March To The Sea

turom, though.'

'Truly, we live in a time of wonders,' Kar said. 'And I meant no offense to your people, D'nal Cord.'

'And I took none,' the asi said haltingly. 'Far we have come, and much have I seen. Much is the same from one side to the other.' He glanced around for a moment. 'Although this is by far the largest city I've ever seen. Voitan was just as . . . alive before its fall, but it wasn't this large.'

'Voitan?' Kar asked.

'A long tale,' Roger said. 'And a cautionary one.'

'Aye,' Cord agreed with a handclap of emphasis, and looked at the K'Vaernian levelly. 'Voitan, as everyone knew, was invincible. Until the Kranolta.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Roger looked around the room and nodded in satisfaction. The space was relatively small but comfortable, placed on the seaward side of the citadel and looking out over the blue K'Vaernian Sea, and the sea breeze that blew in from the windows on that side blew back out through inner windows which overlooked a courtyard on the other side. The citadel's bell tower was less than fifty meters from those windows, and the prince winced inwardly at the thought of what it would be like whenever the K'Vaernians' 'clocks' went off, but he was willing to accept that as the price of the windows. There wasn't anyplace in the entire city where he could realistically have hoped to escape the bells, anyway, and the breeze wafting through the room felt almost unbelievably good after the sweltering steambath of the city streets.

The chamber contained the ubiquitous low cushions and tables, but Matsugae had already set up his camp bed and acquired a taller table from somewhere. Together with his folding chair, it made for a comfortable place from which to contemplate their next steps.

The plan was simple. They would show the K'Vaern's Cove people some of the military technologies from humanity's bloody past which would be within reach of their current capabilities in return for a trip across the ocean. It had sounded reasonable when they worked it all out before leaving Diaspra, but Poertena had already given his opinion of the seaworthiness of the local boats, and it wasn't good. Roger's head was ringing with such phrases as 'deck stiffness,' 'freeboard,' and 'jib sails,' most of which he already knew from his own yachting days. Poertena, however, seemed to be a veritable mine of information on practical, sail-powered work boats, and that mine was saying 'No Way.'

So it looked like simply putting a better sail plan on one of the local boats might be out, which would mean months of time spent building new boats. Or at least refitting one of the local boats from the keel up.

The rest of the plan was beginning to look iffy, as well. They hadn't yet met with the local council, but Bistem Kar clearly felt that K'Vaern's Cove wasn't as unconquerable as Rastar and Honal had believed. If his attitude was shared by the Council in general, simply saying 'Hey, here's a few tricks. Have fun, and we're out of here,' might not work.

All of which sounded as if it might mean yet another battle, and Roger wasn't sure he was ready for that.

He gazed out over the sea and sighed. He'd spent most of his seventeenth summer blue-water sailing off of Bermuda, where, unlike Pinopa, sailing was the recreational province of the rich rather than a matter of economic survival. The blue-water races in the Atlantic were comradely competitions between members of the monetary elite and their handpicked crews, and the yachts used bore as little resemblance to what was needed here as a race- flyer bore to a hover-truck, but given the choice between sailing a cargo sloop through a Mid-Atlantic gale and battling the Boman, Roger was sure what his answer would be. Even with the possibility of sea monsters thrown in for good measure.

Someone knocked on the door, and he turned towards it. The guard outside was Despreaux, and she refused to meet his eye when she opened the door to let Matsugae enter. The incident in Ran Tai still lay between them like a minefield, and he had to get past it. Ran Tai had proven that it wasn't smart to get too close to the troops, but it was even less smart to have a bodyguard who was poisonously angry with you. And it wasn't as if Despreaux could ask for a transfer, so, sooner or later, he had to talk to her about it and try to smooth the waters.

Besides which, he was still deeply confused about his feelings for her.

He sighed at the thought, then smiled again as he heard Matsugae puttering around behind him. The little clucks as the valet straightened the eternal mess were soothing.

'Are you glad to be out of the kitchens, Kostas?'

'It was a very interesting experience, Your Highness,' the valet replied, 'but, all things considered, yes, I'm quite glad. I can always go back and putter there if the mood takes me, and it's not as if I'm really still needed at this point.' With over five thousand total persons, human and Mardukan, with the column, cooks were easy enough to find.

'But we'll all miss your atul stew,' Roger joked.

'I'm afraid you'll just have to suffer, Your Highness,' Matsugae responded. 'It's funny, really. I gave that recipe to one of the Diasprans, and he just stared at me in shock. I suppose it's the equivalent of Bengal tiger stew to humans. Not what they'd consider normal fare.'

' 'Skin one Bengal tiger . . .' ' Roger murmured with a chuckle.

'Exactly, Your Highness. Or perhaps, 'First, fillet the Tyrannosaurus.' '

'I can just imagine Julian's stories about this little jaunt once we get home,' the prince said.

'Perhaps, but the jaunt isn't over yet,' the servant retorted. 'And on that subject, you have the meeting this afternoon with the K'Vaernian Council. I obtained some cloth in Diaspra. It's not as fine as dianda—the threads are somewhat coarser, and the weave isn't as tight. However, it made an admirable suit, and I found enough dianda to line it and provide two or three dianda shirts to go with it.'

Roger glanced at the proffered garments and nodded, but he also cocked one eyebrow quizzically.

'Black? I thought you always said black was only for weddings and funerals.'

'So I did, but it was the best dye Diaspra had available.' The valet looked uncomfortable for a moment, then shrugged. 'It's what they make their better priestly vestments from.'

'Works for me,' Roger responded with a smile. 'You know, you really have been a tremendous boon throughout this entire hike, Kostas. I don't know what we would've done without you.'

'Oh, you would've made do,' the valet said uncomfortably.

'No doubt we would have, but that doesn't mean we would have made do as well as we have.'

'I suppose it is fortunate that I learned a little something from all of the safaris on which I've accompanied you,' Matsugae conceded.

'A vast understatement, Kosie,' the prince said fondly, and the valet smiled.

'I'll go make sure the arrangements for this afternoon are in place,' he said.

'Very good,' Roger said, turning back to the window and allowing Matsugae his space. 'And pass the word for Cord, Eleanora, and Captain Pahner, if you would. We need to have our positions clear before the meeting.'

'Yes, Your Highness,' the valet replied with a small smile. The Roger who'd taken off from Earth would never have given that order with such certainty, assuming that the need to worry about preplanning would have occurred to him at all. Which it wouldn't have. At least this 'little jaunt' had been good for something.

* * *

The council chamber was rather smaller than Roger had expected. The long room at the foot of the city's central and tallest bell tower was low-ceilinged (for Mardukans) and filled to capacity by a cross-section of the city. The actual Council—fifteen representatives of various groups within the city—sat at one end, but the other end was a public gallery, open to any voting citizen of K'Vaern's Cove, and there wasn't enough room to sneeze at that end.

The city-state was a limited republic, with the franchise restricted to those who paid a vote tax, which amounted to ten percent of a person's yearly income. It was the only direct tax levied upon the citizenry, but there