Chapter 32: A Brief Flash in the Sun

Lion sat in the sun, not far from the hospital at Xipototec. He didn't much like the hospital; too many men died there. But he hadn't, which was a miracle and he hadn't lost the use of his arm, which was a greater miracle. There were worse things that could happen to a man of his age, than to be allowed to sit in the sun and watch the bustle of the main plaza while he regained his strength.

Hestius came along and sat down and stared stonily at the southern horizon. It was, Lion thought, the sad aftermath of war. People lived and people died. And unlike Lion, Hestius was never going to regain the full use of his right arm. He couldn't lift it as high as his shoulder, no matter what he did. The pain was unbearable; you could see it on the man's face, even if he wouldn't admit it.

Oh, yes. He would never see the woman he loved again.

"The war's over," Lion told Hestius. "We can all go home now."

"The God-King destroyed my home when I was boy," Hestius said. "Now he has destroyed my dreams." He clenched his fists. "Every night I dream the same thing. Every day I dream the same thing. I have the God-King in my hands and I wrap them around his neck and squeeze and then he is dead."

Hestius might have lost the ability to lift his right arm higher than his shoulder, but he'd certainly not lost the ability to squeeze his hands together. Lion could see his muscles cord, the tendons in his wrists grow taut.

Lion waved at the town. "These people are happy, Sergeant. So very happy. They have no reason to be. My people have fought for a thousand years against the God-Kings. Unless a miracle happens, these people can look forward to a thousand years of fighting too. Except our villages were small, most with only hundreds of people, none numbered in the thousands. And the larger villages only came lately after the High King's Peace.

"Pinyon told me that if the God-King had sent his men north, he'd have found us this time, because so many had to live outside."

"When it comes time to fight the God-King again, I'll muster!" Hestius told Lion. "I don't care what I have to do, I'll muster! Than I'll march south and I'll kill the bastard!"

Lion nodded. "I have wives to go home to. Children, even grandchildren. A very special daughter who is either wed by now, or will be tomorrow. I'm told Brigadier Verkan will stand in my place. I suppose if you have to have someone stand for you, he's as good a man as any. I wish she wasn't in so much of a rush!"

He was silent for a moment. "Not that I begrudge the girl even a moment of happiness."

There was a sudden eruption of sound in the town. Rifles firing into the air. Then more and more.

"Sounds like everyone has heard the war's over," Hestius said dolorously.

"Sergeant," Lion said, speaking carefully. He'd thought about his idea long and hard. Like most men, it wasn't a comfortable thought, bringing up an idea to the possibility of derision. "Not so long ago, I found two of our scouts wearing belts of strange beads. Black disks, you see," Lion held the fingers of his hand up to show the approximate size.

"They were upset when I took them. 'These are Lord Tuck's magic!' they told me."

Hestius snickered loudly. "They wouldn't have been upset if they'd tripped while running! They'd simply be a smoking hole in the ground! Those are the special fireseed of the High King -- the fireseed that works his mortars and doesn't produce smoke."

Lion smiled. "You should have seen the look on their faces when I put a disk on a cactus in the desert, and then fired a single shot. The cactus blew into a thousand pieces! Some men have no ability to pay attention at all, and no ability to question even the simplest thing."

"I'd like to give a belt like that to the God-King," Hestius said, "and then trip him."

Hestius froze, staring at Lion, transfixed.

Lion nodded. "It wouldn't be an easy thing to do," Lion told Hestius. "But I was thinking that very thing myself."

"No, it would have to be well thought out, carefully done. Did you know Vertax is back in town? He led a wild charge that broke ten times his numbers of the God-King's soldiers. Since his daughter died, he's... crazy," Hestius told Lion.

Lion held Hestius' eyes. "You understand, that there are many who would stop us?"

"Stop you, perhaps, and then just you. I doubt if Lord Tuck, Lady Judy or Lord Gamelin care about what happens to a crippled sergeant they once commanded."

Lion shook his head. "If you think that, then you don't know any of them. They care and will soon try to do something for you and for me. If we are to do this, we should leave before their thoughts turn to us. Vertax... Vertax could be the difference between success and failure."

"Maybe. Odds are we'll fail and die for nothing. That's what happened to my brothers and sister. They were killed and I could have only died with them. I wanted vengeance, you see. So... vengeance is fine with me. It will simply be sweeter than I first thought."

Tanda Havra pushed a piece of paper towards Judy and said, "This one will interest you."

Judy picked it up and read it. "She's marrying who?" The exclamation escaped her lips before she could think to stop it.

"Yes. Speaking from my own practical experience, and, as I think you've noticed, shoot for the top of the mountain."

"You're marrying a count," Judy told Tanda. "I'm marrying a count and now I'm one myself."

"Countess," Tanda reminded Judy.

"Countess," Judy agreed. "Will I ever be free from the fear that some morning someone will kick me awake and it will be you?"

"Only if you don't train your guards well," Tanda said. "Very well." Tanda paused and laughed. "Perhaps you are right to worry."

