For all their new-found resolve and awareness, the four Lords found their material position unchanged. They did not even know where they were being held except that it was somewhere in the main Palace building and almost certainly underground.
Their journey from the Throne Room following their fateful confrontation with the King had been confined and violent, all four of them shouting and struggling but being relentlessly shepherded by the grim Mathidrin. So unexpected had been the King’s action that none of them had had the presence of mind to note where they were going through the maze of corridors and hallways, but their subsequent consensus was that it had been generally downwards. A long way down.
Their food was brought by a series of different guards, and whenever the door was opened, at least two others could be seen standing outside.
‘We’ve set ourselves a fair task, Lords,’ said Eldric with a grim smile. ‘I for one don’t feel inclined to match my muscle against what I’ve seen of our guards. Wherever they’re from, they look fit and tough, and we’ve no idea how many of them are out there.’ Then he catalogued their problems. ‘Even if we do get out of this room we don’t know where we are, thanks to our dignified journey here, and if we managed to get out of the Palace there’s no saying how many friends we’ll find in the City to help us back to our estates.’ His voice had risen with each statement and finally he smacked his hands on his knees and stood up. ‘Good grief, we don’t even know whether our estates and High Guards still exist,’ he shouted.
‘We abandon the idea?’ asked Arinndier placidly.
Eldric shot his friend a stern glance. ‘Certainly not,’ he said fiercely, before catching the humour in Arinndier’s eye.
‘We just have to move one step at a time that’s all,’ he concluded, more quietly.
Arinndier smiled. Like all of them, Eldric was paler and thinner as a result of his confinement, but his inner fire seemed to be burning brighter than ever. Occasion-ally Arinndier felt sparks fly that he had not seen since they fought shoulder to shoulder in the Morlider War. A much younger man had replaced the old one that had so recently been tenanting Eldric’s body.
Only once did Eldric refer to his strange decline and recovery. Hreldar and Darek were sleeping and Eldric and Arinndier had fallen into a companionable silence. Arinndier looked at his old friend, pensively tapping a curled finger against his mouth.
‘Are you all right?’ he inquired tentatively.
Eldric nodded and smiled after a moment. ‘Yes. I’m fine now, Arin,’ he said. Then he volunteered, ‘I’m afraid age has stiffened me up in more ways than one.’
Arinndier looked at him inquiringly.
Eldric spoke very quietly. ‘When the King turned on us like that, I panicked. Not for an instant had I thought that such a thing could happen. And all those guards closing in on us. So many… so overwhelming. It’s a long time since I’ve been so frightened.’
‘We were all frightened,’ said Arinndier.
Eldric frowned a little and shook his head. ‘No, this wasn’t the same. This felt like something breaking inside. Something important that kept me together. Something that would have bent and taken the strain once. It was terrible.’ Briefly, his age showed on his face again, but Arinndier did not interrupt.
‘Suddenly it was an end, Arin. All the life seemed to go out of me. I felt lost-like a child-all I wanted to do was bolt for cover, hide in my mother’s skirts. Then I was in some kind of darkness. I scarcely remember anything until I heard Darek laying down the law about the Law. You know, I seemed to hear my father shouting at me, "Get up, boy!" And I did. Whatever had broken came together again. Something dropped back into place.’
He stood up and looked at the slumbering Darek. Sleep had softened the Lord’s lean face and he looked slightly incongruous.
Eldric smiled. ‘You remember my father, don’t you?’
Arinndier nodded. ‘Indeed I do,’ he said. ‘I always did my best to avoid him.’
Eldric laughed. ‘He was all right really. But that’s what he used to roar at me if I took a tumble. "Get up, boy! You’ll get killed lying there. Get up, or I’ll leave you!" And he would have done too, if I hadn’t made the effort.’ He shook his head and chuckled warmly. ‘He loved me too much to offer me a hand when it wasn’t needed, Arin. I didn’t realize how hard that was until I’d a son of my own.’
The mood darkened a little at the mention of his son. None of them had heard anything of their families and estates and, though not much dwelled on, it was a greater strain to bear than the captivity itself.
