The Proof House

CHAPTER ELEVEN

They woke Temrai up in the middle of the night to tell him the news. The messenger had ridden all the way from the battlefield to the camp beside Perimadeia; he was exhausted, and his boots were full of blood from the halberd cut in his groin. Chances were he’d be dead by morning.

Temrai woke up in a panic, grabbing wildly at the covers and wrenching his damaged knee. They told him it was all right, there was nothing to worry about; then they brought in the messenger, all bloody, hanging off the shoulders of two men. Temrai was still groggy with sleep and shocked by the pain in his leg, and he couldn’t quite make out everything the dying man was saying; he heard words like ambush and seventy per cent casualties and driven back in disorder and hit again before they could regroup. It was only when Kurrai started chattering excitedly about making the most of the opportunity and following up with a massive counter-attack that Temrai realised he’d just been told about a substantial victory, not a catastrophic defeat.

‘We won,’ he mumbled. ‘I’ll be damned. So how did that happen?’

By this time the messenger had passed out; they took him away and wrapped him in blankets, and he died just after dawn. Instead, Temrai heard the story from Kurrai, with the added benefit of the general’s strategic and tactical insights.

It had all started when the Imperial army, carefully mopping up after their victory in which Temrai had been hurt, stumbled across a small party of plains renegades who’d been running from Temrai’s men ever since their side had lost the civil war. To the provincial office, however, plainsmen were plainsmen. Their cavalry chased the renegades, pinned them down in a high-sided canyon and sent for substantial infantry reinforcements.

It was hot and dusty; there was water in the bottom of the canyon, where the renegades were, but not higher up, where the Imperial stakeout was settling in. The messenger sent to the Imperial field HQ made a point of stressing the urgency, and a column of just under two thousand men, led by a Son of Heaven, set out the same day.

Their own remarkable stamina and fitness caught them out. If they’d been slower, or not following the optimum route, it’s unlikely that they’d have run into Temrai’s reserve mounted infantry, who’d broken, run and been cut off from the rest of the army at an early stage in the first battle and had only just managed to find their way out of Imperial territory. The two forces coincided in a valley between a forest and a river, and purely by chance the plainsmen found themselves in a position that gave them an overwhelming tactical advantage. The Imperial infantry were hemmed in by the river, which was in spate and impassable; a bend in the river closed off one of the plainsmen’s flanks, the forest masked the other. The Imperial commander was left with a choice between sitting still and being pecked to death by hit-and-run attacks from the enemy archers or mounting a direct frontal assault against volley fire. Basing his decision on the superior quality of his men’s armour, he opted for the assault.

In his defence, the other option would probably have been equally disastrous. Doubtful, though, that this was much consolation, as he watched his advancing lines crumple up, like flawed metal under the hammer. After four detachments had failed to get within seventy-five yards of the enemy before collapsing in a tangle of metal and bodies, he fell back on the river in the wild hope that he might prompt the plainsmen to charge and give away their advantage. It didn’t work. The plainsmen held their position and sent out small parties to harass and disorganise the men on either flank. Eventually, in spite of all their training and discipline, the Imperial soldiers started to edge away from the attacks towards the perceived safety of the centre, opening gaps between themselves and the river bank wide enough for a sudden encircling rush. With mobile archers now surrounding them on all four sides, all they could do was huddle behind their shields and watch the arrows slant in at them. They made a few half-hearted attempts at sorties to break through the cordon, but it was pointless; the archers in front drew back as they approached, while those behind closed in, and the sortie parties were shot down before they could lumber more than a few yards.

The battle lasted six hours, five of them in the circle. If the Imperial commander had hung on for another half-hour, the plainsmen would have run out of arrows and pulled out, but of course he had no way of knowing that. He surrendered and his men were marched away, leaving twelve hundred of their number behind.

(A day or so later, a party of itinerant pedlars wandered on to the battlefield, stared in wonder at what they’d found, and spent the next two days stripping armour off the dead, beating out the holes and dents and cramming it all on to their wagons. In the end they sold the whole consignment to a scrap dealer in Ap’ Idras for more money than they’d ever imagined existed; in turn, the dealer sold it on to the Imperial armoury at Ap’ Oule at a hundred and fifty per cent mark-up, proving that even the most dismal tragedy is somebody’s opportunity of a lifetime.)

‘We won,’ Temrai repeated, when Kurrai had finished. ‘That’s amazing.’

‘Don’t sound so surprised,’ Kurrai replied. ‘And whatever you do, don’t start thinking our problems are over, because they aren’t. I don’t want to worry you unduly, but are you aware that every single nation that’s managed to inflict a significant defeat on the Empire over the last hundred and fifty years is now effectively extinct? They get awfully upset when they lose. There used to be a saying among the Ipacrians: the only thing worse than getting beaten by the Empire is beating them.’

Temrai nodded slowly. ‘Thank you very much,’ he said. ‘One more victory and we’re done for, is that it?’

Kurrai looked uncomfortable, and shrugged. ‘I just feel it’s important not to let one success go to our heads, that’s all. And we have to remember, fighting the Empire isn’t like fighting anybody else.’

‘I think I get the message,’ Temrai said.

By now, of course, he was far too wide awake to go back to sleep. Under normal circumstances he’d shake off the fit of depression by getting up, bustling about, finding something to do; but of course, he didn’t have that option. Tilden wasn’t there; she was on the other side of the straits with the rest of the non-combatants, camping out among the ruins of the City. The more restless he became, the more his knee hurt. Finally, he gave up even pretending to rest and yelled for the sentry.

