by Brian Thomas
Zun nodded in agreement. “I will send word to Shushan that you and the goods are on route, if she can she will meet you, boosting your guard in the field just as we need it.”
Zanwen raised both eyebrows curiously. “A woman will travel with your new guards? Will this not slow them down?”
Zun smiled broadly. “She is a proud woman and I do not think she would allow such a thing to happen.”
Zun seemed amused by something but Zanwen failed to see the humour. A litter even with a change of porters was bound to slow a contingent of guards down, let alone all of the entourage needed to accompany a woman of importance. Seeing his anxiety, Zun actually laughed before adding, “Have no fear, the escort will not be delayed because of Shushan.”
Zanwen gave a small bow. “As you say then, I and my caravan shall watch for your men,” and then more pointedly, “and the Lady Shushan.”
Chapter 41
Mading watched as Sheywen and his men filed into the town, heading straight for their billets and improvised corrals. Mading was relieved at Sheywen’s return and the shifting of responsibility back to their commander but as he watched the obviously tired men and their equally tired mounts trudge in Mading’s relief was matched by his unease at being with Sheywen at all. Many of the returning men carried minor wounds and fresh scarring on their armour, with some of the faces which had left with Sheywen not with him on his return. Overall though Mading thought the returning group looked to have grown larger since it had left. Sheywen must have recruited additional men while he was away doing whatever it was he did.
Mading cursed; for the last three days he had told himself if Sheywen did not return by the following day then he would pull out with his men, each day deferring the decision to the next. But last night he had made the decision with renewed determination knowing it was the right one. Sheywen would arrive by the following morning or he and his men would be gone before sunrise was over. Now that Sheywen had returned the comfortable feeling of having shed an unpleasant burden by his decision to leave was gone, replaced instead by the sensation he was racing towards a trap he couldn’t see.
Seeing some of the other commanders, including Leywee and Gaow, enter Sheywen’s billet he reluctantly rose out of his chair and went to join them.
When Mading entered Sheywen’s headquarters Sheywen was helping himself to a liberal helping of rice wine and was surrounded by his commanders, anxious to hear Sheywen’s news and impart their own version of events here. When Sheywen put the jug of wine down he looked across the room. He gave a small smile of satisfaction at seeing Mading enter, as if he had half expected him to have left. Mading detected one or two minor cuts he had not seen from a distance, indicating Sheywen had been in the thick of whatever action had taken place. Mading put his back to the wall by the door and folded his arms as he waited to hear the news.
Sheywen had been about to answer some of the questions from his curious commanders on his return at Mading’s entrance. “I have been hunting and the hunt was, well, rewarding for those that survived let us say. But the biggest prize is still out there, waiting to be taken and I need the rest of you for that. For that I need more men and all I have been waiting for is the additional horses to get you mounted.”
Sheywen looked pointedly at Mading but before he could say anything Gaow jumped in. “They will not be coming. Mishka and his men were jumped by Zun and Zun has the horses now.”
When Sheywen heard the news his eyes seemed to flare with anger, while he continued to look directly at Mading. “All of them?”
“All but a few hundred, which Mishka holds on your return and the ones we were able to recapture.” Gaow responded again.
Sheywen looked as dangerous as Mading had ever seen him when he queried quietly. “Recapture?”
Gaow swallowed nervously but had to continue, his bluster now sounding less confident. “We entered the valley where they are being kept and stampeded them out, but in the dark the horses ran into a dead end. By the time we got them moving again Zun’s men were in position. As quick as they were they must have known we were coming. I don’t trust that treacherous nomad Mishka, he knew we were there and probably sold us out.”
The limp accusation at the end of Gaow’s story hung heavy in the room as they waited for Sheywen’s response. He was silent for a long time, glaring at Mading while he thought. It wasn’t too difficult for him to read between the lines of what he had been told so far but he merely said, “We?”
No one else seemed in a rush to answer this time, so Mading answered for them. “I told them you wouldn’t like it, that they were to wait for you.” Shrugging he added, “They went anyway and ran headlong into an ambush. All on the say so of the nomad, who wanted revenge against those who had taken his horses in the first place but who was too smart to tackle them again himself.” The room was quiet as Sheywen absorbed this bit of news and Mading added casually, “My guess is that he and his men didn’t fare a whole lot better when he lost them, which is why he thought he’d get this bunch of halfwits to get them back for him.”
No one dared breathe, watching Sheywen for his reaction. “Zun has returned? He was there?” he asked with a frown.
Mading shook his head. “Not so far as we know he isn’t. That girl he brought with him to the tavern, she’s the one who showed them proper soldiering. Those who made it back were lucky.” Mading looked pointedly at Gaow and Leywee, “but most of them weren’t that lucky as it turned out.”
Sheywen sat with his lips pursed and eyes smouldering with anger, if he was going to lash out at those responsible now would be the time. Instead, he snapped, “All of you go, leave me with Mading.”
