by Guy Antibes
Six soldiers were waiting on the other side of the low walls of the Order of Ren compound. They would escort the four of them all the way to the other side of Zogaz.
“And I thought I had finished,” Hilsa said.
“You did well enough.” Sam shook Hadis’s hand. “Take care of Hilsa, and keep eastern Zogaz safe from Viktar Kreb.”
“When Zogaz marches to battle, we will send healers.”
“Get them prepared. I think Kreb is going to attack sooner than later.” That would have to be good enough, Sam thought. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about one spy ring operating in Zogaz, and if the government was truthful, they had also convinced the Zogazin to join the alliance against Kreb.
Taking a direct route to the alliance headquarters on the border with Ristaria took much less time than traveling in the random route Sam and Plantian had first used. The soldiers might have scared off any band of assassins.
When they began to travel through the string of camps, it was apparent that the alliance had grown significantly while they were gone, even without a Zogazin contingent.
Emmy barked when they entered the main camp with its wooden and pollen buildings. She jumped off the wagon and ran to Banna, who waited for them in front of the larger administrative building.
“How did you do in Alloren?” she said before greeting anyone.
“They won’t send soldiers, but promised healers,” Plantian said.
“Sam uncovered Kreb’s spies,” Mito said, getting up.
“You are hurt?”
“Mostly recovered,” Mito said. “All four of us were ambushed in Hizor.”
“I heard. Your injuries must have been worse than Renatee claimed,” Banna said.
“He didn’t know,” Sam said. “We decided to get to Alloren rather than be exposed to assassins in Hizor any more than necessary. Kreb might have multiple teams in the city.”
Banna nodded. “Emmy looks healthy.”
“She stayed out of the action. Truth is, we didn’t need her.”
“Just as well she wasn’t here. I would have used her to intimidate some of our allies. With Zogaz joining the alliance, we can send troops back to defend Ristaria and Trakata. Remember Creden Clearal in Pundia? The riffraff and the College of Cathartics have taken over the entire city. Rumor is that Viktar will establish a front there.”
“Are there Trakatans in your camp?”
“From the southern part of the country. That was one area of contention. With the Zogazin troops, I don’t have to harangue the government’s representative here. I have become too good at haranguing and not good enough at diplomacy. I am glad my father and Mito have returned. It will relieve me of my burden.”
Sam was surprised. “I thought you wanted to lead?”
“I want to displace Viktar,” Banna said. “The alliance is on its way to doing so on its own. I will be participating in the fight, make no mistake,” she said.
The others joined her. “I have prepared cloth tents for all of you.” Banna gave a half smile to Sam.
Sam was surprised to see two beds in his tent, but not so surprised when Desmon Sandal walked in, grinning.
“What are you so happy about?” Sam asked.
“Wollia is out of danger. My brother-in-law, the vizier, has been arrested. It appears he received word of Kreb’s withdrawal of support at a public place, and there were too many ears that heard angry words of treason spilling from Pamon Tandar’s mouth. Kreb told him he would have to wait for another year. I suppose Pamon was dreaming of becoming Potentate in a matter of months.”
“So where does that leave you?”
“Here on the border between Ristaria and Zogaz. There is more fighting to do. I think I can return, but Mito can’t. Desertion is frowned upon in Wollia. I didn’t desert since I wasn’t under specific orders in Wollia when we had to leave hastily. Technically, I am a spy-at-large.” He grinned.
Sam was pretty certain Desmon had been sought by Commander Ilsur in Port Hassin, but it didn’t matter in Polistia what had happened in Wollia. “Did anyone tell you what happened on our trip?”
“Just that you did what Banna had been trying to do but failed for two years, and you uncovered two spy rings.”
