IF WE LIVE

They waited for Morik’s reply. They prepared for war. In the south Marshal Willot assembled a division-sized unit of Guardsmen and organized Willeners in their new role as militiamen of Valen, preparing to strike towards Wawee. Heavily laden wagons creaked towards the northern beaches of Avenshan, unloading their cargoes at rapidly building supply dumps.

Laif Mawvee said that it was a race between peace and war. But the single entry for peace was a fragile packet ship carrying pieces of parchment over the stormy north sea to the Ayven River; and it was too far behind to be seen. Day after day went past, and various bodies of troops and ships neared their jumping-off points. Orders had to be sent; decisions had to be made.

 The troops meant to march east came up first. Their orders to proceed or stand down had to be sent. Mawvee wanted to wait a few days. Dayon shook his head . “They got to go. For this big hit plan to work, Willot’s got to draw off Stableners in the east.”

Two days later the packet ship reached Avenshan. But the letter the post riders brought was from the captain of the ship

Dayon read it out: “We got to the Ayven River a clear two days ahead of the time I figured on. There is storehouses and a trading post just inland, at a place they call Hastamo, with a company of the kepta’s soldiers to keep order. The captain of them saw that the thing was important and sent off his two best riders with spare horses. He said that nobody in the world could travel faster than his men with horses to spare, and that Morik had lately set up post stations all along the river, with more horses and relief riders at all of them. So the letter would get to Morik the soonest it could. “

 “After the first days we waited at single anchor and in the current of the river, so that we could turn about and set sail for the Avenshan the very moment Morik’s answer was aboard. Day after day went past with no sign. The captain of the soldiers, a man of more sense than I hear is common to those people, was as troubled and wondering as I was.”

 “At last, a days gone past the time this captain said the answer would likely come, lookouts saw a sizable party coming up the river. I thought it must be only a Hastab band coming to trade, as they were making an easy, almost dawdling pace, but soon we saw that they carried a running-horse flag and also a spear with ribbons on it, which I had heard was a sign they were on the kepta’s business. We made ready to cast off and lowered a boat to carry the letter aboard, and we had plenty of time as the riders seemed to go even slower when they got near to the place where we were anchored. “

“The first of the riders just rode right into the river near us, not even taking any notice of the boat that had come up to him. He yelled over the water to us, and I put down his very words, as they was short and not the kind of thing I would forget. He said a kepta of Stablen didn’t deal with his enemies when they was marching troops against his country. Any talking Morik did he would do in Vale the Golden, at the head of his armies. “

 “And that was all. I called out to him whether Morik had anything else to say, but he said no. He turned his horse and just rode away, all the others in his party following. We brought back the boat and set sail.”

 “I am sorry about the message I had to bring you, but I say that I, my mates, and crew did all we could to make the passage quick, and would have made it so if the Hastableners had not kept us so long.”

“So he did stall,” Kaversee said. “But I’m damned if I see why, if he was going to send such a message as that. That shit about talking in Vale – he won’t be so proud and mighty when the big hit comes down on his head.”

Dayon nodded. “Pretty strange. You’d think he wanted war.”

“Maybe he’s putting on a show,” Richard said. “He may feel that he has to talk tough. He sends this fellow out to yell at our ship so his people car see that he’s not giving anything away.”

“Must be,” Mawvee said. “If he makes a big business out of fighting us, he’ll still be kepta. For whatever it’s worth, after the big hit comes down on him.”

 The Willot and his Guardsmen moved into the Lastab. The navy’s new ships neared Wasper. But both were feints. Several days passed before the real attack began. Then, as they had expected, many of the militiamen were called to duty. They marched to the northern shore of Avenshan for the big hit.

Richard and Laury went up to the northern beaches to see it start. They waited on a sand dune and watched navy carpenters extend the piers of a fishing village with a floating dock. Laury grew impatient, but Richard pointed out to sea. A white speck had appeared on the line dividing the overcast sky from the textured gray of the cloud-shadowed sea.

 Laury looked through Richard’s glasses. “There’s hundreds of them. What’s going on? I thought it was only going to be the navy ships.”

“We hope Morik will think the same,” Richard said. “What you’re looking at is most of Valen’s merchant and fishing fleet. They sailed around from Habeel Bay as soon as the ice melted enough. Morik is bound to be looking for an attack on his northern coast, but we’re hoping that a land animal like him won’t realize how many ships we can gather. So he won’t realize how quickly we can move the soldiers.

The officer in charge of the docks came by to say hello. He explained the arrangements. “Old Levis is making them race to see what turn they’re going to get at loading. The winners’ll do their jobs first, then get on with their regular trade. Losers’ll have to wait their turns out at Narbil Island. That’s a place just over the horizon, with a good harbor to shelter in.”

