He caught a glimpse of Sugama, squatting by the fire, a knot of men around him, whispering. Occasionally one would look up, gazing over at the Kingdom troops. The rush for food and warmth had mingled them, but now the two sides had drawn apart and Asayaga could sense the mounting tension.
‘It will explode soon.’
He had not noticed Dennis, who had been sitting on one of the bunks, sword drawn, blade resting on his knees. He was casually rubbing the sword down with an oiled rag, but that was a cover: he wanted his blade out, ready for instant use.
Asayaga hesitated, tempted to draw his own blade before approaching, but knew that such a gesture would cause the room to erupt. Would this man betray him? It could be a trap, once into strike range the captain, with one back-handed blow, could take him. These Mauraders were famed for such trickery.
He realized there was no way out. If he turned and run away it would be a signal of fear, or perhaps read as a sign that he was about to rally his own men on watch.
Dennis stared at him intently.
‘When I take you, it will be in a fair and open fight,’ the leader of the Kingdom troops said, his words loud enough so that all in the barracks hall fell silent, heads turned.
Some of Asayaga’s men stood, not understanding the words, thinking that a challenge had been offered.
‘Now,’ Sugama hissed, ‘our honour is at stake!’
‘Tell your boy over there to calm down,’ Dennis said, pitching his voice low, ‘or my sergeant will silence him permanently.’
Asayaga spared a quick glance past Dennis. Leaning against the far wall was a short, stocky soldier, his appearance casual as he rested against the stone fireplace directly behind Sugama; but his right hand was behind his back, most likely holding a dagger.
Asayaga slowly raised his hand, giving the signal for silence. All of his men responded, except for Sugama who stood up.
Asayaga could see Dennis from the corner of his eye. The man tensed and Asayaga knew that a mere nod of the head, a single gesture and the sergeant behind Sugama would have his blade buried to the hilt in Sugama’s back.
‘Force Leader,’ Asayaga hissed, looking straight at Sugama. The menace in his voice carried the warning and Sugama hesitated. ‘Turn slowly and look behind you.’
Sugama’s gaze broke away from Asayaga and he turned cautiously. The Kingdom sergeant nodded slightly, a flicker of a smile creasing his scarred face.
‘Now sit down slowly, Sugama. If you try for him, he’ll have that dagger behind his back buried in your stomach before you take another step.’
In spite of the game-within-games Asayaga knew he had made a mistake, but there was no way out of it. Sugama had just suffered another public humiliation. He had forestalled the encounter for the moment, but Sugama had to regain his honour. Sugama stood motionless, uncertain as to what to do next, while Alwin Barry slowly pulled his hand from behind his back, revealing a dagger with which he casually began to clean his fingernails.
After a painful moment, Sugama said, ‘Yes, Force Commander,’ and sat down.
Asayaga turned back to face Dennis who had not moved throughout the encounter.
‘As I said before, it will be an open fight between us,’ Dennis said again.
Asayaga grunted noncommittally and stepped closer, moving within the arc of Dennis’s sword.
Dennis looked up at him. ‘Walk with me a while, Tsurani.’ He rose and, without waiting to see if Asayaga was following him, went outside. He regretted returning to the cold, but what he had to say was not for the ears of the men on either side.
Once outside, the door closed behind them, Dennis walked a short distance away, to an empty water-barrel near the wall. He sat upon it and looked up at the Tsurani leader. ‘The second watch should be back in soon,’ he said, speaking slowly so that Asayaga could understand.
‘I know. The storm is lifting.’
‘The Dark Brothers will try a night attack. They’ve had several hours to dry out, eat some warm food. With the weather lifting they won’t wait. They know we’re both in here and will figure we’ve murdered each other. They’ll be eager for an easy kill.’ As he said the last words he smiled slightly.
‘Then we surprise them,’ Asayaga replied. ‘After that, you and I, we fight.’
Dennis shook his head. ‘Typical Tsurani. Always ready to stand and fight without thought.’
‘That is why we will win.’
Dennis held up his hand.
