A Match for the el Maiens Ch. 22

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"And so here we all are," Tashka said softly in the darkness.

They were on top of the central tower: she and the Commanders. Pava and Tarra leant on the parapet looking down at the Sietter troops encamped around them. Clair stared down with an expressionless face, to see his brother officers taking arms against him. Vadya stood by her side, one arm around her shoulders. She had borrowed his telescope and was looking at the dispositions of the forces, nodding her head in a satisfied way as she saw where they had laid out their encampments as she had predicted.

The castle was surrounded by the flickering ruddy fires of the three Sietter troops. Shadow-black figures moved between the dark outlines of tents in the firelight. Torches and fires were alight on the castle walls, too, where the Castle Guard and Tenth Athagine shared out the watches of the night. The Castle Guard were uneasy, below them were soldiers they had thought of as comrades; there was muttering against Pava el Maien who was such a snake he sent troops out against his own children. Down below, the Sietter troops would be grumbling about Clair and Tashka, who ran with merchants and the H'las and were so wayward that they defied their own father.

Tashka's voice had a satisfied ring to it. The game had begun. Her mind was running straight now, her many complicated thoughts all sorted to head for the same aim. Using Vadya's experience as a map, she had worked out all the different routes to victory. She was so engrossed in thoughts of the coming campaign that when Vadya squeezed her buttock she jumped and stared at him then sniggered in such an obvious way that everyone looked at Vadya and made him blush.

"I will go and have the pleasure of a word with Commander-Sir Vaie," Tashka said cheerfully, as if she were arranging to meet her brother officer for a drink, not sneaking into the enemy camp like a spy - for which she would be hung if she were caught.

"What, the night?" Clair demanded, his head swinging suddenly round.

Vadya said nothing but his blood turned to ice, his face was frozen with fear.

"Why not," Tashka laughed. "You have no special party planned, I will not be missing any thing, will I?"

"Tashka, this plan is crazy!" Clair said fiercely. "What kind of secret can Vaie have that you might know?"

Tashka shrugged. There was a queer intense look in her eyes, her face was set on this one purpose but the fingers of her left hand shivered so that the rubies and gold of her rings sparkled briefly in the torchlight. "I do know something of him," she answered.

"What can there be for you to know?" Clair demanded. "Vaie is an honourable man. Since his father's death he has managed his troop and lands and the people on his lands whom he must look to as a Knight admirably, with conscientious care. He has been mindful of the respect and duty of care he owes his mother and young sisters, one of whom he will bestow on your brother Commander, Stariel, next Spring. He is a slut, it is true. I never heard of him giving the No to any he wanted who offered a favour but he has never forced a favour and he has never crossed a vow of allegiance to take a senior or junior. He is an handsome enough puppy, he can have whomsoever he wishes. If he has caught the eye now and then of someone-else's husband, he has asked them to pardon him or taken the glove as he ought."

"It is not my secret so I cannot tell you," Tashka answered. "It is not a matter that stains his honour, it is just something I know that means Vaie will give me an hearing. And we were baby Lieutenants together."

"And so?" Clair demanded. "Pava was your Captain, I was your Commander. Vaie was my Captain as well as Lieutenant, at Shier Bridge ... at Shier Bridge ... But now Vaie has sworn to the Generals' fingers. Even if they call on him to hang you, he will do it although he will weep for it. His allegiance will not be divided - especially to an H'las officer."

"Vaie may have sworn to the Generals and through the hoop of their rings to van Sietter," Tashka answered, "but you know it, he will never renounce his vow to you. You'll be his life and days and fight until the day he dies. His life is hung on your banner to this day. That is why it must be I who goes; not you, nor Pava who was his Captain under you. Vaie's allegiance will never be divided because it belongs to you. If you speak one word to him he will follow. He knows it so he will not give you the chance to say that one word. There is something I know about Vaie that will persuade him to give me an hearing. Once he has heard me call on your name, he will come with us."

Clair opened his mouth to tell Tashka that he was not going to let her go down into Tenth Sietter to her certain death but Vadya interrupted him.

"el Maien," he said stiffly. "That is my Captain you are speaking with. Is there any thing more you have to say?"

Clair turned and looked through narrowed eyes at Vadya. Young van H'las' face was pale and pinched. His eyes were full of terror, his lips pressed hard together, yet Clair saw that he was going to let Tashka go.

