by David Weber
"Better," the gravel voice said. "Now I can at least look you in the belly button, can't I?" It chuckled at its own wit, and Bahzell finally spotted its owner.
The man behind the desk had to be sitting either in a very tall chair or atop a heap of cushions, for he couldn't have stood much over four feet. He was also very nearly as broad as he was tall and bald as an egg, but a massive, forked beard streamed down his chest in compensation, and strange, topaz-colored eyes glittered in the light.
"So," he said now, turning to Brandark as the Bloody Sword found a chair of his own, "you must be young Brandarkson." He rubbed the side of his nose with a finger while his other hand spun the ring on the desk before him, and his topaz eyes narrowed. "Well, you've the look of him, and the ring's right, but what you're doing here has me in something of a puzzle."
"You've met Father?" Brandark asked, and Kilthan shrugged.
"No, I've never had that, um, privilege, but I make it my business to know what I can about those I do my business with. And," he added judiciously, "I've always found your father an honest sort, for a Bloody Sword hradani." He chuckled. "Especially for a Bloody Sword, if you'll pardon my frankness."
"I suspect Father would be amused, not insulted," Brandark replied with a smile, and Kilthan chuckled again.
"Aye, with that accent you'd almost have to be Brandarkson. Damn me, but your Axeman's better than mine!"
"Perhaps that's because it's not your native tongue, either."
"Hey? How's that?" Kilthan demanded, eyes narrower than ever.
"Well, you were the senior Silver Cavern delegate to the conference that asked the Empire to annex Dwarvenhame," Brandark murmured.
"So, you know that, too, do you?" Kilthan nodded, then leaned back, folding his hands on his belly. "In that case, I think we can assume you're who you say." He unfolded one hand to wag a finger at Rianthus and indicate another chair, then returned it to his belly and cocked a bushy eyebrow at Brandark. "And that being so, young Brandarkson, suppose you tell me what you're doing here and why you need a job, you and your long, tall friend?"
"Well, as to that," Brandark said, and launched into an explanation. He did it almost too well for Bahzell's peace of mind, dropping into the rhythmic cadences of a bard. At least he seemed untempted to resort to song, for which Bahzell was profoundly grateful, but he felt himself flushing as his friend enlarged on his own "nobility" in coming to Farmah's rescue. There'd been nothing "noble" about it—just an iron-headed Horse Stealer too stupid to stay out of a mess that was none of his making!
Kilthan's eyes gleamed appreciatively, and his hand crept up to cover his mouth a time or two when Bahzell flushed. But he heard the entire tale out, then nodded and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk to look back and forth between them with those sharp, topaz eyes.
"Well, now! That's quite a tale . . . and it matches the bits and pieces I've already heard." Bahzell's ears shifted in surprise, and Kilthan gave a crack of laughter. "Oh, yes, lads! I don't say anyone believes it, mind you—Esganians are Esganians, and the thought of hradani doing anything `noble' isn't one they're comfortable with—but my factors stay abreast of rumors. Bad for business if they miss one and it turns out to be true, you know. But I've heard of your father, too, um, Prince Bahzell, and that suggests which rumor to believe in this case. If even half the tales are true, your Prince Bahnak sounds like a man who understands the business of ruling, not just looting. If Navahk and its cronies weren't in the way, I'd have factors in Hurgrum, too . . . and judging from what your people did to Churnazh two years back, I think Navahk might not be a problem so very much longer, at that.
"In the meantime, however, I can see why you've come west. And you, young Brandarkson," those disconcerting, yellow eyes cut back to Brandark, "were quite right. Hradani who wander about without obvious employ don't fare well in other lands." He inhaled deeply, then slapped his hands on his desk.
"So! That being the case, I might just take a chance on the two of you. Mind you, you won't be lords or princes to my men, and some of them won't be any too happy to see you." His face turned much sterner. "We've our own rules, and Rianthus will tell you what they are, but one applies to everyone: no drawn steel! I doubt you two would have made it across Esgan if you were given to, ah, hastiness, but you know as well as I that someone's going to press you sooner or later, just for being what you are. Do I have your word you'll settle it without blades?"
