Needs of the Empire

by Christopher Mitchell

  ‘Aye, Chief.’

  Millar stood and allowed the guards to escort him to the door.

  ‘We shall meet again, Lilyann,’ he called out as he left. ‘Stay strong. ’

  The young mage nodded, her face lit with defiance.

  Killop gazed at her. ‘Are you doing this to spite us, or do you believe what the priest told you?’

  ‘Started with one,’ she said, ‘might be heading towards the other.’

  Liam appeared at the door. ‘Off to bed, young lady.’

  ‘You can’t keep me here forever,’ she said, glaring at Killop. ‘You’re not my father.’

  Chapter 9

  Choking

  P lateau/Arakhanah Frontier – 14 th Day, First Third Autumn 506

  ‘It’s good to be inside for a change, miss,’ Jayki said, as he peered out of the carriage window at the countryside rolling by. ‘Much better than being up top.’

  ‘I thought you liked the fresh air,’ Shella said.

  ‘Oh yeah, I love being outside when it’s lashing down with rain, or in a howling gale. Especially when those bloody stupid gaien aren’t co-operating.’

  ‘Well, we’ve got horses pulling us now,’ Shella said. ‘We’ve moved up in the world.’

  ‘Those beasts scare the shit of me, miss.’

  Secretary Jodie sighed, scrunched up a piece of paper, and began writing in her ledger again.

  ‘Distracting you, are we?’ said Shella.

  ‘Not at all, your Highness.’

  ‘Unless you’re writing down everything we say,’ Shella said, ‘I can’t see how you can have any work to do. We left twenty-two days ago…’

  ‘Twenty-four, your Highness,’ Jodie said.

  ‘Twenty-fucking-four, then, whatever,’ Shella sighed. ‘Point is, you must have run out of stuff to do by now. ’

  ‘I’m editing my journal, your Highness,’ Jodie said. ‘I intend to present it to the Rakanese archives, as a record of the first year of the embassy in Plateau City.’

  ‘First year, eh? Am I in it?’

  ‘Of course, your Highness. Ambassador Torrijananu was in the post for only ten thirds before you replaced him. For the last two sections of the journal, you are the ambassador. You do make other appearances in earlier chapters, detailing the contact you had with the embassy.’

  Shella cringed. ‘How detailed?’

  ‘I’ve tried to include everything, your Highness, for the historical record.’

  ‘What bit you working on now?’ Jayki said.

  ‘The index.’

  ‘It’s got an index?’ Shella said, taking a cigarette out of her silver case.

  ‘Yes, your Highness. So if anyone wants to read about say, you, then they’ll be able to see all the pages where you’re mentioned.’

  ‘I know what a fucking index is,’ Shella said. ‘Just how big is your journal?’

  ‘One volume for each of the twelve thirds it covers, your Highness.’

  ‘That’s a lot of books you’re carrying.’

  ‘Oh, I’ve brought others, your Highness,’ Jodie said. ‘For instance, I have a copy of the official history of the Great Migration. There are plenty of copies already in Arakhanah of course, but I have amended my edition, adding everything I’ve heard you, Jayki and Prince Sami say about it. After all, you’re the only surviving eye-witnesses, it makes sense to add as much of your personal testimony as possible.’

  ‘You’ve put in all the shit that Sami’s said?’ Shella asked. ‘Even when he was drunk?’

  ‘I aim to be comprehensive.’

  Shella glowered at the embassy secretary.

  ‘If you’re thinking of finding and destroying the documents I carry, your Highness,’ Jodie said, ‘then you should know that I’ve had other copies made. Of course, the journal will be lacking an index, but I’m sure readers will manage.’

  Shella simmered, but said nothing.

  ‘Future generations deserve the truth,’ Jodie said. ‘Wouldn’t you agree, your Highness?’

  ‘Drop the highness shit.’

  Jodie raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Makes you sound like a hypocrite,’ Shella went on. ‘You obviously think that royalty is ridiculous, and I don’t blame you.’

