Dynasty of Rogues

by Jane Fletcher

  “Over here,” the major called out, summoning the scattered members of her band.

  Loke studied the assembled Guards. Their uniforms held so much gold braid and emblems that it had to be the expedition’s entire officers cadre.

  “There’s no route up, ma’am,” one of them said.

  “You’ve got swords. Hack your way through.”

  Judging by the expressions, this was a novel idea to the officers. Hesitantly at first, they put the plan into action. Within five minutes they had cleared a path through the border weed and were continuing up the hillside. Not one had glanced in Loke’s direction.

  Once their voices were fading, Loke rolled from her hiding spot, grinning partly with relief and partly from amusement at the Guards. There was no need to cut a route through border weed—the springy lacework of stems was so soft you could simply roll over it. Only the noise it created had stopped her doing it when they cornered her. Loke followed the Guards’ trail, but now keeping well back.

  The vegetation continued to get lower and denser. Eventually the trees thinned out and ended in a ragged fringe. The top of the hill was covered in waist-high brushwood, mainly honey bramble and dover fern. Only a few isolated hagwood firs broke through this matting, their trunks knotted and twisted from exposure to the wind. A hundred meters away, an outcrop of rocks crested the top of the ridge. The fist of gray granite stood some five meters high. The Guards were huddled in conversation by its base.

  Loke studied them from the cover of a tall patch of honey bramble. Why had all the officers come to such a remote location to talk? What were they saying that they did not want their subordinates to overhear? Rikako had bragged about getting close enough to eavesdrop on some Guards. Loke’s lips twisted in a sneer. If the arrogant little shit could do it, so could she. Loke dropped to a low crouch and started working her way closer.

  She was just getting within earshot when the Guards broke from their debate. Loke grimaced in frustration. What had they been talking about? However, rather than return down the hill, the Guards’ attention turned to the rocks. After a few seconds of shuffling around, one of them began to climb. The obvious explanation was to use the rocks as a viewpoint.

  Loke shrank under the deepest cover she could find. Even so, from up high, her position might be visible. To her relief, though, once the Guard reached the top of the rocks, it became clear that her interest was purely to the east, on the other side of the hill.

  “Can you see it?” the major called out.

  “Um…um. Yes, ma’am. Yes, I can.” The Guard’s voice went from uncertainty to elation.

  “How far?”

  “A day, maybe.”

  “The Goddess be praised. Do we need to cross this hill?”

  The Guard turned north. “No, ma’am. If we follow the route we’re on, we’ll join up with another valley that will lead us there.”

  “Well done. You can come down.”

  The Guard scrambled from the rocks and re-joined her comrades. The group had barged their way through the dover fern, tramping the fronds into the mud. They now returned by the same route, traveling in single file and passing within a dozen meters of Loke. As they went by, she heard the major say, “We’ll make an early camp and set off at first light tomorrow. Our food will last till we get there.”

  “It’s been tight going.”

  “The Goddess would not desert us.”

  “The women will be happy to come off half rations.”

  Their voices faded away. Loke chewed her lip, thoughtfully. The Guards were almost out of food—so much for Rikako’s estimate that they had enough for twenty days. Although, on second thought, Loke considered that nobody knew how long the Guards had been in the wilderness before they were spotted.

  She looked at the granite outcrop. What had the Guards been trying to find? And why had so many officers come to look for it? From what she had overheard, it sounded like a supply dump, or maybe a rendezvous point with a better provisioned detachment—the very things Gerry Baptiste said to watch out for. Loke had to learn more before she reported back. Maybe if it was an unmanned supply dump, the Rangers would be able to raid it before the Guards arrived.

  Loke waited until the Guards were well gone before approaching the rocks. Quickly, she scrambled up to where the observer had stood. The trees on the eastern side of the hill grew taller and closer to the summit, obscuring the view. Was this why the observer had needed to climb up? The mist and low cloud also made for poor visibility.

