An Ill Fate Marshalling

2

Year 1016 AFE; Conversations

„there goes a long-term problem in the making," Michael Trebilcock observed. „But you've got time to head it off."

„What?" the King asked.

„There were what? Twenty people here today? The insid­ ers who make Kavelin work. Hold up a hand. Count the natives. Gjerdrum. Mundwiller. Aral. Baron Hardle. That's all. Who wasn't here? The Queen. Prataxis. And Credence Abaca. That's one more native, and Abaca is only Marena Dimura."

„What are you trying to say?"

„Undue foreign influence. Nobody worries about it now. We've got Shinsan on the brain. Suppose this deal goes through? We cuddle up to the Dread Empire. Trade turns the economy around. When people stop worrying about making it, and about Shinsan, what's left? Us. They haven't lost their ethnic consciousness. You could end up in a tighter spot than the last Krief."

„College boy," Bragi grumbled. But Michael had a point.

Kavelin was the most ethnically mixed of the Lesser Kingdoms. Four distinct groups contributed to the popula­ tion: Marena Dimura descendants of ancient natives, Siluro descendants of the civil managers of the days when Kavelin had been a province of the Empire of Ilkazar, Wesson descendants of Itaskians the Empire had transported from their homeland, and Nordmen descendants of the people who had destroyed the Empire. Friction between the groups spanned the centuries.

„You might have a point, Michael. You might have a point. I'll think about it."

„Why did you want me?"

„Got a Captures game this afternoon. I'm playing right point. I want you as my side."

Trebilcock grunted in disgust. He disliked games and loathed any exercise more strenuous than his morning rides with friends. Captures was demanding. It could go on forever if the teams were evenly matched. „Who are we playing?"

„The Charygin Hall Panthers."

„The merchant boys. I hear they're good. There's money behind them."

„They're young. They have staying power. But not much finesse."

„Speaking of young. Aren't you getting a little old for Captures? Meaning no offense, of course."

Captures was a Marena Dimura game originally played over vast expanses of forest. They settled inter-village squabbles by playing—though the dirt of rules left casual­ ties all over the woods.

The citified version was played on more limited ground. Vorgreberg's „field" covered one square mile north of the city cemetery. There were forty players to a team. There were rules intended to make the game fun.

Everyone cheated.

Captures resembled Steal the Flag. The teams tried to capture balls from their opponents and carry them to their own „castles." Each started with five oxhead-sized balls. Each tried to prevent opposing players from seizing its own balls, or to recover them once stolen. The game was played in two forms. In the short the first team to convey all its opponent's balls to its own castle won. In the long, the winner was the team which acquired all the balls. The long could continue for weeks. Round Vorgreberg they played the short form.

„I don't have the wind I used to," Bragi admitted. „And the legs get tired faster. But it's the only fun I have anymore. It's the only time I can get off by myself and think. There aren't any distractions out there."

„And on the point there's no one to listen if you want to have a little heart-to-heart with your side?" „Even the walls have ears here, Michael." Trebilcock groaned. He did not want to waste an after­ noon running through the woods. ... He grinned. He could get himself thrown out of bounds. A player could not return to the game if his opponents ejected him in front of a judge.

That was the crucial point. A judge had to witness any infraction. Creative cheating was the soul of the game.

„Meet me out there," Bragi said. „We drew the west castle. Try to show up by noon." He smiled. He knew how Michael felt about Captures. „Wear something old."

„Your wish is my command. Can I go?"

„Head out. We'll talk there."

Trebilcock slouched away. Bragi watched him go. The tall, lank spymaster looked like a caricature of a man. His skin was so pale it seemed never to have seen the sun. He appeared to be a weakling.

Looks were deceiving. Trebilcock was all wire and stub­ born endurance. He had carried out several harrowing missions during the Great Eastern Wars. His successes had won him a reputation as a super-agent. Some of the inner circle were more awed by him than were the enemies he watched and hunted.

„Michael," Bragi murmured, „are you one of the prob­ lems I'm going to face down the road?"

Trebilcock was one of Ragnarson's most competent peo­ ple. He had a strong, fatherly affection for the youth. But Michael was prone to go his own way, within his shadow world. He was an embarrassment occasionally.

Ragnarson settled at the table. For a while he wandered memories of the events that had led him to this moment, this place, this position. He reiterated his losses. ... He shook like a hairy old dog after swimming a creek. Enough of that! A man could go whacky worrying about what he should have done differently.

„Got to see the kids tonight," he muttered. „If I don't come in too sore to drag over there."

Michael coaxed his mount out the castle gate. He slouched in the saddle. The drizzle pasted his hair to his head in strings.

