Indomitus Est (The Fovean Chronicles) (58 page)

    
Having stepped in the bear trap once left him timid to go for it again.  We had expected strong attacks from the Volkhydrans, however Ancenon would demand his right to cross-question and, if we had sacked Katarran and returned the plunder, then the Volkhydrans didn’t want that same question asked of them.

    
At the end of the meeting, after a series of dazzlingly boring speeches for and against mercenary armies by Ancenon, D’gattis and several Councilmen, the Council decided that no law prevented hiring mercenaries and any such law would be unenforceable.  Mercenaries, by their nature, were not of any nation, and then no one nation could be accountable for their actions.

    
The Fovean Council’s critical weakness: it could act against nations, but not individuals.

    
We left together. My feet hurt and my sweat soaked the padding for my armor.  Shela showered me in kisses as soon as we cleared the coliseum.

    
“Well done, White Wolf,” she said. 

    
“I must say, I am not as disappointed as I thought I would be,” D’gattis said.

    
“Oh, cousin,” Ancenon said, as we walked back to the Trenboni palace.  “The Man had instructions and he followed them just as we told him to.  Can you at least acknowledge that he did it well?”

    
“I don’t know which of you is worse,” I said.

    
“I like to think of them both as worse in their own way,” Shela said, grinning as she clung to my upper arm.

    
“Well, I for one thought that you did a blue ribbon job,” Genna said, her smile painted on.  “Top stud, Lupus.”

    
That bugged me a lot, probably because she meant it to.  What I deserved for a kind moment, I suppose.

    
And not a mistake I would let happen again.

    
“You will be recruiting in Trenbon, Earl Mordetur?” Ancenon asked me, changing the subject.

    
I shook my head.  “No, your Highness,” I said, seeing as he insisted on calling me Earl.  “Your subjects are too happy to be successful here.  I am thinking I will go back to Thera.”

    
“More building?” D’gattis asked me.

    
“I had hoped to entertain on the first of Chaos, if you would be kind enough to attend?” I said.

    
The two Uman-Chi looked at each other, then at me.  Ancenon pushed out his lower lip. “I can see nothing stopping me.  The entire Free Legion, then?”

    
“Please,” I said.  “And as many of the Eldadorian peers as I can gather.  I am a newly-appointed Earl, and it is a good opportunity to demonstrate the Free Legion’s might.”

    
“All tails braided for parade, then?” Genna asked.  “Look our best for show?”

    
Shela put her fingers lightly on Genna’s forearm.  “You will be attending, I hope,” she said.

    
Genna smiled.  “Oh, I wouldn’t miss it,” she said.

    
Shela nodded.  “I will make sure there are clean sheets on all of the cots in the barracks, then,” she said.

    
Ouch.  Ancenon actually stumbled.  D’gattis seemed interested in some passing insect, biting his lower lip as he looked away.

    
We left Trenbon soon after.

     By the first day of Chaos, and my one-year anniversary here, I had fifteen hundred Wolf Soldiers, and the Free Legion army had swelled to more than five thousand.

    
As promised, on the same day, the Free Legion came north to a celebration of my Earldom and of the announcement of Shela’s pregnancy.  She was due sometime in the month of Power.  We’d known in Trenbon but waited for now to announce it formally.  I invited every member of the Eldadorian nobility and some actually announced their intention to attend.  On the same day any Theran who came to the manor would receive free bread and wine.  No one had ever done that before – I myself sort of remembered reading about it in a book.  Supposedly my “subjects” called me
Rancor the Just
anyway, but why not cultivate that image?  If they liked it here, they might not cheat on their taxes.

    
My ballroom had been floored in red-veined marble, imported from Volkhydro.   Pillars carved to resemble rearing horses, to honor my future family’s Andoran heritage, supported the white arched ceiling.  The Dwarves had carved them by hand for me at my request.  It cost a lot but they meant a lot to Shela, and she had named them all.  The Dwarves had stayed to oversee some of the other construction and to share some of their knowledge with the Eldadorian masons, who were glad of it.  When they left, I had a home that stayed cool in the summer and warm in the winter – don’t ask me how they pulled it off because I only live there.

    
I had commissioned Uman artists to paint murals on the walls, and Confluni tapestries to hang as drapes at the real glass windows.  Clear glass seemed extravagant but I could afford it and I wanted it.  Most places had no windows or shuttered them, but I liked to see the sun.

    
Another introduction of mine to the culture was the skylight.  I’d placed a huge one in the ballroom that let the sun or the moon in.  The Dwarves had marveled at the idea and adopted it for me, creating a beautiful portal to the sky.  As a night affair, the moon added nicely to the normal lighting. 

