Plateau City, The Plateau – 10th Day, First Third Autumn 505
Daphne stood upon the high city walls, Bedig at her side, and gazed down at the harbour. A chill wind was blowing off the sea, and grey clouds huddled in the sky.
‘The weather’s turning,’ Bedig said. ‘Ten days into autumn, and I can feel it.’
Daphne nodded, but her attention was on the river, where ships and vessels were docked. The port was busy, though not as busy as it had been in summer. Her eyes scanned the far bank, where the earth was still stained from the massacre twenty days previously. The Sanang occupying the bank were disorganised and lazy, and had made a poor job of clearing away the bloody remains of their handiwork. There were still bodies tangled in the weeds by the far shore, where the river reached the sea.
She felt a kick in her abdomen, and smiled, putting a hand to her belly.
‘Wee lad awake is he?’ said Bedig, glancing at her bump.
‘With his big Kellach feet,’ she said. ‘Or hers. You have to stop assuming it’s a boy, Bedig, I’m starting to copy you.’
‘Whichever it is,’ he said, ‘I hope the apes have cleared off by then. They ruin the view.’
‘If they’re still here by the time the baby comes,’ Daphne said, ‘we’re in real trouble.’
‘I don’t see how, miss,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘If they attack the walls the crossbows will slaughter them. If they attack the Kellach they’re fucked. The five thousand of my folk under arms in the city have been told they can go out and help, if the Sanang assault the camp. And,’ he said, ‘the city granaries are full to bursting. I mean, I’m sorry for you that we’ve run out of sugar, and coffee and suchlike, but there’s enough food for thirds, and more ships come in all the time.’
Daphne frowned. ‘The city eats its way through a granary every few days, and it’s only the ships that are masking that fact. Once the autumn winds begin, then the shipping will start to dry up. I reckon we’ve got until the end of this third before that happens. And no boats can sail the sea in winter, we’ll be cut off until spring.’
‘But, miss,’ he said, ‘you’re forgetting about the army from the Holdings Realm that was summoned. They’ll be here by the end of the second third. We’ve only got to last out until then.’
‘Hopefully,’ she said. ‘It’s the timing that worries me. The Rahain tunnel will be open soon, and our frontiers will be unguarded. The Sanang might only be the start of it. The Rahain may decide to take advantage of our difficulties.’
‘Let them,’ Bedig said. ‘I’d rather fight the lizards than the apes anyway.’
They walked along the top of the wall, by the river, until it turned left at Bridge Tower, where thousands of fleeing peasants had found sanctuary during the massacre, adding to the chronic overcrowding within the city. The Old Town was seething with people and, with huge areas of the New Town a vast construction site, hundreds of tents and makeshift shelters had sprung up in the spaces between the half-built buildings.
They followed the parapet as it turned, and looked down on the sprawling Kellach camp.
Daphne stopped at the battlements and gazed at the untidy streets of mud, tents and shacks, enclosed on the far side by the enormous earthen rampart that they had built with their own hands. Forty thousand refugees at the last count, not reckoning the five that were garrisoned within the walls.
There were probably only a few thousand left in the camp that Daphne would class as warriors. Many were old, and a high number carried crippling injuries. Even so, she had no doubt that they would put up a fight if the Sanang were rash enough to attack.
‘Do you think he’s down there?’ she said.
‘No, miss,’ Bedig said. ‘If he were, he would have sent a message.’
‘Maybe he arrived,’ Daphne said, ‘and found out I was pregnant.’
Bedig shook his head and sighed.
‘If Killop got here,’ he said, ‘and discovered you were carrying his child, nothing would stop him from coming to you.’
‘You don’t know that,’ she frowned. ‘You’ve never met him.’
‘No, but I heard Kylon talk about him often enough. And I was in Keira’s squad during the resistance in Kell. She went on about Killop all the time. Of course back then we thought he was dead. So, I think I know him pretty well.’
‘You probably know him better than me,’ she said, casting her face down, ‘and you’ve never even laid eyes on him.’
‘No matter what happens,’ he said, putting his big hand on her shoulder, ‘you have friends and family around you.’