  ‘Secretary Daly insisted before our departure…’

  ‘Well he’s not here now, is he?’ Shella said, blowing smoke out of the open window. ‘As the ambassador, not as a princess, I order you to stop using “your highness”, at least until the government of Arakhanah puts a fucking crown on my head.’

  ‘As you wish… ma’am.’

  ‘That’s better,’ Shella said, gazing out at the view.

  She shook her head. ‘Holdings settlers everywhere. New farms, new plantations, roads…’

  ‘Don’t see any other people,’ Jayki said. ‘Just Holdings.’

  ‘They’re taking the best bits of the Plateau for themselves.’

  ‘They’re behaving perfectly legally,’ Jodie said.

  Shella snorted. ‘Only according to the terms of that stupid contract the Rakanese government signed with Guilliam.’

  Jodie pursed her lips.

  ‘Nothing to say?’ Shella said, throwing her cigarette butt out of the window. ‘Come on, you must have an opinion. Off the record. Talk freely to me.’

  ‘I daren’t. I don’t trust you.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I know about those little chats you’ve been having with the Lord Vicar, miss.’

  Shella narrowed her eyes. ‘Are you one of those who’ve gone blabbing to the church?’

  Jodie’s expression hardened. ‘No. ’

  The secretary sat back, and put her ledger down.

  ‘I’m aware of the rumours,’ she said after a while, ‘but I’ve been unable to catch any of the staff in the act. The thought that someone is betraying our secrets to the Holdings disgusts me.’

  ‘But you’ve written a book on it,’ Shella said. ‘Twelve.’

  ‘But that’s for Arakhanah, not the Holdings.’

  ‘The conversations I’ve had with the Lord Vicar,’ Shella said, ‘were all about my friend Daphne Holdfast. Well, apart from the usual nagging I got from him about their endless demands. And you can stick that in your journal.’

  Jodie eyed her in silence.

  ‘Okay,’ Shella said. ‘So we distrust each other. But I’m willing to be honest with you, if you’re honest with me.’

  Jodie gazed out of the window.

  Shella glanced at Jayki, who shrugged and passed her another cigarette.

  ‘I remember the Migration leaving,’ Jodie said.

  Shella and Jayki turned to her.

  ‘I was working as a union rep at a rice packers in Wetfields District, you know it?’

  Shella shook her head.

  ‘Well, it’s way up in the north. Edge of the city. Went to work one morning and there was no one there. We’d heard about your sister the day before, and knew she was causing a disturbance in the south, but we laughed it off as another crank. We were wrong.’

  She paused as she continued to look at the gentle hills passing by, fields marked out with wooden fence posts, and cattle grazing in the autumn sun.

  ‘Was tempted to go myself,’ she went on. ‘Most of my brothers and sisters did, but then who would have taken care of my mum?’ She turned to Shella. ‘She was sick. Someone had to look after her.’

  ‘So you stayed?’ Shella said.

  ‘I stayed. My mum died soon after they left. And then things got really bad. Lost my job. The sea inundated the rice fields, and I ended up having to move nearer the centre, where I worked for thirds on the waterways, shoring up old walls for a bowl of food a day.’

  Jodie sighed. ‘How I regretted not leaving with you. And then we heard you were all dead. I’m glad my mum wasn’t around for that. Every doomsayer had predicted that the Migration was going to fail, and I was one of the stupid ones who thought you’d flourish. When we get to Arakhanah, miss, you’ll probably
hear people refer to the dark days. Those are the days they’re talking about, right after we heard the news. That’s when things collapsed for a while.’

  ‘You hate me, don’t you?’

  ‘Your family led the Migration. Your sister may have been queen, but her siblings all played their parts, especially you, miss. People did curse the Kanawara name for a good while. I know because I was one of them.’

  ‘I would have done the same,’ Shella said. ‘I tried to talk her out of it, before we left, but when I realised that nothing would change her mind I decided to help. I wanted it to succeed, but it was rotten from the moment Obli decided to crown herself.’

  She broke off, memories flooding her mind. A tight pain formed in the pit of her stomach.

  Jayki produced a small flask.

  ‘Been saving this,’ he said. ‘But I’ll need a drink if we’re going to talk about what happened.’

