by Kris Schnee
"You're lying."
Jasper paced, and began to rattle off proof: personal details of Dominic's life, and Jakob's, and Ben's.
"You claim to have been in charge when Ben was burned alive?"
"You may recall that I apologized for not managing to stop it."
That... that was true.
Jasper said, "My work requires a strong memory and the ability to spot ambition like yours. I watch people like you, who have a sense of justice instead of blind obedience. If you'd simply reported me to the Boundless One for speaking heresy, I might've considered you harmless, but you clearly were still thinking. Do you know how much damage an intelligent and idealistic person can do, if he latches on to some dangerous but appealing new idea?" Jasper chuckled. "Yes, you know exactly how much damage."
"Then are you thinking you should've had me unjustly murdered, like Ben?"
"No, and I'm genuinely still sorry about him. I would have shunted both of you into roles that let you focus on curbing abuses and reforming various systems. You could've done real good for us all."
Dominic clutched the table. "The entire Holy State is an abuse, Jasper."
Jasper laughed at him. "That's exactly what my friends and I said, a few decades ago. We made a special trip to the High Temple to have a word with the Boundless One. More accurately, to see the crystal smashed forever."
"Nonsense," Dominic muttered to himself. "Excuse me. I need to check on the battle." He fled from the tent to ask his officers. The docks were burning, and a gold-on-blue solar flag waved in some brave man's hands. The sight cheered him, but his thoughts still whirled. Did it matter if Jasper was lying? Why would the Servant dare come here? To assassinate him, or to reconcile? He spoke briefly with the men and gave quick, probably useless suggestions. The battle was out of his hands.
Jasper followed him outside, choosing not to strike the Prince's back while he was distracted. "Does it not matter to you why we fight? Seems to me that your newfound religion demands that you make sure your cause is just."
Dominic spun and jabbed a finger toward him. "You've taunted and tricked me since we first met! Do you really think you can keep the Holy State propped up, after seeing how many of its people ditched it so quickly?"
"There will be more soldiers for you to kill, but not today. It seems you have Avicenna more or less at your mercy."
"Then what? What brings you here but your stories of the Boundless One?" He found more of his guards and aides-de-camp gathering to watch now that they were outside the tent, and now that Dominic looked ready to fight him personally.
Jasper remained calm and spoke in accented Mithraic. "You westerners may not know that the name 'Baccata' is old speech for the yew-tree. Its roots are poisonous. Its branches, poisonous. Its leaves, poisonous. Yet the wood makes fine bows and crossbows, and the seed-sheaths are edible and pleasant. There is merit even in a thing so hateful. For one thing, it grows and survives, unless some fool chops it down."
He walked back to the tent, beckoning Dominic. The Prince followed to speak in private. Jasper returned to their native language. "My cabal expected a fight that day atop the mountain. Instead, the Boundless One welcomed us and said he'd been expecting such a coup one day. He invited us to the room where the actual Servants behind the crystal were waiting. They asked if we'd like to replace them."
"You dare to suggest --"
"Yes, that's how we reacted. We were revolutionaries, you see, not mere reformers. Once we were in charge, we would truly fix things instead of propping up a broken system. We were doing it for the people and not our own glory. And the Boundless One said to us what I will ask you: What do you think will happen if you kill me, smash our capital, and rip the masks off your fellow Servants?"
Dominic tried to answer calmly and carefully, though his chest burned with a desire to strike this man down. "I'd imagined two alternate Baccatas. One where there's neither Citizen nor Bound in any form, and all are equal. The other, where some are in the role of Bound by choice, but there's no whipping or branding. Nor anything else to prevent people from learning, disputing, knowing their families, studying foreign religions. Seeking their happiness as they see fit. Rising."
"You seem more enthused about the second vision."
"I've met Bound who want to stay that way. There's little I can do about that. Maybe in time, that'll change."
