Valdemar Books

by Lackey, Mercedes

  “Grand,” groaned Lord Breon. “We’ve frightened them, and now they aren’t going to move one way or the other.”

  “Not without a visitation from their miraculous Ghost Cat, is my guess,” Kerowyn agreed, and ran her hand along the top of her hair. She cast a speculative eye at Firesong, who shook his head.

  “Don’t evsn start on what you’re thinking,” he warned. “I wouldn’t create a Ghost Cat illusion for anyone under circumstances like this. Firstly, I don’t know how it’s expected to behave, and secondly, what if it is an Avatar? Are you willing to risk the anger of a god? I’m not! Not even one who’s working outside his own lands!”

  “It was a thought,” she replied wistfully.

  “A bad one,” he countered, leaving no room for further argument. “Why don’t you just set up a siege and hold them in place until they give up and surrender?”

  “They do have to eat, so they are going to come out at some point, but a siege under these conditions is far from ideal,” she responded. “It certainly wasn’t what I had in mind. And only their gods know what they’re planning in there; it could be anything. Remember, only a third of our troops have seen combat. All of theirs have.”

  There’s that sickness of theirs, too; what if part of their plan is to somehow spread it to us ? What are we going to do then? Darian was worried, and he wasn’t the only one, for he heard Lord Breon confide to Eldan in a whisper, “I wish I could just pour oil on that entire nest of vipers and burn them out.”

  “Perhaps we’re pushing them too hard,” Eldan said aloud, in reasoned, measured tones. “After all, these people have been through a very great shock in meeting us; they’ve had their lives threatened, and they’ve seen that we have animal spirits of our own. We meant to intimidate them; we may actually have intimidated them so completely that they feel they are in a corner. What we should do, I think, is to give them time. We need to cultivate patience in dealing with them. In fact, I think we ought to pull back all our visible troops, and leave only the birds as sentries.” He smiled thinly. “They’ve seen that we have birds who might well be totemic spirits with us; the birds standing sentry alone should be enough, because now they will never know when a bird is one of ours or just a simple forest creature.”

  Kerowyn shot him a strange glance, as if she hadn’t expected that from him, began to open her mouth, then closed it again, looking very thoughtful. “That’s got some merit,” she said, after a moment. “What do the rest of you think?”

  Darian kept his mouth shut; he had an idea of his own, and he wasn’t going to broach it. What he didn’t reveal, he couldn’t be forbidden to undertake.

  “Personally, I think that’s reasonable,” Starfall spoke first. “It’s not as if we’re under an arbitrary deadline to get this solved. We can afford to be patient with them.”

  “If they bottle themselves up, their own Summer Fever may solve the problem for us,” Snowfire added.

  “Harsh,” Starfall said, “but true.”

  “Maybe you aren’t under a deadline, but I’ve got Harvesting coming up, and my lady has a wedding planned. She’s going to take it poorly if it’s got to be delayed because we’re playing nursemaid to a lot of greasy, fur-wearing barbarians,” Lord Breon muttered, but he made no further objections.

  “They’ve come out of a terrifying situation, and just when they thought themselves safer, were met by more frightening people.” Eldan spoke as if he had thought this over already. “If we meet them with mercy, who knows how they will react? They could become the best allies Valdemar has ever had! Our ancestors were refugees, just as they are - and who knows, maybe our own forefathers were closer to being greasy fur-wearing barbarians than to us, their descendants.” He cast a glance at Lord Breon who had the grace to look a little ashamed. “We have never refused a refugee because he came with a burden of powerful enemies, and even though the enemy this time is a disease, I don’t see why that should change our attitude.”

  “Give them at least three or four days,” Firesong urged. “That’s my counsel. Who knows, but maybe they’ve bottled themselves up to invoke this Cat Spirit of theirs, and if it is the Avatar of any reasonable deity, it should tell them to be sensible and go along with us!”

  “Oh, surely!” Kerowyn replied, with more than a touch of sarcasm. “I don’t know how many gods you’ve had to deal with in your time, but being sensible has not been on the agenda of many of the ones I’ve come across.”

