The Chronicles: Notomol Ch. 14

NOTOMOL Chapter 14

There were seven Bans in Hvad, Lords of the provinces. Only the Duke was greater. Ban Lemek was recognized in the streets, and made much of for the first four days after our arrival.

Then three more Bans arrived.

Three of the seven Bans were directly descended from Borna - his grandsons. They were first cousins to the late Duke Richwin, and to each other. The Ban of Adarion was killed at the Battle of the Gut. His brother now claimed the title, but he was still close to home, apparently co-existing if not outright collaborating with the Izumyrians. After all, his province - the richest in Hvad - was directly across the river from Izumyr. It was the last place that the Northern Duke would leave un-garrisoned.

The Ban of Yeseriya had been captured at the Gut, and was still a prisoner, having apparently refused to cooperate with the enemy. The Ban of Yelsa had also died at that disastrous battle; his brother now held the title, having attended councils under Izumyrian direction. At some point, though, he had gone into hiding. We were all quite interested in that 'point'. Just when had the Ban of Yelsa recognized his true allegiance? And when had he acted upon it?

We were going to be able to ask him, because here he was, riding into Hvad town with two Hospodars and over 130 men, many of whom were mounted.

Next to him rode the Ban of Pitve - son of the third Ban who was killed along with Duke Richwin. This young man had not consorted with our enemies - but we hadn't heard of him striking any great blows against them, either. He had 40 men at his back.

With them rode the Ban of Stonje and his two sons. This was, technically, Notomol's (and Nelime's) overlord. The Ban had been too late to assist Duke Richwin, and too late to defend the town of Hvad. When it fell, he hurried to make his peace with the conquerors. Other than his sons, he had only three men with him.

These Bans, though, represented the Lowlanders' legitimate - that is to say, official leaders. They were powers in the land. But how much power did they hold?

Opinions among our fighters were divided.

- "They're Bans." said more than a few, as if that was all that had to be said.

- "Traitors." said Cinna. "Where was they when Stonje was being raped? Drinkin' with the Iz'myrians."

But many simply didn't know what to think. The habit of obeying their Bans and Hospodars was thoroughly ingrained. Liesma approached me that evening.

- "Can I ask you something, Guenna?"

- "Always. Have a seat." Liesma was ridiculously tall, where I was not. I felt a little more comfortable if we were both seated on a log. I could at least look her in the eye without hurting my neck.

- "I'm a bit confused." she admitted. "Why aren't we chasing the Izumyrians? Shouldn't we be trying to drive them out?"

I had to take a deep breath. Here was a good friend, who would never hesitate to follow Giedra and me - and yet she'd been partially taken in by the logic of Prosquetel. It was ironic, of course, because since our arrival in Hvad town, Old Whitehair hadn't said a word about the need to pursue our 'beaten' enemies.

I had discussed the strategic situation with Notomol several times. We were already having trouble feeding all of our fighters, not to mention the townspeople. We desperately needed the boatmen to get back to work, but they were enjoying themselves far too much, strutting about the town, intimidating old rivals and allowing Prosquetel and other would-be leaders to bid for their support.

- "It would be difficult to advance to the West." I told Liesma, explaining the problems related to supply. "But it's also a question of numbers. The Izumyrians have evacuated their garrisons from Mahuc - I imagine that they've done the same in Yelsa and Pitve, if not Yeseriya. That gives the Northern Duke several hundred more men - and we have no way of knowing if they've been reinforced from Izumyr as well. We have to be careful, too; we don't know the terrain."

- "So we have to wait until we get more fighters?"

- "Yes. That's part of it. But I think you'll find that many people - like Prosquetel, and some of the other leaders - don't want to advance. Not now, at least."

- "Why not?"

- "They're having too much fun playing politics." I said.

The truth of that statement was borne out within two days. Notomol came to see Giedra and me.

- "I wanted you to hear this directly from me. The Duchess asked to see me this morning. I thought that it would be just another conversation, but I was wrong. It was a meeting. A council."

- "A council?" said Giedra. "Why weren't we told?"

I shook my head slowly. The fact that I'd been expecting this did nothing to soften my disappointment.

- "It was deliberate." said Notomol. "Prosquetel was there, and all four Bans, plus... sorry. It's easier to tell you who wasn't there: you, Dubek, Kolasovets, and Cinna. There were no guslars in attendance, either."

