Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [116]
Cordell acted as though he hadn’t heard. “Of course, I’m sure we could work something out.” He smiled, as if a pleasant idea slowly took shape in his mind.
“You know, I’m short of good horse captains! It’s no secret that you were one of the best, Captain Halloran. Now, if you were to join with me quickly-now-I would have no cause for denying you the services of these faithful men of god.”
Halloran looked at Cordell in disbelief. Unconsciously his hands clenched into fists, yet he forced his voice to remain calm as he replied.
“You know that I can’t do that. I am a man of Maztica now, Whatever the purpose of this new army of yours, I can make no pledge to support it-or even to stand aside when you march.”
Cordell sighed. Halloran waited, wondering what the captain-general would do next. The door to the building opened again, and Hal looked up to see a fully-cloaked Eagle Warrior emerge.
“Chical,” Halloran said, with a bow.
“It is good to see you, my friend,” replied the knight. Then Chical turned to Cordell. “You must give him the help he seeks. He is right when he says that his wife’s task is important to all of us.”
Cordell looked at the Eagle Knight sharply, annoyance creasing his brow. Clearly he didn’t like the interference of another in what he considered to be his own prerogatives of command. Then he looked back at Halloran.
“I shall send them immediately-as I was about to do. My ploy was just that, an attempt to get you back. I meant what I said, Hal-you were the best.”
Halloran studied Cordell, trying to figure out if he was
telling the truth or merely attempting to save face. Finally Hal held his hands up. “I’ll take the help you send, and grate. fully.”
thought of getting as far as possible from the madman who now commanded Helmsport.
Kardann groped his way through the tangled forest, propelled only by fear-fear of what lay behind him. AH of his nightmares, all the terrors that Maztica had aroused in him in the past, seemingly endless months were as nothing compared to the dread in which he now held Cordell.
Didn’t he see? Couldn’t the captain-general understand? Kardann was loyal to the merchant princes of Amn. They had hired him, he had responsibilities’. Now, Don Vaez was clearly the duly appointed representative of those worthy nobles. Kardann’s loyalty belonged to him, not Cordell!
Yet truly Kardann realized that Cordell would never understand. Just when it had seemed his nightmare was about to end, when the actual prospect of sailing home again loomed before him, catastrophe had to strike.
Indeed, Don Vaez had promised to send the assessor home on the first ship, with the shipment of gold they had been about to unearth. Then somehow the treacherous Cordell had escaped, and Kardann’s future became a ruined shambles. Don Vaez’s men had turned to the new commander with no thought toward legalities or even common decency!
What was the matter with those men, anyway? How could they renounce an oath of loyalty and accept a new commander in the middle of a campaign? But such they had done.
Immediately Kardann had understood that the new organization would have no place for him, or if it did, that place might well be found at the end of a rope. Without thinking, he had fled from the fortress, from the eager hands of fickle soldiery suddenly so anxious to do Cordell’s bidding.
So now he found himself in this infernal, eternal jungle. He pressed forward, cursing as thorns pricked his hands but not slowing his pace as his robes were slowly torn away. All he could think of, all that drove him now, was the
Ether had assumed the dimensions of infinity to Poshtli. For a timeless era-an entire lifetime of a man, for all he knew-he had ridden the shoulders of the god Qotal. Bright plumage surrounded him, softly cushioning and comfortably warm. His body craved neither food nor drink.
Yet still the god remained little more to him than a great transport, carrying him