"Captain-Lord el Maien," Vadya said formally. "Go and get ready. Will you go over the wall or is there a secret gate?"

"A gate," Tashka answered.

"I will walk with you to it," Vadya said. His voice was clear but cold. He sounded as if he cared nothing for the terrible danger Tashka was about to run into headlong but he would not look at her while he spoke. His eyes were fixed out on the dark bulk of the Sietter Hills away in the night. "Meet me in the hallway," he said.

"Sir, it is done," Tashka's voice was not as emotionless as his, there was an undercurrent of joyful excitement in it. She pulled a flicking H'las salute, did the ritual stamping steps of the H'las junior leaving their senior and turned and walked off without a glance at Clair or her former Captain Pava el Jien who stood with his long white fingers twisted together so hard that one of his rings cut into his thumb or her former lover el V'lair van Athagine who watched her go with the louche smile for once absent from his face.

Pava had come across to put an arm around Clair's shoulders, Clair turned his head into Pava's shoulder. Vadya slipped away down the stairs, biting his lip to make the tears go down in his eyes. Behind him he could hear Clair starting to sob in the torchlit darkness, louder and louder: My brother, my brother, my brother!

~#~*~#~

Tashka walked softly and slowly through the shadows by the fire until she was standing actually behind the nervous Tenth Sietter sentry. He was shifting from foot to foot, looking up at the castle. He jumped when she addressed him: "Hey! you. Take me to Commander-Sir Vaie."

He spun round and looked at her from wide nervous eyes. She stood staring back at him, tall and lean in her old red felt Sietter Lieutenant's uniform. Her eyes flicked over him, she snapped: "Your belt is not buckled properly to! Adjust it!"

"Sir!" the young sentry pulled a hurried salute, his heels coming together in the Sietter stance. He looked down at his belt and tugged it more securely into the buckle. He came forward to lead her into the camp, calling to one of his comrades to stand to station. As she followed him, Tashka kept a casual series of grumbles going: It was so hard to get provisions; why were these el Maiens quarrelling; it was an horrible time of year for a siege, why could they not have their family squabbles in the Summer. The sentry responded eagerly, complaining of the quality of food squeezed from reluctant merchants in the town and giving away all the troop gossip about why she and Clair might be regarded as the enemy. Tashka's brain went: supplies hard to get, morale will get lower, easy to counter that reason, bit harder to get over that one.

"My thanks," she said casually as they came up to the Commander's tent. It would have been better to get the sentry to find out if Vaie had his officers with him, tell the sentry she had privy business and he must announce her under some false name - but she felt a pang of pity for his young naivity and let him get well away before she called out: "Thy time for my allegiance!"

"Enter," said a firm warm voice.

Tashka walked into the tent and grinned at Commander-Sir Dar Vaie, her face relaxed, although her nervous eyes flicked quickly round to see, to her great relief, that they were alone. He stood staring at her with astounded grey eyes, his mouth hanging open: a handsome man a couple of years older than her, also dressed in the single-breasted red felt Sietter winter uniform with the gold-embroidered collar. He had the lean rangy build of the typical Sietter Knight, hardbitten and wiry. He was a strawberry blond, his hair fair with an attractive reddish tone. There was a wine-bowl in his hand, it slipped from his fingers and the wine spilled all over the colourful cloth rug by the bedding which had been made up into a couch.

"Halloo Dar," Tashka said lightly. She strode forward and sat comfortably down in a folding chair in front of a table full of maps. Without looking at them, she reached behind her, caught the edge of the maps and folded them over on themselves so that they, and all the military information pencilled on notes pinned to them, were hidden from her eyes.

"T-Tashka," Dar Vaie stammered. He glanced at the entrance to the tent as if estimating his chances of getting there before Tashka ran him through.

Tashka's blue eyes creased up in her easy smile. She set her ankle on her knee and clasped it with her scarred right hand. "How is it with you, Commander?" she said politely. "Offer me some wine, then, you dog!" she added.

"Er ... of course," he said. He looked at his empty right hand, hurriedly bent and picked up his wine-bowl from the ground. He came nervously over to the table, took another bowl from a stack with his left hand and sloshed some wine into it. His left hand, which had a slashing set of scars across the knuckles, was shaking. He kept looking at her and at the entrance of the tent, past a lock of his strawberry hair that was falling in his keen grey eyes.