“That isn’t quite what we did. The Zogazin had their eyes on the same spy ring, but couldn’t crack it. They didn’t want to join the alliance until they were sure Kreb had lost his best spy in Hizor. Her name was Okanna Simmarin. Exposing her was a goal of Hizor and the government. The second spy ring in Alloren wasn’t a different one, but an extension of the first. The Vaarekians had penetrated the Order with a few of their own people and took orders from the same woman. Hilsa, of all people, captured two of them, but not the main person. Plantian and I were able to finish what Hilsa started.”
“Ah, Sam Smith, the great finisher. Actually, the Zogazin are right. You have to clean out as much as you can, or it will grow back quickly. What will you do now?”
Sam sat down on a cot. He didn’t know which was his or Desmon’s. “Fight, for a bit, anyway. I’m still of a mind to return to Holding and see if I can get back to Toraltia, but the time isn’t right.”
“When you find out, let me know, so I can join you,” Desmon said. He slapped Sam’s knee. “I came to show you where you’ll be eating while we stay in this camp.”
~
Sam wandered through the main camp with Emmy at his side. Banna had left for a meeting in a town midway between the Ristarian border and the capital to review troop placements with their hosts, since the Zogazin had showed up with five thousand troops.
The Zogazin had forcefully repelled Viktar Kreb’s penetrations into Zogaz, and it appeared the Pundian invasion was nipped in the bud from ships based in Ristaria. The Vaarekians were massing to the north of Banna’s string of encampments, but no one was quite sure if that was a ruse or not.
Kreb’s ambitions seemed to be fading before his eyes, and to Sam that meant the Dictator might do something less than rational.
He created a pollen stick and tossed it to see if Emmy could see his pollen, but unfortunately, the stick remained un-fetched. Sam frowned. Part of him wanted to be like everyone else, but then again, he had a talent unique in the world. Sam realized he would still have to work at finding a place that matched his talents, and snooping still felt right as his profession.
“Sam!” a voice called from just behind him. Sam turned around to see Renatee Dinik walking quickly in his direction.
A little breathlessly, Renatee pumped Sam’s hand in greeting. “Am I glad to see you.”
“I see you made it out of Hizor alive,” Sam said.
“Thanks to you. What a joke Okanna played on me!” Renatee giggled unseemly.
“You have joined the alliance?”
“I came with a few Zogazin soldiers to advise. I have something for you. Can you come to my tent?”
Sam nodded and tugged on Emmy’s leash. The dog was digging into the dirt for something. She stopped and stared at the dirt. She barked and didn’t move.
“What is up with her?” Sam said. He tugged again, but Emmy still stared at something, forcing Sam to see what she had found. He leaned over to inspect the dog’s work and saw the shimmer from the edge of a ward, and then he spotted brown pollen through his spectacles.
“Good girl!” Sam said. He carefully uncovered the ward. It was a simple ward, but it had multiple trigger layers. It looked like five or six. The ward would have exploded at random. He looked up at Renatee. “Find an officer and get him over here, immediately!”
In a few moments, a crowd surrounded Sam. Renatee tugged an officer along. He had snagged a Ristarian captain.
“We need warders to comb the camps,” Sam said. “There is a ward right here.”
“It looks like poop,” one of the soldiers said.
Sam shook his head. “Dangerous poop,” he said looking up at the officer. “These may be spread over the camp. It has a multi-layered trigger so it can be walked
on four or five times before it explodes.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Get warders out to spot these. They are covered in dirt, so spread the word to have soldiers walk on grass or make thick pollen boards, so the wards don’t go off.”
“I can do that.”
Everyone flinched when an explosion went off. “Now we will know how powerful these are,” Sam said.
The soldiers within earshot began to make pollen planks, and soon the area was covered with them. Sam, holding Emmy’s leash, and Renatee followed the officer toward the sound. The ward had injured three soldiers, with one losing his foot.
“It could be worse,” Sam said. He guessed powerful wards might take too long, but every soldier taken out of the fight was an additional advantage for Viktar Kreb.
