On the Oceans of Eternity (106 page)

When he read out the figures, Jaditwara’s eyes went wide. Eddie let loose with a Zarthani war whoop, which didn’t attract as much attention as it might have, not tonight. Giernas laughed long and loud himself; it was good to be young, a well-loved father and husband ... and rich. Before the war, before the Expedition, he’d been a bachelor, content enough to rent a room over the Laughing Loon in Providence for the times he wasn’t rangering around and camping under a tree. Now ...

Now
I’m not rich like Leaton or Brandt
, he thought, diving into the roast pork and savoring the longed-for taste of fresh vegetables.
But I’m rich enough to be able to do what I want, eat my own mutton with my feet under my own table. And to look after my own folk without asking any man’s leave to do it. That’s a good feeling.

“Medals are fine,” he said aloud. “But gold is sort of a more
tangible
mark of the Republic’s feelings. Speaking of which, you’re going to have to show a little more respect from now on.” He took out a pin with two small silver bars on it. “It’s Ranger Captain Peter Giernas from now on.”

“Diawas Pithair!” Eddie swore.

He and Jaditwara leaned over to slap him on the back and shoulder. Jared patted him, too, then went back to looking around, as alert as a cricket and fearless as a badger, beating time to the chanty with pudgy infant hands; a lot of others were doing that with beer mugs:

The waiter came back with more beer, and a large meaty bone, rawly fresh. Giernas snaffled it off the tray before anyone else could try giving it to Perks—no sense in taking a chance of spoiling a happy occasion and the youngster certainly meant well—and handed it under the table without looking down himself. The wolf-dog’s great murdering jaws took it; then slurping and cracking noises started to come from the floor by their feet. Perks wasn’t what you’d call a finicky eater ... but then, neither were a lot of the people here tonight. Spring Indigo was cutting up small pieces of her plateful and feeding them to Jared as she ate.

“Don’t grovel too much,” he said, swallowing and reaching for the mug again. “You three are lieutenants. I’m surprised the Council didn’t take Prelate Gomez’ job and give it to Spring Indigo here.”

“Good to have gold and rank,” Eddie nodded. “Now that I’m going to have a son to inherit my herds.”

“Or a
daughter
, maybe.” Jaditwara said sharply, looking at him with wry affection. “More to come, either way.”

Eddie nodded, sobering a bit. “Oath-brother, Chief—Sue, Indigo, my oath-sisters—I will miss you.”

“Hell, you planning on going further away than Long Island?” Giernas said. “That’s not too far for a visit now and then.”

The ex-Zarthani and the woman who’d been born to the Earth People looked at each other.

“New ’Sconset,” Eddie began.

“By the Silver River,” Jaditwara continued.

“They’re handing out land there,” Eddie said. “Oath-brother, you wouldn’t believe the land—
and
veterans are all getting a full section. So I’ll ...” he paused, yelped like a man who’d been kicked in the shin, “... we’ll have two square miles together.” He set his mug down with a thump. “But it means being very far away! I’ve half a mind—”

He cut off; Giernas was laughing again, and Sue and Spring Indigo along with him, laughing into his solemnity. Mercurial, his brows drew together in a scowl.

“Hell, Eddie,” Giernas said at last. “What do you think I was about to try and talk you into? There’s already a Ranger Captain here—they want another one down in New ’Sconset, to keep Hollard from falling over his thick Marine feet. They’ll be needing Rangers; there’s locals to deal with, not so many on the Pampas but lots up in the mountain country. Big stretch of unknown territory there! And scouting up along the coast ...”

This time they all laughed; even Jared, happy because the adults were. Giernas wiped the plate with a heel of bread and belched comfortably, waving for a glass of applejack with his beer, and some of the cherry cobbler. Sue caught his eye and drooped the lid over one of hers; he put an arm around her shoulders, and one around Spring Indigo’s waist.
Yeah,
the night is young.

“Land like you wouldn’t believe,” Eddie was enthusing. “Grazing fit for the Gods.” He looked at Spring Indigo. “Like your people’s country, oath-sister, tall grass to the horizon, but without the cold winters.”

“My people are here,” Indigo said, laying her head on Giernas’s shoulder. “But it will be good to have broad plains about me.”

“And to live by the sea,” Jaditwara said. “And see the stars of the southtands—something to teach my daughters.”

“Next-door ranches,” Sue said. “And we can afford to develop ’em in style—no living in sod huts for twenty years while we slave to pay off loans.”

“Good grazing and good hunting,” Eddie went on. “I can see it now, my hall—oh, all right, Jaddi, our hall—broad fields golden for the harvest, pastures, the colts kicking their heels in the morning mist.”

“A base,” Giernas nodded. “Home, somewhere to rest in-between times.”

The snowpeaks of the Andes floated before his mind’s eye, and Iguassu falls, and the Amazon, and condors wheeling over the step-pyramids of Cerro Sechin. He raised his mug.

“Drink to it—to new beginnings!”