‘Go and wake somebody up,’ he said. ‘I’m bored.’

The sentry grinned, and came back a little while later with a couple of very sleepy-looking council members, apparently chosen at random – Joducai, in charge of the transport pool, and Terscai, deputy chief engineer. Then he saluted and returned to his post.

‘Temrai, it’s the middle of the night,’ Joducai said.

Temrai frowned at him. ‘I can’t help that,’ he said. ‘Now then, those two Islanders, the old wizard and the boy-’

‘Islanders?’ Joducai looked confused, reasonably enough. ‘Sorry, you’ve lost me.’

‘We picked up a couple of Islanders wandering about down south,’ Temrai explained. ‘They said they’d been shipwrecked and just wanted to go home, but they could be spies, so I had them brought here.’

Terscai grinned. ‘Since when have you been bothered about spies?’ he said.

‘Since a spy saved my life, I guess,’ Temrai replied. ‘I’m thinking of recruiting my bodyguard exclusively from spies. Do me a favour, go and round them up and bring them here.’

‘Why us?’ Joducai asked.

‘You’re up and about,’ Temrai said. ‘Everybody else is asleep.’

Joducai sighed. ‘You’re feeling better, I can tell,’ he said. ‘It was wonderful when you were dying, a man could get a good night’s rest around here.’

A little later they came back with the two Islanders, Gannadius and Theudas Morosin.

‘Morosin,’ Temrai repeated. ‘That’s a Perimadeian name, isn’t it?’

The boy said nothing. ‘That’s right,’ the older man replied. ‘We’re both Perimadeians by birth. I’m his uncle.’

Temrai thought for a moment. ‘Gannadius isn’t a City name, is it?’

‘It’s the name I took when I joined the Perimadeian Order,’ he replied. ‘It’s traditional to take another name, usually borrowed from one of the great philosophers of the past. My given name was Theudas Morosin.’

Temrai raised an eyebrow. ‘The same as him?’ he asked.

‘That’s right. Morosin’s the family name, and Theudas is a name that runs in the family, if you follow me.’

‘Not really,’ Temrai admitted, cupping his chin in his palm. ‘It strikes me as showing a lack of imagination.’

‘Like having everybody’s name ending in ai,’ Gannadius replied. ‘It’s just the way we did things, that’s all.’

Temrai nodded slowly. ‘And you used to be Perimadeians,’ he said, ‘and now you’re Islanders. I see. I imagine you feel pretty uncomfortable here.’

Gannadius smiled. ‘He does,’ he said. ‘I’m a philosopher, so I don’t worry about that sort of thing.’

Temrai muffled a yawn – a genuine one, though it was well timed for effect. ‘Really,’ he said. ‘And what was a philosopher doing wandering about in our territory?’

‘We were shipwrecked,’ Gannadius said.

‘I see. On your way where?’

‘Shastel.’ Gannadius suddenly realised that he couldn’t remember what relations were like between the plainspeople and the Order; he couldn’t think of any reason offhand why there should be bad relations, or indeed any at all, but rationalising isn’t the same thing as knowing. Temrai, however, didn’t seem concerned.

‘And may I ask why you were going to Shastel?’ he said.

‘I live there,’ Gannadius said.

‘Oh. I thought you said you were an Islander.’

‘I am. I’m a citizen of the Island.’

‘A citizen of the Island, born in the City, living in Shastel, with two names. You must find life confusing sometimes.’

‘Oh, I do,’ Gannadius replied. ‘As I think I may have mentioned, I’m a philosopher.’

Temrai smiled, as if conceding the match. ‘What about him?’ he said. ‘I’m asking you, because he doesn’t seem very keen to talk to me.’

‘He’s shy.’

‘I see. Does he live in Shastel too?’

Gannadius shook his head. ‘On the Island. He works for a bank.’

‘Really? How interesting. And before that, did he go straight to the Island from the City after the Fall?’

Gannadius’ expression didn’t change. ‘Not exactly,’ he said. ‘He spent a few years abroad before that. You know all this, don’t you?’

Temrai nodded. ‘He was Bardas Loredan’s apprentice,’ he said. ‘Colonel Loredan rescued him from the sack of Perimadeia; from me, in fact, personally.’ He turned his head and gave Theudas a long, hard stare. ‘You’ve grown,’ he said.

For the first time, Gannadius’ air of affable rudeness waned a little, but not by much. ‘So what are you going to do to us?’ he asked.

‘Send you home, of course,’ Temrai answered, with a brilliant smile. ‘Though in your case, Mr Philosopher, I’m going to have to ask you to specify which one. You seem to have so many.’

‘The Island will do fine,’ Gannadius replied quickly. ‘Or Shastel. Whichever’s the most convenient, really.’

‘Anywhere but here, in fact?’

‘Yes,’ Gannadius admitted.

‘I quite understand.’ Temrai winced, as his knee twinged. ‘Please excuse me,’ he said. ‘I managed to damage my knee the other day.’

Gannadius nodded. ‘Strangling an Imperial trooper with your bare hands, so I gather,’ he said. ‘No mean feat, I’m sure.’

