Claudia J Edwards - [Forest King 02]

by Horsewoman in Godsland (UC) (epub)

  “As long as they think you would, though, they might let slip what they’ve got in mind,” said Karel.

  “What we need to do is get a look at their account books and letter files,” said Len, ignoring the startled glances. “Words can say anything the speaker wants them to, but facts and figures speak for themselves.”

  “None of us can read their language,” said Orvet. “Adelinda can,” said Tobin. “She learned while we were on the ship. I was too sick to pay much attention, but 1 heard her reading the labels on everything.”

  “She’s the one with the best chance to get a look at them, too, living in the palace,” said Orvet. “I’m going to meet her after dark; I’ll suggest it to her. That’s a really good idea, Len.”

  “I’ll jolly Li-Mun along, too, and see what 1 can find out.”

  “Don’t be too eager. Let him persuade you.”

  Len snorted. “Trust me! I haven’t lived in a cave all my life.”

  * * *

  An-Shai had never been so glad to see anything in his life as he was to see the palace. Comfortless and cheerless as it was, it was still not the back of a horse. He felt as if he had been split from his crotch to his chin; his scratches stung; his second best bishop’s robe was no better than tatters; his careful plans for the reduction of his excess population were in rains; and by tomorrow the outlanders would be heroes from one end of the Vale to the other, where he had ruled so long in undisputed control. He debated whether or not to give the hapless Li-Mun a truly epic scoring for bringing peasants onto the scene, thus insuring that the news would get out; but his sense of fairness niggled at him until he had to admit that Li-Mun, knowing no more than he knew, had done exactly the right thing. Who could have foreseen that the outlanders would have killed all the nasty little brutes? He himself had been convinced that he was rushing to their rescue.

  He would have said that at the end of a day when almost everything had gone awry, nothing else could go wrong, but he would'have been mistaken. When he wearily climbed off Blackie’s back and dragged his aching body into the palace, leaving Adelinda to take care of both horses, and sought the sweet privacy of his library, there was a surprise awaiting him. The initiate Tsu-Linn was comfortably seated at his desk, in his chair, reading his papers. An-Shai stared at him aghast. He was not ready to explain himself to the initiate. He had not yet reduced his population, put the imported horses to impressive use, brought the outlanders under control, increased his food production—he wasn’t ready!

  “You don’t seem very pleased to see me, Bishop An-Shai.”

  An-Shai recovered himself. “Certainly I am, sir. This is a very pleasant surprise. I had not expected you back so soon!”

  “I hadn’t expected to return so soon, but I can see that it was a good thing that my duties brought me back this way. What on earth have you been doing to yourself? You look like the loser in a cat fight.”

  “I was riding through the thornbushes up on the mesa.” “Why were you up on the mesa?”

  An-Shai groped for a reasonable explanation that the initiate would accept. There was none. In desperation, he offered the truth. “Well, some of my ... er, employees were hunting night stalkers, and I went to save them.”

  “Hunt night stalkers? You have rash employees! Were you able to save them?”

  “No, sir.... That is, they didn’t need to be saved. They wiped out the nest.”

  “Wiped out the nest! Why did you permit that? How do you think you’re going to control your population without night stalkers? And furthermore, I find that the slave raiders you ordered were attacked and driven out of the Vale without taking a single slave. Employees? Since when do bishops hire employees? Ail the labor you need is available for the ordering. And as if that weren’t enough, those new buildings and paddocks are full of some sort of monstrously huge animal I never saw the likes of before. I’m waiting for your explanation with bated breath, Bishop An-Shai. I’m sure it’s going to be a good one.”

  An-Shai’s hopes of ever attaining initiation were fading rapidly. The chubby little initiate was looking at him with an expression that showed the steel beneath the jolly exterior. He took a deep breath. He might as well face up to it and tell the whole truth, and if the initiate didn’t like it he could do what he liked about it. It was what Adelinda would have done in his shoes.

