204 - The feel of sweat trickling down my back

I fell asleep on her lap, though I was vaguely aware of being carried to a guest couch later by large hands that weren’t entirely friendly. It was some number of her husbands, I gathered. “I will be gone in the morning and she’ll forget me,” I wanted to tell them. I made my goodbyes to Segiddis and went stiff-legged down to Pirai, veilless but with my woman guards all around me.

As we sailed away, I tried to talk myself out of the vague feeling of having been reamed. It’s just the way they treat men making it seem that way, I told myself firmly. I came here to make an alliance, and I made one. But it was conditional, and one of the conditions was that I talk an honest man out of a sworn agreement.

Don’t let it prey on you, I told myself. Worry would tighten my mind, and tightness of mind is weakness. I had been considering visiting Astalaz before Kranaj after all, since I knew him better, even though by sea it was longer, since we’d have to double back. Now I changed my mind again. Astalaz was going to be the hardest to convince. Maybe I should even go to Brahvniki before Curlionaiz.

In the end I stuck to my plan to go to Curlionaiz. Despite tapping on the door late at night, I was treated with perfect respect, first by the staff, next by the ambassador, Sanga-e Minora-e. He was the sort of elegant, dapper person you imagine a diplomat to be, a good choice of my aunt’s for Tor Ench.

Once I’d asked, and he’d agreed, to ask Kranaj to meet with me the next day, I raised a worry that had come into my mind with him. “You are in touch with the embassy in Laka, usually, aren’t you? In consideration of the treaty between Arko and Laka, is our embassy in Tardengk even open, still?”

“Why, semanakraseye? Are you planning to visit there, too? I imagine you are travelling so as to gain alliances; I’d say Laka is a lost cause, considering that treaty.”

My heart sank. I tried to talk myself out of the feeling of sickness. “Are you not answering my question because you think the answer will upset me? I need to know, Sanga-e, whether it upsets me or not.” As if you didn’t just tell me anyway.

“I...” He heaved a sigh. “I was buying myself time while I considered how to word the answer. For which I apologize. No, it is not open. Kurkas sent Astalaz a letter saying that a province of Arko need not have an embassy in Laka, since the Arkan embassy would suffice. So Astalaz asked them to leave.”

Even knowing already, hearing it was like a sword in the guts. I let out a hissing breath. I have to remember, Astalaz gave me up for irretrievably captive or ransomed for an amount that ensures utter defeat or dead long ago, I told myself. All would be different if he knew the truth. And yet, the battle of Haiu Menshir was hardly secret, so he must know I was free... “When did this happen?”

“About half a moon ago, semanakraseye.” About the same time, so I couldn’t know whether Astalaz had known about Haiu Menshir or not.

“Is... Kranaj aware of this?” Best I go in open-eyed.

“I don’t know, semanakraseye. I know I have not told him, but of course that doesn’t mean he does not know through other ways.” All-Spirit—was Segiddis aware of it, and didn’t mention it to me because she thought I knew? I wanted to rip out my hair.

Still, Sanga-e got me the audience with Kranaj for about noon the next day. It was in his old Iyesian-style sitting room that I remembered from my visit as new semanakraseye, with the velvet curtains and embossed table-maps. How much had changed since then.

“Let’s not stand on ceremony, lad,” he said. I bit back the words, It’s not lad, it’s semanakraseye, telling myself that with him, it was just my age. And yet I couldn’t recall him calling me that last time I’d been here, when my nation had been free and strong. He took one look at my face and said, “God of my ancients, they’ve put you through the mill.”

“No argument there,” I said. “How have you been?”

“Well enough. Sievenka...” The Enchian pronunciation brought Iliakaj to mind with odd sharpness, as if I’d been with him yesterday. I am in a different world now. The third. “Do you need asylum here? Just between you, me and the gatepost, I’d do it for you. For our friendship.”

I bit back my anger. He is offering me kindness. “I thank you very much for that, Kranaj. But it is not necessary. When I am done making a number of visits, some of which I have already made, I am going home, to take the only asylum I want, at the head of an army.”