‘With a helmet strap, actually,’ Temrai replied. ‘Well, I think that’s everything. I believe there’s a ship sailing for the Island in a few days’ time; I don’t know the name offhand, I’m afraid. I strongly suggest you get on it; sea traffic’s more or less at a standstill at the moment, ever since the Empire hired all the ships on the Island.’

Gannadius clearly hadn’t heard about that. ‘Really?’ he said. ‘May I ask, do you know why?’

‘They’re going to attack us by sea,’ Temrai replied, ‘and the Islanders are lending them the ships to do it with, since the Empire hasn’t got any of its own. Sorry; hiring, not lending. I’d hate to offend your Island sensibilities by suggesting you’d ever do anything like that for free.’

‘That’s quite all right,’ Gannadius replied. ‘As you know, I’m really a Perimadeian, so I don’t mind.’

Temrai looked at the young man, Theudas (strange to be able to put a name to the face after all these years of nightmares). He was as white as a sheet, his hands balled into tight fists. ‘If you should happen to see Colonel Loredan before I do,’ he said, ‘please give him my regards and tell him to keep as far away from me as possible.’

Theudas was about to say something, but Gannadius was quicker. ‘We’ll be sure to deliver your message if we see him,’ he said, ‘though I would think that’s quite unlikely, really. After all, the only reason we’re here – no offence to you or your admirable hospitality, your people couldn’t have been kinder – is that the Imperials were trying to kill us.’

Temrai smiled. ‘Because they mistook you for Shastel.’

‘Oh, we are. At least I am. At least,’ Gannadius added gravely, ‘some of the time.’

‘It must be wonderful to be so many different people,’ Temrai said. ‘I’ve only ever been me. I envy you.’

‘Really?’

‘Absolutely. If I’d been able to choose my identity, I wouldn’t have had to do the things I did, and I wouldn’t be faced with the problems that are facing me. Everything I’ve ever been or done or had to suffer’s been because of who I am; but you – well, you’re lucky.’ He beckoned to the guard, who opened the tent-flap. ‘Thank you for stopping by,’ he said. ‘It’s been interesting talking to you.’

‘Likewise,’ Gannadius replied. ‘It was a pleasure meeting you, after all this time.’

‘Ap’ Calick?’ said the Son of Heaven. ‘Then you probably met my cousin.’

The column had pitched camp for the night, and the cooks were starting the evening meal. They’d just killed and paunched a sheep the foragers had brought in, and were putting up a trestle to hang it from. Being a Son of Heaven, Colonel Estar was taking a personal interest.

‘Your cousin,’ Bardas repeated.

‘His name’s Anax,’ Estar replied. ‘He runs the proof house. Short, bald chap in his late seventies. You’d remember him if you’d seen him.’

Although Bardas hadn’t been in the Imperial army for very long (at least, not by Imperial standards) he had an idea that it was unusual, to say the least, for the commanding officer of a column to sit under a tree beside the cooking-fire chatting amiably with an outlander, even if the outlander was nominally his co-commander. Either he was bored, or he found Bardas an unusually fascinating companion, or he was taking an opportunity to assess the army’s secret weapon in plenty of time before actually deploying it against the enemy. From what little he’d been able to gather about the Sons of Heaven, it was most likely a combination of all three.

‘Oh, yes,’ he replied, ‘I met Anax all right. He made me the armour I’ve been wearing today.’

‘Really?’ The cooks had managed to get the trestle to stay up, and were threading a rope between the bone and the sinew of the sheep’s back legs, just above the ankle. ‘I haven’t seen him in years. Really, I ought to make the effort and go to visit him next time I find myself out that way. How’s he keeping?’

‘Pretty well,’ Bardas replied. ‘Remarkable, for a man of his age.’

‘Good,’ Estar said, his eyes fixed on the work in progress before him. ‘He’s – let’s see, he’s my father’s mother’s eldest sister’s son. I expect you were surprised to find – well, one of us, working with his hands for a living.’

Bardas nodded. The cooks had strung up the dead sheep and were starting to skin it; one of them knelt down and pulled on its front legs, while the other made a delicate cut around the leg just below the point where they’d passed the rope through, taking care not to nick the tendon. ‘I assumed it’s what he likes doing,’ Bardas said. ‘I can’t imagine any other reason.’

Estar smiled. ‘Not really,’ he said. ‘The truth is, Anax has led what you might call an interesting life, one way and another. At one time he was a deputy prefect in the commissioner’s department, right in the heart of the Empire. That was when he made a mistake.’

Now the cooks were slitting the skin down along the legs, following the bone with the specially shaped points of their knives until they reached the wide opening they’d made in the belly when they scooped out the guts. ‘Mistake,’ Bardas repeated. ‘I’d better not ask about that.’

‘Oh, whyever not?’ Estar grinned. ‘I’m not so cruel as to drop a tantalising hint like that and then leave you hanging, so to speak. He was in charge of a district, and a rebellion broke out. Well, it wasn’t even a rebellion, properly speaking; there was a tax-collector who was a bit too heavy-handed in his methods, and he came to a bad end. It should have been perfectly possible to sort it out. But for some reason, Anax got it wrong; first he let them get away with it for far too long, and then he sent in a platoon of soldiers to demolish the village. After that, there really was a rebellion.’

Now they were cutting away round the vent; one of them caught hold of the tail and twisted sharply, until the bones cracked. ‘I see,’ Bardas said. ‘What happened?’

