The Last Banquet (Bell Mountain) by Lee Duigon

Author:Lee Duigon [Duigon, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Chalcedon Foundation/Store House Press
Published: 2012-09-09T07:00:00+00:00

They were passing many parties going down the mountains into Obann, Lord Reesh noted, as the coach and its escort carried him up into the foothills.

“I have told you my master the Thunder King cannot be defeated,” said Mardar Kyo. They had stopped at an outpost on the road for a change of horses. “Even now his thought speaks to me, as he speaks to all his mardars.

“He is stretching forth his hand. Before this country sees another summer, he will have seized all Obann. He will pull down that great city and build a greater city in its place, one that will bear his name forever. He will not stop for the winter, as a mortal man would do.”

When they were on their way again, Gallgoid said, “I wonder what he meant. I wonder what they’re going to do.”

“The Thunder King is going to finish what he’s started,” Reesh said. “It’s obvious he’s moving new armies into Obann. They’ll be poised to strike as soon as spring begins. His resources must be inexhaustible.”

“Unless he dies,” said Gallgoid. “I’m surprised he’s lived this long. They mustn’t have very good assassins out there in the East.”

Reesh then answered, very slowly, “And what if he were not to die?”

Gallgoid looked at him, leaving the question to lie unanswered for a minute.

“I’m a plain man, my lord,” he said. “I can’t make out what your lordship means.”

Reesh suddenly knew exactly what he meant. The idea had been a-birthing in some dark cellar of his mind where he didn’t have to look at it, or acknowledge it was there. For a time there were only faint stirrings of it, easily repressed.

But now here it was, fully formed and right out in the open: his own words, just now, had let it out of the dark. It was an appalling thing to see—to know that a thing like that had come out of your own mind.

“My lord?” said Gallgoid.

Reesh shook him off. What he had in his mind was for the Thunder King alone. Not for Gallgoid, not even for a mardar—this was a thing to be kept secret.

And it was rapidly revealing itself as a thing that had to be. It would be wrong, and foolish, to shy away from it. If you begin by admitting that there is no God, Reesh reasoned—

“My lord!” Gallgoid was staring at him. “Are you going to be sick, my lord? You’ve gone all pale.”

“It was just a little spasm,” Lord Reesh said. “I’m all right now.” At least he would be, he thought, if this new burden didn’t crush him.

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