Relieved to have escaped his anger they all gratefully made their way out and into the street, eager to quiz the returning men on where they had been and what they had been doing. Sheywen was angry. “I might have known those fools couldn’t keep themselves out of trouble,” and with a quizzical look at Mading, “and that you would see it coming and steer well clear of it.” If Mading was meant to be flattered he wasn’t, flattery usually came before something less pleasant and was merely a means of easing the way. “Though, it does change things somewhat. I only have need of men who can ride and for that, they need horses. I will purchase the remaining horses from Mishka. They will be enough for you and your men and maybe a few others by the sound of it. I will take every man that can ride with me. Any that can’t forfeit their horse and their place in my band. They stay behind.”
Sheywen smiled, like a snake in sight of its prey as it slithered silently into place ready to strike. “I have been cautious so far and learnt a good deal but now it is time to strike hard and bring down those who think they cannot be touched. I and you,” the latter sounded like a late afterthought to Mading, “are going to be very wealthy my friend. When we are done we will live like masters.”
Mading suspected he already knew how they were going to achieve this miracle but asked anyway. “And how are we going to do that then?”
Sheywen regarded him, reluctant to share his plan but seemingly committed. “I have friends in high places. These friends have ensured the Great Houses trading along this area have had to draw from their resources here to redeploy them in the south. Their normal guard has been reduced and they are weak as a consequence, we shall take what they cannot protect and make it our own.”
Mading had thought it must be raiding caravans but he had not suspected the mysterious help. “What about the imperial border patrols, they won’t just sit and watch while we plunder our way into a life of ease. If you succeed in taking a caravan it will slow you to the same slow pace of the caravan and the imperial guard will recover the goods and our heads as well most likely.”
Sheywen was reluctant to reveal more. “I need you Mading. You’re no fool to go rushing headlong into something you can’t get out of again, not like this scum. You have a brain and use it. That makes you valuable to me and worth including in the prize we can take together. I would te
ll no one else here but my friends in high places have instructed the border patrols not to protect the border along the Guang and Tanyeu territories. To turn a blind eye to their caravans at the appropriate moment.” Sheywen smiled like the predator he was. “They are on their own and don’t even know it, like a fat duck waiting to be plucked.”
Mading was impressed at the influence Sheywen’s friends must wield. Sheywen was obviously a player in someone’s Great Game, or more likely he was the knife someone would plunge in the back of their enemy. And just like a knife, he was likely to be dropped right after he had struck, the incriminating tool disposed of while the real perpetrator made their escape. Though, if Sheywen were smart he could actually succeed for a while before the Great Houses figured out what was happening and retaliated, which they would do eventually. The trick would be to get clear before they did.
Sheywen had been watching Mading carefully and now smiled in satisfaction. “I knew you would see it. You’re wondering how we get away? We don’t get greedy, that’s how. One last raid to get enough to live like masters and then we slip away in the night and leave all this behind us.”
Mading could see Sheywen doing that alright. “What about the men?”
Sheywen shrugged. “It is deliberate there is no command chain. You are the only one who could hold them together but you do not want to lead. The others want to lead but none of them are sufficiently strong that they could drag their competitors for the role with them.” Sheywen shrugged philosophically. “So they will fight amongst themselves and a new leader will rise, like flotsam in filth. We will make a quiet escape while they squabble over a new leader. This will provide the smoke screen we need to avoid pursuit, which instead will be focused on their high visibility leadership contests. The Great Houses suffering our predations must have their retribution, honour seen to be redressed and the empire seen to secure its borders again. Scouring the land of dangerous bandits. Meanwhile, you, I and a few trusted men take the best of the loot by caravan to the barbarian cities and a new life of wealth, which will also mean power.”
Mading thought it through methodically, as was his way. “You’ve already attacked some caravans and come back looking cut up. What went wrong and why will you fare better with the next one?”
Sheywen brushed aside Mading’s concerns with a casual sweep of his beaker. “I did not want to make the main targets too wary and so have tried out a few attacks on others. It is surprisingly easy to pick up information on the comings and goings of caravans. Nothing it seems is secret, not for the right price. The barbarian traders are well guarded and difficult to take. They are obviously well practised at defending themselves and their physical size aids them in battle. They are more familiar with fighting from horseback than the Hansee and use unfamiliar tactics. When I have succeeded it is because I have taken them by surprise and in the open, before they could prepare. The last attack was,” Sheywen paused to take a swallow from the beaker of wine and to consider, “a useful lesson, shall we say. Also the Imperial Border Patrol’s blind eye only applies to Houses Guang and Tanyeu. They surprised us while we were acquiring our lesson.”
Sheywen regarded Mading intensely. “To snatch the big prize I need more men, you and yours are the best. Come with me or I shall give the horses to another but, come morning, I shall leave this sorry excuse of a town with every man I can place on a horse and will not return.”
Mading thought about Sheywen’s proposed attack on the two Great Houses. It could work as he had described. They might even get away with the loot. Mading regarded Sheywen from across the room, who waited patiently for Mading to respond. Sheywen might even let him have some of the loot; though that was probably stretching it a bit too far Mading conceded to himself. Still, if he watched Sheywen carefully maybe Sheywen would have no choice but to share and Mading didn’t intend leaving any of his men, they were troublesome but like family. Whatever they took would need keeping afterwards and he would need them all to keep Sheywen’s knife from ending up in his back. But even if they lost the loot they would still be away from this place which was likely to be swamped with imperial guards soon by the sound of it and each of them would have a horse, which they didn’t have now.
