The Invisible Hand

by Chris Northern

  Parast gave a brisk salute and strode off ahead of us. Hald fell in beside me as I began to wander toward the hall. After a couple of paces I stopped and turned back. Quickly I stuck my head into the burned out quarters where the two soldiers were still at work "When you are satisfied that the fire is out," I told them, pointing across the room, "barricade that door."

  One route into the compound was enough. As I re-joined Hald, I glanced again at the rise where more of my people were gathering in the camp of Resh Ephannan; Resh Ephannan and Elendas, I corrected myself. For all I knew they were related; for all I knew they represented just one more faction in an already divided population. It occurred to me that the best thing I could do was get myself and my men out of here and take the treasury with me. But what then of the people for whom I was responsible? The second best thing would be to get as many people as possible out of Darklake; the fewer civilians here the fewer could take up arms in any future conflict.

  "How big a population increase could Twobridges accommodate?"

  His eyes widened slightly but he showed no other sign of surprise. "One," he said, as he fell in beside me, "maybe two hundred."

  A drop in the ocean. It needed to be more. "And there is land going cheap throughout Alendi lands, so you could take more on a temporary basis, right?"

  "But how would I feed them?"

  "That shouldn't be a problem," I thought of the baggage train that had recently arrived. Goods were moving north already. "Here's what I want you to do; gather clients and take them south, as many as you can and as quickly as you can. Offer them land in the south or a new life at Twobridges, and money if that isn't incentive enough."

  "They will be my clients," he clarified, "effectively your uncle’s clients, not yours."

  "That's right," I told him. Not mine, but still in the family. "I will fund this for now, but I want as many civilians out of here as I can arrange and I want it to happen quickly. Do you think you can handle it?"

  "How many? How quickly?"

  I stopped short as I ducked through the gate into a courtyard that had become crowded. The way to the hall was thronged with people seeking safety from the mob, and I could tell at once that the hall itself was just as crowded.

  If it came to violence, I wanted these people out of here. I had to raise my voice to be heard. "Today, tomorrow. A thousand, two thousand, as many as you can persuade and get moving. Consider it the repayment of the favour you did me; I'm giving you clients that I could make my own if I had more time. Can you do it?"

  He stood beside me at the top of the steps and looked out over the crowd. He rested a hand on my shoulder "I'll have to come back for that drink, Sumto. If I am to do as you ask, I had best begin now, yes?" He made to duck back through the archway.

  "Where are you going?"

  He hesitated and gestured to the crowd. "These are your people, looking to you for safety," he pointed back the way we had walked and grinned. "I will go through the temple to find mine."

  I let him go. He was right. Some were looking to Resh Ephannan, some were looking to Elendas, some to the priest, Caliran. Some perhaps were looking to Anista and others. They were gathering together where they felt safest. The population of Darklake was fragmenting, dividing into separate camps. Prior relationships were being cemented, old loyalties being renewed. Darklake was moving toward a miniature civil war.

  And there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it.

  #

  I don't know how long I stood there after Hald had gone. I stood in the cool shade, looking out over the teeming crowds of people who had come here looking to me for safety; safety that I was by no means sure I could provide. And more were coming. At the far end of the courtyard a line of soldiers stood in the wide archway and let people through a few at a time, just as I had ordered. As my attention rested there for what may have been the third or fourth time, I noted two weary horses being led by the reins, heads drooping. It looked like an argument was brewing there; there was not enough room for the people, let alone horses, though the stables were more empty than full. So there was room there. I let my attention drift away, running an inquiring eye over the buildings that surrounded the courtyard. I had little idea what any contained, how many were full and how many empty, or even what purpose each served, aside from the nearly empty stable. That broad door was closed and had people pressed in a tight knot against it. Better, I thought, if it were open and had people in it. The crowd needed to be moved before it became a crush and people were hurt. And the crowd needed to be thinned so that I could get across the courtyard and find out who those riders were and what they wanted.

  Well, there was room in the gardens behind me for a couple of hundred people, and that would help, that would make a space for me to move into for a start.

  I stepped down off the bottom step and grabbed a middle-aged man by the shoulder to get his attention. "Get people moving back there," I pointed to the arch, hardly pausing long enough to be sure he'd got my meaning. As he gathered his family and started them moving, I took a step away, passing the word as I moved into the crowd. It wasn't long before I felt intensely alone. A single dagger in this press would put an end to me before I knew it was there. I gritted my teeth and swallowed the thought with a mouthful of metallic tasting saliva. I really wanted that drink, and the sooner I got done here the sooner I could have it.

  It took a while to force my way through the crowd to the stables. I'd been urging them to head for the gardens but stopped after a while as I felt the crowd thin around me. Once I'd gotten the stable doors open and nearly been swept inside by the press of the crowd, I turned and headed for my next target. I came face to face with Dannat in the crowd and my blood ran cold. Images of our last meeting flashed through my mind; concussed, crawling around in the mud while he ranted, bragging of his betrayals. I stepped back and reached for the sword I wasn't wearing. It was only then that I noticed the lightly armed and armored man beside him; one of my men; a scout. Dannat himself was not armed. He carried a heavy bundle in both arms. I got a grip on myself; still wanting a sword in my hand. Wanting to stick that sword deep in his gut and twisted it hard. I realised I was panting, my guts watery and my legs trembling.

