A Wizard and a Warlord

by Christopher Stasheff

  "Only pointing out our mutual interest," Gar said, "that neither of us wants his real nature bandied about."

  "So you won't tell them where I come from if I don't tell what you really are," Crel said slowly. "Before I agree to that, though, I'd like to know why you're here."

  "Because I was caught," Gar said simply. "I'm trying to figure out a way to stay alive when they attack that town down below us and drive me ahead with the other slaves, to draw whatever kind of weapons the town men have. So far I'm ahead of the gamenone of them are going to expect me to try something clever at the last minute. What are you here for?"

  "Why is everyone?" Crel asked bitterly. "I want to be on the winning side."

  Gar stared at him for a moment, wondering whether Crel intended to be with the winners, or for his side to win because he was on it. Then he nodded. "Deal?"

  "Deal," Crel said.

  I can't believe he'd betray the memory of his friends like that! Alea thought.

  Neither can I, but it's not for me to lecture him after what he's been through, Gar replied. What about your day? Find anything worth knowing?

  Nothing, except that everyone's so sure of the Scarlet Company that they don't even bother thinking about it. Alea's thoughts simmered with frustration. Of course, when I did put the thought into their minds, it scared them. They pushed it away as quickly as they could.

  Sure of the Scarlet Company but afraid of it too, Gar mused. How about the town in general?

  No government, if that's what you mean, Alea thought wearily. I learned there's a great deal of commerce. Barges and carts are coming and going all the time, constantly being loaded and unloaded, if that matters to you.

  Actually, it does, Gar thought slowly.

  Alea stiffened, catching the complex of associations that came with the words-an image of a web with the town at its center, every strand vibrating with the necessities of life. I see, she thought slowly. The town controls the villages even without a government.

  Only by being the central market, Gar thought, but there are many villages and only the one town. If the merchants decided to stop dealing with one of them, that village would suffer harshly, maybe even die if it had a year of bad crops and no way to bring food from other villages.

  But the merchants wouldn't do that! Alea thought.

  No, they wouldn't, came the slow answer, but they are managing the market, which means they're controlling the economies of the villages. -

  Have you found your government at last? Alea thought acidly.

  No, Gar replied, still slowly, but I'm beginning to understand how they can manage without one. Of course, he added hastily, it only works as long as the town doesn't grow too greedy.

  I suppose the priestesses take care of that, Alea mused, the priestesses and the sages.

  Yes. Gar seemed to be brooding. This looks to be one area in which the Scarlet Company would not be watching for bullies.

  But she caught the thought he didn't mean to send-that an economic bully was still a bully, and the Scarlet Company might have an interest after all.

  So the next day, she went to talk to the people who presumably kept the merchants from being bulliesthough as she walked up the steps of the goddess's temple, she couldn't help but think that the priestesses certainly wouldn't be paying much attention to economic systems.

  She entered the cool domed area and stood facing the statue of the goddess in her aspect as mother. There were no seats, so she was still standing half an hour later when a priestess came in and found her brooding over the resemblance between Freya and this mother-goddess.

  The priestess approached with a keen gaze. Apparently deciding that Alea was praying, she stood at a discreet distance and waited until Alea turned with a little frown, then stared at the woman.

  "Do you come only to pray," the priestess asked gently, "or do you need to talk with me?"

  "I wish to become a priestess," Alea answered, "or at least, to learn if I have the gift of piety."

  The woman gazed at her, a careful, brooding look, then smiled and said, "There is more to it than piety, but you may have the gift for it indeed. Come, let us talk to the High Priestess."

  That evening, when Alea sat down and relaxed into meditation, she was able to tell Gar, I am a novice priestess now.

  She wasn't prepared for the panic and horror behind his thoughts as he protested. Dazed, she leaned into the fury of the blast and, as it began to slacken, caught beneath it the fear that she would be trapped on this benighted planet and that, moreover, he would be denied her company. Touched, she smiled and. thought, Don't worry, companion. I'm not serious about it-only hoping to learn anything they may know about the Scarlet Company.

  Oh. Well, that's reassuring. Gar calmed considerably. No one has mentioned anything yet, I take it?

  No, but I have learned that they have a library. They shouldn't mind an illiterate peasant leafing through the books to look at the pictures.

  Now Gar's tone was amused. If they're careless enough to let you in, they deserve what they get. Let me know if the plot's any good.

  The next day, Alea went to the priestess who had inducted her into the temple and asked, with some anxiety, "Lady, you said that there was more needed of me than piety."

  The priestess nodded gravely. "A great deal more."

  "May I ask what?"

  "Fortitude, and the willingness to sacrifice comforts and luxuries."

  "I am truly willing! As to fortitude, try me!"

  "So we shall," the priestess murmured. "So we do. Have you the patience to wait until we tell you that you have passed the test?"

  Alea bowed her head, abashed. "I have never had overly much patience."

  "That we shall try sorely," the priestess promised. "However, we of the goddess may be devoted to her above all, but we express that devotion in our care of the people. Have you compassion and the desire to heal and nurture?"

