by Rachel Ford
“It’s not murder to kill a murderer,” the KP declared. “In this part of the world, we call that self-defense.”
“Your people shot my dragon out of the sky,” the Southerner snarled. “And murdered his rider.” Lilia laughed out loud, and he regarded her with a cold stare. “I saw the wyvern’s body, wench.”
“Aye, and a damned good shot it was. That’s what happens, when you train freemen to compete for a position rather than raise up slaves and force them into a role. But from the air? Our Northern marksmen are good. But they are not that good.”
“If you haven’t come to claim responsibility, as per the terms of the Peace Accords,” Alduran wondered, steering the conversation back on topic, “for what reason are you here, SKP?”
“I’ve come in accordance with the peace treaty, alright,” the other man said. “But to demand justice, as per articles eight and nine: your people murdered mine, and I demand their immediate surrender. And I demand the surrender of our murdered knight.”
“Your dead slave you can have,” Callaghan scoffed. “But we invoke article eight to demand prosecution of his commanding officer, who sent an unmarked combatant across the neutral zone and into our airspace to attack our people.”
“I’ve come to prevent a war, but by the gods, woman, if you’re not making that more unlikely with every breath.” He turned to Alduran. “Is there no one here who can speak sense? Or must I cut my way through this impudent wench first?”
Callaghan planted her feet apart and rested her hand on the hilt of her blade, snorting as she did so. “You’re welcome to try, child. When they come to collect your body, perhaps they’ll send someone more reasonable in your stead.”
“A war,” Alduran cut in with a sharp look in my KP’s direction, “is something we all want to avoid.”
“And who are you again, Sir Knight?”
“I am Ki Alduran, head of the taskforce, sent by Queen Ilaria herself to investigate this matter.”
Valarian snorted dismissively at Callaghan. “Then it’s you I should be dealing with, not that bitch.”
“KP Callaghan is a respected member of our taskforce,” Alduran demurred. “And Knight of the Shire. But yes, I can speak to your concerns.”
“Good. Then you can procure the murderer for me?”
The other man shifted. “Respectfully, SKP, our investigations conclude that your man was at fault, not ours.”
“Rubbish. I told you, Trajan was one of my most trusted kaladorns.”
“Perhaps. But we have two witnesses who tell me that he attacked first, while our people were taking down their camp.”
“He would not have attacked without provocation. Your witnesses are lying, Sir Knight.”
“I do not think that likely.”
“Who are these witnesses? Are they not also his assassins? They’ve reason enough to lie, to cover their own hides, haven’t they?
“Come, Sir Knight: you seem to be a man of reason. And you are entrusted by your Queen with this duty, so you must be versed in the law.”
“Of course.”
“Then you know I am within my rights to demand the surrender of any knight or citizen who murders one of my own.”
“A combatant who crosses into our territory is assumed hostile. By treaty, we are within our rights to apprehend or, if necessary, execute him,” Callaghan said.
Valarian made no move to acknowledge the words. Indeed, he had not broken Alduran’s gaze as she spoke. It seemed he was content to pretend to ignore her existence altogether. Clearing his throat, the taskforce man said, “KP Callaghan is correct, SKP, as I’m sure you are aware.”
“It is not within the terms of our treaty to shoot a man out of the sky, when he is yet in the neutral zone.”
Callaghan laughed. “And how in the gods’ names would you even know if that had happened, even if such a shot was possible? You claim not to have discovered Trajan’s whereabouts until recently.”
Valarian ignored her until Alduran cleared his throat again. “Respectfully, I must concur with KP Callaghan. What evidence do you have to back up your assertion?”
“I told you already: I know Trajan. He would never attack unprovoked.”
“As valued as a character reference is, Sir Knight, you must understand we have witnesses. And evidence that suggests –”
“Evidence be damned. I thought you were the voice of reason and peace here, Alduran? One of your men murdered my knight. All I’m asking is what’s guaranteed under the accords the North signed. Is the word of the North worth nothing anymore?”
