The Far Side (39 page)

“Could he have been captured by the Tengri?”

Melek had never contemplated that.  “It is possible, Captain.  They were south of the outpost, and that is the direction Lieutenant Menim went.”

Captain Dumi turned to Collum.  “Sachem, clearly there is something you wish from me.”

“Indeed so, Captain.  You will tell your soldiers about Chaba, whose chains were broken.  You will tell them of Kris, who broke those chains, of Ezra who protects her, and of Andie who taught her.”

Dumi wasn’t a dummy.  “Leaving out the reaction of General Flaner or his puppy?”

“Broken chains, Captain, broken chains.  If they have a problem with that... well... we all swore oaths did we not?”

“We did, Sachem!  And yet, you have to know how many think they would ever have to carry out those oaths.”

“Tell that to my brother, Captain!  Tell him that soldiers of the King can pick and choose which of their oaths they will keep!”

Captain Dumi swallowed.  Well, that was clear enough.

He opted for what he thought was a safe course.  “We have food, plenty of it, with the column, Sachem.  I imagine a little food wouldn’t be unwelcome?”

Collum slapped his thigh.  “Field rations?  Thank you very much, but I’ll wager that Sergeant Melek’s men will prefer Lady Kris’ version!”

* * *

Once again Oliver Boyle hugged his wife.  This time, at least, he didn’t have to fake the problems with his hand.  “Are you okay, Helen?”

“You know me, Ollie.  I’m okay so long as I have my work.  They made a big mistake taking me away from my work.  What’s going on with Kris?”

“They say she and Andie are bringing the next great plague to Earth.  They don’t want to mount a rescue mission.”

“That’s lunacy!  I consulted with NASA twice on isolation protocols!  What don’t those dim bulbs understand?  Worst case, quarantine for a month, then monthly checkups for the rest of the explorer’s life -- more often if they have a sniffle.  An autopsy if they die of anything at all.  It isn’t rocket science!”

She pointed a finger at him.  “Linda Walsh?  Some of her friends from Caltech came for her and I haven’t seen her since.”

“She’s in a private hospital, Helen.  She was badly beaten -- God only knows how many times.”

“Seven,” Helen said with assurance.  “I was there, I counted.  I want some balls, Ollie!”

“I hope you mean literally,” he told his wife.  “Kurt and the others of his ilk -- they are looking for blood.  Art Foster is dead.”

“Give me Kurt’s phone number.  I have some other names for him.”

Oliver raised his eyebrows.  “It wouldn’t be good if you talked about it on a phone call.”

“Fuck that!  I know what that girl went through!  I want the bastards to know who is doing this to them!”  She tapped her chest.  “It’s very simple.  Helen Boyle is making a list and checking it a heck of lot more than twice.  Make my list and I guarantee you, no doctor in the United States will treat you for so much as hang nail!  Try to get in the way of me getting my daughter back and you’re toast!  And if Otto Schulz dies before his daughter is back, they are going to wish death was instantaneous and painless!”

“Otto is still alive?” Oliver asked, surprised.  “I thought he wasn’t going to live a week.”

“The human body is subject to all sorts of things,” his wife told him.  “More than once someone has commanded their disease, ‘This far and no further!’  As practitioners of the medical art, we laugh, but it works all too often.  He’s alive, and while he’s not chasing his nurses around his bed, he’s no longer in immediate danger.”

“Art Foster is dead, as I said.  Kit -- I have him locked up in nearly two hundred law suits.  Shorty, I’m sorry to say, has been intimidated.  He’s not about to re-create one of Andie’s devices.  Lin Xiu -- they said he was killed while trying to escape.  That leaves Linda Walsh... and about a million home hobbyists.”

“Linda is going to be recovering for a while, Oliver.  They really hurt her.  I swear, I told her, that if she can’t do this, we’d find a way without her.  She was -- adamant -- that she could, as soon as she can walk again.  Ollie -- they broke both her legs.”

He cursed luridly.  “Jack says that Andie’s F-bomb has reset public opinion.  Andie assumed one of two things would happen -- someone would try to steal her design or someone would try to suppress the design.  Her sending the design to the WGA was inspired.  I talked to the WGA president, and he’s vowed that he’s not going to let the government invalidate their registration system even once, even if it wasn’t for a script.  Ideas, he says, are ideas and that intellectual property is intellectual property.

“More and more, Helen, people are turning against the government.”

She sighed.  “There was a time I supported the government, no matter what it did.  Then came all those wars that I didn’t like and now this...  Oliver, we’ve lost our way as a nation.”

“Yes, Helen,” he told her.

“We will get Kris back,” Helen said positively.  “Or I will pull down all their houses!”

