Chapter 3: Preparing to Depart

Not that night, but several nights later, the ship Noia was aboard put into a small bight in the northern horn of land that protected North Port's harbor. Noia was one of those detailed as guards and she stood with her rifle ready on a sandy beach, while their captain dealt with the locals.

She kept her eyes on the ground, mostly, because she knew some of the men who'd come to deal with the captain.

They rowed back out to the ship, and moments later were headed further south.

Noia had the morning watch, and she was lazing next to the sheet she's been assigned, ready for a command, when the captain came up to her. "It is as you said. The Count is dead."

"Long live the Count!" Noia replied bitterly.

"There is already trouble. The new Count has tried to claim tolls on the roads. He killed the guards of a caravan and forced them to submit. He confiscated their goods for resisting."

"That was really stupid." No caravan would willingly go to North Port now. Even captains of the coast-wise traders would shun the county.

The captain bobbed his head. "I'm told the Old East Road is already very busy. I'm also told that the new Count is going to style himself a Duke and claim everything south of his county to the Great Northern River and east to the Great Mountains."

Six hundred years ago an ancestor of the current King of Zarthan had slid his sword into the belly of the last noble to call himself a Duke. There had been a lot of time since then -- laws, proclamations and the like, where making such a claim was death for anyone making such a proclamation.

Her brother had just arrogated a dozen unattached baronies to himself, as well as lands currently controlled by the Northern Ruthani. Those were not very likely to agree to his usurpation!

The Kingdom of Zarthan was really a federation of cities, each of the larger ones ruled by a count and the smaller towns ruled by barons. Three counts had been granted a dispensation from the royal law that no land of a county could lie more than four day's ride from the county seat.

The King was lord of Baytown and South Town. South Town was on the coast, but its harbor was poor. What wasn't poor were the size of the King's horse and cattle herds! They were vast, beyond imagination!

Then there was Count Mountain Wall. His lands ran from east of Echanistra to east of South Town. He ruled mountains that seemed to scrape the sky and his soldiers were the fiercest fighters in the Kingdom, no other count could match them. Over the centuries, many men had cast covetous eyes on Mountain Wall and the lands that made it up. The rivers up there, it was said, ran with gold.

Once the leader of an army of ten thousand had stood at the foot of those mountains and dared Count Mountain Wall to come for him. A heartbeat later, a bullet took him in the heart. No man could begin to find where the shot had come from. The mountains there towered thousands of feet into the air; it could have been fired from ten thousand places.

All of it, though, paled before the Central Valley. Her father had once told Noia that the Counts of the Central Valley were smarter than all the others of the realm, because none of them had ever desired to be King.

The Central Valley stretched from the red bluffs of the north, to the Misty Mountains of the south. In most places, a good rider could cross the county, east to west, in two days. North to south? A moon, usually.

Noia dragged herself back to where she was. "Actions, Captain, will speak for you from here on."

He bobbed his head. "I understand."

Noia found that she was getting rations as good as anyone else; her duties were no more onerous than those of any other. It took nearly a moon to reach Baytown. Most of her fellow crewmates shied away from her; well aware of the frequent conversations she had with the captain.

Once, on the voyage south, they'd put into a cove and two dozen men came pelting towards them from an ambush. A single volley of rifle fire had stopped them, and the men vanished into the night as quickly as they had appeared. Afterwards, the captain had called up each of the guards and asked them to fire their rifle into a wooden baulk. If your rifle fired, you got a silver coin for doing your duty; if you hadn't reloaded, you were sent to the shrouds for "sail practice."

Noia's rifle had fired and she'd taken the coin as her due. Not reloading was something inexperienced men did after a battle. Smugglers couldn't afford that sort of man on a landing party.

When she came down the boat ramp in Baytown she'd bowed to the captain, who bowed back. She left with a small smile on her face, wondering how he'd justify it to those others who would have thought they should have been first off the ship.

Shortly thereafter, she met the watch at the gate to the palace. "I am here to see King Freidal, I have a message for him from Count Echanistra."

