Conflict and Courage (39 page)

“You think he
is being forced into this ‘accommodation’?”

“Philip, I
don’t think it, I know it.”

“Is there
nothing we can do? At least we could warn Pierre Duchesne.”

“Are you crazy?
You’ve got a wife and a young family. Have you a great desire to
die before your time and know that your family are to become
slaves? You must be aware of what Raoul van Buren is doing trying
to build up the population in that breeding compound of his. No, we
obey the orders, salvage what we can out of this mess and bide our
time. Console yourself with the thought that by aiding the Larg we
can at least safeguard our borders.”

Philip Ross
subsided.

“The Larg leave
us alone only because they need us,” said Louis Senot.

“Have they no
sense of honour? The Largan made the treaty, ceded the land to
us.”

“I don’t think
honour is held in high esteem amongst our erstwhile allies.”

“So we support
them, guard them and generally be nice to them?” exclaimed Philip
Ross.

“For the moment
we must. There is a rumour of sickness in their pack-lands.”

“Their meat
herds?”

“I heard that
whatever it is, it’s affecting the Larg themselves, but don’t get
your hopes up,” Louis Senot continued, “it is a rumour, nothing
more.”

* * * * *

Pierre Duchesne
and his people had been at the stronghold for over a week and there
had been no reaction from Murdoch.

“No slave raids
either,” said Francis, “this hasn’t happened before in my memory.
As soon as the winter storms are over they are normally here before
you can say jumping jezdic.”

“Good job too,”
said Wilhelm, “you’ve recalled just about every able-bodied
vadeln-pair you can.”

“But I’m not
sure what to do next,” pressed Francis. “Jim has me convinced they
will attack sooner rather than later but he can’t give me time and
place. I’ve got the Ryzcks strung along the southern coast and none
of them can hold back a large attacking force on their own. I wish
I knew what they are up to. Any ideas Pierre?”

Pierre
shrugged. “I was kept isolated by Sam Baker, especially in recent
months.”

“Tell me again
of your assessment of the Lords.”

“Sam Baker is
in charge, supported by Cocteau and van Buren, Gardiner too. Smith
has been sidelined, he must be approaching eighty now and Baker
assassinated Brentwood a long time ago. Baker has control of the
regiments and young King Elliot. He’s got them all tied to him with
these betrothals of his.”

“Still think
it’s a strange way to form alliances.”

“Not so
strange,” said Laura. “Remember your history lessons as a child?
Early Modern Europe was awash with arranged marriages between the
royal houses.”

“You know I
wasn’t a one for lessons. I was brought up in a large overcrowded
city block, a slum really. Nobody bothered much if I attended
school or not. Would’ve ended up in prison if I hadn’t been
shanghaied by Spacefleet.”

“Like I did,”
Pierre said with some amusement.

“Well,
yes.”

“I was a member
of a gang in my home city in the south of France,” explained Pierre
in his turn, “inter-gang warfare. Things got out of hand one night,
there was a knife fight and some boys were killed. I admit that I
was, shall we say, an eager participant?”

“Might well
have been me,” mused Francis, “but no point crying about spilt
milk. You’re here now, your families are here and settling in,
especially young Jacques as Asya has been at pains to point out.
Forget the past Pierre, it’s the future you need to worry
about.”

The week had
been a revelation for the Susa of the Vada. Francis was finding
that he liked and admired the ex-Lord of Duchesne and was beginning
to trust him. Pierre’s candid and honest approach and admissions
about his past sins and failures had a great deal to do with this
change of heart.

“Can you not
remember anything else?” pressed Laura. “We need information as to
where the Larg kohorts are and more about the regiments than ‘on
manoeuvres in Brentwood’.”

Pierre racked
his brains.

“I’ve told you
all I know.”

“Try telling us
what you
think
.”

He thought back
to the Conclave meetings and to what his messengers had told
him.

His messengers!
Of course! How had he forgotten?

“The last group
of men I sent to Fort did not return,” he said at last, “but you
know that.”

“Why do you
think they did not return?”