‘Listen, Tsurani. Even together we can’t hold this place. My father built this stockade, and he abandoned it for a reason.’ He pointed upward in the dark. ‘They get archers up on the sides of the pass it’s a death trap.’
‘So we put men up there.’
‘To put enough men up there, we do not leave enough on the wall to repulse an attack. No, you can stay if you want. In fact, I encourage you to do so.’
‘But you are running?’
Dennis nodded and gestured to the north. ‘They have three hundred or more, at least twenty mounted. North is the only way out of here now.’
‘And then where?’
Dennis grinned. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know.’
Asayaga studied him intently.
‘You don’t know yourself,’ he said softly, speaking so quietly that the Kingdom troops on the wall above could not hear.
Dennis said nothing for a moment. I scouted it years ago,’ he hesitated, ‘before you came. Not since.’
‘The black scout?’
‘The Natalese scout,’ Dennis replied evenly, ‘Gregory. Same with him. It’s land that no one claimed. Border marches separating our realms from the Dark Brothers and their allies – what we call the Northlands.’
‘Then follow the ridge of this mountain and go west for a day. After that, turn south back to our lines.’
Dennis shook his head.
‘They’ll pin us up here. The ridges are piled high with snow and ice after this storm. We’ll get trapped up there, they’ll circle us in, block our escape and then drag us out.’
‘So why are you telling me this?’
‘Because, Tsurani, its one of two choices. We settle accounts now, or you come with us. I don’t think you’re fool enough to stay behind so I don’t even offer that to you as a third alternative.’
‘You offer me a choice?’ Asayaga barked. ‘Perhaps it should be the other way around, dog.’
Dennis’s features clouded for an instant, hand gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. ‘Who is the invader here?’ he asked, his voice filled with menace. ‘You dare call me a dog, you murderer?’
Asayaga started to speak, but then held his words. What answer was there? For a brief instant he understood the Kingdom soldier’s anger. He inclined his head slightly. ‘I offer no apology,’ Asayaga said, holding up his hand, palm out, ‘but I do offer to talk.’
‘Well,’ Dennis replied haughtily, ‘that’s something, coming from a Tsurani.’
Asayaga was silent for a moment, as if weighing his options. Finally he said, ‘I heard one of your men speak your name. I know who you are, leader of Hartraft’s Mauraders.’
‘Yes,’ and there was a sharp note of pride in Dennis’s voice. ‘What’s left of the garrison of Squire Hartraft’s estates, in service to my lord, the Baron of Tyr-Sog. So why is that important?’
‘I have lost more than one man to you. Finding them in the morning, throats cut, no sign of an honourable fight. Slipping in like purse-thieves in an alleyway, then melting back into the forest.’
‘Bothers you, doesn’t it?’ Dennis said, a cold grin lighting his scarred face.
‘It is not war, it is murder.’
‘Don’t speak to me of murder!’ Dennis hissed, barely containing his anger. ‘Were you at the Siege of Valinar?’
Asayaga, even though he was unfamiliar with all the inflections of their language, could not mistake the tension in Hartraft’s voice.
He nodded. ‘No, I was serving with Clan Kanazawai under K
asumi of the Shinzawai against your Prince Arutha at Crydee. A hard fight, the first one I was in. But I have heard of Valinar; that was also a hard fight.’
‘That was my family’s estate.’ Dennis made a sweeping gesture that took in the men up on the wall and those inside the barracks. ‘This raiding company was formed around the few men who got out of Valinar. Less than twenty of us and those who remained behind, you killed them all. I am the only one left.’ He fixed Asayaga with a look that could only be called murderous. ‘My father, my mother, my younger brother and two sisters, and the woman to whom I was bethrothed, all were in residence at my father’s estate the night you Tsurani attacked.’ His voice fell to a whisper. ‘It was the night of my wedding-day. It’s been nine years, Tsurani, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. I held my wife in my arms when she died. I don’t know if my brother and sisters are even alive.’
Asayaga tensed. The captured Kingdom soldiers had been taken to Kelewan and sold as slaves. They were labouring under the hot Tsurani sun if they still lived, in the fields or down reclaiming the land of the Great Swamp. The women … the old ones to the kitchens, the young ones, like Dennis’s sisters … He thought it best not to mention that to Dennis. Then he remembered a story. ‘You’re the one who released the prisoner, aren’t you?’
