Haydn of Mars

by Al Sarrantonio

  I could not take my eyes off of Kerl. And I knew he could not take his eyes off of me. For propriety’s sake we sat apart, on opposite sides of the table, but I knew our conversation would be a passionate one later. The wine, though not very good, was not dampening that feeling.

  He continued his story: “We fought our way through a F’rar army east of here at dawn. Not a large one, and lucky for us they had just finished looting a town and were fat with hangovers. I had to split my forces and melt into the countryside. I had heard rumors of a Baldy incursion into Arabia Terra but had no idea they were so close or I would have gotten here sooner. By the time my scouts reached me with the news of your peril it was already noon. We rushed here as quickly as we could.”

  Newton, who had regained his ironic composure, said, “Barely quickly enough, I’d say.”

  “True.”

  For a second, Kerl glanced at me and our eyes locked.

  “But our Queen is safe.”

  To my astonishment, glasses were raised and all eyes, including Kerl’s, were on me.

  Newton, who had, I noted, gone significantly past his usual chaste allotment of wine, said, “She comported herself splendidly, Kerl. She fought with the best of us.”

  Kerl said, “Her fighting days are over, now.”

  He stood, and held his own glass high. “To Queen Haydn, the legitimate heir to the throne!”

  The rest stood, and I was left with nothing to do but stand myself. I managed to mumble out, “Thank you,” and quickly sat down again, as embarrassed as I’d ever been.

  The rest of the meal went by in a blur, with Kerl telling of his troops quickly chopping their way through wave after wave of Baldies. “I’m afraid that at least half the force fled into the hills, and may reform at some point.” He addressed Newton. “You may want to return to Sagan immediately.”

  “I’ve already decided that this expedition is over. We’ll work through the night and head for home tomorrow morning.”

  “Good. I’ll send a contingent of my men to guard you, at least to the outskirts of the city. I’m afraid we’re not quite ready to meet your F’rar friends in force yet.”

  “Then you’ll be leaving too?”

  Kerl nodded. “We have much to do in the east.”

  He glanced at me again, and then suddenly rose. “There is much I need to attend to.”

  Newton held his glass up in salute. “We can’t thank you enough, Kerl.”

  “Until later, then.”

  I waited the appropriate amount of time, feigning interest in my food and listening to drunken talk, and then took my leave of the table.

  Newton caught my eye as I rose, and I saw a faint ironic smile touch his lips.

  He seemed to be saying: “Go. I know what you must do.”

  I found Kerl alone, as I’d hoped. He was checking his horse, talking to it, soothing it as he brushed the dust of the day from it and combed its mane.

  “There, there,” he whispered. “We have another long ride tomorrow, and now you must rest.”

  The horse made a sound like pleasure at his attentions.

  “I wish I could make that sound,” I said.

  He turned and stood frozen, regarding me. He still held the brush in his hand. “I imagined this conversation would take place at some point this evening.”

  “It was all I could do to get through dinner.”

  I was suddenly in his arms, and held him as if my life depended on it.

  “All these months–” I began, a sob climbing into my throat.

  “Shhh. At first I thought you were dead. And then I was sure you had lived through the F’rar raid at Galle. And then more reports that you had been killed by the F’rar in Schiaparelli. And then nothing but rumors...”

  His body shook as he suppressed his own emotions.

  For a moment we stood there locked in embrace.

  Finally he said, “I had long given up hope when word came from Newton that you were in Sagan.”

  I pushed him gently away, startled. “When did you know this?”

  “Two months ago.”

  “And you didn’t send word to me? All this time while you wondered about me, I wondered about you–”

  “It was unsafe. I had this day etched in my mind. And now finally it is here...”

  Again we embraced. This time I cried.

  “Don’t weep, my Queen. I have much to tell you. While your people are mostly quiet at this moment, we are readying for a great battle. When you come back with me, and they see with their own eyes that you are alive, they will rise from their meek positions and the F’rar will be driven from the face of Mars.”

  “I am to return with you?” I said, surprised.

  “Of course. That was my reason for meeting with Newton here. It was the reason he took you with him.”

  I thought of the last conversation I had had with Soler, how strangely final it had seemed.

  “Yes, of course...”

  He held me at arm’s length from him and smiled. “Queen Haydn,” he whispered.

  “I don’t know if I–”

  “You must. You will. You are much changed in these many months. I can see it immediately. You are stronger, and more mature.” His eyes looked downward. “I heard of your litter, my brother’s kits. I was so sorry to hear it.”

  “It was a bad time.” I told him of the Mighty, and the many kindnesses the brigand had afforded me. And then I blurted out something I had not meant to say: “I want to have a new litter with you.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “Now. Before the madness begins. There will be no more battles until we are wed. I want to show our people a Queen with her King.”

  He looked away, and from the look on his face I knew something was terribly wrong.

  He whispered, almost choking the words out, “It cannot be done.”

  “Why not?”

  “In the time when we thought you were lost, in the beginning, there was another who consoled me. We became close, and then there were other reasons...”