  “Perhaps not sensible according to your needs and desires, Captain,” Snowfire said with absolute politeness. “But I’m certain it was sensible to those who worshiped those gods - always providing, of course, that the ones interpreting the gods’ will were honest. Case in point - Karse before Solaris.”

  “Huh. Good point.” She sat down and looked all around the circle. “So, pull back and patience it is. Anybody have any objections?”

  Clearly there were none that anyone thought worth mentioning, so Kerowyn declared the meeting at an end, and she and Snowfire left to meet with their respective troops and scouts and give them their new orders.

  The debate in the Healers’ tent had gone on for most of the day, and showed no signs of stopping. Nightwind had joined them, as the only representative of the Hawkbrothers, and she had concurred with the consensus that something would have to be done about the Summer Fever and quickly, before it crossed to the allies.

  “It’s summer now,” Keisha pointed out. “What if another outbreak starts among them? What do we do then?”

  “We’d have to impose some sort of quarantine, I suppose,” began Grenthan.

  “That could be difficult if we’re in the middle of armed conflict with them,” Nightwind said dryly. “Just how would we enforce it? Insist that only healthy people be allowed on the battlefield? Hold inspections for fever and sneezes before anyone can fight?”

  Keisha choked back an involuntary laugh at the absurd image that conjured up; no one else seemed to find it funny, except perhaps Nightwind herself.

  “I wonder - ” she started to say, then stopped.

  “What?” asked Gentian, who had become the default leader at this point.

  “Well, I just wonder why these northerners don’t have any real Healers of their own?” she continued, flushing, thinking that it was probably a stupid question. “I mean, the shaman seems to have done herb-Healing and that sort of thing, but no one uses the Gift. . . .”

  Apparently no one else thought it was a stupid question, because a wary silence descended on the group. Finally Nala cleared her throat uneasily.

  “In Karse, before Solaris, they used to test children for the Gift of Healing and sacrifice them if they were too old or too strong-willed to be indoctrinated into the priesthood,” she said slowly. “You don’t suppose that these barbarians do the same thing, do you?”

  “In Karse they also sacrificed children with Mindspeech, on the grounds that it was a mark of demons,” Gentian reminded her. “But the use of Mindspeech didn’t frighten these people. And I have very clear images from Tyrsell’s gleanings that the shamans have never used the Healing Gift in the way we do. I suspect that Healing is a Gift they either don’t possess or don’t recognize.”

  “If they thought it was an evil thing, they wouldn’t be looking for Healers,” Nightwind added. “No, I don’t think this is a case of doing away with children showing the Gift. Anyone with an untrained, unused Gift of Healing would just go off by himself to get away from the things he started to pick up from everyone else, and that’s hardly unusual behavior among these folk. From what I’ve gleaned, people split off from their clans all the time, either because of feuds, or jealous protection of a good hunting range, or basic dislike of others in the clan.”

  One of the apprentices cleared his throat; this was a young man Keisha would have picked for a scholar, not a Healer. “It makes more sense in a society like theirs for people who don’t fit to go off on their own. They’ll never find a mate, and dissension weakens the gr
oup.”

  A scholar’s reasoning if ever I heard it, but he’s right.

  “Still - wouldn’t at least a few of them learn what the

  Gift meant?” Nala asked. “I’ve known plenty of self-trained Healers.”

  “But those self-trained Healers knew not only that there was such a thing in the first place, but what it meant and what signs to recognize it by,” Nightwind replied. “Not only that, but think of what their lives are like, particularly now! With that much pain and illness all around them, children with the Gift might well shut themselves down completely just out of instinctive self-defense. They’d probably do so long before any other real signs manifested. It’s happened that way before, and if you don’t know that the bad feelings you are getting are coming from other people or that they mean that you can actually help those other people, you’d welcome anything that made them go away.”

  “There are times when I’d welcome it now,” Nala put in wryly.