‘It dragged on for ages,’ Estar replied. ‘Anax sent more troops, the rebels burned their village to the ground and hid in the woods. The soldiers tried to bring them out by attacking the other villages in the district, but that just made matters worse, because all the people they displaced went to join the rebels. It wasn’t long before there were several thousand men in the woods; enough to inflict a serious defeat on us if we tried to go in after them and messed it up. On the other hand, Anax couldn’t just ignore something like that, and in the end he had no option. The whole thing was a disaster from beginning to end, really.’

They were peeling the skin off the sheep’s back, pressing down into the opening flap with their fists to keep the flesh from being torn off. There’s no other sound like it. ‘I assume he won, though,’ Bardas said, watching the cooks as they worked. ‘In the end, I mean.’

‘Well, of course. The Empire always wins; what matters is how it wins. And in this case, we didn’t win well. I forget how many men he lost crashing about in the woods before he finally managed to pin them down, but it was a couple of hundred; that’s pretty disastrous in any context, but for a police action in a supposedly quiet and peaceful inner province-’ Estar shook his head. ‘He had to burn them out in the end; he cleared firebreaks right the way round the part of the wood they were ensconced in, stationed guards in the drives and set fire to everything in the middle. None of them even tried to come out. Apparently the smell was quite revolting.’

To get the skin off the ribs without tearing it, the cooks were shaving the membranes between the hide and the bone, going carefully so as not to nick the skin and start a tear. ‘I can imagine,’ Bardas said, pulling a wry face. ‘So what happened to Anax after that?’

Estar poured himself a drink from the little cherry-wood flask Bardas had seen tucked into his sash. ‘They were going to put him on trial,’ he said, ‘but the family pulled some strings; instead, he was officially censured and posted to the western frontier – what was the western frontier then, forty years ago; of course, it’s moved on since then, but Anax stayed where he was. Officially he was the deputy master of the proof house; in reality, he was shoved in there and told he was never coming out. And there he’s been ever since, amusing himself as best he can. He brought it on himself, I suppose, but I can’t help thinking it was a pretty harsh way to treat a man for what was, after all, an error of judgement.’

With the points of their knives, following the bone by feel, they were slitting down the line of the front legs. ‘It’s not for me to comment,’ Bardas said. ‘I suppose you have to live with the risk of something like that, once you start taking responsibility for other people’s lives.’

‘Oh, it’s everybody’s nightmare, isn’t it?’ Estar answered, pulling a sad face. ‘You’re the man in command when everything starts going wrong; or you’re the man who has to fight the battle that can’t be won, attack the impregnable city, hold off the unstoppable horde. You could say he was just plain unlucky. I mean, who’s to say you or I would have done any better, in his position?’

– And finally, with much effort and exertion, they pulled the skin over the shoulders and away from the severed neck, so that it came off whole and undamaged, clean on the inside, without spoiling either the hide or the carcass. The flesh glistened slightly in the glow of the fire, like a newly born baby, or a man shiny with sweat as he takes off his armour on a hot day. Then they started to joint it, while the kitchen boy set about breaking open the head with a big pair of shears. ‘I’m going to pull rank and ask for the brains,’ Estar said with a smile. ‘Straight from the bone, simmer for half an hour in brine, add a couple of eggs and some lemon juice; there’s nothing to beat it. Some people reckon you should saute them, but to my mind that’s sacrilege.’

Bardas shrugged. ‘My mother used to cook them when we were kids,’ he said, ‘but I can’t remember what they were like. Everything she cooked tended to taste the same, anyway. Since then, I’ve never been all that interested in food.’

Estar laughed. ‘I pity you,’ he said. ‘One of the great pleasures of life you’ve missed out on there, and now I suppose it’s too late for you to learn to appreciate it. That’s a shame.’ He watched the kitchen boy attentively. ‘And I thought Perimadeia was famous for the variety and quality of its cuisine.’

‘It was,’ Bardas said. ‘Or so people told me. I was quite happy to take their word for it.’

‘And what about the wine, then?’ Estar asked. ‘Or don’t you drink, either?’

‘Mostly we drank cider,’ Bardas replied. ‘Cheap, and it did the job. Better for you than the wine; at least, the sort of wine they sold in the sort of places I used to go. I don’t think you’d have liked it very much.’

They were cutting through the breastbone with a saw. ‘Oh, I’ve drunk my fair share of rotgut,’ Estar said, ‘when I was a penniless student. Remarkable how quickly you can get used to it, if there isn’t anything else.’ Bardas noticed how intently he was watching the cooks. It was more than the obsessive attention to detail of the true gourmet. Maybe Estar was aware of his interest, because he smiled and said, ‘All this is part of a boy’s education, back home. At the same time as we’re learning spelling and basic algebra and geometry, we’re being taught the one true way of jointing and dressing meat. The idea is that by the time a boy’s ten years old, you should be able to give him a dead sheep and a sharp knife, go away for a couple of hours and come back to a perfect meal of roast mutton, seasoned with rosemary and bay and served in the proper manner, according to the specifications set down in the Book. If I were at home right now, I’d be doing all this – it’s the host’s privilege to prepare food for his guests; we take that sort of thing very seriously. Good food, good wine, good music and good conversation. Everything else is just a necessary evil.’

‘That’s an interesting point of view,’ Bardas said diplomatically. ‘Of course, it does rather depend on having something to eat in the first place.’