“Because Baker
was going to attack me?” he hazarded.

“Or because,”
suggested Laura, speaking slowly, “because they noticed something
unusual and steps were taken to make sure they did not report
back.”

“Like
what?”

“Regiments
arming?” suggested Francis.

“Conscription
of the army?” suggested Laura.

“Or,” said
Francis with a flash of inspiration. “They noticed that the
regiments weren’t where they should have been, that they weren’t in
the manoeuvres area, that they were up at the coast where the fleet
is. Jim is right. Argyll isn’t the target.
We
are the
target.”

He spun round
to Pierre.

“What way did
the messengers go to Fort and when?”

“The usual,
along the coast then down river by barge. About four weeks ago they
left.”

“Past the
shipyards?”

“My god, their
fleet could be already on their passage north,” exclaimed Wilhelm,
quick to realise and understand the implications.

Francis led the
way back to his office on the run.

“How big is the
pirate fleet?” he yelled at Wilhelm.

“Seventeen long
ships at last count,” Wilhelm shouted back, fit as he was,
struggling to keep up. The younger man was super fit, the result of
his
rigorous training schedules.

“How many could
they get here, Larg and men?”

“Enough to do a
great deal of damage.”

At Afanasei
domta, Jim had come to a similar conclusion.

He would have
to leave enough of an army to hold back an attack over the islands
in case the enemy did come that way, but if he was right in his
assumptions and the attack was to be in Vadath, he needed an army
south of the stronghold too.

He rose to his
feet and looked over to where Larya lay, in well-deserved slumber;
she had exhausted herself during the recent mental interchanges
with Asya. He decided not to wake her.

He dressed in
warm tunic and trews and went out into the cold night to seek out
Afanasei.

“They’re not
going to attack over the chain,” Jim announced as he entered
Afanasei’s daga, “I’ve had word from Asya and this time I asked her
for a detailed report of pirate activity over the last three weeks.
Did you know that there has only been the one raid?”

Afanasei lifted
one sleepy eye towards his friend.

“I am
listening,” he growled.

“Fernei says
there was only one kohort on Duchesne’s borders, only one.”

“I am aware of
that,” said Afanasei with a considerable amount of asperity.

“I keep asking
myself. Where are the others?”

“Larg do not
attack yet. Their kohorts will not move north for two moons, you
know this; go back to bed Jim, we discuss this in morning.”

Afanasei shut
his eyes but Jim paid not a whit of attention.

“You know what
I think?”

Afanasei
pretended not to hear. He was bone tired.

Jim did not
budge.

“Sam Baker’s
regiments are on manoeuvres in Brentwood and not in their usual
training area.”

Afanasei gave
it up as a bad job. It was obvious he was to get no more sleep this
night. “What do we do then? Wait for their next move?”

“We cannot
wait. We know there are no kohorts below the chain; therefore they
must be somewhere else. They are going to attack over the water and
the fact that the pirates are absent along the eastern seaboard and
the islands means they are a part of it.” “Possibly,” assented the
sleepy Afanasei.

“More raids, I
doubt the Larg leadership will be content with that. Fernei has
warned us that their untried need a fight. Aoalvaldr too, his name
is being mentioned. Fernei states that he will not have given up in
his desire to be Largan. He will need a victory in the north to
give him any chance of success, to regain his standing amongst the
lead pack.”

“This pure
supposition Jim and you know it.”

“What else do
we have to go on? One, the pirates are no longer attacking, two,
the kohorts are moving, three, the regiments are in Brentwood,
four, we know a fleet is being assembled with many barges and
transports.”

“Is there a
five?”

“Flat bottomed
barges, easy and quick to build. The central current is slow and
sluggish, the larger galleys especially would find it easy enough
to tow them over from the river mouth.”

“Mmm,” growled
Afanasei, “they will not wish to tow them east against the
current.”

“So they will
come straight across to us. Remember, Aoalvaldr hates the Vada
above all else, he blames them for his defeat eight years ago.”

Afanasei was
wide-awake now.

