(Luis)
Donald and I reached the Cloud-Zandria Road again and continued westward. Near evening, off the road a bit, we saw a stockade, a village, and a baron's manse. We turned off there, and still wearing civilian garb, I asked the baron whether he might trade horses with us—good horses, fresh, in exchange for road-weary. Ours were visibly of good breeding, but worn out, and it was our need, so it was he who offered terms. I countered them, and after the second round he stopped.
"If I'm to bargain with a man," he said, "I should at least know his name. Also, 'twould be a shame if animals like these"—he gestured at the horses I wanted— "were to be used as hard as those you rode in on."
"Ah." I decided to take a chance. I liked this baron's aura, and what he'd said, and maybe my muse was nudging me. "Did you have visitors earlier today?" I asked. "A dozen at least? Likelier twenty? Headed west?"
He grimaced. "And demanding the king's hospitality? I have. As for which direction they were going . . . I didn't see. We're a furlong from the highway here."
"How did their horses look?"
"They'd been ridden hard, but not so hard as yours."
"That's because they had remounts. Did they ask whether you'd had guests within the past few hours? Probably more than just the two of us."
"Their leader did."
"Did he mention why they were interested?"
"No, nor did I ask. But I can tell you this: when I answered, they seemed . . . not surprised."
"Let me do you a favor," I said, "whether or not the two of us do business. The next large party of armed men through here will be headed east, not west, and there'll be a lot more of them. Counted not on the fingers, not even showing them twice—unless each finger stands for a hundred. And it's not the king's hospitality they'll want, but anything they see and can easily carry. The rest they'll kill or burn."
I extended my open hand then, and slowly, uncertainly he met it. "I am Master Luis Raoul DenUyl, of the Order of Saint Higuchi," I told him. "And my comrade . . ." I turned to Donald. "Would you care to identify yourself to the baron? He appears to be a man to trust."
Donald reached and also shook the baron's hand. "I am Donald Edwardsson Maltby, of Kato. Our horses look as they do because we were pursued, without remounts, all the way from Hasty. We threw off our pursuers by baiting them south out of Novo Cechov, then circling back. It was Master Luis's ploy." He gestured toward me. "Just now I'm . . . his apprentice. I'm learning a lot from him." He laughed. "And so are the kingsmen, though they don't yet know what."
We were there another twenty minutes or more, answering the baron's questions. Then he exchanged horses with us, a straight trade, throwing in a five-pound cheese, two long loaves of rye bread, a gallon of beer and his good wishes. When we left, he was getting ready to warn his people, summon his old militias, and prepare his stockade. He wasn't waiting for word from his duke, Marcel Boileau of Zandria. He considered Marcel a good man, but one who might soon have kingsmen lodged with him.
We didn't want to catch or overrun the kingsmen, so Donald and I laid up early in the edge of an aspen grove. Before we slept, I made a conference call. Carlos was in the southeast of the duchy of Zandria, or maybe across the line in Cloud. Freddy was in Kato, Peng in Cloud Town, and Tahmm wherever. Carlos had dropped men off by pairs as he went, at crossroads and junctions, to pick their way back to Cloud. Carlos himself was alone—"hard at work growing a beard"—and expected to be back in Hasty in a few days, where he'd do whatever seemed productive. Peng said Duke Jonas had had a planning session with his engineer, who was now working west of Cloud, marking areas of forest for felling abatises. "Interesting patterns," Peng added. "The man is a strategic genius."
But it was Freddy's news that interested me most. A young Dkota named Gavan Feeny had arrived at Kato Town. I remembered Keith telling me about him before. He'd verified that allied tribesmen were arriving at Many Geese for the invasion. And most important, he believed Lemmi was still alive, a prisoner.
Donald listened to all of it, intently, soaking it up.
Again we were awake at first dawnlight, and in the saddle by sunup. This was prairie land, with aspen groves and scrub. Pleasant enough country, except it hadn't rained for two weeks, and the road dust was bad.
An hour later, from a high point on the road, we saw a village ahead, of maybe three or four hundred people, and beyond it a dust cloud I felt pretty sure was raised by the kingsmen. Donald had the same idea: "I'll bet that's the other two squads," he said pointing. "There's probably an inn there, where they claimed king's hospitality last night. They've given up on us."
"I'll bet you're right," I told him.
I decided to close the gap enough to keep track of them. We speeded a bit, but slowed when we reached the village. Now I realized there were two inns, one fairly large, the other small. Not too surprising on an important road with villages far apart.
Seventy or eighty yards ahead, two riders pulled onto the road from the smaller inn, both dressed as kingsmen! That took my interest. "Donald," I murmured, "let's stop here and water our horses. When I ride on, you hold back till you're a hundred yards behind me." I indicated the couple ahead of us. "There's something peculiar about those two. I want them to think I'm alone."
He nodded. I'd sparked his curiosity too.
The two armsmen had remounts trailing, but no pack animals. And even at a distance, neither really looked like an armsman except for the uniform. As I drew nearer, one seemed too small, like a fourteen-year-old. The other was tall but slim. They were trotting their horses at an easy pace, and I gained on them. We were well away from town before they looked back. I wondered if they'd speed up to avoid my dust, but they didn't. Experienced travelers, I supposed, not wanting a race.
