Part 5 (2/2)

I wonder if my life would have been happier if I'd been born one of these country people, and known no further horizons than they did? Perhaps Irisu intended me as such, and Saionji, in the guise of my father, intervened. I know not.

As the final term came to an end, I began looking for my regiment. Graduates were permitted to apply to any unit they chose, and, if the army grudgingly found a vacancy, it might actually a.s.sign you to that formation. As a graduate of an elite school, at least I would be with the cavalry, and not the infantry or, worse yet, the pioneers or some service formation.

I a.s.sumed my fellow students, with their ”priests” and wealth and families and ties, would get the marrow of the choices, and leave me with the driest of bones.

I'd looked with longing at the cavalry regiments ”out there,” as the Nicians put it, scattered in cantonments on the Frontiers or within the wary garrisons on the border between Dara and Kallio, in a state of truce that wasn't war, yet never became peace.

Most of all, I wished to serve in one of the three regiments in Urey that kept Data's va.s.sal state from being ravaged by the Men of the Hills, those fearless killers from the Border States who come down from their hard mountains to loot, rape, and kill.

They also were the front line against Kallio, who also claimed Urey, and, on the other side of the Border Statesour most dangerous potential foe, theKingdomofMaisir. These threeregiments were the Tenth Hussars, the Twentieth Heavy Cavalry, and the most romantic, the Seventeenth Ureyan Lancers, which guarded the most important pa.s.sageway into the Border States, Sulem Pa.s.s.

As far as I could tell, I stood as much chance of being a.s.signed to any of these three units as I did of being chosen Queen of the Festival of Births to dance around the lingam pole with an orchid between my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Once more luck intervened, both close and far. I knew one, but not the other. The distant and unknown was that the Frontiers were waking, and on the sheer cliffs and in the sere villages of the Border States, the harsh desert highlands the Men of the Hills called Kait in their own tongue, the tribesmen were stirring, looking l.u.s.tfully south at the green lands, fat sheep, fatter purses, and smooth-skinned maidens of Urey.

There were others looking at the same lands, but we didn't learn about them for a while, and their l.u.s.ts went far beyond the immediate joys of rape and raid.

The closer piece of luck became evident, when I heard what posts my fellow graduates were seeking.

Either they wished staff postings, preferably serving under the command of one or another of the high-rankers who'd sponsored their career or with one of the ”parade-crash” regiments close around Nicias. These units were also considered ehte, but hardly by me, since we'd been encouraged to visit these great regiments, to be quietly wooed by them. I'd seen how much time was spent polis.h.i.+ng everything from armor to the horses' hooves, and how little they practiced real fighting maneuvers instead of the glamorous but meaningless reviews, charges-in-line, and intricate wheelings. I had not joined the army to worry about whether the horsehair plume on my helmet dangled precisely to the second knot from the bottom of my spine.

I'd sent applications by military post to all three of the regiments in Urey, and then could do nothing but wait.

They say graduation from the lycee is the grandest moment of a young officer's life. Perhaps it is for some, but not for me.

*Far greater was the night with the woman and the tiger in my tiny hut, or the day I received welcomes from two of the three regiments I'd applied to. One of them was the Lancers, and I did not think my heart could be fuller.

The days blurred by until graduation, when I galloped Lucan out of ranks, to the platform the school domina stood at, dismounted, marched up the steps, and the sash of rank was wound about my waist I went to several of the graduating parties, and swore, with the others, eternal friends.h.i.+p and fealty, but my mind was far south, wis.h.i.+ng for those stark, barren hills of theBorder States.

S I XThe Wolf of GhaziIt seemed as if every citizen of Nicias was abroad as I rode through the city toward the docks. I kept glancing at the sun, afraid I'd miss my sailing time, but unable to move faster than a walk, for fear Lucan or Rabbit would crush someone.

