Tetrarch

T HIRTY-FOUR

By the time they slunk past the last line of constructs onto the plain, Nish's madness had worn off. Ranii said not a word. When he looked around she was back with the soldiers. He kicked the horse into a canter, then a gallop, despite the agony it caused his bruised backside and chafed inner thighs. What a fool he had been. Seize the opportunity with both hands. Ha! Vithis had set the trap and he had fallen right into it.

It was growing dark. The horse began to labour. The poor beast had been going hard all day and did not need a madman on its back at the end of it. A line of trees wavered across the plain in front of him. He slowed to a walk, heading toward the largest, and by the time the others caught up to him Nish had the fire going.

Ranii did not speak to him on the return trip but he knew what she was going to say to Troist. He should never have been entrusted with the job; he had taken what should have been hers, against her advice, and stuffed it up disastrously.

The soldiers were silently efficient. Not once did they meet Nish's eye. He was a puppy. A failure at everything.

Mounce sought him out as they approached Troist's camp. 'Surr?' he said anxiously.

Nish had no heart to continue the farce. He was no marshal; no command of his could have any force. 'Yes, Sergeant Mounce?' 'I – Nothing, surr!' Nish did not hurry to his meeting with Troist. By the time he dragged himself through the flaps of the tent, Ranii was halfway through her report. He listened to the rest in silence. Yara sat on the far side of the room but did not interfere.

Troist turned a haggard face to him. 'Have you anything to add, Marshal Hlar?'

Nish was in no mood to make excuses. 'No, surr. It is as Ranii says.'

'Come on, man, this does not sound like the son of a scrutator! You must have something to say in your defence.'

'The son is not the father,' said Nish. 'I was unbearably provoked, and finally I broke. I will say only this. Vithis is a man entirely without honour, and was so before his clan was wiped out in the passage through the gate. But…'

'Yes?'

'The loss of his clan has driven him over the edge.'

'What do you say to that, Ranii?'

'I hate to say it -'

Troist turned on her and his voice was very cold. 'Why would you hate to say it? Have you something against Marshal Hlar?'

'I -' she began. 'No, surr, nothing at all.'

'I'm glad to hear it. I'd hate to think that you were being obstructive, envoy.'

'No, surr.'

'Go on.'

'Marshal Hlar may be right. I've never met an Aachim who behaved the way Vithis does. Grief must have turned his mind.'

'He was entirely unreasonable,' said Nish, 'and quite without honour. It is impossible to deal with him.'

Troist sighed. 'What does he want, apart from the conquest of this world?'

Ranii began to answer but Nish interrupted. 'Surely to build his clan anew. To make up for four thousand years of slavery on Aachan. Vithis, I feel sure, is driven to make up for the entire Histories of the Aachim. He will never negotiate.'

'How do you know, Cryl-Nish?'

'He said as much to Tiaan in Tirthrax, after the Aachim came through the gate. The Histories tell me the rest.' Poor Tiaan, Nish thought. I was wrong about her at Tirthrax. It raised the uncomfortable thought that he may have been wrong about her other actions as well.

'Is that all?' said Troist.

'Tirior and Luxor seem reasonable people, surr. If something were to happen to Vithis I believe they would be prepared to bargain with us, as would some of the other clans. It seems that they suffer Vithis for the moment, but clan rivalries run deep. He was openly hostile to Clan Elienor, who are not of the Eleven Clans.'

'Do you disagree with any of this, Ranii?'

'No, surr,' after a long hesitation.

Troist looked across at Yara, who made a gesture with one hand. Nish could not interpret it, but the look on her face suggested that she was as disgusted as Ranii.

'Do you have your commission, Cryl-Nish?' said Troist.

'My commission, surr?'

'As marshal! Surely you did not expect to keep it, after this fiasco?'

'Er, no,' said Nish. 'Vithis cast it on the floor at the beginning of our meeting.'

'Vithis threw your papers on the floor!' Troist exclaimed. 'You did not mention this, Ranii.'

'It… slipped my mind, surr,' she said hastily. 'I have the documents here.'

