The Emperor of Nihon-Ja ra-10

by John Flanagan

Horace thought it was more tactful to blame the horse for George's potential to slow the group down. It was true up to a point but George saw through the device. He had a slow, old horse because he was a poor rider and a slow, old horse was all he could handle.

  He hung his head miserably. 'I'm just not good enough, am I?' he said in a low voice.

  Horace reached over in the saddle and patted his shoulder.

  'It's not that you're not good enough,' he said. 'You're just not trained for this sort of life. You're at home in diplomatic meetings, working out complex treaties between countries, and in courtrooms, coming up with a brilliant argument to save somebody's life or property. That's what you're good at. That's what you've trained for. On the other hand, this is what I've trained for.' Horace swept his arm around the mountainous countryside that surrounded them as he said the words. George wouldn't meet his gaze. His narrow shoulders rose and fell as he heaved a deep sigh.

  'I know,' he said finally.

  'Besides, I need you to get word back to Araluen, so they'll know what's become of me. I can't just disappear off the face of the earth without telling people where I've gone.'

  George raised his eyes to meet Horace's then. 'You think you're going to die here, don't you?' he said quietly. 'You don't think Shigeru has a chance.'

  Horace shook his head. 'George, I never go into any fight thinking I'm going to lose.'

  'But you said you can't just disappear off the face of the earth. That doesn't sound like you're too confident.'

  Horace grinned at him then. 'That's the trouble with you attorneys,' he said. 'You're too darned literal. Let's just say my disappearance will be a temporary matter.'

  George's face was screwed up as his mind moved rapidly. 'If I could get word to Will and Halt,' he said, 'they might come to help you. In fact, they'd surely come to help you.'

  'It's a great idea,' Horace said sadly. The thought of having the two Rangers by his side in this affair was an extremely attractive one. 'But it's a pipe dream. It'll take you months to get all the way back to Araluen. By that time, things here will be well and truly settled – one way or another.'

  But now George was bubbling over with enthusiasm for his idea.

  'No! No! No! I don't have to get all the way back! I only need to get to Indus! From there, I can use the Silasian fast message service. That'll get word to them within a few days!'

  Horace looked at his companion with new respect. 'You see?' he said. 'That's what you're good at. Thinking. Coming up with ideas. Let me tell you, if you can get word to Will and Halt, you'll be doing much more good than if you simply stayed here with us.'

  'And got in the way?' George said, grinning now. Horace returned the grin.

  'Exactly.' He offered his hand to George, who took it and gripped it warmly. Before he released his own grip, Horace added, 'One other thing. I will never forget that you offered to stay here, George. It took a lot more courage for you to offer that than it took me. I appreciate it and, when I get home, I'll be letting people know about it.'

  George finally reclaimed his hand and made a small self-deprecating gesture, although Horace's words had warmed his heart.

  'Well…you know. It wasn't much. I mean…we were wardmates, weren't we? That's what wardmates do for each other. They stick together. No big deal.'

  'Very big deal,' Horace said firmly. 'And I won't forget it.'

  Toscana 'Then I'm coming with you!' Will said impulsively.

  Halt smiled to himself at the instant response. He had expected no less of his former apprentice. Horace, after all, was Will's best friend. They had grown up together, fought side by side and saved each other's lives on numerous occasions.

  Evanlyn favoured Will with a warm smile as well. 'I was sure you'd say that,' she said. 'My father gave me permission to ask for your help on this mission but I told him there'd be no need to ask. Thanks, Will. I'll feel a lot more confident with you by my side.'

  'Of course, I'll come too,' Halt said, then added with a raised eyebrow, 'That's if I'm needed?'

  'Lady Pauline said you'd say that,' Evanlyn told him. 'She said you should go with her blessing.'

  Will glanced quickly at his mentor, not sure how Halt would react to the assumption that he needed Lady Pauline's permission to join the expedition. The Halt he knew of old would have come up with some pithy reply to the effect that he was quite capable of making his own decisions, thank you very much. He was a little surprised to see Halt smile fondly at Evanlyn's words.

  'Well, that's a relief,' Halt said, without the slightest trace of irony.

  Now it was Will's turn to raise an eyebrow – an expression he had studiously copied from Halt over the years. Things had changed, he thought.