  At that point, Darian arrived, with a message that made all of their debate moot, at least for a few days. “May I interrupt you?” he asked, poking his head inside the tent, and bringing with him a breath of cooler air.

  “Be my guest,” Gentian responded. “You aren’t interrupting anything that hasn’t been talked to death by now. We’re arguing in circles.”

  “The barbarians have shut themselves up in their camp, and the war council has agreed to pull back and let them settle for a couple of days anyway.” He joined the circle, squeezing in next to Keisha, who obligingly moved over for him. “The thought is that maybe we were a bit too good at giving them a scare, and that they may need some time to stew things over and figure out that we don’t want to wipe them out. Well, some of us don’t. Anyway, no one is going to do anything for the next day or two, or even three. Thought you’d want to know.”

  “That gives us some breathing room,” Gentian said with obvious relief, then looked around the circle. “Go think about these things, and we’ll talk them over tomorrow. Maybe a little sleep will give us a new direction.”

  Keisha already had a direction in mind, but she was going to need Darian’s help to make her plan work. She waited while the others went their separate ways, then said, before Darian could leave, “I’d like to get your opinion on something. May I borrow a little of your time?”

  “Of course!” he agreed, eagerly enough to give her a little thrill of pleasure. “Let’s collect some dinner, and we can talk while we eat.”

  At that point she realized that the chava and vegetables that had been passed around the Healers’ conference had worn off a very long time ago, and she was only too happy to follow his lead.

  He seemed to want real privacy as much as she did, for he found a place near the brook that supplied water for the camp, practically on top of a set of fist- and head-sized water-rounded rocks that broke up the flow, where the babbling waters effectively masked low-voiced speech. “I have an odd feeling that our minds are running along the same lines,” he said, managing to get his dinner eaten while avoiding talking with his mouth full. “So, what did you have in mind?”

  She stared at the water for a moment, phrasing her plan in her mind. “I think we ought to try and catch a barbarian,” she replied. “First of all, we need to be able to talk to them in their own language. We can’t do anything by just going through Tyrsell, not really. Maybe they’ve experienced Mindspeech before, but talking to them in their own language would make them feel more comfortable.”

  “You are either reading my mind, or we’re reasoning along exactly the same lines!” he exclaimed, with muted surprise. “And you are absolutely right, that’s precisely what we need to do. I had it in mind that we weren’t going to really learn what’s going on in their camp unless our watchers knew their tongue. But you have something more in mind than that, don’t you?”

  “We need to find out directly whether or not this Summer Fever is in their camp, and just what they expect a Valdemaran Healer to be able to do about it,” she told him firmly. “At that point, we’ll have a basis for negotiations, don’t you think?”

  “Negotiations or not, we do need to know if there’s anyone that can spread the Fever to us, absolutely.” He toyed with a bit of bread, his expression so opaque that Keisha couldn’t read it.

  “We aren’t going to get any of that from the leaders; they probably have some stupid code about fighting honor, and they’ll certainly have their status tied up in warfare. We’ll have to catch someone ordinary, someone who isn’t a fighter, who’d be perfectly happy if there wasn’t a battle, or at least wouldn’t be looking to start a fight,” she continued. “An old man, or a woman, perhaps.”

  “Or a child.” He mulled that over, while she held her breath, hoping that his answer would be the same as hers. “Whatever, it should be someone who’ll sneak out of the camp alone, so with you, me, Kel, and Tyrsell at most, we can overpower him long enough for Tyrsell to get the language.”

  “Exactly!” She beamed at him. “I guessed you’d be clever enough to see that - and willing to have me along to help!”

  “Willing? Havens, I can’t see trying this without you. Kel can subdue someone, but we’re going to have to immobilize our man, and Kel’s claws aren’t dexterous enough for that.” He grinned back. “Now this is just what I meant about you having good sense, with courage to match it!”

  She flushed and looked down at her stew bowl, eating very rapidly while she tried to subdue her blushes.

  “When do you want to try this?” she asked. “And - I know you’re not enamored of her, but I think we ought to bring Shandi in on this, too. She’s very clever, and she’s another set of hands.”