The senior guard laughed. "So many say. Understand one thing: if you weren't invited, you die."

"The King, please. I am Noius of Echanistra. I have a message from my Count to the King."

That name evidently didn't mean anything. A few minutes later she was frog-marched through corridors and halls of the palace and eventually presented to a young woman sitting in a large wooden chair behind a desk, reading some papers.

The woman put aside her reading and for a few heartbeats the two of them traded stares, then the woman turned to the guard lieutenant. "Well?"

"Mistress, she says she is Noius of Echanistra with a message from the Count to the King."

"And of course you believed him and allowed him to bring a rifle, pistols and a knife with him into the palace and into my presence."

Noia frowned. The woman spoke with an accent that she didn't recognize. She was Noia's age and appeared unremarkable, but there was no doubt that the guard lieutenant was suddenly terrified.

Noia stood still as the others removed her weapons. Only when a man reached into her waistband, using his fingers entirely too freely, did she lash out, knocking him to the ground.

Weapons came ready, even as she put her foot on the man's throat. "I am a woman," Noia told the woman seated in a large wooden chair. "I will not be searched by men."

"You look like a man," the woman said mildly.

"Looks can be deceiving."

The woman waved. "You may all leave us now."

The man in charge simply bowed. "As you command, so shall it be on your own head."

"Yeah, right!" the woman told him sarcastically. "Go!"

Noia wasn't sure if they were actually alone, but it looked that way.

"What's in the waistband?" the woman asked.

"A gold coin."

"A gold Kalvan? A pointy axe on both sides?"

Noia froze in shock, and the other waved. "Come, a simple yes or no will say it all."

Noia closed her eyes. "Yes."

The woman laughed. "There is no penalty in the King's Court for telling the truth -- just for lying. Relax. Unless I miss my guess your name is really Noia and you're from North Port, not Echanistra."

"Yes."

"I have no desire to make an enemy of you, do you understand that?"

"Understand what?" Noia asked.

"That I will most carefully refrain from saying you look the part you play.

"Lady Noia, are you ready to face your king?"

"Of course!" She didn't even hesitate for an instant for that answer.

Still, King Freidal's appearance a heartbeat later was a surprise. She'd seen him several times when both of them were younger.

"Lady Noia," the King of Zarthan began.

"Sire!"

He bobbed his head in recognition. "Aye. I'm sorry about your father, Lady Noia, sorrier still about all of your brothers, one in particular."

"Have you heard that my brother has declared himself the Duke of North Port?"

"Yes. Not only is he foolish and impatient, he's very ambitious. To my surprise, the unaligned baronies he has claimed have all agreed to his rule, all but the one belonging to General Denethon. They don't dare, not quite yet, to raise up another and call him a baron, to supplant Denethon.

"Count Echanistra told me of his wishes for you. He is correct. Are you willing to go east?"

"Yes, Sire."

"I wish I could support you now, I really do. A year... I can do it in another year. Particularly if you acquit yourself well."

"She's as old as I was, when you made me queen," the other woman said.

Noia didn't let her shock show. She'd bandied words with the Queen of Zarthan? How did she know of the coins of the High King?

The woman saw Noia's expression and laughed. "She didn't recognize me! Husband mine, I told you that plainness has its virtues!"

"General Denethon made the same point when he spoke of his first meeting with Lord Tuck, when he mistook Brigadier Verkan for the man who'd actually cut his way through the realm of the God-King. The Duke of Mexico is as plain a man as there is, in appearance. It's what's in his mind that makes him great."

King Freidal turned back to Noia. "It will take me a day or so to arrange for your transportation east. I doubt if your brother is much of a factor here in Baytown -- at least not yet. But there is no reason to take chances."

"Sire, my brother prepared his coup well. He has money, he has many new soldiers, all mercenaries. The poison he used on my father was the same sort as Styphon used on yours."

The King stared at her silently for a long moment. "It is painful in the extreme to know that some of my subjects are disloyal and plotting my downfall."

