Read The Last Banquet (Bell Mountain) Online
Authors: Lee Duigon
The Last Banquet (Bell Mountain) (39 page)
Many miles away, Jandra prophesied to King Ryons’ army. It was encamped for the night, but the chiefs assembled quickly when Abgayle summoned them.
Once again the grown-up voice issued from the toddler’s mouth:
“Hear the word of the Lord. Remember my servant Chillith, the Griff, and write his name in your books: for tonight he is seated at my table with the saints.”
That was all. Jandra fell back asleep in Abgayle’s arms.
“Chillith the Griff?” Chief Shaffur wondered. “Who in the world is that, and why should we remember him?”
“We will surely know, in due time,” Obst said.
How Some Adventures Ended
Winter passed. Spring came, and most of that passed, too.
Jack lived at Ellayne’s house now. Roshay Bault insisted on it. “But what about Van?” Jack said, when Roshay first proposed it.
“I’ll give him back his job as municipal carter,” the chief councilor said, “and he can owe that to you.” So that satisfied Jack’s stepfather, and neither of them missed each other.
Martis had a long rest in Ninneburky. He needed it.
Helki went back to Lintum Forest; but what with so many fugitives from the shattered Heathen host drifting into Lintum and setting up as outlaws, Helki didn’t get much rest. But thanks to him, the settlers did.
King Ryons’ army returned to Obann with him. Most of them doubted they would ever see their native lands again, so they made new homes there. Chief Spider died in Obann City and was buried with honors befitting a benefactor of the nation. Nanny died, too. The chiefs voted her a monument.
Gurun remained with the king, and everyone in Obann called her Queen. She couldn’t stop them from doing it.
Obst took charge of copying the rediscovered books of Scripture and disseminating copies far and wide. There was an enormous amount of work to be done—enough to keep a hundred seminaries busy for a hundred years. He was amazed that he was still alive to do his share of it.
Toward the end of spring, the king and queen invited Jack and Ellayne to visit them in Obann, together with Ellayne’s family and Martis. There Roshay Bault was dubbed a baron of the realm. He would never achieve his dream of becoming an oligarch because there was no oligarchy anymore; but being the first man to receive baronial honors more than made up for it.
Martis received a knighthood and a special title, Knight Protector. He was at first moved to decline the honor.
“Do they know the things I’ve done in the service of the Temple?” he wondered.
“No—and no one wants to know them, either,” said old Uduqu, now a permanent adviser to the king. “Do you think God didn’t know about those things? But He chose you to protect those children, and He chose well. After all, they’re still alive.”
As for Gallgoid: he went far enough to meet Helki’s army coming up the mountain, and they saved his life. He told his story to Roshay, and later to King Ryons, Obst, and all the chieftains. His exposure of the Thunder King was proclaimed up and down the land by heralds; but his revelations of the treason of Lord Reesh and others in the Temple, Obst argued, would be better left unpublished.
“Many will refuse to believe it,” he said, “and many in the Temple who are innocent will be unjustly thought to be guilty. Let the evil that Lord Reesh did, die with him.”
Everyone knew that the Thunder King and many of his mardars—along with the First Prester, too—died in the avalanche at the Golden Pass. Jack, Ellayne, and Martis brought that news down the mountain with them. Chillith’s name and deeds would be remembered; those of Reesh, Obst prayed, would be forgotten. But somehow the story got out among the people, and the clamor to rebuild the Temple died away.
At first Ellayne and Jack feared they would be dragged through any number of interminable ceremonies honoring them for this and that, with thousands of strange people gawking at them. They’d had to sit through Roshay’s ceremony, and that had taken hours and hours. But Obst assured them they’d be spared.
“What you did will all be written down,” he said. “It will be remembered forever. Still, you weren’t brought here to be tormented! Your mother doesn’t want you lionized, Ellayne: she says it would be bad for you. All the chiefs agree, especially those who’ve raised children of their own. And by the way,” he added, “what’s become of that little hairy man who used to travel with you? His deeds should be recorded, too.”
“Oh, he’s around,” said Ellayne. She was being evasive. Wytt most emphatically did not want to be trotted out in front of a lot of Big People as if he were a calf with two heads. He lived now in the little piece of woods by Ninneburky where Jack and Ellayne first began their adventures. Most days, they went to see him there. And some nights he would creep into Ellayne’s house and sleep in her arms.
Someday, he said, all the Omah in Obann would gather under the moon and dance at the same time. But that day had not yet come.
So Jack and Ellayne spent most of their time with King Ryons, who asked for them, and his dog, Cavall. The great hound romped with them. They admired Angel, the hawk that Helki had given him. One of the Ghols knew all about falconry and was teaching Ryons.