Guardsmen rendered indifferent salutes from the gate­ house. „That one is a real spook," one whispered.

„Looks like he's late for his own funeral," another ob­ served. „Who is he?"

The first shrugged. „One of the King's people. Don't see him around much anymore."

They would have recognized Trebilcock's name. His reputation burned into the deep shadows. The belly side of society watched for him over their shoulders. He was tight with the wizard Varthlokkur, whose creature the Unborn looked into the darks of men's minds. The plotters of great crimes and treasons invariably caught Michael's eye. Then the pitiless hammer fell.

Trebilcock had extended himself to create his nasty image.

Aral Dantice met him on the cobbled way linking the castle with the surrounding city. They turned their horses into the parkland encircling the palace. Cherries and plums were in bloom.

„Late start this morning," Michael observed. For years they had ridden the park when they could. Usually they shared the bridle trails with others from the castle. This morning they were alone with the drizzle.

„Would have been nastier earlier," Dantice replied.

They talked out old times and finished gossiping. Now they grew guarded.

Aral was a squat, wide man in his middle twenties. He looked more street thug than prominent merchant. Before his father's death he had been more the former than the latter. Since, he had turned his father's nearly bankrupt caravaneer outfittery around. He had become a major supplier of tack and animals to the Royal Army.

„I suppose." Trebilcock swung a hand. His gesture took in their surroundings. „I'd like to redesign this. At the Rebsamen I had this adviser. His hobby was landscaping. Whoever did this didn't have any imagination. It's nothing but a damned orchard."

Aral looked at him askance.

„I'd move all these fruit trees out. Scoop out a lake. Make a reflecting pool. Put a line of poplars down each side, yea and yea, to frame the castle. Maybe put some shrubs and flower plantings in front for spring and summer color. See what I mean?"

Aral smiled. „Be interesting to see what you could do." He scanned the castle. „You'd either have to knock down

Fiana's Tower or build another one over on the left. To give the palace balance."

Trebilcock looked puzzled. „Balance? What do you know about balance?"

„What's to know, Mike? Stands to reason, don't it? You don't want it to look lopsided. What did he want, anyway?" „What did who want?" „The King. When he had you stay behind." „You won't believe it. I still don't. He wants me to play side to his right point in the Guards' Captures game this afternoon."

Aral studied him, one cheek crinkling questioningly. „Really?" He laughed. „That's right. It's the Guards and Panthers today, isn't it? Battle of the undefeateds. The old fox is trying to sneak in some better players." Dantice leaned, punched Michael's biceps. „Put your money on the Panthers, Mike. Charygin Hall recruited the best men money can buy. Nobody will beat them for years." „What're the odds? Is there a spread?" „You can get five to one if you're stupid enough to bet Guards. Two goal spread. You can get ten to one if you bet the Guards to win."

They rode another fifty yards before Trebilcock mused, „Think I'll have my bankers cover a couple hundred nobles. On the Guards."

Dantice and Trebilcock went way back. It was Aral's opinion that Michael was a fool with money. „What the hell for? It's your money, and you've got more than you could throw away, but why the hell waste it?"

„Your class chauvinism is showing, Aral. The Guards are undefeated too. Remember who's on their team when you make your bets. The King don't believe in losing."

Michael felt Dantice studying him. He felt the question in his friend. Had he meant more than he had said? „Mike?" „Uhm?"

„You still messing around with those Throyens? I got the feeling he was sniping at you."

„Maybe he was. I keep in touch. I don't want to burn any bridges. Situations change. We might need them next year. What are you into, Aral?"

„Me? Nothing but the sutler business anymore. I'm not sure why he had me come."

Trebilcock nodded. This had become a duel of half-truths and outright evasions. „Maybe he wanted you to pass the real story to your friends. About the Gap maybe opening. So the rumors don't get too crazy."

„That's all I could figure. How long you going to be in town? I was thinking maybe we could get down to Arsen Street some night. Remember the Fat Man's? They've done the place over. Gone class. Got in some girls from the coast. We could go tear the joint up some night, like old times."

„I don't think I've got the energy to keep up anymore, Aral."

„Come on, hey? You can't live forever. Might as well have fun while you can. You've got to come out of the shadows sometime."

„I'll be around till Prataxis gets back. I'll let you know." They had ridden halfway round the palace. Michael said, „If you did it right, you could lay out lakes in each direction. Like the arms of a cross."

Dantice could be infuriatingly practical. He asked, „What are you going to do for fresh water? You'd have to run it in steady, wouldn't you? Else your lakes would go stagnant or dry up."

„Damned! I'm just dreaming out loud, Aral. You want to cut me down with practical, make me tell you who's going to pay the workmen."