Queen Elspeth nodded. "Some of them close enough to reach out and touch. Lieutenant Weygan told me there was a boy who said he was a messenger who wanted to see the king. I told him bring the person to me. He let her into my presence armed with a rifle, two pistols and a knife."

The King's face turned an angry red. "Weygan is a nephew of General Khoogra."

"And the eldest son of one of Count South March's barons as well. I might add, the baron hosted one of Styphon's fireseed mills and a rifle foundry," Queen Elspeth told her husband.

He had regained his color and smiled at his wife. "You know more about my nobles than I, Elspeth."

"Only a few of your nobles want your head on a pike. Rather more of them would like to see mine on one. Nothing concentrates your attention more than having people trying to kill you."

Noia bobbed her head. "Lady Queen, I learned very fast on the day my father died how true your words are."

"And is that when you got that coin?" the Queen asked gently.

Noia pulled it from her waistband. "I suppose it's treason to have this."

Queen Elspeth laughed lightly. "I have its mate, and quite a few more, in a chest in my sleeping chamber."

"There are some," the King told Noia, "who believe I've become too close to the High King and that between his words and the words of my lady wife, my mind is befuddled and beclouded. They are the ones befuddled and beclouded, Lady Noia. If I could, I'd invite the High King to move in across the square.

"It is fear of the High King alone that keeps the God-King from coming north against us. I would hope we can defeat them, but it will be a battle that consumes us, and will echo for years, perhaps decades, afterwards."

"Which is why what you will be doing is critical," Elspeth told Noia. "The God-King is building ships to bring his soldiers and their supplies north. The High King has ships that can stop them. There is no way, do you understand, for him to sail those ships to our aid? What we have to do is learn how to build such ships ourselves. And then we need sailors to man them and fight them.

"Echanistra said you know as much about the High King's navy as he did or I do. He said you told him you have spies, but he didn't mention you have one of the High King's coins. That, Lady Noia, is a very good thing, because some secrets should be told as few times as possible.

"The man who gave it to me helped me to escape from North Port. I might have made it on my own, but it would have been much harder."

"There is no better test of loyalty," Freidal told her, "than when someone helps you at great risk to themselves and no prospect of any significant reward in the near future. Cherish such bonds, Lady Noia, they are worth more than any gold coin."

"Yes, Sire."

"Now, my lady wife will see to it that you have a room, some clothes and something to eat. Tomorrow, the three of us will have breakfast together, overlooking the harbor. My lady wife is fond of the view."

"The few days a year there is a view," the queen said with a laugh.

Queen Elspeth was apologetic, later, in the room that had been given to Noia. "I wish you could come for dinner, but too many know of your brother's treason. It would be a direct slap in his face, which would be a good thing, but it would also tell him where you are, not to mention that you have many friends in high places. None of that is good; better to let the bastard worry. We will send up something from the kitchen in private. I assure you that they will not bring you kitchen leavings!"

"It's okay, highness."

Elspeth shook her head. "Two years ago I wasn't any more noble than one of my husband's horses. I was doing everything I could to kill him and his soldiers. In truth, it wasn't much, although I do have a way with words."

The queen paused. "I'll see what we can find for you for clothes."

"I am rather hard to fit," Noia said, her voice bitter.

"You are plain, girl. So am I. Probably you have small breasts or I could tell, wrapped or not. I had small breasts, up until I was pregnant. Then they ballooned. I don't recommend that, though, unless it's your desire.

"I'm not as plain as you, but Freidal sees my mind, not my face. You've been hounded, chased by men who would kill you. For days and days, I suspect."

Noia nodded.

"So have I. I had to kill one with a knife. It was easy, very easy, because he was looking at me, dropping his loincloth as he stared. I cut his balls off, do you understand?"

Noia hadn't heard many tales of the Queen. Evidently she hadn't had an easy life.

"So, you relax. Eat. I imagine you'd like a bath?"

"Oh, please, yes!" Noia exclaimed. "Where I've been a dirty face was necessary. To be clean again!" she sighed expressively.

