Part 24 (1/2)

Tenedos looked at me in surprise, then nodded agreement.

'To Captain Mellet.” We drained our gla.s.ses.

”Thank you, Seer. I think it is time I sleep.” ”As you wish, my friend. For me, sleep may require some a.s.sistance.” He picked up the decanter. ”I shall see you in the morning.”

But in spite of my words, the world was gray outside before I was able to sleep.

Later that day, Seer Tenedos and I were called to the Rule of Ten's chamber. I expected to be disciplined for my outburst, and resolved to take whatever punishment those fools had come up with stoically.

There were only two of the Rule of Ten in the chamber: Farel, one of Barthou's contingent, and Scopas. He sat in Bar- thou's seat.

”Legate Damastesk Cimabue,” he began, ”it is the decision of the Rule of Ten that you have served us well.

”In recognition of this, we have ordered you promoted to captain of the Lower Half, this promotion to become effective immediately.”

I was d.a.m.ned if I would give either of them the satisfaction of gaping, and managed to keep my face still. My outburst had been ignored, and instead my sash of office would now carry a single black band, a promotion I would not have expected in peacetime for ten years, and that after only the most meritorious service.

”We also think that your standards are worthy of note, and therefore are rea.s.signing you from the Frontiers to our capital. You are hereby given a new posting to Numantia's proudest formation, the Golden Helms of Nicias.” f.u.c.k!

”There is another reason we made this decision,” Scopas went on. ”We may wish to hear more details of your harrowing experience in the Border States when the Border Conference a.s.sembles, and wish you to remain close at hand.”

He fell silent. I knew what I was supposed to do, but hated doing it. But a soldier must accept the harsh as readily as the soft, and so I came to attention, clapped my chest in salute, wheeled, and marched out, followed by Yonge and Karjan.

KI started for my quarters, feeling, as one of my lycee instructors would have put it, s.h.i.+t and sugar, but mostly s.h.i.+t. But the guard stopped me, and said I was to wait for Resident-General Tenedos.

It was about half an hour later when the seer emerged, a tight smile on his face.

”We have great reason to thank the Rule of Ten,” he said in a clear voice. ”They have done us a boon, and we are in their debt”

When he and I were alone in his rooms, and his Square of Silence spell in place, he started to explain, but saw my expression first.

”Will it be that bad?” he asked.

I started to find some polite military lie, then decided to tell the truth.

”It won't be the best, sir. All I'll be doing is polis.h.i.+ng bra.s.s, riding up and down, and holding the door open for fat-a.s.s diplomats, begging your pardon, sir. It'll be a year, maybe more, before I'll be able to put in to transfer to some unit where there's likely to be some action. h.e.l.ls, I don't even know if the Lancers will be willing to take me back.”

”Legate,” Tenedos said, ”I was not speaking for unseen ears when I said we had been granted a boon.

I'm very glad you're being stationed here in Nicias, for purely selfish reasons.

”I'll make a bet with you. Within a year... no, two at the outside, I'll have need of your service, and not to open any doors for me, either.”

”What do you mean?”

”Time will answer that question,” he said. ”I shall not, because I can't tell how the future shall twist. But I know this course cannot run true much longer.”

At the moment I had little patience for his theories about how the days of Numantia's rulers were numbered, but I said nothing. Then my natural curiosity took me.

”What reward did you receive, sir? I hope one more satisfactory than mine.”

”Most definitely. Scopas praised me to the heavens, then said I could either remain in government service or return to civilian life. If I chose the former, he had a list of some eight posts I could pick from.

”I scanned them quickly, and found them to be just as I'd expected-places where I would be absent from the public eye, and unhappy enough to resign in a short time.

”So I picked the worst of all-in their minds.

”Congratulate me, Legate. I am now the head of the Military Sorcery Department for the Lycee of Command.”

That academy was intended to train hand-picked dominas for the highest rank in the army. An officer chosen for that school was guaranteed he'd see general rank before retiring unless he committed some unimaginable error.

”Now,” he went on, ”I knew full well before you told me just how low an opinion the army has of magic, which we've discussed. So now, in the bowels of the beast, I'm expected to be digested and shat out into the darkness, and my radical theories heard no more.

”But this shall be where I prove my ideals. Prove them and find the disciples I'll need. If I cannot, well then, Saionji has picked a weak vessel for her message. But I doubt that.

”Yes,” he said. ”Yes, indeed. The Rule of Ten will bitterly rue this day.”

I was glad one of us was content. As for me, in spite of Tenedos's rea.s.surances, I was trapped in Nicias.

FIFTEEN.

The City of LightsI wasted no more time in the palace, but swiftly packed my gear and prepared to move to the barracks of the Golden Helms. Tenedos said he'd see that Yonge fell into as little mischief as possible, and took him into his employ, ”always needing,” Tenedos said, ”the duties of a good serviceable murderer in these unsettled times.

”I hope,” he went on, ”the next time we serve together it shall be in happier times and circ.u.mstances.

a.s.suming you do wish that to happen.”

I thought about it for a moment, then grinned. I'd chosen a life of adventure, and certainly being around the seer had granted that. I was still sound in limb, and had learned an infinite amount in the year or so we'd been together.

”Seer,” I said formally, ”you have but to call. I'll follow your orders again.”

And so I swore my first oath of fealty to Laish Tenedos. It was the least ceremonious of them all, but the most important, remembering our family motto: We Hold True.

I bade Tenedos farewell, and promised to look him up at the lycee as soon as I settled into my new post.

I asked Lancer Karjan if he wished to remain my servant,

which I knew would be permitted, or return to the Lancers. He thought hard, then grunted and said, ”I'll see this un through. F'r a while at least. Sir.”

We were offered a carriage, but didn't need it, tying what little gear we had behind to Lucan's and Rabbit's saddles. Rabbit by now was used to riders other than myself, so he snorted only once when Karjan climbed into the saddle, and we set off to join the Golden Helms.

The Rule of Ten may have been complacent, but it did not show from the way they had positioned the military about Nicias. The army's main elements were just to the north of the Palace of the Rule of Ten, as were two other regimental headquarters, guarding their masters from a bare five minutes' distance. I wondered how much real trust the Rule of Ten had in their own people.