  The eastern horizon was filled with a line of high hills that Loke recognized as the Longstop Range, the last barrier before reaching the Homelands. Between the Longstops and where Loke stood was a flat region, about twenty kilometers wide, containing trees and absolutely nothing else.

  Loke shook her head in confusion. Apart from the absence of a flag or other marker, the observer had given the distance as a day’s travel, which made no sense. Even if you counted that the Guards would only cover thirty kilometers a day, and allowing for the long route around the top of the valley, this would put them at the pass over the Longstops, and out of view from the rock. What had the Guard been looking for? And what had she seen?

  Loke turned to look back at where she had been hiding in the undergrowth, trying to assess the observer’s exact line of sight, when a flash of red at the edge of the woods alerted her. The Guards were returning.

  Loke dropped flat so she would not be skylined. If they came all the way back, surely the Guards would still not want to climb the rocks again. But if they did, where would she hide? The bare granite offered no cover. Carefully Loke slid to the edge, on the side away from the Guards. She looked down. On this side, the drop was over six meters, and the ground was littered with loose boulders. She did not want to jump, but did she have the time to climb down? Did she need to?

  The Guards were now close enough to hear their voices. The major’s was the loudest, clearly angry. “Patel, you go up and check this time. Take Rivelle with you. We can’t afford to wander around out here any longer. Once we’re over the range we’ve three days’ ride before we get back to civilization. Make sure you are absolutely certain this time. The pass is between a ridge rising in three steps on one side, and a higher hill with a sheer face on the north.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. I thought that was what I saw before.”

  “For the love of the Goddess. Thought is not good enough.”

  Loke looked around frantically. They were going to climb up again and she was trapped. She slipped over the edge and began to feel her way down. The rock face was more difficult on this side, with an awkward overhang, and already Loke could hear the sounds of climbing on the other side. She would have liked to get to the ground and find cover quickly, but she was out of time. The guards were standing on top, and all Loke could do was hug herself tight to the rocks where she was, praying that the Guards would not come close to the edge—praying that they would not look down.

  The two Guards spoke together quietly. “That’s the pass, sure enough.”

  “I don’t know why the major wanted to come back. Burstein said she saw it.”

  “Kaur’s rattled. So far the women have accepted the story that half rations are part of wilderness training. They won’t believe it if they start dropping from starvation. And it wouldn’t look good on her record.”

  “And if they knew that Major Kaur has lost the map...”

  The other gave a soft laugh and then raised her voice. “Yes, ma’am. It’s the pass that’ll take us home.”

  Loke rested her forehead on the rocks in disbelief, which changed to mockery aimed partly at herself. Of course. The Guards were lost and simply looking for the way home. Only the officers had come up the hill, because only they could be trusted with the knowledge that the major needed both hands to find her own ass in the dark.

  Loke looked up. The Guards had not gotten close to the edge, and now they were going down. She drew an easier breath.

  “Hey. W
hat—”

  “Ma’am, it’s a—”

  Sudden loud shouts made Loke jerk her head right. A group of three Guards had wandered around the rocks and spotted her. Loke had to act quickly. She kicked away from the granite, hoping that she would land safely. Unluckily, her foot hit on a boulder at an oblique angle, which threw her sideways and wrenched her ankle. Loke crashed to the ground.

  For a moment, she lay dazed, but the sounds of the Guards were close, and getting closer. Fear surged through her, giving her the impetus to shove herself to her feet and start running. The pain in her ankle was forgotten. If only she could get to the cover of the trees, surely she would be able to lose the incompetent Guards. More sounds told of others joining the pursuit, but she did not look back. Her attention was on the line of trees, downhill.

  Loke charged through a patch of soft ferns. Her foot snagged on a dead branch, and she stumbled into a patch of honey bramble. The scratches she hardly noticed, but the thorns latched onto her clothes. Desperately she fought to tear herself loose. To the sound of ripping material, she pulled free and continued running.

  The footsteps behind were nearing, and then a heavy weight landed on her back, throwing her to the ground again, and driving the breath from her body. Her face was pressed into the mud. Hands grabbed her shoulders, and a voice called out, “Ma’am, I’ve got her.”