"You have a streak of hatred in your heart for them, don't you? The people who would complain, if you struck their chains? To be ruled is a comfort, the same comfort known by our cattle. It would be cruel to force what the westerners call 'liberty' on such people."
Dominic sat there stonily. "It's not cruelty to let people make their own decisions."
"To tear the roofs off their houses during a storm, and tell them they're no longer being oppressed by the ceiling?"
"I don't care if I don't get gratitude from the likes of you. I'm trying to fix a rotten system and minimize how many have to die for that."
Jasper nodded. "I think you're a reformer at heart, not out for blood or glory. One who desires to help the Baccatan people and not to completely shred their way of life. It would have been nice to have this talk before you killed so many people, though. You don't really think the Mithraic big-wigs have our people's best interests at heart, do you?"
"Hence my independence."
"Good luck with that, Prince." Jasper's masked face remained impassive. But then he took off his mask again to look at Dominic openly, there in the presence of only him and Rose. He'd gained wrinkles on a face pinched with care and seemingly honest concern. "Dominic, the trouble with what you're doing is, you're trying to cut off the head of a starfish. What head? The Boundless One is replaceable. So is the machinery of the Holy State, because the people who're really to blame for its abuses are the people themselves. And you know it."
"Not at all. It's men like you who cause the suffering!"
"You corrected me when I casually claimed that the wealth of the nation flows from the Boundless One to the people. It's all backwards, you said, and the flow is really from the common people. Tell me then: who's to blame for them being treated this way?"
"You're blaming the victims!"
"'Victims' who you know are capable of fighting back, yet usually haven't until now."
Dominic sputtered. The Bound aren't mindless game pieces to be pushed around by the powerful; I've told myself that all along. If they're not just passive victims, then don't they share in the desire to live this way?
He said, "I'll save them from liars like you who manipulate them into obedience." His loyalty to the western "Sun King" was on a trial basis, expressed with more conviction than he really felt. When he urged his people to fight in the King's name, wasn't he manipulating them as well?
Jasper shrugged, turning to look to Rose instead. "It's interesting to meet one of your kind, by the way. I've sent only two agents in all my years to visit your lands, and I had to discipline one of them most severely. Did your god send you?"
Rose startled at being addressed. "Lord Veles asked me to visit, not to get involved as more than an agricultural adviser. You can't blame Him. He's not even involved in Great Oak politics."
"Interesting. You've already informed Him of your little adventure and suggested that Velesians take a side, though."
"How did you know that?!"
"Just a guess. Your bristling tail helps confirm it."
Dominic said, "You shouldn't tell him more."
"Spoilsport," said Jasper. "In better times I'd love to compare notes, whether for political reasons or personal interest. I'm sure our people will interact in the near future. I have a message for your 'Lord', too."
"Yes?" Rose grabbed her tail to try to hide its flicking.
"My inner circle knows what he did."
"What?"
"Long ago, he worked for the Holy State. At Temple Island is a massive natural magic node -- but he sealed away its full power and fled. He must've known that the nod
e could become more than a glorified message-board. The insight he gained from studying it probably helped him figure out how to create your artificial race, and to set himself up as their god." Jasper spread his hands. "Please tell our former court mage that we know he sabotaged our entire country from inventing magical feats we haven't even dreamed of. Maybe we would've even developed the same sort of afterlife your people supposedly enjoy. Your charming little forest society is built on an act of malice. At least one."
To Dominic the accusation was a shock. Rose looked as though she wanted to scramble up the tent-poles to hide along the ceiling. Dominic said, "What's your point, Jasper? While we talk, my army is conquering another city."
"I'm saying that the Velesians have a working society despite it having certain obvious faults. I'm sure she can name others I don't know about."
Rose hissed. "Ignore him, Prince."
Jasper shook his head. "The people of Baccata want to live under an all-powerful State. Even one that abuses them. It can do wonderful things as well as bad ones. Rejoin me and be part of a reform movement. Perhaps one that can unseal Temple Island's full potential, fix Seaflower, and otherwise keep the State strong and healthy. I say that if you won't help leaders you know are decent men, to work within a basically functioning system, then all you're really doing is killing people to justify putting on a crown."