‘You don’t think he’s coming.’
‘We’ve only been here a little over two thirds, miss,’ he said. ‘There’s still time.’ He smiled. ‘You always get gloomy when we get to this part of the wall. Come on, let’s see what’s in the market before going to Shella’s.’
They began walking again, the Old Town down to their left, the Kellach camp to their right. They came to where the new emergency wall joined the Old Town. It was high, but had been hastily constructed, and had no parapet or walkway at its top.
‘The King knew what he was doing when he built this,’ Bedig said. ‘My folk are the real wall.’
They passed it and descended a flight of wooden stairs that had been secured to the outer wall of the Old Town. At the bottom guards checked their passes, and allowed them through into a large square, directly in the shadow of the emergency wall. The area was covered in tents and shacks, inhabited by Holdings peasants. Daphne smiled. The Kellach probably imagined that everyone in the city lived in a house, when the reality was that only a flimsy wall separated two nearly identical squatter camps.
In the midst of the tents was a large market, where everything that could be had in the city was bought and sold. Luxuries were exorbitant, but the basics were still cheap, and would remain so while the weather held out, and the ships kept arriving.
Holdings troopers patrolled the makeshift streets, and were present in numbers in the market. Daphne found them a reassuring sight, and they kept the population from boiling over. They passed the busy stalls as lamps were being lit for evening. At the edge of the market square, they turned left, towards the main route through the city, which joined the New Town to the palace. Work had halted on most of the building plots, and many were covered in tents. A few buildings had their ground floors completed, and each of these was crammed with displaced peasants.
They reached the wide main road, and crossed it, avoiding the lines of horses out on exercise, and entered the new university district. The building that was to be the university was an unroofed empty shell, being only half completed when the Sanang had arrived. A few townhouses around it were finished, and the students and tutors were living there, trying to carry on as normal as if the siege wasn’t happening.
‘Evening, miss,’ a trooper said, as they passed a squad on patrol. ‘We’ll need to see your, ah, companion’s pass before he can enter this district.’
Bedig pulled out a rolled-up paper from his tunic, and showed it to him.
‘My apologies, sir,’ the trooper said, waving them on. ‘Have a good evening.’
‘Sir?’ Bedig muttered under his breath as they walked away. ‘You Holdings folk, with your please this, sorry that, please, please, sorry, sorry. “Apologies”, ha! For what, doing his job?’
‘The cavalry prides itself on its manners,’ Daphne said. ‘The Kellach could learn from them.’
‘Don’t give me that,’ he said. ‘You like us rough.’
‘I’m not altogether sure what you mean by that remark,’ she said, ‘so I’m going to choose to ignore it. Anyway, here we are.’
She pointed up to a large palatial townhouse, set amid a half-finished street, bordering the more completed aristocratic district where her family lived. Outside was a carriage, with two beautiful mares, chestnut brown like those from Hold Fast. She went up to one, and stroked its head and flank.
She came away, shaking her head.
‘They still make me feel sick,’ she said. ‘This had better wear off soon. If I can’t get back on a horse because of this baby, then, well… I don’t know. I’ll be greatly annoyed.’
‘Must be serious,’ she heard Shella say from inside the carriage. ‘Come in and join me, I’ve been waiting for you.’
Daphne and Bedig went round to the side of the carriage, and climbed in. They sat opposite Shella, who was sitting with her brother Sami.
‘Hi, Daphne,’ he said.
‘Your Highness,’ Daphne said.
Sami pulled a face. ‘Can I not be free of that, for one night?’
‘I thought we were going inside,’ Daphne said.
‘No,’ Shella said. ‘Too many embassy officials around tonight, snooping everywhere, can’t get any peace. Thought we’d go round to your place. Do you mind?’
Daphne nodded. ‘I guess this means you want to get drunk?’
‘Perceptive as always, Daphne Holdfast,’ Shella replied. ‘Once again you’ll have to watch sober while I drink myself to oblivion. But think of the alternative. If I didn’t get out of that mansion, and cut loose once in a while, then I’d go demented, and who knows, with a wave of my hand, half of the ambassadorial staff would be vomiting up their lungs.’
