Seer King - The Seer King Part 40

I was interested to see Kutulu and several of his a.s.sistants conferring with Tenedos, each of them with a large box of files.

The general called us to attention, then told us we'd be given our tasks by the seer.

Tenedos went to the map and, without notes or ever pausing, told each of us our missions and what part of the city we'd be moving into. He said that each domina would be given two aides: one an officer from a Nician regiment, the other a warden who, in Tenedos's words, "has specialized in the Tovieti.

Take heed of what they tell you, gentlemen, because their information is exact. There'll be other wardens accompanying you who have been set their own tasks." He paused for a moment.

"I wish you well," he said. 'This day we fight for Numan- tia and the future."

I noted several of the ranking officers exchange looks, and could easily read what they were thinking from expressions- this was no creaking pedant, far removed from the harsh realities of war. Perhaps the Seer Tenedos deserved the respect he was getting from the army's commanders.

General Turbery called us to attention and dismissed us after a few encouraging words, and we streamed back out to our commands.

Tenedos told me a week later that General Turbery had offered him a direct commission as a general that afternoon, but he'd turned it down. I asked why, and he said, 'Truthfully, *because I wish no trace of the old order soiling the hem of my garments. But I didn't tell the general that, but rather that I felt I could be of more service observing from the outside."

I'd been astonished, having an idea of Tenedos's goals, and wearing a general's red diagonal sash would have been a long step toward achieving them. But the seer always preferred the long shot that would strike directly home.

It was still dark when the troops moved out into Nicias. Company by company the army moved into the a.s.signed districts. Wardens trotted behind them.

The first to go were the signs. They were ripped down or white paint was splashed over them. Then the soldiers went in, street by street, moving carefully, methodically, as we'd been ordered: First the four corners of a block would be taken, and outposts set. Then the troops smashed into the buildings, house by house, never less than in squad strength. Each store, each residence, was ransacked.

Women screamed, babies wept, men tried to fight back, but without effect. If obvious loot was found, the residents were rousted into the street. If the items were minor, their names were taken by the wardens and they were released with a warning. Bigger items, gold, piled delicacies, too many garments, and all adults were turned over to the wardens, to be escorted to prison pens being hammered together outside the Rule of Ten's palace.

If a yellow silk cord was found, or if there was evidence someone had committed a serious crime, for instance if a warden's sword or truncheon or bloodstained clothes were found, the men and women of that apartment were told to stand aside and were well guarded.

The search went on, house by house, tenement by tenement, until the block was completely taken apart.

The ropes were tossed over the lamp standards and the Tovieti and other men and women of violence were hanged unceremoniously.

The soldiers would re-form and march to the next block,

the bodies dangling behind them and the wail of mourners keening loud into the summer air.

Those were the orders that'd been given us, signed by the Rule of Ten. I knew those weaklings wouldn't have the guts to order such ruthlessness, and that the policy had been created by Seer Tenedos.

The mob and the Tovieti were shocked into immobility by our brutal and immediate tactics. All through that day and the next there were outbursts of violence, quickly suppressed by the soldiers, who did not use batons or blunted lances, but the sword and spear.

It was not just civilians who died. Small, desperate bands of men made sudden attacks, and squads went down screaming, and there was always the silent archer who'd loose a single arrow and flee. It was a man here, two men there, but the army was bleeding badly, more than a hundred casualties each day.

This pacification went on day after day. I grew sick with slaughter, but grimly kept on. There were things that happened at least as bad as, and possibly worse than, in the riots, but at least the rioters had the excuse of wine and rage to lessen the blame. We did not.

I'll give but one example: I was riding with Lion Troop toward a new district, pa.s.sing through an area being cleared by the Varan Guards. I saw the soldiers rush a tenement, and the screams began. A window smashed open on an upper floor, and I saw a warrant hurl something out. It spun down and thudded limply in the street, not far from where I rode past. It was the body of a boy, no more than ten.

I found the officer commanding that company, and raged at him. He looked at me without expression until I'd finished, then said, flatly, as if I weren't his superior, "Sorry, sir. But I have my orders." I thought of smashing him down, but was too weary with blood to do it. I turned back toward Lucan. "Besides,"

he said to my back, "there's no great harm done. Nits grow up to be lice."

I determined to pursue the matter, but instead of complaining to his domina, Le Balafre, I went to Tenedos.

*I found him in the tower, supervising six men who were maneuvering a large, somewhat battered marble statue toward his rooms on the floor above mine. I took him aside, told him what had happened, and said it was hardly the only atrocity I'd seen committed by our soldiery. Someone needed to rein the army in, before we all became no more than a murderous mob ourselves.