Rose said, "Fat lot of concern this masked bully has for the people he's already lost!"
"The State lives on."
Dominic pressed his hands against the tent's small folding table so that he wouldn't physically reel from the force of Jasper's words. Could the man be right, and sincere? Dominic had been killing his way across the Holy State. "You want my surrender?"
"We could do it in several ways. Surrender and be dragged away, then 'see the light' and be publicly forgiven. We'll arrange something for your friends. Or let me 'capture' you now for a little drama. Or return to Seaflower and stave off the westerners until winter, when I can raise a proper defense from the east. Maybe accept a diplomatic invitation to visit the capital and negotiate peace, and tell your allies you have a secret plan to backstab me." Jasper grinned. "You can even tell yourself you'll come up with one."
Rose started toward the Boundless One. "I won't let you!"
"This is between the two of us, girl. You have your own master."
"Lord Veles is not my 'master'! He's our maker and we serve Him because of love! Not this twisted slave relationship you have with your own people."
"Our 'twisted' government is the natural state of man, at least more so than a nation relying on magic and a living god. Ask yours, sometime. He's well-traveled."
Rose faced Dominic with her fur on end and her tail lashing the tent wall. "You can't be serious about giving up now, to this man!"
Dominic shut his eyes for a moment. "Rose. Go outside and check on the battle."
Rose drooped and exited, giving him a pitying look.
Jasper said, "I'll offer you the job when I think you're ready, but it's not as pleasant as the life of a western Duke. You know my stance on needless luxury. Furs and jewels are mainly to keep Citizens busy, books to keep Servants busy. I travel and work as you did, just making adjustments to the great machine at a higher level."
"Shirker's Noose," said Dominic. "The machine doesn't work there."
"Oh, Three, what a mess. That problem predates me. You're welcome to manage that place and find out how to let go of the wolf's muzzle without being bitten. That Servant friend of yours was in contact with at least two of the would-be rebel groups itching to set everything on fire."
"Can you blame him?"
"Yes, because short-sighted fighting would cause mass famine and death. This whole area will have a harder year already thanks to your army looting its way along. You broke my logistics."
Dominic glared at the Servant of Servants. "They were paper-thin anyway! The whole State is flimsy!"
"Yes," said Jasper, with a dip of his head. "And the humility and effort of its people, their honest acceptance of the community's wishes, is what keeps everyone alive."
Rose peeked back into the tent. "Prince? Look." Dominic ignored Jasper and went outside. Rose pointed to the city, adding, "I hope you haven't sold your soul yet."
Mist and smoke had settled over the port town of Avicenna. He could dimly see the Holy State's fleet scattering in slow motion to avoid a flaming ship that had been flung out at them. The western docks had stopped burning, but tiny figures swarmed and waved in triumph atop the remaining ships. Something whipped against the swirling clouds on Wolf Hill. The Baccatan triangle flag, of course... no. When the timing was just right it stood unfurled and caught a sunbeam through the clouds, revealing a crude attempt to imitate Dominic's own solar banner. Not his own troops' doing, then. The ragged bit of cloth seemed more glorious than the official one his men carried for him. It stood atop the mightiest keep in the city.
Dominic smiled.
Jasper had stepped outside, too, and looked at it all through his mask. "They didn't need you."
Prince Dominic said, "There's something you didn't mention. The people of Baccata aren't sheep that I'm presuming to lead away from the comfortable life they wish for. Not everyone has the same dream. You want to blame your people for their own oppression? Some of them don't want to be oppressed, and I'm giving them a choice. As for the rest, they're choosing not to let their opinion matter, but they'll have a place in my new country anyway. I choose to challenge the Holy State's evil, to let people rise as they see fit through their own efforts, and to not stop until I'm done!"
