His Conquering Sword (25 page)

The actors arrived in a flurry of sound and movement. David retreated into the safety of their company, but he was sorry to note that Diana had not come over for the party. The evening passed in a blur of conversation, and he went to bed early.

In the morning, a young jaran rider waited at the edge of the encampment. Bakhtiian had, quite kindly, sent an escort.

“Mags, you
will
come with me.”

“I will?”

“Yes, you will. I need a witness. I’m not going over alone.”

“Oh, here,” said Ursula, coming up. “I’ll come with you, David. You’re looking a little ashen about the gills. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” David cast a last, hopeless glance at Maggie and allowed himself to be escorted away by Ursula and the jaran soldier. The soldier remained respectfully quiet on the long walk, but his presence allowed them to pass right through the rings of guards, straight to the awning under which Bakhtiian sat. David found himself ushered to the front immediately and was, for once, glad of Ursula’s companionship.

“Ah.” Bakhtiian beckoned David forward. Reluctantly, David went, keeping one eye on Ursula to see what she did and the other on Bakhtiian’s sheathed saber. Tess was nowhere in sight. “Please. Sit down. You’re an engineer, Tess tells me.”

David cleared his throat. “Ah. Yes. I am.” Ursula settled down beside David as if she were used to sitting in on Bakhtiian’s councils.

“We have a need for engineers. Siege engineers. Perhaps you’ll agree to ride out with me and survey the city. Any suggestions you have would be welcomed.” Without more invitation than that, he rose and beckoned to his guard. Horses arrived, led by soldiers. David saw some khaja prisoners—or at least he assumed they were prisoners—mounted as well; presumably these were other engineers, culled from the ranks of the conquered. David felt compelled by events and by Bakhtiian’s proximity to go along. Ursula did not hesitate.

“This is a wonderful opportunity,” she said in a low voice to David as they mounted. “You have an entire city to experiment on. Von Clausewitz says that ‘critical examination is not merely the appreciation of those means which have been actually employed, but also of all possible means, which therefore must be suggested in the first place.’”

“Ursula!” He was appalled. “There are people in that city. I don’t think Charles meant his interdiction to hold only for them and not for the jaran as well.”

“Oh, David, be reasonable. The city is besieged anyway. The war is already here.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Well, then, your contribution might save lives on both sides. If the jaran attack is effective enough, and swift enough, perhaps the khaja will surrender to save themselves.”

“If that will indeed save them.”

“You forget that I’ve been traveling with the army. Overall, the jaran are merciful to those who surrender.”

“Are they now? I wonder what your conception of mercy is. I saw how devastated the lands were, behind us.”

“That was Yaroslav Sakhalin’s doing. Most of it, anyway.”

“It’s still against the interdiction.”

“I beg your pardon,” said Bakhtiian, riding up beside them. “I hope,” he said, nodding toward David, “that you’ll ride with me.”

As they rode out, all David could think of was how stupid he had been to come here at all. He could have pled illness. He could even have asked Charles to make excuses for him, but then again, maybe Charles would not have done it. Maybe Charles wanted this—not the breaking of the interdiction, but the attempt, the act, the place where the line had to be drawn and his authority thrown up against Bakhtiian’s, to prove once and for all who was really in charge. Was this how Tess felt, that she was a pawn tossed about from one side to the other in someone else’s game?

They rode out of camp and alongside harvested fields striped with rows of fruit still ripening. Khaja peasants plowed a fallow field under, turning up the soil.

“I was remembering,” said Bakhtiian suddenly, startling David, “when we first met.”

Goddess, here it came. David recalled all too clearly that awful first meeting, when he and Tess had crawled out of his tent into the full sight of her husband.

“Do you recall that I asked you if you could do a portrait of my wife?”

A series of images flashed through David’s mind: the port and the thousand jaran horsemen arrayed along the shore to meet them; the horrible execution; he and Diana sitting in the quiet of camp, Diana watching while he sketched…Bakhtiian.

“Why, yes,” he replied, remembering now how incongruous it had seemed at the time. “I did a sketch of you.”

“Yes. You’re a fine artist. I hope, now that you’re with the army again, that you might find time to do the portrait.”