“Hmm.” Something about that, though it had little emotion in it, put my heart in my throat. “I see.” He waved at a chair opposite. “Have a seat. Can I offer you something to drink? The sun is old enough today to honour it with a drop.”

Sitting down was the last thing I wanted to do. My legs itched to pace, my arms, to grab him by the collar so I could scream my argument in his face. But to sit would seem coolest-headed. I did. “Yes, thank you, Kranaj. Just one.”

He poured the two cups of nakiti himself and let me pick, like a good host. “So. You’re thinking of doing more of what you did on Haiu Menshir? I wouldn’t have thought you could still take the field against Kurkas. I thought you would be fighting more... clandestinely, since—knowing you—you’d never give up. Ever.”

“More of what I did at Haiu Menshir, and at Niah-lur-ana... a battle not so well-known. But we aren’t so conquered that we have no armies left. Not only that, but… who do you think is stronger in the eastern Mid-world now, Kurkas or me?”

He raised one brown eyebrow at me, then got up and went over to one of the map-tables. I joined him.

“Niah-lur-ana...” His finger traced a line from there to Ro, to Haiu Menshir to Kreyen, then curled up to tap thoughtfully on Hyerne. “Tell me about this battle, if you would.”

“Niah-lur-ana, or Haiu Menshir?” It was sweet, to have two. “Or both? I’m sure you have good eyes on Haiu Menshir, but they won’t have been where I was.”

“I’d be pleased to hear both.” I saw his eyes fall on the shark’s tooth, and stay there for a little, curiously.

I told him the full version of the one, the flightless version of the other.

“So at the moment, and perhaps even as we speak, you are stronger in the eastern Mid-world than Kurkas is, I see. Hmm. Kurkas’s information has been very... out of date for a while.”

“I haven’t told you everything,” I said. “I have an alliance with the A-niah, who are, let’s say”—I took up my crystal—“much stronger than is known to the world at large. They are already fighting together with my navy. I also have, just between you, me and the gatepost, an alliance with the Hyerne.”

That made his eyes widen a little. “With Segiddis? And you walked out of her palace a whole man, with all your… em… parts? I’m astonished, Sievenka. The woman’s a crazy man-hater and the mildest stories... It’s never been open war between us but a lot of bloodshed in the islands.”

“Ehh... she’s not so bad. She’s very good...” I let a little smile pull my lips. “In bed.” Let him make what a man in a man-ruled land would make of that; that it was my conquest. “I help her by sea, she helps me by land.”

Kranaj’s brows rose again, and he gave up stifling the smile. “Ah, I see. You swayed her with your young man’s charms. Well done!”

“No,” I said. “I did not sway her with my young man’s charms. That was afterwards, to seal it. I swayed her with fact and logic, same as I mean to sway you.”

“Oh ho! Not asylum, but an alliance you came for!” He laughed again. “Don’t expect to seal it with me in bed afterward, though! I’m not Arkan.”

I amazed myself, saying what I said next. I’d come here meaning to show nerve, but didn’t expect myself to do this. I looked him in the eyes and said, “I was always taught, never judge what you have not tried.”

We stared at each other for a frozen moment, and then I said, “Ehh, what am I saying. You’re too old for me.”

He let out a burst of laughter, smacking the map-table hard enough to make our cups spill a little nakiti. “You…! I can’t believe you, sometimes, Sievenka! Perverse wool-hair.”

Now I laughed. “We don’t have a deal to seal yet anyway.”

“But you want one. Why in the name of the Great God of my Ancients should I agree?”

“Kranaj, ring-fighters have a lot of leisure-time, in Arko. I used it to do reconnaissance, in the way I could: find every book I could on how they fight. It’s Arko, so there are a lot of books. And it is very standard practice of theirs”—I drew the map-table a little closer to me, and pointed as I spoke—“to do just what they are doing. First it was Roskat... then Yeola-e. One at a time... sign peace-treaties with others, though you intend eventually to make them into provinces also. Just as he’s done with Astalaz.