  Alyss cleared her throat nervously and they turned to look at her. There was a bright spot of colour in each of her cheeks.

  'I'd like to come too,' she said. 'Horace is one of my oldest friends. He helped Will rescue me from Castle Macindaw and I owe him for that. Besides, you'll need someone who can speak Nihon-Jan.'

  The words were phrased as a suggestion. But her tone left no doubt that they were a firm statement of intent. She wasn't asking permission. She was telling Evanlyn that she wasn't letting her go swanning off to the other side of the world with Will. Not this time.

  'Yes, Lady Pauline said you'd say that, too,' Evanlyn said dryly. She wished she could reassure the tall girl that she had no designs on Will, other than friendship. She could see that Alyss could be a valuable friend and ally to her – not just in this case but in the years to come – and she wished there was some way she could break down the barrier between them. Maybe this journey might give her the opportunity.

  Halt thought it might be best if he stepped in. 'It sounds like a good idea to me,' he said. 'Alyss is a handy person to have around.'

  Alyss remained flushed. She had been prepared to argue the point and hadn't expected Evanlyn to give in so easily. At the back of her mind, a small doubt formed. Maybe she had been judging Evanlyn too harshly. But she forgot the thought as Will asked her a question.

  'Do you speak Nihon-Jan? When did you learn?'

  She shrugged, feeling her pulse settle back to normal now that there was no longer any question about her accompanying the party.

  'I've been studying the language for a year or so,' she replied. 'Mostly using George's translations. I'm not fluent but I can get by.'

  Will raised both eyebrows. 'Well, you learn a new thing every day,' he said reflectively.

  'In your case, that's no exaggeration,' Halt said, completely straight-faced.

  Will pursed his lips in annoyance. He'd have to learn not to give Halt openings like that, he thought. Then another question occurred to his grasshopper mind and he turned to Evanlyn.

  'How do we get there? How did you get here, by the way?'

  He heard Halt's deep sigh and knew he'd done it again.

  'Do you ever,' the older Ranger said with great deliberation, 'manage to ask just one question at a time? Or does it always have to be multiple choice with you?'

  Will looked at him in surprise. 'Do I do that?' he asked. 'Are you sure?'

  Halt said nothing. He raised his hands in a 'See what I mean?' gesture and appealed to the others in the room. Selethen was amused by the byplay between the two. And, since the enjoyment of this sort of obscure, trivial debate was very much part of the Arridi character, he couldn't help himself. He had to join in.

  'Halt,' he said, 'I could be wrong, but I think you were just guilty of the same fault. I'm sure I heard you ask two questions just then.'

  'Thank you for pointing that out, Lord Selethen,' Halt said with icy formality.

  Will grinned at the Wakir, who gravely inclined his head to Halt. Then Will remembered that Evanlyn hadn't answered either of his questions.

  'So how did you get here?' he reminded her.

  'I used the Skandian duty ship,' she told him.

  The treaty between Araluen and Skandia had been in force for some ye
ars now and was regularly updated. One of the latest clauses stationed a Skandian wolfship each year at a base on the coast of Araluen, with its crew at the disposal of the Araluan King. Since wolfships were among the fastest craft in the world, it was a valuable addition. In return, King Duncan paid a fee to Skandia and granted favourable trading terms to other wolfships seeking to buy water, firewood and provisions. In reply to other nations like Iberion and Gallica, who complained that Duncan was helping the Skandians to raid their coastlines, the King merely shrugged.

  'No system is perfect,' he'd say. 'And besides, they could always pay the Skandians not to raid.'

  Which was, of course, true.

  'I imagine we'll take the wolfship on to Nihon-Ja?' Halt said.

  Evanlyn nodded. 'My father has given permission for that. It'll be faster than any commercial vessel we could charter. And besides, Gundar is eager to see Nihon-Ja. He'd be the first Skandian to visit there.'

  'Gundar?' Will said. It was a fairly common name among Skandians, he knew, but he couldn't help hoping that it was an old friend. Evanlyn was already nodding.

  'Yes. It's Gundar Hardstriker's ship. He's eager to see you and Alyss again and he has a crewman who said nothing would stop him from rescuing the General. I assume he means Horace?'

