“They’ll have to increase the garrisons on Leste, now,” Finn said. “There will be uprising because of this. Gulian may have his wish for warm weather granted.”
I watched them directing their men, and the rapid, disciplined way in which the camp came down. These men knew their work.
“I didn’t know him well,” I said, after a while, “but I liked Colm.”
“We all did,” Finn said.
“Not all,” Galdor said quietly.
Finn frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve overheard talk, once or twice. Some of the men thought it unnatural that the Emperor had a castrate as his advisor, brother or no.”
“But he taught most of the officers,” Finn said dismissively. “And every one of them at camp will be at the burying.”
“True,” Galdor said. “And many of the men as well.”
“I wonder who the Emperor will appoint to govern Leste,” Galdor said.
“Casyn,” I said, without really thinking.
“The General?” Finn considered. “You might be right. But that would deprive the Emperor of both his advisors, so perhaps not. Bren, maybe.” He turned to me.
“Will you be leaving us now, Lena?”
“Yes,” I said, “but I’ll stay for the burying. I pray you prevail, again, in the battles.”
Finn shook his head. “A winter war,” he said, “and against our own men. There is no easy victory, this time.”
“This is Lucian’s war all over again,” Galdor said. My heart contracted. The comparison fit. Could we win this war? I needed to go home, I thought, right away. Would I be in time to defend Tirvan? And what would happen to Maya? I shuddered. I felt helpless, tiny. I wanted, more than anything, for someone older and wiser to tell me what to do.
We stood at the burying ground on the windy hillside. The day had turned grey, but no snow or rain fell. I shivered in my fleece coat. As Finn had predicted, many of the officers and not a few of the men had come to witness the brief ceremony. I looked around.
“Where is Turlo?” I whispered to Finn, standing beside me.
“Gone north to scout out the invaders.”
I nodded. Who else, for that task?
A piper played a sad descent of notes. We turned to watch four officers, one of them Casyn, bearing Colm’s body to the grave. The bearers walked slowly under a double line of crossed swords. They laid the covered pallet by the dug grave, turning the sheet back to reveal Colm’s face. As a man, they turned east and bowed. Callan stepped forward. Bareheaded, he raised his voice against the wind. “Colm had no rank, no position in the Empire’s service, beyond being my advisor,” he said. “But he died a hero. He gave his life for me, and therefore for the Empire. We honour that today.” He knelt to place a hand on Colm’s brow. “The god of soldiers receive you, my brother, or I will know the reason why when I stand before him myself.” He, too, turned to the east, but did not bow, although he inclined his head. The bearers stepped forward again, carefully lowering Colm’s body into the grave. The piper played the same sad notes. Callan bent to take a handful of earth. “Farewell,” he said, throwing the earth into the grave. Casyn followed suit. Then they turned and walked down the hill. They had a war to plan.
I packed my saddlebags, leaving out only my heavy riding clothes. Outside my tent, I could hear the creak of leather and the clang of metal as the troops rode out. In my hand, I held the history Colm had given me. I walked out of the tent to go in search of Birel. I found him supervising the loading of boxes at the council tent.
“Wait here, please,” he said, after I explained what I wanted. He ducked inside the council tent, emerging a minute later. “Go in.”
The tent, stripped of Callan’s things, seemed even larger. More boxes waited for the supply wagons. Casyn stood, a map in his hand. He looked up. I could see the lines of fatigue and grief around his eyes.
“Casyn. I am so very sorry.”
“I will miss him all the days of my life,” he said simply. “It should have been me, protecting Callan. But for once, Colm was faster than I.”
I handed him the book. “Colm lent it to me.” He opened it, reading a few words. Then he closed it and handed it back.
“Keep it. Colm meant you to. He told me he wished all his pupils had your mind.”
“He taught me so much.” My voice caught, and I looked away.
