Robert Silverberg - Sorcerers of Majipoor

After waiting out the wet season by the Jhelum, gathering provisions and receiving an additional complement of mounts from the Marraitis breeders, Prestimion began to move in a generally northward direction into the Salinakk district of central Alhanroel, a plateau region of mild breezes, low hills, and a dry, sandy terrain. His goal was the populous city of Thasmin Kortu, the capital of the province of Kenna Kortu, which lay just beyond Salinakk. Duke Keftia of Thasmin Kortu, who was related by ties of marriage to the Princess Therissa, had sent letters to Prestimion by the Jhelum declaring sympathy to Prestimion’s cause and inviting him to use his city as his home base as he prepared his campaign against the usurper.

Between the Jhelum and Thasmin Kortu, however, lay the many cities and towns of the Salinakk, and much of that region was loyal to Korsibar. The scouts Prestimion sent ahead had seen the banners of Korsibar widely displayed there.

But there was little overt opposition, at first, to Prestimion’s advance into that province. For one thing, he had Farholt’s corps of mollitors with him. It hardly seemed prudent to let the terrifying war-beasts go roaming loose along the banks of the Jhelum when he could make use of them himself. So he had them all rounded up, and impressed Farholt’s surviving mollitor-drivers into his own army.

The villagers of the Salinakk, seeing this formidable army approach, gave Prestimion a cordial enough welcome. At a place called Theiga they hailed him with seeming sincerity as Coronal, and showed him an easier route through the Salinakk than he had planned to take, via Hurkgoz and Diskhema and past the dreary salt-flats of Lake Guurduur.

There was only one engagement of any note along this way: at the hilltop fort of Magalissa, where a garrison of army troops was stationed. Prestimion sent word to them that as Coronal he claimed their services, to which they replied with a defiant shower of arrows.

“We should not tolerate such behavior,” said Septach Melayn pleasantly, and went out with five hundred men to deal with them. It was a tricky task—an uphill charge against an entrenched position, and with no cavalry support, the hill being too rough and steep for mounts to ascend—but the Magalissa garrison turned out to have little real longing for battle and its surrender came quickly.

After that the rebel force moved quickly northward over the sandy plateau, through a region of small streams cutting across bare tawny soil, and tiny villages screened by stands of narrow upright vribin-trees closely planted side by side. In time they came to Lake Guurduur, a grim dead lake covered by a whitish scum of salt. Baleful red-eyed salt-creatures with jointed legs and scorpion tails held high crawled slowly about there, defying them with clicking jaws to intrude on their domain; but Prestimion had no wish to be Coronal of the salt-creatures, and let them be. And in five days more he came to the crossroads town of Kelenissa, which guarded the approach to Kenna Kortu Province and the main road to Duke Keftia’s city farther to the north.

Two rivers began here, the Quarintis and the Quariotis, one flowing east and the other west and both of them emerging from the same huge limestone cavern that sat like a gaping white mouth against the sandy soil. Above it on the hillside where Kelenissa town was situated, all was green and lush and blooming, a welcome sight after the mud of the Jhelum Valley and the barrenness of the Salinakk plateau.

They found here an ancient stone palace of some Coronal earlier even than Stiamot, all in ruins, and a forest where strange wild animals wandered freely. A man of Kelenissa who was hunting there told Prestimion that the Coronal who had built the palace, whose name he did not know, had had a great park full of such beasts here. The park had been maintained for thousands of years after his time as a zoological preserve, but now the animals lived on their own, for the walls of the park had crumbled away.

The same man pointed to Septach Melayn, who was standing to one side carefully adjusting the hang of his sword in its baldrick in that finicky way of his, and said to Prestimion, “That very tall man there, with the fancy golden ringlets and the little pointed beard: can he be Prince Prestimion, who claims to be Coronal? For there’s something I should tell him, if that’s the case.”

Prestimion laughed. “He looks to be a kingly man, does he not? And in truth he’s Prestimion’s other self, or one of them, for that is Prestimion too over there, that dark little man with the beard so tightly curled, and that one there also, the great-shouldered one whose hair is cut so short. But in fact I am the one who was born to the name, so tell me whatever it is that you think Prince Prestimion needs to know.”

The Kelenissa man, bewildered by Prestimion’s airy and fanciful response, looked frowning from Septach Melayn to Svor to Gialaurys and then to Prestimion again; and then he said, “Well, whichever of you is indeed the prince, let it be known to him that two great armies of the other Coronal Lord whose name is Korsibar are marching at this moment toward this city to take him captive and return him to Castle Mount for trial as a rebel, and that we here have received orders from this Lord Korsibar instructing us to give all assistance to them when they arrive, and no help to the rebel Prestimion. Tell that to Prince Prestimion, if you will.” And the man turned and trudged away, leaving Prestimion sorry he had been so flippant and playful with him.

So their respite was over. Quickly Prestimion consulted Thalnap Zelifor, who did indeed seem to have some skill at casting his mind out into distant places and spying out knowledge. The Vroon gestured busily with his tentades, bringing a dim bluish glow into the air before him, and after a few moments of intent concentration reported that two armies in fact were converging on them once more, forces even larger than the one Farholt had led. Mandrykarn and Farholt were the generals of the southern force, marching up through such places as Castinga and Nyaas and Purmande, while Navigorn was coming at them once more from the north.

“And which is closest to us now?” Prestimion asked.

“Navigorn. His is the greater army as well.”

“We’ll carry the war to him, without waiting for him to get here,” said Prestimion at once, for the victory at the Jhelum still coursed hot in his veins. “He hurt us once at Arkilon, but we’ll take him this time. And afterward deal with Mandrykarn and Farholt.” Septach Melayn and Gialaurys were in agreement strike quickly, before the two advancing armies could unite. The brothers Gaviad and Gaviundar were less eager for it. “It’s too soon to fight again,” said Gaviad, who even here at this morning hour had already been at his wine, or so it seemed from the thick-tonguedness of him. “Our brother the Procurator will come to us before long with additional men.”

“Wait, yes,” said Gaviundar. “He is a great wondrous asset to our cause, our brother is.”

“And have you any date for his arrival among us?” asked Septach Melayn a little testily. “He seems somewhat overdue already, would you not agree?”

“Be patient, lad, patient!” said Gaviad, peering up at Septach Melayn out of reddened bleary eyes and pulling at the wiry tufts of his mustache. “Dantirya Sambail won’t be much longer now: my oath upon it.” And he drew forth a new flask of wine and set to work.

Nor did the argument for immediate attack find favor with Svor. “We feel strong and high-spirited now, after the river-battle and this easy march north. But are we strong enough, Prestimion? Would it not be wiser to draw back into the west, perhaps as far as the coast, even, and build ourselves a bigger army yet, before we take them on?”