CHAPTER II


A LONG NIGHT




	He who held many names and titles but was most loved as Irwain Trevarthen sped down 
the staircase as the Two Who had Become One galloped out of sight and his terrible cry of 
vengeance echoed around the walls and towers of Okrane like howls of gale storms and the air 
currents swept the sound of rage far and wide across the whole city.  

	With a rough hand Irwain shoved aside the loudly weeping Jeremy and knelt down on 
the steps of the Office of Decorum.  Dark streaks stained his mantle as he fell upon the young 
Captain, held the blood-spattered face between his hands and whispered the Captain's name, 
desperately trying to call him back to sentient life, while a silence deadened all voices in the city 
square.  Trajan was still half conscious, writhing in pain, his breathing heavy and irregular.  

	"A carriage!" Irwain shouted, his face as white as the one lying on the stairs, "to the 
castle!"  

	Eirini had knelt down at his side without his being aware of it.  "Let me go with you!" 
she pleaded as without hesitating any longer he lifted up his semi-conscious Captain, his son, and 
carried him to the carriage which had screeched to a halt before the staircase.  Irwain did not 
reply but allowed her to enter the carriage with him.  

	In the carriage he cradled Trajan's head on his arm while Eirini tried to stanch the wound, 
a deep gash along the right temple, but the strips of fabric she tore from her scarf could not stop 
the bleeding.  They both felt that Trajan was breathing still, but very faintly, and they feared the 
worst could happen any time.  Then without further hesitation she ripped open a pouch and 
opened two ampoules.  

	"What are you doing, my girl?" he asked.

	"These are the Command's stim-boosters," Eirini said as she proceeded to inject the 
ampoules.  It will calm him and lessen the pain."

	"Eirini," Trajan said suddenly, his eyelashes fluttering, "the war must be won for Vespar."

	"My dear," Eirini said, choking on her tears, "I will do the utmost to make it happen."

	Irwain clasped Trajan's hands tightly, trying to give them some of his own life-warmth as 
he felt how coldness was creeping up on these hands, the same ones who had detonated such 
tremendous force upon the steps of the Decorum.  He and Eirini did not speak to each other 
during the frantic drive to the castle.  Every moment they feared Trajan was giving up but it 
appeared he was still holding on to the threads which linked him to existence although with great 
anguish they were also aware he was rapidly weakening. 

	Arriving at the castle the physicians of the infirmary, who had in the meantime been 
alerted, briskly took over and persuaded Irwain and Eirini to depart while they would do 
everything in their power to save the Captain.  

	Night fell, spreading dark wings over the castle and the physicians were still behind the 
closed door of the surgery.  Irwain stood in his salon before a window and looked down on 
Okrane, where the lights had been subdued and the streets were empty.  Seeing how the city was 
cast in fear and sorrow he tried to quieten the turbulence of his own heart as he recalled the past 
events which fleeted by like pictures of a bad dream, in particular the disturbing phenomenon of 
that Blue Light which had fused Two into One. 

	A quiet knock on the door announced the arrival of the Royal Counsel and the Master 
Physician. The latter reported that he had stabilized the Captain's condition. 

	"But he had sustained a terrible blow to the head," the Master Physician elaborated 
further. "He is suffering from severe concussion and has lost a lot of blood.  Speaking frankly, 
his condition will remain critical over the next few days.  We've given him a sedative so he can 
sleep.  Remarkably he was still conscious." 

	Irwain expressed his gratitude for the efforts of the Royal Castle's infirmary whereupon 
the Master Physician withdrew from the room.  Without looking at Dego, he remarked:  "I can 
see the conference has turned into a shambles." 

	"Sire," Dego said, "it is true some of the delegates have made arrangements to leave 
Okrane but hope is not yet lost.  The Vicegerent has remained and I will endeavour to speak to 
him tonight, with your permission of course, Sire."  

	"Do what you can, Counsel.  I am still ready and willing to sign the treaty."  

	"Sire!" Dego cried out. "The whole of Vespar is deeply grieving for this tragedy which 
has struck with such cruelty in the midst of Okrane, but I realize you feel the blow deeper than 
anyone else.  I want you to know that it has struck me too with equal pain and my anguish and 
distress run deep in my heart!" 

	Irwain slowly turned away from the window.  "Kolmarin, you were with the Captain, 
weren't you, when he was battling Carlomon's forces on the Other End of the Equation.  Did 
you know then what powers he had?"  