Dennis grinned, as evil an expression as Asayaga had seen on a mortal man. Early in the war a raid had taken a forward position, and every man there had been killed, save one. A young Tsurani soldier had been rendered unconscious and when he revived he found himself a prisoner. Rather than being enslaved as he had expected, he had been returned to his own lines, with a message: every man who had attacked Valinar would be hunted down and killed. It had been judged a hollow threat; but nine years later, only a handful of men who had been at Valinar were still alive to remember that fight.
‘We are a raiding company, and we operate behind the lines. We serve at the pleasure of the Duke of Yabon, and under the command of the Earl of LaMut and my lord the Baron of Tyr-Sog, but the manner in which we serve is our own. Once behind your lines, I am free to act as I see fit. The Marauders are the thorn in your side, Tsurani.’ He looked Asayaga directly in the eyes. ‘We are here because we were on our way back from raiding one of your rear positions. So know I am not boasting when I tell you this thing: this is my world, Tsurani, not yours. But I am not ungenerous, and will give you a tiny bit if you’d like; just enough of it for your grave.’
Asayaga took a deep breath. ‘We cannot settle this war here, at this moment, Hartraft,’ he said quickly, as if these words were hard to say. ‘Time is spinning out and you said they will soon attack.’
Dennis continued to smile without any hint of warmth. ‘Yes. Maybe we should just sit here and argue till they come and kill you for me.’
Asayaga hesitated, wondering for a second if this man’s hatred ran so deep that he would do such a thing. ‘You are saying then that you command and we are to follow?’ he asked finally.
‘Something like that, at least till we are free of the damned moredhel. I need your swords in order for my men to survive, but not as much as you need my knowledge for your men to survive. Dying at the hands of the moredhel serves neither of us or our people. Will you serve?’
‘Never. I command my men.’ He said the words slowly, forcefully. This Kingdom soldier’s ignorance of his foes was astonishing. Had he no sense of the proper order of things, of all that was implied by the acceptance of an order from a sworn enemy?
Dennis looked at him carefully and Asayaga could sense that Hartraft was studying him, trying to figure something out. Finally he grunted and nodded.
‘A truce then. Call it whatever the hell you want to call it. We move together until we are certain we are free of the Dark Brothers. Once that is accomplished we form ranks with our own comrades and then we fight.’
‘I march the same path as you only because I order my men to do so,’ Asayaga replied slowly. ‘But you and I shall have an understanding. If you only pass along … suggestions, to me, I will consider them and perhaps agree to your suggestions. But order one of my men and you will as likely provoke a fight.’
Dennis looked at him, as if deciding.
Rapidly, Asayaga continued, ‘In our world, enemy houses will serve together if ordered by their clans; but one of lower blood, of another house, is …’ He fought for a concept. ‘It is better if you just tell me what you wish. My men will likely not obey one of … inferior blood.’
‘I won’t start another argument with you about whose blood is better,’ Dennis replied coolly. ‘I’ve seen enough on both sides to know it’s the same colour.’ He nodded. ‘All right. Suggestions. But if I say move, or deploy to a flank you’d better hear … my suggestion and act on it with haste. If it comes to a fight with the Dark Brothers, Tsurani honour be damned. If you want your men to survive, listen to what I say.’
‘I will take no order from you. But I will consider suggestions.’
‘Tsurani, call it what you want,’ Dennis replied, a note of exasperation in his voice. ‘Call it suggestions, advice, your mother’s bedtime stories, I don’t care what, but I know these woods, and I know the Dark Brothers in a way you will never learn if you are lucky. I’m taking you along because I see no way out of it, but I’ll be damned if your blundering gets my men killed.’
‘Blundering? I don’t call the last nine years blundering. If we are blunderers why are we winning this war?’
Dennis wearily lowered his head and shook it. ‘Maybe we should just settle it now,’ he sighed. He stood up. ‘By the Gods, either that or just give me a simple yes that we march together, and fight as a unit if attacked. Later we can argue all we want and cut each other’s hearts out.’ He looked back up at Asayaga. ‘Or in your case, perhaps cut your throat so you’ll shut up.’
