Polgara the Sorceress

‘All right then, Captain Torgun. Go back to your men and spread them out so that you’ve got every possible escape route covered.’ Kamion lifted a curved hunting horn. ‘When you hear me blow on this, order your men to charge. I want everyone wearing a bear-skin clapped in chains.’

‘They’ll probably try to fight, my Lord. Do I have permission to use force?’

‘Do whatever it takes, Captain Torgun.’

The newly promoted soldier’s answering grin was one of the most evil I’ve ever seen. ‘Try not to kill too many of them, Captain,’ I added – just as a precaution, you understand.

The look of innocence he gave me was so transparent that I almost burst out laughing. ‘Of course not, Lady Polgara. I wouldn’t dream of it.’ Then he slithered away.

‘Good move there, Kamion,’ Earl Jarok whispered hoarsely. ‘Field promotions are one of the best ways to get good officers. That fellow would follow you into fire right now.’

‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, my Lord. Being wet’s bad enough.’

The party around the bonfire was getting rowdier as the ale flowed freely. The Cultists were all shuffling around the fire, tankards in hand, trying to imitate the shambling walk of their totem. Then Elthek came up the gorge and trailing along behind him were most of the priests of Belar on the Isle of the Winds.

‘We’re going to decimate the priesthood, I’m afraid,’ Kamion whispered to Anrak and me.

‘It won’t be hard to find replacements, Kamion,’ Anrak assured him. The priestly life’s fairly comfortable, and it doesn’t involve much sweating.’

Then Elthek addressed the shaggy congregation for an hour or so, punctuating his oration with simple tricks of ‘magic’. The flames in the bonfire changed colors several times as the Deacon’s underlings surreptitiously tossed assorted powders into the coals. A ‘ghost’, which was no more than a gauzy veil suspended on a black string, appeared, billowing in the heat of the fire. A second moon, actually a large glass globe filled with fireflies, rose over the gorge. Rocks started to bleed, and a ‘dead’ sheep was resurrected. It was all fairly transparent, but Elthek ladled on high drama and the drunken Cultists were all suitably impressed.

‘What do you think, Pol?’ Kamion asked me. ‘Is that witchcrafty enough for our purposes?’

‘Witchcrafty?’ I asked in some amusement.

‘I’ve always had this way with words,’ he said modestly.

‘You’re the expert in this area, Pol,’ Anrak said. ‘Is Elthek really performing magic out there?’

‘No. It’s all pure fakery. It should be enough to convict him, though.’

‘My feelings exactly,’ Kamion said. He reached for his hunting horn.

‘Aren’t you going to wait for the naked girls?’ Anrak sounded disappointed.

‘Ah – no, Anrak. I don’t think so. Let’s not complicate the trial by adding women to the list of the accused.’ He lifted his horn and blew a long, brazen note, calling in Captain Torgun and his men.

The soldiers were well trained, and the Cultists were far gone in drink, so it wasn’t even a very interesting fight, and the casualties were minimal. Elthek kept screaming, ‘How dare you?’ but I noticed that he didn’t reach for his sword. Finally, Captain Torgun grew tired of the screaming and stilled the Deacon’s objections with his fist.

It was dawn by the time the line of chained Cultists were dragged into Riva’s city. We threw them into the dungeon under the temple of Belar and then Kamion spoke briefly with Captain Torgun before he, Anrak and I escorted our group of witnesses back up the hill to the Citadel to advise Daran that our little excursion had been successful.

The ‘trial’ took place the following day in the public square in front of the temple. I noticed that Captain Torgun’s soldiers had passed the time erecting a fair number of posts in the square and piling firewood around them – just in case.

‘Why are we doing this here instead of in the throne room?’ I asked Daran before the proceedings began.

‘I want everyone here in the city to hear the testimony, Aunt Pol,’ he explained. ‘Let’s fix it so that the Bear-Cult doesn’t reappear just as soon as my back’s turned.’

Daran sat on a large, ornate chair – Elthek’s, actually – which Torgun’s soldiers had dragged out of the temple and placed where everyone could see it. Then the Bear-Cultists, still in chains and seriously disheveled, were dragged up out of the temple dungeon and forced to sit in a huddled group at the foot of the broad stair that led up to the temple door. The square was full of people as the proceedings began.

Kamion, Warder of Riva, rose to his feet to address the assembled citizens. ‘A crime has been committed here on our island, my friends,’ he began, ‘and we are gathered here to sit in judgment.’

‘What crime are we talking about, Lord Brand?’ a well-coached townsman demanded in a booming voice that could be heard all over the square. The Rivan Warder, I noted, was not the sort to leave anything to chance.

‘The crime of witchcraft,’ Kamion replied.

Elthek, battered and bruised by Captain Torgun’s fists, tried to leap to his feet, but that’s a little hard to do when you’re chained to other people.

The proceedings went smoothly, I thought. Kamion’s questioning was masterly, and the witnesses all confirmed the fact that Elthek had performed ‘magic’ at the gathering in the gorge.