	Dego creased his face worriedly:  "I know the Captain is capable of performing 
remarkable feats with an instrument made purely of Light."  

	Irwain clenched a hand and exclaimed:  "He has taken the Hexstone into him!  Why has 
he not told me!  Why has he not used it to fight the enemy!"

	Irwain thudded a fist against his brow.  "What if he had.  I would've refused to listen to 
him, or I may have forced him to action which violates his honour.  Foolish, foolish boy!  Why, 
Kolmarin, could you not have informed me earlier of this Force that he has?"  

	"Regent, Sire!" Dego vehemently protested, "I have seen the Captain holding the Unliving 
at bay with a Light Force which seemed to emanate from him, but I couldn't understand what it 
was, or what it meant, only that it saved us. But it took a lot of his strength.  He has other powers 
as well, that of his thoughts and his mind.  The world to where we, D'Orrians, have been brought 
as slave labourers, is filled with enigmas.  To me, what the Captain has displayed is just one more 
enigma to many others."

	Irwain rubbed his eyes absent-mindedly.  "Forgive me, Kolmarin, I shouldn't be berating 
you for keeping your own counsel on a profound subject which even I cannot comprehend.  I 
have been blind, blindly impatient!  I couldn't believe the warning could be true.  Only the one 
who can take it into his bare hand!"  

	On a more subdued tone Irwain continued:  "The evening is already late, and you know 
what your duties are.  I want you to work at it the whole night, if need be, and report to me in 
the morning.  Meanwhile, send in Leoynar."  

	With a bow Kolmarin left the room and shortly afterwards Leoynar entered.  Without 
hesitation he approached Irwain, took the Lord's hand and pressed it to his brow.  	"My 
Lar, Grandfather."  

	"Leoynar," Irwain spoke with a grim face.  "You and I both have a talent for faking our 
deaths, haven't we?  Never mind what had motivated me to leave the Praecel social scene.  I 
have been there for far too long anyway, but I would like to hear from you what had driven you 
to leave Trevarthen Hall in such an unimaginative way.  Another disgraceful act of desertion by 
the Trevarthen sons?"

	Avoiding the relentless scrutiny of those grey eyes and with his heart beating against his 
chest uncomfortably, Leoynar told the story of his unhappy union with Lisaloran and its 
consequences, until the day he came to Ferngarthen.

	"And you made peace with your father," was Irwain's curt remark.

	"My Lar, in spite of everything Lar Alden respected and remained true to your memory," 
Leoynar said, "Trajan--"

	"Trajan is my son."

	Leoynar's face paled with shock and Irwain made an irritated sweep with his hand:  
"Krystan Schurell once hinted at me that he had two boys but that one was adopted on Evening 
Star and that one I believe is Trajan.  Your sister, Norielle, is not his mother.  I do not know who 
his mother is, or was, I just know that he is mine!  Tell me by what means had Trajan come into 
the possession of the Hexstone."

	"My Lar!" Leoynar said in a quavering voice, "Please listen first to what I have to say, I 
beg of you!  Lar Alden's last thoughts before he died were for Trajan, requesting me to protect 
him against harm.  The more the boy grew up to be like you, the more my father loved him, as if 
he were his own son after the death of Krystan Schurell." 

	Irwain uttered a short and harsh laugh.  "Krystan is alive!  He was only injured when he 
fell off that cliff in Mount Argento.  Pushed he was rather, I would say, but I forced him to leave 
with me."

	Leoynar stood gulping and shivering with dread as Irwain studied him with fiercely 
glinting eyes. "Do I detect criticism in your voice, Leoynar?  Should I have given more love and 
attention to your father?  I was desperately searching for an heir who would be like me, or even 
better than me.  Should I have tested Alden too?  Could he have succeeded where Valorin had 
failed, my firstborn who could not touch the Hexstone!  What if I tested Trajan and he would 
have passed the test?  I would've been compelled to take him with me, to this world where I was 
born!  Would your father have allowed it?  He fought his own brother over you!"

	His face white and drawn Leoynar was unable to reply and Irwain said brusquely:  "Do 
not speak any more of what has passed, Leoynar, and tell me what I want to hear.  How did 
Trajan acquire the Hexstone?"

	All lights over Okrane and the castle had been extinguished and the gloom of an uneasy 
night descended upon the capital when Leoynar finished recounting past history.  Irwain stared 
at the window through which the dark of the night stared back at him with more mysteries.  