Laury and Richard watched the race. The ships had all sail set to catch the light airs of the calm day, and their crews strained for every advantage. A lean, clipper-like ship was the clear winner. “Dreamer,” the officer said. “Ain’t she fine? Every sailor all around the Haaf knows her. No ship can match her, even the ones built to be just like her.”

 The officer hurried off to supervise the loading. Soldiers were being mustered to serve as stevedores. “It’s really something,” Laury said. “I guess I’m glad you dragged me out to see it. Are you going to send as many soldiers as it looks like? Where are they all going? “

“We’re going to use a lot,” Richard said. “Fifty thousand. And they’re going to Ayventun.”

Laury was skeptical. “You hope.”

Richard shook his head. “They’ll get there. They’re not going to try to attack Morik’s armies of horse soldiers; they’re going to go straight down the Ayven River without paying any attention to the rest of the Hastab.”

 “But why? The people in Ayventun are just slaves, right? If Morik stays in town at all, him and his’ll be in the castle ‐ which I heard you say nothing could take.”

“Nothing can take the castle,” Richard agreed. “But the castle defends nothing but itself. It’s the city, and its people, that count, because they aren’t just slaves – they’re the one thing that makes Morik dangerous to us. It’s those busy, hard working slaves who make all of Morik’s weapons. Without them he’ll be nothing but a sort of super-chieftain, ruling a lot of savage herdsmen who’ll have no tools or weapons but those they can make themselves. So we plan to take the city people away from him. “

Laury was incredulous. “Take them? There must be thousands of them. What’re you going to do with them?”

“We’re going to set them free,” Richard said. “Remember, they’re all slaves. Still,  admit that carrying them off will be pretty troublesome, “

Laury shook her head. “Pretty troublesome? You might as well say the sea’s a little wet. But I see the cunning of it. This is all your plan, isn’t it? This hitting Morik west, east, south, then all of a sudden swooping down to snatch the slaves away. From the bigness of it, it couldn’t be anybody else.”

“It was my idea,” Richard said. “But some of the others didn’t care for the bigness of it. They thought it was a lumbering monster, with none of the sharp, clever strokes that Kel used to dream up, “

Laury was scornful. “What do they know? I ain’t sayin’ I like it, but I don’t see that Kel could’ve thought up anything better.”

“Well, in a way Kel gave me the idea. The first time I saw Ayventun, he told me about the place, and he said he thought the strangeness of it, a city set down in a wilderness, was one of the smartest things the keptas had ever done, because it gave them the advantages and powers of both city and wilderness. We can’t take the wilderness away from Morik, but we can take the city. “

“This ain’t politics, Judge,” Laury said. “You don’t always have to be giving Kel the credit with me. If this doesn’t work, you’ll sure take the blame.”

Richard smiled, “I know. I thought about that. I asked myself what Kel would have done. Then I realized that he would have followed his number one rule – don’t be there.”

“And he ain’t,” Laury said. “The devil managed to come out ahead even in getting killed. He did all the good things the people liked and left the rest of us to clear up the messes.”

They watched the ships sort themselves out. The soldiers started boarding. “I guess you’d like to be going with them.”

Richard shrugged. “It’d be easier than sitting in Val and waiting for reports. Maybe I will go, when the army gets near Ayventun… Morik night change his mind and start talking.”

 “If it’s talking, fine,” Laury said. “You sure you don’t want to go out there and fight Morik?”

“I’m sure. Believe me, cher: I never want to see another cavalry charge. I don’t want any more dreams.  I just want the thing to be settled. Morik, Morik – I don’t want to hear that name. I don’t want to have to sit around talking about what he’s going to do, what it means, and what he might be thinking. He and his ridiculous country – it’s like a wild, crazy kid all the grown-ups have to watch out for.”

Levis sent in the first reports. “I had my three cruisers shoot at the Hastamo fort, making a hell of a noise and acting like we planned to batter the place to the ground before we tried to land any soldiers. The Stableners shot back at us, and they had some hellish big guns – seemed like the balls must be big as cows, from the splashes they threw up, but we managed to keep out from under the damn things.”

