Warlord

held the Territories. Why does the Spirit of Man of the Stars demand we act now, rather than later when the conditions favor us? Will it serve Holy Church for us to lose another fifty thousand men, and perhaps the borderlands we fought the Colony last year to keep?'

Silence fell again, broken only by the scritch of secretaries writing up the records of the meeting and the slow tick-tock of the brass clock set into one wall of the chapel.

'Brigadier Whitehall,' Barholm said at last, softly. 'We require your opinion in this matter.'

Raj felt cold. This is the time, Center? The Civil Government really is strong enough now to retake the Southern Territories?

as i have shown you, raj whitehall, replied the voice in his mind, i cannot guarantee success, but. . i did not choose you not to try.

The young general came slowly to his feet, looking down at the backs of his hands. They were scarred, with faint darker lines on the knuckles, trail-dirt, from long marches, that could never quite be scrubbed away. When he raised his eyes he felt a slight forward sway from the other seats; only desperate fear could have made so many openly disagree with the Governor, who was not a forgiving man. Most desperate of all the fear of being appointed to command the expedition; defeat probably meant proscription as a traitor, death or confiscation of estates for the commander's whole family.

'Your Supremacy,' he said, and paused. 'On your orders, I've made a study of this problem. I believe the reconquest of the Southern Territories can be accomplished.' A collective sigh of indrawn breath.

'And it can be accomplished at acceptable cost and risk. No slight to the valiant dead, but the last expeditionary force was neither well organized nor well led. And the Squadron they faced was still the terror of the Midworld Sea, with a first-rate navy.

'They've let their fleet go downhill, and their army too, such as it is. They don't have a standing force, you know. That didn't matter when Admiral Ricks'-the legendary war-chief who had led the Squadron down from the north, and then created the fleet that pillaged the Midworld for generations-'called up his warriors for pirate raids every year, 'to make war on those with whom the Spirit of Man is angry'. . but these days all most of them do is sit on their behinds and watch their peons work.

'Sending fifty thousand men would be an unacceptable risk and far too expensive. With thirty thousand I can be fairly confident of success.'

He watched the faces change; Tzetzas relaxing, Barholm tightening into a frown.

you will not be given thirty thousand, Center said. probability 89 % ± 6 %.

Raj sighed inwardly; Center took some of the fun out of bargaining, with its ability to tell you exactly what an opponent would settle for beforehand.

'Fifteen thousand could do it: five thousand cavalry as a strike force, ten thousand infantry for garrisons and as a base of maneuver, and thirty guns. I'd estimate no more than a year of real fighting if it's properly handled, and plunder alone will pay the expenses of the campaign, not to mention the revenues afterwards. With less than fifteen thousand, I would regretfully decline to assume any position.'

Barholm's face was unreadable as he nodded to Tzetzas. An I told you so expression; the Chancellor's face looked as if he was sucking on a lemon for an instant, and his voice actually sounded animated, as good as a shout.

'Even if the expedition is possible, that's no reason to do it,' he said testily.

Raj rubbed a palm along his jaw; the sword-callus that ringed thumb and forefinger rasped on blue-jowled stubble.

'True, Chancellor, if only ordinary matters were at stake. But. . well, religion may sound odd, in a soldier's mouth, and the Spirit knows a soldier is all I am. Gentlemen-' He glanced around the circle of faces. 'Gentlemen, we are civilization; we are the last representatives of the Holy Federation. The Civil Government is not just another successor-state living in the ruins of sacredness; we have a duty to bring all the Earth-'

bellevue, Center interjected, earth later.

'— all of the Earth and its people back into the Holy Federation and oneness with the Spirit of Man of the Stars. Isn't everyone-everyone, barbarian or Colonist or heretic-made in the Spirit's image? If we deny that, we deny the Spirit in ourselves, and our faith is a sham-'

His voice had risen; he cut himself off abruptly as he saw the others blink at his vehemence, flushing at the murmur of 'hear, hear' from many of the other officers, the Supreme Reverend Syssup-Hierarch's gesture of blessing.

'And who should lead this expedition?' Barholm asked neutrally.

'The decision is yours, of course, Your Supremacy,' Raj said awkwardly. 'But I've thought about this for a long time, and in all honesty I feel that I would be the best choice.'

i have thought about it for a thousand years. . Center whispered at the back of his brain, at last. .

Barholm nodded. 'Let it be recorded that Messer Brigadier-no, we'd better make that Brigadier General Raj Ammenda Halgern da Luis Whitehall is appointed Field Commander of the expeditionary force to reclaim the sacred soil of Holy Federation from the Squadron barbarians, with viceregal authority while in the barbaricum. Let all servants of the Civil Government and Holy Church render lawful aid to him in this matter. Brigadier General Whitehall, please submit a list of units and commanders to me by. . hmm, this time tomorrow for my consideration and approval.'

He made a sharp gesture, and an aide lifted the cushion with the mace of office on it, going down on one knee before Raj. Raj lifted it in both hands and raised it to his lips; the officers raised a sharp cheer of approval, formal and brief.

The Governor looked around the ranked officers, brows raised. 'If there's no further advice? ' he said with heavy irony. 'No?'

The Supreme Reverend Syssup-Hierarch began the elaborate ceremony of dismissal. Holding his amulet and making the keying gesture of prayer with the others, Raj almost smiled at the looks of envy some gave him out of the corners of their eyes.

Envy for a man who's just condemned himself to death, he thought. The mace seemed heavier than worlds.

Chapter Three

East Residence sat on a peninsula that jutted out like a thumb from the foothills of the coast range to the west, enclosing a narrow tongue of water on its south side. Eastward was the estuary of the Hemmar River, flowing from the south out into the Midworld Sea. Both moons were down; the Palace and the inner districts around it were bright with gas streetlights, while the bulk of the capital was a lumpy darkness of buildings and hills, black picked out by the yellow dots of lamps. Off in the west there was a sullen light from the foundries and factories, while to the east on the highest point the gold Starburst on the Temple's dome was underlit by electric arc-lights and touched by the first rays of the sun. There had been no night at the harbor-side, with thousands of torches to magnify the gaslights.

It was a cool spring morning, the sky cloudy and dark and drizzling down a thin mist of rain; coal smoke drifted down from the city's hills. The bitter smell of it mixed with the silty sewage-tainted tar stink of the harbor, and the smells of thousands of dogs and tens of thousands of men embarking.

The first ships of the Civil Government's fleet were making way out of the inner harbor, but the naval docks were still in a state of barely-organized chaos. Stubby little paddle-tugs and twenty-oar galleys were towing the big three-master cargo ships out east past the breakwaters; as each cast loose the sails went up with a series of rhythmic jerks and the long hulls heeled sharply, catching the northerly wind. Others were still loading, endless files of slave longshoremen trotting up the gangplanks with sacks and crates, the timbers of the cranes groaning as they