‘What was that?’ Asayaga snapped, not sure of what Hartraft had said because he had spoken the last words softly and quickly.
‘Nothing, Tsurani, nothing.’
‘It is not “Tsurani”. You say it as an oath. I am Force Commander Asayaga of the Kodeko, undercommander of the forces of the Warlord in the east, of the Clan Kanazawai, son of Lord Ginja of House Kodeko, brother to –’
‘All right. Asay, then.’
‘Asayaga.’
‘Fine, Asayaga.’ He cursed softly under his breath as he stood up. ‘Let’s go tell the men.’
Asayaga knew that all in the room had been watching as they had left. There would be some concern on the part of his own men that perhaps the Kingdom barbarian had attacked Asayaga in a treacherous act; he had no idea what might concern the Kingdom soldiers, but he knew that tensions would be mounting.
They entered the barracks and again were almost overwhelmed by the heat and stench compared to the icy clear air outside.
Asayaga looked around the room. ‘We march tonight,’ he announced. ‘The Dark Ones will attack before dawn. The Kingdom soldiers are … allied to us until we are clear of the other enemy. You are not to speak to them, even to notice them, and you are forbidden to fight with them until I order otherwise. Once we’ve escaped from the Dark Ones, then there will be enough time for honour to be served.’
He could see more than one of his men relaxing with the announcement. Tasemu was right: the men, physically, were at their limit. Fighting was the last thing they wanted at this moment. If there was to be a fight, they wanted to save their strength, and as many as their comrades as possible, for the encounter with the Dark Brothers.
Sugama looked up at him, and fortunately had the good sense to keep his mouth shut and offer no challenge to what was a direct order.
‘Captain.’
Asayaga looked over his shoulder, to see that it was the Natalese scout, who had spoken to Dennis. Neither he or Hartraft had seen the scout and his young companion return to the stockade, so intent had been their conversation.
‘They’re coming,’ Dennis said quietly and Gregory nodded agreement.
Gregor
y started to explain, but Asayaga held up his hand, letting him know that he already understood.
‘We have about an hour, maybe two,’ Gregory said. ‘They’re slow forming up, but their flankers are already starting to climb the rocks to get above us. Tinuva is keeping an eye on them. We’ve killed a couple of their pickets on the way back, so the moredhel will be cautious on the advance, fearing a trap. We’ve got a little time, but we better pack up and get out of here now if it’s going to do us any good.’
Dennis snapped a command to Alwin Barry, still standing behind Sugama, and instantly the room was bustling with activity as Kingdom troops started to don equipment. The order was passed outside, and within seconds more Kingdom troops streamed in, gathering around the fire to soak up a few minutes, warmth and wolf down the last of the stew.
Asayaga, shouting orders, began to gather his own men as well.
‘I understand there is an arrangement,’ Gregory asked, coming up to Asayaga’s side and speaking in Tsurani.
Asayaga simply nodded.
‘Smart move by both of you.’
‘It doesn’t mean the fight between us is over, Natalese.’
Gregory grinned. ‘I never said it was. But I’m happy to see it postponed.’
Asayaga went over to where his four wounded laid. Two of them were putting on their gear and standing up; but the third, Ulgani, was barely conscious. Several of his comrades had gathered around him, heads bowed, hands placed upon his chest, whispering the prayer for the dying.
With all the bustle and turmoil in the room there seemed to be a ring of silence around this small group. Even the Kingdom soldiers, standing but a few feet away were silent. Ulgani’s Patrol Leader placed a hand over his comrade’s eyes, then drew his dagger.
It was over in seconds and the three stepped back, one of them draping a blanket over their dead comrade.
Asayaga looked down at Osami who had watched the ceremony, wide-eyed. He went to kneel by the boy’s side. ‘The march ahead, it is hard. Hard even on old veterans who are healthy. Remember, the chain is only as strong as the weakest link.’
The Complete Legends of the Riftwar Trilogy Page 11