An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat Read online

  "But you get to go places and see things."

  "Places you don't want to go, to see things you don't want to see."

  The boy backed a step away. "I'm going to be a soldier," he declared. His lower lip protruded in a stubborn pout.

  Wrong tack, Tain thought. Too intense. Too bitter. "Where's your dog? I thought shepherds always had dogs."

  "She died."

  "I see. I'm sorry. Can you tell me the name of the village? I don't know where I am."

  "Wtoctalisz."

  "Wtoctalisz." Tain's tongue stumbled over the unfamiliar syllables. He grinned. Steban grinned back. He edged closer, eying Tain's swords.

  "Can I see?"

  "I'm sorry. No. It's an oath. I can't draw them unless I mean to kill." Would the boy understand if he tried to explain consecrated blades?

  "Oh."

  "Are there fish in the creek?"

  "What? Sure. Trout."

  Tain rose. "Let's see if we can catch lunch."

  Steban's eyes grew larger. "Gosh! You're as big as Grimnir."

  Tain chuckled. He had been the runt of the Demon Guard. "Who's Grimnir?"

  The boy's face darkened. "A man. From the Tower. What about your horse?"

  "He'll stay."

  The roan would do what was expected of him amidst sorcerers' conflicts that made spring storms seem as inconsequential as a child's temper tantrum. And the mule wouldn't stray from the gelding.

  Steban was speechless after Tain took the three-pounder with a casual hand-flick, bear fashion. The old soldier was fast.

  "You make a fire. I'll clean him." Tain glowed at Steban's response. It took mighty deeds to win notice in the Dread Empire. He fought a temptation to show off.

  In that there were perils. He might build a falsely founded, over-optimistic self-appraisal. And a potential enemy might get the measure of his abilities.

  So he cooked trout, seasoning it with a pinch of spice from the trade goods in his mule packs.

  "Gosh, this's good." As Steban relaxed he became ever more the chatterbox. He had asked a hundred questions already and seldom had he given Tain a chance to answer. "Better than Ma or Shirl ever made."

  Tain glowed again. His field cooking was a point of pride. "Who's Shirl?"

  "She was my sister."

  "Was?"

  "She's gone now." There was a hard finality to Steban's response. It implied death, not absence.

  IV

  Steban herded the sheep homeward. Tain followed, stepping carefully. The roan paced him, occasionally cropping grass, keeping an eye on the mule. For the first time Tain felt at ease with his decision to leave home.

  It was unlikely that this country would become his new home, but he liked its people already, as he saw them reflected in Steban Kleckla. He and the boy were friends already.

  Steban jerked to a stop. His staff fell as he flung a hand to his mouth. The color drained from his face.

  That Aspirant's sense-feel for danger tingled Tain's scalp. In thirty years it had never been wrong. With the care of a man avoiding a cobra, he turned to follow Steban's gaze.

  A horse and rider stood silhouetted atop a nearby hill, looking like a black paper cutout. Tain could discern little in the dying light. The rider seemed to have horns.

  Tain hissed. The roan trotted to his side. He leaned against his saddle, where his weapons hung.

  The rider moved out, descending the hill's far side. Steban started the sheep moving at a faster pace. He remained silent till the Kleckla stead came into view.

  "Who was that?" Tain hazarded, when he reckoned the proximity of lights and parents would rejuvenate the boy's nerve.

  "Who?"

  "That rider. On the hill. You seemed frightened."

  "Ain't scared of nothing. I killed a wolf last week."

  He was evading. This was a tale twice told already, and growing fast. First time Steban had bragged about having driven the predator away. Then he had claimed to have broken the beast's shoulder with a stone from his sling.

  "I misunderstood. I'm sorry. Still, there was a rider. And you seemed to know him."

  The lights of Steban's home drew nearer. Boy and sheep increased their pace again. They were late. Steban had been too busy wheedling stories from his new friend to watch the time closely.

  "Steban? That you, boy?" A lantern bobbed toward them. The man carrying it obviously was Steban's father. Same eyes. Same hair. But worry had etched his forehead with deep lines. In his left hand he bore a wicked oaken quarterstaff.

