John Carr - Siege of Tarr-Hostigos

Phidestros paused, then fired his final shot. "And is not one of Styphon's own signs of his presence among us his gift of healing?"

Roxthar's head jerked, but to Sirna's relief he stopped short of smiling. "As you wish, Captain-General. Clearly Styphon's favor is with you today, but this may not always be so. I shall return tomorrow, to see those wounded who have been healed in days past and to take the oaths you have promised."

The Investigator whirled and strode out so fast that the Guardsmen had to scurry to catch up with him. A chorus of harsh laughter and obscene remarks about why the Guardsmen had unbattered armor after a battle like this hurried their departure. Sirna also heard a few bawdy remarks about who would have the job of watching her by night.

Sirna remembered nothing afterward until she found herself in a chair, her head pushed down between her knees and Menandra and General Geblon chafing her wrists so vigorously that they felt ready to catch fire. She kept her head down and let the chafing go on until the giddiness and the urge to vomit on an empty stomach passed.

"Sirna-"

"Get back down on that pallet, Grand Captain-General!"

"I need to talk-"

"When you're down on the pallet. Not a word until then!"

Sitting cross-legged by Phidestros' pallet, Sirna could hear him without anyone else being able to eavesdrop. Geblon made sure of that, with help from Menandra.

"I'm sorry if I put you in danger," she began. "But I couldn't-"

"And you didn't, and there's no need to apologize," Phidestros interrupted, with a grin. "We are the Iron Band, and we can do nicely without temple-rats chittering in our ears in our own quarters. You, on the other hand…"

Phidestros reached over and put a hand on her knee. "As I told you before, you've got a petty-captain's share of pay for this past campaign coming, and more if Styphon's House pays any of the victory gift they've promised. That's enough to be a good dowry for you, or buy you a horse and cart with traveling rations and servants to take you home-if you have any home left."

"Or you could stay here and buy into a partnership with me," Menandra said, who had quietly moved beside Phidestros' pallet. "I'm not as young as I once was. Somebody I could leave the place to would be a comfort to me now."

Phidestros gave Sirna a smile that showed what he thought of the Gull's Nest's prospects after the Grand Host departed.

"A partnership," Sirna began, and then pressed her palms into her eyes until the pain and the swimming red fire killed the desire to laugh. She owed Menandra too much to ridicule the idea of staying in Hostigos Town and becoming assistant madam of a bordello!

"I don't advise any of those," Phidestros went on. "Roxthar can't try anything with us-or at least anything the rest of the Inner Circle or Grand Master Soton won't stop, as long as I'm Grand Captain-General of the Grand Host of Styphon. Soton and Anaxthenes both know good captains are valuable, as long as Kalvan's still on the loose.

"You, on the other hand, Roxthar will snap up like a weasel grabbing a new-hatched duckling the moment you're out of our protection. You've humiliated him before men he distrusts. He'll forgive that the day Queen Rylla begs on her knees for a pardon from Styphon's House."

Phidestros was making sense-too much sense-but not telling her what to do. Or perhaps he assumed she already knew, and was waiting for her to offer it freely.

"I… I suppose I could ride with the Iron Band, that is, if you've a place for a healer. I'd like to train some of your men to help me, if that could be arranged, because I really can't do it all myself-"

Phidestros was kissing her eyelids and cheeks as well as her lips. Sirna wasn't quite ready to kiss him back, but she didn't stop him, either. She managed to be deaf to the new chorus of cheers and bawdy remarks around her.

"Some of my girls may want to come with you," Menandra added. "Hostigos Town may not be the most comfortable place for a while. I've three or four who've earned out their time and may want to travel on. If you could train them too-"

It's insane! Here she was, planning to live as the healer to a band of Fourth Level mercenaries and madam to their field brothel. Not to mention, probably, mistress to their Captain-General-an idea that now left her feeling curious rather than degraded. Although please, don't let the contraceptive implants run out before I find a way home!

It was insane-and it would keep her alive. If Roxthar's Investigators had to fight the Iron Band to reach her, they probably would give her up as not worth the trouble. If she had to sleep with Phidestros to keep his favor, she would at least be sleeping with an interesting man-and not interesting in a purely academic sense, either.

She would go with Phidestros and his men. She would do what they wanted her to do, and they would keep her alive until Great King Kalvan returned and took vengeance for this day and all the other crimes of Styphon's House.

Sirna was sure that day would come. It would be worth enduring much to be there to see it, and maybe, Dralm willing, help bring it about.

There was dancing in the streets of Balph. Hostigos was an abattoir and the renegade Prince Ptosphes was dead. The Daemon Kalvan was fleeing for his life and the mighty fortress Tarr-Hostigos had fallen to the Grand Host of Styphon's House. The war against the Blasphemer was over! "Styphon Victorious" rang out throughout the Holy City. The only dark cloud on the horizon was the unasked question: How long before Archpriest Roxthar and his Investigation returned?

That was the question that weighed heavily on the mind of Archpriest Anaxthenes for the last moon as he pondered the future of the Temple's hold over the Five Kingdoms. Today, he had gotten an answer. Soon he would attend a meeting with the rest of his co-conspirators at Relic Tomb deep underneath the Great Temple of Styphon. Now he was meeting with Highpriest Danthor in the Speaker's private chamber. Danthor had just returned from Hos-Rathon and Anaxthenes was anxious to learn if he had any news of Usurper Kalvan.

After the Highpriest was brought into his chamber, Anaxthenes dispensed with the usual ritual greetings. "Have a seat, Highpriest."

"Your Sanctity be praised."

"Yes, yes… Let us forego the formalities today. I invited you to my chamber to learn firsthand of your time in Rathon Town."

Danthor laughed nastily. "The Trygathi call it Rathon City these days. These bumpkins will rue the day their king sold them out so he could pose as Great King-Ha! Great King Cleitharses has plans for the Holy Squares to deal with these upstarts as soon as they return from Hos-Hostigos."

Now it was Anaxthenes turn to laugh. "Return-not this winter! Ho! Ho! Maybe not the next, either."

Danthor looked at him with curiosity.

"Not a word of this to Old Rat's Nest. He will learn in Our time. The Holy Squares were massacred by the Hostigi Army; less than half will return to Hos-Ktemnos."

"The Great King will be inconsolable. They were the elite of the Sacred Squares of Hos-Ktemnos! How did this happen? I thought we won."

"Yes, we won, but the butcher's bill was high. Unfortunately for the Holy Squares, Marshal Zythannes turned and ran from his post, when the Hostigi attacked, thereby leaving the Holy Squares without a commander. Many more were lost when Prince Ptosphes blew up Tarr-Hostigos."

"Cleitharses will be sick when he learns of this disaster."

"That's not all. The Grand Host will not be disbanding, or rather most of it will not. Great King Lysandros is willful and thinks of his own gain, rather than the Temple's."

Danthor nodded. "Like an Archpriest."

They both laughed.

"For our safety, the Grand Host will continue its work. Also, Soton does not trust the Host's commander, Great Captain-General Phidestros. He is by far too ambitious; somehow he convinced Lysandros to have all the Host's mercenaries swear oaths of fealty to him, as Prince of Greater Beshta! This was supposedly done to forestall the Ban of Galzar, but not even Styphon himself knows what plots are hatching in Phidestros' or Lysandros' skulls! Nor does Soton trust subordinates who disobey his orders, as Phidestros did by leading the siege party to Tarr-Hostigos himself."