I stirred the fat
officer with a toe. “Come on. Hop up here. We need to talk.
Spiff, let the rest of these people sit up as soon as their weapons
are cleared away. I’ll probably let them go home in a little
while. Goblin, you want to go face the music with Sahra? Get that
out of the way so it isn’t just waiting for a bad time to
blow up on us?”
The fat officer got his feet under him. He looked very, very
unhappy, which I could understand. This was not his best day. I
took hold of his arm. “Let’s you and me take a
walk.”
“You’re a woman.”
“Don’t let it go to your head. Do you have a name?
How about a rank or title?”
He offered a regional name about a paragraph long, filled with
the unmanageable clicks that mess up a language otherwise already
unfit for the normal human tongue. As proof of my assertion, I
offer my inability to manage it at much more than a pidgin level
despite having spent years in the area.
I picked out what sounded like it identified his personal place
in the genealogy of a nation. “I can call you Suvrin,
then?” He winced. I got it after a moment. Suvrin was a
diminutive. No doubt he had not been called that by anyone but his
mother for twenty years.
Oh, well. I had a sword. He did not.
“Suvrin, you’ve probably heard rumors to the effect
that we’re not nice people. I want to put your mind at ease.
Everything you’ve ever heard is true. But this time
we’re not here to loot and pillage and rape the livestock the
way we did last time. We’re really just passing through, we
hope with minimal dislocation for everybody, both us and you. What
I need from you, assuming you’d rather cooperate than lie in
a grave being walked on by some replacement who will, is a bit of
official assistance aimed at hurrying us on our way. Have I been
going too fast for you?”
“No. I speak your language well.”
“That’s not what I—never mind. Here’s
what’s happening. We’re going to go up on the
glittering plain—”
“Why?” Pure fear filled his voice. He and his
ancestors had lived in terror of the plain since the coming of the
Shadowmasters.
I offered a bit of nonsense. “For the same reason the
chicken crossed the road. To get to the other side.”
Suvrin found that concept so novel he could think of no
response.
I continued, “It’ll take us a while to get ready. We
have to assemble provisions and equipment. We have to scout some
things. And not all of our people have arrived yet. I’d just
as soon not fight a war at the same time. So I want you to tell me
how to avoid that.”
Suvrin offered an inarticulate grumble.
“What’s that?”
“I never wanted to be in the army. My father’s
doing. He wanted me away from the family, someplace where I
couldn’t embarrass him, but he also wanted me doing something
he felt to be in keeping with the family dignity. He thought if I
was a soldier, there’d be nothing I could mess up. We had no
enemies who could embarrass me.”
“Stuff happens. Your father should know that. He’s
lived long enough to have a grown-up son.”
“You don’t know my father.”
“You might be surprised. I’ve met plenty just like
him. Probably some that were way worse. There’s nothing new
in this world, Suvrin. And that includes all kinds of people. How
many more soldiers are there around here? How many all told on this
side of the mountains? Do any of them have any special loyalty to
Taglios? Will they abandon Taglios if the pass is closed?”
The Territories south of the Dandha Presh were vast but weak.
Longshadow had exploited them mercilessly for more than a
generation, then the Shadowmaster and Kiaulune wars had devastated
them.
“Uh . . . ” He wriggled but not hard. Just enough to
satisfy his self-image.
We spent the remainder of the day together. Suvrin made the
transitions from grudging prisoner to nervous accomplice to helpful
ally. He was easily led, overresponding to modest praise and
expressions of gratitude. My guess was that he had not had many
nice things said to him during his young life. And he was scared to
death that I would demolish him the instant he did fail to
cooperate.
We sent the rest of the soldiers home as soon as our men
stripped the New Town armory. Most of the weapons stored there
looked like they had been picked up off old battlefields and
treated with contempt ever since by the armorer whose work I had so
much admired earlier.
I found the man and drafted him. He was a prima donna, a master
with an artist’s attitude. I figured One-Eye could tame
him.
Suvrin accompanied me when I went across to the farm Sahra had
acquired. Poor leader though he was, Suvrin really was in charge of
all the armed forces in the Kiaulune region. Which said very little
for the quality of his men or for the wisdom and commitment of his
superiors. But I decided to keep him handy. He was useful as a
symbol, if nothing else.
