In Green's Jungles (21 page)

"I know his step."

He knocked as I spoke.

"And his knock, too. Please come in, Inclito. It's not locked."

He did, and looked surprised to see his daughter.

"Mora will be lonely without Fava," I explained. "She wanted to talk to me about that, and some other things. She realizes, as I'm sure you do, that she won't be a child much longer. She's concerned about her course in life, as all such young women are. I've tried to help a little, though I haven't much help to give her."

"It would be a lot," Mora said, "if I could believe you." And then, impulsively, "Good-bye, Incanto! Good-bye, Papa!" She blew us kisses, and was out of the room before I could so much as consider what gesture I might make in return.

Inclito shut the door. "She's not in trouble with some boy, is she?"

I shook my head.

"Her mother had a dozen on her string. Nobody ever figured out why she picked me." Inclito sat down on my bed. "She wasn't a beautiful woman, but…"

"If I were more polite myself, I would say now that you're mistaken," I told him, "in part at least."

"You're not that polite?"

I shook my head.

"Me neither. Mama tried to make me when I was little, but it saves a lot of time. All right, not a dozen. Six I can name and me. No, eight."

"I wasn't referring to that. A dozen may be the figure for all I know-or twenty. But you lied when you said she wasn't a beautiful woman."

"You could see by my face, huh? I thought I was better than that. You're right, she was, and I was the only one that knew it."

"You are better than that. It was another face that told me you were lying."

"You saw her one time, my Zitta? Before you left the old whorl?"

"Tonight. What was it you wanted to see me about?" I went to the window, which was open already, and opened it more widely.

"The spy. It was Fava?"

I nodded.

"She ought to have been hanged."

"Then hang me. I arranged for her to escape in safety."

He shook his head, a head bigger than most men's, upon a neck far thicker than most. "She was only a sprat. It would have made me sick to watch it. I'm not going to say you did right, but I'm glad you did it."

"So am I."

"The Duko's marched already? That's what you said."

"No, I didn't. I said I thought so, and that if he had not, he would set out within a day. That is as exact as I can make it."

"We got to meet him in the hills." Inclito stood up, absentmindedly wiping hands twice the size of his daughter's on his shirt. "He gets out into the bottomlands where he can spread out his horses, and it's all over. You weren't ever a trooper? It's what you told me once. But you fought enough to get yourself shot." He pointed toward my wound, though it was concealed by my robe and my tunic. "There in the side. In and out. It doesn't bother you?"

I shrugged. To write the truth-Nettle, you must never read this-I was listening to Seawrack's song as it floated across the waves a hundred leagues from where I stood.

"That man in the town down south? The one they called the rajan? It seemed like he ran a pretty good war. The other town had more men. That's what Eco says. He beat them anyhow, with brains and magic."

"Mostly by luck."

"Oh. You heard too? If you say so, but I'd like to have luck like that on our side. They say he's got six hundred on horses, the Duko."

My eyes must have shown the skepticism I felt.

"He had a spy here? I got spies there. Six hundred, they tell me. And Novella Citta. And Olmo. You know what I've got? How many horses? I'm trying to get two hundred. You know my men here? Well, I'm taking them, all three of them, on the carriage horses. After that if I can find just a few more, two hundred."

"Meanwhile, I am sending away two of your horsemen to carry my letters."

"It's right what you're doing. We haven't got so little we can't use any at all. Suppose they both get through. How good a chance they come over to our side?"

"Your estimate would be much more accurate than mine, I feel sure."

"One out of ten one will. One out of twenty for both. Each can bring a hundred and fifty on horses, maybe. Maybe a hundred. So that's eight hundred to get around behind us as soon as they get through the hills."

I said that my chief object in sending the letters had never been to win over Novella Citta and Olmo-welcome though that would be, should it occur-and that it was by no means impossible to be outflanked among hills.

"No, but it's harder, and they'd have to fight us, probably. If they get close, they can go straight at Blanko. You've seen it, the river and the walls. How long could they hold it against eight hundred men? That's boys, old men, and women."

