Part 3

"I know your old Imperial towns," said Alfric savagely. "I've seen them, moldering shells, half the place deserted because the population has shrunk so far--wearily dreaming of a dead past, grubbing up the old works and sitting with noses buried in the old books, while robbers howl in the deserts and thieving politicians loot the treasury. Year by year, the towns crumble, bridges fall, canals dry up, people grow fewer--and nobody cares. A world is blowing away in red dust, and nobody stirs to help. By the winds of Ruho, it's about time someone pulled down that tottering wreck you call Imperial civilization! It's about time we forgot the past and started thinking--and doing--something about the present. The man who burns Valkarion will be doing the world a service!"

Silence, under the wind and the stars and the two moons marching toward their union. Hildaborg hefted her spear until the point gleamed near Alfric's throat.

He sneered, out of bitterness and despair and a sudden longing for her lips. "Don't try to stick me with that toy. You saw what happened to the guards."

"And you would kill me?" Her voice was all at once desolate; she dropped the spearhead to the ground.

"No. But I would leave you--no, by the Holy Well, I wouldn't. But I'd leave the damned city." He stepped forward, laying his hands on her mailed shoulders, and his voice rang with sudden earnestness. "Hildaborg, that is your answer. No need to stay in this place of death. We can steal hengists and bluff our way past the gates and be in the hills ere dawn. If you fear for Valkarion at my hands, leave it--leave it to rot and come with me."

"Come--where?"

"Home, back to Aslak. Back to the blue hills and the windy trees and the little lakes dancing in the sun--to an open heaven and a wide land and free folk who look you honestly in the eye. Luigur take the Empire, as he will whatever we do." He laughed, a joyous sound echoing in the night. "We'll build our own stead and live as freefolk and raise a dozen tall sons. Hildaborg, let's go!"

For a moment she stood silent. When she spoke, her voice trembled a little, and the moonlight glinted off tears in her eyes.

"I love you for it, Alfric, and gladly would go. But Therokos is besieging the palace--he is gathering in all who ever spoke well of me ... shall my friends be hanged and burned and hacked to bits, and I safe in Aslak?"

"You're a fool. What could you do for them?"

"Die. But this is no quarrel of yours, Alfric. If you wish, go, and I shall not think of the less of you. Go--my dearest--"

He laughed again, and kissed her for a very long moment. "You are a fool and a madwoman, and I love you for that," he said. "Come--we can still show these priests the color of steel!"

IV

They trotted rapidly along the ways, their mail clanking. Erelong they were out of the deserted district and approaching the central forum.

It seethed with people. All Valkarion seemed to be out tonight, moving slowly, aimlessly, under the compulsion of a nameless fear. The town buzzed with voices, low, secretive, and the shuffle of thousands of feet under the lamps and the bobbing torches. High over the muted tumult, blown on the harrying wind, chant and gong-beat came from the Temple.

Alfric and Hildaborg pushed their way through the milling, murmuring tide. The unease, the rising wave of fear, was like a tangible force; the northerner's skin prickled with it. Eyes, thousands of eyes, shifting and staring out of pale faces--the city was full of eyes.

He heard a voice as he came to the edge of the great plaza. Thrusting forward, the tall barbarian looked over the heads of the crowd. There was a rostrum, surrounded by a tight ring of Temple guards, and from atop it a robed priest was haranguing the throng.

"--the Dynasty is dead, and the wrath of the Moons lies heavy over Valkarion. Woe to the world, for the heathen fiend, the scourge of Dannos, is loose!

"Yet I bring hope--aye, from all-merciful Mother Amaris I bring cheer in this darkest hour. There is time, still time to seize the barbarian ere his power grows. There is still time, too, to seize and disown the half-caste witch Hildaborg. There is time to submit to the wise rule of the Temple, that the High Priest may intercede with All-father Dannos. Repent and be forgiven--destroy the evilworkers who brought this trouble on you, and the Mating of the Moons will yet bring forth a new birth of hope!"

Alfric grew aware of the muttering about him--the commons of Valkarion, laborer, artisan, merchant, peasant, turning thought over and growling it to his neighbor.

"--an ill choice, to see the city ruined or bow to the shavepates."

"I am afraid. The Moons are high and bitter bright now, they are looking down on us. I am afraid."

