Warlord

and blood that ran down their bare brown chests and a heavy spoiled-butter stink.

'Say hum,' he said, scrabbling mentally for fragments of Paytoiz, the Skinner tongue. Suddenly they were there, with the crystalline authority of Center's insertions.

'Say hum,' he repeated. 'This man, did you kill him?'

The more alert-looking of the Skinners blinked, then grinned broadly at hearing someone speak his language. Even then, Raj wondered suddenly why Center hadn't provided such fluency last year; it would have been useful dealing with the Skinner troops out east.

unlike mine your information storage capacity is limited, Center replied.

'Napas hum,' the Skinner said: Not a man. 'Just a farmer. I, Luk Belhok, I kill him; he steal our money, the pig.' The Skinner lofted a gobbet of spit toward the mutilated corpse. 'You got any drink, sojer-man? My friend and I are thirsty.'

'Did you kill the soldier?'

'No-too drunk, too much black smoke. My friend, Loway Daygus, he kill the blue-shirt.' The other mercenary looked up and nodded, smiling himself. 'He look so surprised! We laugh very much.'

'Did you know that that was against the law of this army?'

Both the Skinners broke into high-pitched giggling and hoots.

'We fraihum, Real Men!' the first said indulgently, as if explaining something to a retarded child. 'Kill when we want, take what we want. Maybe we kill you, eh? Where is the drink?'

'Let the record show,' Raj said, pitching his voice slightly higher, 'that the accused have confessed to the crime.' He glanced to either side. Foley was slightly grey under his natural brown, digging at the wicker of the table with the point of his hook.

'Guilty,' he said softly, not meeting his superior's eyes.

'Guilty,' Dyaz said stolidly, slightly bored.

Raj stood. 'By the authority vested in me, and under the judgment of Holy Church, I pronounce these men guilty of the murders of Halfas Arreyo, freeman of Cyudad Harenaz and citizen commoner of the Civil Government, and of Private Third Class Floreyz Magon. The murder of Halfas Arreyo was with insufficient provocation; the murder of their fellow soldier without provocation. Sentence is death on both counts. May the Spirit of Man of the Stars edit their core programs and reunite them with the Net. Endfile.'

He dropped his eyes from the eastern horizon, sun-dazzle sparkling across his retinas as he turned to the Descotter sergeant. When he spoke again his voice had the unmusical timber of struck cast iron.

'Hang them.'

'Yes, ser,' the noncom said.

Two troopers trotted their mounts out from the guard company and tossed the nooses of their lariats over a branch of the oak tree, snubbing the other ends through the rings on the horns of their saddles, vakaro style. The Skinners struggled for a moment as the squad hustled them toward the dangling loops, then began singing in a high-pitch chanting wail, their death-songs.

Muffled by distance, drums began to roll in an endless ratatatatatat, beating to arms.

* * *

CRACK.

Another of the 15mm Skinner bullets went by overhead, slanting off into the west. None of the fire had been aimed, not yet, but the noise inside the Skinner encampment was growing steadily; screams, shrieks of rage, the throb of tomtoms. He could see clots of them eddying about, some dancing in shuffling circles, barking and wailing, others talking with the wild gesticulations Skinners used when they were upset. A few would run out of the tangle of hide shelters and bedrolls every now and then to shout defiance at the thin scatter of Regulars they could see on the ridges around their bivouac, turning to wiggle and slap their naked buttocks at the Civil Government troops above. A chant was growing throughout the camp, centered on the largest shelter, where a two-meter sauroid skull stood on a long pole. Mi-herda mau-dit, Mi-herda mau-dit. .

Raj raised his binoculars, and the toothy grin of the beast-head standard sprang out, the hollow eyesockets and fangs the length of a bayonet. The chiefs were beneath it, arguing furiously.

That thing would have been fifteen meters tall, when it was alive and walking on its hind legs. Fifteen meters and twenty-five metric tons of muscle coated in hide that secreted metal into its scales.

'Raj Whitehall, this is stupid,' Gerrin Staenbridge hissed beside his commander's ear. Quietly enough so that nobody else could hear, of course.

'Quite possibly, but it has to be done,' Raj replied distantly. Does it? he asked in silence.

this course of action has the best probability of accomplishing the mission, Center said, probability of your death is 21 % ± 7 %. within acceptable parameters.

Acceptable to you, perhaps, Raj thought. Aloud to Staenbridge: 'Now, soldier, shut up and soldier.'

success will increase your charisma factor by a useful degree as well, Center added.

Raj closed his eyes for a moment and prayed, raising one hand and laying the other flat against his ear in the formal gesture. O, Spirit of Man of the Stars, guide me, he asked. I do not fear to die in Your service-much-but I ask that You ensure that it furthers the return of Holy Federation and our reunion with the Stars. Download unto me that which I most need, though it be that which I fear most. Endfile.

He opened his eyes. Suzette was standing beside him, in pleated white-linen riding pants and tunic, but still in her blond court wig and party makeup. There was no mistaking the stubborn set of the cupid's-bow mouth, though, or the white-knuckled grip on the Colonial repeating carbine she carried. Her palfrey Harbie stood behind her, tugging slightly at the reins and wagging its tail with a supplicating look. The bitch knew when its owner was about to ride into danger. .

'Scramento' he said, letting his shoulders slump. It really was dangerous to pray; you might get what you asked for.

'Get out of here. I don't have time to argue,' he said in a fierce hiss.

'No, you don't. And you can't afford to in front of the men, not right now,' she said, sliding a hand through his elbow. Her smile was a little forced, but only a little.

messa whitehall's presence reduces the possibility of your failure by a factor of 10 % ± 3 %, Center said unhelpfully, a public quarrel at this time will substantially increase probability of failure of your mission.

'Scramento!' he said, with more feeling. And there was no time to order a couple of troopers to cart her off bodily. For that matter, only 5th men were in sight, and they might refuse. A lot of the 5th Descott considered their general's Messa to be a lucky charm, or a witch, or both.

'All right,' he said bitterly. 'If you must give me more problems.'

Suzette winced at that, but she walked back to mount Harbie without another word. He regretted the words, but there was no time for others.

Raj straddled Horace's back, the toes of his riding boots finding the stirrups automatically. Iron hobnails clicked on the steel, and Horace whined at the smell of his rider's fear, looking over one shoulder.

'It's all right, boy,' Raj said. I hope. As an afterthought he took off his helmet and clipped it to the ring on the saddlebag.

The volunteer standardbearer closed up on his right and Suzette on his left. It was his personal banner, awarded with his promotion after Sandoral: the ancient Whitehall blazon, a stripe of white over a stripe of red, with a blue triangle at the staff-end marked with a single star. Legend had it that an ancestral Whitehall had borne it from the planet Tekhanos.. .

He looked behind, nodded once to Staenbridge-poor bastard, you'll be in charge if I die- and touched a heel to Horace's flank.

'Nice and slow, boy,' he said; the dog twitched ears in recognition and went forward at a walk, up and over the ridge. It was no accident the Skinners were camped in a hollow; nobody in their right minds wanted those