lit corridor that appeared to be totally deserted.

‘Just how late at night is it, Dahlaine?’ Ekial asked in a quiet voice.

‘About midnight, I’d say. Why do you ask?’

‘We’re a lot farther east of the meadowland than I thought, then.’

‘Don’t worry about it. Let’s stop by the kitchen and get you something to eat.’

‘I don’t really need anything,’ Ekial replied. ‘I ate breakfast an hour or so ago.’ He shook his head. ‘I think it’s going to take me a while to get used to this place.’

Then a young fellow came along the hallway from the other direction. He was obviously a Trogite, but the black leather clothes he wore almost exactly duplicated the standard clothing of Malavi horsemen, and that didn’t sit too well with Ekial.

‘How are things going, Keselo?’ Dahlaine asked the young man.

‘They just got a lot better, Lord Dahlaine. Commander Narasan revoked Jalkan’s commission and put him in chains yesterday, and getting rid of Jalkan made the whole world seem brighter.’ He looked somewhat inquiringly at Ekial.

‘This is Prince Ekial of Malavi, Keselo,’ Dahlaine said. ‘It’s quite likely that he’ll be joining us somewhat later, and I brought him here to observe the war here in my brother’s Domain.’

‘A horse-soldier?’ Keselo asked. Then he bowed. ‘I’m honored to meet you, Prince Ekial.’

‘Am I supposed to talk to this one?’ Ekial asked Dahlaine.

‘It wouldn’t hurt, Ekial,’ Dahlaine replied. ‘I’m fairly sure you two will be working together before long.’

‘Not all Trogites are as corrupt as the cattle-buyers I’m sure you’ve encountered in the past, Prince Ekial,’ the young man said. He hesitated slightly. ‘Just out of curiosity, what price will the Malavi demand for a cow this season?’

‘We haven’t quite decided yet. I’d imagine that it’ll be about the same as it was last year.’

‘I rather thought that might be the case. When you go home, you might want to tell your friends that you could get four or five times as much as the cattle-buyers have been paying you. The cattle-buyers have been swindling your people for generations now. When they sell one of the cows you sold them, they demand ten times as much as they paid you. I’ve seen the cattle markets, Prince Ekial, so I know what I’m talking about. The cattle-buyers will scream and wave their arms about, but they will pay what you demand.’

Ekial stared at the young Trogite, and then he suddenly laughed. ‘I think I just found a friend, Dahlaine,’ he said. Then he looked at the youthful Trogite. ‘We can talk about this later, Keselo. What moved you to tell me this, though? I thought that all Trogites are swindlers.’

‘Not quite all of us, Prince Ekial. You’ll meet Commander Narasan before long, and he’s probably the most honorable man in the world.’ Keselo smiled faintly. ‘There are bad Trogites, and then there are good ones.’

‘We come up against the same sort of thing in the Land of Malavi,’ Ekial agreed.

‘That’s been going around a lot lately,’ Keselo said with no hint of a smile.

As Ekial settled down to sleep in the room somewhere near the back of the huge stone house, he realized that he actually liked the young Trogite. Of course, the information Keselo had just given him could very well turn out to be incredibly valuable when he got back to the meadowland. Evidently, not all the Trogites in the whole wide world were scoundrels. That jarred Ekial’s view of the world just a bit, but he was fairly sure that he could learn to live with it.

It was just after dawn the following morning when Dahlaine came into the room where Ekial had intermittently slept, and he had a very handsome young man with him. ‘This is my younger brother Veltan, Prince Ekial,’ Dahlaine said. ‘This is his house – and his Domain, of course. I think it might be best if he were the one who introduced you to the outlanders.’

‘I’m honored to meet you, Prince Ekial,’ Veltan said.

‘Likewise,’ Ekial replied shortly. He looked at Dahlaine. ‘Are all these formalities really necessary?’ he asked.

‘Well, sort of, I think,’ Dahlaine replied. ‘We’ve got a wide variety of people here, and formality seems to keep the fights from breaking out every time we turn around. In just a few minutes you’ll be meeting Queen Trenicia of the Isle of Akalla. I’d advise you to step around her rather carefully. She’s a warrior woman – which might seem a bit peculiar to you – but I wouldn’t make an issue of it. She’s a proud, bad-tempered woman, and she reaches for her sword any time somebody says anything she doesn’t like.’