“What is the mistake we are all making? Not working together. Out of fear; out of suspicion of each other; out of old grudges. As if those grudges will matter when they are all uniformly-enslaved provinces of the Empire.

“Imagine instead, five nations allied against them. That looks more formidable, doesn’t it? And I’m three-fifths there.”

“Hmm. So if I am to join with you... I am in effect joining with Hyerne, Niah-lur-ana and Yeola-e.”

“And Laka, if I can talk Astalaz into it. I think I have a good chance, despite the treaty. Remember you received Kurkas’s safe-conduct for me, when I went to see him? I sent one to Astalaz, too.”

“I did. The man’s a liar.” He ran his finger down his sword-side cheek, meaning the scar I had on mine. “I know that’s the least of the scars he put on you... and still you’re here, champing at the bit to fight him.”

“You want to see all of them?” I said. “I’ll show you if you want.” Maybe I wouldn’t show him those Piatsri had healed—I’d gone too far that way already—but the rest were enough to paint a picture. “His falsehood is written all over me. Of course, I’m champing at the bit to fight him; now I can. I am going to go to Brahvniki, too, for mercenaries.”

“I’ll take your word for it on the scars, Sievenka. Thank you. Hmm... Yeola-e has enough money to hire mercenaries? Something you have traditionally never done.”

“Oh, sure we have. Not often, true, but we did when we had to; there are three instances in the last six hundred years of Yeoli history I can think of just by memory where we did; against Laka twice, and against... well... you. I have enough money now to make a good start, and I’m going to approach those people in Brahvniki who can read the writing on the wall for much more.”

His face had gone a little stony, now, as a person’s does when he’s purposely showing you nothing. I took that as encouraging.

“Still, your odds aren’t good, for talking Astalaz into breaking his word with Kurkas, even if Kurkas is a liar. Astalaz is not. Naive perhaps when it comes to the Arkans, but as honest as a Lakan king can be. He also took the coward’s way out of aggression, I believe.”

“That may be. But I have a way of letting people near me not be cowards.” He didn’t dispute that. “As well, imagine me going to him with backing from Brahvniki plus alliances with the A-niah, Hyerne and you. I think he’d find himself feeling a bit left out, don’t you? A little alone in the world?”

Kranaj’s finger, I noticed, lay on Haiu Menshir. It had been there for a while. I wondered if my victory there, or his own outrage at Arko, or both, was in the back of his mind without him truly knowing it.

“I suppose it’s not impossible.” The finger came up and rubbed his lip, while his other hand spread over the eastern Miyatara. “You must have promised Segiddis something in return; what was it?”

“Aside from aid in gaining back her villages from Arko, what I did was give her my word that there would be territorial considerations in return. But I didn’t specify. What we will have to do is meet, or have all our envoys meet, as one, and thrash it all out there. I will say to you what I said to her; without the approval of my Assembly, I am not permitted to fight beyond the borders of Yeola-e except as Assembly specifies in compensation for our losses at their hands. But... in the matter of allies, those laws have been loosened in the past.”

“You have to understand, Sievenka, I cannot make alliance with someone who will be fighting me elsewhere. If she will not break off her aggressive stance in my islands, it would be madness. In that sense you are asking she and me to ally with each other.”

“Yes, I know, and so does she. We spoke of it. I think you might find her more amenable to peace than you think. Kranaj… this is how it is. While we all turn our blades and our energies against each other, we cannot stand against Arko. It’s no coincidence that Kurkas came after Yeola-e shortly after we weakened ourselves fighting the Lakans. If we quit against each other and throw it all against them instead, then we can take them. Drive them out of Yeola-e, for my part, make gains against them for everyone else’s.

“The allies I already have are perhaps the ones who know best, because Arko has been after them the worst, the A-niah and the Hyerne. Now we Yeolis have had our bitter lesson, too. The rest of you sit back, and your time will come. The Arkans... it’s not even just that they want to seize more land; in a sense they have to. The whole way their finances work depends on it. So you can never trust them to want to let things stand pat. They haven’t for a thousand years.”

