remember though, if we go -- ' She forced a smile. '-Tresti loses her baby-tender and you lose your Masterclass mage.'
Sewen just looked relieved to the point of tears. 'Look, I hate to roust you two out like this, and I know how Tarma feels about traveling in cold weather, but -- you're the only two I'd feel safe about sending. Most of the kids are what you said, hot-heads. The rest -- 'cept for Jodi, they're mostly like me, commonborn. Keth, you're highborn, you can deal with highborns, get stuff out of 'em I couldn't. And Tarma can give you two a reason for hauling up there.'
'Which is what?'
'You know your people hauled in the fall lot of horses just before we got back from the last campaign. Well, since we weren't here, Ersala went ahead and bought the whole string, figuring she couldn't know how many mounts we'd lost, and figuring it would be no big job to resell the ones we didn't want. We've still got a nice string of about thirty nobody's bespoken, and I was going to go ahead and keep them here till spring, then sell 'em. Rethwellan don't see Shin'a'in-breds, much; those they do are crossbred to culls. I doubt they've seen purebloods, much less good purebloods.'
'We play merchant princes, hmm?' Kethry asked, seeing the outlines of his plan. 'It could work. With rare beasts like that, we'd be welcome in the palace itself.'
'That's it. Once you get in, Keth, you can puff up your lineage and move around in the court, or something. You talk highborn, and you're sneaky, you could learn a lot -- '
'While I see what the kitchen and stable talk is,' Tarma interrupted him. 'Hai. Good plan, 'specially if I make out like I don't know much of the lingo. I could pick up a lot that way.'
'You aren't just doing this to ease your conscience, are you?' Kethry asked, knowing there would be others who would ask the same question. Sewen had been Idra's Second for years now -- playing Second to a woman had let him in for a certain amount of twitting from his peers in other companies. Not-withstanding the fact that one quarter to one third of all mercenary fighters were female, female Company Captains were few, and of all of them, only Idra led a mixed-sex Company. And Idra had been showing no signs of retiring, nor had Sewen made any moves indicating that he was contemplating starting his own Company.
'I won't deny that I want the Hawks,' he said, slowly. 'But -- not like this. I want the Company fair and square, either 'cause Idra goes down, or 'cause she hands 'em over to me. This -- it's too damn iffy, that's what it is! It's eating at me. And what's worse, it's eating at me that Idra might be in something deep -- '
' -- and you have to do something to get her out of it, if you can.'
'That's it, Keth. And it's for a lot of reasons. She's my friend, she's my Captain, she's the one who took me out of the ranks and taught me. I can't just sit here for a year. and then announce she's gone missing and I'm taking over. I owe her too damned much, even if she keeps tellin' me I don't owe her a thing! How can I act like nothin's wrong an' not try t' help her?'
'Sewen, if every merc had your ethics -- ' Tarma began.
He interrupted her with a nonlaugh. 'If every merc had my ethics, there'd be a lot more work for freefighters. Face it, Swordsworn, I can afford to have ethics just because of what Idra built the Sunhawks into. So I'm not going to let those ethics -- or her -- down.'
'This is an almighty cold trail you're sending us on,' Kethry muttered. 'By the rime we get to Petras, it'll be past Midsummer. What are you and the Hawks going to do in the meantime?'
'We're on two-year retainer from Sursha; we do spring and summer patrol under old Leamount around the Borders to keep any of her neighbors from getting bright ideas. Easy work. Idra set it up before she left. I can handle it without making myself Captain.'
'All right, I've got some ideas. Our people can keep their lips laced over a secret, so you wait one week after we've left, then you tell them all what's happened and that we've been sent out under the ivy bush.'
'Why?' Sewen asked bluntly.
'Mostly so rumors don't start. Then you and Ersala concoct some story about Idra coming back, but fevered. Tresti can tell you what kind of fever would need a two-year rest cure. That gives you a straw-Idra to leave behind while you take the Hawks out to patrol. The Hawks will know the real story -- and tell them it might cost the Captain her life if they let it slip.'
'You think it might,' he said, soberly.
'I don't know what to think, so I have to cover every possibility.'
'Huh.' He thought about that for a long time, contemplating his wine. Finally he swallowed the last of it in a single gulp. 'All right; I'll go with it. Now -- should I replace you two?'
'I think you'd better,' Tarma said. 'I suggest promoting either Garth or Jodi. Garth is my preference; I don't think Jodi would be comfortable in a command position; she's avoided being in command too many times.'
