Varna Ch. 09

VARNA Chapter 9

Father was dead.

- "How? When?"

- "I don't know." said Glasha. "But Tir Storum Knows. He's keeping it a secret."

I took a deep breath, and drew on the aether. I desperately needed a clear head right now. I would pay for it later, but it had to be done.

- "Merik is in on it." As Tir Storum's future brother-in-law, he would be the prime beneficiary of this deception - and probably the one who had sent the assassins to the baths.

"We'll have to run." I said. "Horses. We'll need money."

- "Boats would be better." said Yazgash.

- "Horses are safer. We'll have flexibility - plus the advantage that they won't know which direction we're headed."

- "Most of my fighters can't ride." said Yazgash.

My head hurt, but I realized right away what she was saying.

- "You don't have to come with us, Yazgash. It won't be safe. And it's not your fight."

- "Storum has wanted to get rid of us for years." she said. "Last time the Duke was sick, we didn't get paid." She stood up, and showed her teeth. "There's nothing here for us, if Storum and Merik win. The Red Knees may not be safe, either. If we're going to fight your brother, then we need each other."

Big Durgat put his hand on my shoulder. "We choose you."

- "As do we." said Enneiros, the elf. "After Tanarive, you should have known that."

My mind was functioning quickly, but there was nothing wrong with the rest of me. I felt my emotions rising, and a tear came to my eye.

- "Thank you." I got out.

- "So what do we do?" asked Yazgash.

- "How many fighters do we have?" I asked, in return.

- "Thirty-five half-orcs. Twenty-five elves."

- "And how many men can Storum call on? Where are they?"

- "Roughly 200." said Enneiros. "But only 50 or so in and around the Palace. And the fifty or so gunners. Another 100 outside the city. But he can't move the rest without giving them a good reason."

- "They're afraid of us." said Durgat.

That was true - Storum's human Guardsmen were no match for the half-orcs, one on one. He would want to bring in more men before he would order them to leave - and in case he had to challenge them.

My mind made one little leap - a connection I hadn't seen before.

- "The messengers! You said that more messengers have gone out, recently. It has to be Storum. He's calling in allies." Then I recalled what Sanatha had told me - what Merik had offered her as an inducement to support: a prestigious marriage.

"Merik. He's called on Tir Peneda!"

Sanatha was in danger. We all were, if Peneda and others arrived to support Merik and Storum. Haste, then - but intelligent haste.

- "We'll have a password. Anyone who calls out 'Saska Tanle' is a friend. Got that?"

Emphatic nods all around told me that they understood.

"Enneiros. You occupy the docks, with 20 of your fighters. Reserve every boat. Tell the captains and crews that they'll be paid. Don't let any of them leave. Post your five other archers where they can spot trouble coming. A pair on the bridge, another watching the main barracks, and so on."

- "Consider it done."

- "Durgat - take two or three with you, and collect my sister. Tell her about the assassins, and bring her to the boats. Go now."

- "On my way."

There were servants in the barracks, too - some half-orcs, some human. I gave them orders as well: to go and warn my brothers. Toran and Nathal deserved better than to be arrested and imprisoned by Merik; if that happened to them, I didn't think that they would ever come out of the Palace alive.

- "Seyamka, too. Warn her. Tell her to meet us at the boats." Glasha nodded her approval when I gave that instruction.

This would work, I thought. Swift action, in the middle of the night. Lacking orders, Storum's Guardsmen wouldn't oppose us. By the time he learned what we were up to, we would have a large head start.

But I hadn't forgotten about my Father's cannon. There were four big guns, on either side of the river, right over the docks and wharves used by our boatmen. If the gunners were willing to fire on us, we would be blown out of the water before we could escape.

- "Murzosh!"

- "Here."

Murzosh and I had known each other since we were toddlers. He'd been one of the rambunctious children on the exercise yard who'd almost trampled little Glasha. He'd also ridden with Durgat and me to Tanarive.

- "Take four half-orcs with you. Go across the bridge, to the tower where the cannons are. Don't bother with the guns - or the powder. But take the cannonballs, and drop them over the side. Let them roll down the slope. Then meet us at the Treasury."

Murzosh grinned. Many of those cannonballs would end up in the river. Even if some didn't, it would take some time before trained gunners arrived - and then they would have to carry their ammunition back up onto the bastion.

Yazgash delegated another five of her fighters to do the same thing on the bastion overlooking the Water Gate.

