Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [66]
“Yes. Carac, one of my strongest and most reliable warriors, has just returned from a very long flight. He journeyed to Payit, where he saw the city of Ulatos and the fort you built nearby.”
‘Helmsport? Does it still stand? Do my men live?” He had left a garrison of several dozen men behind in the fort, not nearly enough to hold it in the event of an attack. He had hoped that the crushing victory his legion had inflicted upon the Payits would prove enough of a deterrent to aggression.
Now, of course, all those assumptions had fallen by the wayside. That remnant of his legion represented little threat to the Payit people should they choose to revolt against their conquerors. The thought of danger to his garrison at Helmsport brought Cordell’s blood to a boil, but he forced himself to listen to Chical’s information.
“Your men? This 1 do not know. But Carac reports that many more of your countrymen have arrived-a fleet of those great canoes such as you sailed. They have landed at Helmsport.”
“More of my people? Soldiers?” The news fell upon Co dell like a bolt from the sky. He had almost forgotten that a world existed beyond Maztica, a world of” magic and steel and power that seemed like a distant dream to him now. “How many of them? What did Carac see?”
“He counted five and twenty great canoes. In the field before Helmsport, some one hundred horses stood. And many of the silver-shirted soldiers debarked from the vessels. There may be more, but that is what he saw.”
“A new force-here, in Maztica?” Cordell couldn’t keep the amazement out of his voice. An army larger-perhaps twice the size, or even more-than the legion I brought to Maztica a year ago!
“Have you summoned them here?” Chical’s voice was heavy with suspicion now.
“No!” Cordell didn’t even think to lie. At the same time, his mind reeled with questions and possibilities. Who could? these men be? How had they located Helmsport? Who was their commander? And perhaps most important, were, they his allies or his foes?
“I don’t know who they are. I have not summoned them, but perhaps they have been sent to aid me by those who funded my own expedition.” He turned decisively toward the growing site of Tukan, in the valley below. Chi stepped beside him.
“Whatever the case,” Cordell explained, thinking as walked, “I must go to them as quickly as possible.”
1 must insure that they aid me, that they do not take what spoils I have earned and still keep. His mind whirled with suspicions and halt-formed plans. And yet, with a new army, with fresh troops, perhaps my mission need not end in failure!
Chical remained with Cordell, still suspicious, as the commander summoned his legionnaires and the chief of the Kultakans, Tokol. They started to gather around him in a great meadow that would someday be the city square of Tukan.
Before the assemblage was complete, Chical pulled Cordell to the side and spoke to him seriously.
“We have fought together, you and I-and also we have fought against each other.” The Eagle Knight’s voice was steady, and his black eyes faced squarely into Cordell’s own. *Know this, my new ally: If this is a new army, brought here to make war on my land, we will fight it every step of the way. And this time, our warfare will not be held in check by the whims of Naltecona!”
“I speak the truth when I tell you that I do not know who these men are or why they come. But I will make you this promise: If I can reach them and bring them to follow me, I will use them as your allies.”
Chical still stared, with a concentration that disquieted the captain-general. “I pray that you speak the truth,” he said finally.
“Let us make a plan. I ask your help now.” Cordell’s tone remained level. “You and your eagles have flown over most of this country. Can you sketch me a rough map of the coastline near hear?”
Chical took the tip of his dagger and inscribed an outline in the dust on the ground. “This is the land of Payit, and below here the jungles of Far Payit, sticking like a thumb into the sea. Where the waters