The two traded grins.

Two men came in the antechamber the two women labored in, unescorted. The oldest was about forty. He reminded Judy of Tuck, although his eyes said he was probably a nobleman and born to it. Tuck had said to expect a lot of Hostigi noblemen to show up over the next few months, looking to cash in on vast chunks of land needing "leadership."

The second man was younger, perhaps in his early thirties. There was an extravagance in the way he dressed, the way he looked at Tanda and Judy, the way he looked at the older man. He wasn't so much corpulent as very large. The older man in the lead was carrying nothing, but the younger had what looked like a map roll in his hands.

"Howdy," the older man said in English.

For a second the two women froze. Judy looked at a man who'd said something in recognizable English in total shock. Tanda Havra was in shock, too, for a different reason.

"Sorry," the older man said, switching to Zarthani. "I imagine I'm a little out of practice."

Judy debated what to say, then decided who this had to be. "Sire, you have an odd accent; I'm not sure I recognized the word."

"I thought he just cleared his throat," Tanda said, knowing it was about the lamest excuse imaginable.

The older man nodded at the door across the room. "Do you suppose Count Tuck has time for a visit with a guest who has come a long way?"

"Sire, Tuck would like nothing more!" Judy exclaimed, jumping up, hoping she wasn't breaking some rule of etiquette.

Tuck glanced up when Judy opened the door. "Yes, Judy?"

"Tuck, the High King," she said, then opened the door wider.

The High King walked through it, grinning at Judy. "You've cut Captain-General Harmakros to the quick, Lady Judy!"

Judy nodded, and spoke loudly, if belatedly, "And Captain-General Harmakros."

Tuck rose and bowed, but the High King just smiled and held out his hand. "Lord Tuck, I'm sorry that I couldn't greet you at Grayx as I'd hoped, but I had to take the army back east to deal with a counter-attack by one of the God-King's generals who hadn't gotten the word that God-King had agreed to a cease-fire."

"We heard, sire. Another victory for your army," Tuck said calmly.

"Yes, as I mentioned to all my senior military advisors, I wish we weren't winning so handily; that might cause many problems down the road.

"For instance, I had hoped Count Tellan would be able to delay the Zarthani as much as a year with a fighting retreat. I never envisioned that he would counterattack and defeat half of the attack himself."

"The Zarthani defeated themselves, sire," Tuck told him.

"Of course, of course. So did the God-King and his soldiers. Do you know, Lord Tuck, what General Denethon told me before we sent him on west?"

"I can't begin to imagine. He was the best of a bad lot."

"He saved a lot of Hostigi citizens by convincing the God-King's priests that slaughtering them to celebrate defeats and encourage others to fight harder was a bad idea. But, not that. What he said was the soldiers of the God-King would have fought ten times harder with bows and arrows. That they were given fireseed weapons and told they were just as good as any Hostigi soldier. When those soldiers found that they still held no advantage, they despaired. They became convinced that there was nothing they could do except die.

"And then they looked around and decided it wasn't a good day to die, but one to live... and lost not only their will to fight, but the desire to sacrifice further for the God-King. A good many of those soldiers have gone home. The God-King has some good spy-catchers, but I have some very good spies. Right now his rule is teetering. Too many of his people have heard of my offers of amnesty. The surviving soldiers are spreading disaffection in his ranks.

"So far the numbers who've come north have been just a trickle, but the word's abroad: nothing happens to you in my lands, except what was promised. And that the God-King's soldiers have too much on their plates right now to worry about a few people who flee. I suspect that will change here in the next few moons as they settle things down again. In the meantime, we have an opportunity.

"Which brings me to you, Lord Tuck."

"Me, sire?"

"Yes. I understand you are quite pleased being the Count of Xipototec. And the people of Xipototec are ecstatic."

Tuck grimaced and Judy wanted to laugh. The people of Xipototec had had a big party the day they heard the war was over. Then they'd had a bigger party than any they'd ever had before when they found Tuck was going to be the High King's man responsible for them. It had cemented the relationship between the people and sovereign and the people and Tuck.

Everything Judy had learned in school had been dismissive of feudal lords and nobles, their oaths and the like; democracy had been the remedy for all ills.

Except these people needed a lot more reassurance than any election could give. They wanted to know there was a personal tie between them and the person who commanded them, and another personal tie between their Lord and the High King. Here and now, everything was personal.

"I have talked things over with my advisors, even let the powers-that-be back in Hostigos and Outpost know my thinking. Queen Rylla and Lady Dalla as well.

"The only way to tie the realm together is rapid communications. Roads and the new steam horses are part of that. There are ways to talk over wire, so that messages can fly from Hostigos to Outpost and even Baytown in instants, not days and works as well on cloudy days as sunny, and just as well at night as the day.