“While this shooting show was going on, I had the troop ships sailing just over the horizon, where the Stableners wouldn’t see them. They landed the soldiers at a beach Rick Kern picked out, a place an easy half-night’s march from the fort, and they say they hardly even got wet. I had some of the storeships dawdling about just on the fort’s horizon, where the Stableners could see them and think they must be the troopships, and it looks like they really believed it. They didn’t even have coast-watchers out to look for a landing somewhere else. Never seemed to come into their minds that I could put men ashore anywhere on the coast that I pleased. “

 “Anyway, Rick Kern took the soldiers on the night march to the fort. My plan was to start shooting again at first light, then all of a sudden stop when the sun was  a thirty secondth of his way clear of the horizon. I had one of my people ashore with the soldiers, so he could measure the angle and tell them to storm the fort at the very same time I stopped shooting – only that part of the plan went a little wrong. For the storming of the fort, Kern had picked men from the army of Hallen, fellows that had never seen a Stablener that wasn’t running away from them; and those Halleners didn’t want to wait. Said no damn fool little fort was going to take them all day. The crazed fools stormed the place while my ships was still shooting at it. They killed the Stablener gunners while they were still busy ramming charges into their cannons. They also shot the Stablener captain, the fellow that did his best to help us, when he tried to gather his people for a last stand. Which seems to be the way good men go here. They say you got to be either cunning or mean to live to be old in this country. I hope we got enough of the cunning to keep from being mean.”

In other reports Kern described the work done to improve and extend the fortifications of the harbor. Soldiers dug trenches and built earthen walls. The Stableners cannon were turned to face south, and other guns were brought from the ships. Levis planned to garrison the place with five thousand men. He said that Hastamo was the one place in Stablen had to hold, because it offered them their only safe harbor; and Kern, an expert in fortification, made sure that it was holdable.

While the soldiers dug, the merchant ships came into the harbor. They off-loaded supplies and odd-looking pieces of lumber. Navy carpenters took the prefabricated timbers and turned them into a fleet of river boats. They built a towing device of wooden beams and fat hawsers and attached the boats. The next group of transports thankfully slung down a large group of annoyed mules. The smaller navy vessels towed the boom-hawser device and its attached boats up the river. But the winds were southerly, and the river soon grew too narrow for the blue-water ships. The mule teams would have to do the rest.

“And it works fine,” Kern reported. “Something like a moving boat-bridge. Only trouble we’ve had is with the mules – which you’ve got to figure on, with mules.” The soldiers reasoned with the mules. They started for the south, towing the supply-boat bridge with a suspension rig of hawsers. The soldiers marched along both banks, protecting the mules and the towing apparatus from Hastab raiders. Behind them, the second wave of soldiers persuaded its tow mules. Behind the second wave, the cargo ships were unloading more boat-parts, supplies, mules, and soldiers.

“We started pretty slow,” Kern wrote. “The mules we had wasn’t enough to keep the boats moving at the troops’ best pace. Turned out we didn’t have any trouble buying oxen and draft horses from the Hastab bands, and so we soon got to moving faster. The bands haven’t been bothering us at all, and from what they say when they come to trade their stock, it seems like Morik’s gathering his fighting men at Ayventun, where he can pull back to the cover of the buildings if he’s getting whipped. He’s been telling his people that he’ll beat us back from the city, when we’re at the very end of our supply line, then harry us all the way back to the sea. But the bands ain’t listening. After the way we whipped him, they’d just as soon be rid of Morik. They can’t do anything against him, because he’s got the castle, the Blacks, and all the guns. But they won’t do anything for him either.

Richard read the reports with increasing uneasiness. He explained his doubts to Laury. Morik seemed to be gathering his whole army at Ayventun to confront Kern, ignoring the feint made by Willot. The Valens were getting peace proposals sent through Nakalyn traders; Dayon and Mawvee thought they were genuine. “Kern’s a good soldier, but he isn’t up to dealing with this chance for peace talks, an enemy attack, and all the other complications.”

 Laury’s eyes were knowing. “Sure. Tell me Davy — who was it picked Kern for that job?”

“Well, I guess I did,” Richard said. “The thrust into the Lastab seemed the riskiest, and it’s a cavalry operation. Willot’s a cavalryman and the most experienced soldier. Kern’s the senior vice-marshal, and he’s very good at fortifications and moving supplies… All right. I see what you’re thinking. Maybe, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was setting things up so I’d have to go out.’

“Same trick Kel was always pulling,” Laury said. “Dealing people out like checkers on the board, and fixing it so he’d always be the one with the real power. The one thing he never did was fool himself about it. You dealt Kern out there to the Hastab, but you never thought about whether he was going to bring those fifty thousand soldiers back. Those people ain’t just checkers, Davy they’ve got silly little women and kids waiting for them to come home. If you got to do that sort of stuff for politics you better make damn sure you stop fooling yourself and do it right.”