  “The huge creatures are horses. The farmers in the Vale were hampered by the lack of good draft animals, so I sent to the Eastern Continent and purchased fifty horses. Since no one here knew how to care for the animals, I also hired six of the natives of that continent to teach my peasants how to use and care for them.”

  The initiate swelled up like a bullfrog. An-Shai pulled himself straight and waited for the blow to fall. It was upon this scene that Li-Mun and Adelinda walked in. Li-Mun was in the lead, and had taken three steps into the room before he recognized the initiate. He promptly wheeled, grabbed Adeiinda’s wrist, and tried to yank her back out the door. Her natural reaction to being manhandled was to jerk away, and Karel had taught her some of the techniques of self-defense; she broke Li-Mun’s hold and sent him reeling across the room, to bring up with a crash against a stack of bookshelves.

  She saw An-Shai standing before a stranger seated at his desk, for all the world like a schoolboy about to receive a scolding from the master. The funny little man at the desk was staring at her in open amazement; the expression on the bishop’s face was icily grim. She realized belatedly that the dazed Li-Mun might have had a very good reason for not wanting her in the room. “Excuse me!” she said, hastening across the room to offer the staggering Li-Mun her support. “I didn’t realize you had company, Your Grace. I’m sorry, Li-Mun; I didn’t mean to hurt you but you startled me. Are you all right?” She steered him toward the door.

  “No, don’t leave, Adelinda,” said the bishop. “I would like to make you acquainted with the initiate Tsu-Linn. Sir, this is the leader of those outlanders I told you of, the Lady Adelinda.” He hesitated for an instant, decided that things had gone too far for tactful reticence. “She’s living here at the palace.”

  “How do you do, Your. .. er..said Adelinda, cheerily, unaware that the only really proper reaction for a layperson in the extremely unlikely event of meeting one of the awesome, powerful initiates was abject terror.

  Tsu-Linn’s reaction-was as unexpected to An-Shai and Li-Mun as hers had been to the initiate. He crossed his arms and surveyed her coolly. “I’m fine, thank you. The proper form of address, which I perceive that the Bishop An-Shai has failed to explain to you, is simply ‘sir.’ We initiates have little need of titles.”

  “I see, sir. Well, nice as it is to have made your acquaintance, I have things to do, so I’ll ran along now.” Then seeing by Li-Mun’s horrified expression that she had once again violated the elaborate rules of etiquette, she added, “That is, if I have your permission?”

  “Please stay for a moment, Lady Adelinda. Perhaps you can be of assistance in clearing up this situation. An-Shai,” and his voice cracked like a whip, “do you actually have the gall to stand there and tell me that this woman and five others have destroyed a whole nest of night stalkers, that you are permitting them to teach our peasants, and that you have let this outlander female move in with you? What are you thinking of, man?”

  The last feeble hope of advancement flickered and died. In its place came a wash of rage. How dare the little toad speak to him so in front of the woman? An-Shai drew himself to his full height. “That is exactly what I have told you, sir. Furthermore, I’ll tell you now that I heartily endorse and support their attacks on the night stalkers and the slave raiders, and that the woman stays here in my palace because I want her to.” The tall bishop fairly bristled with fiery defiance.

  Tsu-Linn smiled coldly. “Do you realize what you’re saying? Keeping a Concubine is punishable by death even for a hierarch.”

  “Just hold it a minute!” exclaimed Adelinda, striding forward. “I sleep in the palace, not with th
e bishop. Not that I consider it to be any of your business. But I am not anyone’s concubine... sir!”

  An-Shai’s indignant response followed hard upon Adelinda’s. “Certainly not, sir. Lady Adelinda is the leader of the outlanders, and I need her by me to help plan the usage of the horses.”

  “H’mm,” said the initiate, glancing at the open-mouthed Li-Mun. “Very well, then if there has been no impropriety, you may go about your business, Lady Adelinda, with my apologies.”

  “Your apologies are accepted, sir.” Adelinda stalked out of the room, followed by a shocked and confused Li-Mun.

