David Weber - The Road to Hell

“That’s why we weren’t planning on sending any hummers to him , Sir,” Ulthar agreed, His expression troubled. “Two Thousand Harshu has a high reputation in the Army, and I really don’t want to think he’s part of some organized lie. But like you, I can’t see how anybody could have pulled it off without his at least giving his unofficial blessing.”

“And is this Harshu the sort of fellow who’d come up with something like this all on his own?” Velvelig waved one hand when Ulthar raised his eyebrows at him. “What I mean is, would he try something like this without the approval of whoever’s next up in your chain of command?”

“We don’t know,” Ulthar said frankly. “That’s one thing we hoped Five Hundred Klian could advise us on.”

“Actually,” Commander of Fifty Cothar said, speaking up for the first time, his expression troubled, “I think I might be able to suggest a little something about that, Therman.”

Ulthar looked at Cothar with a surprised expression, and the dark-haired, dark-complected cavalry fifty shrugged.

“You’re married to Fifty Halesak’s sister, aren’t you?” he asked, and Ulthar nodded. “Well, my grandmother’s a garthan , too,” Cothar said with a crooked, rather bitter smile none of the Sharonians understood. Ulthar did, though. He nodded again, more firmly, and Cothar looked down the table at Velvelig.

“The senior Union Army officer out here is Two Thousand mul Gurthak, Regiment-Captain,” he said. “His headquarters are in Erthos-that’s four universes up-chain towards Arcana from here-but he’s responsible for a nine-universe command area reaching back from Mahritha, the universe immediately up-chain from Hells Gate, all the way back to Esthiya. He’s been pulling in every reinforcement he could dig up from the moment the first hummer from Hundred Olderhan reached him, and he could’ve taken command of the AEF himself. In fact, that’s what he should’ve done. But instead, he gave it to Two Thousand Harshu.”

“And?” Velvelig prodded gently when the cavalry officer paused.

“I don’t think he did that because he thought Harshu was better qualified for the command than he was,” Cothar said flatly. “He’s a shakira , and it’s not like one of them to let anyone else have any credit he could claim for himself.”

“ Shakira ?” Velvelig repeated, and Cothar grimaced.

“They’re a bunch of bigoted bastards, Sir. They come from our continent of Mythal-I think your people call it Ricathia-and they believe anyone who isn’t Gifted is worthless. They’d like to turn all of them into slaves. For that matter, they did turn any Mythalan without a Gift into a slave. People like my grandmother’s family- garthans they call them. They lost the war that broke out back home in Arcana when we first discovered the portals, and the Andarans and Ransarans made them back down on the worst of their bigotry. But they’ve never forgiven that, and if one of them saw a chance to shove a knife into the Army’s back-the Army’s Andaran through and through, Sir-the son-of-a-whore would take it in a heartbeat. Or that’s my opinion, anyway.” He shrugged, his expression bitter. “Only fair to admit I’m prejudiced as all hells where the shakira are concerned because of what they’ve done to my grandmother’s family, but I don’t think that makes me wrong.”

Velvelig glanced back at Ulthar, trying to assimilate the latest overload of information, and the Scout nodded, his own expression just as bleak as Cothar’s.

“Sahrimahn has a point, Sir. My brother-in-law thought pretty much the same thing when he found me here in your brig and found out just how thoroughly he’d been lied to.”

“So are you saying you think this mul Gurthak’s really behind all of this?”

“You said you were told Madam Nargra-Kolmayr and her husband were dead, Sir. That means it was the official position of our diplomats when your diplomats asked about it. There’s only one person out here who’d have the authority to order someone in an official negotiating position to lie about that…and only a complete idiot would lie about it without mul Gurthak’s signing off on it.”

“And it has a sort of shakira stink about it, too,” Fifty Maisyl said, his expression grim. “I’m not related to any Mythalans by blood or marriage, but I don’t have to be to know how frigging arrogant and manipulative they are. Their magisters and magistrons are the most egotistical and condescending bastards in the multiverse, and like Cothar says, anybody who isn’t shakira himself is dirt as far as they’re concerned. Hells, their Book of the Shakira says that in so many words! And it also teaches them that no shakira is under any obligation to deal honestly or honorably with any non- shakira . Anyone outside their own caste is their mortal enemy-potentially, at least-so it’s actually their duty to lie if that helps the shakira , individually or as a group, with their ‘soul growth.’ Most of the shakira I’ve run into really believe that, too.”

“They’re not all that way,” Cothar objected in the voice of a man making himself be fair. “Magister Halythan wasn’t!”

“No,” Maisyl agreed. “But that was the reason so many people loved him so much-because he wasn’t like the rest of the shakira . Because he was one of the most powerful magisters Mythal ever produced, one of the highest of all the shakira , and he’d turned his back on them and walked away from them!”

“I take it these ‘ shakira ’ aren’t universally beloved?” Velvelig asked dryly.

“No one but a fool trusts a shakira behind him, Sir,” Ulthar said. “By the same token, though, I’ve tried to bear in mind that just because a group of people has a particular reputation, that doesn’t mean everyone who belongs to it deserves the same reputation.”

“That’s very commendable, Fifty,” Velvelig said, “but in this case, it could be a fast way to get you and your friends killed. I don’t know anything about your shakira , but I grew up next door to the Uromathian Empire. Any septman who takes a Uromathian’s word for anything is too stupid to come in out of the snow. Besides, if this mul Gurthak’s the senior officer for this cluster fuck your people’ve produced out here, then I think you’re right that he has to’ve approved the way it’s being conducted. And even if he didn’t do that, if he’s as unscrupulous as you seem to be suggesting, he’s not going to let anything his subordinates might have done splash on him . At the very least, he’ll do his damnedest to sweep any unpleasant little revelations under the rug, and the easiest way for him to do that would be to sweep you under right with them.”

“That may be so, Sir, but we’ve got to find someone we can trust,” Ulthar said, his expression grim. “It takes seven weeks to get a message from here to New Andara. That means my message to my wife won’t get there for another nineteen days. After that, it’d take another six weeks for any message from Duke Garth Showma to come back as far as Mahritha. And that’s for hummers-it’ll take twice that long for him or the Commandery to send an actual investigating team clear out here.”

“I see.”

Velvelig looked at Company-Captain Silkash and Master-Armsman Karuk, and his expression was at least as grim as Ulthar’s. They weren’t accustomed to thinking in communication delays that long, but the Arcanans didn’t have Voices. If Ulthar and the others were right to suspect this mul Gurthak was behind all this, giving him the next best thing to five months to tidy up any inconvenient witnesses before he had to face an inquiry would be a very bad idea.