Michael smiled, narrowing his eyes. “The problem with you, Stephon, is you don’t sit around the fire at night listening to the old men. Men who remember things that happened thirty or forty years ago. You ought to listen more, Steph. Take what happened in Annville, for example.”
“When?”
“Oh, twenty years ago at least. While you were still listening to your sleeper-in tell bedtime stories.”
“I was not!”
Michael laughed, a long, lazy laugh as he rubbed his belly. “The garrison in Annville decided to take over the city. They did it, too. One night they just moved in through the gate and put a warrior in every house. Well, almost every house. And three days later they had the whole Tabithatown garrison camped outside the walls. A day after that, they had the Abbyville garrison. Anybody went out, they stayed out. Women went out to farm, they stayed out. Food ran out in the town. Pretty soon, the men started drifting out. Last thing was, the officers got hanged on the parade ground and the garrison got split up between Abbyville and Tabithatown.”
“I never heard that!”
“You think it’s something they want you to hear? Let me tell you something, Steph. I could take Marthatown. You could, too. I’ve thought about it. I might do it. But anytime I figure on taking over the town, I’d better have two or three things ready ahead of time. The first thing, I’d have to have all the other garrisons set to go along. Either that or they agree to look the other way.”
“And what else?”
“There’d have to be plenty of food. There’d have to be a huge harvest. The fall trading among cities would have to be over so there’d be a lot of surplus food in the warehouses.”
“I don’t see….”
“Right now we’re living from harvest to harvest, Steph. Use your eyes and ears. Listen to women talk. You may think the women would work if us warriors took over the city, and eventually they probably would. But it might take a good long while to convince them. Your men get hungry, they start drifting away. You’re not going to hold a city without men, and you can’t hold men without food!”
“Hell,” snorted Stephon. “All that might take forever.”
“Well, we’re only talking,” Michael replied with a slow smile. “I’m like old Sandom. I’m comfortable now. I’m young. I’ve got time. If I ever get involved, I say ‘if,’ in anything like—oh, call it taking our rightful place in the world—if I ever do, I’ll have everything planned out first. Talk about ambition all you like. If ambition means doing something stupid when the time isn’t right, then I haven’t got any more ambition than old Sandom has.” He watched Stephon’s face, seeing the slow agreement build in his eyes. Stephon was clever. He was a good tactician, one of the best Marthatown had. If Stephon was willing to relax and let things happen, well then, Michael might be able to use him. Michael was not as lazy or as unambitious as he appeared, but he had no intention of risking his life or position, either.
“Something unfortunate would have to happen to Commander Sandom,” said Stephon. “That’s sure.”
“Well, yes. And not only to Sandom. To his cronies, too. Armory-master Jander. The head provisioner, Genner. Vice-Commander Thales. Maybe a few others. They’re all popular, Stephon. And they’re all senior to us.”
“They’re all a lot senior to us. They won’t live forever.”
“No. We could almost bet on that, couldn’t we? Meantime,” he yawned, “Chernon and the other pretty grubs’ll see what they can find out. I’ve told them all to keep their ears open. Listen in on conversations, that kind of thing. Long term, I want Chernon in tight with that younger daughter of Morgot’s….”
“Morgot’s daughter? She’s your daughter, too, isn’t she? Morgot never has carnival with anyone but you, does she?”
Michael laughed. “Warriors don’t have daughters. They may beget an occasional girl, my friend, but we don’t have daughters. You ought to know that! No, you’ve got to use girls for what they’re good for. Forget daughters. Stavia’s nothing to me. Or Myra, either. Barten’s courted Myra until she’s eating out of his hand. He’s done well, Barren.”
“With some protest,” laughed Stephon.
“Well, Myra wasn’t his first choice. Let’s put it that way,” Michael agreed. “A bit screechy and bony, he thought. He had a lust for the juicy little Tally. It took some fatherly instruction, but Barten will do his duty to the garrison.”
“If you think Morgot knows so much, I don’t understand why you can’t get it out of her,” Stephon said maliciously. “According to you, she can’t leave you alone.”
“Morgot’s good at some things, but she doesn’t talk,” said Michael. “But little girls with their first assignation…” He laughed, knowingly. “Oh, they talk, don’t they? They chirp like crickets. You can’t shut them up.”
“Has Barten found anything out?”
“Not much, but he’s got Myra all steamed up about how foolish the ordinances are. Stuff like that. If it runs in the family, Stavia might be another one. That’s all we want, two lovesick little chickens, mad at their mama and cheeping their heads off to our young cocks!”
“Maybe you should have gotten rid of Vinsas earlier, Michael. It would have made it easier for the boy to stay close to his family.”
“I don’t take action against warriors because some woman asks me,” he replied angrily. “I don’t do anything because some woman asks me,”
“Of course not,” said Stephon soothingly. “But killing that bastard Vinsas was a damn good idea, no matter what the reason.”
STAVIA TOLD MORGOT about Chernon’s request to come home while they were fixing supper that same night. “He says that warrior, Vinsas, is dead.”
“That’s odd,” said Morgot. “I hadn’t heard of any warrior deaths recently.”
“Chernon said it was during a bandit sweep?”
“I would have heard of it….” Morgot looked both puzzled and troubled, but seeing the concern on Stavia’s
