The Princess and the Captain Read online

  ‘Where did the horseman come from?’ Orpheus asked.

  ‘A country very far away,’ the woman told him in hushed tones. ‘Beyond the mountains of Gurkistan. My sister told me he’d covered the distance on horseback in less than ten days!’

  ‘That’s impossible!’ put in one of the other washerwomen. ‘No horse and no rider could have done it in that time!’

  ‘Oh yes, they could!’ replied the oldest. ‘So are you saying that my sister’s a liar again?’

  The argument broke out with renewed force, but Orpheus had heard enough. With a friendly little wave to the young washerwoman, he closed his window before hurrying into the sitting room. He found Zeph occupying his armchair again, but he didn’t get angry.

  ‘Zephyr, you’re not a St Bernard at all, you’re an obstinate old mule!’ he said. The dog pricked up his ears and opened his large, moist eyes. ‘It’s all right,’ smiled Orpheus, ‘don’t look so surprised. I’m not scolding you! You can even stay in my chair, because I have to go out.’

  He quickly dressed. If what the washerwoman said was true, surely the Coronador would be taking some action over this chambermaid. Perhaps he might mount an expedition, and he’d be needing brave men.

  ‘In which case I’ll be one of them!’ Orpheus told his reflection in the mirror.

  A thrill of excitement ran down his spine. He absolutely had to know the identity of the mysterious horseman and the contents of the letter he had brought. He must know before anyone else, so that he could be the first to offer the Coronador his services. Orpheus tapped his foot impatiently: if his chance had finally come, he mustn’t let it get away!

  He left his house and decided to climb up to the Old Town. The sun broke through the clouds at intervals, and a little breeze had swept up the refuse piled in the doorways of buildings. As he went from street to street, Orpheus met more passers-by than he usually saw these days. Women were coming out like flowers in spring, when it should have felt like autumn. But no: a sight of the sun at long last made November seem like April.

  Further away, Orpheus saw a gang of ragged boys throwing stones at stray cats. They were laughing, running and jumping, in defiance of edict thirty-one. Orpheus went over to them. He thought he recognised the bright lad who had knocked on his door twice.

  ‘Hey!’ he called. ‘Remember me?’

  The urchin broke off his game and came over to plant himself in front of Orpheus. ‘You’re McBott, aren’t you? Of course I remember you. And all those galniks I earned from you! Thanks to you I had a fortune-teller read the cards for me.’

  ‘A good way to spend your money, I’m sure!’ said Orpheus sarcastically. ‘I hope she at least predicted all kinds of marvels.’

  ‘You bet!’ replied the boy. ‘You’ve no idea what a wonderful future awaits me! I bought some soldier’s boots too. Look at these!’

  He proudly displayed the boots he was wearing. They were hobnailed, and slightly too big for him.

  ‘These make me boss of my gang!’ he said, puffing out his chest. ‘All the others go barefoot!’

  ‘Your parents must be proud of you, I’m sure,’ exclaimed Orpheus.

  ‘Parents? What parents?’

  ‘Why, the first time you came to my house, you said they’d be worried to think you were out alone at night,’ Orpheus recalled, frowning.

  The lad shrugged his shoulders. ‘Did I say so? I must have made a mistake. I’m an orphan!’

  Amused by the boy’s clever tricks, Orpheus started to laugh. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

  ‘It used to be Diego, but since I got these hobnailed boots everyone calls me Hob.’

  ‘Well, Hob, how would you like to earn a few more galniks?’

  The urchin narrowed his eyes with a wily look. ‘How many?’

  ‘Er … at least three hundred,’ said Orpheus in an undertone.

  The boy’s eyes shone. ‘What do I have to do?’

  Orpheus pointed to the Citadel on top of its cliff. ‘I want you to get yourself in there,’ he said.

  Hob raised his eyebrows and wrinkled his nose.

  ‘Yes, I know it won’t be easy, but you look like a bright lad to me. And when you get inside I’d like you to keep your ears open. It seems a stranger arrived last night with an important message. If you can tell me what the message is, I’ll give you – let’s say four hundred galniks!’

  Hob cast a bold glance at the walls around the Citadel. He nodded, accepting Orpheus’s offer.

  ‘And we’ll meet this evening under the bridge over the Gdavir!’ called Orpheus as he scurried off.