  Dannat dumped the bundle at my feet. "Your sword is in there; and your armor," he said, glancing nervously to the scout who stood beside him. Both looked like they had travelled hard and far. "Duprane says you will be needing them."

  The crowd had cleared a small space around us, seeing my reaction and sensing the tension. They had turned to watch us, possibly ready to flee. A panic wasn't something I needed right now.

  Slowly I stepped forward to put myself over the bundle he had dropped. I watched him, noted that he stepped back a pace, pressed into the crowd, eyes downcast. The scout stepped between us. Without taking my gaze off either of them for more than a moment at a time, I worked the ties that held the bundle together. "You had better report," I managed to say.

  The scout looked over his shoulder at Dannat and then back to me. "That is going to take some time, Commander."

  I fumbled in the bundle, left hand touching the cool metal of my armor and moving on until my hand fell on the sword. I didn't lift the blade. It was enough that I could. For now it was enough. "Then you had better get on with it," I looked around the crowd, gaze drifting to the entrance to the crowded hall. My office wasn't an option; not until I was sure I couldn't be spied on there. "Somewhere quieter." I made an upward nodding gesture in the direction of the hall. "After you." The hall would be packed, and the kitchens too. But I had an idea where we might find some peace and quiet.

  #

  "You just missed your uncle, Hald." The walls of the empty bathhouse made my words echo both hollow and harsh. I sat perched on the edge of a bathtub, sheathed sword in hand, the bundle that was my armor and effects at my feet. The scout sat opposite me and Dannat paced behind him like a caged animal, looking anywhere but at us. I had positioned myself close enough to the door to get
there before him.

  "How is he?"

  "He doesn't want to have to kill you himself," I told him. "He'd rather I did it."

  Dannat glanced at the sword in my hands and as quickly away. "I'm under Duprane's protection. Her continued goodwill is dependent on my safe passage and the release of my wife and children." He couldn't stop himself from glancing at my face to see how I was taking it. I wasn't looking at him; my gaze rested on the inch of steel I'd freed from the sheath. Whatever he saw made him look away in a hurry. "She said you were a man who kept to your bargains."

  "But we both know that you are not." His face paled but he didn't argue it. I just barely kept a rein on my anger. Dannat had nearly killed me in Learneth. I didn't remember much of that night, but had since learned what had happened. I had held a small compound outside Learneth while Hathen Elt controlled most of the town. I'd been building a force to resist him. Hathen Elt had come against us in the night. Dannat had surprised me alone in the dark as I went to lead the defence. He'd nearly killed me.

  I resisted the urge to run one hand over the short stubble that was beginning to cover the scars on my head. My fist tightened on the hilt of the sword I held. Dannat had subverted the loyalty of some of my men and turned them against us during the fight. We'd lost badly, and not many had survived. Hathen Elt had entertained himself punishing the survivors. Only a handful had made it out. I remembered the fires; I'd had Dubaku set fires in the night to aid my escape. The whole town had burned. Dubaku and I hadn't spoken a word to each other since; he blamed me for the destruction of the town and the lives lost in the fire. So did I.

  "Stay away from the damned door," I growled. Dannat had been pacing that way.

  He turned away from the door at once and continued to pace. "I have messages from Duprane."

  "They can wait," I decided. Let him sweat. I transferred my attention to the scout. "Report," I told him.

  He reached into a satchel that he carried at his hip and pulled out a few pages that he passed to me as he began to speak. "Beyond the valley of Duprane are numerous narrow, rocky ravines, gorges and glens, as well as a good number of larger valleys." My gaze drifted over the top page; it was a map of the hills and valleys to the east and I let my attention wander over the features of the map as I listened to the scout's report. "Most of the clans are not much more than extended families, but a few number in the hundreds, depending on the size and fertility of the valley they control." I held up a hand to stop him; my attention had drifted over the network of valleys and ravines, following a line that ran both east and north. The map had notes of communities, with names and an estimation of numbers. Fastness of Inesh, Kilek's Hold, and so on. My attention had drifted over them until my gaze rested on a broad valley that opened out north of the mountains, some fifty miles east of Learneth. Here there was marked a camp and a legend that had caught my attention and held it.

  "Army of Battling Plain?"

  "I was coming to that." He nodded and glanced over his shoulder at Dannat.

  Dannat had stopped pacing and stood to one side of the scout, looking intently at the floor. "The night that Learneth burned, I barely got out alive." His hand drifted to his eyes, seemingly of its own accord then he turned away and began pacing again. "I got separated in the confusion, didn't know which way I was heading for the smoke and the panic. Seemed like the whole town was on fire when the walls came down in front of me and the city soldiers were suddenly there, climbing over the rubble, appearing out of the dust and smoke. They were letting people through their lines but I was armed and ended up crawling over the rubble with blood streaming down my face. Couldn't see anything. I grabbed a man who was wounded but could see and we made it out together. I half carried him and he told me the way."

