The Far Kingdoms

by Allan Cole

  There were many Orissans in the streets, but almost all of them were men. There were a few young women, but no children at all. Their faces were sullen, and I heard shouts and arguments. We saw the root of one smoke-plume, the still-smoldering ruins of a building that had burnt within the last day or so. It had housed a small counting house used by Evocators to collect duty from any caravan entering the city by this gate. I remembered the estimable Prevotant, in my warehouse long ago, and approved whichever god had sent mischance against this House of Bribery.

  We did not know what was going on, but knew we had best make for the safety of the villa before investigating. We did not make it. A foot patrol - six spearmen, two archers, a corporal and a young legate - came out of a sidestreet. All of them wore the Coast Watch breastplates, a unit whose duties normally kept them outside Orissa.

  "Halt!" came the shout. Spears were couched and bowmen nocked arrows. Neither Janos nor I moved. The legate took a scroll from his beltpouch. "Amalric, Head of the Family named Antero, entitled by the grace of the Magistrates and Gods of Orissa to call himself Lord?"

  "I am he."

  "Janos Greycloak, once of Kostroma, once of Lycanth, sometimes using the title of Captain?"

  "I will answer to the name... and you will answer to the insult one day," snapped Janos.

  "Be silent! I mean no insult, but am obeying the commands of the Magistrates as to the manner of address. I have here an order for the arrest of Lord Antero and, if Janos Greycloak is with him, for his apprehension as well."

  "On what charge?" I demanded.

  "The charge has yet to be made, but will be preferred at the proper time."

  "Who laid this open warrant?"

  "Evocator Cassini, counter-signed by Magistrate Sisshon."

  "How can such a warrant be served by the Coast Watch? It is the duty of the Maranon Guard to keep the city safe."

  "The Guard has refused service, and been confined to its barracks!"

  I couldn't restrain astonishment. What could have happened? Was Rali safe?

  "I demand your immediate surrender," the legate said loudly. I looked at Janos. He shrugged - we had no choice and certainly, as law-abiding citizens of the city, nothing more to concern ourselves with than the annoyance of having to explain our innocence at the Citadel of the Magistrates. "Very well," I said.

  "Lay down your arms," the legate ordered. "I am further ordered to take you to the Palace of the Evocators, and give you into their keeping."

  "I will not!" Janos snapped. "Since when do the Evocators control the civil rules of Orissa?"

  "Since it became necessary, after the rioting, to declare Emergency Law. As part of that declaration, certain measures were put into effect as temporary measures. This is one of them."

  I gripped my spear more tightly. No, I would not go into Cassini's tender care. We had not escaped from two great wolfpacks to be devoured by that jackal. One of the archers lifted his bow.

  "Draw th' string, an' I'll split y'r chest like you wuz a sturgeon!" The shout came from a great barrel-chested woman, standing atop a low building. She was one of the river's fishermen, because she held, ready to cast, a long, barbed harpoon. I looked around. The street was packed with Orissans. All of them were dressed shabbily - we were in a poor section of the city; and all of them were armed. From a window menaced a lad with a sporting crossbow. There was a knot of stave-wielding men behind us. Others held clubs or cobbles they'd uprooted. I saw the gleam of unsheathed daggers and kitchen cleavers, and even a few bared swords.

  "Ye'll not be takin' Janos t' th' Evocators, sonny," the woman went on. "Nor yet Lord Antero. God damned Evocators have ruined enough!" There was a growl of assent, and the crowd surged forward. "Y'll be th' ones t' lay down your arms," she said. "An' there'll be some of us can use th' armor, matters keep heatin' up th' way they've been."

  A stone smashed into one of the spearmen. In spite of his breastplate, he shouted pain, and went to his knees. Then a shower of rocks and muck. The crowd noise grew, and the soldiers were but an instant from death.

  "Stop!" It was Janos, his voice a parade-ground bellow. Everyone froze, for just a moment. "Orissans," he went on. "These men are Orissans as well. Do you want their blood on your souls?"

  "Wouldn't bother me none," came a cry from within the crowd, and then yells of agreement.

