"Roberts, John Maddox - Stormlands 03 - The Poisoned Lands UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts John Maddox)

As the gray light of dawn flowed over the terrace outside, she rose. The decision was not that hard, after all, she thought. The work of the country would carry on without her. The civil side of affairs would be competently handled by her own, hand-picked staff. Authority would be enforced by the royal garrisons left behind when her husband marched. They were scarcely needed. The terror of Ga-sam's name was sufficient to quell any thought of disorder.
"Prepare my bath," she ordered, "and summon General Pendu.'' The slaves rushed to do her bidding. An hour later, a tall, hard-faced Shasinn warrior entered her antechamber. The years of hard campaigning had etched deep lines beside his mouth and around his eyes, furrowing his brow. His dark-bronze hair was heavily grayed, but his body might have been cast from molten metal and his stride was that of
the junior warrior he had been when he and Gasam had been boys in the same warrior fraternity.
"Yes, my queen?" he said, without preamble.
"Pendu, something extraordinary has happened. I must go at once and join my husband."
"What? But the king has . . ."
"I know quite well what the king's instructions were," she snapped. "This is something unforeseen. I have information that I must deliver to him personally. And I must act quickly. I shall take my personal bodyguard, since they have all been trained to ride. The rest of the Shasinn I leave here with you."
"My queen!" Pendu protested. "The king left me here because he would not leave you here unprotected. If this is so important, take me with you. Never before has the king gone on campaign without me."
"Pendu," she said, gently, "he needs a Shasinn presence here to remind this great herd of human livestock to behave themselves. We are not roving pirates and raiders anymore, but the rulers of an empire. He chose you and your regiment because, besides himself, you and Luo and Raba are all that is left of the old fraternity. The rest are all dead." She did not mention Hael, who was worse than dead. "You three are the only ones he trusts, so it had to be one of you. Next war, you will be by his side, I promise. Now, go and see that my men are mounted. Have remounts and supplies assembled. I will need horses for two other men as well. I will take no slaves with me."
"The other two," Pendu said, "they would not by any chance be those two spies who arrived yesterday, would they?" A look of comprehension crossed his scarred features.
"Don't be thinking, Pendu," she chided. "My husband and I will do the thinking. Just do my bidding and keep order here. And, Pendu," she added, "be ready to receive unexpected marching orders from the king."
80
John Maddox Roberts
His face flamed with pleasure. "Yes, my queen!"
"Go now," she ordered. The man turned and left without bowing. Such royal niceties were not practiced among the Shasinn. Besides, he had known her since childhood and anything more than the respect due a chieftainess would have felt awkward for both of them. She would have liked to tell him of the steel mine, but she knew he suspected, and she had resolved to keep it secret. She trusted absolutely the loyalty of Gasam's fraternity brothers, but they were just warriors with no extraordinary mental gifts. The less known of this matter, the better.
Larissa did not enjoy riding, but she felt elation as she mounted the fine cabo held for her by a guard. This was action. She was going to make a desperate ride to join her husband in the middle of a foreign war. She had forgotten how much she loved living like this.
Around her were fifty young warriors, all of them eager for the ride. The two spies were there as well, considerably less eager, but willing to do their duty. She had promised them rewards beyond even their fevered imaginings, but all was contingent upon the steel mine being captured by Gasam. The map was wonderful, but she also wanted guides who could give the army mile-by-mile advice.
They rode from the city without fanfare. As far as the population was concerned, she was just going on another of her frequent inspections.
Although she was not fond of the practice, Larissa rode well. All Shasinn had an affinity for animals, and she knew she made a splendid picture, riding with her long, ashen hair streaming. She refused to wear the sort of riding trousers favored by mainland women, so she wore a warrior loincloth and a voluminous cloak that shrouded her almost to the ankles. She had not ridden hard in many months, and she knew the sort of pain she was in for. She had had her saddle and her stirrup leathers heavily padded as a precaution, but the help would be marginal. She was accustomed
THE POISONED LANDS
81
to hardship, though, and her body was resilient enough to recover and toughen in a few days. Besides, her attitude toward pain was not that of most people.
She had not felt this alive in years. The greatest secret in the world was sheathed at her belt. Pointing the way with her little spear, she rode with the wind in her teeth, laughing.
SIX
The two riders, man and woman, crossed into the kingdom of Gran by way of a rickety bridge across a slow-moving river, its banks densely overgrown with tangled, tropical growth. Everywhere they looked were signs of swarming life. The air buzzed and screeched with the calls of birds and reptiles, the wing-noises of insects, the cries of small animals hunting, mating and crying. In the distance, they sometimes heard the bellows of far larger animals, and were thankful that the great beasts were not close enough for them to see.
