Part 20 (1/2)
”Then you are a fool. But the state of your intellect is hardly an issue of paramount importance; there are more pressing concerns. You are aware that the railroad laborers in this anarchic sinkhole have launched a full-scale revolt.”
”I speak no Aennorvi,” Karsler returned. ”I gather from your translations that the workers are on strike.”
”The local authorities inexplicably fail to crush the rebellion.”
”It is possible they favor subtler methods.”
”Subtlety is the first refuge of the weak. You are also aware,” Torvid continued, ”that the antics of those Travornish twin cretins have delayed you by hours or days.”
”They seem remarkably inventive, as cretins go.”
”When you have finished amusing yourself, perhaps you will be so good as to state your immediate plan of action, if in fact you have one.”
”I will use whatever means available to travel from Aeshno to the town of Eynisse, on the River Arune,” Karsler replied without hesitation. ”There it is possible to book barge pa.s.sage east to Yellow Noki, where I will pick up the eastbound coach headed for Quinnekevah, in Bizaqh. Once over the Bizaqhi border, and train service will resume.”
”You have toiled like some little clerk over your maps and timetables, and you have formulated a strategy worthy of a clerk-meticulous and pedestrian. You will keep in mind, I trust, as you laze along some river on a mule-drawn barge, that those Travornish buffoons will increase their lead with every pa.s.sing hour.”
”For now there is little to be done.” Karsler's impa.s.sive courtesy never wavered. ”We can only proceed in the hope that an opportunity to regain lost time will eventually present itself.”
”You may do so if you wish, Nephew. As for me, I am not in the habit of awaiting opportunity-I prefer to make my own.”
”So I have observed. As you are not a Grand Ellipse contestant, however, the point is academic.”
”Exactly so. My agreeable state of uninvolvement frees me of countless tiresome obligations. Just now, for example, I escape the necessity of enduring purgatorial progress across Aennorve, a land whose climate, customs, and population I despise. These Aennorvi peasants are animals, little better.”
Philanthropy hardly informed his uncle's judgment, yet the complaint was not altogether unfounded. The crowd milling about them on the wharf was surly beyond normal expectation. Several times he was roughly jostled, not by accident, and once some urchin actually dared to spit, missing his boot by inches. He had often known foreign enmity, but never before so intensely immediate, and never so fearlessly expressed. His blood quickened a little, but no sign of perturbation touched his face as he observed, ”These Aennorvis are no friends of the Imperium. Perhaps the sight of my uniform offends them.”
”Bah, they want the lash, that is all. Happily I need not concern myself, as I intend to abandon this dismal little olive-oil slick of a nation within the hour. a.s.suming that those idiots in the customhouse have not misinformed me, there remain staterooms available aboard the next s.h.i.+p out.”
”Indeed.” Karsler suppressed every outward sign of pleasant surprise. ”Your plans have altered, and you are homeward bound, Grandlandsman?”
”Not at all. I do not desert the Grand Ellipse, but shorten its tedium, merely. The prospect of protracted Aennorvi junketing succeeded by the archaic discomforts of Bizaqh and Zuleekistan appalls me, and therefore I have chosen to proceed directly to Jumo, there to await your coming.”
”According to your will, Grandlandsman.”
”The separation should serve us well,” Torvid added unexpectedly. ”We are too much in each other's way, Nephew-like two wolves locked in a small cage. We chafe one another, we are always annoyed, and it is so foolish, when we are natural allies linked by blood and Destiny. It is my hope that a time apart will restore proper perspective.”
”My hope as well, Grandlandsman.” Karsler's concealed surprise deepened.
”A point of accord at last. Upon that happy note I will take my leave. Nephew, I wish you a journey swift and untroubled-in a.s.surance whereof, you would do well to observe your fellow racers closely. It is more than probable that some serve in agency of their respective governments, and in such cases a preemptive strike may best serve your purposes. As far as that goes, I leave the matter in your hands. You will report your actions when we meet again in Jumo.”
”Understood. Farewell, Grandlandsman.”
Torvid turned and marched away, straight-spined figure swiftly vanis.h.i.+ng from view. Karsler Stornzof stood motionless, bemused by the speed and suddenness of his kinsman's disappearance. For the first time since the race began he was fully free of Torvid's pervasive presence, and certain to remain so for days or weeks to come. It was as if an invisible band of steel encircling his temples had fallen away. An odd sense of almost forgotten freedom dawned within him; a new buoyancy, and a contentment unknown since his Promontory days. Someone elbowed him aggressively, and he caught a snarling burst of Aennorvi, unintelligible but unmistakably imprecatory. He hardly heard it. Drawing a deep breath of sea-smelling fresh air down to the bottom of his lungs, he savored the moment, despite the nearly tangible hatred simmering all around him.