“And me,” Casyn said. He straightened. “What will you do?” I heard an odd hesitation in the question. I looked up at him. His brother had died violently this afternoon, and yet he went on, defending his Empire, putting his grief behind him. How we respond to circumstance is what defines us, he had told me once. I owed him so much. I realized I loved him, as I supposed I might have loved a father. I took a deep breath. There were too many choices, or only one.
“What would you have me do, General?” I said. I glimpsed a brief smile in his eyes.
“Look at this map with me, Cohort-Leader,” he said. He spread it out on the big table still standing against one wall. “We are here,” he said, pointing, “and here is where the hills of the north give way to the central grasslands. You remember?” I nodded, remembering how my heart had lightened at the sight of the sea of grass below me, so many days and weeks before. “We need to engage the rebels well north of this escarpment. If we are on the grasslands and they are in the hills, they will have the advantage of ambush and retreat into the valleys and rocks, and we will be open to them, to be picked off like deer at the autumn cull. We may already be too late, but we must try, and that means a fast ride north. At the same time, we must send more men to Leste. Insurrection there is a certainty.” He smiled, grimly. “We are again where we were when I first came to Tirvan, but this time we have an enemy both within and without and not the strength of men to meet both. The planned response to an invasion from the north, a breaching of the Wall, was made years ago, but that plan was known to Blaine and Nevin, and has doubtless been passed on to Nevin’s son, who opened the gates to the northerners. We must use another plan, but there is no certainty of success.”
“You need every man.”
“And every woman. But this is harder than asking you to fight against Leste. Now we fight, in part, against our own people. I cannot compel anyone, and I would not try. But every woman who would choose to come, whether to battle or to serve as messengers and medics, grooms and cooks, everyone is needed, if we are to hold our Empire.”
And if we didn’t, Tice and Siane and Colm had all died for nothing. Live your life to honour those who died, Finn had said. I thought of Halle, in the council hall at Karst. She would come. How many others?
“There is no one to protect Maya and her women,” I said slowly.
He shook his head. “We cannot spare anyone. I sent a cadet to tell them, to advise them to try for Casilla. The city will be safer, I think.”
“Thank you,” I said. That would have to do, for now.
“I am sending cadets east to Casilla and the eastern fort with messages, but we would not send even those, if there was another way. Will you ride west, Lena? Ride to the Four-Ways Inn, and back to Karst, as Emperor’s Messenger?”
“Where do women go, who would join you?”
He pointed down at the map. “Here,” he said. “Where the hunting trail meets the river. Tell them to bring provisions, extra horses, heavy clothes, tents if they can.”
I nodded. “I need an hour to break camp and to pack.”
He looked at me steadily for a minute. “Make it half that. I will have Birel bring you the letter naming you as Emperor’s Messenger. He can help you pack. Ride your mare. The pony will keep up if led behind unburdened. You can leave him at the Four-Ways Inn and ride even faster. Go now, Lena.”
I swallowed and nodded, turning to leave. Tears burned hot behind my eyes. I had just ducked through the tent flaps when Casyn called to me.
“Cohort-Leader,” he said. “Will you come north?”
I turned to face him: a dark fi
gure against the canvas of the tent. I could see the motion of his hands as he rolled the map.
“I don’t know,” I said. “If…. if I can, General.”
The wind moved the tent flaps behind me. I saw him nod.
“Go,” he said. “And thank you.”
In my camp, I packed Colm’s book, and with it the paper and writing instruments he had given me, into my saddlebag. I had begun to write an account of these last months, beginning with the day Casyn had arrived. I had thought I would have time to work on it at the inn or in the grape fields.
Birel arrived, bringing the letter with the Emperor’s seal. I stowed it in my saddlebag as well. We collapsed the tent, rolling and tying it.
A soldier led Clio up, with Plover on a leading rein. She carried my tack, and my travelling gear. Clio whickered at me. I rubbed her nose. Birel threw my bags over the back of the saddle. I mounted and took the reins, glancing east, towards the women’s camp. Already the sky grew dark. The winter sun was low on the horizon.
