Cry of the Newborn (15 page)

'They've slaughtered the bloody lot, barring breeding stock of course. Then jointed it and buried it in the snow to preserve it before selling it on after we'd gone, tax-free.'

Herine spat wine back into her glass to allow herself to laugh, coughing as she sucked a little into her lungs.

'Oh Paul, no. How did they think it would be worth it?'

'I don't know,' said Jhered, shoulders shaking. 'We did some calculations and reckon that given that butchered meat will fetch a lower price on an open market, given no guarantee of freshness, they might have saved themselves in total perhaps twenty-five denarii, no more.'

'So what did you do?'

Jhered sobered. 'Had this been a protest I would have been far more sympathetic as I will explain later. But for these criminals I did exactly what I had to. We are the justice and I will not have anyone defrauding the Conquord and attempting to cheat the Gatherers. We have a reputation hard earned. So, the ringleaders were executed and every other able-bodied man and woman is now serving with the fourth ala, the Gosland Spear, in Tsard. Anyone else has been shipped back to the capital for resettlement and the village itself has been destroyed.'

Herine composed herself. Correct punishment undoubtedly but shocking to hear it related so dispassionately in the heart of the Conquord.

'We should place all these in a book and make sure every citizen reads it,' she said. 'Pointless for those people. Misguided, you think?'

'I have ordered the sentence be nailed to every announcement board in every basilica in Gosland. Misguided? No I don't think so. I think they felt beyond the reach of the Gatherers out there near the border. Now everyone in Gosland knows different. What worries me is why they felt that way. That's what we need to talk about before you retire for the night.'

'I've diverted you for long enough, eh?'

'Yes, my Advocate.'

Herine sighed and refilled her glass. Jhered refused any more, pouring water into a goblet instead. She felt she'd heard enough problems today and no doubt Jhered's would be the most pressing.

'So, why should I be worried?'

'Because a great deal I have seen or heard through solas and into this dusas tells me that the Conquord is struggling to maintain cohesion at its outer markers.'

Herine jerked back, feeling as if she'd been slapped. She felt a flush across her face and a familiar anger began to grow in the pit of her stomach.

'You're serious, aren't you?'

'I wouldn't have travelled here otherwise. There are challenges out in the wilds that I should be overseeing.'

'I don't understand this. The campaigns are progressing well.'

'Well enough but you aren't getting complete information from the borders. Problems are growing that, if the Chancellor is right, are beginning to spread deeper into the Conquord. Your reports shouldn't be so erratic during the campaigning season. We have an Advocacy messenger service after all and the roads and seaways to Tsard are well-trodden and of good quality, even through Atreska.'

'Paul, you are in danger of patronising me. I do see more than these four walls.' Herine cleared her throat and sighed. 'Just tell me. Stop prevaricating.'

Jhered's eyes went a little cold and Herine caught a glimpse of why he was so feared. An enemy would not want to face that expression.

'Four years ago, very early in the Tsardon campaigns, you'll recall that the report I sent back from Atreska with the revenue chests mentioned Tsardon raids deep into Atreskan territory. I witnessed the aftermath of one myself. At the time, I concluded that these were the price of expansion and that they would cease as the Tsardon campaign gathered momentum. This has not happened.

'Raids into Atreska have continued and by the accounts of my teams there, backed up by anecdotal evidence, are increasing in ferocity and probe ever deeper. The result is that vulnerable settlements are abandoned as more and more people seek the security of larger settlements. There is an inevitable knock-on effect for revenue and trade. And, more seriously, as border settlements are destroyed, our supply lines to the legions in Tsard are put under increasing pressure. I have no doubt that Marshal Yuran is here to tell you exactly the same things, and to ask for a reduction in levy and a reduction in the number of citizens taken to the alae in Tsard so he can defend his own lands.'

Herine thought to speak but a small hand gesture from Jhered stopped her. Her ire blossomed. Undermining of her conquest of Tsard was not an option.

'Now, we both know that Yuran is given to gross exaggeration and that many of his people still resent their accession to the Conquord. But I am getting the same stories from Gosland and, more significantly, from Gestern.

