The Harriers Book One: Of War and Honor

by S. N. Lewitt

This time the Comes Riton denied it more forcefully, "That would require a plan, and many men to carry it out over a long time. The Other Colonists are not capable of such action. They have no aptitude for such plans."

  "But some of them kidnapped your clone," Haakogard reminded him, and continued sarcastically. "Well, you may be correct, and the Other Colonists have no reason to come against you now. Still, it seems to me that their performance was very convenient." He looked from the Comes Riton to the last two dead animals. "Tell me: do most animal trainers use such formidable beasts?"

  "This troupe certainly does. They are famous for their work with the most dangerous animals," said the Comes Riton as if that settled the question. "They have been summoned here many times before, and they have performed honorably. I do not want minor skills around when there are major ones to be had." He looked toward Navigator Zim again. "I never thought they would lose control of their animals, and I apologize for putting you into danger, no matter how inadvertent it was."

  "Who is to say that they lost control?" Haakogard asked, his voice just loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room. "What if this was intended from the first, and they waited for the opportunity your summons provided?"

  The Comes Riton glowered; there was a short, hostile silence. "You are new here, and for that reason I will not take offense at what you say. But I warn you that you are not to question me in this manner again. If you do not accept my truth, you must pose your disbelief as a question relating to known facts. Anything less would impugn my honor, and there would be trouble between us. Do you comprehend what I am saying, Mere Line Commander?" His reprimand seemed less insulting because of the sound of the voice delivering it. "Do you comprehend?"

  "I hear what you say," said Haakogard.

  "I remind you that you are here because I petitioned the Magnicate Alliance for support. You are here at my behest and to do my bidding." His face was rigid with fury, but still his voice held them with its resonant beauty.

  'That's a thought over-simple, Most Excellent," said Group Line Chief Dachnor. "We are here to do the bidding of the Magnicate Alliance: the Alliance has ordered us to work for you, as they ordered us to work for Samblahrazi on Kousrau two years ago and Ngomai-yn on Drought Central the year before that." He watched as the next-to-the-last animal was hauled away by five soldiers. "We answer to the Alliance, not to you." He smiled a little. "No offense intended, Most Excellent Comes."

  The Comes Riton glared at Dachnor and then transferred his baleful gaze to Haakogard. "I will inform the Magnicate Alliance of your statements and your actions. I will praise where it is deserved and I will upbraid where such is merited. It is clear to me that your understanding is imperfect, and so I will not hold you entirely accountable for what has been said here." His voice was as icy as it was possible for it to be.

  "You must do as you think best, Most Excellent Comes," said Haakogard, deliberately making himself relax. "You have your duty and you must do it. Just as we must." He signaled to Navigator Zim. "Come on. All of you. We need to confer. We have reports that must be sent." He held out his hand to Zim and was pleased when she took it. His bow to the Comes Riton was so perfect it bordered on insolence.

  In a surge of speed unexpected in so absurd-looking a being, the Mromrosi shot across the room on six of his eight limbs, his masses of curls a shade of yellow none of the crew had ever seen before. He stopped beside Haakogard and said, "The Emerging Planet Fairness Court will want to know about this."

  "Emerging Planet Fairness—" began the Comes Riton, his sand-colored eyes filled with mockery. "What ridiculous—" Haakogard held up his hand. "It's not part of the Magnicate Alliance, Most Excellent Comes. The Mromrosi is an observer only."

  "That? An observer?" Watching angrily, the Comes Riton was about to leave when he rounded on Haakogard one last time, pointing toward Thunghalis. "Take that offal with you, then." He turned away and was gone before the Petit Harriers could leave ahead of him and bring him further disgrace.

  2

  "It would be better if you would let me die," said Thunghalis; he steadfastly refused to answer to his civinymic or his rank. "That I should live and see the gauntlet fall!" He had lamented these two things for the last several hours. It was very late; on Neo Biscay the days were a little more than twenty-nine Standard Hours long, and the Harriers were feeling the difference. The Adjusted Hour clocks all seemed to mock them, claiming it was only two-twenty. In the staff room of the Yngmoto most of those questioning Thunghalis were finding it increasingly difficult to stay awake.

