Conqueror

Residence, only with less sense of long-term interests. Most of all, I've seen Raj Whitehall. I've studied his campaigns in the east, and I had a ringside seat for the destruction of the Squadron.

'You may win. Even if you don't, the war will be long and bloody. If we kick you out, we'll still be so weakened the Stalwarts will roll over us like a rug. We're having more and more trouble holding the border against them anyway.'

He leaned forward, the blunt swordsman's fingers incongruous on the delicate china.

'And win or lose, the worst thing that could happen to us is a long war. If we win, the Stalwarts will pick our bones. If we lose, the Western Territories may be so weakened that you can't hold them against the northern savages either. And in any case, if we lose after a long struggle we may just. . vanish as a people, the way it's happening to the Squadron. Ordinary nations can lose their nobles and soldiers and priests-' he snapped his fingers '-and they'll produce a new set of 'em in a few generations, even if they have to throw off a foreign yoke first. We of the Brigade, we haven't had a peasant class of our own since we left the Base Area. If we lose our lands and positions, we lose everything.'

And God have mercy on the serf

When once my fetters fall

And Heaven defend the noble's garth

When I am loosed from thrall.

Suzette looked at him with new respect 'So since you know that General Whitehall can't be beaten easily, you think a swift Civil Government victory is the best thing for your people?'

'Exactly, my lady. You'll need us. Need our fighting men, not least. In a generation or two, who knows?' He hesitated. 'I wouldn't describe myself as an idealist, Lady Whitehall. Let's say I value civilization, if nothing else because it's so much more comfortable than sitting in a drafty log hall eating bad food and listening to worse poetry. The more thoughtful members of the Brigade have always considered themselves guardians of the culture we took over. General Whitehall claims to be defending civilization by uniting it. The Stalwarts have taken a third of our mainland possessions since my grandfather's time-they're like ants. As I said, I'm interested in preserving my sons' heritage.'

'And your lands,' Suzette said.

It's woe to bend the stubborn back

In a coal-mine's inky bourne

It's woe to hear the leg-bar clack

And jingle when I turn!

'And my lands. All of them, not one-third. The information I have is worth it.'

'Why come to me?'

'Too many eyes on your husband, my lady. Too many patriotic fools ready to kill a middle-aged traitor; my excessively honorable sons, for starters. I don't want to see them buried in a ditch and my grandchildren sold as slaves; on the other hand, I don't want them to kill me, either. They'll quiet down when it's over.'

Suzette sat in silence, setting down the empty kave cup and sipping at her brandy. Beads of sweat ran down from the Brigade noble's hairline, but his features were very steady.

But for the sorrow and the shame,

The brand on me and mine,

I'll pay you back in the leaping flame

And loss of the butchered kine.

'Corporal!' she called. The Descotter gunmen came over at the trot, weapons poised.

'M'lady,' Saynchez said, bracing to attention.

'This man is to be put under arrest. . there's a vacant room with an iron door in the cellars here, isn't there?'

'Yis, m'lady.'

For every sheep I spared before-

In charity set free-

If I may reach my hold once more

I'll reive an honest three.

'Take him there. Let nobody see his face. He's to have food, water and bedding, but nobody, and I mean nobody, is to enter his cell or have conversation with him until I or General Whitehall authorize it. You will see that he's guarded by men who know how to keep their mouths shut. Do you understand?'

'Yis, m'lady.' Corporal Saynchez quivered with eagerness, like a war-dog just before the charge is sounded 'T'barb 'ull vanish offn t'earth.'

For every time I raised the lowe

That scarred the dusty plain,

By sword and cord, by torch and tow

I'll light the land with twain!

'Abdullah,' she called, when the soldiers had gone. Not quite at a run, and their hobnails grinding on the pavement.

'Saaidya.'

'Messer Whitehall should be back in-' she looked out the window; Miniluna was three-quarters, and a hand's breadth above the horizon '-five hours. Please set a table for three in the lower alcove in time for him. Serve us yourself, please.' That room had a stair to the cellars. 'And take this to Messer Reggiri.'

She pulled a ring from her finger; it was in the shape of a serpent biting its own tail, ruby-studded. 'Tell him,' she went on, after a pause for thought, 'that I will give him a better gift than this, and a sweeter. But not here, in Wager Bay; and that I trust his discretion absolutely.'

The dog runs better if you dangle the bone, she thought coolly. Her mind felt sharp as crystal, completely alive. The puzzle in her brain was not solved, but the pieces were there, and she could feel her consciousness turning and considering them. She had no genius for war; that was Raj's domain, and no human living could match him. At plot and counterplot and the ways of devious treachery, she was his third arm. She would give him what he needed to know, and he would wring victory out of it.

Spur hard your dog to Abazai,

Young lord of face so fair-

Lie close, lie close as Borderers lie,

Fat herds below Bonair!

'And Cabot?' she said, in answer to an unasked question. 'I don't know. There's a great many things I don't know.'

The one I'll shoot at the twilight-tide,

At dawn I'll drive the other;

The serf shall mourn for hoof and hide

The March-lord for his brother.

'But I do know what my Raj can do, if he has the tools he needs to work with. What he needs. And I'll bring him what he needs, whether he knows it or not.'

'Tis war, red war, I'll give you then,

War till my sinews fail;

For the wrong you have done to a chief of men,

And a thief of the Bani Kahil.

And if I fall to your hand afresh

I give you leave for the sin,

That you cram my throat with the foul pigs flesh

And hang me in the skin!