  "No! Look at them! I know this legate," Janos said, and I knew he was lying. "I remember when he was sworn in, and I saw his mother and sister weeping for happiness. Do you want to make them weep for another reason?" Mutterings. "Look at the others. They are but soldiers. Any of you might have chosen to wear the uniform at one time, yes? Some of you did take up arms to serve your city. That is what these men are doing. Doing what they see as their duty. Is it their fault they're misled?"

  "Damn fools oughta know better," a man shouted, and I thought it to be the same one who said he was not afraid to kill. Janos made no reply for a moment, but then broke into laughter - that great boom of a sound. The crowd puzzled, then snickered, then started laughing, unsure of what they'd found amusing. Janos stopped laughing, and the mirth died.

  "I am delighted to hear from a man who Knows Better," Janos said. "When this is over, and the proper order has been returned, come to me, man. I will pay you well, in gold and wine, to make sure I always know better." Now the crowd had something specific to chuckle about, but Janos did not wait for silence. He turned back to the patrol. "You. Legate."

  The man may have been young, but he picked up on his lead as deftly as any member of a dance troupe. "Yes. Sir." And saluted.

  "Take charge of your men, and return to your watch officer. Report to him you were given direct orders by Captain Janos Greycloak, of the Magistrates' Own Guard. He will give you further orders at that time." Again the legate saluted, ordered his soldiers to attention, about face, and marched them off. They disappeared back down the sidestreet, keeping in formation, even the injured spearman who had to be assisted by his fellows. Janos waited until they were gone, then turned back to the crowd.

  "What is the name of this district?"

  General shouts, and the blast of "Cheapside" from someone with a set of bellows for lungs.

  "Cheapside... I thank you. Lord Antero thanks you. I think we owe you our lives. You should be proud to be Orissans. When this is over, Lord Antero and I have a debt to repay. And we always honor our debts."

  Shouts of happiness, agreement, disagreement, cries of it was their pleasure, and the crowd began dissipating. Several of them, including that iron-lunged harpooness, wanted to speak to and touch him. "Now," he said to me in a low tone after a spell. "We should have given that jackanapes and his beachwatchers time enough to get away." Little by little, through the well-wishers, we extricated ourselves. Then, using back-alleys and keeping well out of sight of any of the troops from various units who were patrolling the streets, we reached my villa.

  It looked as if it had been readied for a siege. All of the windows on the lower floors were blocked off with the solid oak deadlights my father's father had prepared, part of the gear we maintained and replaced or added to as needed that was meant for the most extreme emergency.

  Sergeant Maeen had taken charge, technically deserting from the army, although no one seemed to care about his action, especially since the Magistrates' Own Guards no longer existed. Helping him keep order was a self-appointed foursome, J'an the head stableman, Rake and Mose, my sauce-chef and storekeeper, respectively; and Spoto, the youngest of the chambermaids. I thought of the two who should have run the household in my absence: Eanes and Tegry, and said a prayer to the memory of them both, one a fool, one a hero.

  Rali had managed to slip in from time to time, but no one knew how. I did, but said nothing. She'd managed to get word to my brothers at our estates beyond the city, and told them to stay where they were. In fact, the villa was ready to be blockaded. Rali had ordered the storekeepers to lay in nonperishables for months, and had both our cellar wells given a sw
eetness blessing by a trustworthy Evocator. She'd opened the armory, and unlocked the weapons racks. Maeen had spent hours teaching the use of them, and J'an, who'd been an eager witness to my early weapons training, assisted. The quartet had paid off any of my staff who were afraid, worried, or felt there might be some merit to the libels against my family. I was honored almost to the point of tears when Spoto said that only three had demanded their wages and gone. Just as Cheapside would be rewarded when peace came, so too must I remember each man and woman in this household.