  An equally concerned woman walked beside him.

  Once, Tain suspected, she had been beautiful. In a round-eye sort of way. Doubtlessly, life here quickly made crones of girls.

  "Ma. Papa. This's my new friend. His name is Tain. He used to be a soldier. Like Uncle Mikla. He came across the mountains. He caught a fish with his hands and his horse can do tricks, but his mule will bite you if you get too close to her. I told him he should come for supper."

  Tain inclined his head. "Freeman Kleckla. Freelady. The grace of heaven descend." He didn't know an appropriately formal Iwa Skolovdan greeting. His effort sounded decidedly odd in translation.

  Man and wife considered him without warmth.

  "A Caydarman watched us," Steban added. He started coaxing the sheep into pens.

  The elder Kleckla scanned the surrounding darkness. "An evil day when we catch their eye. Welcome, then, Stranger. We can't offer much but refuge from the night."

  "Thank you, Freeman. I'll pay, that your resources be not depleted without chance of replacement." There was a stiffness about Kleckla which made Tain feel the need to distance with formality.

  "This is the Zemstvi, Stranger. Titles, even Freeman and Freelady, are meaningless here. They belong to tamed and ordered lands, to Iwa Skolovda and the Home Counties. Call me Toma. My wife is Rula. Come. I'll show you where to bed your animals."

  "As you will . . . Toma." He bowed slightly to the woman. "Rula." She frowned slightly, as if unsure how to respond.

  This would be harder than he had anticipated. At home everyone had positions and titles and there were complicated, almost ritualized protocols and honorifics to be exchanged on every occasion of personal contact. "They'll need no fodder. They grazed all afternoon."

  One bony milk cow occupied Kleckla's rude barn. She wasn't pleased by Tain's mule. The mule didn't deign to acknowledge her existence.

  Toma had no other stock save his sheep. But he wasn't poor. Possessing cow and flock, he was richer than most men. Richer, in some ways, than Tain, whose fortune was in metal of changeable value and a few pounds of rare spice. Which would bring more in the marketplace of the heart?

  "You'll have to sleep out here," Toma informed him. "There's no room . . . ."

  Tain recognized the fear-lie. "I understand." He had been puzzling the word zemstvi, which seemed to share roots with frontier and wilderness. Now he thought he understood.

  "Are you a new Caydarman?" Toma blurted. He became contrite immediately. "Forget that. Tell me about the man you saw."

  Because Toma was so intent, Tain cut off all exterior distractions and carefully reconstructed the moment in the manner he had been taught. A good scout remembered every detail. "Big man. On a big horse, painted, shaggy. Man bearded. With horns."

  "Damned Torfin." Toma sublimated anger by scattering hay. "He didn't have horns. That was his helmet."

  There was a lot to learn, Tain thought. This was an odd land, not like the quiet, mercantile Iwa Skolovda he had studied at home.

  He considered the little barn. Its builders had possessed no great skill. He doubted that it was two years old, yet it was coming apart.

  "Might as well go eat. It isn't much. Boiled mutton with cabbage and leeks."

  "Ah. Mutton. I was hoping." Responding to Toma's surprise, "Mutton is rare at home. Only the rich eat it. Us common soldiers made do with grain and pork. Mostly with grain."

  "Home? Where would that be?"

  "East. Beyo
nd the Dragon's Teeth."

  Toma considered the evasion. "We'd better get inside. Rula gets impatient."

  "Go ahead. I have a couple of things to do. Don't wait on me. I'll make do with scraps or leftovers."

  Toma eyed him, started to speak, changed his mind. "As you will."

  Once Toma departed, Tain pursued the Soldier's Evening Ritual, clearing his heart of the day's burdens. He observed the abbreviated Battlefield Ritual rather than the hour of meditation and exercise he pursued under peaceful circumstances. Later he would do it right.

  He started for the door.

  His neck tingled. He stopped, turned slowly, reached out with an Aspirant's senses.

  A man wearing a horned helmet was watching the stead from the grove surrounding the Klecklas' spring. He didn't see Tain.

  Tain considered, shrugged. It wasn't his problem. He would tell Toma when they were alone. Let the Freeman decide what ought to be done.

