He came as near as the thornbushes permitted, his slug gun at the ready. "Rajan? Is that you, sir?"
"Yes," I said. "Have you left Hari Mau's employment?"
He nodded cautiously.
"He paid you? Did you get all your money? If not, I'll go back with you as soon as I can, and we'll get it."
"I got everything," he said.
By that time, another man was coming toward us; he seemed less suspicious, although he had his slug gun as well. It seemed clear that as long as I appeared afraid of them, they could not be expected to trust me; so I advanced until I was clear of the thornbushes.
The second man asked, "Do you remember me, Rajan? My name's Chaku."
It was a Gaonese name and he wore a cloth wrapped around his head as all the men do there; so I said I certainly did, and asked what he, a Gaonese, was doing here.
"A lot of us are Gaonese, Rajan. There wasn't much work for us after the fighting stopped, so we decided to go along with these fellows and try to earn a cardbit or two."
The first man said, "My name's Gorak. You talked to us before we went to fight." Others were gathering around as he spoke.
"I recall your face very well," I told him, "and I believe I might have come up with your name if I'd had a little more time."
A third trooper said, "You stopped and talked to me once when you were inspecting the trenches, Rajan. It was raining like the gods were emptying a year's worth of slops on us, remember?"
I told him I would never forget it, and asked whether he, or any of them, knew Eco.
A trooper who had not spoken before said, "He's not here, Rajan."
"But you know him?"
He nodded. "He was in my bunker down south, sir. A good man."
"He's on my side now," I said, "fighting for Blanko. Quite a few of you are." Just then, by great good luck, I recognized a lanky trooper with a scar across his chin, another Gaonese. I called softly, "Thody, how are you? It's good to see you again," and his smile warmed me.
Gorak said, "We don't have much, but we can offer you some tea." Chaku added, "And cinnamon bread. I'll get it."
I lifted my staff and my free hand for silence. "Wait, brothers. You may shoot me in a moment or two. You are with the Duko's horde?"
Several nodded.
"Then you ought to, and there's no sense in wasting your good food on someone about to die. Do you have one of your own officers? Or is one of the Duko's in charge here?"
"A man from Soldo." Gorak pointed toward a tent some distance down the slope.
"This is going to be very bad," I told them. "Very difficult."
"We won't shoot you," the man who had known Eco assured me.
"Listen to me," I told him, "before you make any such rash promises. Are you the advance guard, by the way?"
He and others nodded.
I sighed. "I am in command of the horde of Blanko, you see, and we-"
Chaku interrupted. "We captured their general two days ago."
I nodded as though I had known it, and another trooper said, "Their general and his daughter."
"That's why I'm in command now. I was advising him, and with him unable to perform his duties the entire responsibility has become mine."
"Good Silk!" Oreb assured them.
"I had planned to crush you tomorrow morning. I didn't know who you were then, of course. Now... Sacred Scylla, what am I to do?"
Oreb answered, "No fight!"
A moment or two later, Thody came and stood at my right hand, saying, "Anyone who would strike the rajan must strike me first!," and a chorus of voices declared that they intended no harm to either of us.
"Nor do I wish in the least to harm you," I told them. "In fact, I will go further. I will not fight you, no matter what happens."
For some time they whispered among themselves, seeming to sway like a field of grain stirred by the night wind. Chaku left them and came to stand on my left, his slug gun ready and his eyes upon his comrades.
"No fight," Oreb urged. "Come Silk."
"He's right," I said loudly. "Listen to me, brothers. I want to hire all of you. If you'll return whatever the Duko's paid you and come over to our side, we'll pay you the same rate you got in Gaon."
Someone said loudly, "The Duko's giving us a silver card every month."
"How much have you received so far?" I asked him.
"Nothing!" several voices answered.
"But you're getting good rations?" "No!"
"What the Duko intends is quite clear," I told them. "He hopes to take Blanko before he's got to pay you. Then he'll invoke some technicality and give you a tenth or less of what's due you. A tenth, perhaps, if you're lucky."
