“How did you feel about stepping aside from the university? I know you want to spend more time with Anida than you did with Aeneas. But back then, we had the Narthani threat hanging over us.”
“It’s just something I have to work out. It’s not like Anida won’t have people looking after her. I just feel a duty as a mother to keep her as close as possible, at least for the first six months. If I can’t do it as much as I want, I can handle it better than I did with Aeneas. Obviously, he’s turning out fine, so I didn’t harm him by neglect. I’ll have to do the best I can.”
“And you’re still confident you knew it was going to be a girl?”
“Never a doubt, and I’m glad we decided on Anida as the name.” Sadness briefly flashed over Maera’s face, as she remembered her sister. They’d previously agreed to name their first daughter after Anid, Maera’s sister, who had been killed in a Narthani assassination attempt on their father. Later, Maera decided that a modified version of her sister’s name would prevent confusion and honor Anid and Anida as unique persons.
“I see my explanation of probability didn’t faze you,” said Yozef, attempting to divert her attention from the tragic memory.
The brief darkness left Maera’s face, and she smiled. “Oh, I don’t doubt the probabilities you explained, that with the imbalance of girls over boys being born on Caedellium, fifty-one percent of babies will be girls. But sometimes a mother just knows, like I knew our first would be a boy, and Ana knew she’d have the heir to Moreland.”
“Your logic is questionable because the first of Ana’s twins was a girl and only the second a boy.”
Maera laughed. “My logic is impeccable. Ana said she knew she was having a boy, and she did.”
“I bow to women’s logic,” conceded Yozef, shifting to Maera’s other foot. “You haven’t mentioned anything recently about Sissel Morgan’s progress in setting up your secret women’s spy network.”
Maera waved the end of her shawl across Yozef’s face in mock reproach. “It’s not really secret, just best to work quietly for now.”
Yozef’s insistence that girls receive educational opportunities had been one of the most contentious decrees of the new paramount. Most hetmen had acceded, especially after Yozef pulled out his “It comes to me” phrase, now generally assumed to mean a whisper from God. He tried to limit its use, because he didn’t want to overuse it, and he still felt awkward deliberately pretending to have a special relationship with the Almighty. Still, he chafed at settling for fewer mandatory years of education for girls than boys. Yet he intended to rectify that compromise as soon as he could.
“She’s such a lovely, persuasive person, it’s a perfect fit, and it gives her an important role now that the Military Intelligence Unit has reformed with different goals.”
The now fifty-seven-year-old grandmother had been Keelan’s only woman registrar, a record keeper who maintained records and certified contracts, deeds, and other paperwork. Sissel was charmingly persnickety and possessed a natural photographic memory. Yozef had mused one evening to Maera that when people saw accomplished women in important positions, it would increase the long-term general acceptance of women in different roles in Caedelli society. Sissel, with Maera’s assistance, was developing a cadre of women in all the clans to watch out for girls of exceptional promise. Yozef saw it as a two-pronged strategy: ensuring that all girls had a basic education and deliberately developing the best ones. Sissel’s memory let her keep all the details in her mind and not on paper, which might have alerted islanders who weren’t yet ready to accept expanded roles for women.
“Well,” said Yozef, “we already have examples that people can’t help but notice. You, of course, as chancellor of the university, and Eina as the Fuomon ambassador and in her position at the university. Then there’s Ana and Ceinwyn. Ana’s taken to the role of mother of the Moreland Clan heir with a vengeance. I told you how she stared down her father when we made the required visit to Moreland. You should have seen him almost cower when he tried to put a guilt trip on her. He told her she should do more for her family, and she responded that as mother of the next hetman, she had more responsibilities than to a single family.”
“Yes, but you did tell me she almost fainted after he left. She told me she couldn’t believe what she’d said. However, she did say it. And the same with meeting the boyermen and other important Moreland leaders. Abbot Abelard helped her, but despite being a nervous wreck when we were alone, in front of the others she played a woman confident in her abilities and position.”
