Robert Adams - The Coming of the Horseclans

As all his advisors and high-ranking civil-servants had been imprisoned—most charged with a whole plethora of offenses against individuals, the State, or both—Deme-trios, to all intents and purposes, ruled alone. But it was not as difficult an undertaking as one might have thought, for—with the sole exception of the bulk of the nobles, whose numbers were too small to really matter—the inhabitants of his city were solidly behind him and, if they had not had the time to come to love him, they respected him. To the men of the White Horse Squadron, their High Lord was become one of themselves, and they adored him.

So matters stood on the bleak, November day that saw the appearance of the vanguard of the army and allies of the outlawed Strahteegohs, Lord Alexandras Pahpahs.

Lord Alexandras’ eyes goggled at his visitor, Lord High Strahteegohs Mahrk Hailee. At last, he shouted, “Has all of the world gone suddenly mad? He wants to meet me? There must be trickery somewhere! That spineless, quivering tub of flab …”

“My Lord!” Strahteegohs Hailee cut him off, coldly courteous. “My dread sovereign, Demetrios, High Lord of Kehnooryohs Ehlahs, has bid me offer you honorable combat. This combat is to be of a personal nature and is to be fought in clear sight of the opposing forces.” Hailee began to recite the rote. “Such an offer denotes courage and honor and battle-prowess, though deep respect for one’s enemy is indicated hi such willingness to accept a death—if need be—at his hands.” He returned to a normal tone. “My Lord realizes that he has earned your antipathy.”

Lord Alexandras snorted and, glowering, started to snarl a reply. But Hailee raised his hand. “Please, my lord, have the courtesy to allow me to finish.”

“Courtesy!” yelped Lord Alexandras. “Who are you to demand courtesy from me?”

Hailee drew himself to stiffly formal attention. “Lord Mahrk Hailee, High Strahteegohs of Kehnooryohs Atheenahs and, presently, War-Herald of my puissant Lord, Demetrios Treeah-Pohtahmohs!”

“Oh, sweet Jesus Christ!” Lord Alexandras threw himself against the canvas back of his folding camp-chair. “The world that I knew has turned upside down and no mistake! What have we here? A barbarian is Lord High Strahteegohs of an Ehleenoee city. Another is commander of that city’s Civil Guard and Governor of its prison. Three quarters of that city’s adult, male nobility are imprisoned. The fact that most of them have deserved at least that for years has no bearing upon the present issue. And ninety percent of the adult, male slaves have been declared to be free citizens of the city and are bearing arms in its defense.

“I arrive before city walls that I had expected to be ail-but deserted, to find them literally bristling with spearmen. For five years, this city has been misruled, as has all of Kehnooryohs Ehlahs, to the benefit of certain unscrupulous noble families; yet, who are the first persons who come to me begging asylum and protection from their benefactor, but representatives of these same rapacious noble families! As late as two moons agone, Demetrios was almost universally hated. He had well earned the hatred of slaves, foreigners, citizens, soldiery, all the minor nobles, and many of the greater, especially those of the older houses; but, who comprises the group which comes to me, but representatives of all these classes, warning me that they and those that they represent will fight to the death, that I will have to pull the city down, stone by stone, to unseat their well-loved High Lord! I, who came to free them from the domination of a half-mad tyrant, am given the greeting of a foreign invader!

“And now, this! To add insult to injury, a gross, loathsome creature, whose only accomplishments consist of wine-swilling and buggery, sends me a so-called War-Herald. A thing who is Ehleenoee only by accident of birth, who doesn’t know one end of a sword from the other and who probably can’t even lift a shield, challenges me—Lord Alexandras Pahpahs, the foremost Strahteegohs of the age—to personal combat! Pah! On those rare occasions Demetrios is not besotted, he’s so hung over that he’d have great difficulty in finding his posterior with both hands! I’ll not take part in such a farcial non-combat. It would be pure butchery and would dishonor me. Tell your piggish lord: No, I’ll not fight him!”