Ekial smiled faintly. ‘A friend of mine – Ariga – rides a mare, and I’d swear that she’s the worst-tempered horse in all of Malavi. Females – animals as well as people – tend to get peculiar every so often.’

‘I wouldn’t say anything along those lines in front of our sisters, Prince Ekial,’ Veltan said with a grin.

‘I’ll try to remember that,’ Ekial said, rolling out of his bed. ‘I’ve given this a bit of thought, and I don’t think I should say very much to the local people or the outlanders during these little gettogethers. I’m here to learn, not to teach, so I’ll just watch and listen.’

‘That might be best, Prince Ekial.’

‘Do we really have to keep waving “prince” around like that?’ Ekial demanded.

‘It’s probably useful,’ Veltan replied. ‘Rank seems to be terribly important to the outlanders, so let’s keep “prince” right out where they can all see it.’

The discussions in what Veltan called his ‘map room’ seemed just a bit silly to Ekial. The Trogites and Maags seemed to enjoy all sorts of picky little details when they were planning a war, and the term ‘forts’ seemed to come up every time they turned around. Evidently the notion of making things up as they went along had never occurred to them. Of course, they had to walk to their wars and back again. The horses of the meadowland made things much simpler, and, probably even more significant, the Malavi could take advantage of the unexpected when it happened to crop up. Ekial carefully covered his mouth with his hand every time he felt a yawn coming up.

‘Tedious, aren’t they?’ the tall native, Longbow, asked.

Ekial flashed him a quick grin. ‘I noticed that myself. Do they really think that they can predict every single thing that’s going to happen when they encounter their enemy?’

‘The Maags are a little more flexible,’ Longbow said. ‘The Trogites are very efficient, but they don’t like surprises.’

Ekial had been a bit curious about the clothing of the natives. Their clothes were made of leather, much like the clothes of the Malavi, but they were softer and more flexible, and they had a golden color.

‘Does all this “venom” business come anywhere at all close to the truth?’ he asked the native.

‘Oh, yes,’ Longbow replied. ‘Our enemy uses venom instead of swords, spears, and bows. That makes minor wounds – or even scratches – deadly.’

‘That might cause my people some very serious problems,’ Ekial said. ‘If this venom can kill our horses, we’ll have to learn how to walk. That might take a lot of the fun out of this war.’

‘How long ago was it when your people started to tame horses?’

‘I haven’t the foggiest idea, Longbow – hundreds of years, I’d guess. The meadowland of Malavi is the natural home of animals that eat grass. We ride horses, and we eat cows – or sell them to the Trogites.’ Ekial paused. ‘Do you happen to know that young Trogite called Keselo?’

‘Quite well,’ Longbow replied.

‘Would you say that he’s honest?’

‘Yes. He always tells the truth. Why do you ask?’

‘I met him last night, and he told me that the Trogite cattle-buyers have been cheating my people for a long time now. Why would he betray his own people like that?’

‘Honesty. Keselo doesn’t like people who cheat.’

Ekial grinned. ‘When these wars are all over, you might want to keep one of your ears pointed in the direction of the Land of Malavi. It’s quite some distance away from your part of the world, but you might still be able to hear the screaming when we tell the cattle-buyers how much they’re going to have to pay for the cows they want.’

‘Screaming is rather musical, I suppose,’ Longbow said.

‘I sort of like it,’ Ekial agreed, ‘particularly when it’s coming from somebody who thinks he can swindle me. How much longer do you think it’s going to be until somebody here decides to go on up into the mountains to look at the real ground instead of that imitation Veltan laid out?’

‘A few more days is about all.’

‘I think I’d better have a talk with Dahlaine,’ Ekial said. ‘I’d like to go along with those people. I need to see where this war will really take place. My people wouldn’t be very comfortable in a land covered with trees.’

‘I’ll have a talk with Veltan,’ Longbow said, ‘but if Dahlaine’s description of his Domain is at all accurate, he’ll want you and your friends in the central part – what his people call Matakan. It’s mostly grassland there.’

‘Now this is starting to make some sense,’ Ekial said. ‘When the people here were talking about that first war, the word “trees” kept coming up, and I was just about to tell Dahlaine that I wasn’t the least bit interested. If there’s open grassland in his part of the Land of Dhrall, I’ll go along with him – if we can reach an agreement about how much he’ll be willing to pay, of course.’