Estar frowned for a moment, then laughed. ‘You’re missing the point,’ he said. ‘The very essence of luxury is simplicity. Luxury’s not really got anything to do with being rich and powerful; it’s just that the two are often found together, like horseflies and dung. Suppose that all you’ve got is a slingshot and a handful of pebbles; you can walk up the mountain and kill a sand-grouse as easily as walking down the mountain and killing a rabbit; as you go, you gather a few essential herbs and seasonings, and when you get back you take a little more care and trouble over cooking the meal than you absolutely have to. Good wine’s made from the same materials as bad wine; as for good music and good conversation, they cost nothing.’ He sighed and put his hands behind his head. ‘You should read some of our great poets, Bardas,’ he said. ‘Dalshin and Silat and the Rose-Scented Arrow. They’re all about the simple life, an ideal existence from which everything gross and intrusive has been purged away – refined, in the true sense of the word. That’s the very root and source of our culture; it’s who we are. “No man can fold a bolt of silk as perfect as a rose”-’

‘I see,’ Bardas interrupted, before Estar could get any further. ‘So what are you doing here?’

Estar closed his eyes. ‘Necessary evil,’ he replied. ‘To live the perfect life, you must first have stability, security. How can you possibly concentrate on the essentials of existence if there’s any possibility of danger from outside? The army, the provinces – they’re a wall we’ve built around us, they’re the armour we need to protect us; strength outside, sweet simplicity within. Sadly, it means that some of us have to turn our backs on the important things for some of the time; it’s worth it, though, because we know the simple perfection will always be there, waiting for us when we come home.’ He opened his eyes and sat up. ‘You’re smiling,’ he said. ‘Obviously you don’t agree.’

Bardas shook his head. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I was thinking of my home – well, my original home; I’ve lived all over the place. But what I was thinking about was where I grew up, in the Mesoge. That’s about as simple as you can get.’

‘Oh yes?’

‘Definitely.’

Estar raised an eyebrow. ‘Have you been back there recently?’ he asked.

‘About four years ago,’ Bardas replied. ‘I didn’t enjoy the experience much.’

‘The Mesoge,’ Estar repeated. ‘Isn’t that where your brother-?’

Bardas nodded. ‘Now, Gorgas would probably agree with you,’ he said. ‘About home and the simple things being the most important. With him, I think, it’s always been home and family, or at least that’s what he’s always chosen to think. I did too, for many years, until I actually went home and saw my family again.’ He smiled. ‘That’s what made me join the Imperial army,’ he added.

‘Sorry, I don’t follow.’

‘The Empire’s a big place,’ Bardas replied. ‘And I wanted to put as much distance between myself and my home and family as I possibly could.’

‘Oh.’ Estar’s expression suggested that here was a concept he’d have difficulty grasping. ‘Well, your misfortune is our good fortune, I suppose. Are you happy doing this?’

Bardas frowned. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I mean, I’m not sure. It’s – well, as far as I’m concerned, it’s an unusual criterion to judge anything by, whether it makes you happy or not. It’s a bit like asking a man who’s clinging to a piece of driftwood in the middle of the sea whether he likes the colour.’

Estar folded his eyebrows in a mock scowl. ‘Oh, come on,’ he said, ‘that’s a bit melodramatic, surely. Here you are, a strong, healthy man in the prime of life. Sure, you have to work to make a living; but wouldn’t it be just as easy to make that living doing something you enjoy, or at least something that isn’t actively offensive to you? It’s like the imaginary hunter with the slingshot I was talking about just now; he may only have a sling and a stone, but he still has the choice to go up the hill. If you don’t like being a soldier, go away and do something else; weave baskets or turn bowls or scare crows. Or make yourself a sling and gather a handful of pebbles.’

Bardas smiled. The boy had finally managed to crack open the sheep’s skull, and was scooping the white, sloppy brains out into a bowl with a tin spoon. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘but before I could do that I’d need a suit of armour, like you said yourself. I’d need to be safe from all my enemies.’›

Estar shrugged. ‘Come and live inside the Empire,’ he said. ‘Once you get in deep, past the outer provinces, everybody’s safe there. You could get right away from all these enemies of yours, and even if they did track you down and find you, they’d never dare to make any trouble inside the Empire.’

‘It’s a tempting offer,’ Bardas replied, remembering the man and his children who’d tried to rob the post coach. ‘But I’d think twice before making it, if I were you. You see, wherever I go, this dangerous, bloodthirsty troublemaker keeps following me, and I’m not sure you’d be all that keen on having him around.’

Estar furrowed his brow. ‘You mean your brother?’ he asked.

Bardas watched the kitchen boy shaking the last scrap of white jelly out of the skull. ‘My own flesh and blood,’ he replied.

‘What do you think?’ Iseutz said.

‘You look ridiculous,’ her mother replied without looking up from her chequer-board. ‘Fortunately, nobody’s going to see you in it, so it doesn’t matter.’

Iseutz frowned. ‘I think it suits me,’ she said.

In the corner of the room, her mother’s cat was eating a bird, rather noisily, not particularly concerned that the bird was still alive. Iseutz recognised it as next door’s pet mynah bird. ‘It could do with taking up a little here, don’t you think?’ she said, twitching the hem of the skirt with her left hand. ‘I’m not sure. Should it be on the knee or an inch above?’

Niessa Loredan scowled at the counters spread out before her. ‘Who cares?’ she said.

‘I care.’