Many nodded.
"I can't offer you that much or half that much, because Blanko will actually pay the entire sum promised."
Deferentially, Gorak asked, "All right if I talk to them, Rajan?"
"Of course."
He raised his voice. "Men! All of you know me. I've been doing this longer than most. It's my fifth war."
Those who had begun talking among themselves fell silent.
"These troopers," he pointed to Chaku and Thody, "they're going to side with him 'cause he was their rajan. That doesn't mean a thing to me, and it shouldn't to you. He hired me a while back, I got my pay, and that's over and done with. If he was just the head man in some foreign town, I'd just as soon fight against him as for him. But there was spells he cast in that war. Real spells that worked. I never saw any of that, and I misdoubt anybody here did. But I talked to prisoners, and they had a lot to say. You want to fight him now? Well, I don't!"
He turned toward me as the contending voices of his fellow troopers rose behind him. "A lot's asleep, Rajan. More than's here, and there's the officer from Soldo. Can you wait till morning?"
Reminded unpleasantly of Green, I said that I could and would.
"We'll talk it over then, all of us. If you see us coming with our slug guns hanging crosswise down our backs and muzzle down, don't shoot, 'cause we'll be going over to you. And if we're going to stay with Soldo and fight you instead, we'll say so first."
Thus it ended. Half a dozen of them would have come with me if I had permitted it, but I ordered them stay behind to influence their comrades. And now I must sleep for a few hours at least.
Chapter 12
An Exchange of Prisoners
What days the past two have been! Now I am free and Inclito is in command again, which is a great relief to me. In addition we have more than three hundred fresh mercenaries, whom I have pledged to pay. Tomorrow I am going back to Blanko to try to raise the money. In a moment I will write about everything; but first I should say that we are a formidable force now. A hundred and five of the troopers we left in Blanko joined us while I was talking with the mercenaries-my mercenaries, I should call them-and yet another group, I would think almost two hundred, arrived this morning. I was on the point of leaving then, and if an exact count was made I have not heard the total.
What happened after I wrote last was that the mercenaries sent Gorak, Chaku, and two others to talk to me a little after sunrise. Their own officers were meeting to decide what was to be done, they said, and they had disarmed their commander and put him under guard. I was invited to come and address their meeting-invited so urgently, in fact, that for a moment or two I thought they might carry me off bodily.
I told them that although I was presently in charge of the horde of Blanko, it would be better if two of its leading men treated with them as well as I, so that I could not be accused of overstepping my authority. (I should explain that I first summoned the two I had in mind, and they were in hearty agreement.)
Nothing had been said about that in their camp, so they returned to speak with their officers again.
They came back about midmorning, this time with a mercenary officer, one Captain Kupus. He is short and stout and looks, in fact, like anything but a military man; but he is a shrewd thinker from what I have seen of him. His men, whose respect he plainly has, say he is as brave as a hus.
He had brought a counterproposal, pointing out that our General Inclito was their prisoner and a leading citizen of Blanko. They would permit him, and his daughter as well, to attend the meeting. Surely, he said, I would agree that was fair.
Naturally I replied that I had no say in the matter, and asked the leading men I had chosen (their names are Bello and Vivo) for their opinions. They replied as I had hoped they would, that Inclito might be under duress-we had no way of knowing what threats had been made to him. They would be happy to have him present, and Mora, too. But they themselves would have to be present also. After an hour or so of generally circular arguments, this was agreed to provided that all three of us came unarmed and agreed to be searched.
To speed matters up, I loaned Captain Kupus, Gorak and the rest horses, which seemed to impress them. While these were being saddled and so forth, I was able to conceal my azoth - for obvious reasons I will not specify the place.
The meeting took place in the open amid softly falling snow, a circle of stones serving Kupus and the other four mercenary officers, Bello, Vivo, and me for seats. Neither Inclito nor Mora were present, so we asked at once that they be brought in.