“Go with the god, Cohort-Leader,” the sergeant said. The soldier’s benediction. He saluted me. I returned the salute. Then I turned Clio’s head west, toward the setting sun, and rode.
The Characters of Empire's Daughter
Aasta – an innkeeper
Alda – an ostler
Aline – a member of Lena's cohort
Alis – an exile from Berge
Alister – a servant on Jedd's farm
Anwyl – a crewmember of Skua
Anya – a Council – leader of Karst
Ava – an apprentice
Binne – a fisherwoman of Tirvan
Birel – Casyn's soldier – servant
Blaine – an officer of the Empire
Bren – a Major of the Empire
Cael – a solder of Leste
Callan – the Emperor
Camy – a member of Lena's cohort
Casse – a retired Council – leader of Tirvan
Casyn – a General, brother to Callan
Cate – a weaver of Tirvan
Colm – Callan's twin and advisor
Danel – a crewmember of Skua
Dann – a soldier
Darel – a cadet, Turlo's son
Dari – Kyan's partner, a cohort – leader
Daria – a trader from Karst
Dern – the Captain of Skua
Dessa – a boatbuilder at Tirvan
Dian – a horse warrior of Han
Dorys – an ostler
Elon – the King of Leste
Ferhar – a crewmember of Skua
Finn – a Lieutenant of the Empire
Freya – a girl of Tirvan, Dessa's apprentice
Fryth – an innkeeper
Galdor – a Lieutenant of the Empire
Galen – Lena's father, a border scout
Garth – Maya's brother
Gille – a herdswoman, Council – leader of Tirvan
Grainne – a horsebreeder of Tirvan
Guilian – a Lieutenant of the Empire
Gwen – Lena's mother, Council – leader & midwife
Halle – a woman of Karst
Hilar – a winemaker of Karst
Ianthe – a woman of Karst. Tice's sister
Ilene – a cooper of Karst
Ione – a woman of Karst, Tice's great – aunt
Jedd – a retired General of the Empire
Joce – a woman of Karst, Tice's sister
Josan – a Lieutenant of the Empire
Karlii – a cheesemaker of Ballin
Keavy – an innkeeper
Kinley – a child of Karst, Tevian's son
Kira – a girl of Tirvan, Lena's sister, apprentice midwife
Kirthe – an exile
Kolmas – a ship captain of Leste
Kyan – a woodworker of Tirvan
Lara – Siane's daughter
Largen – a crewmember of Skua
Lena – a fisherwoman of Tirvan
Livia – an innkeeper
Mar – a soldier of the Empire, Maya & Garth's father
Mari – an innkeeper
Martin – a Captain of the Empire
Maya – a fisherwoman of Tirvan, Lena's partner
Mella – a woman of Tirvan
Mikelle – a Council – leader of Karst
Minna – a retired potter of Tirvan
Nessa – a woman of Tirvan
Nevin – an officer of the Empire
Pel – a boy of Tirvan, Maya's brother
Rai – a girl of Tirvan, Lena's cohort
Ranni – a woman of Tirvan
Rasa – a horse warrior of Han
Roxine – a Council – leader of Karst
Salle – a woman of Tirvan, Lena's cohort
Sara – a Council – leader of Tirvan, Lena's aunt
Sari – an apprentice
Sarr – a boy of Tirvan
Satordi – a crewmember of Skua
Sherron – a cheesemaker of Ballin
Siane – a recordkeeper of Tirvan, Dessa's partner
Tali – a woman of Tirvan, Maya's mother, Lena's aunt
Tamar – a woman of Karst, Tice's mother
Tevian – a woman of Karst, Tevra's sister
Tevra – woman of Karst, Tice's ex – partner
Tice – a woman of Tirvan, potter, Lena's cohort – second
Tiernay – a crewmember Skua
Turlo – a General of the Empire
Valle – Tice's son
Xani – woman of Tirvan, Casyn's mother, deceased
Zilda – an innkeeper
Empire's Hostage
for
Drs. Tomer Feigenberg, John Radwan, and Sarah Rauth,
&
the entire team of surgery, nursing, and radiology staff
at the Carlo Fidani Cancer Centre,
without whose expertise
I would not have been alive to write this book.