* * *

Three days later, Oliver got in to see Linda Walsh.  It was possible that Fort Knox was guarded with more zeal, but Caltech had surrounded her with things you simply didn’t want to think about.

She looked up at him.  “I’m getting better, sir.”

“I know.  You’re our last, best hope, Linda.”

“They’ve intimidated everyone, haven’t they?”

“Yes -- they have either intimidated or killed them.  Except for you.”

“Mr. Boyle, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone else.  I love Andie.  I know, that’s like cradle robbing.  But she and I... I can’t begin to describe it.  We’re perfect for each other.”

“Linda, first of all, that’s personal.  Who you like, love, or hate is your business.  What I’m interested in is getting Kris and Andie back.”

“Both or just the one?”

“Linda, I swear, my daughter means the world to me, and yes, I want her back.  That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t do whatever I have to do to get Andie back, and Ezra as well.”

“What if we can only get one back?”

“Linda, I’m not going to fence, I’m not going to bullshit you.  I like Andie, I respect Ezra, but Kris is my daughter.  Your job is to bring them all back in such a way that no such choice is necessary.  Fuck up and you can find the decision going against you.”

She smiled slightly.  “I just like it said honestly and openly, Mr. Boyle.  I’m going to do all I can do save Andie.  Kris is, as near as I can tell, nearly inseparable, from her.  I’ll save both if I can -- and the guy as well.  And I’m sure that I can.”

“Kit has backers who are throwing up injunctions.  One of the reasons your friends moved you here was so the process servers can’t find you, or reach you if they do.”

She sniffed.  “Kit was clueless from the beginning.  I’m not surprised.  Fuck injunctions.  The only way they’ll stop me from getting Andie back is to kill me.”

Oliver nodded.  “Then, Linda, I’m going to let you meet two very special people.  If you can’t stomach what they plan, send me a message.  In the meantime, though, I’m pretty sure you’re going to want to hear what they say.

“Linda Walsh, meet Kurt Sandusky and Jake Lawson.”

The two men came in, and Oliver was pleased that they knew how to shake the hand of someone whose fingers were broken.

He turned his back on what was going to be said.  There was no doubt in his mind that Art Foster was dead because Jacob Lawson wanted him dead.  The shots that came wherever Kit Richards was, so far as Oliver had heard, shots that came every day, without interruption, were something Kurt or Jake were responsible for as well, letting Kit know he would never know a safe day for the rest of his life -- sort of like what Ezra, Kris and Andie were experiencing.

Chapter 15 :: Meeting on a Hillside

When Melek and his men arrived at the column there were a lot of questions directed at his men and at him.  He’d deliberately not told the others of his party what to say.

It is true, he learned at once, that there is nothing that travels faster in an army than rumors.  All four of the strangers came under intense scrutiny.  Collum was phlegmatic about it, Ezra, Kris, and Andie were used to it, and Chaba to a lesser extent, was as well.

Captain Dumi didn’t know what to do about the talk or, for that matter, what he should do next.  Sergeant Melek’s report wasn’t something like he’d ever heard before.

“I have but eighty men, Sachem,” the captain told Collum.

“True, and supplies would be a problem if we went all the way south.”

Captain Dumi nodded.  “I assumed that some or all of your supplies might have been damaged, and we have enough for nine men to stay four months at the observation post.  Except, now there is no observation post, and the Tengri are prowling the area.  While I’d like to think we could take half again our numbers without casualties, I don’t think that’s likely -- not if they have those thunder rods.”

“No, Captain, it’s not likely at all.  They know we’re here, they know a party of us escaped north.  They have to know we’ll be back and they will be looking for us.   They have thunder rods and those are very dangerous.  Ezra’s thunder rod is certainly dangerous, although theirs aren’t as good as his.  At least they are going to think their party bled us a little, but I don’t think that’s much of a help.”

Ezra had earlier demonstrated the Tengri thunder rods, and neither Captain Dumi nor Collum made an issue of the fact that he didn’t demonstrate his own weapon.

“We could use the old rookery as a new base,” Captain Dumi mused.  “It sounds like an altogether better location.”

Collum stood listening, thinking about other things.  He wasn’t entirely sure what Ezra meant when he said that he and the two women came from the rookery -- it still didn’t make much sense.  How could you fold the world so that two points so very far away were so close that you could step from one to the next?  Arvala had some scholars, but he was sure that they were going to be in the same sort of quandary that he was.  Strangers suddenly appearing in their rear might not have as happy an outcome the second time as it had the first.

And he would like to think they’d been careful enough to leave the rookery so that the Tengri weren’t likely to find it, but that possibility couldn’t be discounted either.  And if part of a patrol occupied it, they would be hard put not to reveal their presence unless commanded by some level-headed lieutenant or a senior sergeant.  The problem with men commanded by Flaner and Seros was that they were rarely level-headed and frequently were just plain stupid.