- "Wait." I said. "Nelime was there? With Orsho? And Mailis, too?"

Notomol nodded. "None of them looked happy about it, but yes - they were."

- "You... you don't seem all that angry." I said. Honestly, I marvelled at his ability to keep his composure.

- "Oh, I am angry. But I think we've both known that this was coming. Both Nelime and Mailis are in a tight spot."

They were women who had led and fought as Hospodars - but they would need the favour of a Ban to be confirmed in their position.

- "Ban Lemek, too? He didn't warn you in advance?"

- "Lemek told me that he didn't know what was going to happen. I believe him." Notomol was being very kind to Lemek, a weasel if there ever was one.

- "So what did happen?" asked Giedra.

- "I don't know. I left."

- "You what?"

- "I saw who wasn't there, and pointed it out to them. I said that this was no proper Council of Captains. Then I walked out."

- "Shit." said Giedra.

- "They'll strip the command from you." I said. "That's what they've been after from the beginning."

- "Maybe I'll let them." he said.

***

We all had a great deal of thinking to do. I had a head start on most everyone else, because I'd been thinking of this before we'd left Mahuc to go and join Notomol.

I wasn't sure, even then, that I could continue to work with Prosequetel and the Duchess. Ban Lemek and Mailis had been much more cooperative. Then I'd seen Notomol work, and realized that I could follow him.

I was pleased, of course, that he asked for my advice and considered my opinion. Even had he not, I believe that I would have trusted his leadership. It helped that I liked many of the people who'd been with him for years. Yes, I admired him as a man, as well. I didn't need Giedra to tell me that I was more than a little in love with Notomol.

But now that Hvadi politics were coming to the fore, was there a place for me in this army any longer? I had accomplished some of the things I'd set out to. My family were safe from the Izumyrians - and from Prosequetel - at least in the short run. I'd helped Giedra establish herself, and I'd proved to myself, and to others, that I was a good strategist. Perhaps not as outstanding as Notomol, but pretty good for an Uplander.

Prosquetel and the Bans were fools. Or perhaps they believed that the war was already won, so that they no longer needed Notomol and his scruffy friends.

But I was wrong about that, too, as I discovered when Ban Lemek invited Notomol, Dubek and me to his house in the town. Marmos came with us, because he refused to let Notomol out of his sight. Lemek was careful to have us brought into the town at night, and then led through a stinking alley behind his house.

I was not impressed. Neither was Dubek; he cursed under his breath all the way there.

Ban Lemek looked a little more nervous than usual. His greasy hair was stuck to the sides of his head, and he had several pimples on his face. His clothing was cleaner, though.

- "You weren't followed?" he asked, of the men who had led us here. They shook their heads. The Ban turned to us. "Thank you for coming."

There was nothing that needed to be said to that, so I held my peace. Notomol nodded. Dubek merely glared.

"May I offer you a drink? Wine, perhaps?"

Notomol and I declined, but Dubek accepted.

"Yes, well..." said Ban Lemek. "You've seen for yourselves that the situation has changed. Dramatically."

I suppose he expected us to make polite noises. Notomol and I simply looked at him. Dubek was already picking at his fingernails.

"The arrival of the Bans, I mean." continued our host. "You must see that this changes everything."

- "How?" said Notomol.

- "Mmm-hmm." said Dubek. "Explain it to us."

Lemek was slightly flustered. These were two warriors. They took up a great deal of space in a small room. Dubek, in particular, was an unstoppable force or an immovable object - whichever he chose. Lemek, by contrast, was a shifty little rodent of a man.

- "Look - there's only so much I can do. Until a new Duke can be chosen, there will have to be a regency of some kind. What remains to be decided is who will be involved - and who will dominate. It comes down to who has the leverage."

- "Won't the next Duke be someone of Borna's bloodline?" said Notomol.

- "Not necessarily." said Lemek, with a little grin. "The three Bans - Yelsa, Adarion, and Yeseriya - are cousins. But they don't see eye to eye. Yeseriya and Adarion dislike each other, but they both absolutely detest Yelsa."

I knew the basics. Adarion had cooperated with the Izumyrians. He didn't have much choice, in my opinion, since his province was wide open and the first to be overrun by the enemy. Yeseriya had been captured, and apparently refused to come to terms with the invaders. He was proud, stubborn, and unavailable to us. Yelsa, by contrast, had been riding the fence for so long, the guslars said, that his trousers were wedged up the crease between his buttocks.