 “I’m trying,” Richard said. “But I’ve got to go, Laury. “

She nodded. “I know you do. Let’s get down to figuring out what you’re going to need to take to Stablen.”

Richard arranged passage to the Hastab. The ship Dreamer had been chartered to maintain communications with Kern’s force. Richard made a swift trip over the Blue mountains and met her at the Avenshan supply depot. They weighed anchor and ghosted through a dense fog, following a pilot boat away from the craggy coast.

 Dreamer’s skipper was Allalan Evin. He watched the pilot with deep suspicion, his hands clenched in tight fists. “Lucky you got here just when you did. This time of year the winds’re mostly contrary.”

“They told me it would be difficult,” Richard said. “I appreciate the trouble you took. “

Evin was mollified, “Well, we’re hired for the time, not the trips. You want to go down to your cabin? We put your stuff in the mate’s place, but you could still have mine.”

“ The mate’s will be fine,” Richard said. “But I think I’ll stay up and watch. If I won’t be in your way. . . “

 The sailors fixed a chair in the corner made by the port rail and the break of the quarterdeck. Richard proclaimed his ability to stand, but the sailors didn’t believe him. Before he could protest, they had erected an awning over the chair; a rope seatbelt was discreetly tied to the arms, in case the landling became afraid of the sea. Richard was urged into this invalid’s chair. He sat and smiled. The sailors, satisfied with their secure stowage of their human cargo, went about their tasks.

Richard watched them work. At each change of course or tack Dreamer’s crew swarmed over her to adjust her sails. The ship’s people were of all ages and both sexes. When the ship settled on her course, they came down from the masts and fenced the decks with netting. Some young children appeared on the waist to totter or crawl on the deck under the supervision of a crew of teenagers. The children approached Richard and stared at him, fascinated by the sight of an alien landling there on the decks of their home. They asked him questions about his bizarre, unnatural life on the land. Their adolescent babysitters were too sophisticated to question Richard, but they stayed near enough to hear what he said.

“I miss life on ship,” Richard told Evin.

“Must’ve been real different,” Evin said. “I mean, you sailed…”

“Between the stars,” Richard said. “But it wasn’t as different as you’d think. Except we didn’t have kids along.”

“We didn’t have ours along, we’d never see ‘em at all,” Evin said. “And if the women stayed landfast to keep ‘em, we’d never have a chance to make ‘em! Takes a big crew to run a ship like this, so we got to be going all the time to pay our way.”

“Once, I wouldn’t know why you’d want the kids along,” Richard said. “Now I do.”

“How long were the voyages on those ships you sailed?”

“About a hundred days.”

“This ship can sail from Valmo all the ways to Wasper right across the Haaf in forty days – sometimes thirty, if the winds’re right.”

Richard shook his head in admiration. “Where I come from they called ships like this clippers – because they went at such a clip.”

“Ha! I like that. I’ll have to tell the mates. Sweet Dreamer’s a clipper for sure.”

They reached Hastamo. Richard went to speak with Sea-Marshal Levis. Levis was afflicted with arthritis.  It was a warm day, but he was bundled up in mufflers and shawls. His hands were covered with thick mittens. He tried to stand, but Richard waved him back to his chair. “What do you hear from Kern?”

 Levis settled his woolens about himself. “Last we heard, he was still marching along without any trouble. If you leave soon you should catch him after he’s been a few days in Ayventun. “

“Good,” Richard said. “There’s a chance Morik may talk, now that he’s seen what fighting will cost him. I want to be there in case he does. “

Levis was skeptical. “Well , maybe… You going right now ?”

“I think I’d better, if Kern’s that close. Anything else I should know about?”

 “No. Not a thing’s happening. And I was wondering… You mind if I go along with you, Judge?” He held up his crippled hands. “My bones is bothering me. It was all right being back at sea when I had plenty to work my mind on; but just sitting here in this wet air, and feeling it… Hell of a thing for a sailor to come down with. I hear it’s hot and dry inside the Hastab. Just the thing for what I got.”

 Richard said he could come. They made their way up the river. Richard saw the great sweep of the Hastab again. He told Levis that the horizon seemed further away than it did at sea. Levis said that couldn’t be; it was just a trick of the air, or the way the damned ugly water-mule of a boat sat up so high on the river. But it was good and warm. Levis cautiously unwrapped himself from his mufflings of wool and sat on the boat’s little fantail, soaking up the warmth.

 “I tell you, if it was up to me, I’d take one of those hot southern countries just to have a place to go where it’s warm. Valmo’s my town, but shoo –  talk about a place that’s cold and wet – almost as bad as being at sea.”

One of the mule drivers signaled them: “Hoy, on the boat! We got Stableners  coming in.”