Ansa reined his cabo midway across the bridge. In the murky, sluggish depths below, something was disturbing the surface. Abruptly, a long form broke the surface, churning it to froth with its scaly sides and thrashing tail. He had an impression of a long, pointed snout, bristling with teeth and gripping something silvery that writhed and struggled. Then the killer slid beneath the water, leaving only a swirling eddy behind, where fallen leaves danced in circles before
THE POISONED LANDS
83
calming and resuming their leisurely, current-borne voyage to some faraway sea.
"What was it?" he asked, aghast.
"Something big and mean," she answered. "Be thankful that it prefers the river to the land."
The journey from the Canyon had not been lengthy as Ansa, accustomed to the wide plain, judged such things. But the change in terrain had been dramatic. South of the Canyon the land dropped sharply, and each day's travel had brought mem into a zone of climate and flora distinct from mat of the day before. Most notable with the drop in altitude was the increase in humidity. Before they had been traveling long, they entered land where rainfall was everyday instead of seasonal. They had to cross streams and small rivers each day, sometimes more than one each day. Avoiding swamps became commonplace. Biting insects were first an annoyance, then a plague. Fyana brought out an ointment that gave some relief but smelled so disgusting that Ansa would almost have preferred the bugs.
For the last two days they had been passing through true jungle, the first such Ansa had ever seen in his life. Even more astonishing than the dense flora was the sheer, overwhelming presence of life everywhere. On the plains he had been accustomed to seeing great herds of livestock and of wild game. At the time of great migrations, it was not unusual to see many thousands of animals rumbling across the grasslands in a mass. But then it was relatively large animals, all of a type.
In these lands, he could take in a score of life-forms in a single glance. Besides the pestiferous insects, there were birds, bats and reptiles in the air and in the trees, mammals of all sorts, including man-of-the-trees in many varieties. Cats seemed to be the predominant predators.
Here nature seemed inclined toward whimsical experiment, and many creatures departed from their accustomed niches. In his home plains Ansa was accustomed to flight-
84
John Maddox Roberts
less birds, and in the great desert to the north of the steel mine he had seen land-roving bats that hunted in packs. But here he saw bats that swam. A spidery-limbed reptile hung by its tail in the branches to catch flying creatures as they passed by. He saw a type of man-of-the-trees that could glide from tree to tree by means of a broad membrane that stretched between its arms and its hind legs. Its tail was a fiat paddle used in maneuvering.
"Well, you wanted to see strange sights," Fyana said as he continued to stare at the spot where the river monster had disappeared.
"Most of the jungle life we've seen is small," he noted. "The rivers are different. I think I'll forego swimming hi these parts."
"Wise decision." She pointed toward the southern end of the bridge. "I think we are about to meet Granian authority."
There was a small building of mud and wood at the end of the bridge, and a man emerged from it as their mounts clumped from the bridge's log surface onto the hard-packed dirt beyond. He was a stout, almost fat figure wearing a loincloth so elaborate that it almost constituted a kilt depending from a cummerbund so broad that it reached up to the official's drooping paps. His face was shaded by a hat of woven straw with a wide brim, and a crown worked into a number of bulbous shapes, one atop the other.
The face thus shaded was brown and egg-shaped. The nose was very long and broad, above a wide mouth with no visible lips. His eyes were crossed, apparently by design as an amber bead dangled from the front of his hat brim to form a focal point. He held a tablet and stylus and had the air of officialdom everywhere.
"Your names, please?" he said without preamble. He spoke a dialect of Southern with an accent so strong mat Ansa had to concentrate to understand the words. They gave their names.
THE POISONED LANDS
85
"Your business?" He scribbled in his tablet.
"I am a dealer in Canyon medicines," Fyana said, patting the bales borne by the bumper she led. "This warrior is my escort." They had agreed upon this story. It was plausible, since such medicine merchants were quite common, and a woman traveling alone could be expected to hire an escort. Canyon medicines were in high demand everywhere. Best of all, it would provide them with a means of livelihood while they sought out information concerning Gasam's doings.
"Very good," said the official. "If you will open your packs, I will verify their contents. There is no import duty on Canyon medicines."
They wrestled the packs to the ground and revealed their contents: packets of powders and dried herbs, stoppered flasks of fluids, bundles of stalks, leaves and fronds. The official nodded wisely, as if he knew what he was looking at.