March To The Sea

His Royal Highness, Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock, Heir Tertiary to the Throne of Man, had changed immeasurably from the arrogant, conceited, self-centered, whiny spoiled brat he'd been before a barely bungled assassination by sabotage had shipwrecked him and his Marine bodyguards on the hellhole called Marduk. For the most part, Pahner was prepared to admit that those changes had been very good things, because Bronze Battalion of The Empress' Own had been less than fond of the aristocratic pain in the ass it had been charged with protecting, and with excellent reason.

Pahner supposed that discovering that a dangerously competent (and unknown) someone wanted you dead, and then coping with the need to march clear around an alien planet full of bloodthirsty barbarians in hopes of somehow taking that planet's sole space facility away from the traditional enemies of the Empire of Man who almost certainly controlled it, would have been enough to refocus anyone's thoughts. Given the unpromising nature of the preassassination-attempt Roger, that wasn't something Pahner would have cared to bet any money on, of course. And he more than suspected that he and the rest of Bravo Company owed a sizable debt of gratitude to D'Nal Cord. Roger's Mardukan asi—technically a slave, although anyone who made the mistake of confusing Cord with a menial probably wouldn't live long enough to realize he'd stopped breathing for some odd reason—was a deadly warrior who had become the prince's mentor, and not just where weapons were concerned. The native shaman was almost certainly the first individual ever to take Roger seriously as both prince and protege, and the imprint of his personality was clear to see in the new Roger.

All of that was good. But it never would have occurred to the old, whiny Roger even to consider that such a thing as a debt of honor might exist between him and a troop of barbarian beast drovers on a backwoods planet of mud, swamp, and rain. Which, much as Pahner hated to admit it, would have been a far more convenient attitude on his part at this particular moment.

'Sir,' he said tightly, 'those funds will be needed for our expenses on the other side of the mountains. When we get out of here, we'll need to immediately resupply. That is if we don't run out on the way. Or have to turn back.'

'Captain,' Roger said steadily, sounding uncannily like his mother in deadly reasonable mode, 'we have to have the flar-ta, and we will not take them from mahouts who have stood by us through thick and thin. You yourself said that we're not brigands, and shouldn't act like them. So, what's the answer?'

'We can improve things for them,' Gunny Jin said. 'Wrap them in cloths so that they don't lose so much moisture. Put them in a tent with a warming stove at night. That sort of thing.'

D'Len clapped his hands in regret. 'I do not think I can convince my people to continue on. It is too terrible up here.'

'If you think we can continue,' Cord said, 'my nephews will do so. I, of course, am asi. I shall follow Roger wherever it leads.'

'Let's put it to a vote,' Roger said to Pahner. 'I won't say that we'll go with it either way, but I'd like to see what everyone thinks.'

'All right,' the captain agreed reluctantly. 'I think, though, that we're going to need all of our funds on the far side of the mountain. Desperately. Still,' he added with a shrug. 'Despreaux?'

The junior NCO cleared her throat. 'It was my idea.'

'So noted,' Pahner said with a smile. 'I won't hold it against you. I take it that was a 'buy the beasts' vote?'

'Yes, Sir, but D'Len Pah hasn't said he'll sell.'

'Good point,' Roger said. 'D'Len? Can we buy them from you?'

The old Mardukan hesitated, drawing his circles on the stony ground.

'We must have at least one to make it back to the forests,' he temporized.

'Granted,' Roger said promptly.

'And . . . they aren't cheap,' the mahout added.

'Would you rather bargain with Captain Pahner or Poertena?' the prince asked.

'Poertena?' The mahout looked around wildly. 'Not Poertena!'

'We'll strike a fair bargain,' Pahner said severely. 'If we decide to buy them.' He thought about it for a moment. 'Oh, hell. When. There isn't a choice, is there?'

'Not really, Captain,' Roger said. 'Not if we're going to make it over the mountains.'

'So,' the commander said to the mahout. 'Are you willing to bargain for them? In gems, gold, and dianda?'

The mahout clapped his lower hands in resignation.

'Yes. Yes, we will. The flar-ta are like children to us. But you have been good masters; you will treat our children well. We will bargain for their worth.' He lowered his head and continued, firmly. 'But not with Poertena.'

* * *

'Good t'ing they didn't know I was coaching you over tee poc—tee radio, Sir,' Poertena said as they waved to the mahouts, slowly making their way back downslope.

'Yep,' Roger agreed. 'How'd I do?'

'We got pock— We got screwed.'

'Hey,' Roger said defensively. 'Those things are priceless up here!'

'Yeah,' Poertena agreed. 'But t'ey takin' tee money down t'ere. We prob'ly pay twice what they flar-ta is worth. T'at more money than t'ey ever see in t'eir po . . . in their lives.'

'True,' Roger said. 'I'm glad that Cranla went with them. Maybe he can keep people from taking it before they buy their new mounts.'

'Sure,' the armorer complained. 'But now I out a fourth for spades. What I gonna do 'bout t'at?'

'Spades?' Roger asked. 'What's spades?'

* * *

'I can' believe I get taken by my own pocking prince,' Poertena grumped much later as he and Denat watched Roger walk away, whistling cheerfully while he counted his winnings.

'Well,' Cord's nephew told him with a remarkable lack of sympathy, 'you keep telling us there's a new sucker born every minute. You just didn't get around to mentioning that you were one of them!'

* * *

Cord raised the flap of the cover as the flar-ta came to a halt. The three remaining Mardukans had ridden the big packbeasts for the last several days while the humans had searched for a path through the mountains. To avoid the cold and desiccating dryness, the three had huddled under one of the hide tents. There, in a nest of wet rags, they had spent the day, warmed by the sun on the dark tents.

But as the packbeasts continued to stand motionless, Cord decided to brave the outside conditions. Pushing aside one of the moistened clumps of dianda, the shaman slipped out from under the tent and began to walk towards the front of the column, and Roger looked up and smiled as he approached.

'We might have hit a bit of luck,' the prince said, gesturing at a pile of rocks. The cairn was clearly artificial, a fairly large pile of stones at the mouth of one of three valleys diverging from the river they'd been following.

The humans had been hunting back and forth in the mountains for a week and a half, looking for a relatively low way across. Several promising valleys had so far yielded only impossibly steep ascents. This valley would not have been considered promising, since it narrowed abruptly up ahead and bent sharply to the south out of sight. However, the existence of the cairn was indisputable.

'Could be some traveler's idea of a practical joke,' Kosutic said dubiously. The sergeant major shook her head, looking up the narrow track. 'And it'll be a bitch getting the beasts through there.'

'But it's the first indication we've had that there's ever been anybody up here,' Roger said stubbornly. 'Why would anyone lie about the path?'

Pahner looked up at the path the valley might take.

'Looks like there's a glacier up there,' he said. He nodded to the stream roaring out of the valley. 'See how white the water is, Your Highness?'

'Yes,' Roger said. 'Oh. Yeah. I've seen that before.'

'Snowmelt?' Kosutic asked.