Thawed Fortunes (22 page)

"Well, based on the damage we've seen down
here from bag'lig attacks, it is starting to look like they are
having even worse problems than we are. When that group attacked us
from the east, apparently Si'mon started wondering what would have
driven them that way in the first place for them to be there to
double back on us, but once he started talking to some of the
foresters down here it started sounding like they all seem to be
coming from the east."

"You mean someone is driving them around the
mountain?"

On'li shrugged. "That seems the likely
answer. I'm not that familiar with the maps, but it sounds like
there is a natural badlands to the east of Crimson Rocks. The snow
and ice higher up the mountain would tend to combine with the
desolation below to funnel them around here."

"Only when they get here, there are already
bag'ligs in the area, so some of them get displaced north to our
territory, and the rest come down and attack the villagers."

The pieces were starting to fit together
inside Va'del's mind, much like the strategy problems he'd been
given by Guadel Jo'sep.

"If that is all true though, shouldn't we be
headed east in an effort to figure out what is driving the bag'ligs
this way?"

On'li smiled. "There is a petty warlord to
the south who styles himself a Baron. He's been around for a number
of years now, and his father was around for decades before, but
recently he's started reaching out for more control of the
surrounding land."

The Guadel dropped her voice slightly. "The
mayor is doing his best to keep it quiet, but Baron Vladir now
effectively controls fairly large stretches of land to the east and
west of here."

"So we go visit him, put on a show of force,
and try to figure out if he's somehow involved."

On'li gently patted Va'del on the shoulder.
"Exactly. Also the mayor asked us to emphasize our long-standing
policy that we'll only trade with Crimson Rocks, and that only as
long as it remains free to govern itself."

The older woman shrugged. "For someone who
doesn't particularly like politics, I sure seem to find myself
getting more and more involved in them. At least the discussions
with Vladir should be fairly straightforward. People are always
reasonably polite the first time they meet over a negotiation
table."

##

For all that Jain hadn't ever really liked
Mali, not even the newer, relatively quiet version that had made
the trip down the mountain with her, she'd been as alarmed as
anyone when she'd awoken two days ago to find that the other girl
had disappeared during the night.

Bell had immediately assumed the worst, and
turned on the commander of their Guard detachment with accusations
that his men had fallen asleep on watch, but all the evidence
pointed towards there not having been a struggle. Mali had been
sleeping only a few feet away from the rest of the Daughters,
essentially in the exact center of the camp. It seemed impossible
that anyone would sneak all the way into the camp just to kidnap a
single Daughter.

Once it became fairly certain that Mali had
just run away, Si'mon had approached the mayor. The subsequent
search of the village had been noisy and energetic, but hadn't led
anyone to the runaway.

Bell had wanted to start throwing around
accusations, and delay leaving until they'd found Mali, but Si'mon
and the Council members had overruled her, and instead they'd
started off on this trek into the blazing sun.

The general consensus seemed to be that once
Mali realized just how hard life down in the lowlands could be
compared to how Daughters were treated in the Capital, she'd come
back home. Jain tended to agree. If nothing else did it, sheer
discomfort from the heat should suffice. Out of all the Daughters,
Mali was the only one Jain hadn't heard complain about the cold on
the way down the mountain.

It didn't seem particularly fair that once
the caravan left, Mali would come out of the woods where she was
presumably hiding, and then be treated like a princess. Miriam's
father had even volunteered to put Mali up in his inn, no doubt
figuring that her presence would continue to fill his common room
with paying customers eager to meet one of the People.

Thinking about the heat made Jain remember
that it was time to reapply more of the bitter-smelling cream that
Bell had given her to prevent her face from getting sunburned.
Cor'an had actually refused to believe that the sun could burn her.
She'd been spectacularly wrong and would have to cover her head
with a light cloth for days until the burn healed.

Even with the cream, most
of the group had still turned a little pink. Va'del was the most
notable exception. Jain had always thought his darker skin
exotically attractive, but this was the first time she'd heard her
peers lament over the fact that
they
didn't have darker
skin.

Thinking about Va'del led to thinking about
Vi'en, which made Jain frown. The entire time that Va'del had been
injured Vi'en hadn't come by even once, but as soon as he'd
recovered she'd arrived and demanded he talk to her.

Miriam had told Jain it shouldn't take more
than a couple days to reach Baron Vladir's castle, but the villager
hadn't taken into account that their speed wasn't governed by how
fast they could walk, but rather by how fast they could walk
without overheating the gurra.

Jain hadn't realized just how much the poor
creatures would suffer in the heat. If the caravan hadn't been
planning on returning to colder elevations so quickly, it would
have made sense to shear the gurra, but that hadn't been an option.
Instead the party had been forced to travel for only a few cycles
in the morning and another few cycles in the late afternoon.

The leather water bladders had also been
something Jain hadn't anticipated. None of the Daughters had ever
envisioned a place so dry that you had to bring your water with you
rather than just scooping up snow for melting.

On the plus side, the slower pace had been
just what Va'del needed to finish recovering, and had allowed the
pair to spend quite a bit of time together when they weren't
studying.

The fact that Vi'en had been conspicuously
absent for the last several days had made the journey even more
pleasant, right up until she'd confronted Va'del as everyone was
preparing to head out on the first leg of the day's journey.

It had been obvious that Vi'en just wanted to
be able to tear into Va'del somewhere sufficiently private that she
wouldn't have to worry about On'li or someone else putting her back
into her place. Jain would have told her no, but Va'del had just
nodded wordlessly.

Jain and Mar'li had brought Va'del and
Vi'en's gurra with them so that once the couple was finished they
could just walk through the heat of the day, but knowing that
Va'del would be back with the caravan before evening was small
comfort against what Jain knew he must be going through.