Renatee went back to his tent by himself. Sam and Emmy patrolled the campsite and found two more wards. A group of warders found him.
“Watch what the ground looks like when Emmy finds another,” Sam said.
Another explosion sounded and then another. Sam sighed. He looked into the frightened eyes of the warders. “Watch. If you are afraid, make thick pollen planks to walk on. The triggers are layered, so they don’t go off when the first few soldiers step on them.”
Emmy sniffed out a third before digging.
“See how it is buried. This is what you are looking for. Sam gently brushed the dirt aside to show the dark brown ward. He pulled out his gold tip. “This is how you deactivate it.” He demonstrated decommissioning the device by moving the gold from around the edges and around in circles until the ward was gone.
“Do you all have gold to take care of wards?”
They all nodded. “We’d be skinned alive if we spent these,” a girl warder said. “I’d rather do it your way than a tap from a pole.”
“Then get to work.”
Sam spent the rest of the morning checking out the camp. There was an infiltrator among them. He went to find Glory. She could be put to use along with the other warders.
Sam found her still sleeping in her tent. “Wake up, Glory.”
She rubbed her eyes. “I will,” she said and sat up straight in bed.
Sam looked at the expression on her face and sighed. He had found the culprit. Someone had used green pollen on her. The infiltrator didn’t need to be a warder, they just needed to control one, and Glory looked like she had just been controlled.
He held her wrist until some life returned to her face. It didn’t take long. Sam suspected she was at the tail end of the green pollen’s effects.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Do you remember what you did last night?”
She shook her head.
“Did you dream about making wards?”
“I did.” Realization dawned on her face. “I did! It was real?”
“Soldiers have been killed and maimed.”
“I, I…” Tears began to well in Glory’s eyes. That was atypical of her, thought Sam. She was genuinely shocked.
“Get some breakfast and don’t tell anyone that you were a victim. I’ll get you a gold coin. Put it on a pollen bracelet or something. It has to touch your body at all times.”
She nodded.
“Then go out with the other warders. See if you can find some of your handiwork. Seek me out later.”
Sam exited Glory’s tent and looked around, shaking his head. This was nasty business. As he continued to patrol the grounds, he had to step over all kinds of pollen planks scattered about the camp. Emmy found another ward underneath one.
He grabbed his purse and took out two gold coins and found Glory wandering around the officer’s compound, looking at the dirt. It was filling up with planks like the rest of the camp.
“Here,” Sam said, handing her the coins. “One to help deactivate the wards and the other to wear. It will neutralize the effect of the green pollen.”
“I know. We talked about it enough on the voyage to Tolloy.”
Sam smiled. A little irritability was a good sign. “Do you remember who put the pollen on you?”
Glory shook her head. “The person was masked, but I remember a woman’s voice. Definitely a woman,” she said.
“Make that bracelet and hide it. I will be watching your tent tonight.”
“I shudder to think I did all this damage.”
“It is likely they were going to have you do worse, Glory, much worse.”
She turned away from Sam. “I suppose I was. It looks like your attempt to hide me didn’t work very well.”
“You met Okanna at Hizor. That was where you were exposed,” Sam said. “I would be wary of any woman wearing a Zogazin uniform. I will do some snooping this afternoon to see if I can identify a likely candidate.”
Sam and Emmy continued to monitor the camp until Renatee found him again.
“There you are,” the professor said. “After I found the officer, I went to my tent and stayed there until after the camp was covered with planks.”
“Are there any Zogazin soldiers in this camp?”
“The small contingent that escorted me here, but they are on the south side of the camp. Mito had a tent set up close to the building where our mechanicals are.”
Sam nodded. “Perhaps I can visit them.” He wondered if there were women among the Zogazin escorts.
Renatee shrugged. “It isn’t on our way to where I’m staying, but since we have your ward-sniffing dog, I suppose it will be safe.”