"Well, now," Bahzell rumbled, "I'm thinking you do, so long as they're not after spilling blood. It's grateful I'll be for honest work, but not so grateful I'll let someone slice a piece or two from my hide without slicing a little back in trade."
"That's fair enough," Rianthus put in. Kilthan looked at him, and the captain shrugged. "If any of our lads are stupid enough to break the rules and draw against these two, we're better off without them, anyway, Kilthan."
"Hmmmm. There probably is something in that," Kilthan agreed after a moment, then shrugged. "Very well, do I have your words that you won't draw steel first?" Both hradani nodded, and Kilthan nodded back with a curiously formal air. "Done, then! Two gold kormaks a month to start with, more if you work out well. And it's a good thing you found me when you did, for I'm bound back to Manhome before the month's end." He looked back at Rianthus and jabbed a finger at Bahzell with a grin. "Get them sworn in, Rianthus—and see if we've a tent long enough for this one!"
CHAPTER EIGHT
The next few weeks were very different, not least because Bahzell had to see much less of the locals. That would have been a vast enough relief, but Kilthandahknarthas dihna' Harkanath was far too important for anyone in Esgfalas to irritate, and Bahzell and Brandark now wore the black and orange colors of his house. The change their livery wrought in the Esganians they were forced to encounter was intensely satisfying, even after they discovered they owed Kilthan over a month's wages each for the bond he'd posted in their names with the Merchants Guild and Guild of Freeswords.
Not that everything went smoothly. As Kilthan had warned, some of their new fellows were unhappy at having hradani among them. The majority chose not to complain, particularly after they'd watched the two of them demonstrate their competence against Rianthus' arms master. Yet a few muttered balefully, especially Shergahn, the chunky ex-corporal from the army of Daranfel whom Rianthus had called to hold their horses that first day, and Bahzell and Brandark both knew it was only a matter of time until more than words were exchanged.
That much they were prepared to take as it came, for it was only to be expected. They were strangers, after all, and strangers would have been tested—probably more harshly than anyone was likely to attempt here—before being accepted by any hradani unit. Neither looked forward to it, but other problems were more immediate . . . and irritating.
There was, for example, their plunder from Churnazh's guardsmen. Two hradani, one a Horse Stealer, had no need of six horses. Rianthus bought two of them, but the others were too heavy for his taste and too well bred for draft animals, so Brandark took them and the weapons to the Square of Gianthus, Esgfalas' main market, and sold them . . . for far less than their value. They were no Sothoii coursers, but they were worth far more than anyone chose to offer a hradani—even one in Kilthan's service. In the end, he had either to take what was offered or bring them home again, and he swallowed his pride and closed the deal.
Bahzell wasn't with him (which might have been as well, given how the local merchants "explained" Brandark's bargaining position to him), but he took the news more philosophically than Brandark had feared. Money, as money, had never meant much to Bahzell, and he had enough left from his father's purse for both of them to meet such needs as Kilthan left unfilled.
It was as well he did, for Brandark had acquired, at ruinous expense, a chain haubergeon of Axeman manufacture. Kilthan's guardsmen were required to supply their own equipment, but it was his custom to sell them arms and armor at cost, and though Brandark had left home well supplied with coin, he
never could have afforded such armor without the merchant's canny generosity. It was dwarvish work, superior to the best hradani workmanship, and the Bloody Sword wore it with the same panache as the embroidered jerkins and lace-cuffed shirts he'd commissioned to restore his depleted wardrobe. For himself, Bahzell was content with plainer, more practical garments, and not even a merchant with Kilthan's inventory could fit him with armor off the rack.
Once their immediate needs had been seen to, Rianthus was at some pains to consider how best to integrate them into his command. Kilthan's caravans were rich enough to tempt any brigand, and it was Rianthus' job to see to it no one felt anything more than temptation. He commanded over two hundred men, divided into five companies, but he laughed sharply when Bahzell suggested that he seemed well supplied with troops.