Noia reveled in the hot bath, and the food that was better than anything her father's cook could turn out. The room had no windows, and after eating she felt like walking. There was a soldier standing watch next to her door. She grinned at him.

"Is this your watch post or am I?"

"You, my lady."

"Could you lead me some place outside, someplace with a view?"

"Of course, my lady."

He walked next to her through the corridors of the palace, through a heavy wooden door then up several flights of steps. Then they were outside.

Noia took a deep breath, savoring the sea air. She looked up and could see stars washing across the sky. It was chill, but not unbearable. She walked a few feet and looked out over Baytown, spread at the palace's feet. She'd much rather have looked at the ocean, but it was visible only by the absence of anything to look at in the distance.

She was aware of her guard standing a few feet away, stolid, but solid. So much had happened! So much was yet to happen! She wished she'd had a chance for one last hug from her father. She stood there silently cursing her brother for preventing her from a last chance to say goodbye to her father.

There was a rustle of sound, and the queen, followed by two more guards appeared. The queen moved next to Noia and looked out at the town.

"I still have trouble believing I'm here and this is real," she told Noia.

"I'm not sure I understand, your highness."

The queen said something under her breath that Noia didn't understand.

"I've founded a new Royal Order," the queen told her. "To belong you have to be a woman who has had to run for her life for days and days. All such women are privileged to use each other's first names when speaking to each other."

It was the easiest thing. "First names, highness?"

"Elspeth, girl. Elspeth. Call me Elspeth. Where I'm from the first name is your personal name, your last name was that of your father's family. Having to run for your life is no picnic, you know what I mean?"

"Yes, highness."

Elspeth turned and took Noia's arm and gently shook it. "If you aren't smart enough to learn my name, you're not nearly smart enough for this mission."

Noia blanched. "Yes, Elspeth."

"That's more like it!

"Tomorrow, you'll be off to meet another member of our sisterhood, Lady Becky of Outpost. She, like me, is someone you will not understand very well."

"I understand that you are my queen," Noia told her.

"I am an uncommon commoner," Elspeth told her. "You have no idea of how common. In my land, there were no nobles. There were a few places that still had people with noble titles, but mostly there were honorary with no meaning beyond that."

Noia swallowed, trying to imagine such a place. "Who rules?"

"Well, they'd surely tell you the best of us governed. Even my husband admits that the way we choose a new ruler of Zarthan or one of its counties is whimsical. You never know if the new ruler will be good, bad or indifferent. Once you have him, or, very rarely, her, you're stuck with them until they die. Killing such a person has all sorts of unpleasant repercussions and is done rarely, if at all."

"That is how it's always been done. How do your people do it?"

"Do you understand that in my land, I was counted a child? That I would now be permitted a few privileges, but not many? You have to be 21 to vote, to select our rulers. Those who wish to hold an office stand up and speak to the people, then we vote for the one we think will do the best. Whoever has the most support wins."

"And this is better?"

"Honestly, we have our thieves and poltroons, our incompetents and the malignant. But you see, the job isn't for life. The man who rules us must face election every four years. Our highest ruler can only be elected twice."

"And this works?"

"Better than anything else, anyway. In order to win, more than half the people have to think you'll do a good job."

She paused and touched Noia's sleeve. "You have already learned about enemies, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Have you heard of Lord Tuck, the Duke of Mexico?"

"Of course."

"I was one of those who accompanied him to this place. Someone brought us here. Do you understand? Someone not our friends?"

Noia nodded, her eyes wide.

"Lord Tuck, William Tucker, call him what you will, told me once that the people who brought us here had to work in secret, and that telling others of their existence would have to violate their most important laws. They would try to kill us."

Noia was silent; the queen was silent. The moment stretched on and on.

"I'm not sure why you're telling me this," Noia said with dignity.

"I don't tell many; my sisters in flight, at least. You know we have enemies, Noia. Those enemies wish us dead; they conspire, most of them, in the dark night, and strike in hidden ways. Poison, the blade in the back, the shot in a crowd.