She peered at Daphne as the carriage moved off. ‘Really,’ she said, ‘you’re providing a service to the city by letting me get drunk in your room. A noble duty. I’m a princess, you know.’
‘Fine,’ Daphne said. ‘Just as long as you know that my sister and sister-in-law will be in the townhouse tonight.’
‘All the men are out?’ Shella said.
‘Yes,’ Daphne said. ‘Even father.’
Shella shrugged. ‘We going to pick up old snake-eyes on the way to yours?’
‘No,’ Daphne said. ‘The councillor is working again this evening. Said he had to finish off his new Rahain constitution.’
‘Another dreamer,’ Shella said. ‘In what possible reality does he think he’ll ever be able to implement his utopia?’
‘He has hope,’ Daphne said. ‘Let him keep that.’
Shella smirked and looked out of the window.
Daphne gazed out at the streets, as they passed through the completed area near the sea walls.
‘Wait!’ Shella shouted. ‘Stop the carriage.’
The horses came to an abrupt halt. Shella opened the door and jumped down to the street. Daphne moved to the side and looked out, as Shella approached a black-robed man walking along the road.
‘Rijon,’ Daphne muttered, and climbed down.
‘Stay here,’ she said to Jayki. ‘That goes for you as well, Bedig.’
She turned and walked up the street, the wrought iron lamp overhead lighting up the paved road. Rijon and Shella were talking at a corner ahead, in low voices, in a language Daphne didn’t understand.
Shella stepped back, and put her hands to Rijon’s chest, pushing him away.
‘Well, fuck you then,’ she cried, in perfect Holdings.
Rijon said nothing as Shella turned and began walking back to the carriage.
‘You were right,’ she said as she passed Daphne. ‘He is an asshole.’
Daphne paused, letting Shella’s footsteps fade away behind her.
Rijon glanced up at her, and held her gaze. He looked drained and ill, a condition she remembered well from whenever she had over-used her vision powers.
‘Rijon,’ she said.
‘Daphne.’
She walked forward.
‘Have you been looking into the Sanang camp?’ she said.
Rijon’s expression remained blank.
‘I understand if it’s all a secret,’ she said. ‘All I want to know is, have you seen Chane? Is she alright?’ She paused. ‘She was my friend.’
A faint smile touched his lips. ‘So now you want something from me, Daphne? Does this mean you don’t want to kill me any more?’
Daphne said nothing.
Rijon laughed. ‘Very well,’ he said, ‘I will tell you. I’ve seen Chane. I’ve seen much of her in fact, as she’s often with Agang Garo. They spend an awful lot of time together. She’s obviously in love with him, although the Creator knows why, he never touches her. She’s a wretched creature, abased by her squalid treachery, a doll that he dresses up so his men can leer at her.’
They moved closer together, their locked gazes never wavering. Daphne felt her battle-vision almost bursting to get out, and she could see from the tiny swirls in the corners of his eyes that Rijon was feeling the same.
‘It’s tragic, really,’ Rijon said.
‘Send in a mage squad to rescue her.’
‘Oh Daphne,’ Rijon smiled. ‘How naïve. He’s already offered her freedom, and she turned it down.’
Daphne almost took a step back, her eyes narrowing. ‘No.’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I know, because I’ve been in her head. Helps that she thinks in Holdings. My Sanangka is good, but…’
‘You bastard.’
‘I do what I’m ordered, Daphne,’ he said. ‘You should know that. Why don’t you take a look yourself, if you’re curious?’
‘You know why.’
‘Oh yes,’ he said, ‘because of the half–breed you’re carrying within you.’
Daphne took a deep breath.
‘I’m going to go now,’ she said. ‘You’re not worth any more of my time. I’d stay away from Shella if I were you. She’s not pregnant.’
She turned and walked back towards the carriage, as a low evening mist rose off the sea.
Daphne kept a forced smile on her face as Shella opened another bottle of rum.
Sami and Bedig had left to play cards in another room when Shella had told them she wanted no men around her for the evening. Daphne’s sister Ariel, and Vince’s wife Celine had joined them in her room, and the three women had proceeded to get drunk while Daphne sat and sipped her glass of water.
