Glen Cook - An Ill Fate Marshalling

„Probably not."

The stay at Sam Chordine's home had become a grinding bore for Sherilee. She was becoming neurotic, worrying about the King and fending off the fat man. „Kris," she said one morning, „I'll go crazy if we stay here much longer."

„We may not. We may go back."

„Back? We can't do that."

„I talked to Aral again a little while ago. He's heard from the Marena Dimura. Inger still thinks we're dead. Credence wants us to come back and prove we're not. To give him a rallying point."

„He wants young Bragi for a pretender, you mean."

„Yes."

„He could be that with us still here. The kids are too young for the Marena Dimura life, and that's what they'd have to live. I could do it if I thought there was any point... ." She burst into tears.

„What is it?"

„Kris, I miss him. We never had that much time together, but it's like part of me has been ripped out. I just can't believe he's dead."

Kristen took the smaller woman into her arms, comforted her. „I know. I know. It's still unreal to me, too. But we're going to have to accept it."

„I don't want to accept it. I want everything I'm never going to have. I hate politics."

„Take it easy." Someone pounded on the door. „What is it?" Kristen demanded.

„It's Slugbait, Lady. I got a message from Captain Trebilcock."

Sherilee turned off the tears. Both women answered the door. Slug passed the courier case inside. „Something wrong?" he asked. „Anything I can do?"

„Get Chordine to leave Sherry alone," Kristen snapped.

„He been after her again? I'll break his legs."

„No. No. Just get him to back off. Don't hurt him. We need him too much."

„I'll talk to him." Slugbait departed looking grim.

Kristen ripped at the pouch. The enclosed letter was long, convoluted, and often confused. In part, it was a diary of recent events. Michael had included his misgivings, his dreads, his battles with his conscience. He had used the letter the way he had sometimes used Aral Dantice during their morning rides, as a vent.

„What's it all about?" Sherilee finally asked.

„Basically, just that Inger thinks we're dead, and he wants to keep her thinking that. He's going to do the same job for her that he did for the King, only his loyalty will be to the kingdom instead of a person. If he can get away with it."

„That's all he says? In all that?"

„He rambles, but it's just fears and feelings and stuff. He sounds awful lonely. And if I didn't know him better, a little afraid." Kristen spared Sherilee news of the riots and deaths of so many friends.

„So what do we do?" Sherilee asked. „Go Michael's way, or Colonel Abaca's? Do you really want Bragi to be King?"

„I don't know. I just don't know. I don't even want to think about it."

Slugbait came around again late that afternoon. „Lady,

Mr. Dantice is back." His eyes were a little buggy, as if he had seen a ghost. „He has somebody with him."

„Who?" Aral was always bringing someone around with investment opportunities. He wasn't trying to take advan­ tage, just trying to help. He felt a little guilty about running out of Kavelin.

Slugbait smiled and shrugged.

„Send them in." She told Sherilee, „Maybe I ought to let him invest something just so he can soothe his conscience."

Sherilee shook her head. „1 don't think so. Don't forget how thick he was with that Mist. He's still got the disease. She could be using him. Don't get pulled into some scheme of hers."

Someone tapped on the door. „Hush. He's here." Kristen opened up. Her jaw dropped. „Dahl. Dahl. Dahl, we thought you were dead. We thought the Itaskians got you."

Haas shifted from foot to foot. „I got away." He couldn't seem to go any farther.

Kristen pushed past Dantice, threw her arms around Haas's neck. „Dahl. It's really you." She rested her head against his chest. „Come on in. Come on in. Please? I'm so glad to see you." She grabbed his hand and dragged him inside.

Tear in eye, Sherilee left them. Dantice shrugged, smiled, gently closed the door, and returned to his underworld friends.

The rain had dispersed the rioters. The reappearance of troops had prevented further outbreaks. Rioting in Kavelin's secondary cities amounted to little, though, with the exception of Damhorst, they were reluctant to pledge fealty to the new regime. The major problem in the capital became the Quarter. Thousands had been burned out of their homes. Winter wasn't far away.

Michael and General Liakopulos were the only old faces at Inger's first formal briefing, but, to Michael's surprise, the new faces were neither Nordmen extremists nor the Duke's freebooters. Inger had made appointments outstanding for their neutrality. It might be calculated, to lull the populace till they could be disarmed, but even so Michael approved.

„The agenda," Inger said. „One, the missing treasury funds. Two, the lack of response to our call for pledges of fealty from the army." She said that with her old mocking smile and sarcastic tone. Her brittle humor had returned. „Three, my cousin the Duke. Michael? The money?"

„I haven't had any luck finding it. Prataxis had it moved out while we were guessing about what the King was doing at Maisak. Everyone who knew anything left with the treasury. Where it went I don't know."

„Think trying a little harder and remembering a little better might help?" Inger didn't believe him and he knew it. She needed that money desperately. Her gestures toward the populace were expensive. Already she was taking loans from the Estates. „Very well. General?"

„I've applied all the persuasion I can, Your Majesty. The men in the outlying posts were selected for dedication to the King's ideals. They're stalling till your direction becomes clear. They don't want to pledge, then be embarrassed. There would be less difficulty were your cousin not so much in evidence. It's the wait-and-see attitude you find every­ where. You can't blame people, really."

„Maybe not. But meanwhile our neighbors are watching us. The Alteans may be benign, but Volstokin wouldn't mind paying back the beating they took when they inter­ ceded in the civil war. Speaking of which. Everyone pre­ dicted civil war if I took over. It's peaceful out there. What happened?"

Liakopulos replied, „The estimations were predicated on the assumption that you would take power illegally."

„Michael?"

„There is emotional resistance. Some army units, for instance, might rebel if there was an uprising here. What it is, nobody wants to start it. The rebel fever is out there, but it's unfocused. I'd say, right now, the main reason for lack of resistance is absence of a charismatic leader. There is no pretender, no rallying point, just an undirected dissatisfac­ tion."

„No pretender," Inger mused. She turned to Gales. „Josiah, that brings us to my cousin." Her expression soured.

Gales's crisis of conscience had been solved for him. He was now Inger's creature heart and soul. She had accomplished the transition through the timeless expedient of seduction. He was now her agent in her cousin's camp.

Gales said, „Your Majesty, any restlessness in Kavelin is nothing to that in the Duke's camp. He's very bitter. He's carrying on like you've robbed him of his birthright. It won't be long before he and the sorcerer Norath hatch something. I expect they'll turn to me when they do. His Lordship thinks I'm his agent still."

Inger nodded. „I imagine you haven't seen a tenth of Dane's fury. He had hopes of making Kavelin a base from which he could establish a western empire. I've been a severe disappointment. Tell me more about Norath. He worries me."

„I can't, Your Majesty. No one sees him. He stays sequestered. What's he doing here? What's his relationship with your cousin? Colonel Trebilcock and I have discussed this repeatedly without reaching any conclusions."