Chapter 12: Settling In

Tanda Havra was out early the next morning, meeting Tazi on the landing of the outer town. "Come, walk with me," Tanda told the girl and they walked along the road that led around the lake, to the south.

The sun was just coming up; the morning was briskly chill, but promised to be much warmer later. Tanda stopped after a bit and pointed to some rocks. "Come and sit, I want to talk."

Tazi did, obviously curious.

"Manistewa is a trader, do you understand?"

Tazi bobbed her head, agreeing. Everyone in Mogdai knew he was a trader.

"Tazi, I swear to you, I did not work for my uncle."

Tazi frowned, puzzled at what Tanda had said. "You worked in the village, Tanda. You collected herbs, prepared medicines."

"I did. There is, Tazi, not much money to be made doing that. I came away from Mogdai, like you, with nothing. Money was nothing in Mogdai, here -- it is much more."

Tanda changed subjects.

"A trader needs to know things. He needs to know safe routes, he needs to know how dangerous a journey will be, he needs to know what the people at the other end of the journey need and what they have to sell him."

"I understand," Tazi told her.

"Understand, until now, I have never worked for my uncle. Never. Now, however, I am a beggar. And now I am going to have to work for him."

"Telling him things?"

"Yes. Finding out things and telling them to him. Still, I lived in Mogdai, I shared what I had with the others and they shared with me. That means more to me than my uncle. Last night, he sent a man to tell you I wanted you to be here. He lied; I knew nothing of it.

"From this day forward, Tazi, do not let anyone command you in my name, unless you hear the words from my lips."

"Is he going to force you to marry him?" Tazi asked, wide-eyed with concern.

Tanda smiled. "No, he likes to sleep at night. He knows that if he tried that, that first night he'd not wake up, ever again."

Tazi clapped her hands together and laughed. The villagers knew about such things and would have felt sadness for her, but would never have dreamed of interfering.

Tanda watched her, having the advantage of knowing that Manistewa's interest in her was entirely feigned. But it was a classic story and, as such, had considerable utility.

"Now, we are going to look for Lord Tuck, Gamelin, Judybondi and a few others. I want to watch them. My uncle wants me to watch them," she corrected herself.

They went about another mile and found a vantage point where they could see out over the lake.

And almost at once, she saw a raft part way across the lake. Tanda mentally kicked herself. The raft was headed towards the eastern shore, not the western shore and the outer town. It was a large raft, propelled by a half dozen men on sweeps. There were a dozen horses and as many men aboard as well. Tuck was easy to spot, because of his hat. Judybondi was aboard as well. She was also easy to see, as she was the tallest person on the raft.

"Looks like we get to run, sister!" Tanda told her companion. She waved around them. "We might meet the enemy."

"I have my knife," Tazi said proudly. "And the rifle the Hostigi said I could keep."

"And I have mine. I also have a pistol my uncle gave me." She showed Tazi the weapon, carried in her herb bag. "The next time, you too will have one!"

"Let us run, older sister!" Tazi said, starting off.

Tanda fell in step next to her and they did run. The raft had about a mile and a half to cover; they had something like six miles. On the other hand, Tanda and Tazi didn't have a dozen horses, which would need unloading from the raft, then would have to be mounted. That would take time. And while a horse could run faster over short distances, a human could run farther faster if they were good runners. Tanda and Tazi were very good runners.

Good runners or not, evidently Tuck and those with him were efficient, because they reached shore, quickly loaded the horses and were off in a column, heading further eastwards.

They were quickly lost to sight; the ground on that side of the lake was rougher, with low hills back a mile or so from the edge of the water.

A palm-width later Tanda and Tazi reached the top of a ridge, going slowly. Ahead, out in a small flat basin, Tuck and his party were gathered around something.

For a finger-width Tanda was mildly frustrated, but eventually the normal movements of the people left an opening large enough and long enough for her to recognize what was on the ground and the subject of their attention.

A simple tube mortar, a basic infantry combat weapon. Since it was not possible for Tuck to have designed one and had it built overnight, it meant that it was something in the regular service of Hostigos -- which meant, in practice, the High King.

For more than a palm-width the men stood around and talked, a lot of talk, Tanda thought.

Tazi, after a few finger-widths, grew bored. "What are they doing?"

Tanda smiled. "I don't know. I think Manistewa doesn't know either. So I will watch and tell him what I see."

"What Tuck did yesterday," Tazi went on, "naming our sister 'Shining Path!' That was a good thing!"

