person attempts to keep it, and war is profitable when successful and short, as ours tended to be.
The water was getting cold and I was no further along. Our culture was not innately evil; I had decided that. Yes, slavery was unfair. Wrong on a basic level, but unavoidable until someone came up with a better idea of what to do with what we viewed as criminals; to make war against us, to prey on trade, to practice piracy, these were criminal acts, and I did not think that pretending people were free, while binding them about with arbitrary and restricting rules and preventing their advancement, was anything other than slavery by another name and far more evil because it wasn't even honest.
Kukran Epthel professed to be against slavery, yet he would take the spirit of a child, maim it, break it, remake it into a tool, and then enslave it for eternity. That was evil. Torture was evil. Lies were evil, just a dishonest form of slavery. Forced addiction could not be considered anything other than evil, but then I was biased. Yet Kukran justified himself, somehow. I knew that he ought to be opposed, but wondered that such as Gatren could adopt his cause so rabidly.
Was there any justice in his alleged cause? How do you prove what ought to be, how do you know what ought to be, and how do you reconcile it with what is? What is is. The fact ignores your protestations. The cry 'things ought to be different' was meaningless even if you knew, or believed you knew, what ought to be. But how did you justify it and reconcile it to what is? Slavery was part of reality, in one form or another. People ought to be free, one might cry, but what people? Habitual criminals preying on other people's work? Murderers? Pederasts? Well, no not them! Then who? Only those who deserved freedom? And who are they and how do you tell and test? And who tests and how do you keep them honest? And even if honest, what if you think differently? The city was a state with arbitrary rules and justifications, but all states were just as arbitrary; 'this god said this family should rule as they see fit.' What kind of justification was that?
I sighed, shelved the problem for another time. The water was cooling rapidly now and I needed to get clean. My body felt better for the soak but would soon feel worse for the cold.
Slowly and with care I cleaned myself as meticulously as I could, washed my hair, shaved. The towel was small and only just man enough for the job. The clothes were common, cheap in fact, but serviceable. Warm once on. With my hair dry and the tub cleaned, I went back to face my fellows.
I was ready for a drink.
73
“I have made the garden safe.”
Jocasta was responding to Meran's news that the barbarians were performing door to door searches, methodically working their way through the town..
“Do I need to say I told you so?” I said.
We were seated around the kitchen table. Meran was busy at the stove, cooking the chicken he had bought and making a sauce that he knew I liked. He had stripped off his armor, his sword was propped against the door. He tried to seem relaxed but I could see the tension in him. We were far from safe here. Sapphire had unbent enough to take a seat. Dubaku had not moved so far as I knew.
No one responded so I sipped beer and kept my own counsel. I just wanted her and that large stone away from here. Her skill and the stone's power were a far greater threat than the rest of them, and I had made that clear.
Meran leaned against the wall by the stove, watching the vegetables boil disinterestedly. “I think we should get out of here.”
“The damage is done, let them have what they have for now, not risk them gaining what they have not. Far as I can see it's only how and when,” I said.
“I can make a ring of fire thirty yards across and walk out,” Jocasta grumped.
“There are something like eight thousand men outside Undralt, their camp is bigger than the town. Plus those inside. Do you suspect none of them have bows?” I was being reasonable.
“I can protect us against missile fire,” she was angry. I think she was angry at the enemy, but she was looking at me so I wasn't too sure.
“And magic? For the two hundred miles to Neerthan? Assuming Orthand's army is still there or even exists. It is only me that has the problem. You and Sapphire walked in here disguised, Meran came as a barbarian among his own. No offense, Meran.”
“None taken. If the battlefield had been less chaotic I would have died with the rest. Only luck that a cloak and a change of weapons was enough to change sides. They took me for one of them, as I once was. But if I am seen in your company, no such disguise will save me, I think.”
He had already explained that when the end came the chaos had left every surviving individual fighting alone. He had lost sight of me long since, the press of the enemy parting us as we were pushed back into a smaller and smaller circle. He had been knocked to the ground and came up with a cloak in his hand, turning and shouting in his own tongue. Blind luck had saved him. No one had noticed. They saw a city man fall and a barbarian rise. Luck can be fickle.
I nodded. “And Dubaku can be shielded by his ancestors from being seen. I am the problem here, and I need a way out as soon as we can think of one. Now would be a good time.” I glanced out the dirty window at the overcast afternoon.
“It won't be as easy getting out as in,” Sapphire said.
“But no problem for you?”
He shrugged. “I passed in and out many times, and have many routes. But now they are on guard. Men died. They will be angry, wary, and looking for someone to hurt. Alone, I'm confident, but in company? Not so much.”
“Jocasta?”
“Illusion. Getting through the gates is no problem for me. Or I could blind anyone in sight and we could all walk through the gates together.”
“Doing it without being noticed might be better. An illusion, then. Good idea.”
She nodded. “I can maintain one, and have. Poverty, they more or less ignore the poor.”
“Nothing to take,” Meran chipped in. “They are after loot and personal gain, nothing more. The town is bare of loot so only people arriving have been of interest, till now. People coming to the town to petition the new rulers, get on side with them, denounce us, the usual thing.”
“And they are looking for one man alone. Me. We only need a solution for me.” I had been drinking slowly but steadily, I knew I wasn't sober but I knew I wasn't drunk either. A dangerous stage to be at. “I don't believe we are still here, why didn't we leave last night?”
“You couldn't walk,” Meran reminded me.
I flushed. “Oh. Yes.”
“It is what we planned. The fog was unexpected, assumed to be natural. No one was much on guard against us. If you could have walked quietly it would have been worth a try,” Meran finished.
“It would have been fairly easy. Just take down anyone who stumbled upon us in the fog or got in our way, and then out through a postern gate. I have picks. It's an exit I have used.” Sapphire continued. “But having you…”
“I get the idea. Sorry to have ruined your carefully laid plans. I agree that they will be unlikely to be off guard a second time, or so readily fooled by a sudden fog. That doesn't help now though, does it? Fully exploring how I messed it up isn't moving things forward is it? I was very drunk, I know. I might have been able to be less drunk had I been warned of your imminent arrival but I had no clue.” No one said anything as I took a long pull on my beer. “I'm sorry. I am very grateful that you got me out of there. Now I need to get me out of here.”
“In the morning,” Jocasta said dryly.
I glared at her, then the beer in my fist. “I'm not drunk yet. Not that drunk anyway.”
“Eat,” Meran was pulling the chicken from the oven. “There is time. I know their schedule. They will hit this area in an hour or so.”
“Right,” I agreed. “Then we hide; come out to play later. You are sure they can't find the garden?”
