Part 2 (1/2)
”That doesn't matter,” Gordon interjected impatiently. ”Great or small, no one's going to chance it.”
”No,” the other man agreed. ”I wouldn't, either.”
Murdock studied the map intently for several long moments. ”What kind of weapons do they use? Old-time stuff, I imagine, since you're involved, Eveleen.”
”Old time,” she agreed. ”Swords, bows. The basics. There are some differences in design and style of use, of course, but you'll pick it all up fast.” She gave him a wicked grin. ”They ride oversized deer. You lads'll have real fun learning to manage those.”
”I'll bet,” he responded but immediately returned to his perusal of the map. ”Why a battle at all? Those fools of Sapphireholders have a partisan's paradise if those highlands are anything like our old wild country at home. Move everything of value and everyone into the hills where the invaders can't get at them and use hit and run guerrilla tactics against Zanthor. They mightn't be able to whip him, but they'd hold him the two weeks simply by removing or destroying the supplies he'd hoped to take, they'd stay intact themselves, and when the campaign opened up in the spring, they could rip the guts out of his efforts to keep his troops supplied. -He'll have to do that through the pa.s.s?”
She nodded. ”He will.”
”We'll have to start early. Homes'll have to be built and crops planted in the highlands. It's all got to be ready when the time comes so we can b.u.m everything that's not portable and run...”
The Time Agent stopped. He looked at Ashe in confusion. ”Sorry. I shouldn't have...”
”Go on,” the other told him. ”You appear to be doing just fine.”
Ross's eyes returned to the map, although they did not focus on it. ”We'll need the full cooperation of everyone, especially the ruler's, the more particularly if we're going to work with the necessary speed and secrecy. I'm afraid we might have a problem with that since no one's come up with the idea already.”
”Warfare's a matter of open, old-fas.h.i.+oned slash and bash, not hiding in the hills,” she affirmed. ”I believe we'll be able to convince Luroc of his danger easily enough, but it'll take maneuvering and a lot of tact if you're going to manage the domain's defense the way you want. Even at that, you may have to make do with a very partial victory.” Eveleen sighed. ”That's why there's so much uncertainty about our ability to save Dominion.”
The man glanced up sharply. ”I'll have to make do?”
Ashe's eyes met the newcomer's, then flickered to his partner. ”You'll be in charge of that phase of the mission,” he told him. ”You've already taken charge of it.”
”It fits with our cover,” Eveleen agreed quickly, before Ross could protest. ”You and I're to pose as mercenary officers escorting our learned companion here. Doctor Ashe is to bear the warning to Luroc. After that, it would only be logical for us to handle the planning and conducting of Sapphirehold's war, a.s.suming we can convince him to follow our advice.”
”You?” Murdock asked sharply. ”Will that be acceptable, Eveleen?” He braced himself, although it had hardly been an unreasonable question.
The woman's nod told her acknowledgment of that fact. ”Yes, indeed,” she responded cheerfully. ”Dominion isn't Terra. The Great Mother was never supplanted there-her people wors.h.i.+ped a nice, highly sophisticated version of Her right until the moment their civilization vanished-and women retained a position of respect throughout her history. True, there were no female Tons at the time we're discussing, but, then, there were no male priests, either. Just about every other profession was open to both genders, including that of mercenary. I'll be regarded as somewhat unusual since not many of my s.e.x did take up that work but certainly not a freak, and my presence in that capacity won't cause any offense.”
The brown eyes held his. ”It's important for me to take that role, Ross, and to involve the domain's women as heavily as possible in what's to come. The mutation rose first in the females, and it's only through them that their race's mental abilities can be used for any purpose save straight one-to-one communication. The men will have to be able to channel their power through the women to bring down the Baldies, and there'll have to be complete trust and acceptance between the two s.e.xes to accomplish that. It's as important for us to do what we can to foster an early flowering of that as it is to help thwart Zanthor I Yoroc's aim.”
”My role?” Gordon asked.
”That of a wealthy, very learned physician from the central Mainland who initially journeyed north to study ma.n.u.scripts kept in the region's temples in order to compare their contents with those in his own area. Three mercenaries, especially soldiers of rank, on the loose on that island would be highly suspect at the time when we plan to arrive. However, two of us could reasonably be traveling as escorts to a distinguished individual... You have to be a doctor,” she added, forestalling any question on that point. ”Outside of the Tons or top mercenary leaders, medicine's the only profession open to a man that would give you the necessary prestige to gain the audiences you need.
”The story is that we two fighters noted the presence of a lot of our own kind in the port town where you were studying and remarked upon the fact considering the total absence of fighting in the area to account for their being there at all, much less in number. By dint of careful digging by all three of us, you copped onto Zanthor's plot and hastened to spread the alarm. That you would drop your own research to do so will be believed. Dominionite healers of that era were totally dedicated to their oath to preserve life, though they never hesitated to fight when they believed that to be necessary. Reinforcing that is the fact that Zanthor's treachery completely went against the custom of the times, which is how he was able to take everyone so completely by surprise. No one believed it could happen until it did. Anyone at all, but especially a man sworn to the defense of life, would be totally repelled and would be eager to do whatever he could to foil I Yoroc's empire building.”
”I'll buy all that, Miss Riordan, but I'm still an archeologist, not an MD. The mission will be a fairly long-term one by the sound of it, and if I'm called upon to act professionally...”