"It was," Tanda agreed. She took her eyes off the activity in front of her and turned to face Tazi. "Sometimes simple men, faced with something extraordinary, do extraordinary things." Tazi nodded in agreement. "And that's simple men. What great men do in extraordinary circumstances is powerful; grandeur to behold. As the Hostigi learned when High King Kalvan came to Hostigos.

"And now Tuck has appeared. The High King knew how to rally armies to his banner; he knew how to arm them and how to fight them. I think Tuck is a man who can sneak through the blackest night, strike an enemy and be away before any know he is there. Count Tellan does not have an army that can fight the Zarthani or the Mexicotal separately; combined, their armies will easily defeat the count and his soldiers. Except for Tuck. It will be a terrible beauty to behold, Tazi. But, unless something happens to him, everyone will be amazed. As amazed as they were when the High King came amongst them."

"And Judybondi? Becky? Lydia? Elspeth... the one who is with child."

"A child fathered by rape," Tanda reminded her young friend.

"There are times when I wish we could rip such from our bellies and leave the ill-sown seed for the wolves."

Tanda didn't speak. On the civilized timelines the debate had raged for years and years. Home Timeline citizens were the ultimate pragmatists: if an abortion was what you wanted, then do it. Their laws were relatively loose, so long as you weren't hurting or stealing from others. Or breaking the Paratime Secret.

The morning wore on and for a change something was going on down the hill and across the basin. Men were moving back, leaving Tuck and a man Tanda didn't recognize at the mortar. After a heart-beat, the unknown man dropped a round and a few seconds later Tanda heard the chuff of the explosion.

Tazi looked up, curious. The spy business, Tanda thought, was tricky. She could have given it all away just by warning Tazi what was going to happen.

Instead, the explosion racketed around the hills, and Tazi was now close to the ground, peering into the distance.

"What was that?" Tazi asked.

Tanda shook her head, while watching Tuck and the other man, probably a sergeant, talking for a moment. Then Tuck leaned down and did something to the mortar. Adjusting the aiming, Tanda thought.

Another heartbeat later another chuff, followed a few moments later by another explosion.

"You should get down, Tanda," Tazi said earnestly. "It sounds like there is a cannon out there, far off now. But the Mexicotal can move very fast, when they want to surprise you."

Tanda had seen the bloom of the second round hitting; it was about twenty feet from a small pine tree, standing at a distance from the others around it. Tuck bent down again, and a moment later a third round flew.

The tree shattered, falling over as black smoke shrouded the red heart of an explosion.

"I think," Tanda said evenly, "that little thing is a cannon."

Tazi looked. "It is too small, elder sister! Cannons are huge!"

"Remember those are the High King's men!" Tanda reminded her. "They are famous for making things that seem huge small and understandable."

Tazi moved a bit, then stood up, shading her eyes so that she could see better. Below, it was Tuck whose head turned first in their direction. Then Judybondi's, then the old sergeant Vosper. All of them staring in their direction.

"Tazi, do not move! They've seen you!"

Tazi did as bid, and then saw the men looking at her.

"Elder sister! I have hurt you! What are we going to do?"

"You, Tazi, will turn around and walk slowly towards me, and over the hill. Then we will run quickly over there," Tanda pointed to an outcropping a few hundred feet away. "We will stuff our bags with thrush willow!"

Tazi moved, while Tanda watched from cover. Gamelin and the old sergeant and another man were coming their way. When they reached the spot Tanda wanted, they bent and quickly began collected thrush willow leaves, which were useful in several ways, particularly if your bowels were reluctant to move.

The sergeant, Vosper, was polite but firm and a finger-width later they joined the others, the mortar hidden in a pack on one of the horses. They followed along, Tanda not bothering to protest, just as they didn't bother to ask any questions about what they'd been doing watching the test of their weapon.

They walked back toward Outpost, not exactly guarded but certainly not free to go their own way.

They reached a flat spot, a mile from the lake. Tuck turned to Gamelin. "I wish to speak to Tanda Havra privately."

Gamelin looked at Tuck, then at Tanda and shrugged.

Tuck took Tanda's arm, rather more gently than the last time the two of them laid hands on each other and walked with her.

"You sure have screwed up," Tuck told her, speaking English.

"I don't understand you, Lord Tuck."

"The language or what I mean?" That was in Zarthani.

"Your words, Lord Tuck."

"Sure, of course you don't understand," Tuck said sarcastically in English.

Tanda shook her head and he laughed.

"If you were stupid, you wouldn't be here," he told her, still in English. Then he switched back to Zarthani. "You know, Count Tellan will probably have you both shot."

