The Warlord of the Air Read Online Free PDF Page A

King-Emperor of Britain. We come to ask why you attack his houses and kill his servants when he has offered no hostility to you.”
    One of the guides began to interpret, but Sharan Kang waved his hand impatiently. “Sharan Kang speaks English,” he said in a strange, high-pitched voice. “As he speaks all tongues. For all tongues come from the tongue of the Kumbalari, the First, the Most Ancient.”
    I must admit I felt a shiver run through me as he spoke. I could almost believe that he was the powerful sorcerer they claimed him to be.
    “Such an ancient people must therefore also be wise.” I tried to stare back into those cruel, intelligent eyes. “And a wise people would not anger the King-Emperor.”
    “A wise people knows that it must protect itself against the wolf,” Sharan Kang said, a faint smile curving his lips. “And the British wolf is a singularly rapacious beast, Captain Bastable. It has eaten well in the lands of the south and the west, has it not? Soon it will turn its eyes towards Kumbalari.”
    “What you mistake for a wolf is really a lion,” I said, trying not to show I was impressed by the fact that he had known my name. “A lion which brings peace, security, justice to those it chooses to protect. A lion which knows that Kumbalari does not need its protection.”
    The conversation continued in these rather convoluted terms for some time before Sharan Kang grew visibly impatient and said suddenly:
    “Why are so many soldiers come to our land?”
    “Because you attacked our frontier station and killed our men,” I said.
    “Because you put your ‘frontier station’ inside our boundaries.” Sharan Kang made a strange gesture in the air. “We are not a greedy people. We have no need to be. We do not hunger for land like the Westerners, for we know that land is not important when a man’s soul is capable of ranging the universe. You may come to Teku Benga, where all gods preside, and there I will tell you what you may say to this upstart barbarian lion who dignifies himself with grandiose titles.”
    “You are willing to discuss a treaty?”
    “Yes—in Teku Benga, if you come with no more than six of your men.” He gestured, let the curtain fall, and the litter was turned round. The riders began to move back up the valley.
    “It is a trick, sir,” Bisht remarked at once. “He hopes that in separating you from us he will cut off our army’s head and thus make it easier to attack us.”
    “You could be right, Subadar Bisht, but you know very well that such a trick would not work. The Ghoorkas are not afraid to fight.” I looked back at the sepoys. “Indeed, they seem more than ready to go into battle at this moment.”
    “We care nothing for death, sir—the clean battle-death. But it is not the prospect of battle which disturbs me. In my bones I feel something worse may happen. I know the Kumbalaris. They are a deeply wicked people. I dare not think what may happen to you in Teku Benga, Captain Bastable.”
    I laid an affectionate hand on my subadar’s shoulder. “I am honoured you should feel thus, Subadar Bisht. But it is my duty to go to Teku Benga. I have my orders. I must settle this matter peacefully if it is at all possible.”
    “But if you do not return from Teku Benga within a day, sir, we shall advance towards the city. Then, if we are not given full evidence that you are alive and in good health, we shall attack Teku Benga.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with that plan,” I agreed.
    A nd so, with Risaldar Jenab Shah and five of his sowars, I rode next morning for Teku Benga and saw at last the walled mountain city into which no stranger had been admitted for a thousand years. Of course I was suspicious of Sharan Kang. Of course I wondered why, after a thousand years, he was willing to let foreigners defile the holy city with their presence. But what could I do? If he said he was willing to discuss a treaty, then I had to believe him.
    I was at a loss to imagine