Storm over Vallia Read Online Free PDF Page B

gentle man who just wanted to make fine clothes.
    “And let there be a great quantity of gold,” declared Alloran, forcefully. “Gold lace, gold bullion, gold leaf, gold everywhere. The people must see and know how great a king I am.”
    That seemed a perfectly logical request and desire to Opnar the Silk. He bobbed and nodded and unrolled more cloth.
    A sentry at the double doors bellowed: “Kapt Logan Lakelmi, my lord kov, desires admittance.”
    Naturally Alloran had installed himself in the finest residence in the town and already plans fomented in his head to increase the size of the place, and build higher walls and more sumptuous chambers. Once he had decided where in his new realms he would build his capital and palace, he would indulge himself in a frenzy of building on a colossal scale.
    He gestured negligently with a beringed finger, the sentry vanished to reappear with Kapt Logan Lakelmi.
    “My lord kov!” rapped out Lakelmi, saluting.
    “Kapt Logan. The news?”
    “Is good. The Kataki Strom has gained a great victory over the Prince Majister. A place called Swanton’s Bay. The Vallians run in rout, and—”
    “Hold, Kapt Logan! Yes, the news is exceedingly good. The Kataki Strom has done well, although I sent him a great reinforcement for his army. But, Kapt Logan, softly. We are all Vallians in Vallia — although you are a mercenary from Loh — do not forget that. When I am king over all, when I am emperor, I shall be the Emperor of Vallia.”
    “Yes, my lord kov.”
    “Vallia!” breathed Alloran. There was genuine emotion in him, his eyes bright. “Yes, I shall be Emperor of Vallia, and Vallians will rule in their own country as is proper.” He glanced under down-drawn lids at Lakelmi. “But I shall not forget loyal servants, Kapt Logan. You will not be forgotten.”
    “I thank you. Do you wish to see the lists—?”
    “Later.”
    Kapt Logan Lakelmi, with the red hair of Loh, with his spare, tall, erect figure, looked every inch the fighting man. Now he acted as Alloran’s chief of staff, and longed for an independent command. That would come, he felt sure. The kov’s plans encompassed many more campaigns and battles, and there would be employment for many mercenaries for seasons to come.
    Lakelmi knew something of Alloran’s history. The kov, despairing of ever being kov in those peaceful days before the Times of Troubles, when his father was set to live, it seemed, forever, had gone abroad. He had become a mercenary as a very young man. Then he had worked and fought his way up to become a paktun, a mercenary with a reputation. The next step had been to mort-paktun, a warrior elected by his peers, who wore the silver mortil-head on its silk ribbons at his throat. His fame had spread among his own kind. Before he had taken the next step, to become a zhan-paktun, wearing the golden zhantilhead at his throat, tribulations and disaster had fallen upon Vallia.
    Alloran, returning home, his father killed by malignant hostiles, had fought for his kovnate, and lost, and fled to the capital of the country, Vondium.
    There he had joined the new Vallian army and, given a brigade by the new emperor, had fought well. He had been selected to go to the southwest with an army and to clear out the slavers and all those festering upon the misery of Vallia, and to return all those provinces to the empire.
    Just how the corrosive ambition had at last broken through, Lakelmi was not sure. What was certain was that Vodun Alloran had rejected loyalty to the emperor. He had fought for his own kovnate province, had won that back, had taken neighboring provinces, and then declared his own independence.
    The next inevitable step was to crown himself King of Southwest Vallia.
    With the latest victory against the forces of the Prince Majister of Vallia to crown his efforts, nothing appeared to stand in his way. His ambitions would be rewarded.
    Yes, Kapt Logan Lakelmi felt convinced a bright and prosperous future