  "I-I think I have," Alea said hesitantly, "but older women have told me you never know until you have someone to care for."

  The priestess positively beamed, pleased with Alea's humility-or realism. "It is so. Be sure that you will have ample opportunity to test those qualities."

  "Are we ... are we to protect as the Scarlet Company does?" Alea ventured.

  The priestess frowned, disturbed by the question. "The Scarlet Company has nothing to do with the temples, child-or if it does, we have -no knowledge of it!"

  Alea sighed with relief-to cover her disappointment.

  "Why would- you think we did?" the priestess pressed.

  "Because I thought ... I had heard ... Well, the priests and priestesses remind us time and again that we must treat each other with respect and kindness and be careful not to become bullies in any way!"

  "Ah. Yes, that much we do." The priestess's face smoothed. "But that is not doing the Scarlet Company's work, child-it is simply giving it that much less to do."

  After that interview, Alea decided that she might learn a great deal from the priestesses, but none of it would be what she wished to know at the moment. Nonetheless, she didn't resist at all when her mentor - called her to assist as she made her rounds.

  Her rounds, it seemed, were in one of the poorest parts of the town. The woman strolled down the streets with a basket of food and medicines on her arm, stopping to chat with everyone who wished, going in wherever she was asked to visit someone who was ill. Most were previous patients; she only had to make sure they were still mending or, if they were not, to give the patient a new medicine. Some were new, and here she was careful to explain to Alea every step of her diagnosis and treatment. Alea listened, clinging to every word; most of it she knew already, but the one or two ideas or remedies that were new to her were well worth the time.

  As they went back to the temple, she frowned, lost in thought. Finally the priestess asked gently, "What troubles you, my child?"

  "I see that I have a very great deal to learn, Reverend Lady," Alea answered. "May I look i
n the books in the library? Can I learn faster that way?"

  Again the priestess virtually beamed. "Surely you can, once you learn to read-but you, may go there this evening and at least look at the books."

  Alea caught the thought that the woman didn't say-that if the novice really had the interest in learning that a priestess needed, turning pages to look at undecipherable scratchings and glorious pictures would turn her interest into a ravenous hunger.

  So after dinner that night, she went down to the library and walked along the shelves, taking in the kind and amount of knowledge stored there. She stopped at .the history section, took out a huge volume entitled History of the World, and took it to a reading stand, hoping the world in question would be this one. She turned the pages, realized they were of parchment and that every single character had been drawn by hand, and was staggered by the thought of the number of hours of work this library represented.

  Then she turned a page and lost all thought of copyists working by candlelight as she discovered the ancestors' own view of how and why they had colonized this planet.

  16

  You persuaded them to let you go into the library already? Gar thought, amazed.

  Oh, they're all in favor of people learning to read, Alea told him. They just didn't know that I already could, thanks to Herkimer and his teaching program.

  They use our alphabet, then?

  Our alphabet, and our language, Alea confirmed. In fact, the writings are Terran Standard, much closer to your speech than to their descendants'.

  At least they left a record, Gar thought. What were they trying to do here, anyway?

  Abolish war and exploitation, Alea told him. They wanted to give their children and grandchildren a world of peace and prosperity in which everyone respected everyone else's rights and liberties.

  Utopia, Gar interpreted. Well, they weren't the first to try to set up an ideal society. How did they go about it?

  By setting up a matriarchy, Alea explained. They thought that patriarchal cultures were much more warlike and oppressive than matriarchal cultures, so that if you never let the male-governed cultures start, the world would be peaceful.

  Very idealistic, Gar said slowly. How well did it work? As you've seen, Alea replied with a mental shrug. The men have taken an equal place in the villages here, but they haven't become dictators, and they don't treat their wives as belongings.

  They don't have - wives, properly speaking, Gar answered, his tone thoughtful. I take it the founders thought that marriage was a form of exploitation?

  Yes. Here, if a woman doesn't like the way a man treats her, she can simply put him out of her house and out of her life.

  And he goes back to the bachelors' house, Gar said, musing. And the whole village will support her and her children-though of course she, like everyone else, will have to do her fair share of the work. Of course, we haven't really seen any cases of that.

  Alea bridled. The youth villagers were busily exchangingpartners!

  Yes, Gar thought, but none of the others seemed to be managing on their own. Everyone seemed to be bonded and part of a family, except for the priests and priestesses.

  Well, of course, Alea thought. That's natural.

  Yes, it is, Gar answered musing. The important point is that neither spouse is locked into a partnership they don't want. Even Shuba was only asked to support his baby daughter, not forced to marry Agneli when she wasn't in love with him.

  They didn't force her to marry him, either, Alea snapped. I wonder how long each will live without another partner? Gar's thoughts made an abrupt turn. Why Neolithic, though? Did they believe in Rousseau's idea of the noble savage?

  They did, Alea confirmed. I even ran into that phrase. They thought he was right in thinking that civilization corrupted people, so they set up their society in early agricultural villages and built in a custom of starting new villages instead of letting the old ones grow.

  Except for trade towns, Gar noted. They did make sure people would be able to send food to others who needed itand they cheated on medicine and agriculture, too.