  "No, it wouldn't be better for you to die," said Group Leader Perzda in her levelheaded way. "Unless you want to leave your Comes exposed to his enemies and I promise you he is exposed. Your system exposes him." She leaned back in her chair. "Tonight's entertainment was just a warning, you realize? Something to put you on notice. You were made to see how easily the enemy can reach you and how little you can do to stop them. Next time the danger will be greater for the Comes and for everyone around here. Without your help, he might as well surrender now and save his—"

  "Surrender? He is the Most Excellent Comes. To whom would the Comes Riton surrender?" Thunghalis scoffed desperately.

  "Why, to his alternate, of course. They are both Comes Riton, and their claims are of equal merit. They are both authenticable clones. From what you have said, the alternate exists to take the place of the Comes should any misfortune befall him in his youth." Perzda sounded more bored than tired.

  "But that is unacceptable. It has never happened. All alternates have been devivified when the Comes Riton inherits. Thunghalis stared from one of the Harriers to another. "What you suggest is . . . absurd."

  "And how would you know for certain? The clones are indistinguishable one from another. Though this clone was kidnapped when he was very young, he is still legitimately the Comes Riton as much as your leader is." Jarrick Riven looked once at the Mromrosi and shook his head. "How would you handle this mess?"

  "It is for you to handle it, not I: I am an observer," said the Mromrosi.

  Perzda took up the argument again. "No man sworn to follow the Comes Riton could touch his clone without dishonoring himself—that's what you've said, isn't it? It would be treason to defend the Comes Riton against any clone of the Comes Riton. So who is to stand between the Most Excellent Comes and his alternate? We Petit Harriers? Is that why we were sent for?"

  "Of course," said Thunghalis, turning sullen. "We are sworn to protect the Comes Riton." He frowned. "The alternate must be devivified. That should have been arranged years ago.

  "The Comes Riton . . ." He hesitated. "But it wasn't settled properly when the alternate was taken."

  "And the alternate is still out there, with the same personality and leadership as your current Comes," said Riven. "You have two Comes Ritons, haven't you?"

  "In point of fact," said Perzda thoughtfully, "they probably do not have the same personalities, not quite. The alternate was not raised and educated with the current phase, and what he has been taught and the life he has led is still unknown to us. We need to establish contact with these Other Colonists to find out what became of the alternate clone. That's first. Then we can figure out how to go from there." She glanced over at the Mromrosi.

  "Anything you want to add?"

  "What you are saying is fair," the Mromrosi replied, and was rewarded with a shocked stare from Thunghalis. "Permit me to observe that your methods of selecting your leader, Gate Breaker, by failing to anticipate a time when two clones might be rivals for the position of Comes, have created the current dangerous impasse. I advise against such arrangements."

  "Why do you listen to . . . that?" Thunghalis demanded, pointing at the Mromrosi, his voice rising.

  "Because he is here to observe, and the Magnicate Alliance often works in conjunction with the Emerging Planet Fairness Court," said Haakogard, not wanting to have to explain anything more.

  "What could something like that observe?" Thunghalis attempted
to hide his shock but was not wholly successful. "It—"

  "He, or so he says," Haakogard interjected.

  "He. How can something like that comprehend what humans do?" Thunghalis set his jaw.

  "We comprehend many things, many interesting things, things done by those much odder than humans are," answered the Mromrosi with a faint show of what Haakogard now recognized as amusement. He changed from candy-pink to anticamouflage orange. "Surely you did not think that everyone in the galaxy came from Old Earth, did you? Or was human?"

  "No," Thunghalis lied; he watched the Harriers for some hint on how to behave toward this peculiar being.

  The Mromrosi went silent but continued bright orange; Haakogard suspected the Mromrosi was laughing.