"You've never seen one of old Kilthan's menageries on the move!" Kilthan maintained a sizable compound outside the city wall, and Rianthus and Bahzell watched a squad of horse archers practicing against man-sized targets from the gallop. The sun was bright in a sky already shading into a cooler, breezier blue, and the trees surrounding the compound glowed with the first, bright brush strokes of fall. "It's not just his own wagons," the captain went on sourly, "though that'd be bad enough, when all's said, but the others."
"Others?" Bahzell repeated.
"Aye." Rianthus hawked and spat into the dust. "This'll be our last caravan of the year. Kilthan never spends more than a month or two in Esgan—he leaves operations here to his factors, for the most part—but he always comes out for the final trip, because it's the richest one, and the brigands know that. They also know there won't be many more merchant trains of anyone's this year, so they're ready to take bigger risks for a prize fat enough to see them through the winter. That means every rag and tag merchant who can't afford enough guards of his own wants to attach himself to Kilthan's coattails, and, since the roads are open to all, we can't be shut of them. We can't force them to stay clear of us without breaking a few heads, and that would upset the Merchants Guild, so Kilthan lets them join us. He charges 'em for it, since they're riding under our house's protection, but the fee's a joke. Just enough to make the agreement formal and require them to go by our rules." The captain shrugged. "I suppose it's worth it in the long run. They'd draw brigands like a midden draws flies anyway—and not just down on themselves, either—and at least this way we can stop their doing anything too stupid."
He paused to snort in exasperation as two of his galloping archers narrowly avoided collision and completely missed their targets in the process, then shrugged again.
"Just our own wagons'll take up a mile and more of road. Add the other odds and sods, and we'll have over a league to cover, and precious little help from the pox-ridden incompetents the others call guardsmen."
Bahzell hid a smile at the sour disgust in Rianthus' voice. Kilthan's captain was an ex-major from the Axeman Royal and Imperial Mounted Infantry, and the standards to which he held his men were enough to make any ordinary freesword look "incompetent." Yet the desire to smile faded as Bahzell considered the task the captain faced. A target as long and slow as Rianthus had described would have been vulnerable with four times the men.
"D'you know," he said slowly, "I've no experience of what they call brigands in these parts, but I've met a few back home in my time, and I'm wondering what might happen if four or five chieftains should be taking it into their heads to try their hand at us together."
"It's been tried," Rianthus said grimly. "We lost thirty guards, seventeen drovers, and so many draft animals we had to abandon and burn a dozen wagons, but they didn't take a kormak home with them—and the lot who tried it never raided another merchant." He turned his head, eyes glinting at Bahzell. "You see, when someone attacks our caravans, we go after 'em root and branch. If we need more troops, Clan Harkanath will hire a damned army . . . and if we don't get them this year, we will the next. Or the next." He showed his teeth. "That's one reason all but the stupid ones stay clear of us."
"Is it, now?" Bahzell rubbed his chin, ears shifting slowly back and forth, then smiled. "Well, Captain, I'm thinking I can live with that."
"I thought you might." Rianthus watched the horsemen canter from the archery range, then turned to prop his elbows on the wooden rail around it and leaned back to frown thoughtfully up at the towering hradani.
"You're going to be the odd man out, I think," he went on, and nodded his head after the departing archers. "Most of our lads are mounted, but damned if I've ever seen a horse big enough for the likes of you."
"No more have I," Bahzell agreed, "and I'll not deny a man a-horse can catch me in a sprint. But I'll match your horsemen league for league on foot—aye, and leave their mounts foundered in the dust, if I've a mind to."
"I don't doubt you, but it's still made it fiendishly hard to assign you to a platoon. In the end, the only place to put you is with Hartan, I think," the captain said, and grinned at Bahzell's polite look of inquiry.
"Hartan commands Kilthan's bodyguards. They're not part of any regular company—and neither," he added wryly when Bahzell's ears cocked, "are they any sort of soft assignment. They're the lads who watch Kilthan's back, his strongboxes, and the pay chest, and if you think we work these fellows hard—" he waved at the archers' fading dust "—you'll soon envy them! But the point is that they never leave the column or ride sweeps, and they're the closest to infantry we have, so—" He twitched a shoulder, and Bahzell nodded.