- "Yazgash - you and the rest with me."

- "Where to?"

- "The stables, first."

- "You need to eat something." said Glasha.

- "I will." Then I had one of those seemingly random thoughts which made no sense. Food made me think of Aludar, because I'd been considering my relationship with him the last time I ate. I was glad that he was safely away, out of Storum's reach. Merik couldn't do anything to hurt him.

Oh, no - he could! Sirma! My little niece. Aludar had left his motherless little girl behind - Merik would have no scruples about using her as a hostage. Sirma was only four years old.

- "Glasha - take five fighters. Get Sirma. Bring her to the boats."

Glasha's hand flew to her face. "Sirma!" She'd forgotten her as well. My lover didn't want to be parted from me, but she knew where Aludar's daughter was, while Yazgash's fighters did not.

The stables were quiet, at this time of night. We woke up two of Storum's Guards - who were soundly asleep - and three of the ostlers, who also slept there. One of them, by chance, was Osha.

I'd meant all along to offer him a place with us, if he wanted it. He'd been very brave and resourceful during the Tanarive crisis. I owed him a chance. Now, though, I saw a different purpose for him.

I offered Osha two horses for himself, if he would carry a message for me, to my friends. "Go to Hurmas, and then to Sezima. Tell them that the wedding has been moved up. I explained to Osha what else he was tell them. He was a bright lad, with a good heart.

- "I will, Lord."

- "My friends can help." said Osha.

- "Eh?"

- "These two, for starters." he said, indicating the two other ostlers.

- "Can we have a horse if we do it, Lord?" said one, a scrawny, dark-haired lad.

The ostlers and stable-boys were among the most poorly paid Ducal servants. My father had been too cheap to pay them a decent wage, or to provide better accommodation than sleeping on soiled straw. Osha's tales of his adventure with me had evidently fired their imagination.

- "I have two more friends across the street." said Osha.

- "Get them." I said. I'd always been fairly kind and reasonably generous to the servants, and to those that Merik referred to as 'underlings'. Seyamka, for example; Glasha and I had always treated her as a friend. It was a great boon, this night, to find that kindness rewarded, to learn that Osha and his friends were willing to help us.

Now I could carry out my plan. Osha and his friends would ride out, leading additional horses from the stables, and take them across the bridge over the Varna river. After that, Osha was to turn south, to carry my message to Hurmas and Sezima. I instructed them to release the led horses well outside the city.

This would leave the stables partially stripped of horse flesh. To add to Merik and Storum's difficulties, Yazgash and her warriors helped me sabotage the riders' saddles and tack: we slashed bridles, sawed off stirrups, and cut saddle straps. Unless they went bareback - which I doubted they could - there would be no more messengers issuing from Elmina over the next day or two - nor would there be any mounted pursuit of those escaping the capital.

- "Time." growled Yazgash.

- "Follow me."

I led the remaining fifteen half-orcs to the Treasury. Three more of Storum's Guards were sleeping outside the door. They woke up as we approached, but we disarmed them easily. The door was no problem: the guards had the key.

We emptied pretty much the entire treasury. Gold ingots, silver ingots, silver coins. We weren't able to carry off all the copper coins, but we took what we could.

Then we left the doors open and unguarded, and carried our loot down to the wharves.

Enneiros had done well; the boat captains and their crew were awake. Torches had been lit. Quite a few of the boatmen were angry, but most were mollified when we showed them the money, and told them that they would be well paid for delivering us part of the way down the river.

By now, Elmina was stirring. The passage of the horses across the bridge, the looting of the Treasury, and the dropping of cannonballs had all attracted attention. We had no way of restraining all of Tir Storum's soldiers, and certainly couldn't stop townspeople from going to the Palace. Hopefully, though, Storum and Merik would be receiving confusing reports of our activities.

I was fairly certain that they had expected to act - to fall on us by surprise - at some point in the next few days. But I guessed that it was highly unlikely that they would be prepared for the contingencies they now faced.

It would take them time to gather 50 or 100 men; with any luck, we would be long gone by then.

Glasha had already made it to the docks, with little Sirma in tow. Durgat arrived just then, with Sanatha. She seemed relieved to see me, and I believe that the sight of Aludar's daughter helped to calm her, too.

Murzosh returned. So did some of the servants I'd sent with warnings.

- "We told Lord Toran, as you asked, Lord - but he insisted on going his own way."