  "Get to something I will care about," I told him. What did he expect from me, sympathy?

  "We made it out and headed east; found some horses that had been let loose somehow. It went easier after that. It's dry in the north and the ground's broken and rocky; hard going; it was maybe five days before we came across the tower. Not much of a place, just a tower by a stream and a small village. We had to stop there and seek help; either that or die. That's where I met Duprane and the remnants of her pack."

  I leaned forward. Now he had my attention. Five days would be maybe three days after the Necromancers’ town had fallen. "She'd fled there after the battle here?"

  He nodded. "To one of the other Keeps; an ally. We made a deal." I gave a snort of derision but he ignored it and pressed on. "Word had already gone out to the other Keeps that the armies of the city were here in the mountains. Representatives of many of the Keeps were already on their way and Duprane was set to leave, to keep an eye on Darklake for them while they gathered. So I went back with her to seal our bargain."

  "And what was your bargain?" I couldn't keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

  "I'd lost everything. My wife, my children, my home, and my sight." He turned and looked at me directly and I met his gaze for the first time and found myself looking into the eyes of a wolf. "I agreed to serve her faithfully, and she agreed to give me back my sight."

  I just stared for a moment, remembering Velentin, wolf and man combined in one, and here a man with the eyes of a wolf. Dannat bared his teeth in a grin and I noted that they were not now entirely human, either. "She didn't leave it to chance though," he let his grin slip and turned away. "There's something in a wolf’s mind that demands loyalty to the pack; now that is in me too."

  I kept silent for a few moments, thinking it through. Deliberately I put aside any thoughts of revenge on Dannat. There was no point. The Dannat I might have killed didn't really exist anymore. In his place was someone else; one of Duprane's creatures, like Velentin. And I had back what I had lost.

  As Dannat went back to pacing I pulled open the bundle at my feet and sorted through it. My armor, the belt that enhanced it; the white rod of my imperium and the papers that supported it were all there. Well, at the end of the day I had some unpleasant memories but had lost nothing. I decided to let it go and turned my thoughts elsewhere.

  "So when I met Duprane two nights ago, this was already in train? An army out of Battling Plain was already gathering?" I wanted to stand up and start pacing myself as I thought about the implications, but held myself in check.

  He gave a nod, still pacing. "More a council than an army, but they were each bringing a small force. There isn't that much trust among them. The balance of power in Battling Plain is delicate and the network of alliances and agreements complicated, or so Duprane says. But you haven't won any friends there. The Necromancers were a known factor, part of the balance of power; and the river you diverted and poisoned was important to the fertility of Battling Plain itself. None of them is happy about that, nor about you being here."

  Duprane had hinted as much. "What do they intend to do?"

  "We don't know. Duprane now has an agreement with you, and she will stand by it. After you met, Duprane sent the message that you agreed. We just got word back and Duprane instructed me to bring you that word," he made a gesture to the bundle at my feet, "and return your effects."

  "What word did they send?"

  "Not much, actually," he turned to look at me as if to judge my reaction. "Just this: we are coming."

  So, I summed it up for myself just to be clear. I'd been ordered to return south and face charges of, amongst other things, treason. Darklake was fragmenting into factions and on the edge of civil war. Meran and Balaran were in the north bringing under my control lands I couldn't possibly hold. Silgar was probably trying to kill me, and wasn't alone in that intent. And the leaders of Battling Plain were sending an army here, complete with an unknown number of people with powers to rival the average sorcerer. They were coming in answer to a call to parlay; but they were probably bringing a small army with them. On my side... well, I didn't even bother to consider my slender assets, stretched as they already were.

  "How many?"

  "A
s of two days ago, there are two thousand three hundred, both foot and cavalry with a wide variety of weapons. When I came across them there was already almost two thousand. I had watched more arrive over the following two days when I saw Dannat come out of the hills and ride into their camp. When he left, I followed him, thinking to see where he was heading and then to head back and report. But somehow he knew I was there and a trap was set for me."

  "I could smell you," Dannat growled, glancing at the door before making a show of pawing through the shelves of soaps and cloths beside it.

  The scout shrugged off the comment. "Duprane told me she had come to an agreement with you, Commander, and that though I was technically in breach of it for entering her lands, she would release me unharmed if I agreed to bring Dannat safely to you."

  "And she relies on my agreement with her to keep him safe." I glanced at Dannat. "You have safe passage as far as I'm concerned, but I can't speak for Hald or be sure I can control him if he decides to act against you."

  Dannat nodded and took up his restless pacing once more. I turned back to the scout. "How soon can they be here?"

  "Depends what happened when I left them, Commander; they could be as close as a day behind me."

  I looked down at the sword I held in one hand and the scout's report I held in the other. For a moment I couldn't make sense out of either of them. I didn't need either of them to tell me that things were about as big a mess as they could be and I didn't see that either one would help me get out of it. I followed the line of my legs down to my booted feet. They could be a help, of course. I could just walk away from it. And leave Meran in the north without a line of retreat? And leave the people here who looked to me for protection? Who knew what would happen to them, then?