Eldric moved back to his bunk and his topic. ‘I think it was probably the suddenness of the change as much as the violence, Arin. Winded me, as it were. We’ve been too still too long. Maybe the whole country has. Grown stiff and unresponsive. Perhaps we couldn’t have anticipated what might happen, but we should’ve been able to accept the reality more quickly when it did, instead of… ’ He left the sentence unfinished and shrugged. ‘Anyway, we got knocked down for our pains so we must learn our lessons all over again-and that’s an old lesson in itself.’
The advantage of moving through life one step at a time is that the worries and doubts of detailed long-term planning are avoided. All that is necessary is a careful probing of the ground immediately ahead, and consid-erable trust in one’s own ability and that of one’s companions to move quickly as need arises.
The disadvantage, of course, is that while such prob-ing may prevent a fall into a precipice or a collision with a cliff face, it cannot prevent the return journey that meeting such obstacles entails.
The Lords, however, accepted that they had no al-ternative, and that their first step was to find out where they were. After some lengthy and fruitless debate about how this was to be achieved, Eldric abruptly gave a frustrated and angry snarl and opted for action. With some truthfulness, but perhaps a little too much bluntness, he gave the first order of his campaign.
‘Hreldar, you look the sickest. Lie down and start moaning-quickly.’ Before Hreldar could speak, Eldric took his elbow and escorted him briskly to the bunk.
‘Just moan,’ Eldric said, sitting the open-mouthed Lord down unceremoniously. Then, striding across the room, he banged his fist on the door.
‘What are you doing?’ cried Arinndier and Darek simultaneously in alarmed chorus.
Eldric turned impatiently to Hreldar. ‘Moan!’ he said, authoritatively. Then to the others, equally firmly, ‘Follow my lead.’ He renewed his assault on the door powerfully. Fists and feet.
‘Open this damned door,’ he roared.
Arinndier and Darek looked at one another briefly and shrugged. This was Eldric, their old commander, and they had not seen him for many years.
Eventually they heard the bolts being drawn and the rattle of keys in the lock. Hreldar leaned forward to see what was happening, but Eldric waved him down again. ‘Moan,’ he mouthed silently.
The door opened slowly and Arinndier quailed in-wardly at the sight of the black-clad Mathidrin trooper standing there. He gave the impression of having been carved out of one solid piece of black stone. Tall and heavily built, he exuded a bull-like solidity. Not a man to be tackled lightly, thought Arinndier, or at all, prefera-bly. He also exuded a certain oafish brutality and his fists were clenched at the ends of massive arms that hung in a curve away from his body, indicating that his normal gait was a swagger.
‘The Lord Hreldar’s ill, guard,’ began Eldric. ‘We must… ’
‘Less noise, prisoners,’ said the guard in a harsh, unfamiliar accent, cutting across Eldric’s outburst.
Eldric, however, was riding high. He stood up, straight and relaxed in front of the guard, his very posture making him seem at least as tall as the man.
‘Pending the Lord Dan-Tor’s review of our case, you’ll address us as Lords, guard, and you’ll stand to attention when so doing. Is that clear?’ His voice was quiet but very deliberate and its tone indicated it would brook no debate.
The guard seemed to swell visibly and, for a mo-ment, it looked as if he were considering knocking Eldric down. But Eldric held the man’s gaze with an icy unwavering stare, behind which were all his years as a commander of men. It was a crucial moment, and the three other Lords watched with some trepidation. They were about to have a measure of their worth as prison-ers.
After several seconds, Arinndier felt the guard’s resolve falter slightly. With impeccable timing, Eldric leaned forward and brought his face close to the guard’s. ‘Is that clear?’ he repeated, almost whispering. ‘Or are you deaf as well as improperly dressed?’
Involuntarily, the guard dropped his gaze briefly to examine his uniform.