David could not respond immediately. The quiet respect in Bakhtiian’s voice for David’s ability, the diffident request, the nature of the request itself, all combined with Bakhtiian’s formidable presence and the all-too-evident wreckage that his army had left in its wake to confuse David as to the kind of man he was dealing with.

“My niece speaks highly of you,” Bakhtiian added, as if this inducement might convince David to agree. “You’ve taught her a great deal about mapmaking.”

Which he had. Thus breaking the interdiction. But that was different, wasn’t it? Because she was different. David felt impelled to smile at his own hypocrisy. “I’d be pleased to do a portrait of your wife.”

Bakhtiian nodded. He gestured to the khaja prisoners. “These four khaja soldiers are engineers. This woman is our interpreter. Ursula you know, of course. I hope you will be able to contribute to our discussion.”

“I… You understand, of course, that I’m subject to the prince. I must first have his permission to…to contribute anything.” There, it was said.

Bakhtiian measured him, not without sympathy. “I understand.” No doubt he did, on one level. After all, his army didn’t share its secrets with its enemies either. “But today should give you ample time to observe.”

They rode on, out to survey the walls of Karkand.

S
ITTING ON THE EDGE
of the platform as day slid into evening, Diana unplaited her hair and combed her fingers through it. The Evening Star—which of the planets was it? she never could remember—pierced the darkening blue of the sky, and one by one other stars appeared. Rehearsal had tired her today, but she never minded that; it was a satisfying sort of fatigue.

“Di!” Quinn jogged up, breathless with excitement, and grabbed her hand. “Come with me!” Quinn yanked her forward, and Diana laughed and went with her to the Company tent.

“Look!” Quinn pointed. At first Diana only saw Owen, speaking quietly with Dejhuti and Seshat and Yomi. Joseph wandered up. Ginny arrived, notebook in one hand, pen in the other. Phillippe helped Anahita to a chair. Helen and Jean-Pierre gossiped with Gwyn over on the other side. Oriana stood in the entrance to the huge tent, half-hidden in its shadow.

“Am I missing something?” asked Hal, walking up beside Diana and Quinn. “Everyone’s here.”

“Except Hyacinth,” murmured Diana. Then she spotted two figures crossing toward them from the main camp. At first the dusk disguised them, but then they emerged into the glow of the lanterns fixed at intervals around the camp.

Quinn squeezed Diana’s hand. “Look, here comes the duke.”

“‘With his eyes full of anger,’” replied Diana automatically.

Quinn rolled her eyes. “Are you quoting again?”

“That’s
As You Like It,
you idiot.”

“It may be, but unlike you, I don’t retain entire plays in my memory for years at a time.”

“Charles!” exclaimed Ginny. “How good to see you again. Hello, Marco. Did you just ride in? This afternoon? You made good time. Though I must say, you look none the worse for the wear.”

With one thought, Diana and Quinn and Hal sidled closer toward the center of the scene.

“I don’t suppose,” said Yomi quietly, “that you have any news of Hyacinth, poor lad.”

“In fact, I do.”

He told them. The entire Company listened intently. Diana found her attention straying to Marco, who stood silently beside Soerensen. He glanced once at her and away as quickly, an exchange that reminded her incongruously of jaran men. Except that he looked nothing like jaran men. By League standards he was not a particularly tall man, but here his height and the breadth of his shoulders marked him as big.

“Thank goodness Hyacinth is safe,” said Ginny at last. “I suppose that under the circumstances you couldn’t have brought him back.”

“No. I thought it best to simply remove him and his companion from Rhui altogether.”

Owen sighed. “Which still leaves us one actor short. Well, we’ve managed so far, by the skin of our teeth.”

“Remember, too,” added Soerensen in his mild voice, “that we’ll be leaving soon.”

“Leaving soon!” Anahita roused herself, straightening up in her chair. “Thank goodness. I wish I’d gone with Hyacinth. I’d be quit of here now.”

There was a short, embarrassed silence which Soerensen covered by going on. “Autumn’s coming on. In order to maintain the charade, we must return to a port before ships stop sailing for the winter. Or else winter here, which I’ve no leisure to do.”

“What about your sister?” asked Ginny.

“In any case,” added Soerensen, “we might be leaving anytime within the next two or ten weeks, and possibly abruptly. Just so you can be prepared.”

