The Escapement

by K. J. Parker

  Really? He was hungry. He was dirty, wearing filthy clothes, raw where he’d scratched at flea-bites; he was cold, wet, scared, furiously angry; he was ready to explode with rage and frustration, too frightened to poke his nose out of this unspeakable hovel in case someone recognised him under the dirt and filth. Was screwing her one more time what he really wanted? The question was, could he make her believe it was? Luckily, under all that cunning, she wasn’t terribly bright.

  “Of course,” he said, and she believed him. Only because she wanted to.

  “All right, then,” she said. “I’ll try and see him in the morning, after I’ve taken Moritsa to school. Will he want money? Only…”

  He shook his head, careful not to let her see the relief. “That’s all taken care of,” he said. “Just say exactly what I told you; he’ll tell you what to do. Really, it’s for the best. It’s the only way we can ever be together.”

  Her eyes narrowed again. He wondered if Psellus had cottoned on to that particular signal yet. He’d interrogated her often enough, by all accounts. He’d have to be blind not to have noticed it. No, belay that. What possible experience could Lucao Psellus have had with women? He knew what it meant, though: she’d seen something she wanted, and was wondering what would be the best way to get it. Her rodent look, was how he tended to think of it.

  “Can I come with you?” she said.

  His own fault, he told himself; should’ve seen that one coming and prepared for it. Instead, his answer came out half raw, unrehearsed, awkward. “God, I wish you could,” he said (overdone; had she noticed? She noticed everything, those dark, twinkling rat eyes, unless it was something she didn’t want to see). “Don’t think I haven’t thought about it,” he went on. “Just you and me, getting as far away from here as possible, starting a new life. It wouldn’t matter what we did or where we went, we could forget all this…” He broke off, trying to keep his eyes and face soft while he scanned her for signs of suspicion. No; all clear so far. “But we can’t,” he said. “You’d be missed. You know Psellus has got his eye on you. If you disappeared one day, just like that, we’d have no chance. It’s wretched, but…”

  “You think they’d come after us?”

  No words; just a grim nod.

  “But if they close the gates,” she said slowly, “seal off the city like you said…”

  It was an uncomfortable moment. He was sensible enough, pragmatic enough, to admit straight away that this stupid, common woman had beaten him, tripped up his heels and knocked him down. Stubborn pride and underestimating an opponent wasn’t going to break him a second time. “It doesn’t work like that,” he said, finding a patronising smile from somewhere. “That’s what the little gates in the wall are for, the sally-ports; so that scouts and spies and messengers can slip out at night without the enemy seeing.”

  “Oh,” she said, “I see.” She was thinking, you could practically see the wheels going round. “But would they bother? I mean, with the war and the siege and everything? Surely it simply doesn’t matter that much any more.”

  He made an effort to moderate his response. “That’s not how they’d see it,” he said. “Think about it. Vaatzes’ wife sneaks out of the City just before the gates close. Obviously they’re going to assume you’ve gone to him, taking plans of the defences with you. There’s nowhere on earth you’d be safe. Trust me, I know how they do things. They’d find you, find us, and then …”

  She frowned, her head a little on one side, like a dog. “They haven’t found you, though,” she said. “They looked, for a bit, and then they gave up.”

  “Because they think I’m with the enemy,” he replied, perhaps a shade too quickly. “If they thought I was still here in the City…”

  “In that case” – maddening, like arguing with a child’s limited, impeccable logic – “in that case, wouldn’t you be safer here, inside, if they think you’re out there, and they’re so good at tracking people down? If you leave, surely that’d be much more dangerous.”

