He chuckled. 'Too late. I think the fox is already in the henhouse.'

'Even so, I would like to hear it.'

Rolling to his elbow he lay beside her, looking down. 'I wanted to tell you that I have never known anyone like you, and that when I am with you I am happier than at any other time. You are the delight in my life, Sigarni. Now and always.'

'You've won me over with your fine words,' she said. 'Now the kiss, if you please.'

Ballistar's voice cut through her thoughts. 'Your hand is very warm,' he whispered.

'I was thinking good thoughts,' she told him, keeping her voice low.

The journey continued, until at last they could see the faint lights of the city ahead. The barge moved on, approaching an arched portcullis gate. The helmsman flashed a signal with his lantern 232.

which was answered from above the arch. Then, with a great creaking and groaning, the portcullis rose and the barge passed beneath it.

Lanterns hung from poles all along the quayside and Sigarni heard Ballistar breathe a sigh of relief. 'It was awful,' he said, 'like being blind.'

'It was not awful,' said Sigarni, wistfully.

The barge clanked against the stone quay. Ironhand was the first ashore, followed by Sigarni and Ballistar.

'What now?' asked the warrior.

'We'll find some sheltered place to sleep,' Sigarni told him. 'Tomorrow we'll see the King.'

'For what purpose?' Ballistar asked.

'I shall ask for the Crown to be returned.'

'And he will just give it to you?'

'Of course not, Balli. I shall offer him something in return.'

'It will need to be a very large gift,' Ironhand pointed out.

'It will be,' she promised.

233.

12.

THE. CITY WAS unlike anything Sigarni had ever seen. Crammed together, the houses reared like cliff faces, dotted with lighted windows. Narrow alleyways filtered off like veins in the flesh of a stone giant. Arched tunnels led deeper into the city, and these boasted oil-lamps, hung at regular intervals to guide the traveller. There were signs on every alley, giving names to the streets and the wider avenues that led off from them. Sigarni felt hemmed in and dwarfed by the colossal nature of Zir-vak.

Ironhand was less impressed. 'They have structures in Kushir of far greater beauty,' he said, 'and there is evidence at least of planning there. These ... huge hovels give a man no space to breathe."

'It is oppressive,' agreed Ballistar. They wandered on aimlessly fora while until they saw the lights of a tavern. Ironhand headed for it. 'Wait!' called Ballistar.

'How will we pay?'

Ill think of something," said Ironhand.

The tavern was more than half empty, and few diners sat at the rough-built tables. There was a long, timbered drinking area at which several men stood, downing ale. Ironhand moved to the bar and a serving maid approached him. She was extraordinarily fat, her mouth turned down at the corners, her eyes small and seemingly set in several acres of unnecessary flesh; her enormous breasts sagged over the bar.

'What is there on offer?' asked Ironhand, as Sigarni and Ballistar moved alongside.

'To eat or to drink, or both?" she countered, idly wiping at the counter with a stained rag.

'Just to drink,' said the silver-bearded giant.

'We have ale or water, or if you'd rather something hot we have a dry root tisane.'

'And with what do we pay?'

234.

'What?'

'What currency do we need? We are strangers here and have been told that gold is of no use.'

'You don't pay,' she said, as if talking to someone retarded. 'Everything's free ...

has been for years. So what will it be?'

'Ale,' said Ironhand.

Ill have water,' said Sigarni. 'Where can we find lodgings for the night?'

'Wherever you choose. There's a room upstairs that you're welcome to. There's no fire, mind - no wood, you see. But the oil-lamps keep the room warm enough.

There's only one bed, but it's big enough for the two of you,' she said, gesturing towards Ballistar and Sigarni. 'As for him .. . well.'

'I could always share your bed, my pretty,' said Ironhand. 'I expect it's a large one.'

'The cheek of the man!' said the woman, blushing.

'Those that don't ask never get,' said Ironhand, with a wink. 'And you've no idea how long it has been since I've enjoyed the company of a handsome woman.'

'Handsome, indeed! I was a fine-looking young woman, I'll have you know. Men travelled far to court me - and I don't take kindly to being mocked.'

'I would never mock you, my lovely. I've always preferred my women with a litde meat on their bones. You think on it, while you fetch us our drinks. I'm a man of considerable patience.'

Ironhand turned away and strode to a nearby table, where Ballistar sat alongside him. 'Good God, man, how could you make love to that ... that... sow?'

'She looks mighty good to me, lad. Now there's your sort of woman,' he added, pointing to another serving maid carrying a tray to the far table. She was slim and dark-haired, no more than seventeen. Ballistar stared at her with undisguised longing. Ill call her over,' whispered Ironhand.

'No!' squealed Ballistar.

It was too late, for Ironhand waved at the girl. She finished delivering the dishes to a table by the window, then walked over. 'My friend, here, ...' began Ironhand.

'For pity's sake!' snapped Ballistar. He smiled sheepishly at the maid. Tm ... er ...

sorry.'

235.

'What he's trying to say, my lovely,' continued Ironhand, 'is that he is smitten by your beauty. If I were a younger man I'd fight him to the death for you. Now we are strangers in this city, and have no understanding of the normal practices. It will have to suffice that he finds you astonishingly attractive and would like to spend a little time with you when you are finished with your work. What do you say?'

The girl smiled and stared hard at Ballistar, who felt he had reddened to his toes.

'He is a handsome boy,' she said, 'And you are an old devil. However, since you've already seduced my mother - and that puts me out for the night -1 think I will spend a little time with the young man. The rooms upstairs are all numbered. I shall be in room eleven in an hour or so.' Reaching out, she cupped Ballistar's chin. 'Your beard is soft,' she said. 'I like that.'

