Sheepfarmers Daughter (15 page)

"First," said the Duke, "you need to drink this, and eat a little; then I want to know what happened. What
you
saw." Paks dragged her eyes back up and saw once more the gold—tooled wineskin she'd seen the night of the battle. "Try to sit up." Paks found she was weak, but able to rise on one elbow. She took the wineskin. "It's watered," said the Duke. "It shouldn't knock you out. Here — have some bread." He bit the end off a loaf and handed her the rest. Paks tore off a hunk and took a swallow of wine. She wondered how long she'd slept, and when the Duke had arrived, but under his eye she ate as he directed.

"Now," said the Duke, when she had choked down most of the bread. "Take your time, but tell it all, from the beginning. I want to know everything you can remember about the attack."

Paks blushed. "Well — sir — my lord — I was asleep. Then someone screamed, and the wagon bumped. I saw Vanza jumping out the back, and out the front were riders in red, with a black wolf's head on the front — "

"On the back as well?"

Paks thought a moment. "No — I don't think so. Just the front. Then I saw our driver'd been shot, so I tried to get the reins. The mules were scared. Varne helped me pull the driver into the wagon. One of the attackers tried to grab the lead mules' reins, but they swerved away — "

"Were you driving, or — "

"Yes, sir, I was — but I wasn't sure which reins were which. It seemed like a lot — I jerked the ones that were tightest, and the mules veered — "

"Go on."

"Then the rider turned and came at the wagon, so I pulled the other reins, and the wagon ran into his horse — "

"What did he look like?"

"The rider? He had a mask on."

"A mask? Not a — wait — have you seen anything but open helmets? Have you seen a knight's helmet, with the visor down?"

"Yes, sir. Sergeant Stammel showed us that in training. This was different. He had an open helmet over chain mail, but a mask over his face — it was some kind of cloth; I saw it ripple."

"Aha!" The Duke slammed his fist onto his thigh. "Very good. Go on — what else?"

"He seemed heavy — broad in the shoulders. Taller than Sergeant Stammel, I think. He had something on the shoulder of his tunic that glittered. The horse had no barding, but it was a war saddle, and the blanket was black with a red stripe.

"What color was the horse?"

"Light brown, dappled, with a pale mane and tail. All the others were dark, but for the spotted one."

"Spotted?"

"Yes, sir. One was black and white spotted. Now that I think of it, that one was smaller — we went by it in the trees."

"What sort of rider on the spotted one?"

Paks shook her head. "I'm sorry — I don't remember — "

"But you're sure of the horses?"

"Yes, sir — though I don't know that I saw all of them. We were moving too fast, and I was trying to steer around things, but I didn't see the stream until we were almost into it. So I broke the wagon — " Paks faltered, remembering Stammel's lectures on damaged equipment.

"Hmm." The Duke's eyes crinkled. "Are you an experienced teamster?"

Paks looked down. "No, sir — my lord."

"That's all right then. Not your equipment." Paks looked up, still worried. "Tir's bones, girl, that wagon's the least of my concerns. I've lost fighters here. A wagon's nothing — you did well. But I want to know who — " he bounced his fist on his thigh for emphasis, " — and why and how anyone would attack a caravan of wounded. No treasure — no ranking prisoners to ransom — and they must know this'll bring my Company down on them. It's costing me now, but it'll cost them — " his voice trailed off, and Paks almost flinched at the look in his eyes. He glanced back at her and half—smiled. "You were just promoted, right? Paks, isn't it?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Well, Paks, you've had the most expensive healing I hope you'll ever need, and you should be ready to fight in a day or so. The next time you see those red tunics, you'll have a weapon in hand. I'll expect you to fight as well as you did in your first battle." The Duke stood. "No — don't try to get up yet. The surgeon will clear you for that." Paks watched as he strode away, cloak swirling around his tall boots.

Paks looked at her leg, no longer wound in bandages. A red scar showed the line of the wound, but it looked nothing like the deep gash it had been. She wondered what they had done — how it had healed so fast — and why they hadn't healed it that way in the first place. She looked around. The makeshift camp was bigger than she'd supposed. Smoke rose from a fire near the stream crossing; loud clangs revealed a smith at work. Across the clearing, the Duke was talking to a short man in plate armor. They headed for a tent, maroon and white striped. A man in green livery led a big warhorse still lathered in sweat. Another led three lighter mounts. On the track away from the stream, the remains of the caravan clogged the way. Two burnt—out wagons, one unburned, but missing a wheel, dead mules. As she watched, a group of soldiers dragged a mule into the forest. She wondered what had happened to the other wounded; she didn't see any of them. Had they all died? Callexon hadn't looked that bad—She saw the surgeon and Vanza approaching.

"How do you feel?" asked the surgeon.

"Fine," said Paks. "Can I get up?"

"Yes — you'll be weaker than you think; you lost a lot of blood." Vanza reached down an arm, and Paks pulled herself up. She felt dizzy at first, but it passed quickly. "Try walking," said the surgeon. She took a step, then another. She felt no pain, but she was shaky. "That's expected," the surgeon reassured her. "Don't push yourself for the next day or so — rest when you're tired. Eat and drink as much as you can." He turned away. Paks looked at Vanza.

"Where are the others? Were they all — "

"No. Not all." He sighed. "We lost more than we should, though. I still can't believe it. No one does this — I knew the Wolf Prince was bad, but even he — "

"Is that who it was?"

"It must have been. You saw the wolf's head, didn't you?"