“Your man murdered a KP, and nearly killed two more of our people. If you think this is the way to smooth over that, you’re sadly mistaken,” Callaghan interjected.
Again, Alduran shot her a foul look. And again, he was ignored. “Forgive my colleague’s bluntness, SKP. What she means is, even if – after the appropriate deliberations and investigations – we concluded that you were in the right, we cannot comply with your request. The knight who died is the knight who killed your kaladorn.”
Valarian cursed aloud. “Then he’s escaped the reaches of justice.”
“You mean, your kaladorn has.”
“SKP, this is a terrible circumstance. We are both grieving the loss of our men. May I suggest that we meet in a day or two, after tempers have cooled, to discuss this in more detail? We will provide you with all the evidence we have. And we will return the body of your deceased knight, of course.”
“Who will I be meeting? And do you expect me to face an inquisition of your men on my own?”
“Of course not. Bring whom you feel should be there. We will bring members of our taskforce, and those we feel should be here.”
“And you will give them safe passage?”
Alduran bowed solemnly. “Of course.”
“You swear it?”
“My word is my oath, SKP.”
Valarian considered this for a long moment, then he nodded. “You seem to be a man of honor. I shall take you at your word. I will meet you here, three mornings hence.”
“Very good. We await your arrival.”
With a few more words, and an icy stare in the KP’s direction, the southern knight returned to his dragon. A few minutes later, and he’d disappeared into the dusk.
Callaghan had been silent as he left, but now she rounded on Alduran. “What in the gods’ names?” she hissed.
“Me? My gods, Callaghan, are you trying to start a war?”
“Start a war? That blustering bastard was just here to put us on the defensive. And you played right into his tactics.”
“That’s not what I saw. I saw a commander, angry about the loss of one of his men.”
“This isn’t the time to talk like a politician, dammit. His wyvern rider killed Ilyen. We cannot cede ground on that. We can’t allow them to walk away with their hands clean after that. My gods: we can’t let them get away with blaming Ilyen, Derel and Aaronsen.”
“You would have revenge over peace, Callaghan? Didn’t you see how close you were to starting a new war, right here at Cragspoint? You and that damned temper of yours. So worried about shielding those impudent children. Or protecting the reputation of a dead man. Is that really worth war?”
“He was just here to cover his own ass. And you – you were so busy kissing it, you couldn’t see.”
Chapter Seventeen – Callaghan
There had almost been combat a second time that afternoon, only between Alduran and myself. Lidek was the voice of reason who kept us from coming to blows. Or, more aptly, the voice of disapprobation, whose disdain cooled our anger. “What in the gods’ names are you two on about? You want to kill each other? Well, have at it. Once the present crisis is solved, and you’ve both done your duties. In the meantime, I don’t want to hear another word.”
So, scowling at each other, we commenced the business at hand. The first order was to get a dispatch back to the capital, posthaste.
Lidek wanted dragon riders of o
ur own in the shire. “Just in case that Southern snake gets any ideas.”
Mayor Fitzwilliam took the expresses, as soon as they were drawn up. It was dark when she stepped into her skimmer, and her face was drawn. “Make sure…well, make sure they don’t burn the town down in my absence, Callaghan.”
“I’ll do my best,” I promised. “You make sure they get the Commander his dragons.”
She sucked in a breath and nodded. “I’ll do my best. I’ve never spoken to the queen before. But I suppose I will now.”
I laughed. “You’ll be fine. It’ll be better than staying, anyway. At least she doesn’t breathe fire.”
That was a bit too impudent for the mayor, and she blinked in surprise. “Uh…err…I should go.”
The rest of us had no such escape waiting. The business of preparing to receive diplomatic envoys entailed almost as much as was required to deal with potentially hostile military forces just over the border.