When I went across I insisted that everyone else make the move,
too. I wanted everyone not out on picket duty or patrol in one
place so we could respond quickly, in strength, to any threat.
I told Suvrin, “I’ve neutralized the whole province
except for that little fort below the Shadowgate. Right?”
That stronghold had sealed its gate. The men inside would not
respond to the messenger I sent.
Suvrin nodded. He was having second thoughts, too late.
“Will they leave if you tell them to go?”
“No. They’re foreigners. Left by the Great General
to keep the road to the Shadowgate closed.”
“How many?”
“Fourteen.”
“Good soldiers?”
Embarrassed, “Much better than mine.” Which might
only mean that they could march in step.
“Tell me about their fort. How are they set for water and
provisions?”
The fat man hemmed and hawed.
“Suvrin, Suvrin. You have to think about this.”
“Uh . . . ”
“You can’t get in any deeper than you already are.
You can only do your best to get back out. Too many people have
seen you cooperating already. I’m sorry, buddy. You’re
stuck.” I fought sliding into the character of Vajra the
Naga, seductive as it was. It was so blessedly useful.
Suvrin made a sound suspiciously like a whimper.
“Courage, Cousin Suvrin. We live with it every day. All
you can do is put on a death’s-head grin and tug on their
beards and yank out their tail feathers. Here we go. This looks
like the place.” A poorly built structure had loomed out of
the darkness. Light leaked out through the roof and walls both. I
wondered why they bothered. Maybe it was still under construction.
I could make out the vague shapes of tents beyond it.
Something stirred on the rooftree as I pulled the door hanging
aside so Suvrin could enter. The white crow. A soft chuckle came
from the bird. “Sister, sister. Taglios begins to
waken.” The thing took wing. I watched it fade in the light
of a rising fragment of moon. That had been pretty clear.
I shrugged and went inside. I could worry about the white crow
next week, once I finally got a chance to go to bed. “Are any
of you guys aware that we’re at war? That under similar
circumstances every army since the dawn of time has put out
sentries to watch for people sneaking up?”
Several dozen faces watched me blandly. Goblin asked, “You
didn’t see anybody?”
“There’s nothing out there to see, old
man.”
“Ah. And you got here alive, too.” Which remark left
me to understand that there were dire traps out there, held in
abeyance only by the alert decision-making of sentries I not only
overlooked but whose presence I never suspected.
“All I can say to that is, somebody must have taken a bath
sometime since the turn of the century.” The same could not
be said for most of the crowd inside that shelter. Which might be
the reason the roof and walls were so porous. “This is my new
friend Suvrin. He was the captain of the local garrison. I blew in
his ear and he decided he wanted to help us so we would go away
before the Protector shows up and makes life tough for
everybody.”
Somebody in back said, “You could blow in mine and—ow!
What the fuck you hit me for, Willow?”
Vajra the Naga said, “Knock it off. Swan, keep your hands
to yourself. Vigan, I don’t want to hear your mouth again.
You should know better. What’ve you guys done to get ready to
knock over that tower over by the Shadowgate?”
Nobody said a word.
“You guys obviously did something while you were waiting
around.” I gestured at our surroundings. “You managed
to build a house. Badly. Or a barracks. But you didn’t do
anything else? There’re no scouts out? No planning got done?
No preparations got made? Was there something going on that I
haven’t heard about yet?”
Goblin sidled up. In an uncharacteristic tone he murmured,
“Don’t press these issues. Now isn’t the time.
Just tell people what to do and send them out to do it.”
I trust the little wizard’s wisdom occasionally.
“Sit down. Here’s what we’ll do. Dig out whatever
fireball launchers we have left. Vigan, pick ten men. Carry the
heaviest launcher yourself. The others can carry lighter ones. If
there aren’t enough to go around, bring bows. We’ll go
take care of this right now. Vigan, choose your team.”
The man who had made the mistake of irritating me rose. In a
surly tone he named his helpers. Chances were all of them had
irritated him sometime recently. It rolls downhill.
In the few minutes it took Vigan to get ready, I had the others
tell me things they thought I ought to know.