"Heard from Hanya lately?" Tashka enquired, taking the bowl from him with a steady scarred right hand and a warm smile.

"H-H-Hanya?" he repeated with a nervous start. He stopped edging towards the entrance and blushed patchily, staring at her with those piercing keen grey eyes.

"Ay, fool. Hanya Lein. My Lieutenant. Lieutenant Hanya Lein of Sixth H'las."

"Sweet Angels!" Dar said. His face suddenly lit up with delight and he focussed his attention entirely on her, stepping closer to her and away from the entrance. "You are Hanya's Captain Maien! My sword and banner! I ought to have guessed from what he told me of you. He has written me so often and so lovingly of you that were you not his senior officer I would be ..." he cut himself off and his face went blank.

"You would be jealous," Tashka prompted him, sniffing thoughtfully at her bowl of wine. She picked up the wine bottle and gestured with it at Dar Vaie's bowl, hesitantly he put it forward for her to pour wine into it. In order to do this he had to come right back into the tent up to her.

"He ... he told you?" he asked. His head went back, his eyes were scared. The blush rose in red patches in his cheeks.

"Of course," Tashka said, lifting her close-cropped head to look straight into his grey eyes. "I am his Captain and his friend. Of course he came to discuss it with me, that he is in love with someone who could any day become an enemy officer to us.

"You two met last summer in Iarve. He was visiting his uncle and you were there with the troop practising manoeuvres. You met one night in an hotel bar. It was you gave him the eye and when he looked back at you, you offered him a drink. Both of you could tell the other was an officer but you assumed each other was in the Iarve army.

"You thought it would be just an one-day-one-night, although I was glad to hear you took a room for my Lieutenant, you slut, and did not treat him like your usual bits of trimming and take him for ten minutes in a doorway or a stables or whatever!" Dar sniggered, blushing in the candlelight. "You stayed two nights with him, in fact by the sound of it you abused your position to leave one of your Captains as acting Commander in charge of establishing the encampment while you ran off playing with the affections of my officer! Your heart got so entangled in his fingers that you offered him your name, full title and troop designation and it was then you discovered - too late - that he was an H'las officer.

"Now you manage to write to each other sometimes, sending the letters through Hanya's aunt. When he goes on leave, you juggle your dispositions in the troop and meet him for a day or two. You both try to believe there is nothing in it if Sietter and H'las go to war again but I will tell it you, Dar Vaie. I have seen Hanya read a letter from you that was creased with so many readings and he still smiled and held it to his lips and put it in his pocket next to his heart. Hanya Lein will be yours, Vaie, through Hell and through life."

Commander-Sir Dar Vaie looked intently at her as she said this then his head stooped down over his bowl of wine, his face warm and tender in the candlelight. The blush had gone down in his cheeks. He looked shyly at Tashka and smiled. He did not speak, just sat down opposite his brother officer, the brother to his future sworn Lord, his lover's Captain, his enemy.

"Who would have thought it," Tashka laughed. "The Commander and the Captain will never believe me when I tell them that your heart has been pinned. And you are of course loyal to my Lieutenant's honour, hmmm?"

Dar sniggered. "Oh well, you know me," he said easily. "I am no virgin Angel! Now and then my eye is caught but Hanya lets it pass. He loves me for who I am, he knows there will never be another one that is serious and that it is not easy when we can see so little of each other. So long as I do not wave it in his face, he lets it pass."

"He is a lovely, I'll give you that," Tashka said. "And he is also a very fine young officer, I'll have you know. It is a pity you are from H'las and Sietter, you might marry him else."

"Oh yes I would!" Dar answered eagerly. "I'd give him my ring the morrow if I could, el Maien. You'd bestow him on me, would you not?"

"What nonsense, he can give himself to you freely," Tashka grumbled, momentarily remembering in annoyance how she had had to submit to being bestowed on her own husband. She hurriedly pushed the thoughts back in her mind. "I mean, I would have no need to, Vaie. He would come running if he thought he had the chance of your favours, never mind your ring!"