"'Twas Hildaborg who lowered the taxes. 'Twas Hildaborg, and not dotard Aureon or thieving Therokos, who whipped the army into shape and beat off the Savonnian invaders. What has the Temple ever done for us, save milk us for our tithes and frighten our babes with stories of godly wrath?"

"Hush! The Moons are watching!"

"Hildaborg is beautiful, she is like a goddess as she rides through the streets and smiles on us. Amaris herself is not more beautiful."

"The Temple is holy."

"The priests burned my brother for sorcery. He had one of the old books, that is all; he tried to build the machine it told of--and they burned him."

"They have enough old books themselves. They sit on all the wisdom of the ancients, and none of us can so much as read."

"The Fates are abroad tonight. I am afraid."

"My son is in the Household. They're after his skin--he'll hang if he isn't dead already--unless--"

"Aye, my son is in the city guards. They told him to go hunt down the stranger and the Empress--the _Empress_!--and off he went." A grim chuckle. "But I think he is sitting quietly in some corner, waiting."

"There is an old battle ax at home. My grandfather bore it in the Rurian war. I think I could still swing it if need be."

"I am afraid--"

* * * * *

Alfric smiled, a steely grimace in the shadow of his visor, and led the way onward.

But he was not to pass easily. He thrust aside a burly peasant, who turned on him with a snarl. "Mind your manners, guardsman! Is't not enough you should be traitor to the Empress?"

"Aye, the city guards have sat about drinking and gaming and making the streets unsafe for our daughters," said another man harshly. "They didn't get off their fat butts till this chance came to go yapping after Hildaborg."

Alfric tried to shoulder past the ring of angry folk who gathered. "Aside!" he called. "Aside, or I use my spear!"

"Mind your manners, guardsman," grinned the peasant. He came closer, and Alfric smelled the wine on his breath. "What say we have a little fun with these priest-lovers, comrades? Will they squeal when we pummel 'em?"

Alfric's fist shot out like a ball of iron. There was a dull smack, and the peasant flew back against the man behind. The barbarian flailed out with his spear butt, and the crowd gave way.

"Through!" he muttered to Hildaborg. "Quick, we have to get away."

"They're our friends," she whispered frantically. "Can't we reveal--"

"And bring the guard down on this unarmed mob? We wouldn't last a moment. Come!"

A stone clanged against the girl's helmet. She staggered, half collapsing into Alfric's arms. The crowd growled, beast-like, and shoved in closer.

"Aside!" shouted Alfric. "Make way, or the curse of the Moons is on you!"

"You talk like a priest," said a laborer thickly. He lifted a heavy billet of wood. "On them, boys! Kill them!"

Alfric laid the half-stunned girl on the ground, stood over her, and drew his broadsword. "An outlander!" shouted someone, back in the sea of shadowy, torch-lit, hating faces. "A mercenary, hunting our empress!"

The mob surged against him. He thrust around with the sword, striking to disable but not to kill--though he'd slay if he had to, he thought desperately.

Stones were flying. One hit him on the cheek. Pain knifed through his head. "Hai, Ruho!" he roared, and banged a skull. The mob edged away a little. Eyes and teeth gleamed white in the bloody torchlight.

A trumpet-blast sounded, harsh and arrogant over the rising voices. Someone screamed. Alfric saw spears aloft, steel gleaming red--a squad of guardsmen to the rescue.

The rescue! He groaned, lifted Hildaborg, and sought to retreat through the crowd.

Too late. The guards were hacking a bloody way through the mob; it scattered in panic and the squad was there.

"Just in time," panted its chief. "The folk are ugly. They've killed a dozen guardsmen already, to my knowledge, a couple of priests, I don't know how many Temple slaves--Dannos smite the blasphemers!"

"Thanks." Alfric set the reviving girl on her feet. "Now I have to go--special mission, urgent--"

The chief looked sharply at him. "You have a barbarous accent," he said slowly, "and you're no Valkariona. Who--"

Hildaborg groaned, stirring back to consciousness. "Alfric--"

"A boy--no--" The officer stepped forth. Hildaborg's lovely face turned toward the light, and he gasped. "_She_--"

* * * * *

Alfric picked up his spear and hurled it through the chief's throat. Then he lifted his dripping sword and stood by Hildaborg, waiting for the end.