“Yes.” He held up a hand. “Yes, let me think, Sievenka.” He got up to pace, away from the table, then back, then away again, and back. He’d gotten more portly in the time since I’d last seen him. He stopped, fixed his eyes on me again for a bit, quaffed some more of his nakiti. I had forgotten mine, so I took a draught just to politely match him. He paced some more.

“May I say more about what I know of how strong they truly are?” I asked. He agreed, and I clasped my crystal. “One of the times Kurkas invited me for dinner, he let slip that some of his people were against his invading us, or at least counseled caution. When I asked him why, he said ‘Bureaucratic cowardice.’ But bureaucrats aren’t generally the ones out risking their necks, so they tend to base their advice more on fact.

“When I put that together with the whole heroic fairy-tale Milforas Tatthen got Kurkas believing about taking Hyerne, how deeply they had to strip Ro to muster the ships that we sank, the population of Arko, particularly solas, and the number of places Arko is fighting... it all spells ‘spread too thin.’ I cannot prove it, but all the signs are there.”

Kranaj moved over to another table, whose map showed the full Empire, and enumerated the wars he knew Arko was in with his fingers. “Are you going to go as far as the Srians for allies? Or only Yeola-e’s neighbours?”

“Well, I don’t know the Srians, or more exactly, they don’t know me, so wouldn’t necessarily trust me, either to be honest or capable. Why... do you want me to?”

“Not necessarily, but you worked well with their archers on Haiu Menshir...” Kranaj smacked his hand flat on the table, in the final way of someone who’s made up his mind. It came down right on the middle of the empire, covering the City Itself.

“I will ally with you, my friend. With the same promise of territorial considerations, commensurate with the force we lend to you. Under several conditions.”

“Name them.” At least I knew he wouldn’t want to spar or have sex with me.

“First, we have to straighten out that Segiddis isn’t going to be a madwoman and keep fighting me. Second, you have to get Astalaz to ally as well. Historically, he’s been as much an enemy to us as Hyerne. Third, you have to raise in Brahvniki gold to the tune of... let’s say, twenty thousand, in your money, ankaryel. That should hire you enough mercenaries.” The feel of sweat trickling down my back despite my sitting still was almost familiar now. “And one final thing.”

Kranaj looked out the curlicue-framed window into the distance, as if at a particular place. “You take Reknarja as your general’s apprentice... teach him some of that Yeoli equanimity of yours.”

My brows rose before I could will them not to. “My general’s apprentice?”

My last memory of his heir was from when I’d been twelve and he fourteen, and he’d sneered at my size and been kicked by his father for it. When I’d visited as semanakraseye, he’d been out of town on some business. But it was also that I was so young a general myself, I hadn’t expected an apprentice quite yet. Act as if you’ve been doing it for twenty years! I ordered myself. “Well... certainly. But do you think he’ll be agreeable to this himself?”

He snorted. “No matter. He’s going. If you can fulfill all the other conditions. The boy needs... something. He’ll either find it in your war... or get himself killed trying. I hope the former. I’m telling you more of my heart than I should, Sievenka. Excuse me.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, which was perhaps good, as it was a moment in which it is best to say nothing. But I didn’t like the idea taking on an unwilling apprentice. Finding out he had to accept teaching from someone two years younger than him wasn’t going to endear him to me any more. But I wasn’t in a position to refuse. “I will take him, then, and do my best not to get him killed.”

“Meet those conditions and I’ll send my marines and five thousand of my horse under Misiali.”

“Under Misiali... Kranaj, you bless me more than I even expected,” I said. He was one of Tor Ench’s best three generals, if not the best. “I don’t need horse, now, not yet, not until we’re in the plains. I need foot; can you spare, say, ten thousand total? And elite?”

“Five thousand foot to start. And fifty of my elite knights, with Reknarja. You make the plains and I will send my horse with Jakanarja.”

“How many horse? Against the Arkans, it is going to take numbers.”

“I’ll send five thousand horse.”

“Done.” We clasped hands on it, and I knocked back the rest of my nakiti.

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