Richard climbed to the top of the cabins with Yonny, a soldier who had served long years in the Hastab. They looked out at the Stableners with Richard’s glasses. A troop of Morik’s black-armored cavalry appeared. They rode slowly to show their peaceful intent, and every man carried a banner. Yonny said that this was to show that they didn’t have their hands on their weapons. They stopped a diplomatic distance from the Valener soldiers. A single rider rode on at a slow, steady trot. Like Morik’s cavalrymen, she was dressed in black; but her uniform came from above the sky.

 “Mele,” Richard said. “My God. It’s Thea Mele.”

“Medicine woman’s tack,” Yonny muttered.

“What?”

Yonny was squinting through the field glasses. “Red on the saddle and saddle cloth – only Sisters use red. And she’s wearing the white hair covering only medicine women can wear. Riding a white horse, which the sisters ride – and what a horse! The highest blood and the best schooled I’ve ever seen. Look at that trot – regular as a drum-beat.” He turned the glasses on the escorting troop of horsemen. “Blacks. But they’re all riding white horses. Never heard of a white horse troop of Blacks. It’s like they’re her Personals. Who is this woman?”

“Somebody I used to know,” Richard said. “Tell me about the Sisters.”

“Midwives. Medicine women.” Yonny pulled his sleeve up to show a large scar. “Got cut up in Ayventun. Sisters sewed me up real good. Thing about them is, nobody can mess with them. They never marry. They fuck whoever they want.”

Yonny looked through the glasses again. “There’s one you don’t see much: rising sun worked in gold on her saddle cloth. Mother of the kepta’s son.”

The sailors rowed Richard to the river bank in a skiff. Mele rode up. She wore a second officer’s uniform, but her deck sneakers had been replaced by blood-red riding boots. Her white hijab was pinned with a golden badge in the shape of the running horse.

She gave Richard a firm officer-to-subordinate look. “Tech Richard: I am the senior officer on this world. As you know, I have command authority over you in all matters pertaining to the safety of the ship’s personnel – and your attacks on Ayventun are definitely endangering the surviving crew members. I must order you to withdraw.”

 Richard shook his head. “They’re not just my attacks. I’m not here as a Tech, and I doubt that you are really acting as Second Officer Mele.”

Mele sighed. “Well, I didn’t think it would work, but I thought I might give it a try. Hope you don’t mind.”

“No, ” Richard said, “Let’s start over. You’re Morik’s representative, I’m here as chief magistrate of Valen. So let’s negotiate. “

 They went to Richard’s cabin. He had a bunk, a small table, and a stool. He offered the bunk to Mele. “You’re looking well, Thea. I hear you have a baby.”

Her face brightened. “Evan. I know I’m prejudiced, but he really is the most beautiful baby boy. Didn’t you have a baby too?”

“Yes,” Richard said. “A little girl: Renny. My wife calls her the wonder baby.”

Mele laughed. “Aren’t they all wonders? And Ema? Is she all right?”

“She’s pregnant too,” Richard said. “She’s with Plott now.”

Mele’s face showed relief. “I’m so glad. She had the worst time of all of us.”

“I wish I could have done something,” Richard said. “But I don’t remember anything from the time we were boarding the shuttle till Kel dragged me off.”

She squeezed her eyes closed. Tears began to leak out. “You were unconscious. You were in the electronics bay with Georgie Mbutu. I was piloting. I had to make a dead stick, wheels up landing. A very hard landing. I think the welds holding your chairs to the deck broke; you were thrown against the bulkhead.

She was sobbing. “They dragged Georgie out. I think he had a skull fracture. He died in the grass. I wanted so much to hold his hand, but I was afraid. I was so afraid.”

Richard sat beside her and held her. “You did the best you could, Thea. You don’t have to tell me.”

“Who else can I tell? I have to be the leader. I can’t say how afraid I was. I need to tell someone. Randof – the chief of the band – saw Ema and dragged her into his tent. Captain Sulvepeda tried to stop him. Randof killed him with his saber. I did nothing. Just hung my head and tried not to be noticed. Ema cried and screamed, but it did her no good. Later he threw her out of the tent. She was naked. A Nakalyn trader was in the camp, and he saw her. You know how pretty Ema is. He bought her from Randof.

“Randof looked around and saw me. He pulled me into his tent. God help me, but I didn’t try to resist. He beat me anyway. After he was done, he went to sleep. I lay awake all night, afraid to even move.