  My heart stopped for a moment. “You are wed?” I whispered.

  He shook his head, and my heart began to beat again. “Betrothed. She is the daughter of an ally in the north, the head of the Sarn clan. If I were to break the engagement now it would mean the loss of his alliance.”

  He balled his paws and became suddenly angry, as did I.

  “More politics–” I nearly spat.

  “Yes! More politics! It is our lot, and our destiny, I fear. It will always stand between us–”

  “Yes,” I said.

  He looked at me curiously, and his anger drained away. “You are changed,” he said. He wanted to touch me again as much as I wanted to touch him, and yet we remained apart.

  “We are but two,” I answered, quietly. “There are many, many more to think of then just ourselves.”

  He looked into my eyes and nodded. “Yes, my Queen.”

  I turned from him then, and walked away, and though I wanted to fall to the ground and weep, my walk was steady and true.

  It was only when I was by myself later, deep in the night, in the corner of the building I had claimed for myself, that I wept long and bitter tears.

  In the morning I took my leave of Newton, after we buried Merlin outside the walls of the station. It was a sad burial, her small body placed in a lonely grave beside the others: five of our own company from Sagan and three of Kerl’s soldiers fell in battle the day before. Newton said some words, which I did not hear. I was thinking of my own time with the frail geologist. I would miss her greatly. When the graves were covered it was as if she had never existed, save as another ghost in my heart.

  Then it was time to go. I was given a sturdy mount by Kerl. Once again it felt as if I was losing a family. The time I had spent with Newton had been more precious than I had realized. There were tears in my eyes as I bade farewell.

  His own smiled was devoid of irony, and held only warmth.

  “This
has been a good time for me, Haydn,” he said. “I hope you have learned something, too.”

  “Much,” I said. “And you needn’t worry about my forgetting the Science Guild. It will be foremost in my thoughts. As will you.”

  He took my paws, and, to my astonishment, kissed them.

  “Good-bye – daughter,” he whispered.

  I watched his tall figure as I rode away, safe in the bosom of a marching army, toward a distant but nearing battle.

  Part Three:

  War

  Seventeen

  I had forgotten how lush my own country could be.

  Even though we were at the fringes of the southern plains, hiding in the mountains as the Mighty would, I could still feel the differences from the places I had been. I was home. It was late autumn, and yet the fields were lushly ripe with vegetation and harvest and would stay so for weeks. This had been Kerl’s idea all along, to plan the ultimate rising and battle when the heat of summer had dissipated and the cold of winter had yet to descend.

  Even the desert here was different. I had been used to the dry blowing sand of the central plains, and then the strange topography and wetlands and cold dry forests of the north. And now here I was where I had grown up. It seemed like a foreign country to me, yet one that I owned.

  Our camps were widespread and relatively small, with good, quick communication between them. Some had been supplied with message machines by Newton, though sometimes the weather interfered with their use, and there was always the problem of providing electricity for them. In such times and others, there was always a fast rider at hand. This planning, I learned, had been in place long before I had ended up with the mighty.

  We were heading, I learned, to a secret stronghold, a fortress that had been built in the mountains outside Huygens.

  It was a shock seeing old acquaintances after such an amount of time, especially Jamie, who looked as though he had aged a decade. At first I did not recognize him when he came into my presence. He wore chin whiskers now, banishing his youthful appearance, and walked with the stoop of an old man. But his eyes were as clear as ever, and his voice rang clear as a bell.

  He embraced me, and when I was startled he spoke, I was sure as to his identity.

  “I’m sorry, Haydn. I mean: my Queen. It is I–”

  “I know who you are, now. My, how you’ve changed!”

  He nodded, studying me. “So have you! But in your case for the better.”

  “What happened to you?” I asked.

  “I was captured by the F’rar the day you were taken by the Yern. I was...” For a moment he looked away. “...tortured for a time and then I was sent to a prison camp. They have many of them, spread mostly through the south but now in other part of Mars. It is part of their plan. They subjugate, eliminate undesirables, retain those in camps they might find useful. Eventually...”

  His eyes held a blank, faraway stare, as if he had seen too much.

  “I escaped,” he continued. “I was very lucky. Doubly lucky to find my way back to Kerl.” His eyes became more focused on me. “I have heard that you tried to return yourself but were unable to.”

  “Yes. I had an interesting time. I will tell you about it.”

  He bowed. “I will be happy to hear.”

  Our conversation was interrupted by the approach of a tall, well-dressed female of almost regal bearing. I knew immediately who it must be. As had always been his way, Jamie quietly took his leave and left the two of us alone.

  “My name is Piesha,” she introduced herself, bowing slightly. “Of the Sarn clan. I am to be Kerl’s wife.”

  She made a low, graceful bow and then looked into my eyes with an open expression as we talked of everything but her husband-to-be.