”Given your detailed first aid training and better than basic grasp of the medical knowledge of our own time, you're a small infinity better prepared than any of your supposed Dominionite colleagues. They're all functioning at the medieval level, don't forget. Just to be sure, though, you'll be given a crash PA course before you go in.”
”It takes two to three years of intensive study to qualify as a physician's a.s.sistant!”
”You won't need everything, and you already have a good bit of what you do require,” the woman a.s.sured him. ”You'll also be bringing a nice supply of real Terran medications in your luggage, all artfully disguised... Never fear. You'll manage quite well if you ever do have to go into practice, Doctor.”
”Wouldn't it be a whole lot simpler just to bill me as a foreign Ton on the loose from his lands for some reason?”
She shook her head. ”Unfortunately not. They simply don't go far from their domains. Any cover we could concoct for you would have to be melodramatic to the point that it wouldn't sit right. Besides, a Ton with no particular interest in the island would be considerably less likely than a healer to take on a voyage and a long trek cross-country just to carry warning against Zanthor.”
”A doctor might also reasonably have an eye to a nice reward at the end of it all?” Ross suggested.
”Some generous patronage wouldn't be unwelcome, naturally.”
Gordon nodded, accepting the inevitable. ”What precisely are these Tons?” he asked. ”Lords? Petty kings? It could make a difference in the way we'll have to approach and handle them.”
”Neither. The word has no equivalent in any Terran language I know. It translates as something like landlord, or as n.o.ble and exalted landlord, rather, but there's a strong measure of clan chieftain in it plus a good bit of chairman of the board and company president thrown in.
”The setup's different than it used to be with us. The domains are owned by the Tons, but they're operated by the whole populace for the direct benefit of each family as well as for the whole. The Tons rake off the major share of the profits, but everyone working to earn it gets to stick a hand into the pot.”
Eveleen smiled. ”You'll be learning all that shortly. We all start training as soon as we get back.”
Ross winced inwardly. He had gone through the Project's deep penetration schooling once before, when he and Gordon Ashe had a.s.sumed the roles of traders in Terra's Bronze Age. That was just long enough ago for a thin mist of nostalgia to have begun spreading a soft veil over the experience, but he had a very nasty feeling that the warm glow of memory was about to vanish in grinding exhaustion as reality once more raised its ugly head with a vengeance. It had been bad enough learning how to play the part of a Beaker trader in his own world's past. Now he would not only have to fight, but to lead a guerrilla war, and he would have to hold the pose of a native son of Dominion of Virgin while he did it.
He silently laughed at himself. He had been aching to get back to his proper work, had he not? Now he had it once more, and there was nothing for it but to grit his teeth and go with it.
The Terran men stood beside the waiting gate. Soon now, they would leave this ancient Hawaika for its modern counterpart and the weeks of study and labor awaiting them there.
When they were ready, or as ready as it was possible to be, their true work would begin. They would take s.h.i.+p for the cinder that was Dominion of Virgin, enter a time gate there, and go back to the age in which that planet's fate was to be decided. A sub would bring them from the uninhabited island that was the terminus of their gate to the threatened isle, though a chopper would probably retrieve them at the conclusion of their mission, a.s.suming any of them survived to require its services. They would all be exposed to the same degree of peril as any of the locals while they remained among them.
For now, though, the business of parting held them. They had bade farewell to the dolphins and to their comrades among the Rovers. Only the Foanna remained, and Karara, who was still closeted with Eveleen Riordan, discussing the history she was fated to write.
Ross had quickly taken his leave of the strange trio and had withdrawn again before his open pleasure in quitting this place and time should become apparent beyond the point of courtesy.
Ashe stayed with the on-worlders. His own feelings were somewhat mixed, and however glad he was to be resuming his proper life and place, his heart was heavy. Whatever he and his comrades had done for Hawaika herself, they had been unable to help the Foanna. When these three now with him died, their race would be extinct. There was no hope of averting that doom now, and no hope, either, for the vision that had flickered momentarily before him.
The shame and defeat of his failure filled him, and his head lowered. ”I'm sorry,” he said at last. ”I wish we two, or even one of us, had proven acceptable to the Powers ruling your kind.” Only Karara of all the Terrans had been taken, and she was another female...
”It was not to be, Gordoon,” Ynvalda responded. ”That we must all accept. Doubtless, it is for the best. Our world is death, soul death, for the Younger Brother and would probably have proven so for you as well. A change in form and ability would not alter that, I think. Ye were made, mind and spirit, for other work and other lives.”
”Perhaps, but we found true friends here, and there was much we might have learned and accomplished.”
”Friends.h.i.+p is not forgotten. As for the rest, it may be that ye shall win, both of ye, what ye desire in other ways and other places. The stars are open to your seeking and the plains of time.”
Her head turned slightly. ”The Sisters return.”
The two women entered the room even as she spoke. Eveleen, small and fair, was the brighter in his eyes despite the s.h.i.+mmering aura that seemed to sparkle around and within her companion.
Whatever had pa.s.sed between them in their long conference, both were silent now, thoughtful, as they approached the place and moment of parting.
Trehern looked from one to the other of those who had been her comrades. They were the last link with her old species, with the world that had borne her and the life to which she once had given herself...
Her chin lifted and a smile that answered to the force of her will flickered on her lips. She glanced once more at the newcomer. ”Eveleen, you've told me what needs to be recorded but not whether I managed to produce a good book out of it all.”
”A runaway best-seller!” the other a.s.sured her. ”Planetary when it came to us and now interstellar, history and legend in one delightful package.”