  “What about that Companion of hers?” he replied, skeptically. “I’m sure she wouldn’t give us away, but what’s to stop him from tattling to Kerowyn’s Sayvil?”

  She covered her mouth with her hand, embarrassed at her own stupidity. It was just so alien to think of Shandi with a Companion! “Oh, I completely forgot about him - No, you’re right. We shouldn’t bring her into this. Karles would have to tattle to Sayvil, especially after the way that Sayvil dressed him down. And what Sayvil knows, Kerowyn will soon find out. Companions are pretty bad about keeping any secrets but their own.”

  “Well, as to when - we can try tonight, have Kuari keep a watch on the camp and let us know if anyone from the women’s fire sneaks out.” He scratched his head, thinking. “My guess is, the women will probably try to get out under cover of darkness to fetch water, and some of the older children might have some snares out in the forest they’ll want to check. With our people withdrawing, they aren’t going to be quite as willing to do without fresh food and water when there’s no apparent danger. I know I was perfectly capable of running snares when I was only seven or eight; I can’t see why they wouldn’t be able to. During a siege, every little bit of food is valuable, and a boy might well get manhood status by daring to go outside the palisade to bring in rabbits.”

  She considered that; although she didn’t like the idea of trying to run about in the dark, she could see that this would offer the best opportunity. “We’ll have to catch our quarry far enough away from the barbarian camp that help won’t be able to come,” she said cautiously. “It’ll have to be so far that even if our prey raises a fuss, she won’t be heard, for there’s no point in taking the chance that someone would mount a rescue. It could get touchy when someone vanishes out in the forest, you know.”

  “With any luck, the barbarians will think that a forest monster caught her,” Darian replied, with just a touch of callousness. Then he looked faintly apologetic at his own attitude. “Oh, I know that sounds bad - it’s just that I still can’t help but think back, and want some kind of revenge.”

  She nodded, fully able to understand his feelings. “Revenge doesn’t get you anything productive, though. And it tends to breed more of the same.”

  “Yes,” he sighed. “You know, sometimes it’s an awful lot of trouble to be a civ
ilized, reasonable, passably good person.”

  She thought back on all the times when she’d been tempted herself to just lash out at the world - the things she could have inflicted on poor, stupid Piel, for instance - and nodded. “I know,” she replied, with profound understanding. “Believe me, I know.”

  “If we’re going to keep doing this, we’ve got to get a kyree on our side,” Keisha whispered to Darian, as they crept, slowly and with many pauses for Darian to check with Kuari, through the undergrowth near the barbarian camp. She had made it very clear to him that she had no intention of climbing through the trees, and with some reluctance, he agreed that she was probably justified in refusing. She didn’t have the skills, the practice, or even Kuari to lend her his sight; she’d be going blindly, depending on Darian, and hoping she didn’t make a fatal false step. The tree route would be extremely difficult by daylight, but impossible for her at night. No matter how much she trusted Darian’s competence, she didn’t trust it that much.

  Kel was with Kuari in the trees above, Tyrsell trailing along with them below. And thanks be to all the gods, Shandi is still sleeping like a bag of rocks, or she ‘d have found out what we were going to do, I just know it.

  Keisha had thought she was used to moving through the woods, but it was a different proposition in this thick, damp darkness. Sudden noises startled her, twigs caught at her clothing and her hair, and she couldn’t seem to go three steps without making noises that sounded very loud to her. Darian was able to slip through the undergrowth as easily and noiselessly as a bit of mist; by contrast, she blundered through everything in her path like a blind calf.

  Nervous sweat plastered her hair to her scalp and her shirt to her back, and it was a tremendous relief when Darian’s hand on her wrist signaled a halt, and they crouched in the shelter of some bushes. “Kuari says there’s someone sneaking out of the camp right now,” he whispered. “It’s not a warrior, so this might just be our best chance at getting what we need. It looks as if he’s coming this way, so we’ll just stay where we are and let Kel ambush him.”