At twenty yards the smaller glanced back again. A young woman! What was she . . . Then I realized. Princess Elvi! Pastor Linkon had told us that when she'd been younger, she'd played soldier: even had her own small hauberk. And what came to me was, she was following the armsmen, hoping to join them in the capture of the evil Higuchians.
But not yet riding with them; they'd have sent her home under guard. Maybe the armsmen had stopped early, at the large inn, and having caught up inadvertently, she'd stayed in the other.
Coming even with them, I slowed, and tried out my Swedish accent. "Good day, good sirs," I said. "Can you tell me how far it is to Zandria?"
It was her squire who answered. "Goddagen, herr landsman. "Jeg kjenner deg ikke. Er du fra Floren?"
A Swede! He'd expect me to answer in Swedish!3 I drew my saber, at the same time crowding him, and slashed his arm, then knocked him from the saddle. For just a moment Elvi froze, then went for her blade. I slammed her helmet with the back of my saber, and she let go of hers, grabbing at her saddle pommel to keep her seat. I jabbed her horse in a haunch; it reared, and Elvi fell, already half stunned. The horse ran off.
Meanwhile Donald galloped up. Seeing no witnesses, we tied their wrists, lashed the two across the back of her squire's horse, and hauled them to a thick grove of aspen two furlongs from the road. There, in the middle of the grove, we sat them down, tied them to trees, and I bandaged the squire's wounded arm. He'd lost a fair amount of blood.
That done, I took Donald aside and told him who the girl was. He was dumbfounded. "She may prove useful before we're finished," I went on. "Meanwhile I don't want her to know that I know who she is."
Leaving them in Donald's care, I rode off to catch Elvi's saddle horse. It wanted nothing to do with the guy who'd jabbed it, so I hazed it away from the road,
out of sight behind a hillock, and drove an arrow behind the shoulder. It fell dead. I stripped it of everything that might identify it. As for the remounts, they'd been without saddles, and had already trotted off toward town. I'd have to let them be.
After that I radioed Freddy, Tahmm, Carlos and Peng, and told them whom I'd just caught.
Back in the aspen grove, Elvi told us who she was, and what her father would do to us if we harmed her. I slapped her hard on the side of the head, bringing tears. Skipping the accent, I told her she was no princess. "A princess wouldn't be riding down the road dressed like an armsman's hoor. Whaddya take me for, a fool?"
At that she shrieked such obscenities, I gagged her. This enraged her squire, so I gagged him to. Then I told her I could easily sell her to the Dkota for ten good horses. "They enjoy owning Sotan women." I laughed then. "They might even throw in a cur dog for your lover."
After a breakfast of rye bread and cheese, I announced I was leaving them in the aspen copse and heading on west, to see about hiring a covered cart to haul them to Dkota. "Watch them," I told Donald, "and don't no way untie them. They're worth a lot to us."
I arrived in Zandria at first dusk and stopped at the inn, where I had a beer with a pair of locals. They told me two squads of kingsmen had arrived that day. It was the talk of the town.
"Kingsmen? I'll be damned! Why are they here?"
The locals didn't know.
"What's the chance of me hiring on with the duke's force at arms?"
"No chance at all. They've got a waiting list."
"Then who should I see about joining the militia? Or whatever you call them these days. It ought to be easier to find work if a man's in the militia."
One just shook his head. The other gave me a couple of names, and where they might be found. One was a tapman named Vito, who worked days right there at the inn. He lived down the street, and was probably at home.
He was, and he was also a man glad to talk to me. An ex-guardsman, he'd lost his place as part of the reduction. What did he think of the Dkota threat? He took it very seriously. What did he think of the king?
Vito was instantly suspicious. "Why do you want to know?"
"I'm a friend of Duke Edward."
"Of Kato?" We talked some more. By reading Vito's aura, I could say things that kept him going. According to him, the duke's armsmen considered Eldred a dangerous fool.
Zandrians, it seemed, were a little like buffalo people: many of them herded unfenced cattle, could ride and rope, and were generally tough. Vito had grown up a herdsman, then spent two years in the northern wilderness before becoming an armsman. Yes, they'd kept the militia going, sort of. In fact, he was a militia sergeant.
Then I told him who I was, and what I had in mind, and he agreed to help. Within three hours he had twenty others, each with a saber at his side and a bow in its scabbard. We left them in a belt of cottonwoods near the river, while Vito and I slipped through the shadowed night to an unguarded entrance that's "the best way to get into" the duke's mansion. He also knew, he said, what room the commander of the kingsmen would be sleeping in.
He was right. We slipped silently down the hall, entered the room, and found the lieutenant asleep, reeking of whiskey. Not wanting him awake yet, I pressed on his phrenic and vagus nerves, then tied and gagged him, wrapped him tightly from neck to foot in bedding, and stashed him in a closet.
"Looks like a damn cocoon," Vito murmured.