Sam didn’t agree, but he didn’t say anything. The Zogazin were camped closer to Sam. He slipped inside his tent and strapped on his sword before they continued.
“Are you going to battle?” Renatee said, laughing.
“Perhaps the enemy will send us wild animals after the wards,” Sam said.
Renatee laughed again, but Sam thought of Vaarekian troops as animals, and they would indeed follow the wards.
Sam followed Renatee to the Zogazin escorts. The tents lacked the bright colors Sam has seen other Zogazin soldiers use. Perhaps the other soldiers had set up a camp for the new arrivals.
Renatee spotted the commander who had led the Zogazin soldiers, talking to some of the group.
“Colonel,” Renatee said.
The soldier turned around. Sam looked into the eyes of a formidable female. He wondered if he had met Glory’s masked woman?
“I would like you to meet Sam Smith. We talked about him when we arrived here.”
“I have looked forward to meeting you,” the woman said.
Renatee chuckled. “Looked forward is better than looked backward, indeed.”
“You came all the way from Hizor with Renatee?”
The colonel nodded, but Renatee chimed in, not seeing the woman nod. “Actually we met up with them in a little town not far from here. They had orders to join the main camp, and since I was headed here in my wagon, I was happy to have them join me.”
The soldiers smiled and waved. Sam felt really uneasy about this unit, but he knew he lacked authority to ask for their orders.
“I’m happy you have endured Renatee’s prattling,” Sam said. “Thank you for bringing him safely into the loving arms of his friends.” He expected a chuckle or two, but there was nothing. He walked over to a few soldiers cooking something over a fire. He leaned over and smelled the pot.
“Will this be your dinner?” Sam asked. “It smells delicious.”
No Zogazin would ever cook stew that tasted like that. Sam’s mouth actually watered. These were not Zogazin. Renatee in his usual feckless manner had been taken in again.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Colonel.” Sam looked at Renatee. “Should we be off?”
“Indeed!”
Sam’s back itched as he walked away from the enemy soldiers.
“That was some pretty spicy stew back there,” Sam said when they were out Zogazin hearing range.
“Oh, that. Most of them had border duty. They said they had acquired a taste for Vaarekian
spices.” Renatee made a face and shivered. “I don’t know how you eat that stuff.”
Sam was about to say the feeling was mutual, but he had too much to think about while they made their way to where the machines were.
As they approached, Sam noticed how defenseless the building was at the edge of the camp. Renatee pulled out a key and unlocked the door. He made a show of locking it up again. Mito was tinkering with the new machine when Sam and Renatee walked in.
Mito grunted a greeting.
“We have a problem,” Sam said.
“We do?” Renatee asked. “We have lots of problems,” he waved his hands in the air.
“Your Zogazin friends are not Zogazin, but Vaarekians who used you to infiltrate our camp.”
“You aren’t serious,” Renatee said. “I vouch for them.”
Mito had checked the locked door behind Renatee’s back before he approached them, and he looked angrily at Renatee, shaking his head. “You would,” Mito said. “The machine doesn’t work. It isn’t the same one you showed us in Hizor,” Mito said.
“Of course it is,” Renatee said, unconvincingly to Sam.
“No. The arms articulate differently. I am sure of it.”
“I always tinker with my work.”
Sam threw a pollen block on Renatee’s arms. “You finally went too far.”
He took Renatee and led him to a chair. “You are a traitor as much as Okanna Simmarin,” Sam said.
“I am not. Let me out of here! How could I be a traitor? You saw her about to attack me.”
“I don’t know that for sure, but I suspect we were monitored from outside the restaurant. I would guess that the assassins were actually after me.”
Mito slapped a wrench against his palm. “I just about died because of you,” he said to Renatee. “The only person who could have sabotaged the ward thrower was you, and I am one of the few people who would have known how you did it. What I’d like to know is why, before I kill you.” He drew back the wrench. “I guess I really don’t need to know what happened in Hizor to know you are the traitor.”
