by C. Litka
01
'Time to get moving,' said Naylea, putting away the glasses she'd been using to study the encampment. 'We need to deal with the guards in the trees.'
Naylea, Py and I were nestled in the upper branches of the re-grown jungle that clothed the lower foothills of the island's handle. From our vantage point, the ship-city spread out in long straight rows over the flat savanna blade of the island. The Temtres were streaming through the encampment towards the crater amphitheater, hidden from our view behind a low mound and a stand of trees, for the Grand Assembly that officially opened the gathering. Earlier, we'd seen five figures slip into that stand of trees behind it, likely in anticipation of the type of disruption we were planning.
'Right,' I said, and we started off through the mid-level of the jungle for the edge of the island.
Naylea had returned from her visit to the Talon Hawk with a feather wig for me - a wig of long, pale yellow feathers. 'I remembered that yellow was your favorite color,' she said with a smile - she'd not lost all of her good-natured wickedness - as she handed it to me.
'DeKan's body was wrapped in oil soaked cloth, set afire and adrift soon after his death, as is Temtre custom, so there will be only a eulogy at the start of the Grand Assembly. After that the clan-chief candidates for clan-king will speak to the Temtres, though the actual selection will be made by a vote of the clan chiefs,' she said and added, 'Talking to my friends aboard the Talon Hawk, there's no chance that we'll be accepted as official envoys of the Order and allowed to deliver our message. especially in light of DinDay's ambitions and the lack of anyone willing to challenge him on it.'
'But we must deliver the message!' exclaimed Py.
She nodded grimly. 'Yes, we must. And I think we need to take our case to all of the Temtres rather than just the clan-chiefs, who seem cowered by DinDay. We need to sow as much uncertainty, amongst as many Temtres, as possible. Even if they end up falling in with DinDay's plans, they'll do so with great reluctance, and hopefully, will bolt at the first sign of trouble. To do that, I think we're going to have to be uninvited speakers at DeKan's eulogy.'
Py, of course, fell in with the idea immediately. It may have been a hundred times larger than the bands of bandits than he had dreamed of leading to The Way, but he was undaunted by the prospect. I was less daunted than prudence should've dictated because I knew we had, in our darters, a hundred times the fire-power to even the score. And since this was their mission, I largely stayed out of their discussions.
Their plan involved crashing the Grand Assembly just after the eulogy and before the clan-chiefs spoke. Naylea, the stealth, would slip through the tall grass to the edge of the amphitheater above the upper terrace where the Sword of the Temtre would be stuck in the ground, pending the selection of a new clan-king. At the proper time, she'd send a few darts into the stone lip of the terrace - their blue flashes would announce the appearance of Py - earnest, and nearly impossible not to like - who would descend to the terrace and deliver the Order's message - the written and oral versions - with Naylea covering him with her darter. Since her darter had a long range sight, she could pick off anyone armed with springers who might take exception to Py's message. Py, with much practice, had gotten the Order's message down to five minutes. Litang, ex-spaceer tramp ship captain, wide-sky engineer and deadly with a darter as long as his target was in spitting range, would be stationed at the base of the mound to cover their backs and their line of retreat, which suited me fine.
Our plans beyond that - including the minor matter of getting back home to the Dontas - were rather vague and depended on circumstances to be revealed. None of us believed we'd be welcomed back aboard any Temtre ship, save possibly EnVey's. Having brought Py and myself here, the Crea Clan ships would likely be very carefully watched by the whole Assembly. I wasn't about to put him into any more danger or disfavor than he was in already.
Naylea said we'd just steal a ship's boat to take us home, but not until the end of the Assembly, when most of the ships had departed and any response would be muted. We'd then sail the boat across the Outer Endless Sea, through the Outward Islands, and across the Donta Sea to reach home. I'd done it, once, in the Phoenix and then with the captured Vantra dragon ship, but I wasn't eager to do it again. I was, however, hard pressed to come up with an alternative, except trusting EnVey to send a boat back for us. I did suggest that we might want to buy the tools we'd need to make our own craft if need be, and a small steam engine to power it, as an alternative to stealing a boat, but we put off those plans until after we delivered the message and gauged the response.