"Yelsa is looking for an advantage. If he can persuade the Duke's widow to marry him, it will win him additional support. She's a war hero, for one thing, and the mother of the heir..."

Dubek spat a mouthful of wine halfway across the room.

I was no less surprised. I had become accustomed to people idolizing Lady Temera because of her brave defence of the castle, and her dramatic escape over the ice - all the while pregnant. Yet I was sitting next to two genuine war heroes.

- "Mother of the heir?" said Notomol.

- "I know, I know." said Lemek. "But the Ban who wants Temara's support - and that means Prosequetel's - has to at least pretend to believe that the little mite is actually Richwin's son."

- "And you also want their support?"

Lemek made a face. "Let's be realistic. Stonje is out of the question. He's too old, for one, with grown sons. And his record during the war is... problematic. That leaves Yelsa - whose cousins hate him - and Pitve, who's much too young. Plus he's already married. I have as good a chance as either of them. Better, in fact, if I can count on your support."

If I'd had wine in my mouth, I would have spat it across the room, too.

- "After you failed to support Notomol?" I snapped.

Lemek just smiled at me. "Guenna, Guenna..." he said, as if I was a child. "Notomol understood what I had to do: it was just politics. In my heart, I still supported him. He knows that."

I was shocked. The little weasel thought that Lady Temara would marry him - that he could be Duke of Hvad.

- "You want our support." said Dubek.

- "You control half of the army. Once I am the front-runner, we can bring over some of the waverers, like Aldur and the townsmen. I assure you, they don't like Yelsa any more than we do."

- "Why would we do that?" said Dubek. "Support you, I mean."

- "I could ensure that Notomol remains in command of the army. And I have the power to make a Hospodar. Never forget that."

- "You'd make the three of us Hospodars?"

Lemek smiled, even as he waggled a finger. "Let's be realistic. I can't make all three of you Hospodars. But one, now..."

That was revealing. If he was going to lie, Lemek could have promised that we would all be Hospodars, and that he would give us the moon, on top of that. Was his offer serious, then? Oh, not me - Lemek liked me, and had wanted to bed me, at one point, but he would never make an Uplander - and a woman - a Hospodar.

- "So what's in it for the other two?" said Dubek. "The two that don't get to be Hospodar?"

- "Wealth. Fame." said Lemek. "Advantageous marriages, with property attached."

How little he knew us. Who knows? Maybe those were exactly what Dubek was after. But I suspect Lemek simply believed that everyone shared the same motivations as he did.

- "We'll need time to think it over." said Notomol.

- "Don't take too long, my friends." said Ban Lemek. "Decisions may need to be taken in the next few days."

Notomol was quiet as walked out town. Dubek, on the other hand, couldn't stop laughing.

- "What's so funny?" I asked him.

- "Could you imagine it? Hospodar Dubek." Then he began to laugh again.

- "I'm sure that stranger things have happened."

For some reason, that only made him laugh harder.

***

Lemek was right about decisions being made. The very next morning, I saw Nelime standing alone, gazing in the direction of the castle. She wasn't really seeing it, though. She appeared to be looking at nothing - or perhaps at something three or four thousand yards away.

Orsho and two of her men stood a little ways away, keeping her in sight, but respecting her privacy. She had her back to them, though, so I don't think they could see that she'd been crying.

I went and stood next to her. If she really wanted to be alone, she could easily say so.

- "Trouble?" I said.

- "You could say that." she said. "I found out yesterday that the Ban of Stonje will recognize me as a Hospodar, and grant me my own steading... but only if I agree to marry his son."

- "That piece of -" I just managed to stop myself. "I'm sorry. The longer we stay here, the harder it becomes for me to refrain from swearing. And kicking things."

- "I know the feeling." said Nelime. "But now I also have to worry about what Orsho will do." She looked down at her feet. "He... he asked me to marry him, once the war is over."

- "He did? Orsho? Wait - what about Notomol?"

She turned to look at me, surprised. "I thought you knew, Guenna. Notomol and I haven't been together since last fall."

He'd never said a word. Why hadn't he told me? Then I imagined him saying the words. 'Oh, and by the way, Guenna, I'm no longer with Nelime.' How would I have responded? It would have sounded as if he was coming on to me.