I reflected. "A month, perhaps, if they were well led."

"Pah! A day. Maybe one whole day. Not two. And when our men found out the town had fallen behind them." He made a graphic gesture. "They're shoemakers and shopkeepers, farmers like me. The gods didn't say we win the war?"

"Nor that you will lose it."

"We'll meet them in the hills and crush them. We've got to. In the hills-" He waved toward my chair. "Sit down. You're making me all upset. Sit down."

I did, and he sat again.

"In the hills it doesn't matter so much how many men, it's how good they are. If you ask me, I've got to say the Duko's men are better. But we'll be better. We've got to be, so we will be. Tomorrow we march. I sent word this afternoon. It would take all morning to get everybody together, but we won't wait for everybody. We'll be gone before the frost is off the grass."

"Would you like me to come with you?"

Inclito raised one thick eyebrow. "It's not your fight."

"Nor will I be of any great help to you, I know. I may well be more of a hindrance than a help. But I would rather go with you and see the fighting than try to make my way back to the coast alone, in winter, with a war raging."

"I was thinking maybe you'd stay here and take care of Mama and Mora."

"I can if you want me to. Or I can come back with news of you, if I'm in the way." I am sorry that I said that now, but it is what I said.

I have sat here writing so long because I feel sure I cannot sleep so long as Seawrack sings. I have sent Oreb to beg her to be silent, although I do not really believe he can fly that far.

No, not if he were to fly all night, poor bird, and all day tomorrow.

I have shut the window now and closed the shutters-no doubt it will be days before Oreb returns, if indeed he returns to me at all. It was very hard to make myself do it, though it was freezing in here. It does not help at all, even though it nearly muffled the drumming hooves. I am going to pray and go to bed, and (if I cannot sleep) daydream about the first time I lay with Seawrack on the clumsy little sloop I built with my own hands and loved so much, and of lying with Hyacinth, too, in Ermine's on the night of our marriage.

How sweet dreams like that would be!

Let Inclito see off the remaining riders-both of them, if he can; I have carried this account to the present moment with these words, and I am going to sleep as late as they will let me.

IN THE FIELD

O
ur whole camp is sleeping now, but I am afraid of my dreams; I had horrible dreams last night, lost in Green's jungles again, and in the hideous city.

Besides, I am not tired or sleepy. Why should I be? The troopers walked, or at least most of them did, until they were ready to drop-I rode on horseback. From yesterday morning, then.

Inclito woke me, pounding on my door. Before I opened it, while I was still sitting up in bed yawning, I heard him exclaim, "She's gone! She's gone!" I knew at once what had happened; and I had known, or at least suspected, what Mora planned before she left my bedroom the night before, had surely known when I heard her gallop away. I had lifted not a finger to stop her-but then, how could I?

I advised Inclito to calm down and went outside with him. It was still almost dark, with a light snow falling. In the stable his hired men were milling around and getting in each other's way as all three tried to ready his horse. Rimando was stamping and swearing, and Eco saddling a tall chestnut gelding that looked as if it could run like the wind. "I'll get her," he promised as he swung into the saddle. "I'll find her, wherever she is, and I'll bring her back." I tried to tell him that if he could not he should go on to Olmo, deliver his letter, and search for Mora again on the way home; but he was galloping out of the farmyard and onto the road before I had said half of it.

Inclito's own mount was soon saddled, a good horse (it seemed to me), though not half so good as Eco's. He took me by the shoulders. "You'll have to do it, Incanto. Go into town and see that they leave. They can march as well without me as with me, and I'll join you in the hills as soon as I find Mora and bring her back."

Then he, too, was gone, and Rimando was demanding that Inclito's coachman give him the best of the remaining horses, which the coachman adamantly refused to do. I could see that the coachman would appeal to me eventually; and I leaned upon my staff, still half asleep, waiting for it.