  Loke struggled, but more Guards were arriving. Her arms were caught and pulled behind her, and then she was hauled to her knees. The point of a blade touched her throat. Loke looked at the ring of Guards surrounding her. More arrived. Someone tied her hands and removed her sword and trail knife. Excited half sentences leaped from Guard to Guard.

  “She was just hanging there listening...”

  “How long do you think...”

  “How many more...”

  The circle parted and the major arrived—Major Kaur, the Guards had called her. The voices fell silent. The major stared at Loke for several seconds and then turned to her subordinates. “This is what I’ve been telling you. We probably picked them up ages ago. You never know they’re there until they attack, which is why you can’t afford to take chances. That’s why you never go wandering around on your own. Always make sure there are at least ten of you in any group.” Kaur’s eyes returned to Loke. “It’s all too easy to underestimate these heretics. They’re at home in the Wildlands like savages.”

  “Um...ma’am.” One of the other Guards spoke up. “Maybe she could guide us back. Since they know the region so well.”

  Major Kaur gave a dismissive snort. “She’d lie and send us chasing in circles. You couldn’t believe a word she said. When we get her to Landfall, the Intelligence Corps will wring the truth out of her, if she knows anything worth hearing.”

  A raw panic gripped Loke. Death she could have faced, but not being taken alive to the Intelligence Corps prison in Landfall. The remnants of her courage shattered. Everyone knew about the interrogation techniques they used. Her thoughts jumped wildly, desperate, barely rational.

  “Please. Let me go. I’ll make a trade.” Loke hardly knew what she was saying.

  “Guards do not trade with those who defy the Goddess. She has delivered you into our hands. We will not disregard her gift.”

  “But I can give you—”

  “You can give me nothing. Everything you know will be extracted by the Intelligence Corps. There’s nothing of value in your pitiful existence, apart from a few clues that might speed our task of cleansing the world of your heresy.”

  “I...I...” Loke’s mind was drowning in panic. One idea drifted past, a straw to cling to. “The captain’s daughter. Our captain. Captain Coppelli. Her daughter is in our patrol. If I help you to catch her, let me go. She’s a corporal, she knows more than me. And she’ll have overheard her mother speaking. She’ll know more to tell you. Please. Let me go.”

  “You’d sell out one of you own comrades?”

  “Yes...please,” Loke begged. The walls of the Corps dungeon seemed to solidify around her. She could feel tears in her eyes as she stared up at Kaur.

  At first there was little of comfort, but then a more thoughtful look settled on the major’s face. She fixed a critical gaze on Loke. “And just how would you propose doing that?”

  Chapter Five—Betrayal

  Tanya pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders and shivered. The rain had stopped, but hanging around was making her cold. Of the various roles in monitoring the Guards, rotation backup was the one she liked the least. She could not relax, but equally, she could not see the Guards, so she had no idea what was going on. The last whistled signal from the contacts had been over half an hour earlier.

  “They’ve been stopped a long time. Do you think the Guards are making camp for the night?” Sasha Li asked.

  Tanya looked at the gray sky. “A bit early. But they probably don’t have much idea themselves, the way they’ve been dithering back and forth the last few days.”

  “I know what you mean. I’ve seen Guards before, wandering aimlessly in circles. I hadn’t realized they needed special training on how to do it.”

  Tanya grinned. At that moment a fresh whistled signal from the contacts sounded through the forest. Request officer presence.

  After sharing a quick worried glance with Sasha, Tanya signaled back. Question. Danger.

  No. Request officer presence.

  The signal was coming from the hilltop, rather than the valley where the Guards had been.

  Tanya looked at Sasha again and shrugged. “Oh, well. Hopefully it will be something interesting.”

  “And not just Rikako being a jerk.”

  Tanya shared a last grin and set off on foot in the direction of the signal.