  He felt as though he was wading in mud: the more you tug to free one foot, the harder you press on the other, the deeper in you sink. So he laughed instead. “It’s all right,” he said. “It’s all arranged. The man you’re going to see will get me out safe, and once I’m out I’ll go where they can’t reach me. But I can’t take you as well, because it’d put both of us at risk. And I can’t tell you what the arrangements are, just in case Psellus or his people trick you or force you into telling them. If you don’t know, you can’t tell. I’m sorry if it sounds like I don’t trust you, but you know that’s not true, I’ve trusted you with my life all this time, haven’t I?” Pause; regroup, redeploy, counter-attack. “I’m doing all this for us,” he said. “Otherwise… well, I’d just let them catch me and have done with it, save myself the grief and the aggravation of staying alive. You’re all I’ve got, but that’s all right, you’re all I want, so long as we can keep our nerve, do this right. And then we’ll be together and it’ll all be over; just as long as you do what I say.” Pause; smile. “All right?”

  “All right. I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t make difficulties. It’s just, I’m so worried.”

  “Of course you are. Me too. We’d be crazy if we weren’t.” Easily into his flow now, catching his breath. “But we’re more than a match for Psellus and his cronies, so long as we stick together. We’ll be free and clear, and then to hell with the lot of them. As far as I’m concerned, they can burn the City down. All I care about is you.”

  The newly widowed woman had finally shut up, and he could hear himself think. She nodded quickly, took back the basket, and the cloth; the scrupulous attention to detail of a born deceiver. “I’ll go and see the man tomorrow, I promise,” she said. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  As she scuttled away, he wondered: what did I ever see in her? No idea, unless, just possibly, it was his own reflection in a distorting mirror. No, too complex. He’d seen a pretty face and nice tits, a pair of legs he could open like a padlock. Love was just something nasty he’d caught in the process, and he was better now.

  He heard the clatter of iron tyres on the cobbles, and instinctively drew back into the shadows, his eye to the crack in the wall through which he could watch the street. He saw a carriage, recognised it, scowled. It had been his carriage once. He inflated with anger as it rattled past, sounding like a quarry, four white horses drawing a gilded box that swayed like a dancer on four slender curved springs. Guild officials’ official transport; they built just one Type Sixteen a year, in the sheds south of the main coachworks in Tyregate Yard. He could just make out the shape of a man inside it: hunched, head forward, round shoulders. He didn’t need to see the face.

  Psellus still wasn’t used to travelling in carts (to him, all wheeled, horse-drawn vehicles were carts); he knew about them only because he’d spent so many years as a young man scheduling deliveries. He knew practically to the ounce what weight of freight each of the twenty-six types could carry. He hadn’t actually ridden in one until he was thirty-eight. Even now, when his duties required him to be bounced about in carts from one end of the City to the other, he always felt sick going round corners or over bumps in the road.

  Glancing out of the window, he caught sight of a familiar face: Ariessa, the former wife of Ziani Vaatzes, now married to Falier, the foreman of the ordnance factory. She’d pulled her shawl up over her head to keep the drizzle off her hair, and she was carrying a basket. He saw her in the act of stepping gingerly over a puddle – why, he wondered, do women have such a morbid fear of getting their feet wet? Women and, he believed, cats – and as the cart passed her, she looked up and their eyes met. It was pure, unprovoked, uncharacteristic malice that made him smile and waggle his fingers in a cheery wave.

  Well, he thought. Coincidence. Everybody has to be somewhere. The basket implied shopping, though she didn’t seem hampered by its weight, suggesting it was empty. Coming back from shopping at this hour he could under
stand, but setting out just when the shops were shutting? He smiled to himself. No doubt she’d gone out to buy something and changed her mind, or they were sold out (shortages; don’t you know there’s a war on?). Something like that.

  Ariessa; he couldn’t help thinking of her as Ariessa Vaatzes. The facile but apt comparison was with an onion: peel away one layer to reveal another, and any contact with her ended in tears. He just had time to note the fear and hate in her eyes as she saw his little wave, and then she was behind him and out of sight. A fortuitous encounter, which pleased him. Quite soon now he’d be ordering her arrest, but certain things had to be done first.

  She was still on his mind as the cart passed through the City gates and stopped to join up with its cavalry escort. They were a dreary sight: a dozen civilians perched on the backs of horses, dressed in the best Type Six armour and looking very sad. At the first sign of an attack, of course, they’d turn tail and gallop for home, assuming they managed to keep from falling off.