'You know I opposed the Tsardon campaign at the Prima

Chamber when it was proposed. This is why we are struggling. We don't have the back-up, we don't have the men in the fields and we don't have the militias we should have. And Gestern's problems are not to be shrugged off.'

Herine didn't like this at all. Gestern. Governing the trade with Kark without whose metals and minerals, the Conquord would suffer catastrophically. Jhered continued.

'I spent several days with Marshal Mardov before returning here. She has had to raise a new Gesternan legion to defend her northern borders. Tsardon raiders are travelling Atreska's border with Kark to attack them. Amazing I know but I also know better than to question Katrin Mardov.'

Herine shook her head. 'This is very difficult to take in. Is Gestern actually under threat?'

'Let's not get too far ahead. The raids have been repulsed and so far they are sporadic but the fact they are happening at all is a significant concern.'

'That is an understatement, Paul. This is very serious.'

'Only should we ignore it.'

'And is there more?'

'Yes, but this is where I start to use conjecture so please bear with me. Something is wrong in our organisation of the Tsardon campaigns that allows them to undertake what I believe to be organised raids. There's a pattern emerging here. It began with Gosland and Atreska and it is clearly designed to unsettle citizenries relatively recently taken into the Conquord. Remember that both those countries were Tsardon trading partners, if not allies, less than fifteen years ago.

'But it isn't just the trade that is being disrupted. The Tsardon are targeting settlements that have embraced Omniscience. When they attack, their first raid will normally be one of abduction, livestock theft and cursory damage. A second raid will destroy the House of Masks and involve the execution of citizens, often mimicking Conquord decimation. A third will see the settlement destroyed if it has not already been abandoned or fortified.

'Think of the effect this has on ordinary Atreskans or Goslanders. Survivors take tales of raids back to towns and cities. There is fear and anxiety. People stop believing that the Conquord has the capability or the will to protect them. They return to their old religions because they see that the Order cannot save them - so the Chancellor is right, but as usual she doesn't see the whole picture.

'They begin to lose faith in their Marshal Defenders, who in turn seek to prop up their support by refusing to send citizens to Tsard and instead use them for defence. Territories begin to lose cohesion. I don't have to explain further. We are stretched to the east and also to the north. Dornos is still an uneasy partner in the Conquord and its Marshal has close ties with Atreska. The Omari campaign is a desperate slog. Should someone like Yuran take matters into his own hands, we will struggle to find the strength to force him back to the Conquord or replace him.

'And now the Tsardon are making a statement by raiding Gestern. They are strong, mobile and determined.'

Herine dragged her tiara from her head and rubbed a hand through her hair, removing some of the gold thread as she did so. Jhered's words had pierced deep into her heart, sending her pulse high and clouding her thoughts temporarily.

'You are talking of outright rebellion,' she whispered, not wanting to hear the words herself. 'Not just civil disobedience.'

'Eventually, yes. But it is eminently avoidable, Herine. So I'm urging you to listen to Yuran when he has his audience with you. Hear the messages beneath his whines. I think he is feeling under immense pressure from his citizens and he feels trapped by the level of taxation we have to impose. He doesn't know where to turn and he is a weak man, unable to force his authority on his citizens. Gosland will be the next knocking on your door asking for help.

‘I
am sorry to have to present you with this but it is something we cannot afford to dismiss as transitory. Our supply lines to the legions will be under real threat in the near future, and in the last two years, the Gatherers have seen revenues decrease for genuine reasons, all Tsardon-induced. The treasury has the deficit reports. Yuran won't want me involved in his talks with you. I'm afraid we don't see eye to eye. But I'm here to help you with your response if you want me.'

Herine nodded, organising herself. She felt calm return to her body and poise to her thoughts. There were solutions. She'd been finding them for forty years.

'The Conquord is a powerful entity,' she said. 'It is inconceivable that we can't nip this in the bud. Whether it's more legions, more

Readers, new Marshals, reinstatement of prefects and consuls from Estorr, we will find a way.'

'In that I have every confidence,' said Jhered.

'I'll listen and I'll consult. When do you leave?'