	"And he took the Hexstone in his hand and absorbed it!  It was as simple as that, and 
Carlomon was a witness to it all.  For him the choice is even simpler.  If he cannot have this 
awesome instrument for himself to lead him to glory, destroy it so no one else may have it.  But 
is this instrument really so powerful?  For all its brilliant mightiness Trajan lies there bleeding and 
half-dead.  Trajan could have destroyed the whole of Magni-Xandia but somehow stayed his 
hand in typical self-defeating honour of Iucarians!" 

	Leoynar argued in an entreating voice:  "He reunified his brother, Eugene, who is your 
son too.  He gave the power to Eugene."

	"Eugene," Irwain observed darkly, "who even couldn't bear to touch the Light when he 
was an infant but now It is embodied in him on Trajan's command!"

	Frowning he abruptly swung away from the window and strode towards the door.  
Leoynar kept close at his back as he swiftly walked through hallways in the direction of the 
castle's infirmary.  In the corridor beside the door leading into the infirmary they came upon a 
dejected figure squatting on the floor with his black hair hanging over his face like a veil of 
mourning.  

	"What is the boy doing here?" Irwain demanded.

	"My Lord," said Leoynar softly at his shoulder, "this is Jeremy, the young Mountain 
Cougar to whom Trajan has given care and shelter."

	"Stand up, Jeremy!" Irwain ordered and as the youth hastily sprang up and stood 
cowering before the two of them with a tear-smudged face, Irwain studied him silently for a few 
moments.  With a gruff, but not unkindly hand, he brushed away the hair that fell over the boy's 
face.

	"You may have saved the Captain's life, Jeremy," Irwain spoke, "I saw it all too clearly.  
You were beneath the steps and he sharply turned his head when you called him.  By that slight 
deflection of stance the bullet just grazed his skull.  Go and try to get some sleep, and tomorrow 
I want you to report back to the Fly Corps."

	As Jeremy darted away, Irwain grasped Leoynar's arm before entering the room.  
"Leoynar, for the present time you are all I have got.  I am relying on you as I have relied on 
Trajan.  Bring the other Iucarian you have in your retinue to my chambers for a briefing."

	After watching Leoynar's retreating back for a while, Irwain pushed the door open.  All 
lights had been doused in the infirmary except in the far left corner where a standing lamp traced 
a small yellow pool near a bed.  Closely beside it Irwain saw Eirini sitting on a chair.  She only 
briefly raised her eyes, when he drew near and looked upon the face on the pillows.  

	Trajan's dark hair, eyebrows and lashes stood out like strokes of ebony against the 
pallidness of his skin and the bandage swathing his brow.  Despite these attestations to his 
ghastly wound he appeared as if he had slipped into a very deep sleep.  

	"He is resting," Eirini whispered.  Irwain stood with his hand on her shoulder.  She had 
the delicacy of Elanorien, he contemplated, and his first Dama's affectionate nature but he 
sensed that she was stronger, almost as strong as Anjelie who was however wilful and ambitious 
and who lacked the warmth of a loving heart.  

	"Shouldn't you take a rest, my girl?"

	"Assiya will relieve me in a very short while, and I want to be with him."  

	"Eirini," Irwain said gravely, "your place is with the Fly Corps.  As Trajan needed you for 
your skills, so will I.  We are on the brink of war.  We both love him and what happened should 
strengthen our commitment to the people of Vespar even more.  Go and refresh yourself and then 
come to my chambers to join in a meeting with the Chiefs of Staff." 

	Without protest Eirini did as he instructed and departed from the room.  He took her 
place beside the bed and held Trajan's hand between his.  No longer did it feel cold but warm 
with life that had been retained. 

	"I have failed you, my son," he whispered.  "I could only think of how to bring the rebel 
in you down to his knees and could not see the danger that you were in.  It was not in your 
nature to give up your principles, you said, but yet you submitted to me.  I would have been too 
impatient to give the comfort you needed and I have failed to protect you against the assassin.  
Trajan, you have become so dear to me!"

	He stood up, bent over the bed and kissed Trajan on the forehead.  "But everything will 
be all right from now on, my son," he said softly, "I will keep you safe."  He left the infirmary 
when Assiya entered for her watch.  

* * *

	Deyron was overwhelmed by the trust of the Defence Committee and the importance of 
the tasks which they loaded on his shoulders.  

	"I am not trained as a commander," he waveringly tried to make himself clear, "I am only 
what you would call here a police inspector."

	"Nevertheless," Irwain insisted, "you know how to command a flycraft.  Part of the 
success of the strike force was due to your well-coordinated deployment of the craft which you 
employed to penetrate the Smaze.  I want you to continue your good work and take command of 
the entire Fly Corps."