"The Empress--the Empress, and the heathen--_We've found them_--"

The crowd had withdrawn, milling around the edges of the forum, too frightened and confused to help. The priest and his guards were coming on the double, yelling for help. Other armed men seemed to be springing from the ground.

"Alive!" shrilled the priest. "Take them alive if you can! A thousand gildars!"

The guards were well disciplined. They locked shields in a ring about Alfric and closed in. Man for man, he could have laughed at them--but this way--

Hildaborg swayed on her feet beside him. "So this is the end?" she whispered. "I love you, Alfric--"

He howled his rage, and sprang forward. The sword blurred in his hands, ringing on shields and helmets. A guard fell, shrieking, his right arm sheared off. Alfric stabbed another in the neck, kicked a third in the groin, and roared.

They surged around him, hemming him in with their shields. Clubbed spears thudded against his helmet, and it rang like a brazen gong. He staggered, shouted, struck out again--the sword fell from his hands--he toppled into a clamoring darkness--

Dimly, he was aware of being stripped of armor, chained hand and foot, hauled roughly to his feet. He lurched mechanically along, and slowly his head cleared. Through a mist of throbbing pain, he saw that Hildaborg walked beside him. Spears pricked their backs, the chains rattled on ankles and wrists. They were in the middle of a tight triple ring of guards, marching up the hill toward the Temple.

The villas of the mighty lay around them, white in the moonlight, fragrant with gardens. Alfric saw fountains splashing, and even then thought of the parched land beyond the walls, land that might flower again if it had that water.

But that would never be. He would swing high above the city, the falkhs would pick out his eyes--Hildaborg would die, and the grip of the Temple would be locked on Valkarion till its last stones were dust on the wind.

Strength came back, a bleak resolve not to go down without one more fight. His brain began whirring, the old cold craftiness of his turbulent lifetime surged forward ... hopeless. They were caught, they were done; all his struggles were the vain writhings of a beast in a cage.

"So this ends it." Hildaborg's voice was weary. Then she smiled a little. "But we made a good try, Alfric." And warmly: "And we have loved each other. That is enough."

"It is not," he answered. "But it is something."

"Silence!" commanded the priest.

Now they were on the hillcrest, the mighty walls of the Temple looming before them. Alfric saw it aswarm with slaves and guards and priests of all degrees. The gong-beat was a steady, tremendous crashing--it seemed to fill the world with its brazen clamor. High rose the chant of the Moon Wedding.

The warrior glanced aside, over to the palace. There was a bridge spanning the gully between the two hillcrests, and guards were on it. Other guards, city and Temple, were besieging the palace; he saw their fires in a ring about it. They were setting up a great ballista whose stones, he knew, would bring the walls down in ruin.

From the hilltop he could see over the moon-whitened desert and the vast reach of the old sea-bottom. Once it had been blue and alive, glittering with sunlight, the long waves rolling in to crash in foam and thunder on a dazzling beach. The harbor of Valkarion had been crowded with ships from all the world, a forest of tall masts, a wild perfumery of salt and tar and the spices of the south. And beyond, the land had been green, and white clouds had sailed through a soft blue summer sky.

* * * * *

Well, it was gone--the world was dried into desert and scrubby forest and harsh meadowland, sand blew in the ancient beds of rivers and seas, the air was thin and chill and held a bitter tang of rust. The cities were in ruins, the Empire was a shadow, and man was gone back to a few wretched remnants, sinking into barbarism and death.

Alfric looked up to the cold, splendid night sky. There was a tradition from the wise ancients, he had once been told, that those swarming bright star-hosts were other worlds and suns, happier, maybe, than this. It was some consolation.

The Moons were near their mating now. Bright Dannos was sweeping triumphantly down on pale Mother Amaris; he would cover her and then pass on, and out of that wedding would come the fate of the world. Cold fate, dark destiny--night and famine and death, the moons hurtling over a world sunk into final oblivion.

Well, men died, sometime or other, and all they could do about it was to meet the end bravely. Alfric squared his shoulders and marched into the Temple.

There was a long corridor, at the end of which he saw a vast room flashing in gold and silver and fiery jewels, draped with the costliest ancient tapestries. Even then, Alfric's eyes gleamed greenly. To loot that room!