  Will and Alyss exchanged amused glances. 'Yes. That's what Gundar's crew call Horace. Sounds as if Nils is still with him,' Will said.

  'He'll be a handy person to have along,' Alyss put in, recalling Nils Ropehander's massive build and ferocious skill with a battleaxe.

  'Any Skandian is handy to have around if there's a fight in the offing,' Halt said. Then, changing the subject, he turned to Evanlyn. 'Is there any need for you to present yourself to the Toscan Emperor's court? Do you have any official duties to attend to?'

  Evanlyn shook her head. 'Officially, I'm not here. That's why I'm travelling as the Lady Evanlyn. So no, I'm free to come and go.'

  'Then I suggest we do go, and as soon as possible. We've already made our official goodbyes. We'll get a good night's sleep and get down to the docks first thing in the morning.'

  'You can take my room, Lady Evanlyn. I'll sleep on one of the couches,' Alyss said quickly. But Evanlyn shook her head.

  'We'll share the room, Alyss,' she said firmly. 'I don't want any special privileges. We may as well get used to it. A wolfship is too small for all that nonsense.'

  Alyss was astute enough to recognise an olive branch when she saw one. She smiled at Evanlyn – a genuine smile for the first time.

  'It'll be my pleasure to share with you,' she said.

  The others had risen now and Selethen shook hands with them all as he bade them farewell.

  'Good luck to you,' he said. Then he added, a little wistfully, 'It sounds like an interesting trip. I'm tempted to join you. Horace is a friend of mine as well. But…' He made a graceful hand gesture, dismissing the idea.

  Halt nodded. 'You'd be welcome to join us any time, Selethen. But you have your own duties to attend to. We understand.'

  Selethen made the Arridi gesture of greeting and farewell, touching his hand to mouth, brow and mouth again.

  'Yes,' he said finally. 'I have my duty, and it's a hard mistress. But as I say, I am tempted.'

  He smiled at them all and left to return to his own quarters.

  They arrived at the docks just after first light. Gundar's wolfship, named Wolfwill in Will's honour, was moored alongside the jetty. Will frowned as he caught his first sight of her. He'd seen the ship when she'd been launched. But now there was something different about her.

  'Something looks odd,' he said thoughtfully.

  Halt was studying the ship too. 'Have they moved the mast?' he asked of no one in particular. 'It seems a little further aft than I remember.'

  'And where's the cross-tree?' Will asked. Normally, the square-rigged cross-tree was set seven-eighths of the way up the mast, with the big square sail brailed up on it when in port. Wolfwill's mast was bare, aside from a complicated arrangement of rigging at the masthead, and what looked to be a pair of carefully rolled sails lying fore and aft on the deck at its base.

  'All I know,' Evanlyn said, 'is that it's the fastest ship I've ever sailed on. Look, here comes Gundar. You can ask him.'

  She pointed to where a familiar figure, huge as all Skandians were, was rolling in his seaman's walk along the jetty towards them.

  'Will Treaty!' he bellowed, startling the gulls for a fifty-metre radius into squawking, screeching flight. Will braced himself as the huge figure approached. He knew what was coming but there was little he could do about it.

  Sure enough, Gundar swept him off his feet in a breath-draining bear hug. Will could only grunt a greeting as he felt his ribs on the verge of giving way.

  'Gorlog's beard, boy, but it's good to see you! I hoped we'd run across each other when Erak assigned us as the duty ship. How have you been? What have you been up to?'

  'Le' go an' I'll try…tell you,' Will managed to grunt breathlessly. Finally, Gundar set him down. Will staggered as Gundar released him, and his friends were a little alarmed at the groaning intake of breath that was Will's first, reflexive response as his emptied lungs desperately sucked air back in.

  Then, sighting Alyss, the huge seafarer seized her hand in one of his enormous fists and planted a smacking, clumsy kiss on it.

  'Lady Alyss!' he boomed. 'How can you have grown more beautiful than you were?'

  Evanlyn, it has to be admitted, pouted a little at this. Gundar had never commented on her looks and she was aware that alongside the elegant blonde girl, she was a little…tomboyish.

  Alyss was grinning delightedly at him. 'Ah, Gundar, I see you haven't lost any of your courtly charm. You'd turn a girl's head with that silver tongue of yours.'