Then, as agreed, he showed me which room was the duke's. "But don't do anything to him," he whispered. "He's a good man, and I don't want to have to kill you."
I chuckled just loudly enough for him to hear; it was too dark to see a grin. "I want his help," I reminded him. "If he's not willing, I'll have to knock him out so I can get away, but that's the worst I'll do to him."
Vito wasn't comfortable with that, but there he was, cheek by jowl with a man he'd helped break in, a man who'd assaulted a king's officer, so he muttered, "All right, let's do it."
I was the one who knocked at the duke's door: softly, with fingertips instead of knuckles. It took a minute for the sound to waken him. Then, muzzy and grumpy, he asked who was there. I knocked again without speaking; I needed him close, so Vito wouldn't have to talk loudly. After a moment he asked again, this time from just the other side of the door.
Vito answered as agreed upon: he had a messenger from Edward Maltby. The door opened, and the duke let us in. When he'd closed it, I told him who and what I was. That Edward had had a spy among the Dkota, a Sotan raised by them from age eleven. And that Mazeppa had not only united the Dkota and the Ulster; he had an alliance with the Wolves and the Yellow Bears. That he was set to invade Sota with two armies; one rampaging down the Sota River, aiming at Grove Falls and Kato. The other would attack Zandria and Cloud. Then both would ride on to Hasty, where they'd no doubt burn the town and massacre the population.
I also said the Church had a plan. That I had the commander of the kingsmen bound and gagged in a closet, and held Eldred's daughter Elvi captive, with Donald Maltby guarding her a few hours away. And finally I asked him if he could turn the kingsmen; that if turned, they'd make a difference in defending his stockade.
Half an hour later, the duke's men were awake and armed, and Vito had brought the militia into the duke's yard. That done, it was I who wakened the kingsmen.
I identified myself to them, then told them Mazeppa's plan, and that Eldred refused to believe it. Had even tried to have the pope's representatives captured or killed. "You'd know which," I added. "It was you, Horn's platoon, he sent to do it."
It was then I told them I held their commander captive, and Elvi hostage. And that one Dkota army was positioned to move down the Sota River against Oak Lands and Kato, while the other would attack Zandria, then go on to Cloud.
"So what I need you to do," I went on, "is stay here with the duke's force at arms until the Dkota arrive. Men like you can make an important difference. Meanwhile I'll send word to Eldred that I have Elvi—send word and her hauberk, helmet, and saber. There's not another set like them. She was playing soldier when we caught her."
They knew Elvi's penchant for "playing soldier," so that got them as convinced as they were likely to be, short of seeing her.
"And if any of you are worried about the Church—Clonarty won't be archbishop after this." I paused, then went on. "But what happens to Clonarty, or even the king, isn't as important as what happens to Sota."
"What's the lieutenant say about this?" one of them asked. He was troubled at breaking his oath to the king, and looking for more highly ranked support.
"He's all right, but bound hand and foot," I said. "I didn't know if I could trust him."
The kingsmen split. About half agreed to remain at Zandria and help the duke's forces defend the stockade. The rest said they'd do whatever their lieutenant said. So accompanied by the Duke and Vito, I got the lieutenant out of his closet, took out his gag, and went through it all one more time. "If you sign a warrant to defend Sota against the Dkota," I finished, "and if the duke trusts you, I'm willing to trust you."
I'd read his aura while I talked to him. I read no sign of trickery in his mind.
"Yeah," he answered, "I'll sign that warrant. The reason I got drunk tonight was, I didn't like my orders. I never trusted Eldred's treaty, and this mission went against my grain."
I got a few hours sleep, then rode out of Zandria at first dawn, trailing a horse for Elvi. While I rode, I radioed Freddy in Kato. He talked first. Tahmm had reported that Mazeppa's allies were mostly all gathered. They'd probably leave Many Geese within a few days.
Then I told Freddy what had happened in Zandria the night before. "Meanwhile what really troubles me is Lemmi."
"Luis," he interrupted, "let's not worry about Lemmi yet."
"Why? What do you know that I don't?"
"Probably nothing, but I'm not worried about it, so it seems to me my muse knows something."
I wonder if that means Lemmi's already dead, I wondered. If he was though, it seemed to me I'd know. "All right," I said, "I'll go with that," and we disconnected.
About noon I reached the grove where Donald watched our captives and fought sleep. I took him aside, and reran the night's events. When I finished, he laughed, shaking his head. "Luis," he said, "I wouldn't have imagined even trying all that. Blessed lord! The world's a good place after all."
I let it stand at that. We'd won this little tilt, but the actual war hadn't started yet. Removing the squire's gag, I gave him water and food, then gagged him again. When I removed Elvi's gag, she tried to bite me, so I slapped the side of her head again, stunning her. Then I gave her water and bread, and when she'd had some of each, I gagged her again. After letting them relieve themselves, we retied their hands in front of them so they could hang onto their pommels, hoisted both Elvi and her squire onto their horses, and led them down the road toward Zandria.
We'd hardly gotten started when my com buzzed. I dropped back and checked in. It was Tahmm.
Donald was right. The world is a good place. And it would be better when I'd had some more sleep.