"In the fourth year of my reign, I had a foundry built that produced nothing but rails for the steam pullers. Every year after that, I've added another rail mill. Our current production is about three miles of rail a day. We built the steam puller road to Xiphlon first, then for the last two years we stockpiled rails. Thus we had enough, barely, to reach halfway to the Big River. Next year I'll start adding two rail foundries a year, but it's going to be slow expanding the steam puller roads for years to come. Probably two or three years to get the steam road as far west as Outpost. Another couple of years to Xipototec, another two or three years beyond that to cut through the mountains to Baytown. We should have the road to Xipototec by then, Tecpan a little before then.

"The talking wires," the High King had a gleam in his eye when he said that. Both Judy and Tuck nodded in understanding. "Are also going to be a problem. They must be made of copper. My realm produces iron and steel in sufficient abundance, but not copper."

The High King's eyes were locked on Tuck's, and Tuck turned and looked at Tanda Havra. "Lord Tuck?" Tanda asked softly.

"There are mountains of copper, Tanda Havra, under the lands ceded to the Lost Ruthani."

"And you want to take it?" Tanda Havra looked like she could barely control her anger.

"No, nothing like that. But the Lost Ruthani do not know how to dig the metal, extract the metal from the rocks or how to then prepare it as we'll need it. We do. I would be willing to pay very well for the ability to mine it and process it. I would pay gold, plus tools, weapons, fireseed, food... basically anything you can buy in my realm with gold, which is just about everything.

"I would also undertake to fund scholarships for any of the Ruthani to come to Hostigos to learn how to do what it is we do. Every two years we would renegotiate the agreement. It would be good if you could talk to the Lost Ruthani and at least translate for a representative of mine who would make the offer. You don't have to take a position of your own, one way or the other, if that's your choice."

"Too many times the Zarthani have simply taken what it is they want," Tanda told the High King.

"I know. Things are different now, and I'm going to be spending most of my attention in the future making sure everything stays that way. I've done everything in my power to show people that they can trust me, trust what I say."

"You could be killed tomorrow," Tanda told him.

Judy winced.

"I could. Then my wife steps into my shoes and she's promised to honor my legacy. There are, Tanda Havra, two things men leave behind them after they die: their children and their deeds. I'm proud of both and I feel confident that none of my children want to spoil my legacy."

"And from me," Tuck said, "what is it you want?"

"Captain-General Harmakros, the map."

The Captain-General pulled a large map from the roll he carried with him and spread it out on a table.

"We are here, at Tecpan," the High King said, putting his finger on the dot that represented where they were. "We have taken this strip of land from the God-King, from the Great Eastern Ocean to the Great Western Ocean; from sea to shining sea. From Xipototec, north of the mountains, eastward, following the eastern margin of the mountains, until finally the Eastern Ocean, roughly a moon's ride south of the mouth of the Big River.

"Xipototec is the smallest of the major towns," the High King explained. "Tecpan is much larger and the town closest to the ocean, Zacateca, is the largest of the three. I have given the smallest to Count Tuck, the next larger to Countess Judy. Zacateca says they wish to walk their own path with their own leaders. They did kill a few of their priests and nobles but most fled. They have not pulled down their temple, but there are no more sacrifices there."

He looked at Tuck, Judy and Tanda Havra. "Now, some of the High King's secrets. Here," he put his finger down along the eastern coast line of what had once been the God-King's lands, "I am going to build a major strong point. My scholars have been working on improving the sorts of ships that sail on the sea. Some of the new ships will be warships that mount cannon. There will be quite a few of them posted to this strong point. Captain-General Harmakros, at least at first, will command that position."

Tuck nodded, his eyes studying the High King carefully.

The High King waved at Harmakros. "The Captain-General will be the military commander of the regular Army of Hostigos in the south. A cousin of Rylla's will be become Count of the city. He is earnest, but young."

"I understand," Tuck said neutrally.

"Then I hope you understand that I also need a political leader for the new conquests. Someone respectful of the people, with a degree of understanding of the situation they've faced up until now, and what they will face in the future. You, Lord Tuck."

"You are giving a big chunk of your kingdom to someone who hasn't been here a year," Tuck said calmly.

"Once upon a time, I too was new," the High King reminded Tuck. "And I've heard enough about you to realize that we share a little common history. You understand why we can't compare notes, as well."

"Yes, I understand."

"The Mexicotal will fight for you and Lady Judy. They already have fought for you. You have captured enough war materials to equip three or four armies the size of what you have now. I suspect we will need every person we can lay our hands on, before we're finished."

"I think you're right," Tuck told him. "The God-King made a mistake thinking he could drill his men a few times in the new weapons and march them into battle. It works, until first you have to truly motivate your soldiers. It isn't enough that they fight for you to simply keep you from killing themselves and their families."

"Exactly. You understand these things. Accept and you can style yourself Duke. A couple of years from now, perhaps Prince."

The High King watched Tuck's face. Tuck was, Judy realized, embarrassed. "You understand that I wouldn't make this sort of an offer to a man who was eager for it."

"A man like me," Captain-General Harmakros said, a little sadly.

"You're my Grand Marshal, now," the High King told Harmakros. "You can have all the military authority you want."