‘Eyes front!’ thundered Eldric as if he were in the middle of a large and noisy parade ground. The three Lords jumped as the powerful voice filled the tiny room and the guard snapped reflexively to attention. There’s nothing like military reflexes, thought Arinndier, recovering, and casually putting his hand over his mouth to cover a smile. Darek too turned away and, moving to Hreldar, bent over as if tending him. Eldric continued his initiative before the guard had a chance to recover his wits properly.
‘The Lord Hreldar’s ill. He collapsed without warn-ing. Get a healer immediately.’
The guard dithered. ‘I don’t know… ’ he stam-mered.
‘Well I do,’ shouted Eldric. ‘Get a healer. Now!’
The man still hesitated.
‘Do you want to answer to Lord Dan-Tor if the Lord Hreldar dies in your care?’
The mention of Dan-Tor galvanized the man, and he turned towards the door. As he did so Hreldar let out a gasping cry and sat up, his hand to his throat as if choking.
‘Wait,’ cried Darek to the departing guard. ‘He’s having some kind of a fit. He must have air. He’s choking to death.’
Again the man faltered, caught between Eldric and Darek’s commands and the apparent distress of Hreldar.
‘Quickly, man,’ said Arinndier, striding over to help Darek with the gasping Hreldar. Eldric gave the guard an imperative flick of the head to propel him away from the door and over to the struggling trio. ‘Hurry, he’s heavy. I’ll get the other guards.’ And before the guard had time to consider what was happening, he stepped out into the passage.
It was no frightened, struggling old man who walked through that door, it was a battle-tried and determined Lord who had clung to old ways and old disciplines when others around him were drifting into idleness and hedonism. He knew he could have only a few minutes’ freedom at the most and in that time he had to gather as much information as he could about their location.
The passage was unfamiliar but he allowed himself no time for disappointment. To his right it ended in an old and very solid door. He ran to it and lifting the heavy latch pulled it urgently. The door opened surprisingly easily and almost threw him off balance. He noted that though it was old, the hinges and the latch had all recently been greased. This must have been sealed for years, he thought. Who’s opened it now and why? Then he dismissed the question for future consideration and peered through the doorway. A spiralling flight of steps disappeared down into the darkness.
‘Guards,’ he shouted loudly for the benefit of the guard in the room. His voice sank dully into the dark stairwell in front of him. Faint noises and a dank unpleasant smell rose up to meet him. He wrinkled his nose in distaste and closed the door.
Two figures appeared along the passage. Eldric ran towards them, crying out, ‘Guards, guards, come quickly,’ before they could speak. Babbling loudly about Hreldar’s fit he ushered them urgently towards his cell. Arinndier and the first guard were manoeuvring the now almost dead-weight Hreldar through the door and Darek was flitting around looking concerned.
‘He must have air quickly,’ said Darek. ‘I’ve seen him in these attacks before. It’s the confinement, it happened in… ’
‘No,’ interrupted Arinndier angrily, hitching Hreldar’s arm around his shoulder. ‘He’s been poi-soned.’ And he glowered at the guards. ‘We’ll find out who’s responsible for this, have no fear.’
Good, Arin, thought Eldric. That’ll start rumours flying.
‘Which way, man?’ he snapped at the nearby guard. The man pointed vaguely up the passage. Eldric knew they had only seconds now before the guards took control so, unhooking Hreldar’s arm from Arinndier, he unceremoniously thrust Hreldar into the arms of the two guards and started urging the whole group along the passage towards the first junction.
When they reached it, the first guard found his tongue. ‘Pris… Lords,’ he said. ‘We’ll look after the Lord Hreldar now. You must return to your… room.’
Eldric gave Hreldar a concerned look and then, with heavy reluctance, turned back down the passage. Arinndier caught his quick gesture and joined him. Darek picked up a hand signal. ‘Let me go with him,’ he said to the guard. ‘I’ve seen these attacks before.’
The guard looked at Eldric as if for guidance, but Eldric, now backing slowly and dutifully towards the cell, shrugged as if to disown responsibility for every-thing that would happen from here on.
‘Very well,’ said the guard, and he nodded to his companions.
Eldric and Arinndier turned and entered their cell quickly, both anxious that the guard should not see the triumph on their faces.