  "All right then; we'll have to make contact with these Other Colonists," Haakogard said to Thunghalis. "We have to know what the stakes are if we support you. We'll have to decide if we ought to support you. The Alliance has guidelines, and we have to hold to them." It was not entirely true: the Grand Harriers were bound by convention and protocol, politics, glory and diplomatic ritual. The Petits had less prestige, fewer restraints, and much more interesting assignments than their exalted upper regiment.

  "I suppose I will have to accept that," said Thunghalis, not seeming very pleased with what Haakogard said.

  "So where do we start?" Haakogard made a point of asking Communications Leader Alrou Malise. He wanted to encourage Thunghalis to speak without overtly questioning him; if Thunghalis would only correct him, he could learn a great deal. "I assume both sides are armed."

  Thunghalis coughed. "The Other Colonists have sticks and stones and bows and arrows. There is little they can do to harm us."

  "Well," said Haakogard carefully, "they managed quite well with animals. They must have other skills as well. We'll accept that both sides are prepared to fight. Do you think we can make contact without combat?" He did not wait for Thunghalis to claim this was ridiculous; his attention was directly on Malise.

  "I think maybe the Mromrosi's right," Malise said. "This whole system is eating its tail. I don't think we can assume anything until we learn something about the Other Colonists directly. If we can speak to the alternate clone, so much the better. We shouldn't accept the Comes Riton's explanations without question." He pinched the bridge of his long nose. "Tomorrow I'll think more clearly."

  "What a subtle hint!" Navigator Zim marveled. She had had little to say since they returned from the disastrous banquet. "Not that I don't agree. I'm exhausted."

  Haakogard leaned back, trying hard not to yawn. They were right, it was very late and they were all tired. "All right; that's it for now," he said. "Thunghalis will have Guest Cabin number two; make sure he has a Bunter. No after-watch games tonight. I'll expect to see you at nine S. A. Any objections?''

  "Everyone? All four ships?" asked Group Line Chief Dachnor.

  "Yes, everyone," said Haakogard.

  Group Line Chief Fennin made a disapproving noise.

  Dachnor was about to join this protest, then he grinned. "We'll be here. We'll be asleep, but we'll be here." He rose, stretching without apology. "Fennin will, too. I'll have all the sentry stands operational by then."

  "How many did you deploy?" asked Group Leader Perzda, who knew how many there were because she had ordered them.

  "Fourteen," said Dachnor at once. "We'll have them running by eight S. H." He regarded Thunghalis carefully. "What happens if this alternate Comes Riton attacks Civuto poMoend?"

  Thunghalis made a gesture of hopelessness. "If we know that it is the alternate, there is nothing we will be able to do in honor. We are sworn never to attack the Comes Riton in any of his phases, and that must include the alternate. To oppose him is unthinkable."

  The Mromrosi went from orange to a pale, strawlike yellow.

  "Nuh-huh," said Haakogard.

  By ten S. A. it was agreed that Communications Leader Malise and Navigator Zim would be the ones to approach the Other Colonists. They were closeted at once with Thunghalis to be filled in on the immediate past of Neo Biscay, especially what little was known about the kidnapping of the alternate clone.

  "You have to remember it was Syclicis," Thunghalis was saying, "who caused all the trouble, stealing the clone to be her child. If she had not taken the alternate, none of this would have happened. At the time she announced what she had done she was already safely into the hills. Forces were sent out to try to recover the alternate, but in those crags, the Other Colonists have the advantage over us, and they escaped with Syclicis at their head. She claimed that she was descended from the leaders of the Other Colonization and would be a ruler herself if the first phase of the Comes Riton had not destroyed the strongholds of her clan when the Second Colony arrived. But what else can you expect of one of the Other Colonists? To hear them speak, all of them are the children of rulers and high-ranking officials. You would think that there was never a peasant or a farmer among them. They claim we forced them to become what they are, but how could we?" He slapped his enormous hands down flat on the conference table. "She stole the alternate because she said she was entitled to him."

  "You mentioned they have no cities, only scattered towns and moving camps," said Zim. "Is it because your Colony wiped out their cities as the Other Colonists have claimed in the past?"