Damnation. What was he thinking? "Did anyone find Nathal?" I asked. "And what about Seyamka?"

It was Enneiros who supplied the answer to that question.

- "Nathal left an hour ago, with Gedere and ten men. They've gone downriver."

- "An hour ago?" That made no sense. How could he have known that Father was dead before we did? And if he'd unravelled Storum's and Merik's plot before we had - why hadn't he warned us?

- "What about Seyamka?" asked Glasha.

- "She went with them." said Enneiros.

Seyamka, with Nathal? That made no sense - until suddenly it did. But there would be time to dwell on that later.

For the moment we concentrated on getting our folk (and our loot) into the boats. Enneiros and Yazgash took over, and soon had the first of the boats under way.

As for me, I was beginning to fade. Glasha could see it; it was something she'd experienced herself. I couldn't draw on the aether again without consequences; I couldn't afford to be asleep or unconscious for two or more days.

- "It's under control." she said, coaxing me onto one of the boats. Durgat and Sanatha came with us, and little Sirma, surrounded by burly half-orcs. She seemed to know, instinctively, that they were there to protect her; she looked around with wide-eyed with amazement.

"Yazgash and Enneiros can lead us." said Glasha. "You can rest. Close your eyes."

I have allies, I thought. Folk that I could rely on. It already seemed like a long time ago that Durgat had come to my aid in the bath house.

What had I done there? How had that happened? I know that I asked myself those questions, but I can't remember if I even began to attempt to answer them.

***

I woke in pain. Then I made the mistake of opening my eye. My head was turned to the left - to the West. The setting sun was still strong enough to send a piercing ray of light, like a razor-sharp lance, straight into my head.

I must have groaned aloud.

- "Go back to sleep." said Glasha, softly. "I'll wake you well before we land."

- "Was this... how it felt for you?" I managed to say. Glasha had over-extended herself quite badly during one of her first long time walks. She'd slept for the better part of three days. Now I had an inkling of how she'd felt, afterwards.

The pain lingered. It was a dull, throbbing hurt, with occasional jabs, like someone poking sensitive areas with a stick. I couldn't sleep, but I must have dozed, intermittently. Or perhaps I dozed longer than I thought I had.

I felt a soft hand on my hair, and heard Glasha's voice.

- "Can you move?" she asked. "We're going to land, soon."

- "Is he alright?' asked another voice. My sister.

- "I think so."

I awoke again, and opened my eyes slowly, to discover that it was dark. The night after our escape? I was lying on solid ground. We'd gotten off the boats, then.

Glasha was asleep next to me.

I sat up slowly, afraid to cause another stab of pain. My head ached, but it was not so bad as I'd feared.

- "You're awake." said Enneiros.

- "I think so."

- "How is the pain?"

- "Manageable."

- "Durgat told us what you did - in the baths." said Enneiros. "But that's a tale I would like to hear from you, some day."

- "If I can remember it all." I said. "How long was I asleep?"

- "We're less than a day from Elmina. But we stopped when we met a boat coming upriver - they said that there was a large gathering of men, further down the river."

- "Whose men? How many?"

- "Tir Albo. Tir Pyera. Some others - the boatmen weren't sure. Well over a hundred, though. Perhaps 200. Yazgash and I decided to land here."

Albo. Friends of Nathal. Like Merik and Tir Storum, then, my brother and his allies had been prepared to move. What was their goal?

- "How far are we from Souglad?" I asked.

- "Perhaps three days march." said Enneiros. "I sent a pair of my men ahead, to warn them that we were coming."

That was a relief. Elves could travel all day and all of the night, without tiring. Saska and her mother would soon know that we were on the way.

- "Then we should get started." I said.

Glasha was awake - she'd let Enneiros talk to me, without disturbing us.

"How do you feel?" I asked her.

- "This wasn't how I expected to begin travelling." she said, with a wry grin. It was the first time she'd been far from Elmina.

Sanatha, bless her, didn't besiege me with a thousand questions. Glasha must have given her some idea of what I'd been through. Yazgash growled at me, but she wasn't angry - just impatient. She and the others had everything well organized.

That gave me a chance to speak to little Sirma, and to explain to her what was happening. The news that her grandfather was dead barely affected her; he'd been so remote a figure in her life that his passing barely registered with her - or perhaps it was that she didn't simply didn't understand the concept of death. Her mother had died a week after her birth. Sirma had no memory of her at all.