"Oh I wish ...!" Dar's head lifted and he looked yearningly to the side of the tent then he turned back and said: "What is it you are about here, el Maien. 'Fore the Angels! are you crazy, coming into my camp like this. How did you penetrate the camp? Which side did you sneak in from, you fox. You have come to ask us to let your Commander, el Gaiel, slip through our fingers I suppose?"

Tashka looked slantwise at him over her bowl of wine. She gave a soft evil snigger, he shivered and grinned nervously at her. It was the kind of laugh that always accompanied outrageous dares: to sneak off from tidying up their kit and race frogs on the river bank, to take the pegs from her brother's lover's guy-ropes so it would collapse on them, to give the eye to a General on formal parade. "Oh my dear," she said in that husky familiar voice. "I want much more than that. I have come to ask Tenth Sietter stand behind my brother."

"el Maien, you are mad!" he cried anxiously. "The Generals have given us expressed orders from van Sietter. We cannot disobey."

"And if I have brought you orders from Commander-Lord Clair el Maien van Sietter? Does your vow to his fingers mean nothing to you? Is his banner now some rag you have blown your nose on and chucked aside in a dirty drain in the street?"

Vaie half-started to his feet. "I'll never forswear my vow to the Commander!" he growled, his face suddenly tense with rage and his fingers going to the gloves in his belt.

Tashka laughed. "Exactly so," she said drily.

"No! Tashka! It is not like that. We have sworn to the Generals' fingers. Hear me, el Maien. I have no wish to cross the Commander, or yourself. But el Gaiel van H'las is another matter and the Commander's Lady wife has been making trouble running with merchants. Hell! I cannot but obey my orders, you know it."

"You may have sworn to the Generals' fingers," Tashka said quietly. "Your Captains and Lieutenants and your men have sworn to you. You have sworn another allegiance, to take them as your care, your honour and your victory. I tell it you, Vaie, if you follow your vow to the Generals, you will cross your vow to your men. You will stain your honour and theirs and show that they are not your care."

Dar burst out laughing. "el Maien," he said, leaning forward to softly punch Tashka's shoulder and shaking his head. "How well I remember that persuasive way of yours - your sweet eyes looking clearly into mine, just so! And before I know it I am up before Captain-Lord el Jien waiting to hear what my punishment is to be, while you get off free as a bird! Do you remember that time we got through the First Quarter sentries and untied Captain-Sir Vashin's guy-ropes but your brother caught us at it! I have never been able to look at a tub of dishes without wanting to run away since."

Tashka laughed too, a quick spurt of amusement from the side of her curved rose-petal mouth that she could not help, although she knew it was a mistake. It was so important that she convince Dar Vaie but seeing him brought back such merry memories.

"Vaie," she said, leaning forward to clasp her scarred right hand on his knee. "I wish I had time to talk through the night of those days. But Captain-Sir Vashin is dead now and I will be too if I cannot convince you I am in the right of it this time."

Dar Vaie looked at her hand gripped on his knee then into her eyes. His own grey eyes sparkled with tears at the reminder of Hanya Vashin's death. "el Maien, what a strange meeting is this," he said. "I never thought I would have to take arms against you. Sweet Hell! you are always trouble. You should hear the things the Fifth Sietter officers say of you, it makes my face hot to hear them and I have had trouble keeping my glove in my belt!"

"I fought their Commander," Tashka said. "He has good reason to hate me, for I hate him with all my heart."

"What did you fight him for?" Vaie asked, curiously.

Tashka looked him full in the face and said: "I killed his younger brother in a duel with a cut to the throat. The scum raped my brother, the Commander, when he was but a young Lieutenant. That is why I hate all the Dariens."

Dar Vaie looked appalled. He sat back, taking a sip of his wine, his eyes creased up and his mouth pinched.

Tashka took a slurp of wine and said: "Well, tell it me, Vaie. Why have you decided to join that scum Darien and stand against the Commander and Commander-Lord el Jien and I?"

"I am not against you!" he protested. "It is this business of the merchants, el Maien. Lady el Jien wants to give over the management of our land to merchants, for the Angels' sake. How can we allow a rabble of merchants to run the land?"

"Angels, Vaie, you are a butterfly-wits!" Tashka exclaimed.

Dar Vaie blushed patchily red with annoyance. "el Maien, I may not be a political brain but I can see the sense in this war. How can you, yourself an officer-aristocrat, countenance handing power to the merchants?"