Homage and Honour (37 page)

“Knives?”

“Two at her
belt and I guess more hidden away. If I didn’t know better I’d say
that she is some sort of assassin. I couldn’t think of anyone
better suited to guard you all. No-one could get past her and that
Lind of hers. What she doesn’t see, he does.”

“Wonder what
her father will say,” grinned Philip Ross.

“There’s more,”
said Charles, “Graham’s daughter, she wears an Honour Star.”

“Honour Star?”
queried the Lord Marshall.

“Not a hundred
per cent sure of what the Vada rank badges mean but I do know what
one of these silver stars means. I’ve seen one before. They’re not
given out for nothing.”

“Is it a medal
for bravery?” asked Philip Ross.

“I believe so
Lord Marshall,” said Charles, “but more than that. They take honour
very seriously in the Vada, I think it’s for moral fortitude as
well as physical courage.”

“So the girl is
a hero of some kind,” opined Henri Cocteau, “Jeremy will like that,
once he’s got over the shock. Ah, here comes the Queen at
last.”

Charles stepped
forward. “I’ll go first, make the introductions.”

Anne made a
decorous descent down to the pier. If the years hadn’t reconciled
her to her new station, at least she had learnt how to behave as
royalty in public.

The Prince
Consort and Princess Ruth were followed by Dukes Henri and Jeremy;
Philip Ross fell into place behind them.

The retinue
followed with strict adherence to rank and with little fuss.

In Murdoch you
knew exactly where you stood in the grand scheme.

The
introductions passed in a pleasant fashion. The Argyll Councillors
bowed to Anne. They did not bow to David or Ruth. Duke Jeremy
Graham was outraged.

Henri Cocteau
and Philip Ross watched his discomfiture with inner amusement. Both
men stayed close to him, neither willing to miss the meeting
between father and estranged daughter.

Anne agreed to
review the guards with a smile tinged with anticipation. She was
sure Jessica would be here. Jess would have engineered it
somehow.

She passed
through the ranks of Garda, speaking a few words to man and woman.
The cavalry too, in a carrying voice she admired their chargers,
their smartness and poise.

Now it was the
Vada’s turn.

Unlike the
cavalry who had remained mounted, the vadeln stood beside their
Lind as befitted their equal status.

Anne had a few
words for a great many of them, whether two-legged or four.

Halfway down
the second line she approached a tall woman who stood beside an
eager-eyed Lind and her face broke into a delighted smile.

It was Jess and
her Mlei.

David’s face
was beaming as well.

Charles watched
and so intent was he on this meeting, he missed the cry of
astonished indignation (he indignant about where she is and what
she gave up to do this) from where his father stood with Jeremy
Graham and the Lord Marshall.

“Hello Father,”
Beth was saying, “fancy seeing you here.”

Henri Cocteau
hid a smile of malicious delight behind his gloved hand and Philip
Ross’s face was red with suppressed laughter.

Jeremy Graham
was struck dumb. He found his voice after a long moment and said,
“Elisabeth?”

In a confident
and self-assured voice Beth answered, “on reflection you see, I
decided that I wanted neither the marriage nor the cloister, which
were the choices you offered so I took steps.”

“I’ll say she
did
,” said Henri with a smile, “now come along Jeremy,
you’re holding things up. You can get reacquainted later.”

With a
courteous nod and a wink at Beth he led a stunned Duke Jeremy away,
passing Jess and Mlei (he noticed that she was very like her
father) on the way.

* * * * *

Vadthed (Second Month of Winter) -
AL166

Weaponsmaster
(2)

The tactics
class for the first year Vada Cadets was in progress and the
lecture hall was full to overflowing with the youngsters and their
Lind. Johan Williamson was delivering the lesson.

Johan
Williamson was an interesting lecturer, his points illustrated by
events that had actually happened. Some he had experienced
personally when he had been a Captain in the Garda of Argyll.