They turned off along another hall, and then down a stone-cut flight of steps into the Temple dungeons. Alfric had been in enough jails before not to find the damp, rough-hewn rock tunnels strange, but Hildaborg shuddered and pressed closer to him.

A scream echoed down the corridor, rose and fell and died raggedly into the echoes. The priest smirked. "A heretic is being shown the error of his ways," he said unctuously. "He blasphemed against the Moons and swore he would abide by the Empress."

"Then the gods abide by him," said Hildaborg defiantly.

The guards thrust them into a cell, little more than a cave chipped out of the hill's heart, and locked their chains to staples in the walls. They were held barely able to move, facing each other with a few scant inches between--miles between, a world between, thought Alfric wearily--he would never kiss her again--

The guards clanged the door shut and left them in utter darkness. Hildaborg's voice trembled, but she spoke bravely: "What can we do?"

"Nothing, now." The barbarian strained against his chains, felt their solidity, and relaxed. "Wait for a chance, maybe. Otherwise--die."

"I don't want to die, Alfric. I want to live, I want to see the sky and feel the wind and bear your sons."

"I don't enjoy the thought of death either, dearest. If we had fled to Aslak--"

"But we didn't, and for myself I am still glad. Though that you should die too--" Her voice broke, and he heard her quiet sobbing in the dark.

He tried to find words, but they were awkward. So he fell into silence.

Presently the door opened again. A man came in with only two torch-bearing Temple slaves accompanying. Alfric looked at his magnificent robes and knew him for Therokos the High Priest.

* * * * *

He was tall, stoop-shouldered, a little on the fat side but well muscled underneath. His face was wide and heavy, sallow under the high shaven forehead, the mouth hard and thin, the eyes small and black and glittering-cold. When he spoke, his voice was wondrous, a deep organ which he played like a master musician.

"So we meet again, your majesty," he said, and bowed. There was little mockery in his tones; he seemed straightforward and businesslike.

Hildaborg did not answer. She stood with her beauteous form in its ragged soldier's tunic pressed against the wall. Her sweat-dampened black hair clung to her forehead, fell down her shoulders in a shining wave. In the restless torchlight, her face was white and drawn, streaked with blood and dirt and the tracks of tears, but she gave the High Priest glance for glance and her lips were steady.

Therokos looked Alfric's tall form up and down. "And so you are the conqueror of the prophecy," he murmured. "A mighty man--but just how did you think you could do it? Who are your allies in the city? What was your plan?"

"I am Alfric of Aslak, and I came here without friends or plan, knowing nothing of any prophecy," answered the barbarian coldly. "And you are a misbegotten son of a she-garm, with whose head I will yet play football."

"Come now," said Therokos softly, "surely you do not expect me to believe you are here by mere chance? Your cause is lost, you are doomed, but you can save yourself the inquisition and die easily if you will tell us what you know."

"I know nothing, you jerrad!"

"You may know more after the inquisitioners have worked on you awhile," said Therokos coldly. Then turning to Hildaborg, his voice suddenly rich and warm, throbbing with love and pity: "My lady, my lady, you do not know how I regret this. That the Empress of Valkarion should, even for dire necessity, be thus humiliated is the greatest sorrow of my life."

Hildaborg's lip curled. "I see you weeping," she said coldly.

"But I do, my lady--my heart is ashes within me. Only need drove me to this--and it is not yet too late to repent, your majesty. What the Moons have taken, the Moons can restore.

"Surely, my lady," said Therokos reasonably, "you can see the absolute necessity of my actions. Under the law, you could not rule, and there was no Imperial heir. Without a strong hand, leaderless Valkarion would have split under the quarreling of the nobles and the lawlessness of the commons, easy prey for barbarian enemies such as this man--and the Sibyl's warning would have come true. With the Imperium gone, the Temple, sole remaining pillar of Valkarion, _must_ bear the burden of state."

"In other words," said Hildaborg coldly, "you will have yourself anointed Theocrat."

"The Moons have seen fit thus to honor my unworthiness," said Therokos. "But it would still be well if we should unite our forces. You have many loyal friends, my lady, myself not the least of them. If you will but wed me, we can together unite the factions in the city and build the Empire anew."

She smiled, almost a sneer. "Yours was a strange courtship."

