Dreams Of Steel Part 19

"I don't know. Just like everyone else won't know, and will be chasing their tails trying to figure it out."

Was Blade listening? Didn't seem like it. He asked, "How bad were the Shadowlanders hurt?"

"Huh?"

"Shadowspinner's armies. How bad off are they?"

"Bad enough they can't take a crack at Dejagore again till they get replacements. But not so bad our guys have a crack at breaking out."

"Just enough interference to keep the balance, then."

"Our guys got cut up bad, way the prisoners talked. As many as half of them killed. Meaning the Shadowmasters' men really got mauled."

"But they could still send out patrols for you to catch?"

"Shadowspinner is scared we'll move on him. He doesn't want any more surprises."

Blade paced. He returned to the map, tapped out the garrisons and posts he had established as much as a hundred fifty miles south. He paced. He asked Mather, "Is it true? Or is it something they want us to believe? Bait for a trap?"

Swan said, "The prisoners believed it."

Blade said, "Sindhu, why haven't we heard from Hakim? Why did this news reach us this way?"

"I don't know."

"Find out. Go talk to your friends right now. If this is true we should have known before their patrol got here with the prisoners."

Sindhu departed, disturbed.

Swan said, "Now you got rid of him, what's on your mind?"

"Is the story true? That's what's on my mind. Sindhu has people babysitting Dejagore. They should've had a messenger moving the minute the dust-up started. Another should've brought a complete report when it was over. One might not have gotten through but two wouldn't have failed. We made that road safe. We enlisted most of the bandits and feistier peasants."

"You think the prisoners are plants?"

Blade paced. "I don't know. If they are, why on you? Mather?"

Cordy thought. "If they're a plant we shouldn't have been the captors. Unless their purpose is to cause confusion. Or they don't know the difference. It could be they're telling the truth but we're not supposed to believe it because you haven't heard from your scouts. It could be a device to buy time."

"Illusion," Swan said. "You remember what Croaker used to say? That his favorite weapon was illusion?"

"That's not quite what he said, Willow," Mather corrected. "But close enough. Somebody wants us to see something that isn't there. Or to ignore something that is."

Blade said, "I'm moving."

Swan squawked. "What do you mean, moving?"

"I'm heading down there."

"Hey! Man! What are you, crazy? You're getting a little carried away, chasing that tail."

Blade walked out.

Willow spun on Mather. "What do we do, Cordy?"

Mather shook his head. "I don't know about friend Blade anymore. He's looking to get killed. Maybe we shouldn't have taken him away from those crocs."

"Yeah. Maybe. But what do we do now?"

"Send a message north. Then go with him."

"But..."

"We're in charge. We can do whatever we want." Mather hustled out.

"They're both crazy," Swan muttered. He looked at the map a minute, went to the window, watched the excitement in Blade's camp, eyed the ford and the swarming engineers setting wooden pylons for Lady's temporary bridge. "Everybody's gone crazy." He laid a finger between his lips and wiggled it furiously while saying, "Why the h.e.l.l should I be any different?"

Chapter Thirty-Five.

"That's it," I said. "I've had it." I'd just gotten word that a Vehdna priest, Iman ul Habn Adr, had ordered Vehdna construction workers to abandon my camp and report for work on that absurd city wall. It was the second defection of the day. The Gunni contingent had walked an hour after starting time. "The Shadar won't show tomorrow. They've finally decided to test me, Narayan. a.s.semble the archers. Ram, send those messages I had the scribes prepare."

Narayan's eyes got big. He could not get himself moving. He did not believe I would do it. "Mistress?"

"Move."

They went.

I prowled, trying to walk off my anger. I had no reason to be mad. This was no surprise. The cults had given me no grief since I had taken care of Tal. That meant they were working things out between them before they tested me again.

I took advantage of the respite, recruiting two hundred men a day. I got the camp established in temporary form. The stonework of the fortress, meant to replace it, was well started. I'd gotten some of the men through the first stages of their training. I had cajoled or extorted weapons and animals and money and materials from the Prahbrindrah Drah. In that area I had more than I needed.

I had stretched my talent considerably. I was still no threat even to Smoke but my progress excited me.

The big negatives were the dreams and an incessant mild nausea I could not shake. It might be the water at the campsite though it persisted when I returned to the city. Probably it was mostly reaction to lack of sleep.

I refused to yield to the dreams. I refused to pay attention. I made them something to be suffered through, like boils. Someday I would have the chance to do something about them. Then balances would be redressed.

I watched my messengers trot toward town. Too late to back down now.

Succeed or fail, I would get their attention.

Ram helped me don my armor. A hundred men watched. The barracks remained as overcrowded as ever, though I had moved five thousand men to the campsite. "More volunteers than I know what to do with, Ram."

He grunted. "Lift your arm, Mistress."

I raised both. And spied Narayan pushing through the press. He looked like he had seen a ghost. "What is it?"

"The Prahbrindrah Drah is here. By himself. He wants to see you." He tried to whisper but men heard. Word spread.