‘Since when?’ Niessa laughed unpleasantly. ‘And besides,’ she added, ‘if you knew even the slightest bit about fashion, you’d know that look’s over and done with now. You’re just doing this to annoy me, the same reason you do everything.’

Iseutz took no notice; she sat down in the window-seat, her back to the blue sea, and studied the stumps of her fingers. ‘If nobody’s ever going to see me,’ she said sweetly, ‘what does it matter if it’s gone out of fashion?’

‘I’ve got to look at you,’ Niessa replied sourly. ‘And I’ve got enough to put up with without you prancing round dressed like that.’ She looked up. ‘This is because I stopped you writing to your uncle Gorgas, isn’t it?’

That’s what you think. ‘It’s nothing to do with that,’ Iseutz said. ‘You think everything I do has somehow got to be about you.’

Niessa folded her arms. ‘If you were really interested in how you look,’ she said, ‘if you were really interested in anything normal, it’d be different. But you aren’t. Look at you. You’re a freak.’

‘Thank you,’ Iseutz replied gravely.

‘And now,’ her mother went on, ‘you insist on dressing like a freak as well. And that’s too much. I won’t have it in this house, and that’s final.’

Iseutz glanced over her shoulder at the sea. ‘I’m not a freak,’ she said, ‘I’m a Loredan. The difference is small but significant.’

Niessa shook her head. ‘For one thing,’ she said, ‘isn’t it horribly uncomfortable? It looks like it should be.’

It was, of course; that was one of the reasons why the warrior-princess look had died the death in other, more rational places. Here in Ap’ Bermidan, it was little short of torture; the leather was stiff and clammy with sweat, and the sheer weight of the chain-mail top pressing on her neck and shoulders was giving her spasms of cramp up and down her back. ‘It’s fine,’ Iseutz said. ‘Much more comfortable than all those dreary long skirts.’

‘Then why do you keep massaging your neck when you think I’m not looking?’ Niessa demanded. ‘I can see from here, it’s rubbed a big red sore patch. Serves you right.’

Iseutz drummed her heels against the wall. ‘I like it,’ she said. ‘I think it’s me.’

Niessa grinned. ‘I won’t argue with you there,’ she said. ‘But the whole point of putting clothes on is to try to disguise what you are.’ She clicked her tongue, something that grated unbearably on her daughter. ‘And you say you can’t understand why I don’t let you out in public.’

Disguise what I am, like cooking herbs with tainted meat. ‘You haven’t said what you think I should do about the skirt,’ Iseutz said. ‘On balance, I think I’ll leave it as it is; after all, I’m not terribly much use with a needle.’

‘Or without,’ Niessa sighed. ‘Now shut up or go to your room. I’ve got work to do.’

Iseutz smiled, and shifted a little so that she could look out of the window without craning her neck. Blue sky and blue sea, with a spit of white sand dividing them. It was a very boring view, but there wasn’t anything else.

‘What was that?’ Niessa said, lifting her head sharply. Someone was bashing at the door down below. ‘Startled me.’

Iseutz pretended to take no notice. She hoped it was the Ap’ Muren courier; a bulk garlic merchant from Ap’ Muren sometimes bought from an Islander who occasionally went to the Mesoge for dried wild mushrooms and isinglass. But her mother hadn’t had dealings with Ap’ Muren for ages, so it wasn’t very likely.

The door opened, but the man who walked in wasn’t the porter; he was hovering behind the newcomer’s shoulder, looking agitated. The newcomer was a soldier.

‘Niessa Loredan,’ he said. It was a statement of fact, not a question.

‘What do you want?’

‘You’re coming with us,’ the soldier said, as two more, apparently identical in every respect, barged past the porter into the room. Their armour made them look huge and bulky.

‘Like hell,’ Niessa said, but a soldier grabbed hold of the back of her neck, like a man picking up a small dog, and shoved her towards the door. ‘What is this?’ Niessa squawked. ‘Where are you taking me?’ The soldier didn’t seem to have heard. Iseutz slid down off the window seat.

‘Can I come too?’ she asked.

The soldier looked at her. ‘Iseutz Loredan,’ he said. ‘You too.’

‘My pleasure,’ Iseutz replied. ‘Have we got time to pack a few things, or-?’

Apparently not; the soldier caught hold of her arm and hustled her out of the room, down the spiral staircase, shoving her so hard she nearly slipped and fell. At the foot of the stairs he stopped, pulled the little toy sword out of its scabbard at her waist and dropped it on the floor. ‘This way,’ he said.

‘What, down the path? I’m so glad you told me, I’d never have guessed.’

No sense of humour, soldiers; for that, she got a shove on the shoulder that nearly sent her sprawling. But she managed to keep her balance long enough to catch hold of the man’s wrist with her left hand and flip him across her back and over her shoulder. Judging by the noise he made, he didn’t land very well.

‘Iseutz! ’ her mother screamed, angry and terrified and embarrassed. One of the other soldiers was drawing his sword – instinct, probably, or conditioned response, but Iseutz wasn’t at her most rational, either. Skipping forward a step or two she kicked the fallen soldier in the face before he had a chance to get up (she heard the bone in his nose snap), bobbed down, slid his sword out of its scabbard left-handed and advanced. Both of the remaining soldiers had their swords drawn now, but they didn’t know what to do – fighting one-handed girls who were wanted alive by the prefect’s office and were also capable of throwing lance-corporals of the guard around like rose-petals was definitely not something they were willing to undertake without first being told the rules of engagement by a senior officer.