For the one, we established watches and patrols. We rolled the wyvern cannons out of storage, and into discreet locations up and down the border. Short of a direct hit, they wouldn’t kill a wyvern. But the explosion was often enough to discombobulate the beast, or its rider, and bring it down.
Alduran protested that this was a show of bad faith. “If SKP Valarian realizes what we’ve done…”
“He’ll have nothing to fear, if he means to keep his word,” Lidek declared. “And if he doesn’t…well, he won’t catch us with our trousers down.” Nor would the commander be shaken from the position, however much the other man protested.
I and the rest of the taskforce saw it his way, too. Even Tofte and Westergaard managed to coexist on the same side of the point. “We’re within our rights to set up defenses,” she said.
“We’d be damned fools not to, after everything they did,” he agreed.
“But you know how Valarian will see that.”
“I’m not sure I give a damn.”
“No. For once, I have to agree with Westergaard. They need to know we’ve got the political backbone to use our military might, if it comes to it.”
“Exactly. After that performance today…”
“That took balls,” Tofte shook his head.
She snorted. “If you mean it was ugly overcompensation, but ultimately weak and vulnerable, then yes, I suppose it did.” He frowned, and she pretended not to see. “He wasn’t arguing from a position of strength. He played his cards: yell, posture, insult. He’s got no ace left.”
“Gods, you sound like Callaghan,” Alduran groaned.
“Because she’s the one talking sense.”
“Again, as much as it pains me to agree…I have to: I think she called it, Alduran. Valarian knows they just about started a war. And he’s trying to cover his own ass.”
“Maybe. But I’m trying to prevent a war.”
“And you’d do well to keep that a little closer to your vest,” Lidek put in.
The other man frowned at him. “Sir? We’re here to keep the peace. Whatever the cost.”
The commander fixed him with an icy stare. “Is Ilaria stepping down, then? Are we to be ruled by the South, now? Do we call that fat prince king now? Is it to him we pledge our fealty and pay our taxes?”
Alduran blinked. “Of course not.”
“Then we will not be keeping the peace at any cost. If those are his terms: there will be war. Yes?”
“Of course. But I don’t think –”
“What you think is irrelevant. What I think is irrelevant. If they want peace, there will be peace. If they think they’re ready for war, there will be war.
“That won’t change based on what you say. What will change are the terms of peace, if peace is to happen. If they see that we are more desperate for peace than they, then you can bet it will cost us dearly.
“Not just now, but whenever they decide they don’t need peace anymore.”
He scowled during and sulked after the dressing down, but it seemed to make something of an impression. He was slower to talk, and less abrasive in his speech when he did so.
As for the other work, preparing to receive envoys, Lidek ordered rooms readied and space allotted for the wyverns. If our guests were staying longer than a day, we couldn’t know. But we’d be ready. Then, we picked a small band of legal experts and diplomatic representatives. With any luck, Queen Ilaria would send representatives from the capital. But if they didn’t arrive in time, we’d have a local team assembled.
And Lidek had plenty of talent on hand from which to draw. Despite the base’s remote location, he cultivated a rich and learned talent trust here. His recruits would get as good an education in Cragspont as anywhere throughout the realm, he said. And he meant it.
So Barristers Flint and Allan joined our team. They were both civilians, semi-retired lawyers turned instructors. KP West joined us too. She was an older woman, perhaps the oldest member of our group, with a long list of diplomatic successes on her resume. She pushed the definition of local, hailing from several towns over. But she was a visiting instructor, here for the recruits. And so she was drafted too.
We reviewed the law, both the peace accords and the laws of the South and North regarding border incursions. Flint and Allan took turns grilling us, throwing out every bit of legalese and twisted rationale imaginable, until we could all shoot them down without much effort.
“They’ll be doing the same thing,” Lidek cautioned when we got too optimistic, or too excited about a particularly good response. “You can bet, they’ve spent the last weeks doing it.”
