Hugh Cook: The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster

Since dragons, unlike the Swarms, lack a coordinating general like the Skull, it happens that dragons have never yet proved a serious danger to the survival of humanity. If a dragon should happen to take up residence in your neighborhood, then its exactions may prove expensive, but the bottom line is that the average dragon does far less damage than the average war, plague, famine or flood; and there is many a region which has stoically gone about its business for generations, despite the informal taxation of that business by one dragon or by a brood of the things.

Nevertheless, Sken-Pitilkin had absolutely no intention of putting himself in the way of a dragon unless he had to; and, on adding the dangers of dragons to the dangers of the Swarms, he decided to shun the continent of Argan entirely, and to chart a passage which would keep him well clear of its shores.

Being thus wary of all winged monsters, Sken-Pitilkin first flew himself and the Weaponmaster north to Lex Chalis, that rock- tip of Tameran where caves still preserved the stone circles in which Guest and Sken-Pitilkin had cooked their fish, their shellfish, their kelp and their lobsters during a long winter's season which they had spent hiding from Shabble.

After resting for a day in that place of unpleasant memories, they flew east toward the island of Ork, eventually arriving there in good order. They were now on the fringes of the Great Ocean of Moana. Imagine Moana to be a box, with Tameran at its top and Argan on its western edge. The island of Ork then lies in the north-west corner of the box.

The eastern side of the box is the continent of Yestron, and the southern side is formed by the continent of Parengarenga. Guest Gulkan and Sken-Pitilkin therefore had to go far, far, far to the south on their way to Dalar ken Halvar.

They made the trip by island-hopping, landing and resting on the islands of Ashmolea and Asral. Their next stop was the Ebrell Islands – of which, the less said the better. This is no place for a thesis detailing the twenty different degrees of stench which can be generated by rotting whale blubber!

From the Ebrells, Sken-Pitilkin flew to Parengarenga, a target so large it was impossible to miss. But, having picked up the coast, how then was the wizard to reach his way to Dalar ken Halvar? That city is, after all, but a speck in the midst of an enormous wasteland. Sken-Pitilkin, who still had occasional nightmares about the crossing of Moana which had seen him miss the island of Untunchilamon entirely, followed the stratagem which had seen him get safely to Dalar ken Halvar on his most recent visit. He took the trouble to scout up and down the coast of Parengarenga till he located one of its few seaports.

All of Parengarenga's seaports are linked by road directly with Dalar ken Halvar, so, having found such a port, Sken-Pitilkin was able to scout down the road for league after weary league, until at last he saw the city of Dalar ken Halvar amidst the red dust of the Plain of Jars.

As one approaches Dalar ken Halvar from the air, the first thing to be seen from a distance is Lake Shalasheen, which lies to the north of the city's center. One might think that the Caps, the city's minor mountains, would be the first thing to catch the eye.

But those lumps of rock, formidable as they are, tend to blend into the landscape of dust, particularly when there is a wind to stir that dust to a haze. It is Lake Shalasheen which landmarks the city, for it catches the sun like a coin tossed from palankeen to gutter, and it was that wink-blind of bright-blazing silver which assured Sken-Pitilkin of his target.

Since it was in Dalar ken Halvar that Sken-Pitilkin had first trialed his stickbird, and since he had revisited the city since the fall of Drangsturm, he knew the place from the air. After all these years, he could still place a variety of places where he had crash-landed while perfecting his airship. In particular, he had no trouble at all in placing the spot where he had crash-landed in a funeral pyre.

Just as Sken-Pitilkin knew Dalar ken Halvar, so Dalar ken Halvar knew Sken-Pitilkin. In particular, the City of Sun still remembered the long and universally dangerous series of trials in which the sagacious wizard of Skatzabratzumon had mastered the business of controlled flight. The chickens he had killed! The roofs he had torn off! The women he had caused to scream and faint! He had crashed in the river, had crashed in the lake, had crashed in the streets and in yards both public and private. Once, he had even been forced to put down hastily in the very Grand Arena itself.

On this occasion, as on his last visit, Sken-Pitilkin announced his return by circling over the city. At a leisurely pace, he sent his stickbird whirling over the fishing shacks of Childa Go, while Guest Gulkan leaned out and scrutinized the fortifications of the Bralsh. He flew over Cap Ogo Botch, on which stands the palace of Na Sashimoko. And, having circled and spiraled, and having noticed a gratifying stir in the streets of the city, Sken-Pitilkin landed his airship on the heights of Cap Foz Para Lash.

Then the wizard and the Weaponmaster waited.

At last, after a very lengthy delay, a single purple-skinned warrior came scrambling up to the heights. It was Asodo Hatch himself – Hatch the warlord, the man who was subordinate only to Plandruk Qinplaqus himself.

And, after only the briefest of conversations, Guest and Sken-Pitilkin knew that they had not misguessed their welcome.

So it was that Guest Gulkan returned to the City of Sun in the company of Hostaja Torsen Sken-Pitilkin. They were received with dignity, and with speeches in Pang, in Frangoni, and in the Motsu Kazuka of the Nu-chala-nuth.

Then Guest and Sken-Pitilkin were long closeted with Asodo Hatch and Plandruk Qinplaqus. Being uncertain of how much Asodo Hatch knew of the Circle of the Partnership Banks, Sken-Pitilkin placed the star-globe on the negotiating table, then treated that purple-skinned Frangoni warrior to a full exposition of its place in the scheme of things; then updated both Hatch and his wizardly master on the current state of affairs in Argan, and outlined a grand scheme for conquering the Circle of the Banks.

Both Asodo Hatch and Plandruk Qinplaqus had grave reservations about unleashing Nu-chala-nuth upon their own planet.

A militant religion like Nu-chala-nuth had endless potential to generate grief, suffering and war.

But what was the alternative?

The Swarms were threatening the invasion of Tameran and the Ravlish Lands, and, ultimately, there was no guarantee that any part of the world would be permanently safe from these monsters. A unifying force was needed to rally humanity against these monsters, and the militant monotheistic religion of Nu-chala-nuth fitted the bill. The unifying force of Nu-chala-nuth, combined with the knowledge of Cap Foz Para Lash and the resources of the Circle of the Partnership Banks would provide all that was needed for the defeat of the Swarms.

As debate proceeded, Asodo Hatch was won over long before his master, Plandruk Qinplaqus. Ever since Guest Gulkan had brought the x-x-zix to Dalar ken Halvar, Asodo Hatch had been masterminding the research project which had been trying to make that ancient weather machine functional. Since then, his life had been one long exercise in frustration. Paraban Senk, the unembodied entity which ruled the underworld of Cap Foz Para Lash, had been able to give Hatch most of the technical advice he needed, but this advice amounted to a heart-breaking recipe for never-ending labor.

For, to build a machine capable of mastering the x-x-zix, one must first build a series of lesser machines; and to build the lesser machines one must first fabricate a thousand different kinds of materials, such as various kinds of metal alloys; and to fabricate each of these thousand different materials one must first build a set of fabricating machines. And -