'Thank you' seems completely inadequate.
The swallows gather, summer passes,
The grapes hang dark and sweet;
Heavy are the vines,
Heavy is my heart,
Endless is the road beneath my feet.
The sun is setting, the moon is rising,
The night is long and sweet;
I am gone at dawn.
I am gone at day,
Endless is the road beneath my feet.
The cold is deeper, the winters longer,
Summer is short but sweet;
I will remember,
I'll not forget you,
Endless is the road beneath my feet.
-Tice’s song
The World of Empire’s Hostage
There are roads which must not be followed.
Sun Tzu
Chapter One
The rain slashed down unceasingly, half ice, stinging exposed skin and making it nearly impossible to see anything in the grey light. When the sun, hidden now behind the thick layer of clouds, set—not long now, I estimated—the stones of the Wall and the native rock would lose what warmth they held, and begin to ice over. Night watch would be treacherous, tonight. I counted it a small blessing that my watch had begun after the midday meal.
I wiped a gloved hand over my eyes yet again and scanned north and eastward, not focusing on anything, but looking for motion, or for something that didn't belong, as Turlo had taught me; something that moved against the wind, or a shadow that hadn't been there yesterday. I listened, too, to the sounds beyond the noises of the fort and the babble of the stream behind me: the hoarse cry of a raven, the soft chatter of sparrows settling into their roost. No alarm calls. I walked the few steps across the watchtower to begin my scan again, to the northwest.
Footsteps sounded on the wooden stairs. I did not turn. Only when my relief stood beside me, looking out, could I look away.
"I think the minging gods have forgotten it's the first day of spring,” Halle said. “Anything I should know?”
&nbs
p; "There's a raven in the usual tree,” I answered, still looking outward, “but it's just making conversational croaks occasionally. I saw a fox about an hour ago, when I could still see, and its mind was on finding mice in the rocks. No owls today, but maybe they're not hunting in this rain. There could be forty northmen out there, and as long as they moved with the wind and stayed low, I wouldn't know. But I don't think so. I'm guessing there is one, or maybe two, watching us, no more.”
"Wrapped up in their cloaks, under some rocks or furze,” Halle said. “I'd rather be here.”
"So would they,” I reminded her.
She laughed, but without mirth. “Go and get warm,” she said. “The hunting party brought back a deer, so there's venison stew to be had.” I glanced over at her. Her eyes were on the land beyond the Wall, watching.
"Good luck.” I took the stairs down from the watchtower as quickly as I felt safe; the movement warmed me, slightly. At the bottom, I stepped over the gutter, running with rainwater, and onto the cobbled walkway that ran along the inner side of the Wall. The Wall itself broke the wind, and the rain fell with less force. Still, I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head as I walked to the camp.
All the discipline of the Empire could not build a finished fort in a time of war, and while the tents and a few stone and timber huts stood in orderly rows, most of the roads and pathways between were earthen—or mud, right now. Since the skirmishes had died down, some weeks earlier, work had begun on paving the main thoroughfares through the camp. A narrow, cobbled track ran from the Wall to the centre of the encampment, just wide enough for two people to pass. I noticed it extended a few feet further into the camp than it had when I had left for watch duty. I stepped off its comparatively clean cobbles onto the slick surface of the hard-packed earthen path. It had been built to drain, and two ditches ran on either side of it, but I could feel mud sticking to my boots.
At the kitchen tent, I scraped the mud off my boots on the iron blade mounted outside, and shook the worst of the rain off my cloak. Ducking inside, I met a blast of welcome heat. I stripped off my gloves and cloak, and the thick tunic I wore beneath the cloak, piling them on a bench. A gust of cold air told me someone else had come in. I turned to see Darel already loosening the clasps of his cloak. He'd been on watch duty at the tower east of the camp.
Empire's Legacy- The Complete Trilogy Page 36
