“I wish to meet Dodok the Brave.”
He heard a gasp outside the window.
“Why?” the child asked after some time.
“Why?” Guin echoed loudly. “Because I’m stronger than Dodok the Brave.”
“You lie!” came a swift response. Guin could hear the tremble of fear in the child’s high-pitched voice.
“It is no lie. Just tell Dodok that I wish to try him in combat. If he refuses, it is because he is afraid of me. Because he knows that if we fight, I will win.”
“There is none stronger than Dodok. If Dodok loses, Dodok will no longer be Dodok. Dodok is always strongest,” the Lagon said.
The logic was confused, but it appeared that Guin’s guess had hit the mark. He nodded to himself, satisfied, and went on, “Then call Dodok. Bring him here. Tell him I wish this. If he will not accept my challenge, tell him that I am stronger than he, and I am the next, true Dodok. I crossed the desert and mountains to test his strength, to challenge him. Tell him this.”
Another gasp. “Who…” the child began after a pause, “Who are you, lagon with the head of a beast?”
“My name is Guin,” the leopard-man replied, burying the twinge of doubt that he felt at his own words deep inside.
Though he had forgotten everything about his life before the Roodwood, when the girl Rinda called him Guin, he had responded naturally, unconsciously, accepting it as his name. It had to be right. I am Guin.
The child turned to run, but Guin called to him one last time. “Wait, child! Your name?”
“Rh… Rhana.”
“Good. Then, Rhana, do not forget to tell Dodok what I, Guin, the leopard-headed warrior, have said here.”
Rhana sped away without another word. Guin was listening to his footfalls disappear into the distance when a realization struck him.
Not “his” footfalls, but “hers”? Rhana was clearly a girl’s name. So the one who had given him food and water was a Lagon female. Guin smiled and gazed at the window of his cell. Then another, more sobering thought crossed his mind. I hope Rhana has the courage to deliver my challenge to Dodok the Brave.
Even if he ran the entire distance, Guin would need a full day and a night for the journey back to the Sem camp. That meant he had to get the Lagon on the move today and no later.
He hoped that Rhana would bring his message to Dodok and, in their fury at the leopard-headed monster’s impudence, the giants would drag him out of the cell. Yet if Rhana feared to admit that she had been to the cell, the challenge would never be delivered, and all his effort would have been in vain—
Even while he sat there thinking, precious time was slipping away.
No matter. I will deal with what happens when it happens, Guin decided, and make my next move when it becomes clear what that move should be. Now, he needed to conserve his strength, and so the chained warrior stretched out and made himself as comfortable as he could on the rock and closed his eyes. His stomach was full, and the burning in his throat had eased. As unfavorable as his conditions were, they had vastly improved in a short amount of time.
What will come, will come. What will be, will be.
Like many battle-hardened warriors, Guin was capable of sleeping at any time and in any place, returning to full wakefulness in an instant at the first sign of trouble. Within moments he was breathing regularly and softly. Rhana did not return, nor did an angry Dodok the Brave storm into the stone cell. Beyond Guin’s ken, high above the stony mountains, the sun began its slow arc down the sky.
“Rise! Rise, captive!”
Guin had awoken at the first sound of footsteps approaching down the corridor, long before the shouting started. Now he was feigning sleep to better gauge his visitors.
“He sleeps well!” one guard spat.
“Like a lazy beast,” another said.
On cue, Guin’s eyes snapped open. Three of the giant wildlings were standing in the cave before him. They carried stone-tipped spears in their hands and were naked save for hide loincloths tied about their waists.
“Dodok the Brave and Kah the Wise will see you now,” one of them announced with some pomp, then crouched to undo the leopard-man’s chains.
Guin was glad he had taken the precaution of hiding the canteen Rhana had given him in a nook in the rock where the guards would not see it.
The loosened chains fell to the stone floor. Surrounded by Lagon, Guin exited the small cell. His arms and legs tingled with receding numbness.