“And what about Ceinwyn?” said Yozef, moving on to Maera’s oldest sister. “From everything we hear and from when I visited Preddi City, she’s a de facto adviser to Balwis and sits in on all his major meetings.”
“It was relatively easy in Preddi,” said Maera. “For all practical purposes, they started a new clan with few traditions.”
The rejuvenated clan’s members were common people of the original Preddi Clan, freed Narthani slaves from many original peoples, and Narthani who opted to stay on Caedellium sprinkled into the mix. The fact that people identified Balwis with Preddi freedom also helped people accept change, as did his lack of patience with troublemakers. In addition, Ceinwyn’s scar and her reputation as a Caedelli woman fighting the Narthani, along with her and Balwis’s connection to the new paramount, lent them an indelible aura of authority.
“I think pushing for more roles for women was the least of the new clan members’ concerns,” Mara continued. “In fact, Preddi is probably the most advanced of any of the clans in accepting women in higher positions. I admit I’ve been surprised at Balwis. I wasn’t initially happy about him and Ceinwyn. Yet not only does that seem to be working out well for my sister, he’s developed more flexibility than I expected.”
Lifting her ankle, Yozef traded one foot for the other again. “I don’t know if anything has actually changed with him. Maybe it’s just that he came from a rural ranch family where everyone, including the women, had important roles and participated in ranch work. That must have carried over into his views as Hetman Preddi.”
“Whatever the cause,” said Maera, “I think Ceinwyn is part of it. I never would have imagined her transformation. I feel ashamed to admit it, but I think the wound and scar she got the night of that attack were almost like the hand of God reaching out to change her. The scar diverted her attention away from what she now admits were petty concerns. And the connection that grew between her and Balwis proves that we can’t gauge our understanding of people.
“Then there’s the way she’s come to advise Balwis on being a hetman. All those years at home when I thought Ceinwyn was absorbed in herself, she must have listened to Father, Mother, and I talking about issues with the clan and island politics. It never occurred to me that she paid attention.”
“Speaking of your sisters, how is Mared doing with her new reality?” asked Yozef. Maera’s youngest sister was now sixteen years old and the only Keelan daughter still living with their parents.
“Father never had to tell her anything,” said Maera. “She knew as soon as our parents did that because I’m the wife of the paramount and Ceinwyn is the wife of Hetman Preddi, if the next Keelan hetman comes from our immediate family, he will have to be Mared’s son. If not from her, then it will fall to the more extended family, such as cousins and uncles. But I agree with Father that two hetmen having the same mother might raise problems with the clans, which eliminates Ceinwyn and me. We’re already pushing tradition by having multiple first-cousin hetmen.”
“How is Mared taking all this?” asked Yozef.
“She wrote that it was fun at first, when Keelanders realized she was now the only daughter of their hetman who could produce the Keelan heir. But she regrets how people treat her differently. Before, she was the fourth daughter and destined to have the fewest family obligations. Now she feels it all falls to her. She was flattered when potential future suitors started visiting, but she’s since told Father t
o stop letting them come until she tells him otherwise. I don’t think he believed her until she refused to even meet the latest one.”
“Reminds me of another Keelan daughter. What’s her name again?”
The swat with her shawl was a little sharper this time.
“Hey, watch it! You’re attacking the Paramount Hetman.”
“I’m chastising a little boy who enjoys teasing little girls, and he gets what he deserves.”
He retaliated with a brief tickle of a bare foot and joined a laughing duet. For the next half hour they sat quiet, both relaxing, both satisfied with their day, both ignoring everything except home and family.
“THE THINGS I DO”
“Still nothing via semaphore from Vandinke?” asked Maera, shifting five-month-old Anida Kolsko from her right breast to her left.
“Nothing,” answered Yozef. “That’s a full sixday since any traffic came over the Vandinke-Bultecki line. It’s also been almost four sixdays since the Vandinke-Stent line passed messages. Welman Stent sends that the line from Clitwyth to the Vandinke border is fine. Teresz Bultecki says the same of his clan’s section of the other line. One line being out could conceivably be due to some circumstance or another, but for both, it has to be deliberate on Eldor Vandinke’s part.”