    
Glennen saw the place and accused me on the spot of not paying my full tithe for Thera.  I laughed and handed him my books, and offered to send for a Wizard to cast a truth saying.  Rennin saw me upon entering the estate and stopped dead in his tracks, his woman staring with wide eyes at the ballroom.  He chuckled finally and extended his paw of a hand, walking across the ballroom and swearing at me.  I took his wrist in my hand and he vowed that, if it cost him more than three months’ profit from Steel City to have to remodel his home like mine, then our cities would be at war.  Glennen of course commented that the sack would likely pay for itself, and another noble, a Baron from Elephos, warned that he had better be quick, because after this display every noble on Fovea would be on his way to sack Thera. 

    
I had plans to dissuade that.

    
The Free Legion arrived a day early to pre-inspect the place.  Thorn immediately picked the estate apart and D’gattis called it gaudy.  Ancenon assured me that I fit right in with other Men, which I took merely as a veiled insult, and Nantar introduced me to his wife as “the member who you can come visit any time you want.”  Drekk immediately wanted to redesign the security for the building and I let him – and learned a lot from him in the process.  There were wards for windows that were simple to maintain and yet hard to bypass.  I moved the wealth I kept here from a central room to several concealed places throughout the house and he showed me where I had been robbed at least once already.  He left me astounded and grateful.

    
Genna made no comments at all, and seemed to be avoiding me. I think that Ancenon or D’gattis had finally spoken seriously to her. I felt good about that - at the first horse-comment, Shela had planned to have one Wolf Soldier report to her “for duty” every fifteen minutes of her stay here, day and night, until she left.

    
Then came the inspection of my Wolf Soldiers.  I had paid good gold to hire Volkhydran and Confluni drill instructors, and Two Spears trained the light horse, of which I had two hundred.  Two Spears had become my blood brother (which is a very serious commitment for his people) and I had shared with him the secret of lancers.  When they were competent, half of my light horse would be retrained as heavy horse, with barding and lances. 

    
The Wolf Soldiers bore the Wolf’s Head insignia that Shela had created to mark my House, a black outline of a wolf’s head, looking dead on, with red eyes and two fangs.  My warriors, men and women, wore this on their shields and their breasts.  Each also wore a question mark, in black, turned upside down, on their right shoulder.  I could almost hear Ancenon’s blood run cold when he saw them.

 
  “You recruited your own men?” Arath asked, incredulous.

   
“Yep,” I said.  “I used my own money to do it, from my gambling interests, taken from raids, and the profit from Thera.  I train them, and I maintain them.”

    
“Why?” Nantar asked.  His wife, Thorn’s and mine were off in the garden Shela maintained by herself.  I think she thought it made her nobler somehow – and she swore that horse manure, not cow manure, made her vegetables sweeter.  Choke down a tomato during that argument, if you can!

    
“To have them,” I said, “and because I have a different perspective than Ancenon on how we should be recruiting.”

    
“The Katarran argument,” Ancenon said.

    
“Exactly,” I agreed.

    
Ancenon smiled, his ambiguous eyes twinkling.  “Then these are those whom I said would never be a part of the Free Legion army?”

    
“Again,” I said, “exactly.”

    
“Then you have cost us nothing, in fact,” D’gattis concluded.

    
“Less than nothing,” I said.  “I saved you any chance of appearing elitist by rejecting good men.  The ones not fit for the Free Legion are happy with me, and I am happy to have them.”

    
That should about pay him back for insulting my tastes
, I thought.

    
All nodded.  “I don’t suppose you would be interested in some mock warfare, then?” Arath ventured.  He had taken over as the ultimate general of our troops.  In fact, he did have a military mind, and had been reading a great deal of respected literature on the subject.

    
“How many soldiers did you bring?” I asked.

    
“Four thousand foot,” Thorn said, grinning to himself.  “We have a contract to end Confluni raids in Volkhydro.”

    
“That should be fair – I have a staging ready for you to the south.”

    
“You are taking us all on,” Nantar said.

    
I shrugged.  “Good practice for both.”

    
The idea of being sacked after the nobles left really didn’t worry me.  They’d been invited to the display tomorrow.  After that, I thought we’d be pretty safe.

    
The Uman musicians had been recommended for their talent and played light and airy music.  Several couples danced, more similar to modern Earth dancing than the ancient styles I’d expected.  I pressed flesh with Eldadorian peers from all of the major and minor cities.  Shela stood radiant in a white gown that accentuated her swelling stomach.  I’d forbidden her to drink during the pregnancy, which she thought ridiculous, but she obeyed me.  I didn’t drink either, to make life easier for her.

    
The Free Legion had become better known and most of the men wanted to talk about warfare and the “War months” of Earth, War, Destruction, Chaos and, to some degree, Water.  Were we done for the season?  What about next year?  Did we have national objectives?  What would we do if someone actually
did
attack one of those little villages we make when we camp?

    
Halfway through the evening, Glennen, Rennin and several of the other nobles pulled me aside.

    
“We need your advice, Rancor,” Glennen said.  I’d expect this, but again I saw the actor in Glennen – the politician in the king.

    
I inclined my head.  “I am your servant, Majesty.”