  Although sunset was another two hours away, the forest was gloomy beneath the overcast sky. The breeze through the branches sent bursts of drips splattering down. The air felt heavy and slick. As she got higher, the trees thinned out and the light improved. At one point, she stopped to signal, Where are you? and received a locating whistle in reply.

  Tanya reached the open hilltop, largely devoid of trees. Only a thick matting of grass, bramble, and ferns covered the ground. An outcrop of granite marked the summit, a hundred meters away. Standing alone at the base was Loke Stevenson.

  Loke had clearly been looking out for Tanya and beckoned her over urgently as soon as she appeared. Tanya wove her way between the waist-high ground cover, wondering what was going on and where Rikako was. When she was halfway to the rocks she met up with more tracks through the dover fern. Clear in the mud was the imprint of Guards’ boots. By the look of it, at least ten had passed that way.

  “Guards have been up here?” she called to Loke.

  “They were. They’ve gone now. But I’ve got to show you this.”

  Tanya cast about the hilltop, confused as to what might be of interest. Nothing out of the ordinary was visible. Then from the corner of her eye, she thought she caught a glimpse of a bush moving, and maybe a sliver of bright red peeking through beneath the fronds. However, when she looked back it had gone. Tanya shook her head and trotted onto the rocks. Loke would hardly be lounging around in the open if Guards were anywhere close at hand.

  Loke stood at the side of the outcrop, leaning against the vertical rock face. As Tanya got close, she saw that Loke’s clothes were mud-stained. A graze marked her cheek. Despite her casual pose, she was tense. Her eyes were downcast, and her hands were clenched in a tight double fist. Yet only when Tanya stopped two meters away did she realize that something was wrong—seriously wrong. Both Loke’s sword and trail knife were missing.

  Loke looked up and met her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  Tanya had no more than a second to puzzle over the words. A Guard major stepped from behind the rocks, her sword tip touching Loke’s ribs. Tanya leapt back, turning, ready to run.

  Across the hilltop, the undergrowth burst upward as a dozen Guards emerged from cover, surrounding her. Tanya froze and then backed to
ward the rocks. She ripped her sword from its scabbard. The odds were hopeless, but she would go down fighting. Around the rocks, the Guards were closing in. Tanya looked toward Loke, partly in amazement, partly in appeal.

  Loke seemed lost in a daze of remorse, but then a new firmer expression crossed her face. In a sharp burst of movement, she elbowed the Guard major in the stomach and dived out of reach of the sword. The major was clearly caught out by the sudden maneuver and reeled backward. Loke slid into place by Tanya’s side.

  Irrationally relieved that she would not die alone, Tanya fumbled at her belt for her trail knife to pass over. She was unprepared for the hand that clenched around her right wrist, immobilizing her sword, and then the second hand that swung into her face as a fist. The blow cracked her head back on the rocks. A sharp wrench dragged her to her knees and loosened her sword from her grip. It fell to the soft earth with a thud.

  Dazed and bewildered, Tanya’s eyes fixed on her attacker’s feet, a pair of Ranger’s boots. And then the Guards were upon her, knocking her flat. Her thoughts struggled to catch up with her eyes, but at last the knowledge sank in that her initial assailant had been Loke Stevenson.

  By the time Tanya’s head had cleared, both from the blow and the shock, her hands were tied behind her. She was dragged to her feet. Wetness covered her lower face, sticky and salty to taste. The punch to the face had given her a nosebleed. She could feel the blood dripping off her chin.

  “There. I did it. I did what I said. Now you have to let me go.” Loke was babbling.

  The major walked forward, massaging her stomach where Loke had struck her. “You attacked me. That wasn’t in our agreement.”

  “If I hadn’t, you’d never have taken her alive.”

  “Maybe.” The major stood in front of Tanya. “I am Major Kaur of the 16th Company of Temple Guards, and you are Tanya Coppelli. Daughter to the self-styled Captain Coppelli, leader of the ragtag mob that call themselves Rangers among the heretics.”

  Tanya said nothing. She glared over the major’s shoulder at Loke, unable to credit the depth of the betrayal.