  I was tired, hungry and dirty, but somehow knew I must not waste any time. I had my household leaders - I began calling them my Captains - walk me through the house and grounds, telling me all they'd done. By that time, Janos had refreshed himself, and I chanced a quick bath, a gobbled meal and a glass of wine. I looked longingly at that great feather bed in my chambers, but did not weaken. I went belowstairs, and found that Janos, experienced soldier that he was, had made some additions. These included buckets full of either dirt or water placed around in case of an "unexplained" fire. He set a watch on the roof, ordered to sound the alert if they saw or heard anything untoward. All doors except the large front one were double-barred and spiked, and heavy furniture moved in front of them.

  Rali appeared suddenly behind me. No one seemed surprised except for Janos - I gathered she had told the staff she'd been given a spell permitting her to enter her home without using the door or some such nonsense. I knew - and later told Janos - how she'd gotten into the villa. Part of the worst-event planning our family's heads had made were two tunnels. One began behind a false bookcase in my father's - now my - office, and ran under the grounds to exit more than 100 yards behind the villa, and the second went from a trapdoor in the second floor down a false chimney, under the street in front of us to emerge in the rear of a small shop nearby that no one - including its proprietor - knew the Antero family owned.

  Rali told us what had happened since I'd slipped out of the city. As I'd feared, my disappearance had weighed the scales against those of us who saw Orissa was at a turning point in its history - a turning point that meant we must reach for the Far Kingdoms; that we must change to be able to face a new epoch. Many of those who'd bravely stood up against the old guard found it politic to withdraw from the controversy. Those who could afford it, such as Malaren, had taken Gamelan's example, and physically left the city.

  Words became violence. First was the beating of a particularly hated man who served as landlord for slum tenements secretly owned by some of the richest and most conservative families in the city. One of the nightwatch's guardhouses had been burnt, not far from Cheapside. Then my old friend Prevotant reported to the Magistrates he and his guards had been set upon by villains in the night, villains who shouted "Down With the Evocators" and "Lycanth Will Free Us." At this point Rali stopped, raised an eyebrow, and waited for comment. Neither Janos nor myself cared to comment on the truth of that. Lycanth would free us, indeed. Prevotant was even stupider than I remembered him.

  Somehow the Magistrates were convinced to declare Emergency Regulations, regulations that also empowered the Evocators to "provide counseling and assistance in any manner deemed fit to end the current emergency." That, in turn, brought mobs into the streets. Somehow, during the course of a night's protest, two buildings were burnt - and seven men and two women, all from the artisan class, "attacked the night watch, intending murder, forcing them to defend themselves with the full force of arms." That was a little too raw, even for the Magistrates' Council, who by now were being almost entirely swayed by the Old Guard.

  They called for the Maranon Guards to take the streets, and bring peace. But their instructions meant "peace" was to be interpreted as the suppression of those who wanted change, and the preservation of the old.

  "We held full council then," Rali said, her face like ice. "All of us, from our colonel to the lowliest stable hand, all voices to be held equal. It took the greater part of a night, but it was determined that the main reason we are blessed by Maranonia is because we truly are the spirit of Orissa. Not Orissa past, nor Orissa to come. For us to choose sides would not only shatter the respect we are held in, but almost certainly incur a curse from the Goddess herself.

  "We refused to obey, for the first time in the history of the Maranon Guard." Rali looked away, eyes gleaming wet in the firelight. "It was a proud and a shameful moment.

  "We were ordered to our barracks, where we remain. We do not know what, if anything, we should do to end this catastrophe that is tearing Orissa apart. We have sought out prophets and wise men and women. A few Evocators, ones we trust, have even visited our barracks secretly. We cast runes hourly. But as yet..." She let her voice trail off. "There are times, Janos Greycloak," she said frankly, "I have damned you, and damned the Far Kingdoms as well."

  "Change will happen," Janos said. "Whether we will it or not. The best we can do is shape it to our own ends, that will with luck bring the greatest happiness to the most people."

  "I know," Rali sighed. "I know. But it is terrible to see the city I love tear itself apart. Now the poor creep out at night to loot, steal and burn, the Evocators trumpet false triumph during the day and those who bring this catastrophe to an end huddle behind stone walls."