- "We're going to try and get you back to your father, Sirma." I said. "But it may take a little time. First off, we're going to visit some friends. Will you come with us?"

- "Yes." said my little niece.

I held one of her hands as we set out, and Sanatha took the other. Sirma skipped for a while, and tried to keep up. When she tired, Durgat scooped her up and put her on his shoulder.

Yazgash and 35 half-orcs. Enneiros and 25 elves. Perhaps half a dozen servants from the Lower Barracks. Sanatha, Glasha, and me. Sirma.

We walked westwards, with the rising sun at our backs.

***

My father was dead.

I don't know that I'd ever really considered the possibility, before. Oh, yes: I'd entertained wishes that he might die, and I'd imagined a life for myself free of his (and my mother's) baleful influence. But the man had such a massive presence in my life... he'd seemed indestructible. Inescapable. And now he was gone.

My father could have assured a smooth transferral of power. I didn't expect that he would have four of his sons killed, to assure the succession. But if he had anointed Aludar as his heir, none of this would have happened.

Merik and Tir Storum were in control of Elmina, by default. Nathal was apparently gathering his friends and followers, downriver. Aludar was in Elmina, where the Esins would no doubt begin to call in their allies - if they hadn't already. I had no idea where Toran was, but if he'd rejected my offer to flee together, it was because he had an agenda of his own.

How had we come to this?

Glasha walked beside me. Sanatha was on other side. They'd both been incredibly patient with me.

- Nathal tried to have me killed." I said.

- "I know." said Glasha. "It was Seyamka who betrayed you."

- "You time-walked?"

- "It was easy. The moment she handed you that towel, she ran to tell Nathal that you would be there, alone. It was Gedere who'd recruited the assassins. Nathal nodded to him, and the poet went to send the killers off."

- "How could we have been so wrong about her?" I asked. I'd liked Seyamka. I thought she liked us.

- "I don't know, love. We were too trusting."

- "Or she was a much better liar than we thought her capable of."

- "Look at the bright side." said Sanatha. "You defeated the assassins, so Nathal had to flee. But he spoiled Merik's plans. In another few days, we might all have been locked up, awaiting our fates." She shivered. As Sanatha's fate would probably have been a forced marriage to Tir Peneda, I could sympathize.

"What do we do now?" she said.

- "After we reach Souglad?"

- "Yes. What do you intend to do, Tauma? Were you even partly serious, when I asked you what you would offer me?"

I remembered. Nathal had offered Sanatha a marriage of her choice (though he'd hinted strongly that Tir Pyera would make a good choice). Merik had suggested Tir Peneda. When she pressed me, I'd told Sanatha that she could be my partner (in a political sense).

- "What do you think we should do, partner?" I asked.

Sanatha frowned. "Well, I don't think that we can reconcile with Merik."

- "He's a brute." I said. "He tried to rape Glasha. He also seduced Aludar's mistress. I would say that, at the very least, he has a seriously under-developed sense of right and wrong."

- "Plus he's under Tir Storum's thumb. Uggh... Shurkka Storum."

- "I don't think that you can expect me to support Nathal, either."

Sanatha sighed. She turned to Glasha. "I believe you. Merik had no reason to assassinate anybody. Once his allies arrived in Elmina, he could have had us all arrested, and strangled in the darkest cellars. Nathal is the one who would turn to murder." Then she looked at me. "But why you? Why not Merik? Or Aludar?"

- "Aludar was gone. Merik was... I'm not sure. Perhaps Nathal thought that he could out-maneuver Merik, or out-think him."

- "But Tauma beat Nathal at Tanarive." said Glasha. "And Tauma is one of the few who isn't susceptible to Nathal's charm."

Sanatha could only shake her head. "That's sick."

We walked in silence for a while. Murzosh was now carrying little Sirma, pretending that he was a pony for her to ride.

- "So it's Aludar?" said Sanatha.

I didn't answer her right away. Glasha and I shared an eloquent look. Sanatha didn't miss that exchange.

"Tauma?" she said.

I tried to choose my words carefully. "Aludar... has disappointed me."

- "How so?"

- "He tried to manipulate me into a marriage with Benaz Corig - so that I would be connected to the Esins by marriage. He did that by telling Seirye of Portoa and Saska Tanle that Glasha was my mistress - and that I wouldn't give her up. Perfectly true, of course - but Aludar was trying to destroy any other possibility for me. That struck me as... disrespectful."