The road the caravan was following dropped
down into a heavily-wooded ravine, but Jain didn't notice other
than to hope that it wasn't too long. If the shade persisted, then
it was all too likely that they'd end up travelling for an extra
cycle or two rather than stopping like normal.

As usual, thoughts of Va'del led to the
question of whether or not they'd be able to marry. They both
agreed that right now Vi'en had no intention of agreeing to Jain as
a sister-wife, but Va'del still held out hope of finding some
perfect combination of hoops to jump through that would change her
mind. Jain was pretty sure the older woman was spiteful enough
she'd never change her mind.

The other three Daughters were lost in their
own conversation, so as Jain often did these days, she was passing
the time imagining that On'li would find some ancient tradition
that would allow Va'del to marry her despite everything Vi'en could
do.

The fantasy was so real that the young lady
nearly walked into Ka'ti when the other girl stopped.

Craning her head around, Jain was just able
to make out a group of metal-clad men mounted on the beasts that
Miriam had called horses and wearing the blood-red cloaks of the
Baron's guard, blocking the trail before them.

For several seconds Jain couldn't understand
why the Guadel pairs were all linking and drawing their weapons,
and then she noticed that the horsemen already had their weapons
out.

Jain's heart leapt to her throat as she
realized there was almost sure to be a fight. A sudden rumbling
like thunder made the Daughters all turn to check the back of the
column just in time to see an equal number of horsemen cut off the
way back to Crimson Rocks.

Cor'an and Alis both gasped in fear, and one
of the guards standing just a few feet away from Se'ath looked away
from the enemy just long enough to shoot them a comforting
look.

"Don't worry, there are more of them, but
we've got a fair number of Guadel with us, and they'll each be
worth two or three of the lowlander knights."

Jain spared another glance at Se'ath, but he
apparently couldn't be bothered to do anything as thoughtful as
trying to reassure any of the girls. Instead Be'ter's oldest friend
was motionless but for a slight tremor running through his
limbs--something like how Jain imagined a snow wolf that had seen
its next meal would act. His face was expressionless, but his body
seemed to say it was all he could do to stop himself from attacking
before the command was given.

Jain had a moment to wish that Va'del was
there, and then the biggest of the knights from the group in front
of the caravan pulled off his helm.

"Put down your weapons and you'll be ransomed
back to your people without being harmed. You have my word as a
Baron on it."

The stone-faced Guadel allowed the silence to
hang unbroken in the air for several seconds, and then Va'ma
stepped forward flanked by Javin and Si'mon.

Each of the three men moved with a controlled
menace and inhuman grace that did more to calm Jain than anything
the kindly guardsman could have said. It seemed impossible that
even the large body of knights could do anything other than back
down when faced with the sure evidence of just how deadly the
Guadel really were.

Va'ma shook his head casually, and when his
voice rang out it was cold and unworried.

"You have no right to take us hostage. Turn
your men around, and we won't be forced to make the gem trade you
depend on for taxes evaporate."

The Baron laughed. "Ah yes, the fabled Guadel
arrogance. You really think that you and your guardsmen can face
down a group of mounted knights. Incredible. As much as I'd like to
see you all trampled under, I'll give you one last chance to
surrender before my archers loose on your wives."

A sudden rustling from above them caused Jain
to look up the ravine walls to the wooded edge above them.

More than two dozen hard-faced men had
appeared, all with longbows pointed at the knot of women in the
center of the caravan. The male Guadel all shifted around, subtly
rearranging themselves so that they were closer to their wives, but
even Jain knew the balance of power had shifted. The Guadel were
more than capable of knocking arrows from the very air, but all it
would take was a single miss for an arrow to sneak past and kill
one of their wives. Given a long enough fight, the odds were very
much on the side of the women tiring before the archers ran out of
shafts.

Vladir waited several seconds. "I know all
about your trick of knocking projectiles out of the air, but I
think you'll find it's much more difficult to do that when they're
coming almost straight down at you."

"If you kill us all, your kingdom will be
destroyed before the year is over."

"I think not. If I cut you down, your pitiful
Council won't have anyone else to send. I know just how
overextended your Guard is right now, and the Guadel are even more
short-handed."

At a gesture from Vladir, the rider to his
left brought his horse forward and removed his helm with an oddly
fluid gesture. The face was at once both familiar and alien. The
classically handsome features that girls had been sighing over for
years were mostly unchanged, but the eyes that had always been
adept at reflecting back whatever emotion their owner wished had
been replaced by cold orbs that made no attempt to mask the darker
things that must have been there all along.

Jain felt a chill pass through her as she
realized where the Baron had gotten all of his information. Not
only was Be'ter here, lording his betrayal over them, he moved with
the smooth economy that all but screamed that he was being actively
augmented.

Oh Mali, what have you done?

Be'ter looked at the Guadel arrayed before
him with obvious hatred, his expression not even flickering when it
passed over Se'ath, who looked as though he'd been struck. "Be
reasonable, is the small amount of jewels the Baron will require to
release you really more important than what will happen to the
People if you are all cut down?"

Jain hadn't liked Be'ter for months now, but
his words, and the thought of the People slowly falling apart and
dying without sufficient guardsmen and Guadel to run food caravans
out to the newer villages, made her hate him with an intensity that
would have surprised her if she'd been thinking about it.

At the head of the caravan, Javin leaned
forward as if prepared to cut Be'ter from the saddle, but he didn't
actually move, and that was all the confirmation Jain needed to
know that her fears really were correct. What was left of the
Council could probably manage for a while without the resources the
caravan represented, but eventually they'd run low on food and
there wouldn't be anyone left to send down to Crimson Rocks for
food.