  Surprisingly, he didn’t feel afraid as they left the City behind, even though he was well aware that enemy cavalry – real soldiers – were lurking somewhere on the slopes of the downs, a mere two miles away. If they saw the cart, guessed what its ornate splendour signified and came thundering out to get him, he knew he’d be in a tight spot, very tight indeed. So he should be frightened, it was simple common sense, but he wasn’t. He had no idea why not.

  Half a mile from the outer defensive earthworks, the cart and escort fell in with a party of horsemen (the term used loosely). One of them dismounted awkwardly and limped over to talk to him. He opened the coach door, and the man climbed in, bumped his head on the door frame and sat down heavily on a cushion. Udo Streuthes of the Painters and Engravers’; formerly chairman of the mercenary recruitment oversight committee, now the extremely reluctant commander-in-chief of the Mezentine army; a short, fat man in his late sixties, round cheeks, curly black and grey hair.

  “You look worn out,” Psellus said.

  “Yes,” Streuthes replied. “I’ve been up since six, bouncing my balls on that damned hard saddle. I think horseback riding isn’t something you should take up late in life. The body’s too old to adapt.”

  Psellus nodded. “They say the savages are proficient horsemen at four years of age,” he said. “Apparently it leads to permanent disfigurement, bow legs and curved spines. Is there any truth in that, or is it just propaganda?”

  “No idea.” Streuthes shrugged. “Chances are you’ll be in a position to see for yourself soon enough. We haven’t noticed any Aram Chantat up there on the downs, though; Eremians, mostly, with a few Vadani heavy dragoons arrived around mid-morning.” He sighed, and dabbed at the rainwater running around the edges of his eye sockets and on to his cheeks. “They don’t seem to be massing for an attack. My belief is that they’re an advance party sent to secure the ridge before the main force arrives.”

  “I see,” Psellus said. “Thank you. Can we get any closer?”

  Streuthes shook his head. “The danger zone starts roughly a hundred and fifty yards ahead of here, but we can’t be precise about it. Just as well, really; this rain’s helped, of course, damped down the earth so it’s not immediately obvious where the traps are planted. They’ll know we’ve been digging, of course, but what we’ve buried and where is something they’ll have to find out the hard way.”

  Psellus dipped his head in acknowledgement. “How effective… ?”

  “A nuisance, at best.” Streuthes smiled thinly. “What it’ll do, though, is slow up their advance, make them nervous and wary just knowing there’s traps in there. The more time we can make them waste, the better our chances. And if we break a few axles and lame a horse or two, that’s an added bonus.”

  Optimistic desperation; an acceptance of the inevitability of defeat, while doing everything he could possibly think of to avoid it. Well, Psellus thought; I’ve chosen the right man for the job, if my aim is to kill and maim as many savages as possible before they wipe us off the face of the earth. The thought made him feel ill, and he changed the subject.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he said. “Boioannes. Have you got any new leads yet?”

  That made Streuthes frown. “We’re fairly certain he’s left the City,” he said. “No sightings or reliable reports, but the general consensus is, it’s just not possible for him to have gone to ground in the City this long without being found unless someone’s helping him. We’ve identified and traced everybody who knows him and might have even the faintest motive for helping him, they’re all being watched round the clock…” He made a vague gesture with his arms, weary and resigned. “He’s not in the City, you can count on that. So, all we can do is wait till he turns up. By then, I imagine, it’ll be academic anyway.”

  “I suppose so,” Psellus said. “He’s a luxury we can’t afford any more, and being realistic, there’s not a great deal he could do to harm us. Even if he was minded to betray the City, all the major defences we’re going to be relying on have been built since he escaped, he won’t know any more about them than the enemy does.” He smiled. “Listen to me,” he said, “trying to convince myself. I guess it’s because I lived in awe and dread of him for so long, I can’t believe he’s simply stopped mattering. That’s a very strange concept, you know; a state of affairs where I’m more important than Maris Boioannes. The world turned upside down, in fact. Not sure it’s a place I feel comfortable in.”