The Vandinke hetman was cantankerous and sensitive about what he perceived to be any slight. He was one of the three hetmen most opposed to creating the position and authority of paramount hetman, a step above clan hetmen and formal leader of the entire Island of Caedellium. Eldor Vandinke had been repeatedly outvoted during formalization of the paramount position and its authority, and he seemed set on not letting anyone forget his opposition.
“He also seems committed to doing as little as possible to contribute to the unified structure we’re trying to develop,” added Yozef. “His clan’s taxes are two months in arrears, even though I got the Senate to reduce his share. I gave the excuse to go easy this year so Vandinke could spend more coin improving roads, upgrading the semaphore lines, and building more schools, now that it’s mandated that all children attend, including girls.”
Maera sighed. “I imagine that last one was the most galling to Eldor. Vandinke is probably the most conservative clan, and even the boys have less schooling than most clans. I wonder if there’s a single Vandinke woman who can read. I know you’re trying to avoid confrontations with individual hetmen so soon, but this may be one you can’t avoid. It also might be the best chance you’ll get to establish authority. None of the other hetman like Vandinke, and I’m learning that some of the other clans have started to wonder why he is getting away with things they themselves cannot.”
Maera had been exchanging letters with the eleven hetmen’s wives who could read and write or who had someone close to do it for them. Though no longer involved in the clans’ formal Military Intelligence Unit (MIU) for information gathering and analysis, Maera had formed her own internal network across the island to help Yozef have an independent sense of the pulse of the clans and their peoples.
“I knew the grumbling and envy would eventually happen. I guess I just hoped I could put it off longer. But if this is an opportunity to start exerting authority, I need to avoid permanently alienating Vandinke and seeming too oppressive to the other clans.”
“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” Maera reassured him. “You always do.”
I wish she wouldn’t do that , thought Yozef.
It was bad enough that too many people thought he was in regular communication with God. He didn’t need even Maera thinking he could pull miracles out of a hat.
I’m not the Great Houdini, and I can’t wave a magic wand like Harry Potter. Hell. Eldor Vandinke is turning into my own Voldermort. He sniffed. Okay. Maybe he isn’t evil like He Who Must Not Be Named. Still, the damn man is exasperating in the extreme.
“Whatever,” said Yozef, seeing no purpose in arguing his Septarsh-hood. “But I think I’ll have to go to Vandinke myself. I can’t let any more of this slide without confronting him. Hopefully, I’ll figure out ways to get him more in line without resorting to overt threats or actions.”
“I can’t go with you,” said Maera, “but take Sissel. She has several contacts in Vandinke Province and can assess people’s feelings while you deal with Eldor.”
The grandmother had been a member of the MIU and now was at the center of a network of women Maera and Sissel were developing throughout Caedellium. Yozef intended to enhance opportunities for women but was cognizant of the need to move slowly. If he disturbed traditions too abruptly, it could create overt opposition that was best avoided.
“Hmmm . . . I doubt Sissel can or wants to ride a horse, so she’d have to go by carriage. I think I’ll take several people to ‘help’ me determine the status of Clan Vandinke and where they might need ‘assistance.’ I envision a medicant and a theophist. I’ll tell Eldor they’ve come along for general discussions with their Vandinke counterparts. It won’t be my fault if he’s suspicious about why they’re there.”
“You could also take Reimo and make the excuse that he’s evaluating their militia training in a surprise inspection,” said Maera. “I heard him mention that Vandinke is one of the few provinces he hasn’t visited.”
Reimo Kivalian was the Fuomi troop commander who had remained on Caedellium as a military liaison, part of the Fuomon diplomatic mission to the island. He’d also assumed a role as a leader in the small military academy established in Orosz City. His unfailingly cheerful countenance reminded Yozef of Filtin Fuller, a friend and one of Yozef’s original workers from Abersford who’d died in the climactic battle with the Narthani. Although Kivalian had become close to the Kolskos, he was still a foreigner whose first loyalty lay with Fuomon. Maera hadn’t told Yozef that she’d caught the Fuomi looking at her husband with an odd expression she couldn’t quite identify—one almost of regret, chagrin, or possibly embarrassment.
