The Pen and the Sword (Destiny's Crucible Book 2) (34 page)

Diera
sighed deeply and looked at Sistian. “Part of me hates to even think about such
things, but Yozef’s right. We need to plan for it. Sistian, you should
communicate with Culich about this, and I’ll discuss it with the other
medicants here and send messages to St. Tomo’s and a few other Keelan abbeys to
alert them and ask their opinions.”

Thus
was born the first Keelan mobile army surgical hospital. Yozef never explained why
he called the mobile hospital a MASH, since the acronym in Caedelli was KLOP.
Culich gave his support, leaving the details to the Keelan medicants, with Pedr
Kennrick coordinating. He also communicated the concept to other clans, with
mixed responses.

Spies
and Assassins

An
unpleasant thought occurred to Yozef, prompted by Maera at an evening meal. She
glowed, the mild morning sickness having long ago eased, and she looked and
claimed she’d never felt better. Even her chronic migraines hadn’t occurred
since they’d married and she started swelling with their child.

“I
had a wonderful day, Yozef. Why I felt that way I don’t know, it just
was
.
After you left this morning, Elian and I spent two hours sewing clothes for the
baby. My God, I never thought of myself as sitting and enjoying sewing and
talking with a common woman.

“Then
I worked at translating that history of the Landolin kingdoms you wanted to
read. I hadn’t refreshed my Landolin for ages and was surprised how much I
remembered. It was like I was reading Caedelli. After lunch, I walked to the
abbey by way of the beach and took off my shoes and stood in the water until my
feet started to wrinkle.” Maera laughed. “Then at the abbey I talked with Diera
about the mobile hospitals idea, and I offered to help plan an organized effort
for all of Keelan. I’ll also write Father, suggesting he contact the other
Alliance member clans to do the same. On the way home I—” She broke off and put
a hand on his arm. “Oh, Yozef. Listen to me prattle on. I didn’t ask how your
day was.”

He’d
been listening, bemused. As much as he liked and respected his new wife,
“cheerful” and “prattling” were not two words he’d normally associate with her.
The news of Anarynd’s disappearance by the Narthani still lingered, but her moods
seemed to improve the further she got into her pregnancy.

“A
busy day, Maera. I hardly sat down, except to eat. The foundry workers had an
idea and wanted to try again to cast the 6-pounder barrels. After listening to
them, I decided it wasn’t a new enough idea to divert from the swivel guns. I
also talked to Sister Diera. She wondered if I had any ideas about several
patients, but I had nothing to contribute. I’m afraid she and others expect me
to have too many answers. I hope they don’t suspect I’m deliberately
withholding from them.

“Then
I had a fast mid-day meal while talking with Filtin about his latest idea for
increasing kerosene distillation, hopefully without blowing up the facility and
the staff. Most of the afternoon I spent composing queries and responses,
handling written communications to and from Culich, and reading letters from
other towns within and outside Keelan, inquiring about using some of the
techniques I’ve introduced and the possibilities for franchises in other provinces.
Then I did the exercise routine—weapons, running, and weights. I got the usual
odd looks about the running.”

“People’ve
gotten used to seeing you running, though I admit even I still find it odd,”
Maera said.

“I’m
sure it looks odd, and it’s certainly something I don’t enjoy. Every time I’m
tempted to skip it, though, I remind myself how easily I could have died during
the St. Sidryn’s defense. Now there’s you and the baby. I have to feel I’m
better prepared to defend all of us, if it comes to that.”

Yozef
took a final bite of his meal. “This is about the only non-working time I’ll
have all day. Later I have an hour of writing to do, mostly what I remember
about more chemistry now that we’ve decided to add a chemistry department to
the university, Chancellor Kolsko-Keelan,” he added at the end and was rewarded
with a smile.

He
didn’t mention he was struggling with how to introduce the concepts of the
periodic table and chemical bonds.

Maera
sipped water as she listened to Yozef recount, then set the glass down. She finished
her plate of food, pushed it aside, and leaned forward, arms crossed and on the
table, staring thoughtfully at her husband.

“You
know, Yozef, before moving to Abersford, I hadn’t realized exactly how
privileged and restricted my life had been, as far as contact with the common
Keelanders. I told you about sewing and talking with Elian this morning. It
felt awkward at first to be talking normally with
regular
folk, and I’m
surprised at my growing attachment to Abersford and being a part of the
community. But then the other news was a letter from Father, reminding us the
baby is to be born in Caernford.”

Yozef
groaned. “Let me guess. He pressed again for us to move to Caernford
permanently. It seems like a long time ago when I promised to consider the move.
I can’t say I’m any more enthused now than I was then. Oh, I can see the logic
to moving most of my enterprises to Caernford, but so much effort has gone into
setting things up here, plus, I
like
living here. And our house! We’ve
only lived in it for a few months, and we’d have to leave it.”

“Well,
you’ve months to think about it before the baby comes, and we don’t have to
lose the house. It isn’t that far from Caernford, so perhaps we could spend
part of the year here. There’s time to talk about it. For tonight, you need to
get to your writing, and I need to write Mother and my sisters.”

They
both rose and were carrying dishes to the kitchen sink for Elian to clean in
the morning when Maera stopped, holding plates in both hands.

“Oh,
another thing, before I forget. While I was walking home, I reflected on how
amazing it was that you all beat back the Buldorians when they attacked St.
Sidryn’s and how unfortunate it was that the raid happened when so many of the
fighting men were away. It reminds us how much of life depends on good or bad
luck.”

Yozef
had set his plates down and was returning for more when Maera finished
speaking. He froze, and his eyes took on a distant focus, as his mind made odd
connections.

“Yozef?”
she prompted when he remained frozen for more than a few moments. “Yozef?” she
said again, this time louder.

