CHAPTER TEN

MOBLIZ

The party traveled many months, and crossed mountain, wood, river, and plain, before they reached the city of Mobliz. They had encountered none of their former company, though they had reason to hope: tracks and discarded items led them to believe that a fairly large company had passed that way, which Sabin judged not to have been imperial.

"Though it's not as big a group as ours was before it fled into the Forest," he said. The general spirit was dampened.

There was only one notable event. One evening after a chill rain (for it was autumn now), when everyone was cold and miserable and no one could get the fire started—the twins' bickering reminded Terra of Edgar and Locke's fight now so long ago—Terra performed the one feat she had mastered.

"Will you just give them to me, already?" said Edgar.

"I know how to start a fire, brother!" retorted Sabin.

"Clearly! I only ask that you condescend to allow me the honor of practicing under the supervision of one whose pyrotechnic accomplishments far exceed—"

Terra walked over and set the wet tinder ablaze with a wave of the hand, then stood looking at the dumbstruck twins. Everyone burst into laughter.

When at last they reached Mobliz, they took special care to escape notice. Edgar, much travel-worn already, had only to cover his shield and regalia. Terra on the other hand had to wear a disguise. Calogrent and Sabin went into town and brought back a hat and boys' clothes for her to wear. She went into the trees to change. She tucked her long hair up into the hat and wrapped her chest tightly. The tunic and breeches, though made for boys, were loose-fitting. She wondered how well her sex was disguised and very much wished for a mirror—for this was great fun!

When she returned she met looks of surprise and delight from the men.

Calogrent laughed. "Now you can be my kid brother!" he said.

Edgar looked both amused and bewildered. This caused Terra to smile.

"Now you'll have to be careful how you look at me in public," she said to him. Everyone chuckled, including Edgar.

Then they went into the city. They could tell at once that the place was astir with agitation and excitement. Everyone seemed to be on the street. Men took long strides, boys ran from house to house with news, women snatched their children up in their arms lest they, too, think about going to war (for war, indeed, was the news). Some men argued, others armed themselves (such as they could) and joined the throng in the street.

Now they moved with the crowd, which seemed all to be going in the same direction. Terra got jostled a bit.

"Watch it, kid!" said one man as he ran right into her, almost knocking her down. After this she kept one hand on her hat—for some of her hair had come loose—and followed closely behind Edgar and Sabin.

Finally they reached the town square, where they were greatly relieved to find many familiar faces. The Returners—apparently diminished in number—were standing at the bottom of an amphitheatre. Benches of stone cut into the hill led down to a pavement, on which there rose a wooden platform. On this platform two men were arguing, one whose titanic shape and leonine features clearly revealed his identity. Banon! He had escaped the treacherous Forest after all!

Beyond the pavement of the amphitheatre the ground fell into the sea. Dozens of ships lay anchored in the harbor. The steady sea breeze carried Banon and the other man's voices up the hill.

"How long do you think it will be before the Empire comes to Mobliz?" said Banon fiercely, leaving off his argument with the other man and, in his rage, addressing the people in a loud voice. "The Emperor and his dog, Kefka, will conquer every last city and kingdom in Middan Erd at this rate! How long will it be before your people are strangled with taxes, your daughters raped, your sons broken under the yoke of slavery? How long will Mobliz stand before Emperor Gestaul sweeps it away with a mere wave of his hand?

"No, I tell you: now is the time to go to war! If Middan Erd would ever be free of the Arch-Tyrant, we must make our stand. We have fighting-men from Jidoor to Thamasa! We have the king of Figaro! We have the Emperor's iron scepter, the Witch and Magitek Knight, Captain Terra!"

At the mention of her name, the crowd gasped. Terra saddened at her designations.

"The Witch will win the Esper in Narshe to our cause," Banon went on with increasing vehemence. "and then we will have a god to fight for us!"

There was an uproar. The people were seized with fear and amazement. It was followed by outbursts of all kinds: doubts, cheers, protestations, and cries of war.

"Show us King Figaro! Show us the Witch! Give us a sign to lend credence to your proud boasts!"

Things might have gone very differently for the Returners had Banon not spotted Edgar and Sabin and ordered his men to let them through.

"Where have you been all this time?" said Banon, taking them aside for a moment. "Where is the Captain?"

"I'm here," said Terra.

Banon looked at her with surprise and, smiling as if a victory had been won, he turned to the crowd. "Do you want to see the king?" he said in a booming voice.

The crowd shouted approval.

"Then look!" he cried. Edgar stepped forward, travel-weary to be sure, but more kingly in his gait than any lowborn man. And when he uncovered his shining shield, with its bright story and insignia (the bear and leopard rampant), no man dared to mock. Even Terra's heart thrilled a little to see him in his kingliness, and all memory of his ignoble deeds was momentarily forgotten. The crowd was one riot of applause.

"And now will you look upon the Emperor's Red Terror?" Banon proclaimed. The crowd went dead silent with horror and expectation. Terra was struck with a wave of nausea in anticipation of the moment when all eyes would fall on her.

Nevertheless, Terra breathlessly stepped forward and took her place next to Edgar, removed her hat, and shook out her hair.

She had never heard such cries before. Utter terror gripped the crowd. There were screams, shouts, and mad cries. It seemed that they had forgotten that she was on their side. Men raised their weapons, women fled with their children, and general pandemonium ensued, as if fire was about to rain down from the heavens and the earth swallow them up.

The danger was palpable, and Terra felt it. But then, with a kind of fatherly or patriarchal power, Banon raised his hand. As he lowered it the crowd returned to their seats the noise fell to a murmur.

When all had returned to silence again, Banon, in a subdued tone which in its way carried more might than his mightiest voice, said, "Now, with such might, how can we not stand in Narsha? Now is the time for war."

There was never a chance for a counterargument. The decision was made. It was war. The men rose and went to the ships.

Thus Terra was again on the open sea with the Returners, only this time they were accompanied by a fleet of ships. Her heart was emboldened by the sight, for though they were few in actual fact, they made a show of might. Terra stood at the prow and took the full force of the wind, her hair flaming like windborn fire. Onward to the north the sailors fared.

When at last Banon, Edgar, and Terra had a chance to speak, they found, when they did their reckonings, that a fortnight had past while Terra and her friends had been aboard the Phantom Train, though it only seemed to them a few hours. Banon lamented the loss of Syan, but otherwise appeared to be unmoved by their story. There seemed to be no catching places in his mind for so selly and marvelous a tale, whether because mortality and immortality was too deep-rooted in nature, or because he was.

At any rate Banon and Edgar continued to take Terra into their counsels; and the ship continued to ply, Narshe-bound, towards a destiny no one could guess, carrying a lovely freight whose value no mortal mind could estimate.