  “Sit down, Bishop An-Shai,” said the initiate, when they were alone. “I see we have some things to talk about. Why have you let the woman run out of control like that?” An-Shai sank wearily into a chair. “Bringing her under control is easier said than done. But I’m confident of success in the near future, sir.”

  “Tell me what you intend to do.”

  “I have Li-Mun working on ways to alienate her countrymen from her, leaving her alone and dependent upon me.

  I’m searching for an appropriate supernatural to use to frighten her into turning to me for help.”

  “Do you intend to make her your concubine?”

  “Certainly not, sir! I’ve always obeyed the rules of the Church.”

  “So you have, but even I can see that this woman is a totally different type from our sweet and submissive females. It would be quite possible for an unusual man such as yourself to fall under her spell.”

  An-Shai flushed. “Hardly, sir. It will give me the greatest pleasure to bring the insolent creature to heel. I anticipate with great joy the moment when she comes crawling to me to beg brokenly for my help and protection, but to actually wish to... er, lie with her..He shuddered. “I don’t find the rules of the Church unduly harsh, as I am told some of my colleagues do.”

  “Hmmph!” The initiate eyed him for a moment, dubiously. The Church’s most useful servants sometimes understood their own motivations the least. The initiate was a cynical man, and had seen a lot of human nature in his day. “In any case, I didn’t come here to discuss your outlanders. What do you hope to accomplish with these giant horses?” An-Shai wearily explained his plans for improving agriculture and transport. “I had hoped with these more efficient methods and by limiting marriages to be able to support the whole population of the Vale without recourse to harsher measures,” he said.

  “Don’t you approve of the use of supematurals to control the people?”

  “No, sir,” said An-Shai, bluntly. “Oh, a few ghosts and goblins to scare would-be evildoers into righteous behavior are a good idea. But night stalkers and their ilk—no. We’re supposed to protect and care for the people, not set such cruel and evil creatures on them. I’m glad the outlanders killed them, and I’ll tell you what: if you send Fire Priests here to corrupt, my people I’ll have the outlanders destroy them, too.”

  “I’m a little surprised to hear you claim to have such complete control of them.”

  “They’re quite willing to fight, sir.”

  “No doubt.” The initiate’s face took on a grave expression. “However, I feel obligated to warn you that if you persist in this extraordinary aberration, that the full power of the curses of the Quadrate God will be called down upon your head.” He spoke these phrases with a rolling solemnity that sent a shiver of apprehension down the bishop’s spine.

  An-Shai took a deep breath and cast his hopeless ambitions away forever. For an instant, a mental picture of Adelinda laughing in this very room flashed across his inner vision. “Nonsense,” he snapped. “Save the stories for the credulous. We both know that the Quadrate God is as much a construct as God the Father and the spirits of the fields. If the curses of the Quadrate God are all I have to worry about,

  I’m a safe man.”

  Brave words notwithstanding, for an apprehensive instant An-Shai expected to be struck down where he sat, until amazingly, the initiate chuckled. “Bravo! Of course we know that, though it isn’t considered polite to shout it out.” Tsu-Linn leaned back in his chair. “We know the Quadrate God’s a fraud, just like every other religion that was ever invented to keep the laity under the ecclesiastical thumb is a fraud.” He leaned forward again, suddenly intense. “But what about me? Am I such a fraud that you feel able to stand against me in a supernatural duel? Are your powers well enough developed? Do you have such a good command of the supernatural and of yourself that you don’t fear to challenge my powers?”

  “If I must, I will.”

  “You would die, terribly.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Tsu-Linn tented his fingers on the desk. “You haven’t asked me why I came, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I’ve heard rumors of these goings-on and came to check them out. You’ve been walking a very thin line, Bishop An-Shai, and I came to see how tottery you are on it.”

  “Now that you know, sir, what are you going to do?” “Submit your name for initiation.”

  An-Shai stared at the initiate, speechless.

  “You can expect to hear in a few weeks if my recommendation has been accepted—it always is. Quit goggling.