‘Iseutz,’ Niessa wailed, beside herself with fury, ‘what the hell do you think you’re doing? Put that down immediately, before you get us both-’

If her mother hadn’t interfered, Iseutz might well have dropped the sword; she was, after all, in a completely untenable position. As it was, she gripped the hilt even more firmly, and prayed silently to Fool’s Luck that the soldiers wouldn’t guess that she couldn’t fight southpaw worth spit. As she advanced, they backed away; she circled, gradually edging them round until she had her back to the road. Then she turned round and ran as fast as she could. They followed, the two squaddies close behind her and gaining, the lance-corporal lagging behind. This wasn’t any good; too long spent cooped up in her mother’s house, not enough exercise. So she waited till they were almost on to her, then spun round, swishing the sword at shoulder height in a flat circle. The soldiers pulled up sharply. One stumbled and slipped on to his face and hands, the other took a defensive guard and stared at her with a horrified why-me expression in his eyes. Iseutz grinned at him and lunged. It wasn’t a good lunge – Uncle Bardas wouldn’t have approved – but the soldier wasn’t a particularly good fencer; instead of parrying he got out of the way by jumping backwards, almost landing on his colleague’s outstretched hand.

Give it up, she thought. They aren’t going to hurt you. Instead she lunged again; a truly sloppy lunge this time, head not still, balance nowhere. The soldier’s parry was worse, a typical fumbled response by a righthander against a southpaw. She made a half-decent recovery, feinted low and came up into a short backhand cut that caught the soldier’s sword on the fort of the blade, a finger’s breadth below the quillons, and knocked it out of his hand. He stood perfectly still, staring at her; beside him, his colleague was scrabbling up on to his feet. Iseutz turned and ran.

A little better now. The soldier had stopped to pick up his sword, his mate who’d fallen over had turned his ankle and was hobbling, and the lance-corporal was still well behind. Nevertheless, it was only a matter of time and distance, and she knew that. What the hell; it’d be amusing to see just how far she could get. ‘Iseutz! ’ her mother was shrieking in the distance. Probably no other incentive could have made her force her numb-weary knees to carry her up the scarp and down into the dip on the other side -

– Where (there is no god but Fool’s Luck, and I am his chosen one) she found herself in the arms of an extremely startled man who was standing beside a perfectly good horse, tightening the girths of his saddle. Iseutz squeaked with shock, turned the squeak into a growl and waggled the sword in the air; the man reeled backwards, slipped and staggered away. But I hate horses, Iseutz thought as she jammed her foot in the stirrup and launched herself on to the animal’s back, trying to catch hold of the reins with the stumps of her righthand fingers and failing. She slid the sword between the saddle and her right thigh, pressing hard to keep it there, caught hold of the reins and dug her heels in.

Of course, she hadn’t the faintest idea where she was going; she’d hardly been outside the door ever since they’d arrived in this godforsaken place. But it didn’t matter. She was going to get caught sooner or later, so there wouldn’t have been much point in planning an itinerary. The horse, on the other hand, seemed to have views of its own; no matter how hard she tried to pull its head round, sooner or later it returned to its default course – if pressed, Iseutz would have hazarded a guess that they were running due west, but her sense of direction had never been her strong suit. The sword and a raised seam in her idiotic leather skirt were digging into her quite excruciatingly. All in all, she felt, she wouldn’t be too sorry when it was all over.

(Spur-of-the-moment actions, quick reflexes, snap decisions; then grab somebody else’s horse and get the hell out, fast as you can. It’s the Loredan way. Uncle Gorgas will be so proud when I tell him…)

And then, quite suddenly, there was nowhere else to go. The sea sprang out at her from under the lip of a patch of dead ground. She’d come to the edge.

The horse wanted to go left, following the coastline up towards Ap’ Bermidan. Iseutz had no strong feelings on the matter either way. They turned left; and before long they were on the outskirts of the town, passing the square wooden frames where the fishermen hung up their catch to dry in the sun and the wind. She took note of the fish as she rode past, contorted by death and desiccation into melodramatic writhing shapes, stiff as boards and flaking loose scales. Dipped in olive oil or smeared with a little garlic butter, the stuff tasted like greasy firewood, and none of the locals would touch it. Instead they shipped it inland, where it was reckoned a delicacy.

As she reached the edge of the harbour, a shallow half-moon enclosed by a long artificial spit extending from a projecting spur of rock, she saw that there were only two ships tied up at the quay. One of them was a short, stubby galley, the pitiful excuse for a ship that was all the Imperials knew how to build. The other was completely different; curved and tapered at each elevated end like a slice of melon, with small castles fore and aft standing high above the water. She hadn’t been a merchant’s daughter very long, but even she could recognise a Colleon long-haul freighter. She reined in the horse, frowned, then grinned. It was pointless, of course; they’d never go for it, and besides, the timing would be all wrong – they’d probably only just arrived and would be in no hurry to leave. Nevertheless, she couldn’t see any reason why she shouldn’t give it a try. All she could do was fail.

There was a small gang of men loading barrels on to the ship with a block and tackle. ‘Hello,’ she said. They stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

‘Where are you headed?’ she asked, hopping down from the horse.

There was a long pause, then one of the men said, ‘The Island.’