  I wanted to dislike her – she was taller than I, and her bearing more assured, her manner more refined. Which did not mean she had no sense of humor, which was in abundance. Her high forehead, her dark gold almond-shaped eyes, her aquiline brown nose and thin red lips – she was constructed to make me feel inadequate. And yet I liked her. She had a quality of mind I instantly adhered to, a lack of guile and fawning I found refreshing. Any man would fall in love with her, and yet Kerl had not. And I found it remarkable that she did not hate me on sight, because it was obvious that she loved him with all of her heart.

  Politics and marriage, again. The old curse.

  She was a remarkable woman.

  “My Queen,” Piesha said in her lilting voice, “Kerl has told me something of what you have been through. It is a horrible story, yet fascinating. If there is anything I can do, I am at your service.”

  Again the graceful bow.

  “Thank you, Piesha. I hope that we can be friends.”

  She saw my meaning instantly, and embraced the words for what they were – a true offer of friendship.

  She smiled. “I hope so too, my Queen.”

  Kerl joined her, and there were a few more minutes of amiable chatter before Piesha retreated and Kerl and I were alone.

  “What do you think of her?” he said.

  “Do you really want to know?”

  He frowned. “Yes.”

  I could not keep my own feelings completely under control, but I gave it my best. “You have done remarkably well under the circumstances, Kerl. Don’t treat her the way I treated your brother. It will only make both of you unhappy.”

  He was studying me. “You mean that.”

  “I do. We will not speak of these things again. We’ve already made our noble pronouncements about duty before self. I see no reason to repeat them.”

  “You have grown a lot,” he said.

  “I hope so. And now I would like to see what your plans are for this coming campaign.”

  “You need hardly concern yourself–”

  I let anger show. “I was once informed by you that I would be a figurehead in this war. That will not be so. I mean to lead this army.”

  “What!” he sputtered. “That is imposs–”

  My anger turned, for the first time in my life, to command. “Kerl,” I said, letting ice coat the words.

  Something about my changed manner froze him. “I truly don’t know you anymore,” he said in wonder.

  “You know me well. But there is another part of me that has been honed by this long time away.” I let my tone soften a bit. “How do you expect our people to fight and die for me if I’m nothing but a cowering figure hiding in a fortress tower somewhere? Will they fight for that? You want them to fight for an idea, the idea of the legitimate monarchy – but why should they if the legitimate monarchy has no real face? My father would have done as much as I. They will never put their hope in me if I am not with them.

  “I learned to fight during my time with the Mighty,” I went on. “I fought just yesterday with Newton, when there was no choice. Today there is a choice and I make it.”

  “But Haydn–”

  “From now on you will address me as your Queen. I appoint you Counselor, as well as Commander of Armies. You are my first in command. I am not so foolish as to think I can plan a battle or execute a plan without expert help. I expect to get it. I will defer to you in all proper things, and you will defer to me in all things. Do you understand, Kerl?”

  His flabbergasted look was slowly replaced by something else. “I hope this is the right course...my Queen.”

  “I share your hopes. Now bring me to your war tent and show me your plan of battle.”

  After hesitating, he bowed his head. “Yes, my Queen. But I think we may need to talk of these things again.”

  To my surprise, I understood most of what Kerl showed me over the course of the next week, and quickly picked up much of the rest. We moved our camp twice, keeping well ahead of F’rar scouts, and would soon reach the mountain stronghold Kerl had built. I now understood what Kerl meant for us to do. The plan, on paper, was a simple one. Frane and her cohorts had spread like a thinning stain over nearly half of Mars. Their influence now extended to nearly eve
ry inhabited province, and all but the wildest clans had been at least partially subdued. What Kerl meant to do was to peel back this influence starting at its farthest, thinnest, weakest, points, and then continue to push back until the F’rar were concentrated where they had started, in the city of Wells. Then, an all out battle would ensue. The insurrection would start with the sleeper cells already in place in the outlying districts, which extended, at least in the north, far past Sagan and Shkovkii at this point. Here the campaign would begin. They would be assisted by small bands of our army which had been quietly gathering for months in the far districts to come to the aid of the rebels. My old friend general Xarr was overseeing these operations and would soon return to aid Kerl and me.

  Simultaneously, our own main army would battle the F’rar where we were, keeping them from crushing the weak resistance to the west. By the time the forming army in the west joined up with our own, we would have enough forces to march on Wells.

  “It is audacious and simple,” I said, standing with Kerl and his military advisers in the war tent on the last day before heading for the fortress. “But will it work?”

  Kerl smiled grimly. “You ask a commander for precognition?”

  “I only ask if everything is in place.”

  He nodded. “As much as it ever will be. If we wait much longer, the outlying districts will be overrun completely and subdued by the F’rar, and winter will overtake us.”

  “You have sent out word that I will head the army here?”

  “I have.”

  “And the reaction?”

  “Skepticism.”

  “I see. Well, we will try to take care of that.”

  There was a new coolness between us, which I saw as both necessity and armor. Every time I saw Piesha, and longed to be in her place, the armor grew harder, its steel colder.