THE MULES PLODDED. The cart seemed scarcely to move. Nothing much to be done about it, either, given the nature of mules. She would have traded kingdoms for a proper hansom. Luzelle s.h.i.+fted her weight and flashed an impatient glance around her. Pedestrians, donkey carts, and miskin wagons clogged the street, but nowhere did she spy a horse-drawn vehicle. The Festinette boys couldn't have banished all of them. The The cart seemed scarcely to move. Nothing much to be done about it, either, given the nature of mules. She would have traded kingdoms for a proper hansom. Luzelle s.h.i.+fted her weight and flashed an impatient glance around her. Pedestrians, donkey carts, and miskin wagons clogged the street, but nowhere did she spy a horse-drawn vehicle. The Festinette boys couldn't have banished all of them. The ”strevvio” ”strevvio” that her carter had mentioned-a disease of horses, perhaps? that her carter had mentioned-a disease of horses, perhaps?
The cart plowed on through dusty streets filled with light, noise, and a rich swirl of rival odors ruled by the garlic-powered fragrance of hroviapoul, the famous Aennorvi stew of squid, silverdarts, and a.s.sorted native mollusks. Luzelle's nostrils flared and her stomach growled. She had not eaten since early morning and she badly wanted a meal, but it would wait. Soon she would be on a train speeding east toward Bizaqh, and the train would include a restaurant car, a lounge, and presumably plush sleeping compartments as well, as the Aennorvi folk were famously devoted to their personal comforts.
Should the train schedules favor her, she might expect to gain several hours of advantage over her compet.i.tors.
Except for the Stornzofs. And the Festinettes.
The streets lagged by at the stolid mules' pace, and her eagerness grew along with her impatience and hunger. Had she spoken his language, she might have urged the carter to ply his whip; not that it would have done much good. As it was, she sat wordlessly fidgeting.
The avenue terminated at the verge of a broad plaza. Straight ahead rose a ma.s.sive structure of white stone roofed in rich red-brown tile. The carter pointed.
”Ferignello,” he announced. he announced.
The train station, as she had hoped, but who were those men a.s.sembled before it? There must have been at least two hundred of them blocking the entrance, and certainly it was no random, spontaneous gathering. The men-ordinary, respectable workers, by the look of them-stood ranged in neat, quasi-military ranks stretching the entire width of the big building. Many of them carried signs, large placards hand lettered in Aennorvi, which she could not read. They were singing or chanting something in unison, the words incomprehensible, but suggestive of infinite determination.
”What?” Luzelle inquired concisely.
”Ferignello,” the carter explained. the carter explained.
”The men. There. Men. They doing?”
”Strevvio.”
”What is strevvio strevvio?”
He chattered bad Lanthian at her, and she understood next to nothing. She held up one hand, and the verbal current slackened.
”Train men stop work. Want money. Bigger money, or trains no go. Strevvio Strevvio.”
”You're telling me that the Aennorvi railroad workers have called a strike?” Luzelle comprehended. ”Can they do that? Won't the government intervene?” The other's eyes went blank, and she knew that she must have spoken Vonahrish. ”Strevvio-trains no go?” she amended in the appropriate tongue.
”Trains no go,” he agreed.
”Voyagers do what?”
The carter shrugged. ”Ferignello,” ”Ferignello,” he declared conclusively, and his meaning was clear. He had fulfilled his commission, his task was done, and he wanted to be on his way. he declared conclusively, and his meaning was clear. He had fulfilled his commission, his task was done, and he wanted to be on his way.
She resisted the impulse to grab him and shake him. For a moment she was unreasonably angry, then perceived her own folly. It certainly wasn't the driver's fault, he had even tried to warn her. Climbing down from the seat, she dismissed him with an adequately civil nod, and the cart lumbered on its way.
Now what? A couple of hundred resolute workers stood between herself and the station. Bigger money, or trains no go. But perhaps service hadn't entirely halted yet? If anything was moving east along those tracks, she would brave a thousand striking workers to reach it.
Chin up, she advanced on the picket line as if expecting a path to open itself for her.
The human barrier stood firm. She confronted closed ranks and closed faces. She aimed herself at one such face. Its owner was male, young, and possibly susceptible.
”Do you speak Vonahrish, sir?” she inquired melodiously.
He shook his head, uncomprehending but interested.
”Speak Lanthian?” she essayed in that tongue.
”Like a native,” he returned enthusiastically. ”I could probably pa.s.s myself off as a Dalyonic n.o.ble, if I wanted. I know how to a.s.sume the grand manner to perfection. Would you like to see?”
His accent and p.r.o.nunciation were far superior to the carter's, and she understood him surprisingly well.