	"Governor General," Deyron put forward anxiously, "I am aware the Fly Corps is giving 
us an edge over the invading forces but I am worried at its rather small size and its limited 
capabilities.  I fear these factors will put great constraints on their effectiveness in real battle.  In 
no way do these craft match the speed or superior firepower of the Command's Patrol Fleet."

	"We are not fighting a war in space," Irwain reminded him somewhat fretfully, "but in 
the atmosphere of a planet.  These Zippercraft will suffice and I have already given orders to 
augment their number by building more craft.  In the meantime, we have to give our utmost 
attention to the defence of Merinburg."  

	During the hours preceding dawn the Defence Committee sat and deliberated tactics and 
strategy of defence and the feasibility of an offensive strike against the coming enemy.  Irwain 
had put Leoynar in charge of the production of additional flycraft and requested Eirini to 
coordinate necessary computerization.  During the prolonged and intensive debate Eirini's thin 
and haggard face showed her fatigue, which was compounded by her anxiety for Trajan, 
However, she stood firm and refused to give in to suggestions that she withdrew from the 
conference. 

	As ribbons of dawn started to unfurl through the pall of night and colour the crowns of 
the eastern greenbelt with bold streaks of amber, the Committee received word that the Magni-
Xandian forces had begun their attack on Merinburg from the Main with a bombardment of 
shells and missiles.  The defence forces of Merinburg had thrown back the first wave of the 
onslaught with succeeding salvoes of rocket and artillery fire. 

	Discussions were drawing to a close when a messenger of the local militia barged into the 
Regent's chambers with tidings that Shagg had been found in an abandoned alleyway with his 
long-range rifle on his body and empty shells strewn around him as damning evidence.  His 
throat had been cut with such fury his head had all but separated from his torso.  No other 
evidence could be traced on the scene except chaotic imprints of savage horse's hoofs on the dirt 
of the paved stones.  

	The militia officer was unable to reply to Eirini's urgent enquiries as to Eugene's 
whereabouts.  Since his spectacular reversion to One once more on the steps of the Decorum 
Office none of Okrane's citizens, or even his close mate Terzan, had caught a glimpse of him 
again.  By all appearances he had left the city.  

	"That reminds me," Irwain said, "the young Pagan, Terzan, can he be trusted?  He may in 
possession of very vital information of Magni-Xandian positions along the northern coastline."  

	"I will speak to Terzan," Leoynar said and with his words the meeting dispersed.  

	Leoynar bending low to Eirini urged her to take a rest before she proceeded to the Fly 
Bay.  He himself was floating on a plane of hyperactivity where neither exhaustion nor lowness 
of spirits seemed to touch him.   Still, caution dictated him to rest for at least a few hours before 
attending to his various duties with which Irwain had entrusted him. 

	Leoynar could think of nothing else.  Here was an opportunity to prove his worth to the 
Praecel Lar whom he had greatly admired for all his life, to make good his earlier shameful 
forsaking of his duty at Trevarthen Hall, to show of what mettle a true Trevarthen was made of.  
He could not bring himself to dwell upon the puzzles still threading the history of his family.  An 
uncanny instinct spoke with a small, yet insistent, voice that everything would be sorting itself 
out as the final climax was drawing near.  

	Upon entering his chambers, Leoynar found he had a visitor.  Looking at the smooth, 
rather good-looking features of the stranger he was momentarily confounded although a vague 
familiarity exuded from the broad shoulders, the muscled arms and the stone that glimmered 
through his open shirt. 

	"Jackal! By the stars!" Leoynar exclaimed.  "You have made yourself truly handsome."  

	"Haven't I," the former hireling grinned, stroking his unmarred face with great pride.  
"The grafter has surpassed himself but I am still me, although my real name is Algar Kolmarin, 
Leoynar."  He thereupon grabbed and pumped Leoynar's hand with warmth and a surge of 
emotions he was finding hard to control.  

	"Come," Leoynar invited and rang for a valet, "join me for breakfast."  

	As the table was laid, Algar cautiously enquired as to the Captain's condition.  A shade 
of sombreness fell on Leoynar's face, briefly expunging the elation from his eyes.  "Trajan is still 
holding on.  Let us hope he remains strong and fights to live."

	The plates and cups clattered in a little storm as Algar crashed his fist on the table.  "Cut 
down in full view of everyone!" he raged.  "And no one was able to prevent it.  Were I only 
there, I would've shown the whole population a thing or two."  