Jim continued,
“we have to assume that Sam Baker knows by now that we have taken
Pierre Duchesne and his people in. Also Duchesne’s defection is a
challenge to his authority. He will want to prove to any other
southerners that an escape north to us is not the answer to their
problems. I have to assume that, in exchange for Larg help to
destroy Duchesne, Sam Baker has undertaken to support a Larg
attack.”

“You cannot
leave Argyll undefended,” insisted Afanasei, “you have no proof
that they will attack Vadath. The boats might go there.”

“The Lindars
have only begun their runs east, we will have time to divert them
to the stronghold if need be. The Vada and the four home Lindars
cannot hope to defeat a Larg army on their own. At the Battle of
the Alliance we had the advantage of high ground. The land south of
the stronghold is as flat as a pancake. They’ll swarm ashore.”

“And what may I
ask is a pancake?” complained Afanasei, “you humans use such
strange words.”

“Later,”
promised Jim. “First you must warn all the Susas to put on all
speed.”

Jim’s head
swivelled round. He had heard a commotion from outside the daga,
the sound of an exhausted Lind labouring up the slope to the
daga.

It was a
messenger vadeln-pair, Piers Rowbottom and his Vlandiya no less and
they had been sent to seek out Jim and Larya by the Council of
Argyll.

The word passed
throughout the Lindars. They stopped in their tracks and turned
towards southern Vadath.

* * * * *

Larya ‘shouted’
the telepathed message to Asya that Jim insisted Vadath was the
target. He had refused to let her send more details.
Distance-telepathy was exhausting, Larya was not young and she
would need all her strength in the days to come. Francis was not
stupid. He would know what to do.

South of the
stronghold Geraldine, Ryzcka of the Fourth Ryzck was also
attempting to understand what was happening and what to do about
it. Like Jim, she and Jsei were not convinced the Larg were
intending to attack the north through their traditional route over
the Island chain.

: Because
they have in the past is no reason to assume they’ll do the same
this time :
fretted Geraldine
: They know how well the
island beachhead is defended. They’d be fools to try there again
and nobody to my knowledge has ever claimed the Larg are fools,
misguided yes, but never fools :

: Where
then? :
asked Jsei.

: If not Argyll
it will be here at Vadath they will strike and there is only one
safe anchorage of any size :

: By boat, we
know a fleet is forming and as to where, they hate us and what we
stand for more than anything, in their minds we are the cause of
their defeat eight years ago :

She smiled,
remembering that moment during the battle when she and Jsei found
each other.

: David’s
Keep :
supplied Jsei.

Geraldine
thought hard, “to hell with patrolling the entire coastline. I’m
going to call in the patrols and set up camp there. I can get the
walls strengthened and fill it with food and water. The folk from
the village beside the keep, they can go there too, where they’ll
be safe.”

“I’ll call in
the patrols,” offered Jsei. “What you say makes much sense.”

“If I’m wrong
and they land somewhere else?”

“One can only
do what one can,” said Jsei philosophically. “I will tell Duguld
and Ganya to bring in the fisher folk.”

Far to the
East, at Settlement, Kim Douglas, Commanding Officer or Ryzcka of
the Eighth Ryzck was about to disobey a direct order.

She was the
ranking Ryzcka here at Settlement. It was up to her. So she popped
her head out of the command tent and caught the sentry’s eye.

“Get me the
Garda commander and all the Ryzckas in the area.”

“Now
ma’am?”

“Immediately.”

“It’s the
middle
of the night ma’am.”

“Get them
anyway.”

* * * * *

As the Officers
of the Garda and the Vada were entering Kim Douglas’s offices
others were making their way south. Afanasei was making his way
hotpaw to the stronghold, there to meet with Francis. With him ran
Fernei, leader of the Avuzdel.

There they made
the acquaintance of the ex-Lord of Duchesne and were favourably
impressed.

Afanasei
greeted the ex-convict with a grave courtesy the ex-southerner
appreciated; there was no sign of either reserve or distrust in
that first clear gaze as he stood waiting for Francis to undo the
despatches from his harness.