“The next day, Morik came. He told me later he and his men had a whole string of horses and galloped all night. He came into the camp alone. He’s not a big man, but everyone was afraid of him. He has these striking amber eyes, and they were like fire. “

“He said something to Randof. Later he told me he asked Randof how he had treated the kepta’s guests. Randof was shaking. Morik took out his belt knife and stuck it into Randof’s throat. I watched him choke to death on his own blood. I felt nothing.”

“Morik gathered us up and took us to the castle. At first I didn’t even know you and Plott and Peterson were gone, so I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say about Ema. I was just numb. I’m so ashamed I couldn’t do anything.”

Richard’s arm was around her waist. She looked up at him, her eyes glittering with tears. She had brown eyes and long dark lashes. Richard kissed her. Her lips opened beneath his. She put her arms around his neck.

“Speak to me in Old Language,” she said. “Tell me you love me.”

“Je t’aime. Je t’adore.”

“I meant Italian,” she said. “Close enough, I guess.” She removed her hijab. Her dark hair was tied up in braids bound by fine golden chains.

“Beautiful hairdo,” Richard said.

She grimaced. “I preferred my spacers crop. But that’s not the style here.”

She kissed him. They embraced and Richard unzipped her coverall. She wore a golden necklace, anklets, bracelets on each wrist, a chain around her waist, and many rings. She had wide hips and large round breasts.

“Thea,” Richard said. “I always thought you were beautiful – but now – you’re so shapely.”

“A baby does round a woman up.” She touched the scars on his shoulder. “What happened here?”

“Battle,” Richard said. “In the forests, when Morik sent the Blacks after me. Then I tried to kill him in Stada. So we’re even there.”

It was hot in the cabin. Her skin glistened with perspiration. She lay back on the bed, and he entered her. She clasped him with her legs and put her arms around his neck. 

They lay together on the bed. Richard had opened the hatch in the ceiling to let in the cool air of the evening. They watched the first stars appear.

“Do you have nightmares?” she asked. “About the battles?”

He nodded. “Again and again, I see the gray horse Blacks charging through the smoke, and I know they’re going to kill me. Or, for variety’s sake, I dream of other things… Things I did.”

 “I’m in Randof’s tent. I guess some part of me has never left it. But even that is better than dreaming of him killing Carey Sulvepeda. Or the way I just let Georgy lie there and die. Because I was afraid.”

He held her. “Tu es avec moi, chérie, et je t’aime.”

She wiped her eyes. “In the Reach, they could make us forget. Here… The Alder Sister says, for a wounded soul, love is the only salve.”

“How did you become a Sister? Or join the sisterhood, if that’s the proper term.”

“Women are chattels in the Hastab,” she said. “Except the Sisters. Morik persuaded them to adopt us. At first they were not happy. Then we were able to show them some things. They’re excellent surgeons, but they didn’t understand antisepsis. Now they do.”

She looked into his eyes. “They’re also the Hastab’s diplomats.”

“I see,” Richard said. “Is this sisterly diplomacy?”

“Yes,” she said. “I meant to seduce you. I have to persuade you. But I didn’t expect to feel so much about it. I didn’t mean to tell you all the things that had happened to us. For some reason I had to tell you.”

“And I had to hold you, cher,” Richard said. “Then I had to make love to you. In this life, what else can we do?”

“I have to ask you…” She sat up in bed. “Morik is in a difficult and precarious situation. You know what his people are like. Just between us, he admits that he can’t beat you. But if he makes any kind of gesture of surrender, he’ll be killed. Surely you see that that wouldn’t be to your advantage? A new kepta would have to defy you; the war would go on. I suppose you could win, but it would cost you. Morik is willing to come to terms, so long as they don’t require public humiliation.”

“The ‘land of then what,’” Richard sighed. “Again. You make it sound as if Morik’s well-being were essential to us. But thousands of people are dead because of him. Forgive me, Thea, but I wonder if you’re not making these clever arguments because he is important to you – not because he is necessary for peace.”

“He…” Mele struggled to control herself . “He’s the father of my son. I love him. Is that what you want me to say? Yes, I’m arguing for him for myself. For my boy too; you know what will happen to him if Morik is killed. If I thought it would do any good to beg and cry, I would; I’d do anything to save him.”

“You wouldn’t have to,” Richard said. “If it were just between us, I’d do whatever you asked. But Morik isn’t just a man, or even just a king. He kills people. How can we be secure while he’s alive?”

“But it isn’t just him,” Mele said. “Another kepta would be just the same, It’s the place, the country — the life. We’ve all done what we had to. To survive. We were castaways, but staying alive here was at least as hard for him. What chance has he ever had to live a peaceful, civilized life? He has never even known that such a life can be lived. I know he has done terrible things, and I know that some of them have… Have touched you personally. But making demands he can’t possibly meet, won’t stop the killing. Whether he lives or not, it will go on — if you make it so. He told me to tell you that he understood you were a judge. ‘So judge me,’ he said. ‘Then judge the world.’”