Two days later, Yozef and four of his guards, Kivalian, a carriage with three occupants, a hundred-man dragoon company, two supply wagons, and ten extra mounts wove their way into Bultecki Province. They stopped for one night in Herstek, the Bultecki Province capital, where Teresz Bultecki hosted a dinner for the entire party. Afterward, Teresz confirmed he didn’t know what was happening in Vandinke.
“That Eldor is getting more ill-tempered and prickly the older he gets,” groused Teresz. “I’ve tried to keep on good terms with him over the years, but I’m of a mind to permanently give up. I would have long ago, if our two provinces weren’t adjacent.
“As for the semaphore lines, all I can tell you is our line to Vandinke is perfectly functional. I can’t say what happens across the border because Eldor keeps the crossing guarded by armed men, like he’s always done. They usually don’t turn people away, but it has happened in the past. We hear stories of more trouble at the Stent-Vandinke and Swavebroke-Vandinke borders.”
“Nothing about Farkesh?” asked Yozef.
“Hah!” barked Teresz. “I think even Eldor knows Feren Bakalacs has limited patience.”
The Farkesh clan hetman had a well-known reputation for irascibility and testiness. As a member of the War Council, Bakalacs had overseen each clan’s training and contributions of fighting men. He was also considered the de facto leader of the people of northern Caedellium. They had descended from the first wave of immigrants to the island and included most of the people of four clans and part of the population of three others.
The paramount’s party traveled a full day from Herstek and camped a mile from the Bultecki-Vandinke border.
“Like Hetman Bultecki says,” reported the dragoon captain, “the men I sent forward describe a gate across the border point with five or six armed men standing around. The rest of them are probably in the building off to one side, based on the number of horses in the corral.”
“Well, let’s all get a good night’s sleep,” said Yozef, “and we’ll have a surprise for the border and Vandinke in the morning.”
“I do like surprises,” Yozef had told Maera, “but I’m not sure Hetman Vandinke will like this one. It’s time he learns to accept the new reality.”
He hadn’t explained to her why he’d laughed the first time he heard the Vandinke capital’s name or why he persisted in pronouncing it by stressing the second syllable, van-DORK, instead of the first, VAN-dork, as did the clan’s members. He only said the syllable “dork” reminded him of the clan’s hetman and should be emphasized.
Hurkel Chakez hated border duty. Why his hetman thought they needed a gate and guards was beyond his understanding, but when the hetman said to do something, he did it. The only saving factor was that during the month when he and the other men from his district fulfilled their obligation, it allowed them to intimidate travelers into paying coin or other goods. Not that there was an official tax on crossing clan borders. That would have been a step too far for the other hetmen to tolerate. However, the trickle of graft was kept below a level that would force the neighboring clans to react.
Fortunately, they were due to finish their month of duty in another two days, assuming the replacements arrived as scheduled. As Chakez rubbed sleep from his eyes, he cursed that the morning kava wasn’t ready yet. Then he heard a shout from a man at the border gate forty yards away.
“Hurkel! What the hell is this?!”
He turned and looked, his eyes bulged, and his mouth fell open. Coming along at a trot a third of a mile away was a column of dragoons. He recognized them because he had been part of Brigadier Stent’s force attacking the Narthani rear at the Battle of Orosz City.
The men wore the strange, mottled clothing Yozef Kolsko said made them less conspicuous, which he called “camouflage.” Chakez didn’t count, but there were a lot of them. In front, a man in brown with a silver sash rode a big, black stallion. Beside the man was a rider dressed in what Chakez recognized as a Fuomi uniform, and farther back he could see riders holding the Caedellium green flag with white stars—except this one had gold trim on the edges.
Tales of Anyar Page 24