We had nearly three rounds to prepare, waiting for the last of the ships to arrive. I shaved off my whiskers with a Saraime razor I had in my kit bag that I used to keep my sinister beard sinister.
'I'd forgotten how innocent looking you are without your pointy little beard,' laughed Naylea.
'I am innocent,' I replied, 'with or without my pointy little beard.'
Still studying me she shook her head. 'No, I take that back. Your sinister beard hides your slyness, the oily snake in the grass, Litang.'
'Innocent, sly, or sinister - it was all one and the same to you, my dear.'
'Perhaps, back then...' she admitted with a theatrical sigh while lingering over the "then." 'But I've changed.'
She had, but I said nothing more.
She glued two soft strips of the yellow feathers over my eyebrows. And disguised my claw boots to look longer, so that with my new yellow feathers tied in a ponytail streaming back from under my tricorne hat, I passed as a broad-feathered Temtre without a second glance.
We moved our hideout to a narrow canyon high in the mountains - a hollowed out nest under a mass of vines that filled a narrow cleft in the rocks. We then charted an elaborate, and hopefully misleading, line of retreat from the amphitheater, around the island, through the jungle, and up the narrow canyons to reach it.
After that, we spent our awake time amongst the Temtres. The death of DeKan cast a far lighter pall over the Assembly than I would've imagined. The likely explanation being that the Temtre clan-king is a largely ceremonial post. He presides over the Assembly and the council of clan-chiefs to settle the affairs of clan but plays no role in the every-round affairs of the clans, since the Temtre are mostly solitary traders. The various clans have their own island territories, only occasionally crossing courses with other Temtre ships in the ports where their trade patterns overlap so that most Temtres see their clan-king only once in a decade. And I gathered that most clan-kings generally preside over one or two Assemblies - they're either too old or too bold to preside over more of them.
Hissi and Siss were mostly off on their own. The Simlas seemed to have their own Assembly and paid little attention to the affairs of their human companions - save when they wanted something to eat. Hissi, brought up nearly human, had her own coins in the little sachet she wore, so she could buy food on her own, when she didn't feel like hunting me down to spring for a meal. Much to my surprise, I didn't see her often.
In order to lay the groundwork for the Order's message, we spent much of our time in the tent taverns talking about the widely rumored raid on SarLa. You don't keep secrets in a gathering of families with a decade of gossip to exchange. We talked up the likelihood that it was a trap. Py and Naylea decided that it was the best line to take to dampen the enthusiasm of the Temtres for the great raid. They could understand revenge, but could also appreciate treachery, so the idea of leading your enemies into a trap baited with a vast treasure trove was something they could appreciate. We'd argue amongst ourselves, and with anyone who cared to join in, about the dangers of trusting any SaraDal prince eager to give away the treasure trove to the Temtres. Given that the raid was a widely debated subject even without us, and had garnered considerable skepticism, I questioned the need to make an Assembly appearance at all. We had copies of the message that we could plant all around the Assembly, so that word would get around. Py an
d Naylea, however, viewed delivering the message in person as their mission and wanted to make certain that all the consequences were fully understood, including the consequences of continuing to raid in the SaraDals.
On the second round, we caught sight of EnVey in one of the lanes. Naylea hurried ahead to talk with him and learn what the clan-chiefs were thinking. He gave a little start when she pulled up alongside like an old friend, but they walked and talked for quite a while. EnVey told her the clan-chiefs were leery - but tempted. None of them believed the rumored Saraime warship would sail before the Blossom Festival, which, if they postponed the Assembly, would give them something like 20 rounds to take SarLa before it arrived. DinDay was certain that they could do that. Naylea assured EnVey that they couldn't. EnVey said he believed her and would not be amongst those laying siege to SarLa, but that his opinion alone would sway no one. It was up to us.