Sometimes they played with Jandra, who was just a little girl again. It had been months since she last prophesied. That horrible bird was still with her, and quite a few of the king’s servants had been bitten. No one would have dreamed of taking the bird away from her.
Sometimes they played with Chagadai, the captain of the Ghols, who taught them to ride and gave them bows and arrows that he’d made for them with his own hands. They also played with Shingis of the Blays, who taught them how to sling stones. And they spent much of their time just sitting with King Ryons, swapping stories. He wanted to know all about their travels and adventures, and they wanted to know about his.
“Sometimes I think it must be all a dream,” said Ryons, “and one of these days I’ll wake up and be a slave again. But Obst and Gurun say that God wanted all these things to happen and decided on it ages and ages ago.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that all those Ghols call you their father?” Ellayne said, which made all three of them laugh.
They were still laughing when a servant came to summon the king to the council of the chiefs.
“They’re asking for you, Sire,” he said, “They’re all waiting.”
“What for?” Ryons asked.
The servant looked grave. “It’s an emissary from the Thunder King, Your Majesty.”
Once again the chieftains were assembled, this time in the old Hall of the Oligarchs. In their midst they had a throne for Ryons. Obst stood beside it on the right, and Gurun on the left. Ryons, having been hastily togged out in his royal headdress and sword, climbed onto the throne thinking how grand it would be if he were still sitting on the grass behind the palace with Ellayne and Jack.
He was amazed when he saw it was the same messenger who’d come to the city gate six months ago—Goryk Gillow, the renegade from Silvertown. He stood in his black cloak before the chiefs, who sat on ornate stools with weapons in their laps. How did he dare to come again? Ryons could hardly believe it.
“Have you come to deliver yourself to the hangman?” General Hennen asked. “What business can you possibly have here, sirrah? For your master the so-called Thunder King is dead, and his lies and impostures known to all the world.”
“No, my lords, not so!” said Goryk, smiling wolfishly. “What—did you truly believe my master, the god, went in person to the Golden Pass, as an ordinary mortal man would do? No, not so, not so! That was but the least of his servants who perished on the mountain, along with a handful of the least useful of his mardars.
“No, my lords—my master and my god remains at Kara Karram, at the great Temple that’s been built for him. Even now he musters fresh armies. You’ll see them when the time comes.
“My master offers you one last chance to declare your submission to him and surrender your boy king to him. He won’t make this offer a second time!”
“Then we won’t have to hear it a second time,” Uduqu said.
“Why do we give a hearing to this gallows bird?” Chief Shaffur said.
“I am a herald!” Goryk said. “It is not lawful to harm me. But what says your poor little king? Has he learned yet to speak for himself?”
Ryons felt like being sassy, but his teachers all said kings had to act a certain way. Too bad!
“You must think we’re all jackasses,” he said, “to be taken in by your master’s tricks again. You’d better think of some new ones! We know there is no Thunder King, and hasn’t been for years and years. We can’t hang you, I guess. But it might be a good idea for you to hang yourself. Go away!”
Goryk showed his teeth. “Very foolish, my lords. You’ve seen but the merest fraction of my master’s power. You have no idea what you face—no idea at all.”
Obst laughed out loud, causing all heads to turn.
“We have no idea!” he said. “Poor fools! The living God has used your master as a tool in His hands to accomplish what He wished—the unfettering of His spirit. And yet the axe boasts itself against the woodsman! What could be sillier?
“The bell has been rung, the lost books recovered. You will see the hand of God stretched out all over the East, from sea to sea: for He desires all the nations of men to know Him. The more you vaunt yourselves against Him, the more you fight against Him, the more you do His bidding—in spite of yourselves!
“Go, Goryk, tell your masters that their weapons are turned against themselves; and that far from fearing them, we pity them. The spirit of the Lord is with us. Never again will it be far from us. Never again will God’s word be kept from any ear who will hear it. And you, who would imprison pitiful Heathen gods who are only idols—you have only done what the true God raised you up to do.”
The chiefs clashed their weapons on the legs of their stools. At a nod from Uduqu, two young Abnaks ushered Goryk from the hall.
“If he ever comes back,” said Gurun, “hang him.”
Obst shook his head. “Be sorry for them all,” he said. “They have no understanding of what they’ve started and no thought of where it ends.”
“Does it have an end?” King Ryons asked.
Obst smiled at him. “The work of the Lord have an end?” he said. “No, Sire—only one new beginning after another.”
The end for now…
Table of Contents
What Angel Saw, But Could Not Tell
How the King Returned to Obann
How Lord Reesh Met the Thunder King
A Message from the Thunder King