So we kept at it. I probably could have recited the entire Peace Accords from memory in my sleep – the Accords, and every bit of case law surrounding them.
Derel had been there when Valarian arrived, and I kept her with me for this. This was a side to being a KP you couldn’t practice in the yard. Hearing about it secondhand, or reading minutes afterwards, wouldn’t cut it. It was something you had to experience for yourself. And she was mature enough to handle herself well, even when the topics got dicey. The Southerner had already shown that their strategy relied on blaming Ilyen for his own death.
Ana’s face would go very grim as the conversation shifted to this line of attack. Sometimes, her cheeks would flame in anger. Others, a deep sadness would settle in her eyes.
When we broke for lunch the second day, I took her aside. “Derel, you doing okay?”
She regarded me with confusion. “Ma’am?”
“Just…with everything. I know this can’t be easy. To hear your knight talked about like that, I mean.”
Understanding flickered across her features. “I’m fine.”
“Okay. But if you’d rather sit this one out, there’s no shame in that. Believe me, I’ve got plenty of work I can assign you. I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on the squires around Shire’s End. I could give you that. The mayor would love it.”
She shook her head. “No. I want to stay on this.” Now, she frowned. “I haven’t…said anything out of line, have I? If I have, tell me, KP. Please.”
“No, no it’s nothing like that, Ana. I just…you just lost your KP. And Valarian seems intent on making this about him.”
“I know. That’s why I have to be there.”
I wasn’t entirely sure I followed, but I nodded all the same. “Alright. But if you change your mind…tell me, okay?”
“I won’t. Change my mind, I mean.”
Despite the situation, I smiled. “Well, if you do…”
“I’ll tell you.”
“Good.”
I let Phillip observe the preparations too. He didn’t make a scene, or anything of that nature, but he handled himself with less aplomb than Ana. Now and then, he’d sputter indignantly, or growl something under his breath about, “damned Southerners.”
He, I decided, would not be present when the envoys arrived. As it was, I was pushing it to have her there. She was the only squire in attendance. Lidek accepted my reasoning. “She’s the
most senior living witness, Commander.”
But her role would not be called into focus. “If they know Derel was involved, they’ll target her. They’ll try to put her on the defensive and shift the entire proceedings to an inquisition of the squire. She can be there. I think it’s good that she is. But just as your squire.”
“Copy.”
The borders were quiet. We spotted no more wyverns, those three days, and our patrols encountered no landside incursions either.
Late in the final evening, a squad of our own dragon riders appeared in the darkened sky. The sun had already set, and the moon was up. The wyverns seemed a little larger, a little more terrifying in the dark.
Oddly enough, though, terrible though they were, they brought me peace of mind. Whatever Valarian had planned, his would not be the only dragons in the shire tomorrow.
Mayor Fitzwilliam and an attaché from the capital would arrive in a day or two, the riders told us. In the meantime, Ilaria had sent them. They were at Lidek’s disposal.
I didn’t notice it at first, but in a few minutes of their arrival, it was hard to miss. Where I was excited, Derel had gone very pale and quiet.
It being late, and as we had an early morning and nothing left requiring our immediate attention, I left the new arrivals in the commander’s care. I waited until we reached the car, but once we were inside, I said, “Well, it’s good to have wyverns here. Our own, I mean.”
She nodded half-heartedly, gazing out the window into the black of night.
“Ana?”
“Ma’am?”
I sighed. “We’re off the clock. You can call me Lilia.”
“Sorry. Force of habit.”
“You alright?”
She bristled. “Of course.”
I was ascertaining that she didn’t care for solicitude about her well-being. I supposed it interfered with her tough-as-nails image of herself. But, right now, she didn’t look tough-as-nails. I knew, on the field, she was a force to be reckoned with. I knew, most days, she could withstand just about anything.
But right at that moment, I saw nothing but weariness and sadness in that faraway gaze. “You sure?”
