Dave Duncan - Children of Chaos

The second ice devil chariot arrived, and stayed just long enough to deliver a very oddly dressed person, draped from top to toe in cloth that had once been white. Since even her face was completely covered, she must be a seer. She scrambled down awkwardly, but more as if hampered by her long skirts than as if she were blind. How could she stand such clothes on such a hot day? Her driver drove the chariot away and she minced forward to stand at the big man's side. Only her hands showed; they were pink.

" 'Anto, is that man hurt?" Orlando demanded. He must think she was bandaged.

"No, she's a seer, like Fiorella," Dantio said.

Orlando turned to frown up at Fiorella, who wore a respectable ladylike gown of dark brown and a blindfold to show she was on duty. Witnesses saw with the eyes of their goddess.

Papa bowed. "I am Doge Piero, ruler of this city. I have come to parley, as we agreed, and have brought all my children, as you requested."

The white-shrouded woman spoke. She would not be able to speak Florengian, or even properly know the words, but seers could always tell meaning, just as they could hear lies or recognize poison in a glass of wine. The man in black scowled and replied in a deep, rumbling voice, as if he were gargling rocks. When he had finished, Fiorella translated.

"He says he is Stralg Hragson, bloodlord of the Heroes of Weru, and he did not come to parley. He never requests, he gives orders. He is here to accept your submission and oath of allegiance."

Papa said, "I have agreed to give them. And he promised he would swear to respect our lives, property, and laws."

The Vigaelian seer interpreted. The bloodlord rumbled again.

"He says you already have his word."

That was not fair ! If Papa had to take a solemn oath, then the murderous Vigaelian should certainly do the same, not just quote a promise sent through a messenger. More rumble.

"He asks who the woman is." Fiorella added softly, "Be careful, lord!"

Papa hesitated, but no one could deceive a Witness, so he had to tell the truth. "Oliva, my wife." He did not say that he had refused to bring Mama at first, but she had insisted she would not trust Fabia to a nurse. Dantio had overheard the argument yesterday.

Rumble. "The bloodlord also says that if you do not immediately kneel and kiss his feet in submission, she will be first to die."

Orlando let go of Dantio's hand. Dantio caught his arm instead. Orlando opened his mouth to scream and Dantio said "Shush!" so fiercely that he actually obeyed. Benard was hiding behind Mama, who was having trouble with Fabia. The baby could smell her milk and wanted to suck.

Horrible ! Papa walked forward and sank to his knees in front of the hateful monster in his black shroud. Dantio looked away, unable to watch this humiliation of the father he loved.

Far to the northwest, under a sky of indigo, sharp young eyes could just make out the glimmer of white that marked the Ice, where no one normally went. Only a few brave traders ever ventured over the Edge to the Vigaelian Face. Even fewer returned, and the goods they brought back were always small items, valued mostly as curiosities. Mama had shown Dantio a rather ugly little jade pot in the ducal collection and told him that it came from Vigaelia.

But this year, soon after the end of the rainy season, a horde of starving, sickly-pale men had streamed in from the Edge and started rounding up herds on the Altiplano, eating them raw and killing any herders who objected. They had converged eventually on the little hill town of Nelina. Seeing that the invaders had no siege equipment and seemed to have no weapons at all, Nelina had closed its gates on them. The ice devils had swarmed straight up thecliffs and the sheer walls above. They had killed every living thing in Nelina, even the cats and the birds in the trees, it was said.

Most Florengians were polytheists, but some belonged to mystery cults, secretive orders of henotheists sworn to the worship of a single god. There were Witnesses of Mayn, like Fiorella. There were Sinura's Healers who cured sick people, Speakers of Demern to quote the laws, and many others. But, as Papa had sadly explained to Dantio, Florengia had no Werists—men who, like these Vigaelians, had sworn to the god of war—and that lack was clearly going to be Florengia's downfall.

After decimating Nelina, the Vigaelians had moved on to Sturia. They spared Sturia when it submitted, though they claimed the small fee of looting its food stocks. Papa, as ruler of the largest and richest city in the northwest, had hastily organized an army of all the able-bodied men within marching distance. They had met the enemy at Two Fords. Although they had outnumbered the invaders by at least three to one and been well armed with bronze swords and spears, the Werists had slaughtered them all, sparing only two wounded boys, whom they had sent back with news of the massacre. And now they were at the gates of Celebre, which had no way to resist them.

When Papa finished repeating the oath the Stralg monster dictated, he was told to rise. He backed away from the bloodlord, bowing repeatedly.

Now, Dantio supposed, he would be taken as hostage for Papa's good faith. He was so full of rage and hate that he no longer felt afraid. They were subhuman brutes! Soon the gods would destroy them.

"Noble Stralg says that he requires three sixty strong youths to begin training as Werists. His men will choose them."

"As the bloodlord commands. I beg him to allow me a day or two to warn my people of this."

"He gives you until tomorrow. And he requires food for three sixty-sixty men, delivered to these gates before sundown, every day until you are told to stop."

"So shall it be, as long as our stocks last. Ask Bloodlord Stralg why he is doing this. What does he hope to gain by bringing his horde over the Edge and slaying so many people? Does he expect to move great trains of loot over the Ice? Does he not fear the wrath of the Bright Ones?"

A translation, then the Vigaelian sneered and replied at length.

Fiorella said, "He says the only god he fears is Weru and warfare is His worship. We Florengians are timid and neglect the Terrible One, so we must be taught... to fear Weru until we wet our legs at the mere mention of His name. You and your wife may return to the city. He will keep your children as hostages for your continued obedience."

Papa flushed scarlet. "No! This is my eldest son, lord Dantio. He is eleven years old. I brought the others only to show that they are too young."

"He says all of them."

"Benard is eight and Orlando only three , in the holy names! The Lawgiver wrote that only males over the age of ten may be taken as hostages."

Stralg turned and waved a signal. Men started walking out of the woods behind him. They stopped as soon as they came into view, but then more appeared, a line of them standing about an arm's length apart, a line growing longer and longer until it stretched off into the distance in both directions. They were unarmed, and yet that was how they had slaughtered every man sent against them at Two Fords. A great moan went up from the city, as if the stones themselves grieved.

"The bloodlord says that he gives the laws here."

Orlando squirmed free of Dantio's grasp and made a break for freedom.

Stralg held out his hands. Orlando, always wayward, went to him, trotting on stubby legs. The Werist lifted the toddler high overhead. Orlando laughed at being so high above the world. The ice devil stepped over to the fence.

"The bloodlord asks if you want to see the inside of your son's head, lord." Fiorella's voice turned shrill. "He means what he says! He will kill the child."

"My sons, then!" Papa shouted. "Let him take the boys, but my daughter is a babe at suck. Holy Demern has written—"