I stirred the fat
officer with a toe. “Come on. Hop up here. We need to talk.
Spiff, let the rest of these people sit up as soon as their weapons
are cleared away. I’ll probably let them go home in a little
while. Goblin, you want to go face the music with Sahra? Get that
out of the way so it isn’t just waiting for a bad time to
blow up on us?”
The fat officer got his feet under him. He looked very, very
unhappy, which I could understand. This was not his best day. I
took hold of his arm. “Let’s you and me take a
walk.”
“You’re a woman.”
“Don’t let it go to your head. Do you have a name?
How about a rank or title?”
He offered a regional name about a paragraph long, filled with
the unmanageable clicks that mess up a language otherwise already
unfit for the normal human tongue. As proof of my assertion, I
offer my inability to manage it at much more than a pidgin level
despite having spent years in the area.
I picked out what sounded like it identified his personal place
in the genealogy of a nation. “I can call you Suvrin,
then?” He winced. I got it after a moment. Suvrin was a
diminutive. No doubt he had not been called that by anyone but his
mother for twenty years.
Oh, well. I had a sword. He did not.
“Suvrin, you’ve probably heard rumors to the effect
that we’re not nice people. I want to put your mind at ease.
Everything you’ve ever heard is true. But this time
we’re not here to loot and pillage and rape the livestock the
way we did last time. We’re really just passing through, we
hope with minimal dislocation for everybody, both us and you. What
I need from you, assuming you’d rather cooperate than lie in
a grave being walked on by some replacement who will, is a bit of
official assistance aimed at hurrying us on our way. Have I been
going too fast for you?”
“No. I speak your language well.”
“That’s not what I—never mind. Here’s
what’s happening. We’re going to go up on the
glittering plain—”
“Why?” Pure fear filled his voice. He and his
ancestors had lived in terror of the plain since the coming of the
Shadowmasters.
I offered a bit of nonsense. “For the same reason the
chicken crossed the road. To get to the other side.”
Suvrin found that concept so novel he could think of no
response.
I continued, “It’ll take us a while to get ready. We
have to assemble provisions and equipment. We have to scout some
things. And not all of our people have arrived yet. I’d just
as soon not fight a war at the same time. So I want you to tell me
how to avoid that.”
Suvrin offered an inarticulate grumble.
“What’s that?”
“I never wanted to be in the army. My father’s
doing. He wanted me away from the family, someplace where I
couldn’t embarrass him, but he also wanted me doing something
he felt to be in keeping with the family dignity. He thought if I
was a soldier, there’d be nothing I could mess up. We had no
enemies who could embarrass me.”
“Stuff happens. Your father should know that. He’s
lived long enough to have a grown-up son.”
“You don’t know my father.”
“You might be surprised. I’ve met plenty just like
him. Probably some that were way worse. There’s nothing new
in this world, Suvrin. And that includes all kinds of people. How
many more soldiers are there around here? How many all told on this
side of the mountains? Do any of them have any special loyalty to
Taglios? Will they abandon Taglios if the pass is closed?”
The Territories south of the Dandha Presh were vast but weak.
Longshadow had exploited them mercilessly for more than a
generation, then the Shadowmaster and Kiaulune wars had devastated
them.
“Uh . . . ” He wriggled but not hard. Just enough to
satisfy his self-image.
We spent the remainder of the day together. Suvrin made the
transitions from grudging prisoner to nervous accomplice to helpful
ally. He was easily led, overresponding to modest praise and
expressions of gratitude. My guess was that he had not had many
nice things said to him during his young life. And he was scared to
death that I would demolish him the instant he did fail to
cooperate.
We sent the rest of the soldiers home as soon as our men
stripped the New Town armory. Most of the weapons stored there
looked like they had been picked up off old battlefields and
treated with contempt ever since by the armorer whose work I had so
much admired earlier.
I found the man and drafted him. He was a prima donna, a master
with an artist’s attitude. I figured One-Eye could tame
him.
Suvrin accompanied me when I went across to the farm Sahra had
acquired. Poor leader though he was, Suvrin really was in charge of
all the armed forces in the Kiaulune region. Which said very little
for the quality of his men or for the wisdom and commitment of his
superiors. But I decided to keep him handy. He was useful as a
symbol, if nothing else.