  ‘I’ll be there!’ said Hob.

  * * *

  Orpheus spent the day out and about. Whenever he heard Galnicians in conversation, he stopped to listen, and found out that the rumour was spreading. Only the arrival of a stranger on horseback had been mentioned that morning, but as the day wore on a wealth of detail accumulated.

  ‘Seems he’s an Emperor,’ said some. ‘He comes from a country with no name where they breed flying horses! He travelled here through the air, that’s for sure.’

  ‘Seems he’s bringing the Coronador gold,’ added others, ‘because he wants to marry a Galnician girl.’

  ‘What Galnician girl?’

  ‘No one knows.’

  By the end of the day the city was buzzing with the wildest of rumours. People stayed out of doors gathering under the plane trees, talking nineteen to the dozen, sometimes laughing, and all this in defiance of the Archont’s many edicts. It was said that the patrols were suspended, and not a soldier had left the Citadel. It was even said that the Archont had disappeared.

  When Orpheus met Hob under the bridge, the boy was red in the face, breathless, and very dirty.

  ‘Well?’ asked Orpheus. ‘Did you get inside the Citadel?’

  ‘Yes, through the gardens – I almost drowned myself falling into one of those basins too. It was full of mud and toads. Yuk!’

  ‘You’ve earned your wages,’ smiled Orpheus. ‘But tell me what you found out first.’

  Hob cast a few glances around to make sure that no one was listening, and then launched into his story. ‘I saw the stranger,’ he said. ‘He’s called Ugmir or something like that. He’s very strong and he wears really strange clothes – a hat made of animal fur. And it was Philomena, the Princess’s chambermaid, who asked him to come to the Citadel.’

  ‘Why did he come, though?’ Orpheus prompted the boy.

  Hob clicked his tongue and held out his hand. ‘The rest of the story will cost you another hundred galniks.’

  Orpheus sighed, and handed him the coins.

  ‘The stranger came to deliver a message. He insisted on giving it to the Coronador with his own hands. It seems the Archont fell into a towering rage because the stranger wouldn’t let him see what was in the letter. But I heard it all from one of the Coronada’s maids. Philomena wrote to say the Princess isn’t dead. She wasn’t drowned off the port of Carduz after all!’

  ‘But … but then where is she?’ stammered Orpheus.

  ‘Another hundred galniks to find out the answer,’ announced Hob, crossing his arms.

  Orpheus paid up.

  ‘The Princess has been kidnapped by warriors called … wait a minute, called Amids, I think. They’re planning to sell her to some kind of Emperor in the Orniant.’

  ‘Sell her?’ choked Orpheus.

  ‘I’m only telling you what I heard,’ said Hob apologetically. ‘This Emperor has a hornbeam and he keeps girls prisoner in it.’

  Baffled, Orpheus scratched his head. ‘Oh, a harem!’ he said. ‘That’s the word, I believe.’

  Hob shrugged his shoulders. As far as he was concerned, none of these exotic words made much sense.

  ‘But the most interesting thing of all,’ he said, ‘is that the stranger brought something else with him too. In a locked box. Something really, really surprising.’

  Resigned to his fate, Orpheus paid the two hundred galniks it would cost
to hear the rest.

  ‘The Archont’s medallion!’ cried Hob triumphantly. ‘When the Coronador opened the box, they say the Archont turned white as a sheet! In her letter the chambermaid accused him of sending the Princess to her death. The Coronador asked for an explanation, but the Archont ran out of His Alteza’s apartments. Some of the servants saw him riding away from the Citadel at a gallop. And no one knows where he is now!’

  Orpheus was astounded. These revelations went far beyond his wildest imaginings that day. He couldn’t explain the link between the Archont and the stranger, but there was something very peculiar about it. One thing was certain: Galnicia would be roused from its apathy at last. There could be no doubt that the Archont’s rule of terror was over.

  Looking at Hob, he put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Thanks!’ he said. ‘You’re a good lad.’

  ‘I even managed to steal this,’ said the boy, laughing, as he took a small bag of cured skin out of his pocket.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Orpheus.

  ‘A present the stranger brought for the Coronada. I pinched it from one of the cooks. Here, try it. You chew them.’