“Excuse me,” said Diana in a low voice to Quinn and Hal, and she escaped the assembly. She wandered back to her own tent and simply stood there, outside, staring at nothing. Two weeks, or ten weeks. What if they left before Anatoly returned? What if she never saw Anatoly again? She shivered. After the long hot nights of the summer, she had forgotten that it could get cold at night. But the season did turn, eventually; eventually, the year turned, and what had been young grew old, and what had sprouted fresh and green in the spring withered and died to make way for winter.

“Diana?”

Somehow, it didn’t surprise her that Marco had followed her here. “Hello.” She managed to say it without her voice shaking.

“I beg your pardon, if I’m disturbing you.”

“No. No. I’m just—No, you’re not.”

He stood three paces from her. “I thought—You’re well? You look well.”

“Thank you. I’m well. I hope you are, too? I mean, we got a few reports, not much, but—Everything went as you hoped it would?”

“Better. It’s nothing I can speak of, right now, but, yes, it went well.”

“No, I understand. Of course, I understand. Was Hyacinth all right?”

“He was traumatized. I think he’ll recover.”

“Thank the Goddess for that. He took his jaran lover with him? Well, I don’t envy him for that. Neither of them, really.”

A sudden, awkward silence fell. “You don’t—you don’t mean to take Anatoly with you, when you go back?” He jerked a hand up, warding off any comment. “No, I beg your pardon. It’s none of my concern.”

“No, don’t apologize. Please! Thank you for asking. You don’t know what it’s like. No one in the Company speaks of him anymore, not to me, at least. It’s as if they think I’m embarrassed of him, or that I don’t want him mentioned anymore, now that he’s gone. And in the jaran camp, why, it’s hardly worth mentioning, it’s nothing unusual to them.”

“He’s gone?” Marco faltered on the question. “He didn’t—”

“Oh, no, he’s not dead. At least, I don’t think he is. How can a person know, with the communications they have here? He went off months ago—
months
ago!—and he hasn’t come back yet. I don’t know when he’ll come back. For all I know, we’ll leave before he comes back.”

He took a single step toward her, and halted.

“It just doesn’t seem fair. And it makes me so damned angry. Why can’t I know? How can the women stand to live this way? They could be separated for months, for years! There are tribes out on the plains that haven’t seen their riders for years. Although in all fairness, I think there’s some kind of a leave system, that after two or three years serving in the army, a man gets to go back to his tribe for a year. Or something, I’m not sure about the details.” She broke off and felt a flush rise in her cheeks. “Goddess, I’m sorry. I’m babbling. It just seems like no one else cares. I don’t want to bore you.”

“You don’t bore me, Diana.”

Diana shut her eyes, wilting under the heat of that simple utterance. He could have said any words, those words, other words, nonsense words, and she would have known what he meant by them. What a stupid little infatuation she had had for him, before. Then he had seemed wild and strong and half a barbarian himself. Oh, the attraction remained. It had never eased. But she desired him as much now because he seemed familiar and safe to her, standing here on the outskirts of a truly barbarian encampment, as because of what he had once represented to her, an adventurer who had wandered in wild landscapes and faced death and fear with equal self-possession. And she was lonely, and she felt alone. She opened her eyes when she felt him take another step. He loomed before her.

“Diana? I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the stupid things I said to you. I’m sorry you hurt now.”

It took only a half step to move into his embrace, because his momentum still carried him forward into hers. They kissed.

Diana ceased feeling the cold, or the night breeze, or anything except his hands on her back, and her thigh and hip pressed up against his, and the unsteady catch of his breathing against her chest. She was warm everywhere.

A dull ache prodded her ankle. After a moment, she identified it. One of the guide ropes of her tent cut across the skin. She shifted and, shifting, Marco sighing and gathering her back into him, she heard the distant echo of bells. Messenger bells. What if they brought news of Anatoly?

“Marco,” she murmured into his lips. He drew his head back and lifted a hand to cup her chin.

“Golden fair,” he whispered.

“I can’t.” It hurt, not the movement, because she moved gently, but the cold and the emptiness. “I can’t, Marco. You must know that I want to, but I can’t.”

“Because you love him?” His voice cracked on the word “love.”