Part 38 (2/2)
Next signs appeared, scrawled huge on walls demarcating certain districts like Chicherin. Sometimes they held messages: * NO ARMY WARDENS DIE FROM HERE ON NO RULE OF TEN BEYOND THIS SIGN.
FREE CHICHERINOr sometimes it was simpler, just a scrawled, twisting line in yellow.
”Quite interesting,” Tenedos observed. ”The Tovieti's progress would make an excellent case study.
First chaos, then strike directly against the enemy, then delineate your own territory, where you'll make the laws and customs. They'll keep the pressure on us, making sure the Rule of Ten never have a chance to take a deep breath, let alone think or listen to what I'm trying to tell them. As the days pa.s.s the Tovieti will gain recruits, since all mankind flocks to join a winner. When they think they're strong enough, then they'll come for us. Fascinating.
”What puzzles me is who was the mastermind of this plan? It isn't Thak-no demon, no matter how powerful, could be expected to understand the affairs of man so closely. Nor would it be Chardin Sher or his errand boy Malebranche.
”It could only be that unknown being who first summoned Thak to carry out his dreams for mankind.
”It is a pity Thak slew him, for now I know that must be the case, or he would have resurfaced and tried to bring his juggernaut under control.
”I wish I'd known the man, for his ideas are most interesting.”
I rather hoped Thak had spent a long time enjoying himself with his master before letting him return to the Wheel, and that it would be many turnings before Irisu allowed him to reincarnate as anything above a slime-worm.
The n.o.bility were almost as insane with terror as the mob was with blood l.u.s.t. They would hire, and pay any amount, for the services of a man who owned a sword and promised to keep them alive.
Naturally, some of these men, and I heard of a few women as well, were phonies or, worse,
thieves who used this trust for opportunity. And some of them were Tovieti.
Mahal, hurrying home to his l.u.s.tful young wife, was pulled from his carriage and strangled by his own bodyguard. The man was cut down by Mahal's driver, but the Rule of Ten was now seven strong.
No one had much time to mourn Mahal. In the predawn hours of the next morning the rabble formed around the barracks of the Second Heavy Cavalry, whose domina had refused to deploy them closer to the palace. The sentries were silenced, and men with torches, pikes, and strangling cords slid into the compound.
The unit woke to screams, flame, and death. Perhaps one or two of the men of the Second Cavalry managed to escape. If so, none of them ever returned to the army. In less than three hours, an entire regiment of the Numantian Army was obliterated. This had never happened in all the army's proud history, at least not for the last thousand years records had been kept.
At noon that day General Urso Protogenes rode out to the still-flaming ruins of the Second's barracks.
He'd refused a heavy escort, saying he'd be gone only a few minutes, hardly time enough for any of ”those villains” to put together an ambush.
The legate in charge of the five-man party said General Protogenes had taken a look at the sprawled bodies of what he sincerely believed had been fine soldiers, and heavy sobs had shaken his chest. He kept shaking his head in disbelief, but his eyes could find no ease.
”My people,” the legate heard him whisper, and no one knows if he was talking about Nicians or his soldiers.
He bade the legate wait a moment; he wished to step inside the regimental office, which was no longer aflame. There was something he hoped to find there.
Ten minutes later, when the general had not reemerged, the alarmed young officer went looking for him.
The general had evidently gone out the back door of the office, across the rear of the compound, and out into the city.
*He was another who was never seen again, nor did his murderers ever claim credit for helping a sad old man find the death he sought By now we were so hardened that the next deaths almost made us smile. Another of the Rule of Ten's councilors, notorious for preferring the most brutal of bedpartners, couldn't restrain his l.u.s.t. He, along with the mealymouthed chamberlain, Olynthus, went looking for satisfaction one night.
Their bodies were found sprawled in front of the Rule of Ten's palace the next morning. The cords that strangled them would have come as a blessing, from the savage wounds on the corpses.
This was finally enough for the Rule of Ten. They determined to negotiate with the mob, with the Tovieti, even though there'd been no leaders show themselves, nor any demands made.
The Rule of Ten's speaker, Barthou, managed to convince five of Nicias's smoothest-tongued diplomats to take on this vital mission. Tenedos said he'd been asked if he wished to accompany them, and he'd told Barthou he thought the speaker was mad.
With a full troop of the Helms, who actually were beginning to shape into something vaguely resembling soldiers, I escorted the five to the edges of the Chicherin district, where the riots had first broken out, and where the Rule of Ten had somehow decided the heart of the rebellion was.
The negotiators had white flags tied to staves, and, holding them high overhead, the five walked down the winding street into the slum.
Half an hour later, I heard a single scream, a scream that reflected all of the pain the world could hold.
Then silence. We waited for another hour, until rooftops began bristling with slingers and even a few archers, then wheeled our horses and rode back to the tower.
General Turbery took over command of the army, and ordered all troops to withdraw into a ring around the Rule of Ten's palace. We would hold, and then strike back from there.
With them came those wardens who'd faithfully tried to hold their outlying stations. The regiments were ordered to loot as they came, so every granary and warehouse was stripped bare. As the troops marched or rose into the parks around the palace, the rich, the n.o.ble, all those who were the Tovieti's or the mob's targets, came with them. Makes.h.i.+ft camps were set up everywhere.
Among them were Amiel and her husband, Pelso, still loyally guarded by Legate Yonge and his three scoundrels. I wished I could find a way to move the count and countess into the tower, but knew there wasn't one. Rasenna had also arrived inside the perimeter from wherever Tenedos had been keeping her hidden, and at least she was allowed to be with the seer.
I took Yonge aside, and told the hillman his charges were now safe in the bosom of the army, his responsibility was over, and I needed him and his friends desperately.
Yonge looked sly. ”Ah, Captain Damastes, but I cannot. You remember what I told you once, how impressed I was with your way of honor and loyalty, even unto death?” ”I do.”
”Then I must hold to my oath and still serve the Lord and Lady Kalvedon.” He looked most pious.
”Besides,” I said dryly, ”I wouldn't be paying you in good red gold.”
”There is that,” Yonge said, brown teeth flas.h.i.+ng. ”There is that, indeed.”
I went to Tenedos and asked him how long would we have to prepare for the attack.
”I'm not sure,” he said. ”I've been having better luck with my magic, and whatever spells Thak has been spreading are wearing thin. I canfeel it building, feel them readying their weapons. I'd say, oh, three days.
Five at the outside.” ”What do you think our chances are?” ”Well, let's count, or guess, really, since I haven't counted noses. Let's think as small as we can. We have four regiments around us, two thousand men. A thousand wardens. Another six or eight thousand fugitives, let us imagine, although I'llHiwager there's twice that many. Then there's the government clerks, diplomats, hangers-on, magicians ... other useless types.
”Against us, what? Half a million? A million?” ”Sir, aren't you supposed to be a pillar of inspiration?”
”Only to legates and below. Captains can keep their own lips stiff. Besides, I'm certain with truth and justice on our side we'll win through,” he said bitterly.
”Oh. One other thing.” He reached in his pocket, took out a small ornate metal case, and handed it to me. ”There are two tablets inside. If the G.o.ds don't find it in them to change our luck, you and the countess are welcome to these.
”They're painless and shall return you to the Wheel in seconds.”
I left his cheerful company and started detailing men to dig trenches.
When the sun rose the next morning, welcome warmth cutting through the mists, the Latane River was a cacophony of s.h.i.+ps' bells and whistles.
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