In Legend Born (72 page)

Meanwhile, the family of Elelar's idiot husband was protecting her, preventing further interrogation and demanding she be treated as a Valdani aristocrat—and even given the privilege of a trial before three Imperial Councilors! Three have mercy, next they'd be insisting that Koroll release the traitorous trollop!

He had loathed having to permit Elelar's cuckold of a husband to visit her once; but Ronall's family had brought pressure to bear on Borell, who had in turn pressured Koroll. No, Elelar's drunken sot of a spouse wasn't connected to her treachery. Koroll had never really suspected the fool, there was no evidence whatsoever against him, and two days of relentless interrogation had proved to Koroll's satisfaction that Ronall was as ignorant as he was stupid. One of the Outlookers assigned to witness the meeting between Elelar and her husband understood common Silerian; an unusual and very useful trait. The meeting had been maudlin and emotional, revealing little of interest besides evidence that their marriage was every bit as dreadful as Koroll had always supposed. 

Nonetheless, Koroll didn't like letting that woman have contact with anyone except his own hand-picked men. She had deceived all of Shaljir for years; he couldn't even begin to guess for how long, actually. She had bewitched and betrayed Borell, hoodwinked her husband and his family, and even (he was appalled to recall) briefly convinced Koroll himself that she was a loyal subject of the Empire. There was no telling what that woman was capable of doing, how far her treachery would go, or what kind of damage could arise from permitting her even the most seemingly innocent meeting.

Borell was frantic now that an imperial trial had been requested. Ronall might only be a half-caste drunkard, but his family was powerful enough that their request might be granted by the Council. Koroll assumed Elelar would try to proclaim her innocence, despite the evidence against her. Borell feared she would instead choose to ruin as many of them as possible—starting with Borell himself—while admitting her guilt. Borell had the most to lose, of course. Besotted with Elelar, he'd evidently been less discreet about state secrets in her company than a Moorlander horse trader was when boasting in a tavern about his sexual conquests. 

Well, Borell deserved to go down for that, and Koroll had no intention of stretching out a hand to try to save him. Nor did he intend to let Borell have the woman killed before Koroll had sufficient opportunity to find out precisely what secrets she had shared and with whom. Moreover, Elelar unquestionably knew more about Josarian than anyone Koroll had ever encountered; he wanted whatever she knew, and he didn't care what he had to do to get the information from her.

First, however, they must await news from the Council, because Ronall's family could destroy Koroll if he harmed Elelar now. This was very inconvenient; although Borell had the most to lose by letting Elelar remain alive, Koroll wasn't immune to damage from her. If that woman did descend in flames at her trial, he knew she would take down as many men as she could. He had been careless around her more than once, discussing the Emperor's planned attack on the Kintish Kingdoms in her presence, revealing his schemes to combat Josarian while she sat at Borell's side... Yes, he could blame Borell, claiming that the Advisor had ordered him to speak freely in front of the woman; but it wouldn't look good to the Councilors, even so.

Damn Elelar. Damn Ronall and his family!

If only Koroll could have tortured her, gotten what he wanted, and then just killed her. Everyone would be much better off that way. Instead, the Outlookers were forced to treat an adulteress and traitress like visiting royalty who just happened to be staying in their prison.

All things considered, Koroll didn't see how things could get any worse in Sileria... but he suspected with dread that they would.

Josarian had cleared out the storehouses at Alizar before burning them down. Every officer at Alizar was dead. All the production records were destroyed, too, when the rebels torched Foridall's headquarters. Consequently, no one knew how much wealth Josarian had taken away from Alizar. A lot, presumably, since he had timed his attack only days before the next heavily-guarded shipment from the mines was due to leave for the coast, where it would be loaded into a ship bound for Valda.

Josarian would presumably divide up the spoils. The Society would insist on claiming a share, and he'd be a fool to refuse. He'd probably also keep some hidden away somewhere, gradually selling it in small quantities to Sileria's merchants and gem cutters. The lion's share of the haul, of course, he'd sell to foreign smugglers at prices below market value. There were plenty of smugglers among the
shallaheen
and Josarian would have ready access to their contacts. Even with a reduced profit based on selling the gems below value, the rebellion would be very rich. They could buy silence, smuggled weapons, supplies, loyalty... They could ultimately threaten Shaljir itself.

They had been busy, too, since their assault on the mines. They did so much damage in the days following Alizar, from Cavasar all the way to Liron, that Koroll had been forced to send dispatches to Valda admitting that the mountain uprising had become a full-scale rebellion capable of threatening Valdani rule in Sileria. He requested thirty thousand men, hoping he'd get fifteen. He was given only five thousand and no estimate of when more might be sent. He requested additional money to reinforce defenses around Liron, Shaljir, Adalian, and Cavasar; he was given barely enough to repair the damage already done by civilian riots in every city except Shaljir.

He was tersely informed that this was not a convenient time for trouble in Sileria, since the imperial armies were encountering unexpected resistance in the Kintish Kingdoms. Meanwhile, the war in the Moorlands dragged on, growing increasingly costly as the Emperor's forces plunged deeper and deeper into that lush, green land, extending their supply lines ever further from Valdania. Now, when the Empire was so close to achieving its greatest day of glory—conquest of the free Moorlands and the remaining Kintish Kingdoms!—the Emperor counted on his provincial Advisors and military governors to keep his subjugated peoples under control. Particularly, one dispatch had added with disdain, a long-conquered province of perpetually feuding factions, an impoverished backwater which had been someone
else's
conquest when the Valdani had seized it two centuries ago. The Imperial Council sincerely hoped they didn't have to remind Koroll that control of Sileria was essential for control of the Middle Sea, without which the Empire could not easily control the rest of its possessions.