Ezra, Kris, and Andie were treasures, just as they were.  Their weapons were terrible, and the three of them could probably hurt quite a few men, unless they were taken by complete surprise.  Like Melek, he had no stomach for such a betrayal.

And of course, there was the fact that he was quite sure they hadn’t made all the food they’d brought with them, the clothes they wore, or the weapons they carried.  He’d tried to talk to Andie about making weapons like theirs but even as well as Ezra had learned their language in the short time they had, it had been difficult to understand.

The metal used in the thunder rod was steel, stronger than a sword, but less brittle.  Instead of arrows, they had little devices that consisted of a small container, filled with some black grains of something and another lump of metal to hold it in.  According to Ezra, a small fire was kindled at the base of the container, and the powder burned very fast.  The gas was like the string of a bow, propelling the metal plug very rapidly, the metal plug being like the tip of an arrow.

Andie didn’t know how to make the steel for the thunder rod, the metal for the projectile, the powder that burned fast, or the kindling for the fire.  It could be that they were lying, not wanting to give possible enemies the secrets of their weapons, but he’d handled Ezra’s thunder rod.  The metal was dark, unlike any he’d ever seen.  There were no hammer marks as a smith would leave on a blade and Andie had said that the metal was poured hot into molds.

Even the wooden parts of the thunder rod were finished finer than any master carpenter could do without spending an inordinate amount of time at it.  And he’d convinced Andie to let him see the smaller version of the weapon she carried.  It was so tiny!  He couldn’t begin to understand how even the most meticulously careful smith could produce things so small!

Yet, it was another concern when they had been so willing to explain how the thunder rods of the Tengri worked.  Twice Ezra had shown Collum and Melek how the weapons were fired -- they were slow, clumsy, and not nearly as accurate as Ezra’s weapon.

Ezra, Kris, and Andie weren’t people he’d like to have as enemies.  Moreover, their people were, he was sure, going to try to rescue them.  He didn’t understand more than an enemy had stranded them here, and that there were others from their home who would work to get them back.  Making enemies of Ezra and the others would be stupid; making enemies of their people could well mean a war fought with men who would be enraged at the treachery to the women.

It was simple, really, when you thought about it.  Ezra had killed the dralka when it was a long, long ways away.  The thought of hundreds or thousands of men like him shooting thunder rods like his at the King’s army was unpleasant in the extreme.  And that brought to mind that the Tengri had thunder rods that weren’t as good as Ezra’s.  Still, it didn’t bear thinking about what many Tengri could do shooting at the men of Arvala with their own thunder rods.  Barring some sort of miracle, all the Arvalans would be dead before the Tengri got within bow shot, much less within the reach of their swords.

He sniffed, realizing something else.  Ezra, Kris and Andie didn’t carry swords.  Knives, of course.  There are a lot of uses for a knife.  He’d never seen any knives like Ezra’s before and without doubt it would be wicked to fight against.  The young women carried knives that were smaller, but no less dangerous.  Why didn’t they carry swords?  They had thunder rods to take care of killing men at any distance from arm’s length to half a mile.

His head ached.  The more he thought about this, the worse it got.  Would Ezra and the other two have their best weapons?  Probably the best hand weapons, at least.  But back at Arvala and in other cities there were bows that were far stronger than a single man could pull; bows that shot an arrow a single man couldn’t hold.  There were also devices that threw rocks a long, long ways -- almost as far as Ezra’s weapon could hit.  Almost.

“You are silent, Sachem,” Captain Dumi said cautiously.

“I am Sachem of the Chain Breakers, but only an old sergeant in the King’s Army.  You command here, Captain.  That said, there are a number of things you need to know, and it is going to take a while to explain.  As you’ve been told, you are not going to be able to accept everything at once, but you have to keep an open mind.

“Melek is as good a man with a bow as I’ve seen, Captain.  He killed a dralka on the trip south, a good clean shot.  Yet, he had to let the dralka get within a few hundred feet to be sure of hitting his target.  Ezra, the male stranger, killed his first one at three hundred paces -- very long bow shot, and a distance where you couldn’t be certain of hitting what you were aiming at, no matter how good you are.

“Granted, the second one was much closer, but Captain, it was coming right towards us.  There was no way to be sure who it had picked to attack, but it was in the final seconds of an attack.  Ezra stood his ground as calmly as the bravest of men -- and killed it.  Then he looked up, saw the other heading away, and casually lifted his weapon and killed it as well -- but by then it was a half mile away, Captain.”

“What kind of a bow shoots accurately at that range?” Captain Dumi asked.

