Alan Akers - A Sword for Kregen

I felt light-headed and empty and very very thirsty. She told a slave girl to fill a goblet with water, and this I drank straight down. Someone with a reedy voice said: “No more for now. He is weak but will mend with care.”

“I shall care for him,” said the lady Yasuri, and I could see no lines on her face at all. A shadow moved at her side and the lady Jikaidasta stood there in what must be a private room in Yasuri’s suite at her hotel, The Star of Laybrites. Ling-li’s pale face glowed in the reflected radiance and her blue eyes were very bright upon me.

“I must leave Jikaida City now. I did not aid you in the fight — Jak.” She paused on the name. Then:

“The Nine Masked Guardians maintain San Orien, who is a Wizard of Loh of great repute, to warn them of any sorcery practiced in the games. You fought your own fight — and won.”

I could not shake my head, for it would probably have fallen off; but I wondered if it was possible for me to agree with her, that she might be right. Had I won? The crucial factor was, it didn’t matter if I had won that fight or not.

Then there was a deeper rumble of voices, and shadows, and presently Kov Konec and Vad Dav Olmes stood by the bed. They were smiling with great broad smiles of triumph, for Prince Mefto the Kazzur had left Jikaida City, his stump tail bandaged, left it the very day after the fight, which was a sennight ago, and because there was no evidence against the people from Mandua they had been freed, and with an apology, too.

The words croaked from my throat. “And the rast from Hamal?”

“He remains. He plays in the Mediary Games, for there are always games of Jikaida going on in Jikaida City.”

He smiled down on me, and Dav, with a finger to his nose, said, “Yes, the Mediary Games begin, and the lady Yasuri is the Champion, reigning Champion.”

“And now the people of the Dawn Lands will take their own destiny into their hands.” Konec’s fist rested on his sword hilt. “The alliance between Hamal and Shanodrin never took place. I think, I hope, I pray, Prince Mefto is finished.”

Maybe I did not know what the Star Lords wanted with the lady Yasuri. But I did know that, for me, the work I had had to do in Jikaida City was finished. There was nothing to keep me here now. Vallia called. If the Star Lords brought me back here, then I would have to think again. But the Witch of Loh, Ling-li-Lwingling, also, knew more than she allowed. This was all tied up together; but I had fought a fight, and, by Krun! I knew I had been in a fight. I lay back on the yellow pillows. My way home to Vallia still remained in Jikaida City.

As soon as I could move I would be off.

The Hamalese flier would speed me across the continent and take me home. Home to Delia.

“Let us praise Dromo the Benevolent,” said Konec. “We have won. It is all over now. The game is finished.”

As I drifted off to sleep I said to myself: “For you it may be finished. But the game is not finished for me, for plain Dray Prescot who happens to be the Emperor of Vallia.”