Dreams of Steel

Chapter Twelve

Thunder stampeded. Silver lightning lashed the wine-dark clouds, cracked the umber sky. A mold-grey horde howled across a basalt plain, toward the golden chariots of the gods.

A figure stepped from the line, ten feet tall, polished ebony, naked, lifting each foot knee-high to the side, then swinging the leg forward and stamping down. The earth shook.

The figure was female, perfection but hairless, wore a girdle of children's skulls. Her face was protean, one moment radiant dark beauty, the next a nightmare of burning eyes and vampire fangs.

The figure seized a demon and devoured him, rending, tearing, flinging entrails. Demon blood spurted and sprayed. It burned holes in the face of the plain. The figure's jaws distended. She swallowed the demon's head whole. A lump ran down her neck like a mouse bulging a snake's throat.

The horde beset her. And could do her no harm. She devoured another screaming devil, then another and another. With each she grew and waxed more terrible.

"I am here, Daughter. Open to me. I am your dream. I am power."

The voice floated like gossamer in golden caverns where old men sat beside the way, frozen in time, immortal, unable to move an eyelid. Mad, some covered by fairy webs of ice, as though a thousand spiders had spun with threads of frozen water. Above, an enchanted forest of icicles hung from the cavern roof.

"Come. I am what you seek. You are my child."

But the footing was treacherous, making it impossible to advance or retreat.

The voice called, summoned, with infinite patience.

This time I remembered both dreams when I wakened. I still shivered with the chill of those caverns. The dream was different every time, I thought, and yet was the same. A summoning.

I'm not stupid. I've seen enough incredibilities to know the dreams were more than nightmares. Something had singled me out. Something was trying to recruit me, to what cause I couldn't yet guess. The method was ancient. I've used it a thousand times. Offer power, wealth, whatever the desire is, dangling the lure till the fish bites, never revealing the cost.

Did this thing know me? Unlikely. I was receptive so it was trying to pull me.

I wouldn't accept it as a god, though it might want to be thought one. I've met only one god, Old Father Tree, master of the Plain of Fear. And he's no god in the accepted sense, only a being of immense longevity and power.

This world has shown me just two beings stronger than I. My husband, the Dominator, whom I cast into oblivion. In a thousand years he may be remembered as a dark god.

And Father Tree, greater than ever I could have been, who has roots anchoring him. He can project his power outside the Plain of Fear only through his servants.

Croaker told me about a third power that lies buried under Father Tree, imprisoned while the tree survives. The tree is immortal by human standards.

Where there are three great powers there could be more. The world is old. Yesterday is shrouded. Those who become great in one age often do so by mining the secrets of ages past. Who knows how many great evils lie beneath this haunted earth?

Who knows but what the gods of all men in all ages are but echoes of those who followed a path like mine and have, nevertheless, fallen victim to implacable time?

Not a thought to soothe the soul. Time is the enemy whose patience can't be exhausted.

"Mistress? Are you troubled?" Narayan's grin was absent. He showed genuine concern.

"Oh." He'd come up quietly. "No. A bad dream that lingered. Nightmares are the coin we pay for doing what we have to do."

He looked at me oddly.

"Do you have nightmares, Narayan?" I'd begun to press him quietly, to weigh his answers to questions probing his flanks.

"Never, Mistress. I sleep like a baby." He turned slowly, surveyed the camp. The countryside was shrouded in mist. "What's the agenda today?"

"Do we have practice weapons enough for a mock combat? One battalion against the other?" I had enough men to field two battalions of four hundred men, with a few hundred left to carry out camp duties and provide one inept cavalry troop.

"Barely. You want that?"

"I'd like to. But how can we reward the victors?" Training involved competitions now, with rewards for winning and for effort. Superior effort, even in losing, deserves recognition. Recognition encourages soldiers to give their best.

"There's relief from fatigues, foraging, and sentry duty."

"That's a possibility." I was also considering letting individuals send for their wives after we moved to Ghoja.

Ram brought me a breakfast bowl. We weren't eating well but we were getting bulk enough, so far. Narayan asked, "How much longer can you stall here?"

"Not long." Time was turning against us. The existence of the band had to be known up north. Potential political enemies would be digging in.

"Instead of mock combat we'll have a review. Spread a rumor that I'm thinking of moving out if what I see pleases me." That ought to motivate them.

"Yes, Mistress." Narayan retreated. He gathered his cronies, a dozen men who showed snips of colored cloth at their waists.

An interesting group. They sprang from all three major religions, two minor cults, and from among the liberated foreign slaves. They pretty much ran the camp though only Narayan and Ram had official standing. They kept the peace. The men weren't quite sure how to take them, but responded seriously because of that aura of the sinister that I'd noted myself.

Narayan admitted nothing. He handled my probes deftly. There was no doubt he directed the dozen, though several sprang from higher castes.

I kept an eye on him. Time would betray him-if he didn't open up, as he hinted he might.

For the moment he was too useful to press.

I nodded approval. "They almost look like soldiers." We'd have to get them uniform dress.

Narayan nodded. He seemed smug, as though his genius had produced our triumph and sparked a renascent spirit.

"How're the riding lessons coming?" Just making talk. I knew. Abysmally. None of these clowns belonged to a caste that got closer to a horse than to trail along behind cleaning up. But, damn, it would be a sin to waste those mounts.

"Poorly. Though a few men show promise. Not including myself or Ram. We were born to walk."

"Show promise" had become his favorite expression. In reference to everything. As he taught me to use the strangler's kerchief, or rumel, at my insistence, he said I showed promise.

I suspected he was surprised at how easily I picked it up. Its manipulation came as naturally as breathing, as though it was a skill I'd had all along. Maybe it came of centuries of practice at the quick, subtle gestures needed to manipulate sorceries.

"You were saying you were going to move?" Narayan asked. "Mistress." The honorific was becoming an afterthought. Narayan remained Taglian. He was beginning to take me for granted.

"Our foragers are having to range pretty far."

Narayan didn't reply but seemed reluctant to go.

I had a feeling I was being watched. At first I credited it to the crows. They kept me uncomfortable. Now I understood Croaker's reaction better. They didn't behave the way crows ought. I'd mentioned them to Narayan. He'd grinned and called them a good omen.

Meaning they were a bad omen for someone else. ‘ I scanned our surroundings. The crows were there, in their scores, but... "Narayan, collect the dozen best horsemen. I'm taking a patrol out."

"But ... Do you think... ?"

How could I get through? "I'm no garden rose. I'm taking a patrol out."

"As you command, Mistress, so shall it be."

It had better, Narayan. It had better.