Joel Shepherd - Tracato

Alfriedo did not reply. His thin shoulders heaved in the silence, as he struggled for calm.

“Your mother had groomed you to rule,” said Kessligh, leaning more closely. “Had proclaimed that yours is the birthright of kings. To rule, you must be a general, and accept that nothing is beyond your control. Some in Lenayin call me the greatest swordsman of that land, and think it a gift granted by the gods or spirits. But in truth, I achieved this merely because I refused to accept that my opponent could best me. I controlled the battle, not him. And if he killed me, it would be my failure, not his success.

“Do not take your losses and griefs as insults inflicted by others, young Alfriedo. If you were truly born to rule, you would accept them as failings of your own, and resolve to learn better.”

Alfriedo gazed at him for a long moment. Kessligh wondered if he had indeed judged the boy rightly, or if this would only push him over the edge.

“You do not believe in the rule of kings,” Alfriedo observed finally. “How do you then claim to know so much of their kind?”

“It is because I know so much of their kind that I do not believe in them. And I speak not merely of kings, but of men. Of leaders of all stripes. A true leader knows that knowledge and wisdom are all, but wisdom tells that not all men possess it. Thus, it would be folly to leave the ruling of lands entirely to kings.”

“Even should that king be you?”

“Suppose it was,” said Kessligh. “Suppose I ruled well. But who would follow?”

“My mother ruled well,” Alfriedo said stubbornly. “As did my ancestors, when Rhodaan was a true kingdom. I would follow.”

“Your ancestors were murderers, thieves and tyrants,” said Kessligh. “The serrin document it well. If you wished I have no doubt they would lend you many writings that say so, writings by reliable humans of the period, not merely by serrin. Your mother attempted to steal the Rhodaani people’s voice in Council from under their noses. She bred hatred among the common folk, and destabilised Rhodaan so that Saalshen felt it had no choice but to step in. She is now dead, you are orphaned, there is blood all over the Justiciary steps, the grand institutions of Rhodaan that have served so well for two centuries are in turmoil, and the Steel is less well prepared for the greatest challenge of its existence than it should be.

“I have hope that you may lead your people well, young Alfriedo. But have no illusions that should you do so, you would be the first.”

There was a bristling of anger in the kitchen, but this time, no outbursts. Alfriedo remained silent for a moment. Then he looked at Rhillian.

“Our differences remain,” he said to her, “yet our greatest threat is a common one, and marches upon our border from the west. I will make a pledge with you, Lady Rhillian, that all who follow me shall refrain from any violent acts against serrin, Nasi-Keth, or any institution of Rhodaan that we may consider moved against us. In return, you shall allow the Blackboots to re-form, and reinstate all senior city officials dismissed from their institutions. That includes the Council and their councillors, of course. Those who are still alive.”

“I accept your truce offer,” Rhillian said calmly, “and I return it. The Blackboots shall be re-formed with no penalties to those who cast off uniforms and fought in militia. Any who committed crimes against innocents, however, may be brought to justice should witnesses come forward.”

“The only innocents against whom crimes were committed were our women and children at the hands of Civid Sein thugs!” came a snarl from behind. Alfriedo, Rhillian and Kessligh ignored it.

“We will discuss the reinstatement of city officials,” Rhillian continued. “Some, you may recall, have been implicated in treason. Trials for such matters can obviously wait until after the war in the west is resolved, but we must come to an agreement on interim appointees in the meantime.”

“Agreed,” said Alfriedo, frowning in thought. “How?”

“A sitting of the High Table,” said Rhillian. “But first, we must resolve the High Table and Council. At our count, we have lost seven of our hundred councillors dead, with another three unaccounted for. Of those absent ten, six are known to be feudalists.”

“We count six and five,” came the first helpful interjection from behind.

“We shall compare our names and numbers later,” said Alfriedo. “These people must be replaced before Council sits. I believe two of the missing are on the High Table.”

“Indeed. This shall be our first order of business, but there are others on both sides who should attend such discussions. We must agree on a location for a meeting tomorrow, and on who should attend. Once we have made those appointments, we can have the High Table sit, and begin deciding which city officials should be reinstated, and which should be replaced. Agreed?”

“Yes,” said Alfriedo. “Let’s begin.”

“That’s a damn smart kid,” Kessligh remarked as they walked up from the docks some time later, in the company of their Nasi-Keth guards.

“He is,” Rhillian said sombrely. “But intelligence is guarantee of nothing. He is still his mother’s son.”

“We shall see.”

“And they’re all fools to trust a fourteen-year-old to do their negotiating anyway, no matter how smart,” Rhillian sighed. “Fancy entrusting leadership of any group to a person determined by lineage alone. No serrin had believed such an anachronism could possibly still exist two centuries after King Leyvaan.”

“Human ideals die hard,” said Kessligh. “Logic plays little role.”

“Do you think it will hold?” Rhillian asked him. The truce, she meant.

“We can try. The strength of the Steel is a great blessing, but a minor curse too. No one has taken seriously the prospect that they might actually lose. And so, even confronted by a common threat as immense as this one, it fails to unite Rhodaanis in its face.”

“I must soon leave,” said Rhillian. “I am ordering the last significant force of talmaad in Tracato to go in support of the Steel, they shall need all the help they can get.”

“Must you command them?”

“I have experience,” said Rhillian. “It is expected.”

“If the Steel are defeated,” said Kessligh, “all Rhodaani forces as can muster should depart for Enora immediately. We must continue the fight from there.”

“You think a defeat is likely?”

“Not likely. But where the Army of Lenayin is in play, anything is possible. I am stuck here in Tracato, so I have nothing better to do than make contingencies. The Steel is vastly experienced, but the one thing they have never experienced is defeat. I do not think it shall be pretty. They are a complex, structured force, and rely upon total control of the battlefield to maintain that structure. In defeat and withdrawal, that structure shall disappear and will be nearly impossible to regain, in the face of what numbers are arrayed against them. I predict either victory or rout. In the event of a rout, the Steel’s commanders shall march as fast as possible to Enora. Retreating to Tracato shall make no sense, it would be just asking for encirclement.”

“And given the Steel’s strength, Tracato has allowed its own defensive walls to fall into disrepair, and the city to expand well beyond them.”

“You see the problem. The border is defensible. Tracato is not.”

“And Saalshen’s border shall be open to its enemies for the first time in two hundred years.”

There was fear in Rhillian’s voice. Rhodaan’s people too would be at great risk of the predations of invading Larosans, but Kessligh did not think her fear selfish. Rhodaanis were human, and invaders would expect to return them to the status of vassals beneath a feudal overlord. Serrin, to the Larosans and others, were demons and deserved death to the last child.