"Aye, I can see that," he agreed, but then he fixed the captain with a quizzical eye. "I can see that, yet I can't but be wondering how the rest of your lads will feel about having such as me watch over their pay?"
"What matters is how I feel about it." Rianthus gave the hradani a look that boded ill for anyone who questioned his judgment—and suggested he had a shrewd notion who those individuals might be—then raised one hand in a palm up, throwing away gesture. "And while we're speaking of how I feel, I may as well tell you that one reason I agreed with Kilthan about your hire is that your—situation, shall we say?—makes you more reliable, not less. You and your friend are hradani, and you can't go home again. If you should be minded to play us false, finding you afterward wouldn't be so very hard, now would it?"
"You've a point there," Bahzell murmured. "Aye, you've quite a point, now I think on it. Not that I was minded to do any such thing, of course."
"Of course." Rianthus returned his grin, then pointed at the arbalest over his shoulder. "Not to change the subject, but one thing I'd like you to consider is trading that for a bow. I've seen crossbows enough to respect 'em, but they're slow, and anything we fall into is likely to be fast and sharp."
"I've neither hand nor eye for a bow," Bahzell objected, "and gaining either takes time. If it comes to that, I'm doubting there's a bow in Esgan made to my size, and gods know I'd look a right fool prancing about with one of those wee tiny bows your horse archers draw!"
"That's true, but even one lighter than the heaviest you can pull would be nasty enough—and faster."
"That's as may be." Bahzell glanced at the empty archery range, then stepped across the rail, waved politely for the other to follow, and unslung his arbalest. Rianthus raised an eyebrow, then hopped over the same rail, and his other eyebrow rose as Bahzell drew the goatsfoot from his belt and hooked it to the arbalest's string.
"You span that thing with one hand?"
"Well, it's faster that way, d'you see," Bahzell replied, and Rianthus folded his arms and watched with something like disbelief as the Horse Stealer cocked the weapon with a single mighty pull. He took the time to return the goatsfoot to his belt before he set a quarrel on the string, but then the arbalest rose with snake-quick speed, the string snapped, and the bolt hummed wickedly as it tore through the head of a man-shaped target over fifty yards away. Rianthus pursed his lips, but whatever he'd thought about saying died unspoken as Bahzell's flashing hands respanned the arbalest and sent a second quarrel through the same straw-stuffed head
in less than ten seconds.
The hradani lowered the weapon and cocked his ears inquiringly at his new commander, and Rianthus let out a slow, deep breath.
"I suppose," he murmured after a moment, "that we might just let you keep that thing after all, Prince Bahzell."
They left Esgfalas on schedule to the hour, and for all Rianthus' disparaging remarks, the "rag and tag" merchants who'd attached themselves to Kilthan moved with almost the same military precision as the dwarf's own men. But Rianthus had been right about one thing: there were over three hundred wagons, and the enormous column stretched out for almost four miles.
Bahzell had never imagined such an enormous, vulnerable, toothsome target. It was enough to make any man come all over greedy, he thought, yet the size of it made sense once he'd had a look at Kilthan's maps.
The roads in Esgan might be as good as any in Hurgrum, but most merchants preferred to ship by water wherever possible. Unfortunately, the best river route of all—the mighty Spear River and its tributary, the Hangnysti, whose navigable waters ran clear from the Sothoii Wind Plain to the Purple Lords' Bortalik Bay—was out of the question for Esganians. The Hangnysti would have taken them straight to the Spear in a relatively short hop . . . except that it flowed through the lands of both the Bloody Swords and Horse Stealers alike before it crossed the Ghoul Moor. No merchant would tempt hradani with such a prize, and even hradani avoided the Ghoul Moor.
That meant all the trade to Esgan, the Kingdom of Daranfel, and the Duchy of Moretz funneled down the roads (such as they were) to Derm, capital of the Barony of Ernos, on the Saram River. The Saram was riddled with shallows and waterfalls above Derm, but from that point south river barges could ferry them down the lower Saram, Morvan, and Bellwater to the Bay of Kolvania. And, as Rianthus had said, this was one of the last (and best-guarded) caravans of the year; anyone who possibly could had made certain his goods went with it.