There were sweating priests staggering along, trying to look dignified, carrying statues of their G.o.d or G.o.ddess bigger man they were, followed by chanting acolytes; merchants intent on the day's business and paying little heed to the bustle around them; whining beggars; rich wives out to shop in sedan chairs or carriages; a few early drunkards; porters transporting everything from loaves of bread to ceremonial robes to one man-and everyone gave him a wide berth-with an open basket full of snakes.

In the middle of a street a naked religious man sat meditating. The crowd ebbed around him as if he were a rock in a river. Sooner or later either he'd decide to move, a rich man would toss a gold coin into his bowl and he'd mysteriously awake, or he'd be crushed by a freight wagon or elephant. No doubt it didn't matter to him which happened.

There was a slight s.h.i.+mmer about him, and as I rode past, his power was such that I was drawn into bis vision.

JfiThe two of us were alone in a cool vale, near a laughing brook. A soft breeze caressed us, and the sun was kindly. Birds sang, and a roebuck grazed nearby. The holy man smiled his welcome and peace washed over me.

I was back in Nicias. I wiped sweat, dropped two coppers in the man's bowl, and went on.

Evidently the Seventeenth Lancers were in a hurry for my presence, for they'd authorized me to take pa.s.sage on a fast packet, theTauler, whose broadside promised to deliver me to Renan in less than two weeks.

TheTauler was still moored at its dock and I took a moment to marvel at the craft. It was less than a year old, and a fine example of what the mechanics of Dara could produce, nearly feet long and wide.

There were three decks with cabins raised above the main deck, which had storage s.p.a.ce for cargo and, amids.h.i.+ps, pens for animals. The s.h.i.+p was navigated from a small cupola in the bows. Its upperworks were built of teak that had been crafted into a thousand thousand fantastic images of G.o.ds, men, and demons, then painted in as many hues.

But what made it so astonis.h.i.+ng was its method of propulsion. At the stern were, side by side, two broad treadmills, such as the ones used in the countryside to power a miller's wheel, but far wider and heavier, as if elephants would provide the energy instead of oxen. But they stood empty. Here was where mighty sorcery would work. A group of Nicias's master magicians had spent years developing a spell that enabled the treadmills, which I had been told were made of elephant hide, not only to hold the great strength of the beast, which would be loosed to power the s.h.i.+p, but also to maintain this power for a week or more before the belts needed replacement. I marveled, and again was reminded how foolish it was that the army thought magic no more than a minor tool.

The rest of the machine was more prosaic, but to me just as wonderful. The treadmills turned wheels, and belts ran from those wheels to a larger one, jutting off the boat's stern, just at the waterline and equipped with paddles. That drove the boat fi forward, and it was steered with long sweeps that extended from the deck back of the paddle wheel into the water. Commands would be shouted back to the steersmen from the s.h.i.+p's commander in the bows, or, in the event of rain or wind, relayed by signals on pull-cords.

At dockside was the s.h.i.+p's purser, and I arranged for my horses to be loaded, pa.s.sing a silver coin I could not afford to make sure Lucan, Rabbit, and the two pack horses were properly attended to. I was given a bra.s.s token with my cabin number, gave a copper to the lycee attendant who'd accompanied me to the dock, and went aboard.

The cabin was neat but small, and on the lowest deck. Even so, it cost dearly, far more than I would be paid in a Time. Since my possessions fit in one saddle-roll and four leather bags, I had more than enough room.

I went back on deck, and waited for departure. Next to the docks was one of the landings used for bathing. Long steps led into the brown river, and people swarmed down them. Some were most modest-I saw an entire family clad from head to foot in white robes trying to cleanse itself and yet remain modest Others wore a cloth around their loins, but most were as they came into the world.

In the throng were rich and poor, merchant and thief, and I was reminded that no man can show wealth when he's naked, and, also, unfortunately, that most of us, unclothed, prove the first man or woman who sewed leaves to form a belt had a smattering of good sense.

There were exceptions, I noted a young girl, nude except for a thin silver chain about her waist and a bright smile she turned on me. I winked, she beckoned, I sighed and indicated I was trapped just as horns blasted, the gangways were pulled aboard, and we churned away.

