Essential Novelists - Eric Rücker Eddison. August Nemo
of all succour. Were they devils and not men, the multitude of our armies and thine own tried qualities must daunt them. Be the place never so cocksure, doubt not some doubts thereof must poison their security. Therefore before thou risk a repulse which must dispel those doubts use thine advantage. Bid Juss to a parley. Offer him conditions: it skills not what. Bribe them out into the open.”
“A pretty plan,” said Corund. “Thou’lt merit wisdom’s crown if thou canst tell me what conditions we can offer that they would take. And whilst thou riddlest that, remember that though thou and I be masters hereabout, another reigns in Carcë.”
Lord Gro laughed gently. “Leave jesting,” he said, “O Corund, and never hope to gull me to believe thee such a babe in policy. Shall the King blame us though we sign away Demonland, ay and the wide world besides, to Juss to lure him forth? Unless indeed we were so neglectful of our interest as suffer him, once forth, to elude our clutches.”
“Gro,” said Corund, “I love thee. But hardly canst thou receive things as I receive them that have dealt all my days in great stripes, given and taken in the open field. I sticked not to take part in thy notable treason against these poor snakes of Impland that we trapped in Orpish. All’s fair against such dirt. Besides, great need was upon us then, and hard it is for an empty sack to stand straight. But here is far other matter. All’s won here but the plucking of the apple: it is the very main of my ambition to humble these Demons openly by the terror of my sword: wherefore I will not use upon them cogs and stops and all thy devilish tricks, such as should bring me more of scorn than of glory in the eyes of aftercomers.”
So speaking, he issued command and sent an herald to go forth beneath the battlements with a flag of truce. And the herald cried aloud and said: “From Corund of Witchland unto the lords of Demonland: thus saith the Lord Corund, ‘I hold this burg of Eshgrar Ogo as a nut betwixt the crackers. Come down and speak with me in the batable land before the burg, and I swear to you peace and grith while we parley, and thereto pledge I mine honour as a man of war.’”
So when the due ceremonies were performed, the Lord Juss came down from Eshgrar Ogo and with him the lords Spitfire and Brandoch Daha and twenty men to be their bodyguard. Corund went to meet them with his guard about him, and his four sons that fared with him to Impland, Hacmon, namely, and Heming and Viglus and Dormanes: sullen and dark young men, likely of look, of a little less fierceness than their father. Gro, fair to see and slender as a racehorse, went at his side, muffled to the ears in a cloak of ermine; and behind came Philpritz Faz helmed with a winged helm of iron and gold. A gilded corselet had Philpritz, and trousers of panther’s skin, and he came a-slinking at Corund’s heel as the jackal slinks behind the lion.
When they were met, Juss spake and said, “This would I know first, my Lord Corund, how thou comest hither, and why, and by what right thou disputest with us the ways eastward out of Impland.”
Corund answered, leaning on his spear, “I need not answer thee in this. And yet I will. How came I? I answer thee, over the cold mountain wall of Akra Skabranth. And ’tis a feat hath not his fellow in man’s remembrance until now, with so great a force and in so short a space of time.”
“’Tis well enough,” said Juss. “I’ll grant thee thou hast outrun mine expectations of thee.”
“Next thou demandest why,” said Corund. “Suffice it for thee that the King hath had advertisement of your farings into Impland and your designs therein. For to bring these to nought am I come.”
“There was many firkins of wine drunk dry in Carcë,” said Hacmon, “and many a noble person senseless and spewing on the ground ere morn for pure delight, when cursed Goldry was made away. We were little minded these healths should be proved vain at last.”
“Was that ere thou rodest from Permio?” said Lord Brandoch Daha. “The merry god wrought of our side that night, if my memory cheat not.”
“Thou demandest last,” said Corund, “my Lord Juss, by what right I bar your passage eastaway. Know, therefore, that not of mine own self speak I unto you, but as vicar in wide-fronted Impland of our Lord Gorice XII., King of Kings, most glorious and most great. There remaineth no way out for you from this place save into the rigour of mine hands. Therefore let us, according to the nature of great men, agree to honourable conditions. And this is mine offer, O Juss. Yield up this burg of Eshgrar Ogo, and therewith thy sealed word in a writing acknowledging our Lord the King to be King of Demonland and all ye his quiet and obedient subjects, even as we be. And I will swear unto you of my part, and in the name of our Lord the King, and give you hostages thereto, that ye shall depart in peace whither you list with all love and safety.”
The Lord Juss scowled fiercely on him. “O Corund,” he said, “as little as we do understand the senseless wind, so little we understand thy word. Oft enow hath gray silver been in the fire betwixt us and you Witchlanders; for the house of Gorice fared ever like the foul toad, that may not endure to smell the sweet savour of the vine when it flourisheth. So for this time we will abide in this hold, and withstand your most grievous attempts.”
“With free honesty and open heart,” said Corund, “I made thee this offer; which if thou refuse I am not thy lackey to renew it.”
Gro said, “It is writ and sealed, and wanteth but thy sign-manual, my Lord Juss,” and with the word he made sign to Philpritz Faz that went to Lord Juss with a parchment. Juss put the parchment by, saying, “No more: ye are answered,” and he was turning on his heel when Philpritz, louting forward suddenly, gave him a great yerk beneath the ribs with a dagger slipped from his sleeve. But Juss wore a privy coat that turned the dagger. Howbeit with the greatness of that stroke he staggered aback.
Now Spitfire clapped hand to sword, and the other Demons with him, but Juss loudly shouted that they should not be truce-breakers but know first what Corund would do. And Corund said, “Dost hear me, Juss? I had, neither hand nor part in this.”
Brandoch Daha drew up his lip and said, “This is nought but what was to be looked for. It is a wonder, O Juss, that thou shouldst hold out to such mucky dog a hand without a whip in it.”
“Such strokes come home or miss merely,” said Gro softly in Corund’s ear, and he hugged himself beneath his cloak, looking with furtive amusement on the Demons. But Corund with a face red in anger said, “It is thine answer, O Juss?” And when Juss said, “It is our answer, O Corund,” Corund said violently, “Then red war I give you; and this withal to testify our honour.” And he let lay hands on Philpritz Faz and with his own hand hacked the head from his body before the eyes of both their armies. Then in a great voice he said, “As bloodily as I have revenged the honour of Witchland on this Philpritz, so will I revenge it on all of you or ever I draw off mine armies from these lakes of Ogo Morveo.”
So the Demons went up into the burg, and Gro and Corund home to their tents. “This was well thought on,” said Gro, “to flaunt the flag of seeming honesty, and with the motion rid us of this fellow that promised ever to grow thorns to make uneasy our seat in Impland.”
Corund answered him not a word.
In that same hour Corund marshalled his folk and assaulted Eshgrar Ogo, placing those of Impland in the van. They prospered not at all. Many a score lay slain without the walls that night; and the obscene beasts from the desert feasted on their bodies by the light of the moon.
Next morning the Lord Corund sent an herald and bade the Demons again to a parley. And now he spake only to Brandoch Daha, bidding him deliver up those brethren Juss and Spitfire, “And if thou wilt yield them to my pleasure, then shalt thou and all thy people else depart in peace without conditions.”
“An offer indeed,” said Lord Brandoch Daha; “if it be not in mockery. Say it loud, that my folk may hear.”
Corund did so, and the Demons heard it from the walls of the burg.
Lord Brandoch Daha stood somewhat apart from Juss and Spitfire and their guard. “Libel it me out,” he said. “For good as I now must deem thy word, thine hand and seal must I have to show my followers ere they consent with