Storm Breaking

man. Then he'd have to swear to Hardorn. And he'd have to do what Ancar, his father, even what his grandfather never did.' He paused for effect. 'He'd have to take the earth, in the old way.'

Elspeth shook her head. 'That's nothing I know of,' she replied.

Hob smiled again. 'The earth-taking—that's old, lady. Older than Valdemar, or so they say. What's old is sure, that's the saying anyway. They say them as takes the earth can't betray it. There's still a priest or two about that knows the way of earth-taking. If this Tremane'd take the earth and the earth takes him—well, there's no going back. He's bound harder and tighter than if we put chains on him.'

Elspeth kept her feelings of skepticism to herself. After all she'd seen, there was no telling whether Hob was right about this 'earth-taking' of his or not. 'Well, you can believe that Valdemar has no interest in taking the rule of Hardorn away from the people; what you do about it is your business,' Elspeth said carefully. 'Our business is to see if what we've been told is true, and to advise the Alliance if it is not.'

He nodded, and did not add the obvious question of how she expected to get herself and her party out in one piece if Tremane turned out to be playing his own game. That wasn't his problem, and she couldn't blame him for not volunteering to help if things got difficult. The people of Hardorn had all they could do to survive, and they had nothing to spare for foreigners out of Valdemar.

Comforting aromas of cooking food emerged from the kitchen, and Hob took that gratefully as his escape from the conversation. 'Looks like your people have your food ready; we'll go leave you in peace with it. You can leave in the morning when you choose—and—ah—' he flushed a little 'you'll have better welcome farther along. Signal-towers are still up, and there's still a few as know the old signals. We'll be passing along that you're all right, that you're going on up to Tremane. Nobody'll hinder you; there're enough places with four sound walls and a roof that you'll get shelter at night.'

As he stood up, Elspeth remained seated, but raised a hand toward Hob. 'And does the Grand Duke know that the towers are still working?' she asked.

He laughed, which was all the answer she needed. So Tremane was not aware of this rapid means of passing news along. That could be useful, if it turned out he was playing a deeper game than they thought.

Hob and the rest of his people filed out, leaving the Valdemarans alone, and Elspeth turned first to Vallen as the kitchen crew put bowls of stewed dried meat and preserved fruit, and plates of travel biscuits onto the table. 'Well?' she asked. 'What do you think?'

He sat down across from her in Hob's place and picked up a biscuit and a bowl before answering. 'This matches what we'd heard and didn't really believe,' he said slowly, dipping his bread into his gravy and eating the biscuit with small, neat bites. 'Tremane sounds too good to be true. Altogether an admirable and unselfish leader.' There was a faint echo of mockery in his voice.

'So does Selenay, if you look at things objectively.' Darkwind reminded him. 'And yes, I know, Tremane has no Companion to keep him honorable, but I'm not sure one would be needed in this case. At least for now, he's in a precarious situation. With the way things have fallen out, his position and his level of personal danger aren't that much different from the average craftsman in Shonar. He needs them as much as they need a leader; if they fall, it won't be long before he does, too. If they rebel, he has no population base to support his troops. This summer, they were fighting against him, and it wouldn't take much mistreatment to make them turn on him.'

Elspeth nodded, agreeing with him, although Vallen appeared a bit more dubious. 'He has armed troops, loyal only to him,' Vallen pointed out.

'He'll have a hard time feeding those troops without farmers,' Elspeth replied. 'And he can have all the silver he needs to pay them, but if they haven't anywhere to spend it, their loyalty will start to erode. You can't keep an army under siege, starving, and far from home without losing it.'

Vallen speared a bit of meat and blew on it to cool it. 'All I can say is this,' the Guard-Captain said, after he'd eaten the bite. 'It's not all that difficult for a charismatic leader to sway the people immediately around him with words instead of deeds. It's a lot more difficult to do that with people out of the reach of his personality. They're inclined to look for something to corroborate what they've heard, and if there's nothing there, they forget him.'

'But you're surprised at what you're hearing from Hob,' Elspeth stated.

Vallen nodded. 'Very. And not the least because a few months ago, these people would have fought with everything they had left to get rid of the man. Now they're considering accepting him as a leader. Doesn't it sound as if they've heard and learned something very compelling over the past few months? I just hope that what they've heard has more substance than twice-told tales.'

Elspeth sighed and nodded, as she and everyone else applied themselves to their food. This was the first warm meal they'd had all day, and their supper last night had been hastily prepared over a smoky fire in the remains of a half-ruined house, not cooked in a proper kitchen. As the gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach eased, and the warmth from their dinner filled her, she became aware just how tired she was. When she glanced around the table, there wasn't anyone except Darkwind who wasn't leaning his head on his hand as he ate. She felt the same way; worn down by the cold, and quite ready to go to bed as soon as she finished the last bite. Darkwind seemed in his element, and she would not have hesitated a moment in trusting the entire expedition to him.

Some of the others looked quite ready to fall asleep over their plates. 'It's the cold,' Darkwind said quietly. 'Don't worry this is normal. It's being in the cold from dawn until dusk, without a chance to warm up, then going to bed in cold beds and unheated rooms. Tonight will make a difference, with a good hot meal and warm beds; tomorrow everyone will end the day without being quite so exhausted. If we can get shelter like this for the rest of the trip, our people will revive in no time at all.'