"Domina a Cimabue," he said, "I have no sympathy for you. Perhaps you need a bit more iron in your soul. The Tovieti, and those who fought with them, had no sympathy for us, neither man, woman, or child. They declared utter war.

"We are fighting by their rules, and it's far too late to change them. A ten-year-old is more than old enough to carry a cobblestone to a roof and use it to crush a soldier's skull. We've both seen that happen, seen boys and girls younger than that even with blood on their hands.

"We can find people to mourn for the innocent once we've tracked down the last of the guilty.

"We are in a state of war. You and the rest of the army have been given lawful orders by the rulers of Numantia. Now carry them out, sir."

That night, by chance, the Lancers were rotated back to the perimeter to be given a full night's rest and a chance to clean up. I took the opportunity to see Maran.

I was still so gripped by the sight of that dead child that I felt no l.u.s.t, no pa.s.sion. I told Maran what had happened, and she was as shocked as I'd been. After a time, she said, "I don't know what to tell you, my love. Is there anything you can do?"

"I don't even know if there's anything Ishould do," I said honestly. "I feel like I've been thrown into a pool of filth, and the harder I struggle to get out of it, the dirtier I get."

I got up and went to the window, looking out at the city. Maran joined me.

"Maybe this sounds stupid," she said. "But remember how it was last week? All we could see was fires and darkness. Look now."

fll- X,.

From this distance, and in the darkness, the city did appear to be returning to normal. The heights, where the rich lived, now twinkled with occasional lights as the braver n.o.bility found the courage to return to their homes. The gas had been relit on the boulevards around the palace, and it, too, looked almost as it had been, although there were far too many splotches of darkness and ruin.

"Come, my Damastes," she said softly. "I don't know any answers, and neither do you. We have each other, and we can sleep, and it may be less painful in the morning."

She was right. I took her in my arms and gently stroked the softness of her hair.

From the floor above me, from Tenedos's rooms, I heard an explosion, a crash. I yanked my sword from its sheath, tore out the door and up the stairs. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had found a way to get at the seer!

I hammered at the door, and Tenedos pulled it open.

"You're all right?"

"Yes. I'm fine," he said. He looked over my shoulder and I turned and saw other men crowding the landing, weapons at hand. "An experiment of mine got out of hand," he explained. "There is nothing to worry about. My apologies."

There were grumbles, and some laughter about the various stages of undress the rescuers were in, and they filtered away toward their rooms. But I remained behind, looking over his shoulder through the door. His workroom was a shambles, fragments of marble littering every square foot of the floor.

"Great G.o.ds," I said. "What happened?"

"I attempted a certain spell, which in fact didn't go awry, as I told the others, but quite the contrary.

Thank Saionji I gave Rasenna a strong sleeping potion, since I thought there might be some excitement.

Not like this, however."

There was an elongated triangle etched into (he top of a round table, with symbols carved around it In the center of the triangle was a circle, and in that what I thought to be piled gems. I looked more carefully, and saw that the flashing reflections from the fire came from nothing more than shards of broken gla.s.s.

*"What is it?'

"It is, or rather I think it is, exactly what I have been seeking."

"Which means?"

"Which means I'm evoking a wizard's privilege of mystery, and will tell you more when I choose to... or when the spell is put into service, which I hope will be in no more than a day or two.

"Thank you for responding so swiftly, Damastes. Now, good night."

I shrugged and left. If Tenedos would not tell me, there'd be nothing I could do to cozen anything from him. I told Maran what had happened as I undressed. Then the sight of that boy lying dead in the street came back.

I shuddered, and climbed into bed. Mar n looked into my eyes.

"Do you want to make love?"

"No. I don't think so. I don't think I could."

She blew out the lamp.

"Do you want me to hold you?" she whispered in the silence.

"More than anything," I said. She put her arms around me and her head on my shoulder. I caressed the softness of her cheek. After some time, her breathing gentled and she slept.

I lay for a long time, staring up into the darkness.

The Tovieti were broken. All districts were secured, although of course no one with any degree of sense traveled by night or in groups of less than a dozen.

The Tovieti were broken, but not destroyed, and so the army and the wardens began drum patrols.

Snares would rattle as a platoon of soldiers, backed by a team of wardens, marched up to an address, generally at dawn. The senior lawman would shout names from his list, and sleepy men and women would stumble out.

These were known Tovieti, on the long lists that Kutulu and his agents had gathered.

A yellow silk cord was tied around their necks, and the death sentence read. Kutulu and his wardens had stacks of them, signed by one or another of the Rule of Ten. All that was needed was to fill in the name, toss a rope over a standard or pole, and the sentence was carried out.

It was like currying a horse. The army had been the coa.r.s.e comb, now the fine-toothed one swept the capital.