  He trickled a few seeds into the palm of Orpheus’s hand. Orpheus put them in his mouth. They tasted like nothing he knew. In fact they didn’t taste of anything much, yet chewing them was pleasant.

  ‘I’m going to plant these on the banks of the Gdavir,’ Hob told him. ‘You think they might grow?’

  ‘It’s possible,’ said Orpheus, thoughtfully.

  Whether they did or not, those strange seeds certainly had a flavour of adventure and travel.

  14

  The Daughter of Balmun

  The Amoyeds had tied Malva up, then blindfolded her before throwing her into the back of a cart. For an endlessly long time she was jolted around, so scared that she couldn’t even weep or cry out. The wound in her leg hurt. She was hungry, but she couldn’t even get hold of the paghul cakes in her pocket. She tried to reassure herself by repeating all the new words she’d learnt since her flight from the Citadel. She occupied her mind by combining them in different ways to make satisfying curses, but most of the time her thoughts were in confusion. All that was left was fear. Dreadful, stomach-churning fear.

  From time to time she heard shouting outside, laughter, muttering, sometimes terrifying howls. Did the Amoyeds speak a language full of growls, whistles and barking? Were they really human, or hybrid creatures like their dreadful mounts, the enlils? Were they half-man, half-beast?

  As she was brooding over these dark thoughts, the jolting of the cart suddenly stopped. She thought she heard a call, but the next moment there was silence. This was the first time the convoy had stopped. The first time such a silence had fallen.

  Malva took her chance to change position and try to relieve her aching muscles. There were some sacks to her right. She moved her bottom over the floor of the cart, which was full of splinters, and fell against the sacks, her cheek against their well-stuffed contents. At that moment another cry, closer than the first, broke the silence. She thought it said Mirgai!

  Then nothing happened for some time. Even the enlils were quiet. Malva fell into a kind of half-sleep. In her dreams she saw Philomena running towards her with blood all over her face. She saw her stumble and fall lifeless to the ground. Malva tried calling out to her, but suddenly two hands came down on her shoulders and she awoke.

  Malva uttered a sharp cry of pain, while a powerful smell of sweat made her stomach heave. An Amoyed! One of the Amoyeds had climbed into the cart and was shaking her to wake her up. He barked out a few words and then, without warning, tore the blindfold off Malva’s eyes.

  A blinding light cut her breath short. The Amoyed didn’t give her time to work out what was happening, but dragged her unceremoniously out of the cart, picked her up, and then pushed her ahead of him to make her walk. The Princess’s feet were on the ground, but she couldn’t take a step; her legs were much too weak to carry her. She collapsed on the grass.

  ‘Temir-Gai!’ A new cry rang in her ears. The Amoyed immediately called something back and made her get up, seizing her arm. He held her like that, staggering and frightened, while more cries were heard on all sides. ‘Temir-Gai, Temir-Gai!’

  Gradually Malva’s eyes adjusted to the bright daylight. Standing beside her guard, aching all over, she saw a striking scene: she was in a huge enclosure like a courtyard, surrounded by wooden walls as tall as cliffs. She saw watchmen stationed on the battlements on top of the walls. It was their cries she had heard just now.

  Thousands of warriors had gathered in this arena-like enclosure, and were pacing up and down on the dry grass. Most of them were Amoyeds with masked faces, but there were other barbarians riding animals with woolly coats and bearing black and red banners. Malva saw that there were young girls, bound and trembling like herself, in the middle of each group. Her breath quickened. Where did all these girls come from?

  She turned her head. Quite close to her, standing next to another cart, she saw a small, fair-haired girl with blue eyes as round as pearls. She wore a simple cotton shift, and her feet were bare. Their eyes met.

  ‘Lei!’ said the girl. Was that her name?

  ‘Malva!’ the Princess replied.

  The girl gave a shy smile, but the Amoyed standing next to her hit her roughly on the head. Malva looked away. Better not to anger these brutes.

  Another cry rang out, and the crowd immediately moved aside. A gate opened in the wall at the back of the enclosure.

  ‘Temir-Gai!’ murmured the Amoyed who was holding Malva’s arm.

  A column of armed men marched in through the gate. They were lined up three by three, in shimmering robes, with golden turbans on their heads. An extraordinary animal walked in the middle of the column. It was like a moving mountain: as tall as three men, as broad as six, with an oblong head on the end of its massive neck. Two pairs of silver horns grew above its eyes, and its legs were as thick as pillars. Malva had never seen such a creature before. The impression of sheer power that it gave left her breathless.