It seemed that Rhana had not managed to deliver her message to the chief, but there was little Guin could do about that. The stone of the dark hallway through which he passed was rough cut and damp with moisture. They passed through a doorless opening in one wall and he found himself abruptly outside.
It was a windy night. The stars seemed closer and more numerous than they had over the sands of the Nospherus desert. White Aeris shone in the sky above the jagged silhouette of a rocky peak. The moon, like a giant platinum disc, and the stars, scattered across the black drape of the night beyond the mountains’ spine, had the kind of harsh cold beauty that graces only such places where not a single tree grows or wild shrub flowers.
“Come along, monster,” one of the guards said, yanking Guin mercilessly in his wake. The prisoner followed without resisting.
As he was led along Guin gazed at the layout of the village, familiar from his passage through it earlier that day. The giants’ community was arranged on levels cut into the sides of the mountains that enclosed the valley. It was impossible to traverse it without either climbing or descending at almost every step. Now they descended toward a large open space at the very bottom of the vale that Guin guessed must function like the communal grounds of the Sem village. There were simple steps cut into the rock around this gathering place where the Lagon could sit to participate in tribal meetings. Perhaps the open ground was also used for their tournaments or the settling of conflicts.
Guin could see clearly thanks to the bright shining moon. His feet stepped lightly down the rough-cut stone steps. The three Lagon guards escorted him in silence. From somewhere far beyond the rocky slopes, the sound of a desert wolf’s howl came to them on the wind. It was a lonely sound.
As they passed each stone house, heads covered with thick hair peered out of doorways and windows, observing their progress. Guin caught glimpses of women carrying infants, as well as some Lagon he assumed must be very elderly from the grayish tint of their hair. In general, he found it very difficult to tell the female Lagon from the males. Those with newborns had breasts swollen for nursing and thus were easy to spot, but those without young children were flat-chested and as well muscled in their shoulders and arms as their male counterparts.
Most of them wore nothing but a solid coat of fur. To Guin’s eye, accustomed to the diminutive Sem, their height was unnerving and their necks seemed short and thick. Beneath jutting heavy brows eyes tracked the strange captive in silence with a mixture of curiosity and enmity. Though some heads withdrew into the doorways after the prisoner and his escort had passed, many of the Lagon emerged from their homes and followed the quartet down the steps. Before long a procession had formed.
To a hidden observer it might have seemed like a scene from a reenactment of Cirenos’ descent into Hell. It was a forboding and yet eerily comical sight: Guin, pushed and prodded by his three captors, making his way down the long rough stair to the stony clearing, trailed by a long shuffling line of curious Lagon. Several warriors were already sitting on the carved stone steps around the gathering place, waiting for their leader to pass judgment on their strange captive. No one spoke a word.
As Guin and his captors paused in the middle of the open place, the women and children who had followed behind them filed around to take seats behind the warriors on the steps. Guin cast his eyes about looking for Rhana but found no one resembling her among the children. He gave up and turned his attention to the Lagon warriors.
The three Lagon that had taken him from his cell now formed a watchful semicircle behind him, their spears held ready. Each one of them was a half-head taller than the leopard-man. The expressions on their craggy faces suggested a mixture of disdain for their captive and fear at his unusual appearance.
Guin raised his eyes to see that two chairs had been set at the edge of the clearing. A Lagon sat upon each chair.
In the right-hand chair was a Lagon of incredible age. Every hair on his body was white, and he was thin and bony to the point of emaciation, but the eyes beneath his bushy brows burned with an intense light. It had to be Kah the Wise. And sitting next to him—
Guin’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Even though the Lagon was sitting, the leopard-man could tell he was immense—the biggest of any Lagon he’d seen so far. Were the giant to stand, he would be sure to overtop Guin by a full head and a half. His girth was massive for a Lagon as well. His shoulders, arms, and chest were thick with muscles that ran like bands of steel, bulging through his rich body hair, and his hideous face seemed drawn from a child’s nightmare.
This, without a doubt, was Dodok the Brave, strongest of the Lagon.
Guin would have to fight him.
And win.