TheTauler was worthy of her boasts, and we raced south as if demons were after us. The first few days took the longest, requiring careful navigation as we pa.s.sed through the huge delta that fed the sea through hundreds of mouths. There were islands no bigger than the single bush that grew on them, and*

ones I thought as big as Cimabue. The islands were heavily settled, and I wondered, with a shudder, what all these people could do, where they could flee, in the event of a flood. I suspected I knew the answer, and thought on more cheerful subjects.

Once out of the delta, we could move faster. TheLatane Riverwas huge, stretching from horizon to brown horizon as it rolled down to the sea. There were many other boats about, from small skiffs to fis.h.i.+ng craft to ramshackle barges that were home to huge families. There were trading s.h.i.+ps and other transports like our own that the s.h.i.+p'shomshooted at familiarly.

The only time I was in my cabin was to sleep-otherwise I was on deck, marveling at this great and lovely country of Numantia I had sworn to serve.

My fellow pa.s.sengers were mostly of the monied cla.s.s, and so I kept to myself. A few times men offered to buy me a drink, and I accepted gladly, since I'd made a private arrangement with the barmen that no matter what I ordered I'd be served a gla.s.s of recently boiled water, with that wonderful rarity ice, and a twist of lime, which looked for all the world like some lethal concoction of distilled prune pits or some such.

I made no attempt to make friends, since I was more interested in what I was seeing than in conversation, and I generally dined alone and early. I also had a great deal of reading to do, having purchased books before I left on the history of Urey, the Border States, and even one thin volume on the Seventeenth Lancers themselves. It was a task I did not like, but I knew it was less onerous than appearing a complete fool when I arrived in Mehul.

I remember walking along the promenade deck and seeing a magician entertain a family. The sage was one of the entertainers the s.h.i.+p's owners provided, which included minstrels, players, and mimics. The family was young, and wore their best clothes at all times, clothes mat were just a trifle out of the current style. I guessed they'd either saved their money for a holiday, or else this pa.s.sage had been a present from a richer relative. There were four of them: two boys peihaps three and four, their father, who was about my age, and their visibly pregnant mother.

The magician was quite gifted-a fat, jolly man who prattled on while his hands worked wonders. He took a small toy, a tiger, from one of the children, and turned it sequentially into a cat that meowed, a dog that barked, a zebra that whinnied, and then into a full-size tiger, its mouth wide for a roar. Before either of the children had time to be frightened, the roar became a kitten's meow, the boys laughed, and the magician handed the toy back. The father turned, saw me, and ducked his head in acknowledgment of my superior cla.s.s.

Embarra.s.sed, I returned the salute and moved on. As I walked back toward the stern I mused about the sense of remove I'd felt watching these people who were living a life I'd never know, one as strange as if they were from one of the other worlds the Wheel surely must touch.

As we went south, the land grew spa.r.s.er and drier, the cities fewer, and the farms farther apart and scraggly. The people on the banks or in boats were poorer; their clothes were no longer the rainbow hues of the north.

We stopped for supplies at a port that was little more than a long dock and a scatter of buildings. I went ash.o.r.e for a walk. At the end of the pier squatted a man, the poorest of the poor by his rags.

Beside him sat a girl, perhaps nine or ten. Both of their faces held the patient wisdom that poverty gives: There is nothing more the G.o.ds can do to me, and the only blessing l shall find is when the Wheel turns. I dug for a coin in my sabertache, although the man had not yet made a beggar's plea.

”Kind sir,” he said, as his eyes focused, recognizing that another stood before him. ”Would you buy my daughter?”

I don't know why I was surprised, since I'd seen men and women surrept.i.tiously offering their children in Nicias's tawdry backstreets. But I was.

”No,” I said. ”I'm but a soldier. I'd have no place for her.”

”She would be no trouble,” he said, as if I had not spoken.

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