Hugh Cook - The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster

With that persuasive argument, Guest Gulkan entered the service of Elkor Alish. Flattery had helped win him that position; and his knowledge of the works of wizards; and the fact that he had personally murdered seven wizards in the course of escaping from the vile and hideous ethnologists who had turned the Castle of Controlling Power into a grim place of screaming evil and of blood-curdling torture. Added to this, it must be acknowledged that a person of royal birth is always of potential use to any ruler; for the superstitions of the world are such that it is commonly thought that an emperor's son has a heaven-sent claim to great destiny, and Elkor Alish must surely have been aware of the political potential of such superstition.

So Guest was installed in the court of Elkor Alish, who was then making a diligent effort to acquire whatever devices of wizardly power he could gather in by purchase, by bribery, by search and by theft.

Having thus placed himself at the heart of the information nexus, Guest was ideally placed to learn of the destiny of the star-globe. And his manoeuvering was duly rewarded on the day when Rolf Thelemite himself was produced before Elkor Alish, and was commanded to tell the tale of his adventuring in Penvash.

One can imagine the shock, astonishment and consternation of Rolf Thelemite when he was brought before Elkor Alish and found the Weaponmaster standing as bodyguard at that warlord's side.

Rolf had last met up with Guest on a desert island on the Circle of the Door of the Old City, and had last parted from him on a battlefield to which one of the other Doors of that Circle had opened.

How then had Guest come to be standing on the Greater Teeth, in company with Elkor Alish? And in what capacity was he there?

And with what intention?

"Be not afraid of me," said Elkor Alish, seeing Rolf Thelemite's confusion. "I am merciful. All I want is the truth. Do but grace me with the truth of your history, and I will be content."

Then Guest intervened.

"My lord," said Guest. "If I may make so bold."

"Be bold," said Alish. "It is a virtue in a warrior, though it be a vice in a chambermaid."

"Then, my lord," said Guest, "let me say that I know this man. This Rolf Thelemite, he was bodyguard to my father in the days when he served my father in Gendormargensis. He was a mighty warrior in my father's armies, and covered himself in glory in the battles of our empire. His confusion is perhaps because he thinks I have placed myself at your side by subterfuge."

"Is this so?" said Elkor Alish.

"It, uh, it's true," said Rolf Thelemite, whose true terror came from the fact that he was an oath-breaker accursed of Rovac, and was sure to be dead meat if Elkor Alish learnt of the details of his history.

"Then know that Guest Gulkan has declared himself to us properly as the son of Onosh Gulkan, the Witchlord of Tameran," said Elkor Alish. "He has declared himself further to be the son of Bao Gahai, a witch – and, as all the world knows, the witches are the sworn enemies of all wizards. My enemy's enemy is my friend, and the wizards of the Confederation are most definitely my enemies."

This set Rolf Thelemite to gaping, for, if there was anything Rolf was sure of, it was that Guest Gulkan was not and could not possibly be the son of Bao Gahai. For the dralkosh Bao Gahai was surely a thousand years beyond the age of childbearing, hence could not have mothered Guest. But – well, Elkor Alish had never set eyes on Bao Gahai, nor was he likely to. And doubtless Guest had stretched the truth at the corners to win himself the confidence of the doughty Elkor Alish.

Very well.

"My lord," said Rolf. "I, uh, you're – it's this globe you're interested in."

"This globe of stars," confirmed Elkor Alish. "This Door of Doors.

"You've, ah, heard some of this story," said Rolf Thelemite.

"From Drake Douay, I mean. Did you speak to him? They said you met him in 'Marphos, they said – "

"Just the truth," said Alish, cutting off Rolf Thelemite's verbating.

Then Rolf controlled himself, and gave a plain account of his doings.

"I was engaged in this diplomacy business," said Rolf. "There was a mission, a mission from the Greaters to Ork."

"So I've heard," said Alish.

"There was a sea-wreck," said Rolf.

"Is there any other kind of wreck?" said Alish.

Rolf Thelemite was about to answer in the affirmative. Rolf Thelemite was about to say that a person could be air-wrecked as easily as they could be sea-wrecked. But then Guest Gulkan caught Rolf Thelemite's eye, and conveyed a warning by the grimness of his expression.

Only then did Rolf Thelemite catch himself. He was in the presence of Elkor Alish, the scourge of the Confederation of Wizards. It might well be death for Rolf if he was to confess his long association with the notorious Hostaja Torsen Sken-Pitilkin, wizard of Drum, wizard of the order of Skatzabratzumon, and master of controlled flight. Much has been written about the hazards of the battlefield, and the dangers of the sea, but the terrors of a court can be worse than storm and battle put together; and Rolf, realizing how dangerous his long association with Sken-Pitilkin might yet prove to the integrity of his liver, was hard put to know what to say next.

"You were saying?" said Alish.

"There's, ah, carts," said Rolf Thelemite. "Carts can be wrecked, yes, wheels came off, Drake told me once, a cart, it was Cam, there was coal, a whole building demolished, there – "

"Just the facts," said Alish. "The facts of your journey.

Briefly. Not the whole of your life in vomiting detail."

"Ah," said Rolf, relieved that this dangerous business of wrecking was done with. "I was diplomat, then. But wrecked.

Wrecked on Penvash. There was capture and battle beforehand, a big ship, a metal ship, but the wrecking was the end of it, and, ah – inland, we went inland, north was the start and the south to be the finish, and the Old City in the middle."

"Tell on," said Alish.

"We reached this Old City," said Rolf, "and it was Drake,

Drake Douay, you've met him, I'm told. He found the globe, it was full of stars, he put in this hole, and then this Door opened, a Door between countries."

"Then?" said Alish.

"We closed it," said Rolf. "Because it was, ah, there were crocodiles, there were big lizards, a battle, all kinds of stuff, giant centipedes, a mountainside. So we got back to the Old City, we closed it, that was enough. But then there was a fight."

"I'm sure there was," said Alish. "So?"

"The, the globe," said Rolf, "it got lost in the river.

Because of the fight, I mean."

"Then?" said Alish.

"Then we came back," said Rolf, lamely. "Back home. Back to the Greaters, I mean."

"And that's it?" said Alish.

"That's it," said Rolf.

And that was the end of the interview. Guest Gulkan then expected Elkor Alish to rush an army to Penvash to filter that region's rivers for the star-globe. But Alish remained singularly unmoved by Rolf Thelemite's revelations.

And, on mature reflection, Guest Gulkan realized the reason why.

Elkor Alish desired to conquer Argan. The Door in the Old City started in no place in which he wanted to be, and went to no place to which he wanted to go. Ultimately, he desired to make war on the wizards of Drangsturm, true – but there was no point whatsoever in opening a Door which debouched into the territory of the Swarms on the wrong side of Drangsturm. Alish was searching for devices, yes, but he wanted things he could use immediately as weapons of war.

Unlike Guest Gulkan, Alish did not know of the existence of the far more valuable Circle of the Partnership Banks. Unlike Guest Gulkan, Alish did not have a father who ruled Alozay, where one of the Doors of the Banks was located. Unlike Guest Gulkan,