John Carr - Kalvan Kingmaker

She wished she had the courage to say To Styphon with the entire lot!

Sirna had nearly completed the circuit of the foundry entrenchments when a broad figure in a woolen cloak and high-combed morion helmet loomed out of the darkness ahead of her. She froze, cursing herself for going outside without a pistol as well as her dagger.

Then, remembering the odds against a flintlock's firing in this kind of downpour, she shouted, "Who is it?"

"Master Aranth, of the Royal Hostigos Foundry," the figure answered. "Who are you?"

Sirna sighed with relief, while wondering what brought the military man out on a night like this. "Sirna, Mistress Pattern-Maker. What are you doing out here, Master Aranth?"

"The same thing you are, Mistress," he said, pointing to the Foundry quarters. "Escaping the bedlam of too much talk about too little. And call me Sain."

"Me too, Sain. I think I'd rather attend one of Xentos' prayer meetings for deliverance from Styphon's House at the Temple of Dralm than spend another five minutes in there."

Aranth Sain laughed, exposing a mouthful of well-formed and broad teeth. "Right, Xentos is back from the Council at Agrys City. No one seems too happy about it. Ranthar said it had something to do with the Council refusing to recognize the Sixth Great Kingdom and its ruler. No one at the palace is talking, but the Paratime Police have established agents at all the capitals and big cities."

Finally, Sirna had something to report and it came from a reputable source even; however, it was less than significant, but would at least show she was doing her job.

"Trader Ranthar seems like a good man, even if he is with the Paratime Police."

"They have a lot of good men, another year on this time-line and you'll lose a lot more of your University prejudices."

"It looks like the rain has stopped for a time," Aranth said. "Would you like to accompany me to Hostigos Town? I'm going to the One-Eyed Owl for some good company."

Sirna had heard Varnath Lala go on about how the One-Eyed Owl, a tavern where mercenaries and the King's regulars liked to do their drinking, was a cesspit of male supremacy; well, the company would have to be pretty bad before she'd miss the bickering and one-ups-manship here at the Foundry.

"Sure, Aranth, I'd love to go."

Sirna followed Aranth Sain to the stable where he helped her bridle and saddle a gentle bay mare. By the time they'd left the stable, a full moon was casting a silvery glow over the hills and the rain had come to a complete stop. Thank you, Lystris, she said under her breath.

As they slowly made their way through the muddy path leading to the Great King's Highway, Sirna noticed that beneath his cloak Aranth was wearing a back and breast with taces.

"Why all the steel?" she asked.

"Footpads. Even the Great King's Patrol and the weather won't convince them to keep their distance any better than tempered steel.' Despite the calm of the past few moons, there's still a war going on here and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that a few stragglers from the Battle of Phyrax are still skulking around."

"After all this time?"

"Yup. Tuad, the chief carpenter, was telling me that about a ten-day ago someone stole half a dozen chickens and a bushel of turnips from the Foundry garden."

A lone wolf howl echoed through the hills and Sirna shivered. "Are we going to have troubles with wolves, too?"

"That's the first one I've heard this fall. Kalvan had his wolf hunters stake out the battlefields this year and thin their ranks. He's kept the bounty high enough that the only wolves you're going see this winter are the two-legged variety."

Aranth slowed down his horse. "Be careful getting onto the highway. This would be a nasty place for a fall." Aranth paused and added, "Your own hands are properly dirty."

Sirna laughed and said, "You mean my shoes are muddy."

"No. I mean your hands. Student Sirna, I happen to know that you were added to the Study Team only because you are the niece of that two-faced politician Hadron Tharn."

"I'm not his niece," Sirna replied. "My parents work for him."

"No difference. You were a political appointee, a pipsqueak version of Varnath Lala, and I stay clear of such. Then came the Battle of Phyrax, and you volunteered to stay at the Foundry when Varnath and Talgran both cut and run. Spoiled brat or not, I decided you had what it really took to be an outtime researcher. We're comrades now, veterans of Phyrax together, and what say we team up for a good bar-room brawl."

Sirna was stunned by this fairly accurate capsule description of herself; she was about to pull a Varnath Lala and lose her temper, when she burst out laughing. "Am I that easy to read?"

"For someone of my age and experience, yes. I doubt most of the other Study Team members will remember your name a week after you leave."

"Praise, Dralm, then!" she cried.

A moment later, the horses were clomping along the stone roadway of the Great King's Highway.

"Dralm Bless King Kalvan!" they both said in unison and then started laughing. "And bless the Great King's Highway," Sirna added.

"Did you know, Sirna, that Kalvan had half the Royal Army prisoners-of-war and displaced peasants working on this highway during the summer. Twenty-eight miles worth. It's what they'd call on Kalvan's Europo-American time-line a two-lane highway; not too impressive there, but a major engineering feat on Kalvan Prime. From what Captain-General Harmakros was telling me, Kalvan plans to run this road from Hostigos Town north along the Listra River and then west through

Nyklos and into Ulthor City at the Saltless Sea. He's had less success with the semaphore stations, which someday will reach Beshta. It may take him a lifetime, but these innovations of Kalvan's will change trade patterns like nothing this time-line has seen since Styphon first discovered the fireseed secret."

"You know Captain-General Harmakros!"

"Yes, I do. Met him at the One-Eyed Owl with Captain Ranthar. He's a quick wit and very down to earth. It's no surprise he's one of Kalvan's top generals; Harmakros would be a chief-of-staff or head constable on any time-line where talent took precedence over birth, and on quite a few where it doesn't-like this one! You may get an opportunity to meet him yourself tonight."

The horses were moving at a respectable trot now that they were on solid ground and Sirna began to see more farmhouses as they approached the outskirts of Hostigos Town. The fields were covered with small lakes of rainwater and she was surprised to see how peaceful everything looked despite the war. "It looks like the farmers managed to harvest most of the barley and corn this year."

"Again, you can thank Kalvan. He had his University artificers knocking-out primitive reapers through most of the summer. As a result, they had a bumper harvest throughout all of Hostigos and Sask, and reaped enough of a surplus to feed all of Nostor and Beshta, too."

"Why do I get the idea that you're pretty impressed with our Great King Kalvan?"

"Simple, Sirna, it's because I am. He is doing the kind of job here that I would like to think I would do under similar circumstances. He is doing a tough job and doing it well. And, he's the underdog of all underdogs."

"Most of the other Team members just think he's lucky, but you don't. Why is that?"

"Because, I am watching what Kalvan is doing, not what I think he is doing or my sociological theory tells me he is doing. And, from where I sit; he's doing a Dralm-damn good job. Look at Kalvan's army; there are more men under Hostigi colors than there are farming, smithing, and crafting. How is this possible in an agricultural pre-industrial economy? Easy. When there's work to be done, everyone pitches in-including Great King Kalvan. Did you know that Kalvan himself went into the fields this fall and helped pick corn for two solid weeks!