94
The fire was quenched before we got to it and I felt a small amount of relief. One less threat to Jocasta's survival. I had been on the watch for something and it wasn't far. The inn sprawled on a crossroad, as big as a small villa. The door was shut and barred but I hammered on it relentlessly. I needed a drink. We could use horses. Down the street a door opened and was immediately closed when I glanced that way. I saw an old woman hurrying down the street fearfully, a bag in her hand. She opened the door to a small cottage and I saw the relief in her posture as she closed the door behind her. Home, she was thinking, safe. I imagined her sick feeling of relief and knew it was an illusion. No place was safe in a town in enemy hands. I hoped she would be left alone, her precious stock of food left for her use. I hammered on the door again.
“Who is it?” The voice was full of false bravado, tainted by fear.
“Sumto Merian Ichatha Cerulian, patron of the city.”
The door opened and a short but broad man opened it, ushering us in. “Patron, what news do you have? What is happening?”
I shook my head. “Get me a drink, we'll talk in a while.”
He did as he was asked and I sucked it down. Damn, I had needed that. I felt less shaky, steadier, more in control. The taproom was dim and empty, though I could hear whispering and shuffling in the distance. His family hid while he hovered nervously, waiting to hear something he could tell them to reassure them.
“Food,” Sapphire told him. “We will need horses, saddles and tack, supplies.”
The short innkeeper nodded. “You have coin or scrip?” He wanted coin, hoped for scrip, would settle for our word no doubt.
“Some,” I told him, and dumped my looted coin on the bar. “Bring whiskey, half a dozen bottles.”
Sapphire was cold faced as he reached under his coat. “I have scrip. We will pay well in that and you can redeem it when this is over.”
“When will it be over?” The man asked, lightly, trying not to let his bitterness show. “I have dray horses. You can have them. I could not deliver beer to those who cannot pay, even if the barbarians didn't steal it first.” He was of the same blood himself, but he spoke the language of the city well and counted himself one of us. We are the friends of traders everywhere and experience had taught him that was true. We protected traders and trade, kept peace in our territories so that traders could safely move their goods to far markets. He was a trader and our natural ally.
I nodded, the dray horses would do. “No saddles, then?”
“None that will fit. You'll have to ride bareback,” he made it sound unimportant, and he wasn't far wrong. I had done it in my youth and I could do it again. I had no doubt of Sapphire. I let the barkeep go and arrange things, walked around the bar and poured myself another brew. Idly kicking barrels as I walked the length of the bar. There were few and what remained were mostly empty. A bad time to be a brewer, I thought. “How much scrip do you have?”
“Enough.”
“In my Father's name?” It wasn't really a question.
“Yes.”
He did not elaborate and I left it. It didn't matter that I suspected he had enough to equip and maintain an army. There was no hope of doing that now, just the two of us in enemy territory.
As I sipped my second beer I became a little less aware of the constant growling, whining and snuffling of the dogs. I was so used to the sounds that I barely noticed.
95
Sapphire had led the way to a small gate in the wall. There were two guards. We killed them fast. Sapphire took the keys and opened the gate. There were shouts from the wall above and running feet. A bell sounded but by then we were leading our horses through. Once outside we mounted and fled. A couple of crossbow bolts had followed. One had passed close by my head and went clean through the ear of my horse. I controlled its wild reaction and we rode on, galloping wildly down a track lined with trees, grape vines trampled in the fields to either side. We would be chased, but I didn't care. If they caught up to us they would die, bathed in hot oil, or by our blades. I was coldly angry and arrogant. We left the town behind us, and the war. It would progress as it progressed. Two men are not an army, but two men can sometimes do what an army cannot. I was determined to pull some gain for myself from this mess; seeing as I seemed incapable of commanding an army, unable to protect those I cared about, I would instead go and rescue someone I didn't care about, and the gods help anyone who tried to stop me.
We took a track north and headed deeper into enemy territory. When the opportunity allowed I intended to turn somewhat west and close on the Eyrie, where Tahal Samant waited for the head of a king or some other ransom. Instead he was going to get me, a drunken patron, and Sapphire, my father's spy.
96
Heading north and west, sticking to the country tracks, we pushed hard that first day. When the big drays could run no more we walked them, frequently glancing back, aware that there might be pursuit. We saw none. I wanted news but those few people we did encounter either ran when they saw us or had none. There were no traders on the road. War kills trade, and barbarians who prey on traders kill or steal from them as well as discouraging others to move goods. When trade dries up economies falter, production slows and dies, communities rely on their own skills and make what they need. If the situation persists civilizations fall into barbarism, travel and trade cease, quality goods are no longer fabricated for want of a market for them. A generation later and old people talk about peace and prosperity while young people listen and don't believe them. Our enemy wanted to barbarize the world, to make everyone poor, we wanted to civilize it and make everyone rich. I knew where the right lay, knew what ought to be, but could not find a comprehensive justification for enforcing it; 'life is better for you our way' just was not enough of an argument. Not that I thought our system was perfect; we took and controlled only sporadically over the centuries, giving up lands we controlled when a patron let them go for whatever reason. Client kingdoms could be and had been left in a patron's will to a foreign power as return for some favor done. The client kingdom rarely did as well under that rule. Some won their freedom in war against a patron and he was not dynamic or strong enough to take it back without aid and no other patron desired to help. A century later it might be taken again, or not. The Prashuli, Orduli and Alendi had once been clients and now were not; when we crushed them and ruined the north they might be again, or they might be looted, depopulated and left to their own devises. Weakened, other tribes from the east and west would move into the vacant territory to use it for their own and enslave or displace the current populations. It would be better if we had a stronger system of development and control, but that would be in the hands of government and we did not much approve of government, recognizing it as a necessary evil but keeping it to a minimum. The assembly of patrons split the powers of state between themselves in several magistracies and changed magistrates every year to avoid power being consolidated by one or few men. The two consuls were only the two senior magistrates, and the senior consul usually prosecuted a war, either punitive or of conquest, in order to line his own pockets with loot. That money was spent in the city and filtered down, even moving back to whence it came over time and aiding the conquered people. The council raised taxes from the conquered state, built roads, founded institutions, enforced the peace, allowed trade, and so on. The people prospered under those conditions and life was almost certainly better under our rule. Life is better for the common man under the light touch of our rule, but was that justification enough for it? I shrugged the matter off and turned my mind to other thoughts as we rode on. Sapphire was not a talkative companion.
The whining and growling of dogs echoed in my head, the sound vibrating through my skull from the stone set