  She got up. "Word of your arrival reached our barracks within minutes after you came through the gates," she said. "I would suspect matters will come to a full boil now, and we shall learn on which side the gods are smiling."

  She ruffled my hair. "Welcome back, brother. I would wager you never thought you and some mountain brigand would lead a revolution, did you?" She was gone before I could recover. Rali - as usual - was correct. We were leading a revolution, of sorts. I greatly wished I could tell what its final outcome would be. As I write, I still wish I knew that today.

  Guards mounted, both Janos and I retired to our chambers, Sergeant Maeen supervising the first shift. Both of us kept our weapons ready. Janos left orders to wake him in the hour before dawn, when a threat was most likely to materialize. But the threat did not wait until much past midnight. I woke from an utterly dreamless sleep to a shout, a crash and a scream of fear. It came from the main entrance. Naked, sword in hand, I found myself downstairs at the door as servants hurried up behind me, carrying newly-lit torches. Two of my servants, whose names I shall not mention to prevent shame to their families today, huddled against the wall. At their feet was the huge wooden bar to the entrance. I thought traitors, and readied my sword, then bethought myself as they shrieked for mercy and but a moment to explain. But first things first, and I ordered them to rebar the door. They did, hastily. Janos came pelting down the stairs, his weapon at the ready. "I saw men," he said. "Perhaps twenty of them, armed, waiting across the street. They ran when the commotion began. " He realized what had almost occurred with a glance.

  "So," he said. "It would have been treason rather than a frontal attack. What gain did they promise you for betraying us," he demanded. The two babbled, and I shouted silence, and bade one of them tell me, slowly, just what had happened. According to the servant, he had gone to bed when relieved from his watch. Then he'd awakened, but it was like he was in a dream and unable to resist, walking toward the door. The other man was waiting. "It was a spell," he insisted. "I tried to fight against it... but to no avail."

  I hesitated, then lowered my blade, remembering both of them had served my family for years. But I still was not convinced. Nor was Janos. "What broke the spell," he asked skeptically. "Such a curse, if one was indeed cast, would have had no effect if improperly made, or if powerful enough would have made you carry out the plan completely."

  "It was... it was a shout."

  "From whom," I wanted to know.

  Both men began trembling, and then one pointed - with a shaking finger - behind me. He was pointing to the portrait of my brother, Halab, behind the altar. "It came... from him. From there."

  Now the rest of the servants began chattering, and once more I had to shout f
or stillness. Both servants returned to their babbling - yes, it had come from the painting, and it could only be the blessed Halab trying to save the family from beyond the grave. I was torn between amazement and skepticism. Janos ordered the two servants to be taken to a store room. He said he would find the truth of the matter. "I will hold with no torture," I told him quietly. "No matter what they tried. If you believe them guilty, cast them out. Or else kill them, as is our right, since they have forfeited their covenant."

  "I shall not touch them, physically," Janos said. "There are other, better ways." He went for the kitchen, where he could procure certain necessary items. I knew what he intended. Within an hour, he had the answer. The men had been telling the truth. Someone had cast a spell from without, a powerful piece of sorcery intended to turn a man into a golem for a space. Even though the spell was intended to work on sleeping minds not on their guard, the sorcerer would be a Master Evocator, working to the peak of his abilities and most likely backed up by another wizard.

  "Black sorcery," I said.

  Janos reluctantly agreed, although he did wonder if I would feel the same if the spell had been cast, say, to keep a great villain from harming a good person? Not that we had time for philosophy. He immediately secured other items from our stores and, when the sun rose, sent servants surreptitiously out to what marketplaces would be open to buy other items. He cast several spells that day. The first and greatest was around the entire household. "I cannot prevent another spell such as the one just laid from being attempted, but I can prevent any such spell from taking full hold." He also cast protective spells around each of us, taking great pains over the two men who'd fallen prey to the incantation before. "Just as someone who falls ill of a disease of the lungs must always take care to avoid dampness and low wet places, so a man who's been taken over by sorcery can fall prey to another spell cast by the same person. Or such is my belief, at any rate, even though I have heard it in from no Evocators nor seen it in any grimoire."