  He took a swig and passed the flask to Shella. She raised it to her lips and drank, her throat burning from the cheap rum.

  She handed it to Jodie.

  ‘Not the best,’ she said, taking a drink, ‘but thanks.’

  Jayki took another swig.

  ‘I know fine that you don’t like Shella,’ he said to Jodie, ‘but you don’t know her. The shit we went through, she was always the one who saved our asses, but there was nothing she could do to stop that Kellach Brigdomin bitch from burning Akhanawarah.’

  ‘You don’t need to defend me, Jayki,’ Shella said .

  ‘Well, miss, you do such a shit job of it yourself, I figure someone has to.’

  There was a thump on the top of the carriage.

  ‘Roadblock ahead,’ called their driver.

  As Jayki shoved his flask into a pack under the seats, Shella peered out of the window. Forty yards up the road two carts had been positioned across the carriageway, and a dozen Holdings folk in mismatched uniforms stood around. Several had crossbows, which they were levelling at Shella’s carriage.

  The four horses pulling them slowed, and the wagon came to a halt.

  A group of three broke away from the folk by the blockade, and strode forwards. Shella pulled her head back into the carriage.

  ‘Why have you stopped us?’ shouted down the driver.

  ‘You’re a Rakanese,’ a voice called back. ‘We have orders to apprehend any undocumented Rakanese on this side of the wall. Who’s the passenger?’

  ‘We’re escorting the ambassador herself, Princess Shellakanawara.’

  There were a few sniggers from the irregular soldiers.

  Shella opened the carriage door and stepped down onto the dusty road.

  ‘You find that funny, do you?’ she said to the soldiers, walking towards them.

  The three Holdings stared at her. They had an assortment of armour and leathers of different sizes and insignia.

  ‘You’re not cavalry,’ she said, standing before them, ‘nor imperial army. Who’s giving your orders?’

  ‘We’re volunteers,’ said the Holdings man who had spoken before. ‘Border control. We work for the frontier governor. We pick up the trash during the day and throw it back over the wall every night.’

  ‘And what trash are you referring to, exactly?’

  The three Holdings glanced at each other.

  ‘Rakanese trash,’ their leader said. ‘Illegal immigrants. They hop over the wall and we hunt them down.’

  ‘And you volunteered for this? ’

  ‘If we didn’t do it, the Plateau would be swarming with them.’

  Shella considered killing them.

  A quick flooding of the lungs for the three before her, and heart attacks for the rest by the carts. Drag the bodies off the road, clear the blockade, and they could be on their way in ten minutes.

  She remembered Sami, and knew she wasn’t ready to accept the consequences.

  ‘You will let us pass,’ she said to the irregulars.

  ‘You’re travelling to Arakhanah?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then of course,’ their leader said, smiling. ‘We’ve no wish to stop any of you from going in that direction.’

  He turned and signalled to the others, who started to drag the carts clear of the road.

  The leader of the irregulars doffed his hat. ‘Have a good day, ma’am.’

  Shella returned to the carriage in silence. Jodie and Jayki were both staring at her when she retook her seat.

  After a moment, the driver lashed the reins, and the carriage moved off, passing the irregulars, who began reforming the roadblock as soon as they had gone by.

  ‘Pass me the flask,’ Shella said, her hand shaking.

  Jayki dug under his seat and handed the rum to her, along with a cigarette.

  ‘You okay, miss?’

  ‘Just fucking great. I love being humiliated by a bunch of vigilante dickheads.’

  She took a long swig.

  ‘Mind you,’ she went on, ‘don’t know why I’m so bothered, after all, being humiliated by Holdings assholes is part of my fucking job description.’

  ‘What’s why Torri quit early,’ Jodie said. ‘Did you know that? He couldn’t stand it any longer.’

  ‘I’ve only served half as long as he did,’ Shella said, ‘and I feel like I’ve taken as much as I can without going berserk. I seriously thought about killing them all back there, only the complications would be too messy.’

  ‘You could always quit.’

  Shella started to reply, then remembered she didn’t trust Jodie. She wanted to open herself up, but for all she knew the Rakanese secretary was spying on her for Rijon.

