‘They told you all this?’ put in Karis.
‘No. They drained my mind of all knowledge, but in doing so I could read theirs. I saw it, if you will.’
‘One aspect troubles me,’ said Pooris suddenly. ‘If the Daroth only breed to replace father and mother, how then does their population grow?’
‘There is a special season, once every fifty years,’ explained Barin. ‘I cannot translate their name for it, but my own would be the Time of Migration. At this time the Daroth become hyper-fertile, if you will, and the pods can contain two or sometimes three infants. This last happened – in their time scale – four years ago; it led to the building of the city you call Daroth One. That is why the land around the city is so fertile. It has not yet had its heart ripped out.’
Vint drew up a chair for Barin. ‘Sit you down, man. You look exhausted.’
Barin did so. ‘Aye, sir, I am tired beyond belief.’
‘You say they have no concept of evil. What did you mean by this?’ asked Albreck.
Barin tried to gather his thoughts. ‘I can answer it only as a farmer, lord. When the blowfly attacks a sheep it will kill it horribly, laying its eggs inside the living sheep. But the blowfly is not evil; it merely wishes to extend its life. The Daroth are like that, with the exception that they know the havoc they cause to other species. But they do not care. They do not love the land. They live only to live again. No music, no culture. They are parasites, their cities ugly and temporary. When they exhaust the land of all nourishment they merely move their cities to fresh ground. They are makers of deserts.’
‘What of friendship, camaraderie?’ asked Karis. ‘Do they have legends of heroes?’
‘No legends, lady, for they have lived for ever. They love to fight. Without an external enemy, they fight amongst themselves. But if one is slain his body is taken to the pod, and left there until the new body is born.’ Barin talked for more than an hour, telling them of the Oltor and of their total destruction. ‘They hunted the last of them through a mighty forest. I saw the Daroth slaughter them. The Oltor were a peaceful people, tall and slender, their skin golden. They had no weapons. And they were all exterminated.’
‘We are not Oltor, and we do have weapons,’ said Karis.
‘They will not be stopped, my lady,’ said Barin sadly. ‘In the far distant past, when they warred upon one another, they created engines of great destruction. Giant catapults that could smash down the walls of a castle, battering-rams to breach any gate. With one blow they can cut a man in half. They are deadly beyond our imagining.’
‘Yet we killed them when they came after us,’ Karis reminded him.
‘You will not hold Corduin, my lady!’
‘Let us talk of weaknesses,’ said the Duke sternly. ‘What do they fear?’
‘Deep water, my lord. They are too heavy to swim, and they abhor boats. Also, perhaps because of their great weight, they do not function well at high altitudes where the air is thin. Lastly, there is the cold. They need heat; in winter they become lethargic and slow.’
The evening wore on until at last Duke Albreck rose and approached Barin. ‘You have done well, farmer,’ he said, tossing a pouch of gold coins which Barin caught. ‘You are welcome to stay in the palace until you can find a new home.’
‘Thank you, lord,’ said Barin, rising. ‘But, by your leave, I shall take my son to Loretheli and travel to the islands.’
‘As you will. Though I understand it will be safe here until the spring.’
‘Not so, my lord. A Daroth army of more than five thousand was sent out two days before the Lady Karis arrived. I do not know their destination.’
‘If it had been Corduin, we would know by now,’ said Karis.
Albreck walked to the far wall and stared at the ancient map hanging there. ‘There can be only one destination,’ he said, stabbing his finger towards the map. ‘The Lord Sirano is, I fear, about to reap the harvest of his ambitions.’ Dismissing the others, he bade Karis stay. That she was a superb leader of men he already knew; that she was a whore was meaningless to him. Men who had a hundred lovers were admired. Albreck could see no reason why the situation should be so different with a woman. What worried him was something far more serious.