It came sooner rather than later, even though the coachman had tried to get support from Perito and Sborso first. "I can't, can I, sir? They're not my horses, now are they, sir? I can't let somebody just ride away, just 'cause-"

"I'm going to find your master's daughter and bring her back," Rimando told him for the tenth time at least. "By Pas, if I had my sword I'd kill all of you!"

I shook my head and addressed the coachman. "Your master has left me in charge, Affito. You heard it. Do you dispute it?"

"No, sir." He was visibly relieved that someone else was willing to take responsibility. "I'll do whatever you say, Master Incanto. That I will."

"Good." I turned to the other two, asked their names, and received similar assurances from both.

"Now then, how many horses have you here, good, bad, or indifferent?"

"Four, sir."

"And a donkey. I know there is a donkey, because I've heard it bray several times since I've been here."

"Yes, sir. And the mules."

I nodded and spoke to Rimando. "Do you consider yourself a trooper, a member of the horde of Blanko? In Inclito's absence I am in command of that horde. I am to assemble it this morning and advance to meet the Duko in the hills that separate your town from Soldo. Inclito doesn't want the Duko's troopers burning farmhouses and despoiling the countryside, for reasons much too obvious to require explanation. You are an intelligent, spirited, young man of good family, and can be of great help to me. If you will obey me as a loyal trooper should, I will appoint you my second in command on the spot."

For a few seconds, he was able to meet my gaze. "I want to find the girl who took my horse."

"I know you do. If you insist upon setting off after her-on foot, because I cannot permit you to take any of our animals-I will not stop you. I will, however, report your insubordination when the four of us reach Blanko, and I will report it again to Inclito when he rejoins us."

He could no longer look me in the eye, but he hesitated still.

I said, "I won't threaten you with punishment. I doubt that you'll be punished at all, or that you should be; but when you're my age, and your fellow citizens speak of those who came forward bravely when deadly danger threatened Blanko, your name will not be among them. There will be questions, perhaps, and whispers. Wouldn't you prefer that your name be honored?"

"All right. Yes, sir. I would, sir." I heard his indrawn breath as he came to attention and saluted.

I returned his salute, touching my right eyebrow with the handle of my staff. "Some people here call me a strego," I told him. "I'm no magic-worker, but there are times when I have certain knowledge that is denied to others. This is one of those times."

"Yes, sir."

"If I had let you go after Mora, you wouldn't have succeeded in returning her to safety, or even in finding her. I'm not saying that to insult your abilities-I know that you're an able young man, and as a matter of fact I know it better than you do yourself. I say it because it is true."

"Yes, sir," Rimando repeated.

"Nor will her father succeed. Nor will Eco. I can only hope they do not lose their lives in the attempt."

Sborso asked, "Are we going to town, sir?"

"Yes, but not until we've eaten, and our animals, too. Do they have corn, or whatever you're feeding?"

The coachman said they did.

"Good. Come into the house, all of you. I know you don't normally eat at Inclito's table, but this is not a normal day. I need to talk to the women, and it will be best to do it with everyone present."

Once in the house, I called Decina and Onorifica out of their kitchen and sent Torda for my host's mother. When food had been passed around and everyone was seated at the table, I rose.

"Mora has gone to Novella Citta," I told her grandmother. "She took Rimando's horse and rode off during the night. Your son has ridden after her, and so has the other messenger. At present I don't know whether any or all of them will come to harm. I'm going to pray for them, and I advise you to do the same.

"And you, too, Torda. Decina and Onorifica should pray as well."

The cook could only stare. I got frightened nods from the other three women.

"As any of these men will confirm, Inclito put me in charge of this house, as well as the horde of Blanko, in his absence. I can't stay here, however, much as I might like to. To be more precise, we five men cannot."

To the coachman I added, "Rimando is my chief subordinate. I want you to give him the best horse."

He nodded, his mouth full.

"Inclito told me that he intended to put all three of you into his cavalry. Has he given you slug guns and other equipment?"

Perito and Sborso said that he had.

"Then you will come with Rimando and me," I told them, "and serve there until your master rejoins us."

My host's mother began, "Incanto, the farm…" Her voice quavered.