	"Were you there, you would be likewise unable to prevent anything," Leoynar said 
gently, "merely getting in the way with your brassiness.  The whole operation was planned with 
minute perfection as if the orders had personally come from the Magni-Xandian Paramount.  My 
orchestrated escape from the dungeons of Ostracis, our flight across the Main; even my capture 
at Penari was not mere coincidence.  I was intended not only to lead the assassin into Okrane but 
ultimately to his sole target.  And when the plot became known, all of us were appropriately 
fooled in our conjectures.  The conference, the delegation, they were not the target of the strike, 
but Trajan!"

	"For what possible reason is the Paramount regarding the Captain such a threat to 
himself?" Algar asked, a dark frown knitting his brow.  "He is only one man but I have also 
heard other things from the people who have watched the whole incident, only rumours at this 
stage but of such a kind that these rumours are stirring their interest once more in the Forbidden 
Legend!" 

	"Forbidden Legend?"  

	Algar leant forward across the table as his voice dropped to a whisper:  "From my 
grandfather, I know Captain Ermiz is really Captain Schurell, and all your true origins.  And you 
must know the Legend as I've heard it recently, because before long it will whip up like a 
tornado to all far corners of our world."  

	In a low voice Algar proceeded to tell Leoynar the long-hidden Legend of the Lords 
Laris, their coming and intervention, the Great Devolution which resulted from their failure and 
defeat at the hands of the Terra-Purists and the swamp of strife, intolerance and persecution 
suffocating the people ever since.  When Algar finished speaking, Leoynar stood up from the 
table in alarm and confusion.  

	Walking to and fro across the room he attempted to draw his own conclusions from this, 
to his mind, disturbing tale he had just heard.  "Krystan Schurell, was he a Lord Laris too?  If so, 
what was he doing in Iucari-Tres?  No!  He is alive, so My Lord Irwain told me, but why has he 
not come forward.  Where is he?"

	Algar said in a voice still low with suspense:  "If some of the Lords Laris are still here and 
have so far refused to reveal themselves, then in all probability they are hiding in the Smaze.  
Lord Filimon Schurell's former base of power lies in Lumentor, in the centre of the Smaze." 

	"The Smaze!" Leoynar exclaimed.  "Trajan was fascinated by the Smaze for no reason I 
can think of.  I know we came here on a mission initiated by the Command to find and destroy 
the Other End of the Equation but it is probably true that Trajan had an ulterior motive as well, 
something perhaps so painful, so private he couldn't take me into his confidence."  Leoynar's 
eyes widened as he whispered, "Did he come here to look for his parents?"

	Leoynar gloomily shrugged his shoulders.  "Even if he had told me, there was little I 
could do, or understand.  But, Algar, I believe matters are finally coming to a head.  Here we are, 
and here we shall make our stand to the forces that had once invaded Phylee-Patre and are now 
poised to overrun Vespar.  We will fight together, Algar Kolmarin!"

	"So be it!" Algar thundered, "the War which we are waging will decide our existence or 
extinction.  I am more than ready to meet the challenge and I am volunteering to be dispatched 
to Merinburg because presently that port city is where all the action is.  What will be your task, 
Leoynar?"  

	"My immediate urgency is to produce as many Zippercraft as possible in the shortest 
possible time.  These Zippercraft are absolutely vital in aiding the ground forces against any 
attack coming from the sky."  

	Leoynar and Algar left the chambers and the castle together.  Since he still had a few 
hours of respite before reporting to his unit, Algar was eager to visit and see with his own eyes 
the technological marvels of the assembly line.  "I am in charge of my own battalion," he proudly 
imparted to Leoynar.  

	Despite the graveness of the situation they rode together in high spirits through the streets 
of Okrane which already seemed to be in the grip of feverish activity despite the early hours of 
the morning.  The trauma that had seized the city during the night was thrown off by a 
nationwide call to arms.  The crowd steadily swelled, filling the boulevards with volunteers 
signing up, soldiers marching, carts trundling, loaded with medicine, food and supplies, all 
southwards bound, towards the beleaguered city of Merinburg.  

	Arriving at the small factory lying on the eastern hem of meadows, not far away from the 
margins of the wooded hills where the Fly Bay was hidden, more disquieting news came to 
Leoynar's and Algar's ears.  Just after dawn Magni-Xandian glider troopers had launched an 
offensive into the northwestern coast of Geosphere D'Or.