‘That’s a bit of luck, then,’ Iseutz replied cheerfully, ‘because that’s where I’m headed.’

The man who’d spoken looked her up and down. ‘Merchant?’ he asked.

Iseutz realised that her ludicrous outfit was just the sort of thing an Island merchant might be wearing. ‘Courier,’ she replied. ‘For the Shastel Bank. Just letters,’ she added with a smile, ‘no cash money, so there’s no point throwing me overboard as soon as we’re out of sight of land. I missed my connection a few days back and I’m running really late, so if you could possibly help me out, I’d be very grateful. And so would the Bank,’ she added.

‘Not up to me,’ the man replied.

Iseutz nodded. ‘Then if you could possibly see your way to telling me where I can find whoever it is up to-’

The man jerked his head up at the ship. ‘Captain Yelet,’ he said. ‘You got much stuff to take? We’ll be off soon as this lot’s loaded, or we’ll miss the tide.’

She smiled, shook her head, unfastened the saddlebag and slung it over her shoulder. It was surprisingly heavy, and as she held it against her cheek, she thought she could hear the chink of money.

‘Captain Yelet,’ she repeated. ‘Thanks ever so much. See you later.’

The captain wasn’t hard to find; but by the time she tracked him down, checking the fastenings in the cargo hold, she’d had a chance to peek inside the saddlebag. Fool’s luck: there was a small fortune in there.

‘You want to be careful,’ the captain warned her gravely as she counted out two gold quarters into his huge round hand. ‘Travelling on your own with that much money.’

Iseutz shrugged. ‘I manage,’ she said.

Dear uncle -

She’d never even tried to write left-handed before. It was still a mess, but much better than she’d ever managed with the stumps of her right.

As the sun set, so the wind had dropped, and at last the ship was holding still long enough for her to be able to put her ink-horn down beside her on the deck with a reasonable chance of it staying there. Quite the treasure trove, that saddlebag; as well as the money she’d found this adorable little traveller’s writing set, pens, powdered ink, a dear little penknife, ink-horn and stand, all in a flat box you could use to rest on. And her fool’s luck didn’t end there; after Captain Yelet concluded his business on the Island, he was heading for Barzea, where he was sure he’d be able to find a jute-dealer headed for Tornoys who’d be only too pleased to deliver her letter. It was turning out to be a good day after all.

Wasn’t over yet, of course. There was still a drop or two of blood to be squeezed out of the sun before it set, enough time for the soldiers’ galley to show up and arrest her, assuming that they’d heard about this ship and figured it right. That was what ought to happen; but in the other pan of the scale was the luck of the Loredans-

(After all, Uncle Gorgas managed; I wonder how he did it. Did he ride to Tornoys, that day I was conceived, and just happen to find a ship on the point of sailing for Perimadeia? Did he open the saddlebags on my father’s horse and discover a fat purse of money, enough to buy him his passage across the sea? Did he stop to wonder how much further he could get before the rope ran out?)

She thought for a moment, trying to find the right words. Never an easy job at the best of times; when the course of one’s entire life may hang on a misunderstood nuance, decidedly ticklish.

Dear uncle, would it be all right if I came to stay with you for a bit? Things have been a little fraught just recently -

(No need to specify further.)

– and I think a change of scene would do me good. Needless to say, I promise I’ll behave -

(Or would that strike the wrong note? A lot would depend on whether the letter reached him before the official pronouncement that she was a wanted fugitive, and that in turn would depend on whether Captain Yelet was going straight to Barzea after stopping at the Island or working his way up the coast making deliveries and running errands, and whether the price of jute was good enough at the moment to justify the Barzea ropewalk owners buying in raw materials from the Mesoge. On balance, better to leave it out; he wouldn’t believe her anyway, or care particularly much.)

– A change of scene would do me good. I feel as if I’ve been cooped up in this dismal place for simply ages; and besides, it’s been years since I last saw you. How are Uncle Clefas and Uncle Zonaras, by the way? You realise, I’ve never met them, so that’d be something to look forward to. So if you could see your way -

(No. Don’t plead.)

– Oh, one other thing. According to the captain of this ship I’m on, there’s not much leaving the Island right now – something to do with the provincial office chartering anything that’ll float; I’m so behind with the news that I’ve probably got that all mixed up – so if by any chance you happen to know of any ships sailing to the Island from the Mesoge and back again, could you possibly ask the captain to look me up and take me back with him? I don’t quite know yet where I’ll be staying; I don’t know anybody on the Island, so I expect it’ll be an inn somewhere -

(The right degree of pathos there, or should she stress it a little more? No; being obvious would most likely prove counterproductive.)

When she’d finished writing the letter, she sealed it up with a drop of the rather splendid blue sealing-wax in the writing set – she was just about to press down on the little cornelian seal when it occurred to her that Uncle Gorgas might just conceivably know the man she’d stolen it from, and that could cause problems; so she marked a big L for Loredan with her thumbnail instead – and took it to Captain Yelet, who made a great point of putting it away safely in his own document case, neatly curled up in a smart brass tube. Apparently the captain had formed the impression that she was the daughter of some prosperous Island family, sent abroad on her first errand, who’d made a mess of things and missed her boat, so that helping her out would quite probably pay dividends in the future. She hadn’t said anything to him herself; so presumably it was the chain-mail blouse and daintily embossed hardened leather cuisses of the warrior-princess look that misled him.