  "Of course not. Any cities they may have had were on the Low Continent and we had nothing to do with their destruction. Don't be obtuse. These people are not capable of building a city, let alone defending it and maintaining it." Thunghalis' patience was growing thin. "They live in small camps. They move around as their whim suits them. They are as wild as the beasts they tame. They've always been like this, and if you ask me, they were this way from the start."

  "And that makes them hard to catch?" Zim suggested, expecting no answer.

  "They are not being hunted; there is no reason for them to live as they do but that it is their wish to be vagabonds." He was growing uncomfortable. "We offered to assist them at first, but all our overtures were rejected."

  Zim appeared not to notice as she pressed on, a speculative light in her dark eyes. "And yet last night I heard three different references to the great lost city of the Other Colony. Why is that, if they have no cities?"

  "There are always myths," said Thunghalis, and attempted to change the subject. "Do you think it was Other Colonists who tried to attack you as you arrived yesterday afternoon? It was not—"

  "I think," said Malise, giving Zim the opportunity to muster her questions again, "that legends and myths are often based on fact. I think that for the First Colony to survive at all they had to find ways to protect themselves, and that probably means a city or a town, or more than one city or town. Your group of colonists did that when they arrived, didn't they? The history we were zapped said that there were seven thousand colonists in the First Colonization, enough for one or two fortress towns. They had supplies enough for one." He cocked his head. "My home world is a lot like Neo Biscay, and we've got many hill fortresses. You're a soldier; you understand these things. And your Second Colonization started out with twelve thousand colonists and four walled cities. Isn't poMoend the smallest of them?"

  Thunghalis was not willing to concede the point. "Only seven thousand people would vanish amid these crags. All they are is feuding clans, consumed with internal rivalries. All the clans practice free-breeding, and there's no record kept of consanguinity. They live in chaos."

  "Chaos protects them, though, doesn't it, by making them hard to identify." Malise smiled with false sympathy.

  "Speaking of identity," said Zim, "is there anything known about Syclicis, other than that she kidnapped the alternate? Is she alive or dead?"

  "Who knows?" asked Thunghalis as if bored. "There are rumors that she had died; she would be very old if she has not. Occasionally there are rumors she is still alive, but no proof. Since the Other Colonists have no clones, we have thought she must be dead."

  "Unfortunate," said N
avigator Zim. She stood up. Her uniform was utilitarian and austere but that in no way diminished her beauty. "Is there someone who it would be helpful to seek out, if not Syclicis?"

  "Well," said Thunghalis shortly, no longer cooperative, "you might speak to the alternate."

  She gave him the full benefit of her smile. "Yes. That is what we intend to do."

  As soon as the scooter was set down and secured, a dozen men surrounded it, each one armed with primitive weapons; they were somewhat taller than their Civuto poMoend equivalents and were certainly much poorer. Most of them had long hair clubbed at the backs of their necks, and all wore beards. Their clothes were made of homespun cloth and ground-cured leather.

  "We're officers of the Magnicate Alliance Second Harriers, called the Petits," said Navigator Zim, adjusting her translator so that the announcement would carry. "We have been sent here by the Magnicate Alliance to answer a complaint. We want to talk to you. Are you willing to speak with us?"

  The men surrounding her kept her under close guard, three of them moving near enough to make their pikes a threat. They listened intently to the mechanical voice, and made signs to one another as Navigator Zim continued to explain the purpose of their presence on Neo Biscay.

  "We need your help to locate this missing clone. We guarantee your protection, and we will not judge anyone until all the facts are known. We cannot finish here until the clone has been located and the entire dispute resolved. That is what our leader has promised to do. If this clone is making a claim on the Comes, we will do what we can to settle the question. If he is not interested in the title, then we will make sure the Second Colonists understand; so that there will be no further conflicts between you, and neither group will have to suffer."

  A steel-haired man with scarred hands stepped forward, raising his mace-and-chain. He swung the weapon suggestively, smiling at the crinkling sound it made. "Prove it," he said via the translator.

  "Fight to prove our good and peaceful intent?" Zim asked, although she had already palmed her stunner. "Isn't that at cross-purposes?"