  She sat back and smoked.

  Jodie frowned, then looked out of the window.

  Jayki sighed, closed his eyes and leaned back against his seat.

  By nightfall the carriage was nearing the frontier, and Shella saw the lights of a settlement in the distance. Their driver guided them through the streets in the direction of the great border wall that loomed ahead. The settlement stretched out alongside the wall, next to a large fortified gatehouse that swallowed up the road.

  They pulled into a courtyard in front of a tall stone building. As stable hands emerged to look after the horses, their driver opened the carriage door.

  Shella stepped down.

  Several of the Holdings folk in the courtyard stared at her, then at her companions as they descended from the carriage. A woman strode down the steps from the front door of the building.

  ‘Madam Ambassador?’ she said.

  Shella nodded.

  ‘Welcome to Tanglefort. You have rooms booked here for the night. We will ensure your horses are stabled and cared for.’

  ‘Do you serve dinner?’

  ‘We do, ma’am,’ the woman said, ‘however I believe the governor has invited you to dine with him in the fort this evening.’

  ‘He has?’

  ‘There will be a carriage ready to take you there in an hour, ma’am.’

  ‘I can’t wait.’

  The governor was a short, stocky Holdings man with a high opinion of his own sense of humour. Shella watched as Jayki faked another laugh, while Jodie sat stony-faced at the long table, smiling only at the servants who replenished their plates.

  ‘Under the last governor,’ he was saying, ‘the wall was as leaky as an incontinent old nag. Immigrants were sneaking over night and day. It’s no wonder the Emperor sacked her, she was of less use than a bath in Sanang.’

  ‘You’ve tightened it up, have you?’ Shella said, picking at the food on her plate.

  ‘I have indeed, ma’am,’ he said. ‘Did you know that I was asked for by Chamberlain Prior himself? Sort out the wall, he said to me. And that is precisely what I’ve done. A firm hand was all that was required.’

  ‘Does he know you’ve formed your own militia?’

  ‘Of course he does,’ the governor said. ‘Do you think I’m stupid? At some point I’m told that the proper army will come and take over, but until then we must look t
o our own security.’

  ‘Thugs with crossbows?’

  ‘Patriots, ma’am,’ he said, his eyes darkening. ‘Defenders of the Plateau, keeping out those who do not belong.’

  ‘And why do the Rakanese not belong?’

  ‘I suppose I could bore you by going about land sustainability, and relative population growth rates, but I don’t really care about any of that,’ he said. ‘Truth is, I just don’t want a horde of penniless, unwashed, degenerate amphibians coming in and ruining our country.’

  Shella clenched her fists under the table.

  ‘With all due respect to you, of course ma’am,’ the governor said.

  ‘I presume you think I’m due no respect.’

  ‘Not at all, ma’am,’ he grinned. ‘You have a tough job, trying to lead the Rakanese. A dose of monarchy might do them good. Teach them to know their proper place in the world. ’

  Shella forced her face to be calm. ‘Doesn’t your religion say that the Creator made all of the peoples that live here?’

  ‘That’s true,’ replied the governor, ‘but he didn’t make them all equal, did he now? There was only one people he chose to speak to, one people he chose to lead the others.’

  He put down his mug and picked up a roasted leg of poultry.

  ‘That would be us,’ he winked, ‘in case you were wondering.’

  Shella sensed Jodie glance at her, but she remained focussed on the governor. She was sure her face was about to crack with rage, but breathed deep, and sent a tendril of her power into the body of the Holdings man.

  She located his oesophagus, and examined the blood flowing through his neck. There was a layer of muscle where, if she pushed the bloodflow just a little…

  The governor paused. He dropped what was left of the roasted leg and put his hand to his throat. His mouth was formed into a circle, but no noise was coming out.

  ‘Quick!’ Shella cried. ‘The governor is choking!’

  The governor clawed at his neck, his eyeballs rolling upwards. He emitted a strange gargling sound as the first servants rushed over. Two lifted him out of his seat, while a third began squeezing his wide chest. The governor struggled, and toppled to the ground, taking the servants with him.