L. Modesitt - Arms-Commander

“Why do you think, squad leader?”

“They had to be paid…ser.”

“That’s my thought. Most likely by the Suthyans.”

Klarisa had nodded, but Saryn had sensed the woman’s anger at the thought that someone had paid out-of-work armsmen and ruffians to raid and kill poor crofters. Then, too, Saryn couldn’t understand why Spalkyn didn’t have at least some armsmen as retainers, near as he was to the border with Suthya. Beyond that, she also had to think more about how to counter chaos. Before, she’d never had to deal with it-and she hadn’t known she’d even had that much ability. And there was the question of archers…or the lack of them. Joncaryl had sneered at the composite bows.

She snorted softly. She’d find out about the bows in time. Lack of a weapon by enemies wasn’t nearly so big a problem as a weapon she didn’t know how to counter effectively. If she’d faced a really strong white mage, she’d have been the one turned to charred ashes.

Still…order and chaos were everywhere, except they were part of or embedded in some materials so deeply there seemed no way to remove them or even to move such materials. In other places or other materials, order and chaos seemed to move with only a thought. Some aspects were obvious. Iron was endothermic, essentially an ordered energy sink…

For a time, she just thought.

Then she rose and washed up, dressing quietly. After that, she moved silently from third-floor guest quarters down to the second level. As she neared the breakfast room, she could hear voices, those of Spalkyn and his consort. She stopped to listen, wondering if she should intrude.

“…thought she was a young captain at first…should have known…the way she slaughtered that hedge mage…but you see what you expect…”

“You wanted her to spare him?” There was a certain scorn in the woman’s voice.

“No…his fire-bolts killed most of the ones we lost. It was just…she didn’t hesitate, even while he was fleeing, and she threw that blade through him…woman looks so pleasant…almost harmless…unless you look behind her eyes.”

“I thought you never looked at other women’s eyes, dear…”

A loud snort followed, after which Spalkyn went on, “Those women…almost felt sorry for the marauders…They didn’t stand a chance…frightening in the field.”

“I don’t feel a bit sorry. I’m just glad they came in time. So should you be.”

“I’m glad enough for that…I just wonder…did the old Cyadorans know something?”

Saryn wanted to know just what that had meant, but neither of the two spoke. So she scuffed her boots on the worn wooden floor, then coughed, before making her way to the arched entry to the breakfast room. “Good morning.”

“Commander.” Spalkyn immediately stood from his place at the end of the small table. “I hadn’t thought you’d be up this close to dawn. Not even the children are awake.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep all that long.”

Gesturing to the place at his left, Spalkyn reseated himself. “Would you like hot cider?”

“I would, thank you,” replied Saryn, easing into the ladder-backed chair.

“We were talking about yesterday,” offered Maerila, who was dressed in maroon trousers and a white shirt, with a sleeveless pale green vest. While her garments were clean and pressed, Saryn could see that they were anything but new. “Your guards are quite accomplished with their weapons, Spalkyn was telling me.”

“Unhappily, that is a necessity. We’re always outnumbered.” Saryn took the liberty of filling the mug before her from the porcelain pot with the slightly chipped handle, then taking a small sip of the warm liquid. The cider was spiced, if sweet, and helped soothe a throat she hadn’t even realized was sore.

“Outnumbered or not, your presence was the only thing that saved us.” Spalkyn shook his head. “You must think me terribly improvident not to have at least a squad of armsmen.”

“I know too little of Lornth and of you, Lord Spalkyn, to make a judgment. With your lands so close to Suthya, I must admit that I wondered about that.”

“I was deeply indebted to Lord Nessil, as well as to Lord Sillek, Commander. But when Sillek attacked Westwind, Maerila was close to death after the birth of the twins. I chose not to leave her, but the only way to discharge my obligations was to finance and send an entire company, including the two squads I had raised and trained here. At that time, Sillek had reclaimed Rulyarth, and…” The brown-eyed lord shrugged.

“You’ve been paying off all that for years? Death golds, as well?”

“A lord must honor his obligations. The harvests went well last fall, and I paid the last and began to raise a full squad of my own armsmen. Now…”

Saryn had a sudden thought. “I do not wish to seem unduly…inquisitive, but the way in which you said that you had paid the last suggests that you had to borrow against harvests or the holding. I was wondering who outside Lornth might know of your situation.”

Spalkyn laughed, softly and ruefully. “Doubtless every merchant house in Armat or Rulyarth. There was no merchant house left in Lornth who could provide the golds, not after the black angel visited devastation on the south and the Cyadorans.”

“I wish that I could make some recompense,” said Saryn, “but what-”

“Say no more,” interrupted Maerila. “You saved his life and half of his squad, as well as most of the crofters’ dwellings and stock. No one could ask for more.”

“You had something in mind, I think,” said Spalkyn.

“We stripped the corpses of the marauders…” began Saryn.

“As you had every right to,” pointed out Maerila quickly, almost as if she were afraid her consort would contradict her.

“Every marauder had coins. Some had silvers,” Saryn finished quietly. “There were threescore, and even had they taken every head of stock…”

“You’re saying that they were paid to attack my lands.”

“There’s no way to prove it, but let me tell you why if you would not mind.”

“Please.” The words were calm, but Saryn sensed a cold anger behind them, one not directed at her, although she was not certain how she knew that.

“This spring, the Suthyan Council sent an envoy to Westwind…” Saryn went on to tell the entire story, including the side journey of Trader Baorl to Duevek and the ensuing attack on Saryn’s squad on her first trip to Lornth. “…so you can see why I have some thoughts about who might have paid the marauders to attack your lands.”

Spalkyn nodded, slowly.

“But why?” asked Maerila. “We are among the poorer holdings, as you have discovered.”

“That may be why,” suggested Saryn. “It costs less to create trouble and dissension and to undermine the regency and foment a civil war so bloody that eventually the stronger lords will beg for the Suthyans to take over. The weaker lord-holders, of course, will have no say.”

“No,” replied Maerila. “They’ll be dead.”

Saryn could sense someone else moving toward the breakfast room-Zeldyan, she thought-but whoever it was stopped, possibly to eavesdrop, as Saryn herself had earlier.

“Hmmm…and why are you here, then, Commander?” asked Spalkyn.

“Because for the past ten years, Lornth has been a good neighbor, and neither Suthya nor Gallos has been. Westwind would not wish to see Deryll and the Jeranyi take Lornth, and especially not the Suthyans. We do not have golds to help, and we have few armswomen, but the Marshal sent what we could spare. Possibly more than she could spare,” Saryn added.

“Help? How?”

“To support the regency.”

“How do I know you are not fomenting the very trouble you claim to be trying to prevent?”