'Ten days or so.'

'Excellent.' Herine refilled her glass and now Jhered consented to a second glass himself. 'You'll be taking messages and plans back with you for the Advocacy messenger service. Some you'll deliver personally.'

'Whatever you need me to do.'

'Thank you, Paul.'

Jhered rose to take his leave. 'You should sleep on this. I'm not trying to panic you but the situation is more dangerous out there than most in the palace appreciate.'

'I know.' She smiled though it didn't relax her body. 'Well, I do now.'

'What brings Arvan Vasselis here, by the way?' he asked at the door to the dining room.

Herine shrugged. 'I don't know. He wants to talk to me on some matter or other but it's largely a social call, I think. And he upsets Felice, which is always fun.'

'Good night, my Advocate,' said Jhered, bowing his head.

'Good night, Paul.'

Herine kissed his cheeks and closed the door behind him, his footsteps fading like the last echoes of a comforting dream, leaving her awake and alone.

Chapter 14

847th cycle of God, 14th day of
Dusasrise

14th year of the true Ascendancy

It was four days since her troubling dinner with Paul Jhered and Herine had not been slow to act. She had ordered a report from the Treasury on inconsistencies and reductions in tax levies from the Tsardon border states as well as trade figures from Sirrane and Kark. She had ordered volumes of minerals and metals to be assessed and a report drawn up on shortages should Kark be cut off as a trading partner. Timber they could source from countries other than Sirrane but it would be of lesser quality.

She had sent messengers to every country in the Conquord on her seal, requesting information. Some asked merely for projected revenues against levy target and explanations of any shortfalls. Some required additional information on citizenry available for cavalry and foot duty, supply and transport. But of the legions in Tsard and of the Marshal Defenders of Gosland and Gestern, she demanded complete information on incursions, security of borders, state of the armies and morale of the citizens. She had advised that she would consider all requests for reinforcement but reminded people that the Treasury was not bottomless and the landed citizenry could not supply endless horses with the men and women to ride them to battle.

Herine had time right now. Dusas had only just begun and in the north-east it was a harsh, freezing season. Campaigns were halted until the genastro sun warmed the earth. The Tsardon had withdrawn to strongholds and fastnesses to repair and resupply. But dusas would last only around ninety days and then the campaigns would begin again. She couldn't afford to delay and she couldn't afford tardy responses to her demands for information. It was a point on which she had been particularly forceful.

Marshal Defender Thomal Yuran of Atreska sat before her. The welcome had been warm enough and he had been happy to talk about more mundane matters for a time. But he had never relaxed, despite her best efforts. She couldn't blame him. He felt he had severe problems and it was beginning to appear that not everything he complained about was fabrication or even exaggeration.

Herine had done as Jhered had, easing back on the wine to keep a clear head. She had chosen a setting not too sumptuous, a private reception chamber in the administrative offices of the basilica, and had worn a formal toga. The pair of them sat facing each other opposite a grand open fire, the heavy stone floor of the basilica unsuited to a hypocaust. She wore a woollen shawl around her shoulders against the embedded chill in the high-ceilinged room. Yuran wore a toga slashed with the yellow and green of Atreska and Estorea and his shoulders were draped in furs.

'It is a trade I am keen to encourage,' continued Herine. 'Your ceramic artistry is the finest in the Conquord, as your gift this visit so amply demonstrates. I'm sure there are ways I can help facilitate better distribution to the north-west and south-west. Tundarra and Bahkir have no idea what their dining tables are missing.'

'And we regularly lose our potters and artists to Tsardon raids,' said Yuran bluntly.

Herine sensed the atmosphere that settled over the room. He had been waiting his opportunity and Herine felt ready to let him exploit it.

‘I
am aware of your concerns, Thomal.'

'Yet, my Advocate, you determine to discuss trade with countries who struggle to afford what we must charge because we and they are so heavily taxed at the behest of your Treasury. And to what end? The Tsardon appear to have free run of my borders and my citizens are clamouring for more security that I literally cannot afford to give them. I am compelled to ask what the legions are actually achieving in Tsard that so many raiders, apparently not needed in the front line against the Conquord, are able to circumvent them.'