  Streuthes made a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to hide the fact that he had no idea what Psellus was talking about. “He was a bit of a joke in the recruitment office,” he said. “Everybody knew, of course, but he thought it was a deadly secret. Odd, really, because whatever else he was, he wasn’t stupid.”

  Now it was Psellus’ turn. “Knew about what?”

  For a moment, Streuthes looked blankly at him, trying to decide if he was being sardonic or funny, or whether it was some kind of cunning trap. “About Boioannes having it off with… I’m sorry, I assumed you knew about it. I mean, everybody—”

  “Everybody knew, yes. Everybody except me; but that was par for the course, I never knew any of the things everyone knew.” He shrugged. “Boioannes was having an affair, then.”

  “Yes. Since before the war. We never found out who the woman was. Which told us it had to be somebody fairly unimportant; I mean, not the wife or daughter of anybody at the Guildhall, or we’d have found out who she was straight away; you know what a rumour-mill that place is.”

  Psellus raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. Something was out of place. He shuffled the facts in his mind until he found it.

  “Everyone knew,” he said, “but not who the woman was. That’s odd. What I mean is, knowing Boioannes, if he’d wanted to keep it secret that he was having an affair, he’d have seen to it, but you say it was common knowledge. So he didn’t care that people knew, and why should he? A man in his position indulging himself, it’s practically expected of him.” He paused, thought about the implications of that statement, and felt himself blush: embarrassing. “But clearly he took pains to keep her identity secret. Therefore, her identity must be important.” He shook his head. “I think I’m losing my judgement,” he said sadly. “The more I’m obliged to think about cities and armies and sieges, the more I feel the urge to immerse myself in little mysteries about people’s private lives. I can’t help it, though. It’s attention to detail taken to a counterproductive extreme. Comes of putting a junior clerk in charge of a war.”

  Streuthes was silent for a while. Then he said: “Is it true you’re learning fencing? Fancy swordfighting, I mean.”

  “Perfectly true.” Psellus pulled a face. “I’m very bad at it, though. Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, just idle curiosity.”

  “You’re quite right,” Psellus replied gravely. “I am wasting my time on pointless frivolities when I should be giving my full attention to the war. But I’m finding it helpful, even so.”

  Streuthes frow
ned. “Good healthy exercise?” he hazarded.

  “Strategy and tactics,” Psellus said. “Applied in microcosm. I’ve learned two important things so far,” he went on. “First, you can’t be hit if you aren’t there. Second, if someone’s close enough to hurt you, he’s close enough to be hurt back. Either of those lessons is enough to justify the tutor’s fee, don’t you think?” Slowly he looked round: first at the line of the downs ahead, then over his shoulder at the newly dug bastions. “If we stay inside the defences, we’re safe from a pitched battle, which we’d inevitably lose. And if their artillery can reach us, ours can reach them. We have plenty of food for a siege, which is more than can be said of the savages. I think we’re wasting our time out here. Let them have the downs if they want them. I’ve lived here all my life and never felt the need of them.” Suddenly he smiled; not the sort of expression you’d have expected from a faint-hearted clerk. “Let’s just hope it rains,” he said.

  The next morning, the artillery (now entitled to call themselves the Artillerymen’s Guild; military, therefore the innovation was permissible) staged a full-scale drill. The exercise began with ten rounds from the heavy long-distance mangonels, followed by the onagers, springalds, catapults, perriers and scorpions. Both rate of fire and accuracy were assessed by the newly appointed Guild inspectors and judged to be adequate. For some reason, the section commanders were under orders not to shoot at maximum range. Instead, they were told to pitch short, but no shorter than three-quarter range. The emplacements on the bastions were then inspected, to see if repeated loading and firing of the engines had shaken the fixtures loose. Some slight damage was detected, and orders were given to strengthen them accordingly.

  Not surprisingly, the display was carefully observed by the Eremian scouts on the hog’s back. They drew their meticulously detailed sketches, took some measurements with strange-looking shiny brass boxes on four spindly legs, and withdrew to report back to Duke Valens, who thanked them and sent for his mapmakers. They drew him a new map, with a dotted red line clearly marked.