(eng) Michael Moorcock - SA by Sojan the Swordsman (2013 Orion Publishing Group)

Author:Sojan the Swordsman (2013, Orion Publishing Group) [Swordsman, Sojan the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

There was an audible sigh from the sweating men.

“We’ve pushed ’em back once, lads, and by Vit, we’ll push them back from here to Rhan if needs be!” cried Sojan. With the thrill of victory still in their hearts, their pulses tingling with conquest, the men’s voices rose in assent.

A brief count found two sailors suffering from wounds where the talons of the sea-people had ripped them, while three more men were missing, obviously dragged down by the sea-people.

“We should reach Rhan in a day,” said Nornos Rique.

“Or the bottom,” broke in Andel gloomily.

But the monotonous day ahead was broken only by the screaming of seabirds as they passed the outlying islands of The Immortal Theocracy of Rhan as it was called. This “immortal theocracy” was now little more than Rhan itself and a group of four islands inhabited mainly by primitive tribes, most of whom dwelt in the interior, anyway, and had probably never heard of Rhan.

As they neared Rhan, Sojan felt misgivings. Would they succeed in carrying out their plan? Or would their perilous journey be in vain?

It was with these odd questions in his mind that he followed his friends down the gangplank and through a series of narrow lanes to a private house owned by a society known to those few holding positions of trust in the Hatnorian Empire as the “Friends of Hatnor”. These ‘friends’ were generally native Hatnorians carrying forged or, as in some cases, real papers giving false names as well as assumed nationalities.

Three long knocks and two short ones three times repeated gained them admission.

As they walked along the narrow corridor to the main living room they began to feel just a little more secure, even though they were deep in the heart of Jhambeelo, the enemy’s city.

But as the door swung open and friendly light flooded into the dark corridor they were taken aback!

“Hello, Sojan,” grinned Red. “I don’t think I’ve met your friends?”

“By Vit! Red, how did you get here before us?” cried Sojan.

“Simple. I flew!”

“What? No airship could make the distance.”

“You’re quite right. I didn’t come by airship. Banjar, here, brought me!”

For the first time the comrades noticed what appeared to be a hunchbacked, rather tall, man with piercing blue eyes and aquiline features. Golden-haired, he possessed a complexion of a darker gold. Sojan was astonished. Could this be one of the fabled Golden Men of Zylor?

“To snap the bow in half,” said Red, using a term common on Zylor which means roughly — ‘To cut a long story short’, “Jik, Wanwif, Selwoon and myself succeeded in staving a rather large hole in the bottom of the Purple Arrow. Naturally enough, it was not long before we were beginning to regret this as water was rising steadily in the hold. Then, as we were all good swimmers, I thought that the only way to escape drowning would be to enlarge the hole and get out that way. So in turns we widened the hole and, with a great deal of difficulty, pulled ourselves under the keel of the boat and up into the open water.

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