  When technology developed to the point at which we could go back to tribal villages, Alea argued, why shouldn't we?

  Mostly because tribes tend to make war on each other, Gar answered, but if you've managed to set up a culture that limits battles to large-scale sporting events with only accidental deaths, why not indeed? Yes, it's a very seductive notion.

  You don't sound convinced, Alea thought darkly.

  I've- seen retrograde colonies before, Gar explained with a mental shrug. Greed always disrupted the idyllic life.

  That's where the Scarlet Company comes in, Alea thought triumphantly.

  What about it? Gar's interest sharpened to an intensity that almost frightened her-almost. She knew him too well by now to suspect anything other than hunger for knowledge.

  The book didn't mention them by name, Alea told him, but it did give two pages describing how it would be set up. It was supposed to be a secret society, its members recruited from ordinary people and going on to live ordinary lives. They would work under the cell system and never meet as a group unless they had to mass to fight an army.

  Each cell being three people and the leader only knowing one other person in one other cell who passed on orders? That's right. Alea was somewhat nettled that he already knew it.

  So before any one of them does anything dangerous that's likely to see him captured and interrogated, they can make sure that everybody he knows disappears, Gar thought. Yes, I've heard of that.

  So it would seem, Alea thought dryly.

  What does it say this secret society is supposed to do to prevent tyrants from conquering? Gar asked.

  It doesn't, Alea confessed, only that the secret society is to do whatever is necessary to stop any would-be conquerors and tyrants.

  Well, the Scarlet Company isn't doing too well at the moment, Gar thought in exasperation. What's the matter? Is Malachi the first after all? Though I don't see how he could be.

  He isn't, Alea answered. The book covered the first hundred years, and I found other books covering the rest of the history up till twenty years ago.

  How many tyrants tried and failed?

  Alea hesitated a moment, then said, Forty-two. Almost every ten years? Gar thought, aghast. How did the Scarlet Company stop them?

  Assassination, Alea said grimly, then hurried on. There were two times when the Company had to muster half its members in one place, though-once to ambush the warlord and his army in a mountain pass, throwing down rocks. A century later, they had to pick off another warlord's soldiers one by one as they marched through a huge forest.

  That must have required top-notch woodcraft, Gar thought. How did they train so many so fast?

  Alea didn't answer, letting him work it out for himself.

  They had agents among the bandits, Gar thought, thunderstruck. A lot of agents!

  The book said something along that line, Alea admitted. What a horrible life to condemn someone to, Gar thought slowly, in danger of discovery and death every minute.

  People who had suffered enough might be willing to do it, Alea thought, and according to the books, there are always some of those. Even without a warlord, the bandits cause grief.

  It seems there are always bandits, Gar replied. Was that part of the ancestors' plan?

  They thought exile was kinder than imprisonment, Alea answered, and were absolutely opposed to the death penalty, no matter what the crime. They did recognize, though, that there would always be a few men and women who managed to alienate everyone and would be cast out, that some might even be unhappy in their village society and decide to leave of their own free will.

  But they didn't realize that the outcasts would turn criminal?

  The founders thought they would simply go off and establish villages of their own, Alea told him. I guess they just didn't realize that the exiles would rob instead of hunting or farming.

  Instead, they've
become a constant danger, Gar said grimly. I wonder what happened to the women who went into exile?

  The books say the bandits found them, or they found the bandits, Alea's tone was bleak. Beyond that, the entries only said the women were enslaved.

  I think we can assume the worst. So the people just live with the problem?

  The chronicles do say that every now and then, when a particular gang had become too much of a menace, three or four villages would band together and give them a beating, Alea admitted. Not capital punishment, really, but people would be killed in the fighting.

  As they were when a bandit chieftain decided to try to become king, Gar thought darkly. Do the founders say how the Scarlet Company was supposed to stop them?

  No-only that its whole purpose was to prevent anyone from establishing a government over everyone else. They didn't say to use assassins.

  Stated in those terms, eh? That the Scarlet Company isn't supposed to stop bullies or conquerors-it's to stop government?

  Before they begin, Alea confirmed. Yes.

  How, though? Gar thought, more to himself than to Alea. If it's an army itself, where is it? How does it work? More to the point, what's to keep some power-hungry citizen from working his way up in the Scarlet Company and using it to take over? Did the founders say anything about that?

  Not that I've read, Alea answered, but I have three more volumes to go. I'll tell you what I find tomorrow night. That next night, however, they would have more immediate problems to discuss.

  Alea spent the next morning in the library, scanning the rest of the chronicles and reading in depth anything that looked promising. In the afternoon, she accompanied her patron on her rounds. They were called to help at a difficult birth, then with a child whose fever was very high, and finally with an old man who'd had a stroke. The priestess couldn't do much for him but to help make him comfortable and leave directions for exercises in hopes that he would recover some use of the affected muscles. He tried to thank her but only succeeded in making a gargling sound.

  Alea thought she recognized him, but couldn't have said from where. She read his thoughts, thpugh, and told the priestess, "He thanks you for your kindness."