Troist took the papers and tore them in half. 'It is clear the embassy was doomed before it began and Vithis had no intention of negotiating.' Troist paced back and forth, as he was wont to do when thinking. 'You may go about your business, Ranii. I'll speak to you in the morning.'

When she was gone he said to Nish, 'I won't pretend I'm happy, Cryl-Nish. Though it seems the mission had little chance, a skilled diplomat might just have extracted an offer we could have lived with. I am mindful that you are not a diplomat. Even so, you should have put up with his taunts. You have made things worse and I see no hope of an agreement now.'

'The man is a tyrant, surr. Not striking back would be seen as a sign of weakness.'

'I didn't ask for a lesson in politics, Cryl-Nish. Our situation is more desperate than you know. With the aid of the Aachim we would probably have won the war. If they stay neutral we will probably lose. But if they ally with the lyrinx…'

'Yes?' said Nish, when Troist had been pacing for some time.

'It will all be over in a fortnight! Leave us.' The army continued to grow over the next few days as stragglers, and sometimes large bands, came in from all directions. They now numbered more than four and a half thousand, and their fleet of clankers, ninety-six. A powerful force, though matched by the lyrinx shadowing them in the west. Tension hung in the air, thick as glue. Troist paced more than ever. Fights broke out among the soldiers: brutal, ugly affairs that only ended when one was battered into unconsciousness. The other was whipped bloody, but it made no difference. Within hours, there would be another affray.

The whole camp knew of Nish's fall from grace, and that any chance of an alliance with the Aachim had vanished. He ate alone. Nish had begun to have stomach cramps, so knotted was he inside. He had let Troist down, and everyone else. Why hadn't he kept his mouth shut?

He went back to his old work, assisting with the development of tactics to use against the Aachim constructs, but Nish was conscious how little he knew of them. He did not even know what weapons they carried inside. But at least he had seen constructs in operation, and that was more than the other officers could say.

He realised that someone was talking to him. 'I beg your pardon?' he said.

'If they attack, h-how can we c-c-combat them?' The speaker was Lieutenant Prandie, one of the most junior officers, even younger than Nish.

'Pits!' said Nish. The idea had just popped into his head. 'Constructs float hip-high above the ground and I don't think they can go any higher. If we were fighting a pitched battle we could dig a series of pits across their path, cover them, and when the constructs fell in, they would not be able to get out.'

'Neither would our clankers, should the battle move that way.'

'But we would know they were there.'

'A useful idea,' said Troist, who had been standing up the back unnoticed, 'but it's not going to win the battle.' The weather continued unrelentingly hot and dry. The green shoots soon withered and they had to move camp constantly, but still the horses lost condition. Troist was forever worrying about their supplies. The flour was full of red weevils, the casks of salt meat had a putrid tang, and they had not had fresh vegetables in a fortnight. Troist had recovered the fallen army's war chest but money could not buy what was not available.

A bout of dysentery passed through the camp, leaving half the soldiers groaning in their hammocks with vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. Troist, a man who seemed to have constant trouble with his bowels, was among them. Nish was unaffected, perhaps because he had been ostracised by the rest of the camp. Everyone lived in fear of an attack that they would not be able to defend against.

It did not come, and as the days passed, he began to understand how the soldiers felt. Maybe battle, bloody though it would be, would be better than this waiting day after day, never knowing what the enemy was doing or even where they were.

In the second week after the failed embassy, clouds began to build up in the afternoon. Instead of being hot and dry it was hot and sticky. Storms threatened but never came. There were more fights than ever, but Troist now turned a blind eye to them. Nish understood that too – it was the only way they could let off steam. Sometimes he felt like punching his fellow officers for no other reason than the way they spoke, or walked, or ate.

This day it looked as if the storm was finally coming. At sunset, towering clouds hung in the south-west, and they were an ominous purply-green. Lightning flashed. Nish was bent over the chart table when he heard pounding hooves and one of the scouts skidded to a stop outside the command tent next door. He ran inside, then came out again. 'Where's General Troist?'

Nish hurried across. 'What is it? Is there news?'