  He beamed at her, then turned his attention to the grey-bearded, slightly built figure standing behind her.

  'And you must be the famous Halt?' he said. 'I expected someone a little larger,' he added, half to himself, as he advanced.

  Halt, experienced in the ways of Skandians, retreated at the same pace. 'Yes. I'm Halt,' he said. 'And I need all my ribs intact, thank you very much.'

  'Of course you do.' Instead of bear-hugging Halt, Gundar contented himself with a firm, manly handshake. Halt's eyes glazed as he felt his fingers and knuckles crushed inside the island-sized fist. He shook his hand painfully as Gundar finally released it.

  'Any friend of Erak's is a friend of mine!' Gundar glanced around curiously. 'But where's that shaggy pony of yours, Will?'

  'We left our horses in Araluen,' Will told him.

  Since the trip had been intended as a brief, ten-day mission to the Toscan capital, there had been no good reason to bring Tug and Abelard. They had been left in the care of Old Bob, the Ranger Corps horse breeder. Now, Will wasn't sure if he regretted that decision or not. He'd like to have Tug with him, but the sea journey to Nihon-Ja would be a long one, far longer than any Tug had undertaken before. There would be little chance of going ashore to exercise the horses, and he wasn't sure how they would have coped.

  Similarly, Ebony, Will's dog, had been left behind with Lady Pauline. Ebony was only half trained and he felt her boisterous behaviour might cause problems with the rather starchy Toscan officials.

  Gundar nodded vaguely. He had no idea of the soul searching that had gone on with the two Rangers before they decided to leave their horses behind. He glanced up the quay.

  'And who's this Lenny Longshanks?' he said. 'Is he with you?'

  The four Araluans turned quickly to look back up the jetty. Striding purposefully towards them, a pack slung over one shoulder, was a tall, slender figure.

  'Temptation got too strong,' Selethen told them as he came closer. 'I decided to come with you.'

  Nihon-Ja After George left them and headed down the back trail towards the port of Iwanai, Shukin picked up the pace.

  Now, as they kept their horses in a steady canter along the narrow, muddy mountain track, Horace
realised just how much George had been slowing them down and felt a guilty sense of relief that he'd convinced his fellow countryman to go his separate way.

  The rest of the party, all of them skilled horsemen, managed easily and the local ponies, somewhat smaller than the battlehorse that Horace was used to, were sturdy and long winded. Best of all, he thought, as his mount slithered, slid and then recovered himself, they were sure-footed beasts, well used to these sloping, rough mountain trails.

  One of the escort noticed the stumble and saw Horace suddenly sit up straight in the saddle before the horse recovered his footing. He rode up close beside him.

  'Leave it to the horse, Or'ss-san,' he said quietly. 'He's used to this sort of terrain and he'll manage by himself.'

  'So I noticed,' Horace said, between clenched teeth. When the uneven ground gave under his horse's hooves again, he forced himself to remain loose and supple in the saddle, instead of tightening his muscles and bracing himself, and trying to haul the horse's head back up again. The horse grunted as he recovered. Horace had the uncomfortable feeling that it was a grunt of grudging appreciation, as if the horse were saying to him: That's better. Just sit easily, you big bag of bones, and leave the work to me.

  He reached forward and patted the horse's neck. The animal responded by shaking its head and mane.

  They rode on, maintaining a steady canter for half an hour, then letting the horses walk and trot for the next twenty minutes. It was similar to the forced march pace of the Rangers, which Horace had learned from Halt and Will in their travels together. And while at first he begrudged the time spent at the slower pace, he knew that in the long run they would cover more distance in a day this way.

  The sun was a milky presence, glowing weakly through the scudding grey clouds that passed over them. When Shukin judged it was pretty well directly overhead, he signalled a halt at a spot where the trail widened and formed a small, level clearing.

  'We'll eat and rest for a short time,' he said. 'That'll give us and the horses a chance to recover.'

  They unsaddled the horses and rubbed them down. In this weather, it wouldn't do to leave the sweat on them to dry and cool in the chill wind. While this was going on, three of the servants unpacked food from the panniers they carried behind their saddles. By the time the riders had tended to their horses, the food was ready, and the servants had a fire going to make tea.