When I went across I insisted that everyone else make the move,
too. I wanted everyone not out on picket duty or patrol in one
place so we could respond quickly, in strength, to any threat.
I told Suvrin, “I’ve neutralized the whole province
except for that little fort below the Shadowgate. Right?”
That stronghold had sealed its gate. The men inside would not
respond to the messenger I sent.
Suvrin nodded. He was having second thoughts, too late.
“Will they leave if you tell them to go?”
“No. They’re foreigners. Left by the Great General
to keep the road to the Shadowgate closed.”
“How many?”
“Fourteen.”
“Good soldiers?”
Embarrassed, “Much better than mine.” Which might
only mean that they could march in step.
“Tell me about their fort. How are they set for water and
provisions?”
The fat man hemmed and hawed.
“Suvrin, Suvrin. You have to think about this.”
“Uh . . . ”
“You can’t get in any deeper than you already are.
You can only do your best to get back out. Too many people have
seen you cooperating already. I’m sorry, buddy. You’re
stuck.” I fought sliding into the character of Vajra the
Naga, seductive as it was. It was so blessedly useful.
Suvrin made a sound suspiciously like a whimper.
“Courage, Cousin Suvrin. We live with it every day. All
you can do is put on a death’s-head grin and tug on their
beards and yank out their tail feathers. Here we go. This looks
like the place.” A poorly built structure had loomed out of
the darkness. Light leaked out through the roof and walls both. I
wondered why they bothered. Maybe it was still under construction.
I could make out the vague shapes of tents beyond it.
Something stirred on the rooftree as I pulled the door hanging
aside so Suvrin could enter. The white crow. A soft chuckle came
from the bird. “Sister, sister. Taglios begins to
waken.” The thing took wing. I watched it fade in the light
of a rising fragment of moon. That had been pretty clear.
I shrugged and went inside. I could worry about the white crow
next week, once I finally got a chance to go to bed. “Are any
of you guys aware that we’re at war? That under similar
circumstances every army since the dawn of time has put out
sentries to watch for people sneaking up?”
Several dozen faces watched me blandly. Goblin asked, “You
didn’t see anybody?”
“There’s nothing out there to see, old
man.”
“Ah. And you got here alive, too.” Which remark left
me to understand that there were dire traps out there, held in
abeyance only by the alert decision-making of sentries I not only
overlooked but whose presence I never suspected.
“All I can say to that is, somebody must have taken a bath
sometime since the turn of the century.” The same could not
be said for most of the crowd inside that shelter. Which might be
the reason the roof and walls were so porous. “This is my new
friend Suvrin. He was the captain of the local garrison. I blew in
his ear and he decided he wanted to help us so we would go away
before the Protector shows up and makes life tough for
everybody.”
Somebody in back said, “You could blow in mine and—ow!
What the fuck you hit me for, Willow?”
Vajra the Naga said, “Knock it off. Swan, keep your hands
to yourself. Vigan, I don’t want to hear your mouth again.
You should know better. What’ve you guys done to get ready to
knock over that tower over by the Shadowgate?”
Nobody said a word.
“You guys obviously did something while you were waiting
around.” I gestured at our surroundings. “You managed
to build a house. Badly. Or a barracks. But you didn’t do
anything else? There’re no scouts out? No planning got done?
No preparations got made? Was there something going on that I
haven’t heard about yet?”
Goblin sidled up. In an uncharacteristic tone he murmured,
“Don’t press these issues. Now isn’t the time.
Just tell people what to do and send them out to do it.”
I trust the little wizard’s wisdom occasionally.
“Sit down. Here’s what we’ll do. Dig out whatever
fireball launchers we have left. Vigan, pick ten men. Carry the
heaviest launcher yourself. The others can carry lighter ones. If
there aren’t enough to go around, bring bows. We’ll go
take care of this right now. Vigan, choose your team.”
The man who had made the mistake of irritating me rose. In a
surly tone he named his helpers. Chances were all of them had
irritated him sometime recently. It rolls downhill.
In the few minutes it took Vigan to get ready, I had the others
tell me things they thought I ought to know.