I shook my head. That was something to think about another time.

- "Would Orsho do something foolish?" I said. "Wait - could Notomol help?"

- "Notomol is part of the problem, Guenna. The Ban is afraid of him. That's one reason he wants to tie me directly to his family."

- "He's afraid that the fighters from Stonje will follow Notomol after the war? Possibly even against the Ban?"

- "Something like that." she said. "You and I both know that Notomol has no personal ambitions. And he's wise enough to know that challenging one Ban would mean having to fight them all. They would band together to defend the status quo."

- "But the Ban of Stonje doesn't know that."

- "No. I suppose not."

- "Nelime, what if Notomol were to tell the Ban that he will not seek to be a Hospodar himself - as long as you are granted your title, without the obligation to marry against your will? We both know that Notomol doesn't want power - but the Ban doesn't know that."

Nelime tilted her head, and look at me oddly.

- "I didn't take you for a politician, Guenna."

- "I'm not. Nor do I have any desire to be one. But it is a possible solution to your problem."

***

Some problems, though, don't have simple solutions. Or maybe it's more that the simple solutions some people choose only create more problems.

The night after I spoke to Nelime, there was a brawl at an alehouse in the town. Weapons were drawn, and blood was shed. Two of Dubek's friends were killed.

The killers were readily identified: they were boatmen.

Notomol had already hanged two boatmen for the murder of an Uplander. But his status was up in the air for the moment. Was he still commander of the army? Could he claim jurisdiction over the town? If he did, would the boatmen agree to hand over the culprits?

Before he joined the Guardsmen, Dubek was not especially well known in the town. He had a number of young friends, many of them as disreputable as he was. But the boatmen obviously didn't know him very well.

Dubek didn't appeal to Notomol, or to the Bans. He acted.

There was another brawl, the very next night. It sounded much more like a small battle, though. There were no direct witnesses, but people who lived nearby claimed that over a dozen fighters had stormed a lakeside tavern just before midnight. One person claimed that he'd seen at least two women in the party. Blonde women.

Six boatmen died in the fracas.

Velik was incandescent with rage. I imagine that he got cold comfort from Prosquetel and the Bans, because he came to see Notomol, demanding that Dubek and Giedra be hanged for murder. I was fortunate enough to be present when he did.

Notomol looked the chief of the boatmen in the eye.

- "Do you have eyewitnesses, Velik?" he asked.

- "I can provide witnesses." growled the boatman.

- "It won't matter." said Notomol. "I'm not actually commander of the army anymore, am I? You and your friends decided that the other day."

Velik was many things, but he wasn't a fool. He realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere.

- "This isn't over." he snarled.

***

I had warned our people - the Uplanders - to stay out of the town, unless absolutely necessary, and even then to travel in large groups, and only during the day. But the lure of drink and prostitutes was simply too great.

Two of our male fighters were insulted, and then assaulted. One was badly beaten; one was virtually crippled.

As far as I was concerned, that was the final straw. Prosequetel had been trying to marginalize me since Mahuc. Now they were striving to do the same to Notomol, and turning on those who had helped them.

I called our remaining folk together, and invited a few of the female fighters - those I trusted most - as well. It was time to tell them what I'd been thinking about for much of the past year.

- "Thirty of us left the Vale of Nareven, to seek fame and fortune. We've had a little of the former, but precious little of the latter. That wouldn't matter so much, if we'd won respect. But that's been scarce as well. Only 21 of us remain."

I didn't know all of the female fighters, but the Uplanders were like my extended family. Who was closer to me right now than Giedra, Rion and Eliv, Berilde and Paksyalta?

"The Duchess has never been grateful for what the people on Prospal Hill - and my family - did for her. She saw it as simply her due. Why are we fighting to save Hvad from the invaders? The Niskadi - the Lowlanders - despise us. As long as the Izumyrians stayed away from the Uplands - which they might have done, had the Duchess not fled to us - then we had no real quarrel with them. We've shed blood for the Hvadi. And this is how they thank us? They listened to me only when they had to. But since then, Giedra and I have been excluded from councils. That reflects on all of us. It tells you how little they value us."

I had to stop, and take a few deep breaths before I could continue. This was much harder than I'd anticipated.

"I won't speak for you, from here on. I'm not sure what you want. But I know how I feel - and I cannot go on. I will be going home - to Nareven. To my family."