  Granted that the religion of the Quadrate God is an utter fraud, the last thing we need in the governing body of the Church is a true believer. Theocracy is the most absolute form of government, but it can only work if the theocrats themselves know better than to fall for the superstitious pap they feed the populace—or the middle-level Church administrators. The penalty for revealing this to anyone—anyone! —is instant death, and don’t think for an instant you won’t be watched every moment. Anyway, you wouldn’t be believed.” Tsu-Linn paused thoughtfully. “Your outlander woman might believe you. Something is going to have to be done about her.”

  An-Shai recovered his breath. “I won’t have her killed.” “Did I suggest such a thing? No, I think you should take her for your first wife, once you’ve got her under control, of course.”

  An-Shai lost his breath for the second time. “Never!” He shuddered eloquently. But it was not entirely a shudder of distaste.

  Tsu-Linn laughed. “Better think about it. Before you can receive the, final initiation you have to be married, and an initiate’s wife can be no common little drudge. It’s a constant struggle for power and supremacy, and having the right wives can make all the difference. The most intelligent, ruthless, ambitious women in Gods land are taken for initiates’ wives. It keeps them out of trouble and it helps their husbands. Mine are right little cutthroats, the darlings.”

  “I told you already that the mere thought of... lying with the woman is distasteful to me.”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t have to make love to her unless you wanted to, and if I were you I certainly wouldn’t try it without her permission; I have a feeling she’d take strong exception.” He chuckled again. “I made that mistake with my third, and I carry the scars to this day—I won’t show you where. But I brought her around, and it was certainly worth the trouble. You have to consider your breeding potential.” An-Shai gasped indignantly. “One way in which religions with a celibate priesthood have insured their own destruction is by excluding the best and brightest from the breeding pool. That’s why our religious men are required to marry,

  and encouraged to marry as many and as bright and ambitious women as they can handle. Think of the children she could give you! We weed out the children of the dull, the unambitious, and the commonplace, and replace them with the children of the bright, the ambitious, and the uncommon.”

  “Changelings!” breathed An-Shai, interested in spite of himself.

  “Exactly. The peasants wake up one morning and find their baby replaced with an exceptionally large, alert, active baby. Their village priest warns them that they must love and care for it as if it were their own, because otherwise the spirits who have taken their own to nurture will fail to care for it properly.”

  “Do the real parents never see their children again?”

 
“Of course they do. I know where all of mine are and what exactly is happening to them.”

  “What happens to the peasant babies?”

  “They are raised to be servants and farmers at the Initiates’ Hall, and are probably the most pampered peasants in Godsland. Of course they are never told their origins.” An-Shai rubbed a hand wearily over his brow. “I still find it hard to believe that I’m to be offered initiation, sir. Things are disorderly here.”

  “I certainly can’t argue with that. You’ll want to get things straightened out here before you report to the Hall for instruction, both for your own sake and so the new bishop won’t find the Vale in turmoil.”

  “I’ll push along the plans to subvert the outlanders.”

  “Yes, do, and I have some suggestions for getting the woman under control, too. You aren’t supposed to learn about this technique until after you’ve been initiated, but I’ll make an exception in your case.”

  “Thank you, sir. The supernatural vision I tried to scare her with didn’t work at all.”

  “We run across people like that occasionally. Hierarchs, for example, who get the idea that they know everything they need to know about the supernatural and decide, from greed or for whatever reason, to break away from the Church. Your Adelinda might well be that willfuj. If anything supports the contention that women ought not to be allowed to learn anything, she certainly does. Educated women are dangerous!”

  “God’s knees, sir, you don’t think all women would be like that if they were allowed to get an education, do you?” An-Shai was startled and upset by the idea.

  “Who’s to know? Certainly some of them would be. There are certain of the liberal initiates—a group to which I do not belong, 1 might add—who think that exceptional girls ought to be educated just as exceptional boys are and inducted into a sort of sisterhood. They maintain that these women could then help with the studies of the four attributes—but you don’t know about that yet, and I’ve said more than is tactful already. Showing them this woman Adelinda ought to convince them that theirs is a risky proposal indeed.”