'You will recall the agreement you and I signed on Atreska's accession to the Conquord.'

'It was a time I will never forget, my Advocate,' said Yuran, his voice thickly accented, his words sometimes difficult to understand.

'As I will not forget my apparently misplaced belief in the security and sanctity of the Conquord.'

Herine chose to ignore the slight against all that she ruled.

'Then you will recall that levies would be assessed twice in each year and that Atreska would at all times be responsible for her own domestic defence.'

'It is a defence we cannot afford to train, let alone arm and maintain.'

'Come, come,' said Herine indulgently, allowing herself a smile. 'Surely it is not beyond you or your citizens to organise individual citizen militia to protect their own properties.'

Yuran gaped, a reaction that took Herine a little by surprise. 'I am not the Marshal Defender of Phaskar or Caraduk. Law officers and trusted citizens bearing arms are completely inadequate. I am dealing with trained Tsardon horse archers, steppe cavalry and veteran foot soldiers. I have to fight fire with fire and I do not have the funds to do so. You must reduce the burdens placed upon Atreska in terms of both men and tax. Just temporarily, until the burden of training and deployment is over.'

'Let me assure you, Marshal Defender Yuran, that there is nothing that I
must
do. I will, as always, listen to your petitions but I must satisfy myself that you have already done everything in your power to solve your problems before you approach me. That, after all, is the price of local autonomy, is it not?'

Yuran's face reddened. 'I do not deserve to be patronised, my Advocate. I deserve to be treated seriously and with sympathy and objectivity. During my tenure as Marshal Defender I have struggled with endless civil strife and rebel action. And I have suffered constant raids from Tsard as a direct result of the Conquord's ill-judged desire for further conquest in a kingdom too strong to take on. The border fortresses are clearly inadequate as a first line of defence, not least because so many of them stand empty as to make a mockery of their construction.

'The alae attached to the legions in Tsard are full of my men and women, robbing me of people to plant and harvest and to fire and paint the ceramics you value so highly. I can barely match your treasury's assessment as it is. If I remove more to train as domestic defence, they will not produce revenue, hence squeezing my finances still further and your treasury will lose out. And then of course, Exchequer Jhered will be knocking on my door, demanding reasons.

'Tell me, my Advocate, where I am going to find the men and the money to do what my citizens demand? I am asking you to reduce the burden on my country at the least, and preferably to provide me with more troops. Bahkir, Neratharn, your own country of Estorea, they do not suffer the raids and plunder of Atreska, Gosland and now Gestern. Give each border state the means to protect itself. Admit you have underestimated the strength of the Tsardon.

'The Conquord must act as one if it is to be as glorious as it deserves to be. Now, in Atreska's hour of need, do not turn your back and pretend nothing is wrong. Even your man Jhered knows I speak the truth, as does your Chancellor.'

Herine didn't reply at once. She pushed her tongue into her cheek and replayed Yuran's words. Brief. Briefer than his usual meandering entreaties and for that she was grateful. She felt tired today, weighed down by her responsibilities, and for the first time a little anxious about the security of the Conquord. Hard to believe there could be any discontent from her position on the hill. And that was exactly what Jhered always worried about. The whispered words in her ears from her advisers clashed with what she was hearing now.

But she had to be sure. It was natural to feel jealous about the luxuries of the palace when travelling from the outlying provinces. What people like Yuran failed to understand was that she wanted them all to have such riches as of right. But it had to be earned. Pain was inevitable before gain.

'Marshal Yuran,' she said, excited about the reaction she was likely to provoke.
‘I
am sorry you feel your tax burden is too high. So it's fortunate that I have the Exchequer visiting. I will ask him to organise a complete review of Atreska's accounts for the last five years and the proposed levy his Gatherers are planning to collect when genastro warms the earth. Perhaps they will find an error in your favour. Perhaps not.'