"Quiet! All of you. Here? Where?"

"I told Abda to bring him around the long way."

"That was thoughtful, Narayan. Keep working, Ram."

Narayan fled before Abda brought the prince. I started in on the appropriate public courtesies. He said, "Forget that. Can you clear this out some? I'd like a little privacy." "Fire drill. Something. You men, outside. Abda, see to it."

The crowd started moving reluctantly. The prince eyed Ram. I said, "Ram stays. I can't get dressed without him."

"Surprised to see me?"

"Yes."

"Good. It's time somebody surprised you."

I just looked at him.

He demanded, "What's all this bull about you quitting?"

"Quitting what?"

"Resigning. Going away. Leaving us to the Shadowmasters."

That had been the implication but not the substance of the messages I'd had delivered. "I don't know what you mean. I'm going to make a speech to some priests. Just to straighten them out. Where did you get the idea I was deserting?"

"That's the talk. They're all excited. They think they've beaten you. That they just stood up to you, stopped letting you walk over them, and you're going to say good-bye."

Exactly what I wanted them to think. What they wanted to think. "Then they're going to be disappointed."

He smiled. "I've had nothing but trouble from them all my life. I've got to see this."

"I wouldn't recommend it."

"Why not?"

I could not tell him. "Trust me. If you're there you'll regret it."

"I doubt it. They couldn't give me much more trouble than they have already. I want to see them when you disappoint them."

"You do, you'll never forget. Don't go."

"I insist."

"I warned you." Him being there would not do him any good but it would be good for me. I told myself I'd done my best. My conscience was clear.

Ram finished dressing me. I told him, "I need Narayan. Abda! Would you look after the prince? If you'll excuse me?"

I got Narayan into a corner where we could whisper. I told him what had happened. He grinned that d.a.m.ned grin of his till I was ready to rip it off his face. But he jumped to another subject. "The Festival is almost upon us, Mistress. We have to make travel plans soon."

"I know. The jamadars want to look me over. But I have too much on my mind now. Let's get through tonight first."

"Of course, Mistress. Of course. I didn't mean to press."

"The h.e.l.l you didn't. Is everything set?"

"Yes, Mistress. Since early this afternoon."

"Will they do it? When it comes to the moment of decision, will they?"

"You never know what a man will do till he's faced with a decision, Mistress. But the men are all former slaves. Very few of them Taglian."

"Excellent. Go. We'll be leaving in a few minutes."

The square was called Aiku Rukhadi, Khadi Junction. It had been a crossroads long ago, before the city swamped the countryside. It was Shadar then but Vehdna now. It was not a big square, being a hundred twenty feet in its greatest dimension. It had a public fountain in its center, water for the neighborhood. It was crowded with priests.

The cult leaders had come and had brought all the friends they wanted to witness the humiliation of the female upstart. They had dressed for the occasion. The Shadar wore white, simple shirts and pantaloons. The Vehdna wore kaftans and glamorous turbans. The most numerous contingent, the Gunni crowd, was subdivided by sect. Some wore scarlet robes, some saffron, some indigo, some aquamarine. Jahamaraj Jah's successors wore black. I guessed the crowd at between eight hundred and a thousand. The square was packed.

"Every priest who's anybody is here," the prince told me. We entered the square behind a half dozen incompetent drummers. They were my only bodyguards. Even Ram was absent. The drummers cleared a s.p.a.ce against a wall.

I told the prince, "That's the way I wanted it." I hoped I looked sufficiently impressive in costume. Atop my great black stallion I loomed over the Prahbrindrah, whose chestnut was no dwarf. The priests noticed him and started whispering. Eight hundred men whispering make as much noise as a swarm of locusts.

I positioned us with the wall behind and the drummers in front.

Would it work?

It had, wonderfully, for my husband, so long ago.

"Soul lords of Taglios." Silence fell. I had that spell right. My voice carried well. "Thank you for coming. Taglios faces a severe test. The Shadowmasters are a threat that cannot be exaggerated. The tales out of the Shadowlands are ghosts of the truth. This city and nation has one hope: turn a single face toward the enemy. In faction lies defeat." They listened. I was pleased.

"In faction, defeat. Some of you feel I'm not the champion for Taglios' cause. More of you have been seduced by l.u.s.t for power. By factionalism. Rather than let that worsen and distract Taglios from its grand mission I've decided to eliminate the cause of factionalism. Taglios will present one face after tonight."

I donned my helmet while they were waiting for me to announce my abdication. I set the witchfires free.

They began to suspect then. Someone shouted, "Kina!"

I drew my sword.

The arrows began to fall.

While I was talking Narayan's picked men had placed barricades in the narrow streets entering the square. When I drew my sword, soldiers inside the surrounding houses let fly. Priests screamed. They tried to flee. They found the barricades too high. They tried to turn on me. My talent was enough to hold them off, beyond my terrified drummers. The arrows continued to fall.

They surged this way and that. They fell. They begged for mercy.