Her mother appeared, bearing a wooden tray on which was set a pitcher of ale, a jug of water and three tankards. She set it down carefully and turned to Ironhand.

'Don't you be drinking too much of that,' she said. 'It has a habit of turning hard men to softness, if you take my meaning.'

Ironhand's laughter bellowed out. Grasping the woman round her ample waist, he drew her into his lap. Then taking the pitcher, he raised it to his lips and began to drink. Ballistar and Sigarni watched in amazement as he downed more than half of it. 'By God, that's better,' he said. Then he rose, lifted the astonished woman into the air and began to spin and dance.

'She must weigh a ton,' whispered Ballistar to Sigarni. 'How does he do that?'

Ironhand returned to the table, still carrying the woman. 'It's no good,' he said. 'I can wait not a moment longer. I'll see you both in the morning." So saying, he carried his conquest from the room.

For a little while Ballistar and Sigarni sat in silence. At last he spoke. 'The woman I'm going to see... I don't... what should I...?'

Sigami laughed softly. 'Do whatever comes naturally. Sit with her and talk for a while. My advice would be to tell her that she is your first, and that you are unskilled.'

'I couldn't do that!'

'She will know anyway. Enjoy yourelf, Ballistar. And make sure that she too has fond memories of the meeting. Too many men get carried away by their lust, and forget that their partners need loving too.'

236.

'How do I...?'

'This is not a lesson, Balli. Kiss, touch and explore. Make it last. This is the one experience you will never forget.'

He grinned. 'I can't believe this. When we get back I'm going to pick up the little wizard and kiss both his wizened cheeks!'

'He'll turn you into a spider and tread on you,'

'Will you be all right alone?'

Leaning forward, she covered his hand with her own. 'I stood in a cave and waited for demons, Balli. I think I'll probably survive a night in a strange inn, don't you?'

They sat and talked for a while, then the young maid came for Ballistar and Sigarni smiled at the look of sudden panic that flashed across his handsome face.

'Go,' she said, 'enjoy yourself.'

Alone now, she sipped the water and concentrated on the magical events that had overtaken them in Yur-vale. Three separate bursts of magic: the growth of Ballistar, the sprouting of the bow and the rebirth of Ironhand. The dwarf had become a man, strong and straight. Why? And why the bow, and not the arrows?

She had tried to discuss it with Ballistar, but he had merely shrugged and said, 'It was magic. Who cares why?'

But there must be laws governing magic, she thought. Ironhand had been reborn through a piece of dried bone. But what of the bone tips on her arrows? Why had they not grown into deer? And the leather of her belt or boots - why had these items remained intact?

Taliesen had warned that this was a world of strong magic, and that it would affect them far more than the inhabitants of Yur-vale. What had he said about his fellow sorcerer? He had eaten pork and it had swelled inside him? Sigarni shuddered. Like the bone of Ironhand, the flesh had reconstituted itself in his belly and he had been ripped to pieces from within by a live and panic-stricken boar.

Reaching for the water goblet, she winced as the cold metal edge pushed at the still healing cut on her palm.

And instantly she had the answer. On the night before the journey she had held Ironhand's bone. On the journey itself through the Gateway she had gripped Ballistar's hand.

My blood touched them. The bow also - but not the arrows!

Sigarni rose from her seat and walked upstairs to her room. The bed was deep and soft, but she did not sleep for several hours. When she awoke Ironhand was sitting beside the bed.

237.

'I hope your dreams were good ones,' he said. 'I had none that I can recall," she told him. 'You?' 'I didn't sleep a wink,' he said with a grin. 'But I could eat a horse.' 'That would not be advisable. The horse would eat you.' He looked at her quizzically and she explained about Taliesen's warning. 'Well, then, we had better find the Crown and head back to the Highlands. I want to taste a good steak again, and smell the pines.' 'First we must find the palace, or wherever it is that the King resides.'

'You think he will just give you a national treasure?' 'We'll see.'

The King stared from the window of his eighth-floor study, and watched as the enemy siege engines slowly approached the city's north wall. There were seven of them, each around eighty feet high, clad in sheets of hammered iron and impervious to flame arrows. When they reached the walls, which they would within the hour, the fighting would be hard. Close to the wall the towers would lower their drawbridges, and fighting men would pour out on to the ramparts.

His Guards would meet them, blade to blade, hacking and slaying, buying time for the engineers to hurl fire bombs through the apertures. The iron cladding outside would offer no protection to the scores of men waiting on the siege tower stairs.

You are coming to your doom, he told himself. He glanced to his left, where his ceremonial armour was laid out on a bench of oak. You are getting too old to fight, he thought. And what will happen to Zir-vak when you fall in battle?

Neither of his sons had yet reached one hundred - and even if they had, he thought with regret, they could not shoulder the responsibilities of command.

Perhaps I have been too easy on them.

Stepping back from the window he moved to his desk, lifting a bronze-rimmed oval mirror. The face that peered back at him was grey with fatigue, the eyes dull.

Dropping the mirror, he picked up the letter that had arrived the previous evening from the merchant Yos-shiel. Three strangers had come to the city, intent on stealing the Paradise Helm. They would find a fine surprise waiting for them!

A servant entered the room and bowed deeply. 'Majesty, there is a woman who wishes to see you.'

238.

'Tell her I have no time today. Let her make her entreaty to Pasan-Yol!'

'With respect, Majesty, I feel you may wish to speak with the woman. She says she wishes to see you in connection with the Paradise Helm - and she matches the description you gave to the soldiers.'

The King turned. 'Is she alone?'