'My Advocate, that isn't—'

Herine raised a hand, irritation flooding her. 'You are now listening to me,' she said. 'Remember your place. You have asked me to reduce your levy. I shall investigate whether there is any justification for that. And I support your thought to employ soldiers from Conquord countries. It is exactly what our structure allows, although I don't know why you've come to me first. It isn't necessary.'

Yuran was shaking his head delicately as if he wasn't sure he was hearing correctly. 'Because I cannot afford to pay Conquord soldiers just as I cannot afford to train my own.' He spoke quietly, as if to someone slow to learn.

'Then you must make economies to free funds. Gestern has raised a defensive legion by doing just that.'

Yuran slapped his hands on the table and stood up. A glass wobbled, fell and shattered on the marble top.

'Damn you but you tie both hands behind my back and order me to climb mountains! Will you not listen, woman? I have no money, I have no defence and your legions leave me exposed. I am trying to maintain the cohesion of the Conquord against Tsard and at every turn you place obstacles in my path. It is as if you want me to fail and Atreska to be overrun.' Then, as if remembering where he was and to whom he was speaking, he breathed deep, made the Omniscience encompassing symbol and sat back down, face red, eyes down.

Behind Herine, the door to the chamber had been thrust open and two guards were already halfway across the room. She waved them back without looking round, waiting until the door closed. She looked across at Yuran, whose embarrassment forbade him to look up at her. She felt a short stab of guilt at provoking his outburst now it had happened and decided against a formal rebuke, though she was disappointed at his lack of self-control. His desperation was more acute than she had anticipated. She supposed that was what she had been trying to ascertain.

She spoke quietly and deliberately, seeing his head come up at her first words. 'I will do everything I can,' she said. 'And believe me when I say I worry about every citizen who dies on a Tsardon sword. But over this dusas, you have to learn to help yourself. Work with the legions in Tsard. Put faces on the battlements of the border forts, trained or not. Encourage your citizens to prepare their own defences if they are all you have. Deterrents are powerful, even in the face of Tsardon raiders.

'Before you go, and you will go without saying another word, let me remind you of three facts. First, the Conquord works because its member states provide their own backbone to aid the cause of the whole. All have gone through what you experience now. All succeeded because they believed and were prepared to stand up when faced with enemies they once thought of as partners in trade, if not friends.

'Second, short-term austerity is often the price of long-term prosperity. I note that you wear enough wealth on your fingers and around your neck to fund much of the trained defence you so crave. Perhaps you should consider personal sacrifice above that of your citizens.

'Third, I am not a woman. I am Marshal Defender of Estorea, Prime Speaker of the Order of Omniscience and Advocate of the Estorean Conquord. You should take care who it is you choose to damn.

'The breeze is harsh. Be sure to close the door firmly on your way out.'

Exchequer Paul Jhered strode along the magnificent colonnaded road that led away from the palace complex, feeling the deep chill of a dusas night slice into his body despite his leggings, the wool he wore beneath his moulded leather breastplate and the fur-lined cloak wrapped close about him.

It was a walk he had so often enjoyed. The cold invigorated him. The lanterns suspended from columns and trees shed pools of light on cobbles that rang beneath his steel toecaps and heels. Taverna Alcarin, where he was meeting Vasselis, was easily the finest in Estorr and that was up against significant competition. Glorious cuts of meat, the freshest catches from the Tirronean Sea and rich sauces, the mere thought of which caused him to salivate in anticipation.

Yet on this quiet mid-evening, with stars scattered thickly across the skies and barely another citizen on the street, Jhered felt at odds with himself. It had all stemmed from his summoning to an audience with the Advocate. It had been a particularly one-sided conversation. Herine had meandered through a series of requests, from opening new investigations into Atreskan levies, through an assessment of the troop levels in Tsard and on the conflict borders, and to an unusual demand on him to seek the detailed views of the Chancellor of the Order with regard to Conquord-wide loyalty, morale and religious education.

None of these, unwelcome though at least one of them was, had led to his mood tonight. It was the fact that Herine had been distracted throughout the meeting; and it wasn't that her mind was wandering to the new lover that awaited her. Another pretty young man destined for castration and guarded banishment to the Advocate palace in Phaskar, should he prove fertile enough within her womb.