‘I love this city,’ Shella was saying. ‘Where else could you get Holdings, Rakanese and Kellach all speaking Rahain together?’
‘But we’re speaking Holdings, your Highness,’ Ariel said.
‘It was a fucking joke,’ Shella said. ‘I was making a point. Something Kylon once said to me, about cultural imperialism, and he was fucking right.’
‘You seem to have picked up Holdings quickly enough,’ Daphne said. ‘Especially how to swear.’
‘First thing to learn, Daffers,’ Shella said, ‘so you can tell if people are saying rude things about you.’
‘And were they?’ Celine asked, rosy-cheeked.
‘They were,’ Shella said, ‘but only in that annoying polite way you Holdings do.’
‘You need to meet some people from the River Holdings,’ Ariel said. ‘The language they use, your Highness, would make you blush.’
‘I seriously doubt that.’
‘So what did Father Rijon say?’ Celine asked. ‘You said he upset you.’
‘Fuck him,’ Shella said. ‘I hope his dick shrivels up and falls off.’
The room went quiet for a moment. Ariel looked a little shocked, while Celine sat grinning.
Shella’s sneer fell away, and her face dropped.
‘Everything he said to me,’ she said, ‘about being friends, and how he would always be there for me. It was all crap. He didn’t mean any of it.’
‘I know what it’s like to be used by Rijon,’ Daphne said. ‘He played the part of friend to me as well, for thirds while we marched into Sanang, and when we occupied the forward fort. Right up to the day when Agang attacked. When I looked for him, he was gone.’
Shella nodded.
‘He always says he’s just obeying orders,’ Daphne went on, ‘but it’s a game to him.’
‘Did father ever tell you,’ Ariel said, ‘that he tried to have Rijon investigated, while you were in Rahain? He delivered a whole case of documents, evidence that tied Rijon to the betrayal of your fort in Sanang. The prosecutor’s office refused to even look at it. They g
ave father some excuse, but he told me it just proved Rijon was a church agent.’
‘Course he’s a fucking church agent,’ Shella said. ‘I knew that right from the start. What’s he up to now, though? Did you ask him, Daphne? Is that what you were talking to him about?’
‘You spoke to him?’ Ariel said. ‘Knowing your history, do you think that was wise?’
‘I wanted to ask him something,’ Daphne said. ‘I had an irrational hope that he might actually help me.’
‘Irrational?’ Shella said, drinking. ‘Downright fucking stupid, more like. And I say that as someone who has done the same.’
Celine lit a cigarette, and poured herself another drink.
‘I hear the King has again refused to pay the gold the Sanang are asking for,’ she said.
‘That’s right,’ Shella said. ‘I was in court at noon today. Old Guilliamface was going on about it. The realm won’t hand over a single coin to an army camped at its gates, he said. I don’t know why not, the queen was wearing enough jewellery to pay the entire ransom on her own.’
‘I don’t think the queen has ten million in gold,’ Ariel said.
‘For fucksake, Ariel,’ Shella said, ‘I was exaggerating. What I was meaning was that the Holdings could easily pay the ransom if it wanted to. Ten million is only a fraction of what must be sitting in the palace treasury. The city has probably spent at least that on the siege already.’
‘It’s the principle,’ Ariel said. ‘You don’t give money to bullies.’
‘The King is still offering to negotiate with Agang,’ Celine said, ‘if he withdraws his forces first.’
‘Yeah,’ Shella said. ‘He kept saying “trust me, I have a plan”, though he wouldn’t say what it was.’
‘I’m sure his Majesty knows what he’s doing, your Highness,’ Ariel said.
‘It’s more a case,’ Daphne said, ‘that he knows what the enemy are doing.’
Shella raised an eyebrow.
‘The Creator, Shella,’ Daphne said.
The Rakanese princess groaned.
‘The Lord Vicar can hear the voice of the Creator,’ Daphne went on. ‘Through him, and his cadre of elite mage-priests, the King will know the position of every major army on the continent, and what the Sanang are thinking, and what they are planning to do next.’
The Magelands Box Set Page 65