His
eyes focused again. “Sorry. Just that I had a strange thought from what you
were saying.”

“What
I was saying?”

“About
it being bad luck for the raid to occur when so many men were away. Something
just jumped into my head. What if it wasn’t bad luck?”

Maera’s
face took on a look of concentration. She placed her plates in the sink, then
twirled a strand of hair with her left hand, one of her subconscious “I’m
thinking hard about something” habits. “If not bad luck, then you’re saying it
was planned? The raid happened when it did
because
the men were away? That
would mean the Narthani knew. How?”

“They’d
know if someone told them.”

“It
would have to be someone here near Abersford,” Maera said dubiously.

“That’s
right.”

“You
believe someone near here is communicating with the Narthani? How’s that
possible?”

“I
don’t know. It may be the raid happened when it did by accident. If it wasn’t .
. .”

“Then
we have to find out!”

The
next day Yozef and Maera corralled Denes in the Magistrate office. He listened
blankly at first, then grew more interested and agitated as they explained the
previous evening’s discussion.

“This
also might explain something puzzling,” said Denes. “Those Narthani sloops that
cruise offshore, Garel Kulwyn mentioned how curious it was that the sloops
sometimes stay around for a day or more, instead of passing on. What if it’s
related to a spy passing information?”

“Wouldn’t
it have to be done at night?” said Maera. “Otherwise, they’d be seen during the
day.”

“Yes,”
agreed Denes, “they could row out at night, and since no one is looking for
them, it’s unlikely anyone would notice.”

“Or
do it by light signals,” said Yozef. “As long as the information flow was only
one way, from shore to ship, a covered lantern at a point of land where the
light couldn’t be seen except out at sea would work. The sloop would sit
offshore at prearranged days of the month and wait for signals.”

As
Yozef had observed previously, specific ideas might not occur to Denes
spontaneously, though once brought to his attention, he jumped on them.

“I’ll
set up a watch for the nights we know sloops are lurking offshore. There are
only a few points where a lantern wouldn’t be seen.”

“Denes,
you might consider having a small boat position itself offshore after dark so
it could see a suspicious light,” Maera suggested.

“And
to see if anyone goes out to meet the sloop,” added Yozef.

“I
don’t know if your worry is justified or not, but we’ll assume it is for the
next month or so,” Denes stated decisively. “Whenever one of the Narthani
sloops lingers off our shore, I’ll arrange a couple of men to watch for
suspicious persons near the coast on those nights and a man in a rowboat to sit
a few hundred yards offshore. I’ll also investigate possible suspects. I doubt
it could be a long-time resident—more likely someone who’s moved to Abersford
recently or visits regularly and lives elsewhere.”

It
was a month before Yozef’s suspicion was confirmed. On two of the three times a
Narthani sloop lingered offshore, the Keelander manning a dinghy rowed back and
reported seeing a long series of light flashes from a bluff jutting out from
the east end of the Abersford beachfront.

In
the previous month, Denes had identified three men as spy candidates. One was
an escaped Preddi who worked in one of Abersford’s three pubs. The second was a
man of unknown origin who worked odd jobs around the town and had built himself
a cabin north of town. The third was a Clengoth trader who spent an inordinate
amount time in Abersford. Each of the three was kept under surveillance. On the
next night of the flashing lights, suspect #3 was in Clengoth, #2 drank beer in
a pub well past time the flashes stopped, and suspect #1 was unaccounted for.

Probable
cause for search warrants didn’t exist on Caedellium. Denes and five men
surprised the man at his home at first light the next day. While the man’s
frightened Keelan wife and year-old child waited outside the house, two burly
men held the Preddi, and Denes and the others ransacked the house, an attached
shed, and a barn. In the shed, they found a kerosene lantern with three of the four
glass sides painted black and the fourth side with a leather flap that could be
lifted and lowered. They also found a bundle of papers with Narthani writing
and a code key.

Longs
and shorts like Morse Code,
thought Yozef, when he later saw the papers.

When
confronted with the lantern and the papers, the man collapsed, confessed, and
begged for mercy. He hadn’t actually escaped Preddi. He had been sent by the
Narthani to settle in Abersford and send reports of local happenings, including
patrol schedules. Communication was all one-way, because the sloop never sent
messages back. When pressed about why he was helping the Narthani, the man wept
and said the Narthani had his Preddi wife and two children, plus two sisters
and their families, as hostages to ensure his following orders. To convince
him, they shot his father in front of the entire family. Denes and the others
cursed the Narthani when they heard the story. They believed the man, who appeared
broken now that he thought the Narthani would do the same to the rest of his Preddi
family.

Later,
Denes, Yozef, Maera, and Sistian met after questioning the man further and confirming
the consistency in his story. Among the papers found were previous messages.
Most were innocuous, while others contained enough information for the Narthani
to have known one of the town’s Thirds of fighting men would be absent the day
of the raid. Given that information, it was simple enough to fake the Gwillamer
raid that drew off a second Third.

Yozef
had wondered whether Denes would execute the man, because he could be held to
blame for deaths and injuries during the raid. However, Denes surprised him.

“I
don’t know that I might not have done the same, given his circumstances. A
problem now is that if we execute him or keep him captive and his messages
stop, the Narthani might well carry out their threat and kill the rest of his
family. I’d prefer to avoid that, if possible. Yozef, what if we send the
messages ourselves? How would the Narthani know it was us and not their spy?”

“It’s
possible, but what if there’s something that alerts the Narthani? It could be some
detail in how the messages are transmitted, some signal or something, that
we’re unaware of. Also, what if there’s more than one spy here, and a second
one alerts the Narthani? I suggest you let him return to his routine, including
sending the messages. The difference is that we’ll write the messages so they
contain nothing of consequence, unless we wanted to give the Narthani false
information.”