“You make it hard,” Richard said. “I know you’re not wrong. But there is one thing I cannot forget.”

“Miry,” she said.

“Yes. I loved her. He killed her.”

“He loved her too. He was enraged when you took her. He says he told his men to get her back. But they saw how mad he was. Everybody’s afraid of him when he’s angry.”

“Do you think that’s true? That he didn’t mean her to be killed?”

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “My feelings about her are all mixed up. I was jealous of her. I felt like a stupid teenager. Every time he saw her he was happy. I know he loves me, but not like that.”

Richard nodded. “She made people happy.”

“Except me. I was too jealous. Now I feel guilty about that too.”

He pulled her into his lap. “Cher, we’re just people. We do the best we can.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I have to go back to Ayvantun tomorrow. I have to tell him whether you want peace or war.”

“If I say peace, can we make love again?”

She laughed. “See? My diplomacy is working.”

In the morning Mele summoned her troop of personals. She mounted her white horse. “I’ll see you in Ayvantun.”

Richard held up his thumb. “Till then.”

She touched it with hers. “Till then, amore mio.”

The boat neared Ayvantun. They heard it coming like thunder. Levis was puzzled. “That a storm?”

Richard listened. The deep-toned sound was almost below the range of hearing. He touched the cabin wall. The river water soaked up most of the shocks, but Richard felt a slight vibration. “Guns. Big guns firing right next to the river. They must be on the castle.”

They went out. It was night, and the starry sky was clear over their heads. But they saw a strange, glowing cloud low down on the southern horizon. It pulsed with diffused flashes of light. “Gunsmoke,” Richard said, “Somebody’s burning a lot of powder. Morik’s making his stand.”

Levis nodded. “Looks like he’s making it in hell.”

They watched, but they seemed to get no closer. The battle was far away across the flat Hastab. The high, rising cloud of powder smoke was reflecting the light of the guns over the horizon. Levis studied it with a sailor’s eye. “We won’t get there till the sun’s about a third up, so we might as well turn in.” 

In the morning, they got to the army. Soldiers and sailors guided the boat to a mooring place. They tied up to the outer edge of a mass of supply boats lashed into a floating warehouse. Kern and his staff crossed the wooden island to greet them.

“We got here with hardly any trouble,” Kern said. “We caught the city people and put them in camp there to the north, out of range of the guns We’re just starting to knock the buildings down, and there ain’t hardly been a man hurt. Seems like it’s fine. But something’s gone wrong. ” Richard asked what. Kern shook his head. “It’s – well, why don’t you look around first? I’d like to show you what we did right before I have to get down to telling you about the fuck-up. “

 Kern showed Richard around the camp. The northernmost of its three sections was filled with the captives from Ayvantun. The middle section was the headquarters and depot area. Sailors, soldiers, and Ayvantuners were busy moving supplies from the boats. At the front, soldiers were moving cannon and shells through deep trenches. The Valener guns were dug into pits covered with canvas. Occasionally they heard the boom of one of Morik’s big bombards on top of the castle. The balls seemed to fall at random.

“They can’t see us,” Kern said. “We shoot right through those tents we put over the gun pits. But we can’t see them either, on top of the castle. We shoot mostly at night, when we see the flashes of their guns.”

Richard studied the castle through his glasses. The white stone sheathing was broken in places. The gate was roughened and splintered, but intact.

“We hit that gate a hundred times,” Kern said. “Then we heard Morik’s built a big ramp of dirt behind it. A tunnel through it goes to that door at the bottom of the gate. He’s got dozens of barrels of powder in the tunnel. So even if we break through the gate, he could just blow down all that dirt on top of us.”

“How’d you know about the ramp?”

“We’ve got all the workmen that built it.” Kern grimaced. “That’s the bad side of it.”

 They walked through the Ayvantuners’ camp. The people had constructed a strange, miniature version of their city. The Valens had brought tents for them, but the Ayvantuners would have nothing to do with them. Hastableners used tents; Ayvantuners lived in buildings; and that was that. They cut blocks of thick, root-bound sod and used them to build huts. Every one had the square base and back-sloping walls of the big stone buildings of the city. They were laid out in precise rows. Kern said the people were quite perturbed by the dirtiness of their camp. Every morning, they arranged a bucket-chain to bring water from the river. They had public bathing sessions and settled the dust around their buildings with careful sprinklings.