  V

  The sun was a diameter above the horizon.

  Tain released the mule and roan to pasture. He glanced round at the verdant hills. "Beautiful country," he murmured, and wondered what the rest of his journey would bring. He ambled a ways toward the house. Rula was starting breakfast.

  These people rose late and started slowly. Already he had performed his Morning Ritual, seen to his travel gear and personal ablutions, and had examined the tracks round the spring. Then he had joined Toma when his host had come to check the sheep.

  Toma had first shown relief, then increased concern. He remained steadfastly close-mouthed.

  Tain restrained his curiosity. Soldiers learned not to ask questions. "Good morning, Steban."

  The boy stood in the door of the sod house, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Morning, Tain. Ma's cooking oats."

  "Oh?"

  "A treat," Toma explained. "We get a little honeycomb with it."

  "Ah. You keep bees?" He hadn't seen any hives. "I had a friend who kept bees . . . ." He dropped it, preferring not to remember. Kai Ling had been like a brother. They had been Aspirants together. But Ling hadn't been able to believe he hadn't the talent to become Tervola. He was still trying to scale an unscalable height.

  "Wild honey," Toma said. "The hill people gather it and trade it to us for workable iron."

  "I see." Tain regarded the Kleckla home for the second time that morning. He wasn't impressed. It was a sod structure with an interior just four paces by six. Its construction matched the barn's. Tain had gotten better workmanship out of legion probationers during their first field exercises.

  A second, permanent home was under construction nearby. A more ambitious project, every timber proclaimed it a dream house. Last night, after supper, Toma had grown starry-eyed and loquacious while discussing it. It was symbolic of the Grail he had pursued into the Zemstvi.

  Its construction was as unskilled as that of the barn.

  Rula's eyes had tightened with silent pain while her husband penetrated ever more deeply the shifting paths of his dreams.

  Toma had been an accountant for the Perchev syndicate in Iwa Skolovda, a tormented, dreamless man using numbers to describe the movements of furs, wool, wheat, and metal billets. His days had been long and tedious. During summer, when the barges and caravans moved, he had been permitted no holidays.

  That had been before he had been stricken by the cunning infection, the wild hope, the pale dream of the Zemstvi, here expressed rudely, yet in a way that said that a man had tried.

  Rula's face said that the old life had been emotional hell, but their apartment had remained warm and the roof hadn't leaked. Life had been predictable and secure.

  There were philosophies at war in the Kleckla home, though hers lay mute before the other's traditional right. Accusing in silence.

  Toma was Rula's husband. She had had to come to the Zemstvi as the bondservant of his dreams. Or nightmares.

  The magic of numbers had shattered the locks on the doors of Toma's soul. It had let the dream light come creeping in. Freedom, the intellectual chimera pursued by more of his neighbors, meant nothing to Kleckla. His neighbors had chosen the hazards of colonizing Shara because of the certainties of Crown protection.

  Toma, though, burned with the absolute conviction of a balanced equation. Numbers proved it impossible for a sheep-herding, wool-producing community not to prosper in those benign hills.

  What Tain saw, and that Toma couldn't recognize, was that numbers wore no faces. Or were too simplistic. They couldn't account the human factors.

  The failure had begun with Toma. He had ignored his own ignorance of the skills needed to survive on a frontier. Shara was no-man's-land. Iwa Skolovda had claimed it for centuries, but never had imposed its suzerainty.

  Shara abounded with perils unknown to a city-born clerk.

  The Tomas, sadly, often ended up as sacrifices to the Zemstvi.

  The egg of disaster shared the nest of his dream, and who could say which had been insinuated by the cowbird of Fate?

  There were no numbers by which to calculate ignorance, raiders, wolves, or heart-changes aborting vows politicians had sworn in perpetuity. The ciphers for disease and foul weather hadn't yet been enumerated.

  Toma's ignorance of essential craft blazed out all over his homestead. And the handful of immigrants who had teamed their dreams with his, and had helped, had had no more knowledge or skill. They, too, had been hungry scriveners and number-mongers, swayed by a wild-eyed false prophet innocent of the realities of opening a new land. All but black sheep Mikla, who had come east to keep Toma from being devoured by his own fuzzy-headedness.