The Boundless One stared at Dominic. "So, the rumor about that glow is true too."
Dominic said, "I may not be able to break the State all at once, but I can break you. You're not leaving here alive."
"I'm here under flag of truce!" Jasper looked around at the soldiers, and to his own eight followers under guard in the distance.
Dominic sensed wooden tent stakes around him, and whipped four of them up to hover at his sides. They floated in golden light. "Right back at you, Jasper. How many of your people are you willing to kill in battle rather than put yourself in harm's way? Come on; you have the chance to kill the chief troublemaker."
Is this justice? Dominic asked himself. I'm risking myself to save lives. Don't know if I meet the King's standards, but this is right.
Desperate to defend himself, Jasper seized the entire freed canvas tent like a cloak and flung it at Dominic. "I want you as a reformer, not a corpse. You're valuable to the State. Stand down!"
Jasper's eight men struggled to break free from their escorts and come to the Servant's rescue. The tent whipped open like a massive mouth and flew toward Dominic.
Dominic leaped backward, using his stakes like hands to poke parts of the tent away. He grabbed the wood from a campfire and hurled logs at Jasper. "I'm no one's property."
Jasper's outstretched hand made the logs obey him instead. He shouted and made each one shatter, flinging bursts of razors at Dominic. The Prince dodged, ducked, then swept the tent-cloth at them and only took some splinters. A few gashed his legs, but none of them pierced the chest of his new springing-leather coat. Both leaders tore up other tents, patches of grass off the ground, scraps of wood and paper. Dominic found a rack of spears to throw. Jasper fought with a makeshift wall of shields whirling around him like bees.
Jasper said, "I'm only part of the machine. You can't stop the entire weight of the nation. A duel between two men clashing like rutting deer solves nothing!" He swept a flying book away from his face and saw Dominic's latest volley of spears coming just in time to dodge.
Dominic wrestled with his mind and soul against Jasper's to fight over a worthless pile of tent canvas, to fling it at each other. He used his hands to throw rocks the ordinary way, anything to distract this wizard. Jasper whipped darts around behind Dominic to try stabbing his legs from behind. Dominic saw the move coming and sped them up to make them miss. He replied
with a dirty trick to rip Jasper's clothes off and strangle him with them, but Jasper easily seized control of the Weave surrounding his body. A rope flew at Dominic with a tricky spell that'd react to it being cut, but Dominic knew how to make it fray to bits on its own.
Another flurry of darts came at him, but this time they paused in midair. Dominic blinked, sensing a spell linked to his own, coming from the small creature that'd posed beside him. He smiled, flipped the darts around toward Jasper, and urged the familiar to get back to safety.
Nothing Dominic did could get through. The man was right, in a sense; a proper duel was pointless. He shouted, "Did I say it was one on one? Everybody, this man is the Boundless One! Kill him!"
Some of the soldiers already had crossbows in hand. Rose had taken cover, but she came up with her sling already whirling. It whipped around twice and a stone led the way for half a dozen crossbow bolts and Dominic's own relentless attacks. Jasper staggered and fell to one knee.
Then he screamed and his spinning wall of shields burst out from him like a hundred knives, along with bits of his own clothing and hair. "Fools!"
The Weave was so tangled and abused here that it had become a green haze even to untrained eyes, mixing with the drifting smoke of battle. Fresh blood got caught up in the whorls of it now as wood met flesh. Dominic threw all his focus into containing the blast, keeping the wood flying up and over everyone's head, but it wasn't enough. Half a shield slammed him in the gut and sent him staggering back. Another cracked against his right arm. He saw a brawl to one side where his guards had killed some of Jasper's party, and watched several of his own crossbowmen collapse.
Jasper tried to stand up, and spat out a tooth. "My strength comes from all the people. You're just one man." He yanked all the jagged scraps of wood he could find back towards him as though they were on strings, trying to rearm but getting even more battered as the pieces slammed too hard against him.