“My Lord,” said Lord Mahrk, “in full realization of your advanced years, with their attendant physical debility, bade me inform you that he would as willingly face any surrogate you saw fit to choose, so long as he be Ehleenoee and nobly-born. My Lord deskes that all things be equal and he would not take unfair advantage of an age-weakened, old man.”

“WHAAT?” Lord Alexandras, livid, sprang up so suddenly and violently that he sent his chair flying and all but overturned his table. “That … that… that swinish young … that arrogant pup! Old man, am I? Age-weakened, eh? I’ll cut him in half! Ill split him, like a goddam mackerel, from crown to crotch! I’ll …

Lord Mahrk suppressed his smile. “I take it, then, that you accept my Lord’s offer.”

With an effort, Lord Alexandras regained control of himself. After a long moment, he chuckled, shook his head ruefully. “I fell directly into that one, like a panther into a pit! Tell me, did the High Lord of Perverts really frame those words, or were they your extemporaneous invention?”

“You have my word on it, Lord Alexandras,” Lord Mahrk assured him. “Each word and nuance of phrasing originated from my Lord. It is what I was to repeat, should you see fit to refuse his honorable offer.”

Lord Alexandras shrugged. “Though your word means little or nothing, of course—you and all your cursed condotta are well known, up and down this seaboard, to be foresworn—nonetheless, I do believe you. Demetrios chose just the proper words and tone to obtain the reaction he desired; Basil, his father, couldn’t have done it better!”

It was decided and arranged. The combatants were to engage along the lines of a formal Ehleenoee duel and were to meet and exchange the customary greetings and toasts at a spot to be one hundred paces from the city walls and one hundred paces from the lines of Lord Alexandras’ army. Each was to bear one javelin—unbarbed and not to exceed one meter in length or one kilo in weight. Each was to be dressed and armored in the style of the Old Ehleenoee: tight, white, cotton shirt with short sleeves; cotton trunk-hose of any color; high-laced, leather buskins; stiff, white linen kilt; quilted canvas cap. Their armor, too, was to be of the Old Ehleenoee pattern: the jazeran—knee-length, leather hauberk, to which were riveted overlapping iron scales; brass or iron rerebraces; elbow-length, leather gauntlets, lined or scaled with metal; molded greaves, with knee-cop; unlined steel helmet, with cheek-pieces, but no nasal, visor, or beavor. In addition to the javelins, their armament was to consist of: a double-edged sword of the ancient Thehkahehseentah pattern—a cut-and-thrust weapon with the blade ten centimeters wide, immediately below the cross-guard and tapering to a point, along a blade sixty centimeters long; a convex-surfaced body-shield of hide-covered wood, one and one-half meters high by one meter wide (when measured around the curve of its outer surface), bossed and banded and edge-shod with iron; style and numbers of daggers, dirks and/or throwing-knives, left to the discretion of the individual combatants. Each was to be conveyed to the scene in a chariot and, in addition to the chariot driver, might bring three attendants. These attendants might bear sidearms only and were to take no part in the contest.

The fight, it was understood, would be to the death: the victor, automatically becoming or remaining High Lord. There was quick agreement as to the fate of the city. Lord Alexandras had never intended to allow a sack or to execute reprisals against the bulk of the city’s population. Most of those Lord Alexandras had intent to avenge himself upon, Demetrios had already jailed, therefore, they would not be difficult to find. It was agreed that if Lord Alexandras should win, the Civil Guard and White Horse Squadron would be retained in their present positions—the sole exceptions being Lords Mahrk and Szamyul, as Lord Alexandras felt Ehleenoee should fill their current posts. It was further agreed that those slaves Demetrios had freed and enfranchised should remain free citizens. Many, many smaller but no less important issues were agreed upon as well. The only request that Demetrios made, which could in any way be construed as personal, was that the tombs and remains of his parents and ancestors remain inviolate.