Kern said that they were no trouble at all. They had provided most of the labor for putting up the camp’s fortifications. They did what they were told. They had heard rumors about being taken to Valen, which alarmed them; but not much. They thought the High Judge of Valen was just another kind of kepta. And whatever he was, somebody would look out for them.

“Which ain’t as dumb as it sounds,” Kern said. “They know they’re good workers, so they figure nobody’s going to be fool enough to hurt them. They’re worth too much like they are.” He saw that Richard was looking around with an uneasy, dissatisfied expression. “You seeing it?”

“Too many children…” Richard saw swarms of young children. They seemed cranky and fretful. Again and again Richard saw a harried old woman trying to soothe crying children. “And old people. Children and their grandparents But where are their fathers and mothers?”

“Some of the daddies’re here,” Kern said. “They’re the ones Morik used to build his ramp and haul the cannon up to the top of the castle. When they were done, he put them out. Told them to go get food from the Valens. The really funny thing is about the women. There ain’t hardly a woman in this whole camp between fifteen and fifty. Morik didn’t know about our plan to carry off the city people, didn’t know we’d brought supplies to feed them — so he thought loading all those people on us would slow us down, use up our food, and such.”

 Levis was impatient. “How come there ain’t any grown women in that camp? Where’s the mamas of all those kids?”

 “I think I know,” Richard said. “In the castle. Most of the adult women would be skilled workers.”

“Yessir.” Kern was gloomy. “I don’t see how Morik could’ve guessed our plan, but it seems like he wanted to make sure none of his best workers got hurt. When we got close to town he just called them to come into the castle, and they went. My people’ve been checking, and we can’t find a single one of the gunmakers and such, that you wanted us to take away from him. All we got is old people, little kids, and some fellows that did heavy work. “

 “Cold-blooded devil,” Levis said. “He took in the ones he could make use of, and just left the rest. I’ll bet he’d leave them to starve, if we didn’t look after them. “

 “Probably,” Richard said. “But we might as well forget about taking them with us. It sounded good back in Valen – free Morik’s slaves – but the way he’s done things, it’d mostly amount to taking all those children away from their mothers.”

Kern was relieved. “That’ll make things a lot easier. We can use the supplies we brought to take them back for the troops.”

 A loud boom blotted out Kern’s voice. A big gun had fired on the castle. Richard and Levis jumped. “It’s all right, ” Kern said. “They’re just ranging in. If you don’t mind, Judge… I’d better make sure everything’s ready for the night. “

Richard and Levis returned to their boat. The naval officer in charge of the river flotilla gave his report. Morik had been trying the obvious trick of floating fire or explosives down to the Valens’ moored supply boats. The sailors had poled the open fire-boats off without difficulty; they watched the flames float away on the dark river. Then Morik switched to boats packed with gunpowder. They were planked over and loaded to float just above the surface. The Valens massed cannon on the shore and stretched a half-floating hawser across the river. When the hawser drew tight, the cannon saturated the area with a heavy bombardment, sinking or exploding the bomb-boats. But Morik was using more and more boats; his gunners were becoming more expert at fusing the powder loads.

The cannonade suddenly swelled. They saw the castle in the flickering gun-light. All the cannon firing on top of the huge building made it lock as if it were being repeatedly hit by lightning. A flaring sheet of yellow light hung over the north wall. The smoke from the guns blew overhead, reflecting the light back on the white walls of the castle. It seemed to glow with a red-yellow heat, like a block of steel in the furnace.

Richard climbed on top the cabin. He saw dark masses of Valener soldiers moving up to the fighting line. Big balls threw up gouts of dirt around them, but they were protected by deep trenches. Only a chance hit could hurt them. Richard saw a sudden winking all along the fighting line. The Valens’ field guns were working. Richard couldn’t hear them over the tremendous noise made by the big Hastab cannon, but he saw the firefly lights mass on the dark ground, go out, then reappear in a different area. The gunners were moving around to avoid the shells called down on them by Morik’s soldiers.

A large number of Valener guns fired on the riverbank. The sound carried over the water: a sharp yapping, octaves above the grumbling roar of the large-bore Hastab guns. Richard saw waterspouts jumping from a section of the river, but the target was invisible. He heard a distinct crack; a huge explosion followed it. A shockwave buffeted Richard: the overpowering noise hurt his ears. A great tree of water was falling back to the river. A few sulfurous drops hit Richard.

 Levis was sitting in his chair on the deck. Richard shouted into his ear. “Crazy. All this. For what? Knocking down buildings.”

Levis nodded. “But what a sight!”

 “Going down. No point in watching.”