"Lord Tuck fought my husband using my husband's strengths against him. Tuck killed thousands of Zarthan's finest soldiers, and lost only a handful of men in doing so. Then he went south and did the same thing to the God-King's soldiers. All men know the results of those battles!"

Noia could only nod. Everyone had heard those stories. Her father had shaken his head and said they had to be exaggerations, but he had no idea what they could be, because the facts were that Lord Tuck had taken a thousand men into the lands of the God-King and had captured two of their major towns, dozens of smaller ones -- and destroyed nearly eighty thousand soldiers of the God-King.

And then, soldiers loyal to Tuck struck in the heart of the God-King's lands, killing the God-King, his son and two grandsons in one fell stroke.

"Noia, let me be clear why I'm telling you this. Tuck believes, as do I, as does Lady Judy, that the men who brought us here are plotting against us. There are men plotting against the realm, against the High King's realm."

"You think they are the same?" Noia asked, surprised.

"We think they overlap, anyway. You have to know about the plots, Noia. I have to know about you as well, because the Kingdom of Zarthan will stand or fall depending on how well you do your task."

"I will do it to the best of my abilities!" Noia told her.

The queen nodded and looked around. Her two guards and Noia's one were some distance off, standing watching them.

"You have two choices, and I need to know your choice now. We can send you east as a young woman of the court, to Count Tellan's college at Outpost. My sister, Lady Becky, runs that. They will, in turn, send you on further east. Except that all would know that a young woman of your age went east, and since not many young women go that way, the plotters would know who you were and would likely be able to trace you.

"If you go once again as a man, you would be one of the soldiers guarding a supply convoy to Outpost. When you went east from Outpost, you'd still be a boy, sent to the High King's Academy for officers in Hostigos. No one would know where you were, and only a very, very few would know that someone important was traveling. That could make all the difference, between success and failure."

"As a boy."

"As a young man. For a while."

"It's always been for a while," Noia told Elspeth. "Except the 'while' keeps getting longer and longer."

The queen laughed. "Perhaps, but you are reminded of the truth every time you have to pee."

Noia inclined her head, acknowledging that the most likely way she'd be discovered was at the jakes.

"A man," Noia said resignedly, signaling her choice.

"I think of all my sisters, you would like Becky best," Elspeth told her. "She is very pragmatic and of all of us, has the highest reach."

Noia was stunned. "Elspeth, you're a queen! Lady Judy is a countess, married to a count in his own right!"

"Yes, but I got my rank by saying yes to Freidal's proposal. I aspired to nothing. Lady Judy aspired to be a good soldier in order to win Tuck's approval. In the process, she learned she really sought another's approval. And then she discovered that she could command soldiers in battle as few can.

"Lady Becky aspires to teach others. Do you understand that Becky attended the lowest level of our schools? That she never graduated? Yet, now she heads the college at Outpost. Do you understand that what we were taught as children are things that not even the wisest savant in Hostigos or Zarthan know?"

"The ships of the High King."

"The ships, the steam pullers, the wires that talk, fireseed, mortars, rifles... it is a very long list, Noia."

"You are like gods!" Noia whispered.

Elspeth giggled. "Oh, Noia, Noia! We aren't gods! I was pregnant by rape. Now, I'd give an arm and a leg to become pregnant again and nothing works! At home the man you know as 'Lord Tuck' raised horses on a piece of land so small a serf would have needed two more like it to earn enough to pay his tithes! We are just people, people like you, Noia. It's just that, as you know more than your grandfathers, so we know more than you. We aren't gods, our advantage is that we've had more time to learn things."

"That doesn't make sense."

"And, like I said, it's a secret that at least some of our enemies are willing to kill to keep."

"I will keep my promises."

"Good. Tomorrow, as soon as the sun shines on the hills and us, we'll let the High King know you are coming. By the time you reach Outpost, arrangements will have been made. We talk to them in ways that are very, very secret."