„Hey! Mike. I was only joking."

„I know. I know. I'm too touchy. My people tell me all the time. I don't want to come here in the first place, then the King drafts me to play Captures. I hate Captures."

„Why didn't you beg off?"

Michael just looked at Dantice. That hadn't occurred to him. The King would not have asked had there been no need.

„What do you hear out of Hammad al Nakir, Mike? You got anybody reliable down there?"

The question sounded almost too casual. Trebilcock snap­ ped, „Why?"

„You are testy, aren't you? Because I've got a long-term arrangement for remounts with one of Megelin's generals.

Because I've been hearing whispers about El Murid maybe trying a comeback. They say Megelin hasn't turned out. They say he's getting more unpopular every day."

„Then your sources are better than mine. All I hear is how the honeymoon is still on. I've got to run. I want to get some bets down before I head for the woods. I'm staying at the palace. I'll be riding mornings. Send a message if you want me to wait on you."

Aral smiled. „Don't forget about the Fat Man's. I think you'll be surprised."

Michael brushed the rainwater off his forehead. He hated hats. Sometimes you had to pay for your quirks. „I'll think about it."

Ragnarson was crossing a courtyard to the stables when he spied Varthlokkur atop the castle wall. He shifted course.

The man was staring at the east as though it might bite. And he'd behaved strangely earlier. „Is it something you can talk about?"

„What? Not really. It's nothing concrete. Something in the east. Not entirely with the flavor of Shinsan."

„You didn't mention it this morning."

„Nepanthe. She's lost too much. I wouldn't want to crucify her with a false hope."

„Oh?"

„It's Ethrian. He might still be alive." Ethrian was Nepanthe's son by her first marriage, lost during the Great Eastern Wars.

„What? Where is he?" Ragnarson owed his godson a huge debt. A cruel fate had compelled him to slay the boy's father.

„It's just a touch of a feeling I get sometimes. I can't track it down."

Ragnarson babbled questions. The wizard didn't re­ spond. He thought Bragi overly romanticized his one-time friend, Mocker, and the events surrounding the man's death. Bragi had had no choice. It had been kill or be killed.

Ragnarson mused, „We never saw any proof that Ethrian died. Is there anything else?"

„Anything else?"

„Something you didn't want to bring up before. Everybody was hiding from everybody else. Your claim to be preoccupied was unconvincing."

Varthlokkur turned slightly, shifting his gaze from the distance to the man. The corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement. „You grow bold. I recall a younger Bragi who shook at the mention of my name."

„He didn't know that even the mighty are vulnerable."

„Well said. But don't bet your life on it."

Ragnarson grinned. „I'm going to try this conversation some time when you're less in the wizardly mood. When you're ready to answer questions." He nodded slightly, left the wizard to his meditations.

Josiah Gales was a frustrated man. He could not cut the Queen out of her herd of courtly matrons. Even once she was aware of his need she could not disengage herself easily.

The moment arrived at last. She stepped into a curtained alcove, beckoned. That mocking, tormenting smile danced across her lips. He ducked in after her.

„What did they talk about, Josiah?" No one else called him Josiah.

„Practically nothing."

„They had to talk about something, didn't they?"

„They did. It wasn't worth me skulking around through a lot of dusty passageways, my Lady. A lot of ‘Hello, how are you, long time no see.' Some ‘How come Prataxis scored so easy this year.' A little ‘What the hell is going on in Shinsan these days.' Then His Majesty sent them on their ways. He says they'll get together again when Prataxis gets back. He's got me wondering if maybe he isn't some suspicious."

„He's always suspicious, Josiah. He's got good reason."

„I mean more than your everyday suspicion. It was something he said."

„Which was?"

„He had Trebilcock wait till the others was gone. Told him to come play Captures with him. That's when he said it."

„Said what?" A wrinkle of frustration danced across the Queen's brow. She peeped round the curtain. Her flock had not yet missed her.

„That even the walls have ears."

Inger's smile vanished. „Uhm. That bears thought. Thank you, Josiah."

„I'm your slave, Lady."

She left the alcove wearing a curious little frown. Her charges would find her a less gracious hostess than before.

Gales nibbled his lower lip. Had he spoken too boldly? Had he betrayed too much?

Josiah Gales was a victim of love. It was a hopeless love. There was no chance it would be consummated in any manner more intimate than what had just taken place.

He had resigned his head to the limits long ago, before Ragnarson ever entered his lady's life. It was his heart that would not admit there were insuperable barriers between a lady of quality and a middle-aged foot soldier.

He let imagination run with the moment just fled. Fanta­ sy chided him for not having been sufficiently daring.