Not only the poor died. I saw a face I recognized, blackened as it was. Count Komroff, the man who'd renounced his t.i.tle and thought everyone should live in poverty and on milk, had evidently found a more dynamic philosophy, since the yellow silk cord dangled from his elongated neck.

Nicias, even in ruins, was close to normal. Only the docks were still deadly. We had not even been able to send full-size units into these warrens without taking heavy casualties. But we-and they-knew the end was only a few days away.

Tenedos summoned me to the tower late one afternoon.

'Tomorrow night we shall end this nightmare," he announced. "Kutulu's agents have discovered that the last elements of the Tovieti, their leaders and their most fanatical, plan a last stand, taking down as many soldiers as they can, when we a.s.sault the docks. I suppose they think such a blood sacrifice will bring Thak to life."

"Why hasn't he already made an appearance? Surely the ma.s.sacre of his disciples can't be pleasing."

"Why shouldn't it be? He's but a demon, hardly capable of real reasoning, at least not as we know it.

I'd imagine that death, any death, even those of his own people, gives him drink and meat. I doubt if he'd feel any personal threat until the last of his believers faces doom.

"Perhaps he's even abandoned this city and returned to the Border States, or other places where he's worshiped. Not that I plan on taking any chances.

"I cast some careful spells, and found that the Tovieti are still using that smuggler's den you and Kutulu found as their headquarters."

*"I can't believe that, sir," I said. "That's completely foolish. That hideout was exposed. Wouldn't they find another?"

"I agree they're hardly showing much intelligence, at least from our viewpoint. Perhaps they think Thak killed the intruders, or perhaps that the invader was nothing but my animun-culi, under sorcerous command. Or, just as likely, they're as arrogant about our faults as the Rule of Ten were about them before the murders started.

"At any rate, I'd like a raiding party made up from your regiment. Perhaps some of those stalwarts who were with us on the retreat from Sayana might wish to put a bit of adventure in their lives.

"No more than twenty men. And yes, I'll be accompanying the raid, which is an absolute necessity, not adventurism, Domina.

"Let me show you why."

He took out a box, and opened it. Inside were the fragments of shattered gla.s.s I'd seen a few nights earner.

"You remember how angry I was trying to get those idiots in the Chare Brethren to work together and produce a single Great Spell? Well, I ran out of time, although I still think it's a possibility. Instead, I had gla.s.s bottles blown from a single vat of molten gla.s.s, and given to each member of the brotherhood. I had each of them cast a single, identical spell. When they'd succeeded, I broke the bottles, then took a bit of this gla.s.s, which was the results of the spell.

"I already had the Law of a.s.sociation working for me, and I created another spell, using the Law of Contagion, and overlaid a third incantation on top of that."

"And the result is?"

"Damastes, I'm a bit ashamed of you. I shall not tell you, not out of any desire to be mysterious, but out of personal pique that you're not a.s.sembling the evidence your own eyes have gathered.

"If you haven't figured it out by tomorrow night, then perhaps you'll get a chance to see it being cast for real."

I had one final question: "What about Kutulu? Will he be coming with us?"

"Why should he?" Tenedos said. "His work will begin after the raid. Until then, there's no need to risk his abilities.

"Now, go prepare your troops. I've several other spells to prepare for emergencies."

Of course there were more than twenty men from the Lancers who wished to volunteer-there were twice that many just from the men of Cheetah Troop who'd recovered from their injuries and sicknesses gained in the retreat from Kait and returned to the regiment.

Every officer in the Lancers volunteered, and I'm afraid I made the party rank-heavy, since I took Captain Yonge and Legate Bikaner as well as myself. Captain Petre gave me a dark look when I refused him, but I wanted at least one officer I knew well to remain with the Lancers.

At dusk I kissed Maran good-bye, went upstairs to get Seer Tenedos. I approved of his dress: dark, tight-fitting tunic and pants, a matching watch cap, and boots that laced to midcalf. He had a belt-pouch with magical supplies in it. Like the rest of us, he was armed with a dagger as his primary weapon. He also carried a shallow wooden box about two feet by one foot, closed with a clasp. Fortunately, it weighed less than five pounds. I a.s.sumed this contained the elements of this special spell he was so proud of.

He'd also devised a plan on how we would reach the waterfront undetected. It was a bit elaborate, involving a diversion from the ring of soldiers sealing the docks off from the rest of the city and using that excitement to mask our party's moving through the lines.

"Have you already asked the army for the diversion?"

"I have. It'll be the Tenth Hussars, and I've given the dom-ina a duplicate of this." He held up a hand, and showed me a rather ugly bra.s.s ring. "When I rub it, he'll feel a tingling on his own ring, and know it's time to begin his feint. We'll move forward from the lines of the Humayan Foot."