If it's so damn important, then why won't they send me men, money, and supplies?

Attempting to phrase this question in more diplomatic language, he drafted yet another dispatch to the Council. The mountain uprising was no longer a "problem," it was now a
war
. Although he knew there was no chance he'd get any of the Emperor's prime men, he nonetheless requested imperial fighting forces. Outlookers had less training than the armies. Their pay was lower, and their weapons were older. They were a less effective combat force than the armies, since their duty was to occupy, hold, and police lands conquered by the imperial armies after the treaties had been signed and the fighting had stopped. Older Outlookers were often ex-army men who'd decided they were too old to continue that arduous life. Young Outlookers were often men who had either failed to get into the armies or who had specifically chosen this branch of service to their Emperor because they believed they were less likely to get killed this way. Koroll himself had become an Outlooker because he believed that advancement through its ranks would be easier for a man of his high intelligence and low birth than it would be in the class-conscious imperial armies.

In less chaotic times, the Imperial Council would certainly send a war-time army to Sileria in view of what was happening here now. With the armies now fully occupied elsewhere, they
should
send Koroll every Outlooker in the Empire who could still walk and hold a sword. But the Outlookers were now overextended, too, on the mainland, trying to hold every region of the Empire that wasn't in a state of open warfare. 

In calmer times, the Imperial Council would also send a war-time commander to take over military rule of Sileria. Even if Koroll were not terminated because of Alizar, he would certainly be forced to take orders in his own province from such a man. Like the armies, however, army leaders were now all committed to the wars on the mainland. Consequently, while facing the greatest disaster of his career, Koroll knew that he still had a chance to turn this into the triumph which could propel him to fame and honor in Valda itself. Short of men, money, and support, facing a rebel army strong enough to take Alizar, burdened with a war sweeping across Sileria from the port of Cavasar all the way to the cliffs of Liron, saddled with an Advisor who was about to lose everything because of a woman... If Koroll could wrest victory out of this situation now, then the Emperor would exalt him, honor him at court, and promote him to a position of power and prestige such as he had not dreamed of before now.

He could still do it. He could still create victory out of catastrophe. But, Three help him, he could not do it without more men! He had bent over backwards for so long to minimize the significance of Josarian's rebellion whenever communicating with the Council that it was now difficult to convince them of how serious things had become here. The lack of men already meant that, according to today's reports, he had just lost control of the region around Dalishar. The rebels had taken it over.
Rebels actually held a portion of Sileria now.

The loss of Alizar concerned the Emperor and his Council far more than sacked brothels, razed outposts, disrupted supply lines, abductions, riots, and minor battles in this island province. They wanted Alizar rebuilt and operating again, as soon as possible, and they were
very
insistent on this point. They had already sent Koroll several engineers—who had accomplished nothing. Now they announced that they were going to send northern wizards, Valda's High Priest of the Three, and almost anyone else they could think of who might have a chance of vanquishing Silerian water magic.

How soon, Koroll wondered, before the Society withheld water from Shaljir? Knowing this was an obvious plan, one that would cripple the Valdani who based their power here, Koroll had already given orders to start storing water within the city walls. If their supply dried up, they must be ready to hold out until they could end the rebellion. The city reservoir was always brimming now, and every official building and private Valdani home was filling up with barrels of water. Coopers were earning a fortune, raising prices as the demand for barrels increased. They took on extra apprentices, and their workshops were busy even in the middle of the night now. Koroll encouraged Shaljir's Silerian population to store water, too; he could confiscate it from them when the time came. He would keep Shaljir's Valdani population safe for that much longer, and the rebel alliance would be killing their own kind as they starved the city of water. Thus it would be a doubly effective tactic.

Koroll had nearly finished composing the dispatches he intended to send back to Valda when yet another of his men entered his chamber in a state of near-hysteria. This was becoming so common he didn't let it affect him anymore. The man's news, however,
did
surprise him.

"Commander, please, you must go to Santorell Palace! Something terrible has happened there!"

Amitan was lying wounded in one of the caves on Mount Niran, a Sister tending him and Tansen at his side, when Mirabar arrived with her two
shallah
guards and Najdan. There were over a hundred men living up here now, and they had recently returned from battle. Several were wounded, and Mirabar noticed fresh offerings on the altar that her own circle of companions had constructed here last spring. The offerings were a sure sign that men had been lost in the recent fighting.

She'd already heard the news that the rebels had taken back Dalishar, as well as the surrounding region. While most rebels were still living in scattered groups no bigger than this one, over five thousand rebel fighters were now based in and around Dalishar. Refugees from farms and villages sacked by the Outlookers were streaming into the rebel-held territory now, setting up camps, harvesting the crops from abandoned Valdani estates, and cooperating in the tasks of daily life under the direction of rebel leaders.

Part of Sileria is already ours.

It seemed incredible to her, now that she was returning to Niran, where her visions had begun, where her journey into destiny had commenced. Now there was more than just
talk
in the lowlands and more than speculation in the cities. Some were ready to join Josarian. Some were still waiting to see which way the wind would blow before committing themselves. And some, she knew, were still awaiting proof that Josarian was the Firebringer.