"Why, Lord Tuck? Tazi and I were collecting herbs. It is what I do."

He shook his head. "I hope you won't lie to the count. He strikes me as a fair man -- but even fair men don't like being lied to."

"How, Lord Tuck, are you going to earn your keep at Outpost? Eh? Like me, you have very little. What's up here," she tapped her skull, "this is all we have."

"And your point?"

"I have an uncle who wishes me to marry him. In the past he made things -- difficult -- for me. Now, I am here as a beggar; so is Tazi. Once again he has asked me to do things for him. Things I would never do on my own, but now I have little choice -- unless I wish to marry him."

Tuck smiled. "Actually, I was thinking something along those lines myself."

Tanda looked at him, shaking her head. "I do not understand, Lord Tuck."

"It's Tuck, Tanda Havra, nothing more. No matter what they might say about it, it was how I was born and how I expected to die. No, I was thinking that I've taken a fancy to you myself."

Tanda smiled wickedly. "My uncle keeps his fancies in check because he knows that if he tried to force them on me, the first night we were together, he'd not wake, come morning."

"I figured that out by myself," Tuck told her, grinning. "No, I was figuring on picking a good time and simply asking you, straight out. Your free choice, yes or no."

Tanda stared at him, surprised. "And why would someone who will be noble soon, marry a village girl of the Lost Ruthani?"

"Does being a village girl mean you can't be a lovable person? That a man might want to count his lucky stars if you agreed to be his wife?"

She shook her head, confused. "My uncle would not pay a dowry."

Of course, Tuck didn't know what that word meant, but he'd come far and fast, Tanda thought -- he didn't take long to learn it.

He waved at her. "And I come with more? I have four daughters. How much is this bride price?"

"The Hostigi don't use it at all. It was very common among my people long ago, but too many have come north, escaping the Mexicotal, with nothing."

"So then, no problem for you, no problem for me!" he said.

"The problem is being caught watching where I should not have been."

Tuck shook his head. "I think Count Tellan is a fair man. Look him in the eye; tell him what you told me about why you did it. Then promise him you will not talk to your uncle about things you shouldn't if he will promise not to ask you questions about your uncle."

Tanda sniffed. "Why would he believe me? Why should he?"

Tuck bowed slightly. "Why? I'll vouch for you. If you go to the chopping block, so do I."

That drew her breath away. "And why would you trust me?"

"Husbands and wives trust each other -- that or better never to marry. Better not even go a little distance down that road. In truth, even without my help, Count Tellan is likely to do little more than warn you and your uncle. I'm certain your uncle could work something out with Count Tellan to keep you safe."

Tanda's mental whirl faded a bit. "I had not planned on marrying any time soon."

"Tanda Havra, I'm the most patient man you'll ever meet. Think on it. You have until we face Count Tellan to ask me for my help. And until I hear a flat 'no' from you, I'm going to be hanging around, hoping for the best. You could, for instance, say it right this instant."

Tanda shook her head. "You are right, I have to think."

Tuck nodded, his face bland. "We have a saying where I come from," he switched to English. "Keep your friends close and your enemies, closer." He smiled at her. "That more or less means 'Think first if you can.'"

It meant in fact, no such thing.

"Do you love me?" Tanda asked him.

"I think so, but in truth I'm not 100% sure myself. I like you a lot and respect you enormously. Like you, I've never been in a hurry to marry. The gods will provide, given long enough, I always thought."

He gestured back towards the others. "Come, we should go."

She followed him docilely, knowing that it was another test. She could turn and run, deserting Tazi and her uncle. She could stick a knife in Tuck's back while she was about it. It wouldn't be physically hard to do. Even if it went against everything she'd ever thought or felt.

One of the sergeants with the party, with Vosper at his side, was on a small hill, signaling towards Outpost. Tanda let her face stay blank.

Tazi whispered to her a little later, as they walked beside the mounted men. "We're in trouble. Perhaps we should run."

Tanda shook her head. "My uncle will keep us safe. Tuck told me that he would see that we are safe."

Tazi frowned, "Why would he do that? Tuck?"

Tanda laughed softly. "Why, he fancies me, too."

Tazi nodded. "And you?"

Tanda smiled. "I fancy him more than I fancy Manistewa. But that isn't a great deal. I don't know, Tazi. It is something to think about."

Tazi nodded.

Gamelin had asked Tuck what he'd talked to Tanda Havra about, but Tuck just shook his head and didn't answer. When they reached Outpost, a half dozen men appeared to deal with their equipment and horses, and Captain Leitnos who told off those who would go to see the Count.