The scout made a rude gesture. 'Not for your ears!'

Troist appeared from the direction of the latrines, hastily fastening his trousers. They went into the command tent. Nish tried to follow but the guards barred his way. Frustrated, he returned to his work, but shortly afterwards was called to the command tent, now empty apart from Troist. The flaps were closed and it was sweltering inside.

'It's war!' said Troist. 'The lyrinx are moving. They must have been waiting for the weather to change.'

Lightning flickered in the west. This was it.

'I have another job for you,' the general continued.

'I'm surprised you still trust me, surr.'

'It's not a diplomatic mission,' Troist said coolly.

'What is it?'

'My wife and daughters are still here. I should have sent them away long ago but… I could not bear to be parted from them. You are to take them east to safety.'

'Won't that be rather dangerous?' Lest Troist think he was a coward, Nish added hastily, 'For them, I meant.'

'Not as dangerous as staying here. Will you do it?'

'Of course, surr. I would be honoured. Where are we going?'

'Yara will tell you, once you are gone. I'm not taking any risks.'

'Risks, surr?'

'Spies, traitors,' Troist said impatiently. 'The families of high officers are always targets in times like this.'

'When do we go, surr?'

'You've got fifteen minutes, or until the storm hits. Easier to keep it quiet that way.'

'Am I going alone, surr?'

'Mounce will accompany you. He won't like it, but that's the lot of a soldier. I can't spare anyone else, nor even him. Get ready!'

It was the work of a few minutes to pack, toss his oilskin cloak over his arm and report back to Troist. 'I'll walk with you,' the general said. 'They're waiting over by the horse yards.'

The camp had been darkened for the night, though they could see clearly enough, for lightning flashed continually. Nish's skin prickled in the heat.

Troist embraced Yara, Meriwen and Liliwen. They all looked stoic now. Mounce loomed out of the darkness like a squat bear. 'Storm's almost on us, surr.'

'Mount up!' Troist said harshly. Yara clung to her man as he lifted her into the saddle. The girls went up onto the next horse, one from either side. In the gloom Nish could not tell which twin was which.

He climbed onto his own horse, the one he'd had on the previous mission, and checked his saddlebags, which Mounce had already packed. His sword was at his hip, a crossbow tied down behind him.

Troist passed him up a small packet. 'Your papers, Cryl-Nish.' Nish put them safely in an inside pocket and buttoned the flap. Another packet followed, rather heavier. 'Coin for the journey.'

'Thank you, surr. And afterwards, what would you have me do?'

'If we survive, we'll be long gone from here, I know not where. You'll have to look out for yourself. Use what remains of the coin if you need to.'

Nish nodded. Lightning struck a tree on the creek, not a hundred paces away. The thunder was shattering. Horses whinnied.

Troist reached up his hand. Nish took it. 'Don't let me down, Cryl-Nish.'

'I won't, surr,' he said hoarsely.

Mounce led the way. Yara followed, the twins after her, and Nish last. He looked back as they rounded the corner of the yards. A flash illuminated Troist, a forlorn figure standing with his hand still upraised. His family would probably never see him again.

The storm struck before they had crossed the creek. It was a kind of rain Nish had never felt before, fat stinging drops that were not cold at all. He was used to freezing rain that seeped through everything and made his bones ache. This was so deliciously mild that he caught the drops in his hands and rubbed them all over his face.

He was not so pleased when, a few minutes later, the downpour turned to pellets of hail, large enough to strike him painfully on the head and shoulders. The horses ahead were black silhouettes when the lightning flashed, completely invisible when it did not. Nish prayed that Mounce knew which way to go; he had not the faintest idea.

Lightning struck the trees behind him. Nish's horse reared, screaming in terror. He clung desperately to the mane, expecting to be thrown, but its front legs struck the ground with a jarring thud and it bolted.

He pulled the reins with all his might but it made no difference. The terrified horse galloped into the darkness. The next time there was lightning he could not see anyone. Once again his life was running out of control.