"I have told you how the necessity grieved me," said the priest. Suddenly his voice came hard as steel, cold as winter and death: "It is now my duty to offer you a choice. Call on your troops to surrender, your followers in the city to desist from their treasonous activities, and wed me this night, or--" he paused--"burn at the stake for blasphemy and witchcraft. But first you will be tied down and every slave in the Temple have his way with you."

"That might not be worse than leading my men into your hands," she flared. But her face was suddenly bloodless.

"You will be surprised how much worse it will be--especially since your men will die anyway. But I will offer you this, too: if you call on them to surrender, those who do may go into exile."

She stood a moment in silence, and Alfric knew what a horror must be clawing her heart. Then she nodded toward him: "What of my protector here?"

"The heathen bandit must die in any case, that the city may know itself safe from him and the prophecy," said Therokos. "He still has his choice of easy hanging or slow torture. But if you refuse me, Hildaborg, he will no longer have the choice; he will go to hell by inches, cursing you for it."

The lovely dark head bowed. It was as if a flame had gone out. Alfric felt ill at seeing her thus broken, given over to a lifetime's prisoning--golden chains they would be, but no less heavy and galling. "Goodbye, my dear," he whispered. "Goodbye, I will always love you."

She made no reply, but said to Therokos, tonelessly: "I yield me, lord."

V

The high priest's face lit, and Alfric realized dully that Therokos, too, loved the queen--in his own cold way. "You do well, beautiful one," he said shakily. He came over and kissed her and fondled her stiff body. "You have never done better, black witch. Now come--to your wedding."

He signed to the two slaves, who sconced their torches and took a key from their master. They unlocked Hildaborg's chains, and she almost fell into Therokos' arms.

He caressed her, murmuring softly. "There, dear, easy--you will wash and eat and rest, you will wear the robes of honor--be at ease, you are safe now, you are mine forever."

"Aye--" She braced herself, every muscle tautened under the silken skin, and suddenly she hurled the priest from her--sent him staggering against Alfric. "_Kill!_" she screamed.

The barbarian snarled, wild with a sudden murderous glory, and his manacled hands shot out. One gripped Therokos over the mouth, and the other sank steely fingers into the wattled throat.

The two slaves sprang at him like wild garms. Knives flashed in the bloody light. Hildaborg snatched a torch and swept its flaming end across the eyes of one. He screamed wordlessly, rolling over and over, clawing at his face. Hildaborg snatched up his dagger and lunged at the other.

Alfric groaned. What chance did she have against the deadly experience of a Temple assassin?--Therokos had gone limp. Alfric flung the heavy body crashing into the slave. They went down together. Hildaborg leaped in, her knife rising and falling and rising again, streaming red.

Then she was in his arms, shaken by wild sobbing. He held her close, kissed her, stroked her hair, and had time for a dim wondering amazement that such a woman should have lain in his--_his_--fate.

There was no time to lose. "Unlock me," he said. "Unlock me and let's get out of this den of Luigur."

She searched Therokos' robes for the key, found it, and cast the chains rattling aside. Alfric snatched up a knife, with an uneasy glance at the door. But the noise had drawn no guards. They must be used to screams in this part of the Temple.

Therokos stirred, groaning. Alfric's big brown form stooped over him, dagger against throat. "Up with you, fat jerrad," hissed the northerner. "Up, and not a word, or you'll be spilling guts over the floor."

The High Priest climbed unsteadily to his feet. "Now lead us out by a secret way," rasped Alfric.

"There is none--" groaned Therokos.

Alfric slapped him with savage fury. "Shut up! I know there is. You priests are like all burrowing snakes, you've more than one exit to your holes. March! And if we meet guards, you'll die first."

Therokos flung him a glance of utter hate, but stumbled obediently ahead. The empty corridor echoed dully to their footfalls. Near its end, Therokos pressed a camouflaged stud, and a section of the rock wall swung aside on noiseless hinges.

Hildaborg took a torch from the wall and closed the door behind them. They went down a long sloping tunnel, so low that Alfric had to stoop. "You cannot hope to escape," said Therokos, his voice again under his wondrous control. "Best you give up peaceably, saving trouble and lives on both sides. In exchange, I will offer better terms than before."

"What?" asked Alfric skeptically.