  ‘Celestial-charioteer,’ a voice behind her suddenly whispered. ‘Mythical creature of Orniant Empire.’

  Malva jumped. The little blonde girl called Lei had joined her and was touching her shoulder. On her right, her guard was watching the arrival of the soldiers, fascinated.

  ‘You speak my language?’ asked Malva quietly.

  ‘I speak all languages,’ replied the girl in a low voice, ‘for I am daughter of kingdom of Balmun. Look: Temir-Gai, only Emperor to possess celestial-charioteer. Means vast power for him. Emperor like a god now.’

  Malva saw a shape sitting on the back of the beast with the silver horns. The Emperor was there, hidden under a canopy, and obviously the barbarians had gathered inside these wooden walls to welcome him.

  ‘We presents,’ Lei went on explaining quietly. ‘Presents for Temir-Gai.’

  Malva shivered, but she had no time to ask her companion more. Another shout rose in the arena. The Emperor Temir-Gai had come out from under the canopy and, standing on the back of the celestial-charioteer, had just unveiled his face. Total silence followed the shouts. The Amoyed holding Malva relaxed his grip and bowed his head. All the faces around her wore an expression of respectful fear.

  ‘You frightened?’ Lei murmured in her ear.

  Malva nodded.

  ‘Me, I angry. The Amoyeds and the Emperor …’ Lei spat on the ground to show her scorn for them. Then she turned her blue eyes on Malva and smiled.

  ‘We stay together, you and me. Stronger together. Promise?’

  This unexpected meeting with the girl heartened the Princess. Not only did Lei speak Galnician, she seemed to have a spirited nature which was very comforting. Malva smiled back.

  ‘Promise,’ she murmured.

  She had hardly uttered the word before her guard’s hand closed round her arm again. The momentary respite was over. He pushed her ahead of him, and Lei was made to walk forward at the same time.
The barbarians were propelling their prisoners towards the Emperor.

  Presents, thought Malva. We’re presents. Terror made her mute. Limping and gasping with pain, she walked as well as she could, with Lei beside her. Lei kept her head raised and looked at the Emperor without trembling. Malva had never heard of the kingdom of Balmun. Perhaps they bred women warriors there, fearless girls prepared to face any peril? Whether that was so or not, Lei showed extraordinary self-possession.

  When they were only a little way from the celestial-charioteer, and despite the fear in the pit of her stomach, Malva couldn’t help marvelling at that improbable creature. At close quarters, it seemed even vaster and more majestic. The Emperor had disappeared under the canopy again, but she thought she caught an eye looking through a slit in its fabric. He was watching them, her and Lei – or, no, it was Malva he was watching!

  ‘Your leg,’ Lei whispered. ‘Not limp! If you limp, Emperor reject you.’

  ‘I can’t help it. I was injured, I –’

  ‘If Temir-Gai reject you, Amoyeds kill you.’

  Terrified, Malva clenched her teeth and, despite terrible pain, took the last few steps without limping. At last the Emperor took his eyes off her. He turned his head, rose to his feet on his mount, and uttered a hoarse cry. At his command, his turbaned soldiers led the prisoners out of the arena.

  ‘Go on, go on,’ Lei encouraged her. ‘When we in harem, I make your leg better.’

  ‘A harem?’ Malva made a face.

  ‘Harem of Temir-Gai here in Cispazia. Very famous through whole Orniant Empire! They say he dream of having ten thousand girls for his pleasure.’ Lei smiled. ‘My sister went same way as us. But she escape! Came back to Balmun three moons ago. I do the same, and you too, Malva! You come with me!’

  How many of them had gone through the gate behind the Emperor’s soldiers? Forty? Fifty? Some of the girls were weeping silently, others looked pale as death. Only Lei retained her dignity. Seeing her so proud and so full of life, Malva felt a little hope rise within her again.

  She had lost her liberty, she had lost Philomena and the protection of Uzmir, and no doubt she had many humiliations still ahead, but she wasn’t alone any more. Those few words exchanged in their desperate situation had been enough to forge friendship between her and the daughter of Balmun.