Most cadets
looked forward to these tenday classes. If nothing else it was a
chance to sit in a nice warm classroom and a break from lessons in
weaponswork that took up so much of their time winter and summer.
To these warlike pursuits were added the mandatory schooling
classes for all children up to the age of sixteen, first aid and
all the myriad lessons they had to master. A cadet’s life was a
busy one.

During the
previous weeks Johan had discussed the pirates who raided the
coasts and islands. Today, he began to talk about the Larg; the
eons-old enemy of the Lind and this was the reason why the lecture
hall was so full. Not only the first years were in attendance,
others, older, wanted to gain some insight into why and how the
Larg attacked. There were many Lind in the hall, squeezed round the
walls with some standing on the lecture podium itself. As ltsctas
they had learned how to fight the Larg but they didn’t want to pass
up on an opportunity to learn more.

As the lecture
drew to a close Johan indicated that he would take questions from
the floor and one young lad put his hand up. Rhian went and stood
beside Johan on the podium.

“Weaponsmaster
and Vadeln Johan,” the lad began, “why is it that the Larg always
attack in the summer?”

“Have you
forgotten your geography lessons Trent?” Rhian teased, “the lands
of the Larg are in the South, seasons reversed. Our summer is their
winter. It is winter when hunger bites even the strongest and they
come north to hunt.”

“But it is not
just to hunt that they come, is it Weaponsmaster?” ventured
another.

“No, that is
very true Michal, the Larg want to fight, they enjoy killing.”

“But there
hasn’t been a battle with the Larg for over a century,” asserted
Joachim, “my father says that it won’t happen again, that the Larg
are too few to pose a threat.”

“How little he
knows them,” whispered Rhian’s Tadei as Rhian took a deep breath.
It was time to say a little more. She nodded at Johan; the two of
them had discussed the possibility earlier, she stepped back and
Johan moved forward again.

“All the
indications are,” he began, “that Larg numbers are once again at a
critical level. The Larg
are
a threat and fighting pirates
is different to a battle with them.”

The lecture
hall was full of an electrified silence.

“Now, we are
going to study some battles in detail. In the one hundred and sixty
years since we arrived we have fought two such battles, the Battle
of the Alliance and that of Trumpet Keep. The Lind will teach you
about previous battles, before we had a Vada; when only Lind and
Larg fought.”

Trent’s hand
came up again.

“Yes
Cadet?”

: This one
asks many questions :
telepathed Tadei to Rhian.

: He wants
to know :
she answered.

“Do
you
think we will have to fight them again Vadeln Johan?”

“I do not think
that you will be called away from your studies just yet Cadet,” he
answered with a twinkle, “so you will have plenty of time to write
the essay I will be giving you but yes, I do.”

The cadets
gasped. The Lind looked wise. They knew battle was looming.

“Now don’t
panic! We shall get plenty of warning. The Larg kohorts cannot
sneak up on us unawares. Now, unless there are any more questions,
I will begin with the Battle of the Alliance. Remember to take
notes. You will be examined on this later.” The Vada trainers had
learnt long ago that the cadets paid far more attention to lectures
with the prospect of an exam ahead of them. There were various
rustles as notebooks and pencils were got ready. “So, the Battle of
the Alliance. I am going to read an account of it by Tara Sullivan
and her Lind, Kolyei. During the next lecture we will study the
battle in more detail and also look at the notes left by Susyc Jim
Cranston and Susa Francis who led the first ever charge of the
Vada.”

Johan was a
brilliant raconteur Rhian realised, his rendition of Tara and
Kolyei’s account made for exciting listening. There were sighs of
disappointment as the bell rang out signalling the end of the
lesson. Johan dismissed them with the repeated promise that in the
next lesson they would be examining the battle in detail.

“All
enthusiasm,” was his comment as the class departed.

“Because they
don’t fully realise what war is all about,” answered Rhian, “that
lesson I will take with you and I won’t be glossing over the
nastier parts. Susa Lynsey, by the way, isn’t completely convinced
about teaching this to the first years, thinks they’re too
young.”