It led to the first great surprise of that day, for the girl who was marched out with Inclito was not Mora but Fava. I tried to maintain my composure, and I hope managed my face better than Bello and Vivo did. We insisted that seats be provided Inclito and Fava - calling her Mora-as well, and this was done. The other mercenaries crowded around, and the meeting proper came to order.
We began by acquainting Inclito (and, of course, all the listeners around us, although we pretended to speak to Inclito alone) with the present situation. I went to Blanko on the morning that he left home, I told him, in accordance with his orders. I had expected, I said, to find the horde of Blanko assembled and preparing to march.
What I had found instead was fewer than a hundred men, more than half of them mercenaries. My second in command and I spent a good two hours conferring with various people, but our efforts added only forty-two more. We assembled the leading men of the town then, forcing some who were reluctant to attend to do so. I outlined the danger of defeat in detail, the grave danger that small groups of troopers, widely separated, might be decimated, one after another, by an enemy small when compared to their total, but large in comparison to each group.
I had warned them that we would march at once with what troops we had, challenge the Duko's forces-however great-and resist their invasion to the best of our ability. If we were overwhelmed (and I admitted frankly that it was what I expected) I counseled them to throw themselves upon the mercy of Duko Rigoglio, who might conceivably permit some of them to retain their houses, shops, and farms.
After which we had formed up, twenty cavalry and ninety-six infantry, and marched.
Frowning, Inclito shook his head. "You were taking a terrible risk."
It was very gracious of him to say so, I told him, but he knew as well as I that it is the business of troopers to undergo terrible risks in fulfillment of their duty. (This went over well with my hearers, I felt.)
Fava asked whether we had not gone slowly so that those behind could join us.
I shook my head. "We marched as fast as we could, with our horsemen riding ahead to scout, and to pick up whatever recruits they could persuade to join us at the farms we passed. By our fast march we nearly reached the last plowlands before we camped."
Bello added that we had marched until midnight to do it, and had risen the next morning with the Short Sun.
Vivo said, "My men and I left Blanko about three that afternoon. That's how we were able to catch up with Incanto when he stopped here. The rest wanted to wait and start in the morning, and I guess they did."
"We halted where we're camped now on the second night," I explained to Inclito. "Some herdsmen had warned us that the enemy was close, and we sent patrols ahead to find out where they were."
Kupus cleared his throat, looking at his fellow officers and then at us. "Last night you told some of these men that you intended to crush us. I wasn't there, but that's what I've heard. How many men did you have then?"
"Roughly two hundred and fifty," I said; it was true, although I had not known it when I talked of crushing.
"You thought you could do it with that many?"
"Or with half that many," I declared.
"How?"
I shook my head. "I've pledged myself not to fight against you, Captain, but you haven't pledged yourselves not to fight against me."
One of the listening men protested - Chaku, I suppose. Hearing him I added, "Except for a few friends among you. Certainly Captain Kupus has given no such pledge."
Fava said loudly, "You think that the men he's been talking about are his whole force. That's very foolish of you. Haven't I told you that my father and I were staying with you because Incanto didn't want us to go? He could have freed us last night easily, if he'd wanted to." Inclito gave her a severe look as if to silence her.
"Less than three hundred last night." Kupus returned us to the matter at hand. "How many now? I saw some back there who seemed to be just catching up with you."
Bello said, "About seven hundred infantry." I doubt that it was true.
I raised my staff, with Oreb flapping on it. "It doesn't matter. In the first place, you're perfectly safe-from us at least, though I can't speak for the Duko - as long as I am in command. I've pledged that we wouldn't attack you, and we won't.
"In the second, you would be in as much danger from the hundred and sixteen with which I left Blanko as from the seven hundred we have now-or from sixteen hundred, or five thousand. If we do fight you, you will be destroyed. That is what all five of us are hoping to avoid."
Kupus lifted an eyebrow. "But we'd be safe in your service?"