Not this time. Nish hauled the reins back savagely and to the right. The horse reared up, propped and tried to throw him. Letting go of the reins, Nish caught the saddle straps with both hands and hung on. The next heave lifted him in the air. He pulled himself down. 'Stop it, you stupid nag!' he roared. 'There's a bloody war on!'

He went one way, and then the other, but Nish did not fall. The horse was tiring rapidly. It stood still, and the next flash of lightning, closer than the other, only made it rear its head.

Taking up the reins, he gave the horse a pat on the flank, took his bearings and began to ride around in circles that extended away from the creek, each one larger than the previous. On the fifth of these he saw the three shadows, standing quietly, and rode up to them.

'Perhaps we should rope together until the storm is over,' he said to Mounce. The storm went east; they headed north-east. Within half an hour it was just a mutter on the horizon. They did not hurry, since the ground was too stony for rapid riding in darkness. As dawn streaked the sky ahead, they approached another ribbon of trees. The plain looked exactly as it had for the past month: grey grass, brown stones, and as flat as a table.

'Where are we heading?' he said to Yara.

She sat her saddle upright as a post, though she must have been as weary as he was. She studied him for some time before answering. After his failure as an envoy Yara had barely spoken to Nish, and clearly she had misgivings about him now. With reason, if he was honest with himself.

'A place in the Worm Wood,' she said coldly.

How far is that?' Geography was not one of Nish's strengths.

'The forest is a few days away, if we can ride uninterrupted.' She glanced up at the sky, then back at him as if weighing him up. If a lyrinx spotted them and decided to attack, Nish could not save them.

'I won't fail you,' Nish said, trying to reassure himself as much as her.

'I believe you made that promise to Troist a while back.'

Yara held his gaze until he was forced to look away. She was terrified for her children and counted him as near useless. It was not a good moment.

They camped by a river, the most substantial one Nish had encountered in many days. It actually had banks, a higher set and a lower. They built a fire next to the higher bank, which was a head-high wall of yellow, pebbly earth. There was plenty of dry wood here, and ribbons of twisted bark that burned as bright as a candle, giving off little smoke.

The girls curled up on a blanket and slept. Nish could not – he had to prove himself to Yara and was determined to do so.

'If you're not going to sleep, surr, I'll take a few hours,' said Mounce.

'Do that,' said Nish. 'I'll keep watch.'

Yara rested against a tree, eyes going everywhere, a short sword at her left hand. Nish climbed the bank and looked around. Nothing moved on the flat plain. The other side of the river looked just the same. He walked back and forth, discovering a pair of ancient trees with patterns carved into their trunks. Growth swelled around the markings, partly obscuring them and obliterating any meaning, at least to Nish's eyes.

Mounce relieved the interminable watch at midday and Nish took his turn on the blanket. They set off as the sun was going down, wading the river, which hardly came up to the horses' bellies.

Twice, from his lookout high in a tree, Nish saw riders in the distance. He made sure that Mounce and the others stayed well hidden until the riders moved away. He expected thanks from Yara but got none.

In this way they travelled for three more days, toward a growing smudge on the eastern horizon. Yara barely spoke to Nish and double-checked everything he did. She did not trust him at all. Even the children were quiet.

Hilly country now lay ahead. On the fourth morning they were close enough to see that it was clad in forest.

'Why is it forest there,' Nish wondered, 'and not in Almadin?'

'Good, deep soil,' said Mounce. 'Not this stony muck.' He kicked a pebble.

They rested for the morning and continued after lunch. There was an hour of daylight left by the time Nish, who was scouting ahead, reached the first of the trees. He rode back to confer with Yara about their route.

'I wouldn't call this forest,' said Nish, eyeing the scattered copses.

'There's woodcutting here on the edge,' said Yara. 'You'll see trees enough before we get to where we're going. Shouldn't you be up ahead, scouting out our path?'

That was unfair. 'Which way?' he snapped.

'Don't speak to me like that, soldier.'

A bitter retort was on Nish's lips when he heard a familiar, disturbing whine.

'What's that?' cried Yara, jerking her sword from its scabbard.

A construct emerged from the trees to the front of them. Another appeared behind.

'If you've betrayed us, Nish, you're dead!'