“At fourteen,
fifteen?” Johan’s voice sounded surprised, “they are no longer
babies. Not a few of their Lind have tackled gtran and wral,
especially these last cold winters. Anyway, we always teach tactics
in the Garda, whatever the student’s age.”

“I
did
try to tell her.”

“I’d leave be,”
Johan advised, “Susa Lynsey has other things on her mind. She
knows, deep inside, that the Larg are planning war. She hopes
against hope that the cadets won’t be involved and is trying to
protect them for as long as she can.”

“Perhaps
they’ll decide to take out Murdoch before they come after us.”

“The Larg are
not stupid. They know that they’ll have to meet us in battle
eventually.”

Susa Lynsey and
Bernei had called a meeting for that afternoon. As Rhian and Tadei
wandered over to her office that unusually balmy day and, despite
what she had been discussing with Johan, war seemed far away. All
the officers and trainers of the Vada who could attend were there.
To Rhian’s surprise, she saw Laura and Grdnei making their way
towards her. This duo was in charge of the complex that housed the
younger members of the wider Vada community, those who, once
vadeln-paired, were unable or unwilling, to stay with their
families and were too young to begin training. Jadred and Maria who
had run the complex were now retired.

In the past,
first year cadets had fought.

During the last
great Larg invasion, of Vadath in AL10, they had either taken part
in the Battle of Trumpet Keep or had defended the non-combatants of
the Vada Stronghold. Some had lost their lives.

During the
intervening decades with the Larg decimated by disease, cadets had
not been expected to do any such thing. When Lynsey had become Susa
she had stepped up the battle training.

This meeting
had been set up to formulate plans in the event of an attack over
the island chain that met the south-easterly tip of Argyll.

Rhian knew that
there was likely to be many differences in opinion during the
meeting. She was one of those who did not agree with the consensus
that the Larg would use this traditional route. When they had
invaded Vadath in AL10 they had persuaded the leaders in Murdoch to
carry them over the Middle Sea by boat. However, for over a century
Murdoch had largely ignored the existence of the Larg and had
expanded its borders. In recent months more than one delegation of
Larg had approached the rulers of Murdoch and, although no
Vadathian or Argyllian operatives had been able to gain access to
transcripts of the meetings, indications were that an accommodation
was being hammered out.

It was likely,
Rhian was thinking, that these negotiations would finish with a
mutual non-aggression pact that would leave the Larg free to
concentrate their efforts on the North.

When she and
Tadei entered the office she saw a group of people and Lind bent
over a gigantic map of the Northern and Southern Continents,
discussions were already in progress. Little wooden counters dotted
the expanses on the map. Rhian noticed that, not only were the Vada
commanders present, three Susas of nearby Lindars were also there;
Lynsey was indeed taking the threat seriously.

“Our entire
coastline is at risk,” she was saying, unconsciously echoing Susas
and Susycs of the past, “we need detailed information about
everywhere they could possibly land.”

“That area,”
said one Ryzcka, “is all cliffs, cliff faces and rocks.” She
pointed to an area of coast some fifty miles west of the
Lind-Vadath border, “to the west, that is possible.”

“I disagree,”
said another, “it’s the wrong way. Too far. They will attack over
the island chain, it is the only possible route. That pirate base
too, which the South used as a stepping stone at Trumpet Keep, it
has been abandoned for years.”

“The Larg have
never attacked in our rtathlians,” opined one of the Lindar Susas,
a pure white Lind of many seasons called Madrei.

“They have no
ships,” agreed Ryzcka Leon of the Fifteenth Ryzck, “I agree with
Madrei; they will come over the Chain, unless of course, they have
learned to fly!”

There was
subdued laughter from among the assembled.

Lynsey sighed
as the meeting adjourned
: my gut feeling says that I am right.
They will find a way to cross somewhere else. They know the
fortifications at Settlement will not be easily overcome :

Bernei tried to
comfort her.

: You have
done what you are able to; you can do nothing more :

: What news
from the Avuzdel? :

: Sketchy at
best :

: That in
itself tells us that something is afoot :

: Apaw :
Bernei corrected her, wagging his tail.

* * * * *