  Rula-thinking had prevailed amongst most of Toma's disciples. They had admitted defeat and ventured west again, along paths littered with the parched bones of fleeting hope.

  Toma was stubborn. Toma persisted. Toma's bones would lie beside those of his dreams.

  All this Tain knew when he said, "If you won't let me pay, then at least let me help with the new house."

  Toma regarded him with eyes of iron.

  "I learned construction in the army."

  Toma's eyes tightened. He was a proud man.

  Tain had dealt with stiff-necked superiors for ages. He pursued his offer without showing a hint of criticism. And soon Toma relaxed, responded. "Take a look after breakfast," he suggested. "See what you think. I've been having trouble since Mikla left."

  "I'd wondered about that," Tain admitted. "Steban gave the impression that your brother was living here. I didn't want to pry."

  "He walked out." Toma stamped toward the house angrily. He calmed himself before they entered. "My fault, I guess. It was a petty argument. The sheep business hasn't been as good as we expected. He wanted to pick up a little extra trading knives and arrowheads to the tribes. They pay in furs. But the Baron banned that when he came here."

  Tain didn't respond. Toma shrugged irritably, started back outside. He stopped suddenly, turned. "He's Rula's brother." Softly, "And that wasn't true. I made him leave because I caught him with some arrowheads. I was afraid." He turned again.

  "Toma. Wait." Tain spoke softly. "I won't mention it."

  Relief flashed across Kleckla's face.

  "And you should know. The man with the horns. The . . . Caydarman? He spent part of the night watching the house from the grove."

  Toma didn't respond. He seemed distraught. He remained silent throughout breakfast. The visual cues indicated a state of extreme anxiety. He regained his good humor only after he and Tain had worked on the new house for hours, and then his chatter was inconsequential. He wouldn't open up.

  Tain asked no questions.

  Neither Toma nor Rula mentioned his departure. Toma soured with each building suggestion, then brightened once it had been implemented. Day's end found less of the structure standing, yet the improvement in what remained had Toma bubbling.

  VI

  Tain accidentally jostled Rula at the hearth. "Excuse me." Then, "Can I help? Cooking is my hobby."

 
; The woman regarded him oddly. She saw a big man, muscled and corded, who moved like a tiger, who gave an impression of massive strength kept under constant constraint. His skin was tracked by a hundred scars. There wasn't an ounce of softness in or on him. Yet his fingers were deft, his touch delicate as he took her knife and pan. "You don't mind?"

  "Mind? You're joking. Two years I haven't had a minute's rest, and you want to know if I mind?"

  "Ah. There's a secret to that, having too much work and not enough time. It's in the organization, and in putting yourself into the right state of mind before you start. Most people scatter themselves. They try everything at once."

  "I'll be damned." Toma, who had been carrying water to the sheep pens, paused to watch over Tain's shoulder.

  Turning the browned mutton, Tain said, "I love to cook. This is a chance for me to show off." He tapped a ghost of spice from an envelope. "Rula, if we brown the vegetables instead of stewing them . . . ."

  "I'll be damned," Toma said again. He settled to the floor to watch. He pulled a jar of beer to his side.

  "One should strive to achieve the widest possible competence," Tain remarked. "One may never need a skill, but, again, one can't know the future. Tomorrow holds ambushes for the mightiest necromancers. A new skill is another hedge against Fate's whimsy. What happens when a soldier loses a limb here?"

  "They become beggars," Rula replied. "Toma, remember how it was right after the war? You couldn't walk a block . . . ."

  "My point made for me. I could become a cook. Or an interpreter. Or a smith, or an armorer, according to my handicap. In that way I was well-served. Where's Steban? I asked him to pick some mushrooms. They'll add the final touch. But don't expect miracles. I've never tried this with mutton . . . . Rula? What is it?"

  Toma had bounced up and run outside. She was following him.

  "It's Steban. He's worried about Steban."

  "Can you tell me?"

  "The Caydarmen . . . ." She went blank, losing the animation she had begun showing.

  "Who are they?"