“It wasn’t a bow he showed us earlier.  Come, Captain, I will show you what I killed the leader of the Tengri with and then I will show you what that man intended to kill me with.”

He went to his pack and pulled out the weapon Andie had fashioned and held it up.  “The short one, Andie, made this for us.  First, she made one from the leavings of the midden heap in the rookery.  It worked well enough to show me what it could do.  Sergeant Melek commanded me to see if I could make a better one, with Andie’s help.  This is the result.”

He cocked it, turned, and fired into a wagon a hundred yards away.  The sound drew everyone’s attention, and as before, the men from the observation post ran to the wagon to show off what Collum had done.

Collum had Captain Dumi examine the bolt.  The wood of the wagon side was an inch-thick plank and the bolt had pierced it, and buried itself in a wooden crate of field rations.  You couldn’t move it, of course.

“As you can see, it hits much harder than an arrow -- hard enough to kill a dralka -- perhaps hard enough to kill a dralha.”

Captain Dumi whistled in awe.  “And she made this from leavings in the midden heap?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“What sort of person could do that?”

Collum laughed.  “I watched her make this.  I helped her with it.  An old sword blade, some steel wire from an old sword hilt, a piece of bow stock cut in half and shaved differently than a bow.  And, Captain, I am already a better shot with this than I ever was with a bow.  I could take my last bolt out to where I just fired from and put it a finger-width from this one.”

“How could that be?”

“Well, Andie told me, Captain.  An arrow takes a while to get to its target.  It curves down -- as all men know.  This bolt goes very fast, and doesn’t have time to curl down.  In short, it goes where you point it.”

“So what would you have me do?”

“Go carefully around Ezra, Kris, and Andie.  Their weapons were not hatched from one brain, and there are undoubtedly others where they came from.  We cannot afford such enemies.”

“And we should be afraid of them?”

“Captain!” Collum exclaimed.  “We put to death the enemies from the East, or at least that is what we are commanded.  Do we do that because we are confident of our eventual victory?  Or fearing another defeat?”

“We do it to measure some of the blood they owe us.”

Collum shook his head.  “Of course there is that, but you and I both know the order to kill them is more from fear than confidence.”  He waved at the three strangers.

“We have to remember that these three have family, friends, and a king.  Can we afford to make such enemies?  I do not counsel cowardice, but simple wariness.  If they come to put chains on us, I, like all men, will fight them.  But they are as opposed to chains as we are.  In fact, Ezra says that it has been barely more than a hundred and fifty years since they broke the chains that held people in bondage where they are from.”

Captain Dumi was silent for a moment.  “I have no trouble with that which you wish, Sachem.  Except... General Flaner is of the Dralka, as is Captain Seros.  They wish to expand into the Two Rivers area, where there are many rookeries.  They maintain that if we clean them up, dralka attacks on Arvala will cease.”

“And you know the Chain Breakers’ opinion,” Collum told him.  “The dralka will be able to come from any other direction, making life a continual risk.  We will spend fifty years and secure an area smaller than East Finger – and not a tenth as good.  It isn’t a good idea.  At some point in time, certainly, but not now.”

“Aye, and there is still much land to expand into, in all of the Fingers,” Captain Dumi added.  “More than one man from my force has said that this storm was like the great storms from before the rains failed -- presaging a change.  That perhaps East Finger will once again be able to support more people than it does now – which is virtually none.”

The captain growled, “As all men know, the Dralka wish to expand their force at the expense of the others.  They are the ones who most often talk of ‘modernizing’ our oaths.”

Collum nodded.  “Captain, I do not know for sure, but it is my belief that if the Dralka continue their growth unchecked, soon the length of the walls will be such that we will have to put every man available to prevent breaches.  If that were to happen -- we would never be able to expand again.”

“Aye, we Wall Guards have spoken of this amongst ourselves.  We object -- but what can we do?   It is popular to make inroads against the beasts.  Already they speak of how we fail in our oaths to kill dralka, preferring garrison duty.”

“As they claim that we don’t need but a tithe of the Sea Fighters we once did, just as they claim that the other fighting orders aren’t needed these days.  Just the Dralka and Wall Guards to hold the new territory.”

“All of the fighting orders shouldn’t fall under the control of one order,” Dumi said firmly.

“Oh, surely.  But already we see what they plan!  This is going to be a critical moment in our history, Captain Dumi!  It isn’t just the Chain Breakers who are at risk here -- it is all of the fighting orders.”

* * *

Ezra nudged Kris who saw that Melek, Collum and the new officer, Captain Dumi, were approaching.  Andie looked up and she smiled.  “A council of war!  Cool!  I’ve never been to one before!”