Realising he had already made the decision to go, Mading noticed a slow smile spread on Sheywen’s face. The sly fox had read him well enough. Mading shrugged philosophically, once you started down a dubious path and no alternatives showed it became easier to take the next step. Even if it was also in the wrong direction, and then the next it seemed. “All right, my men will be here at daybreak. If the horses aren’t here we are leaving anyway.”
Sheywen smiled in satisfaction. “They will be. See that you are as well, or someone else will get them.”
Mading returned to his own billet, troubled that he was irrevocably committing to turn a metaphorical corner. Though he couldn’t work out why killing people for his own financial reward should be worse than killing people on the commands of the Great House you were sworn to. But somehow it was, and by the time he had arrived Mading decided it was a corner he didn’t want to walk around but could see no way of avoiding. He had a feeling of inexorably being drawn into a cesspit and was in a foul mood as Zhi sidled up to him. “So what’s happening Sergeant?”
“We’re getting horses, first thing in the morning. They’re our back pay and then we play it by ear. If we’re unlucky, we become dead bandits. If we’re lucky, we become live bandits with a horse.”
Zhi looked nervously at Mading. “Do we want to become bandits, I thought we were sellswords?”
Mading snapped angrily. “Well do you see anybody hiring sellswords?” Zhi almost leapt back at the angry retort and Mading pushed him out of the way. “Everybody’s damned mother is what I am. Well I am no miracle worker and anybody that’s got a better idea better tell me now!” Mading glared around at the faces staring at him, the steam suddenly leaving him. “Well, be ready to leave before daybreak. We go with Sheywen if he gives us a horse, or strike out on our own if he doesn’t. After that we just see.”
When the red glow which precedes morning came Mading and his men were waiting outside Sheywen’s quarters for him. They had heard from the blackness of the night a large body of horses drawn up outside the corrals at the edge of the town. Just as the first glimmer of the sun showed as a distant light at the horizon, Sheywen could be seen approaching out of the darkness from the pens. With a firm nod at Mading he commanded. “Go select your horse. Be quick, there is likely to be a scramble for the ones which are left.” With which, he turned and headed for the other billets.
Mading signalled to his men and they trotted out in the same direction Sheywen had emerged from. Despite acquiring the horses Mading couldn’t help a sense of disillusionment and an inexorable pull towards the cesspit he felt looming. By the time they were mounted the sun was up and there were about a hundred and fifty additional horses left, being guarded by Mishka and his men.
Mading and his men rode to one side as the remainder of Sheywen’s un-mounted force began pouring out in to the early light, desperate to try and claim a horse. The remaining horses were quickly taken and there was a vicious scrabble for the last few. Mading saw at least two men knifed as they tried to mount, pulled off by their attackers who leapt on the horse in their place. Mading and his men watched grim faced as the final horses were claimed, the bitter expressions of those who had not managed to get one staring at them balefully. Mading had heard someone say once there was honour amongst thieves but if there was he saw none of it in the ugly scene in front of him now. There could be no more salient demonstration of what they were getting themselves into and it was not pleasant. Mading owed no responsibility to those they left behind, any of them would knife him in the back for the horse he was on if they could, but it still felt wrong to just abandon them. Sheywen broke Mading’s line of thought as he signalled they were to leave and they all started off in a large group, following Sheywen’s lead.
Zhi worked hi
s way across to Mading and checking they were out of earshot he ventured quietly. “Bunch of animals this lot Sergeant.”
Mading was thoughtful before replying. “We aren’t part of them, just travelling with them and don’t forget it. See if you can find any of them which might feel the way we do. No coercion or promises mind. We’re bound to have some toe-rag try and take tales back to Sheywen but, when the time comes, we’re pulling out from this lot and it would be a shame to leave good men behind. We eat and camp separate, keep our own guard and watch what we say, especially in front of newcomers. If they are really like us they will naturally come over but I want the toe-rags identified and sorted at the right time.”
Zhi looked pleased. “Don’t fancy the bandit business then Sergeant?”
Mading gave him a sideways glance and said gruffly. “It’s not the business but the company you have to keep.” Having voiced his intention to leave Mading felt a weight had been lifted from his shoulders but he had no illusions it would be easy and they had to eat in the meantime. He would just have to watch carefully for the right opportunity and take it when it came. If it came in time.
Chapter 42
The factor waited patiently, confident all was in order but allowing his client to examine the document in detail before he signed his acceptance. Zanwen had just taken delivery of the last batch of arms he had ordered and was growing concerned at the size of his new caravan, with its inadequate guard. If he lost the caravan by the time he paid off the extended credit granted by the Guang and Tanyeu factors he would be broke and back where he was ten years ago, only older. He grunted, if anyone took this caravan it was likely to be after a fierce fight and he would in all likelihood be dead. So why worry about it he asked himself. But worry he did.