"Yes. But I'm confused — "

"We all are. Now — all you wounded are being healed, as you were, by the Duke's command. For today, stay close. You can help with food, and that sort of thing, but don't try to do too much — no hauling mules around."

"But — what did that Master Vetrifuge do? And why not do it all the time, if it works so well?"

Vanza stopped short and gave her a startled look. "You mean you don't know about magical healing?"

"No. Effa said something about St. Gird, but — "

"That's different. Or somewhat different. Let me see — first of all,

Master Vetrifuge is a mage. Wizard, they're called in the north. Surely you've heard of them?"

"Yes, but — "

'Just listen. Some mages specialize in one sort of magic; healing magic is one particular kind of magic. I don't know how it works — I'm no mage. It's great learning, I've been told, and great power—but whether of a god, or the mage himself, I don't know. But healing mages can heal wounds, if they aren't too bad. Too old, say, or full of fever. Sometimes they can heal diseases, though not so well. But it takes a lot of money. Mages don't work for nothing."

"What about potions?"

"You had that too? Mages make potions, to speed healing. Those are even more expensive; don't ask me why. Our surgeons always have a few of these, but of course they don't use them most of the time."

Paks frowned. "Why not? If wounds could be healed so fast — "

"Because of the cost. Paks, the Duke will have spent the whole contract's profit, I don't doubt, just healing the few of you here. No one could afford to have every wound magically healed. It's cheaper to train and hire new fighters. Our Duke is one of the few I've heard of who will use such healing at all for his common soldiers."

"Oh." Paks thought about it. She had no way of valuing things, but it seemed strange that a tiny vial of liquid, however rare, could be more costly than a person. "But what did Effa mean, then?"

"About St. Gird?" Paks nodded. "Well, the gods can heal, if they will. Those who serve them — Marshals of Gird, or Captains of Falk, or whatever — have the power to ask healing of the gods and have it granted. Before my time, the Duke was friendly with Girdsmen — I even heard he was one himself— and had a Marshal with the Company for healing. I've seen men who say they were healed that way."

"Does that cost so much?"

"Well — I can't say. They usually heal their own, and no one else: Marshals heal Girdsman, and Captains heal Falkians. I'd think it would cost, though maybe not in gold. Why should a god give healing for nothing?"

"The gods give rain and wind for nothing, and sunlight."

"For nothing? Surely your people gave back, wherever you're from — " Vanza stared at her. Paks remembered the little shrines by the well and the corners of her father's fields; the tufts of barley and oats, and the lamb's blood they left there. For an instant she felt cold as she realized how close she had come to impiety.

"You're right," she said quickly. "But the gods have the power to give as they choose, whatever gifts we give. That's what I meant, that we give gifts, we do not compel." She hoped that was what she'd meant.

He nodded. "True, no one can compel —but they are honorable, or the good ones are, and generous." He nodded to her and went away. Paks stared after him, thoughtfully. Wizards ... magical healing ... somehow when she'd heard of magic potions in songs, she'd never thought of the cost in gold. Or lives.

The next day Cracolnya's cohort marched in. Pont, his junior captain, escorted the survivors back to the Company's camp while the Duke, Cracolnya, and most of that cohort went on to Valdaire.

"I thought the Czardians were defeated," said Callexon. "What happened?"

Erial, the junior sergeant in Cracolnya's cohort, chuckled. "They were. But they'd hired a mercenary band to help them, only it was late. Then the Duke pulled us out — so when their hirelings finally arrived, they quit talking to Foss Council again and decided to fight for it." She paused to wipe the sweat from her face. "Won't do them any good. As long as Foss Council still has three cohorts in the field, and we have two — "

"Who'd they hire?" Varne's face still looked patchy and pink, but she was otherwise healthy.

"Some southern company. We don't have to worry; they won't be any better than the Czardian militia."

"Unless they've got the Free Pikes," said Vanza.

Erial looked startled. "I never thought of that—they hardly ever hire out."

"Who are the Free Pikes?" asked Paks.

"The only decent southern company," said Erial. "They're from the high mountains in the southwest— I think they call it Horngard."

"That's right," said Vanza. "They don't hire out much — they fight in defense, or if their land needs money. But when they fight — !" He shook his head.

But the Czardians did not have the Free Pikes; they had hired, Stammel explained, a renegade baron of the Sier of Westland and his so—called knights. They were best known for their woodswork — sneaking into enemy lines at night to kill sleeping men, or steal supplies, or start fires — but could put up a respectable fight on the field, as well.

Paks had hardly realized, in the excitement of her first battle, that the Duke's Company was not fighting alone. Now she had a look at the Foss Council militia. They wore short gray tunics over trousers of bright red (from Foss) or green (from Ifoss); they carried short straight swords and light throwing javelins. Foss Council held the right wing of their position; their camp, like the Duke's, was in the forest. Trees ended on a gentle slope, opening on a wide expanse of grass and sedge that faced another tree—shaded ridge some distance away. To the left, the trees made an arc con—necting the two ridges; to the right, the grassy meadow grew wetter, finally producing a stream that trickled away to the north.

When the next battle came, two days later, Paks was more than ready for it. Someone had made it through the lines; Arfte was in the surgeon's care with a knife wound, and Kir of Dorrin's cohort was dead. Even so, her breath came short as the two lines closed. For an instant she was even more frightened than the first time — she could feel the sickening blow that had opened her leg. She thrust the thought away angrily as the remembered noise and confusion swept over her. This time she was able to keep her head, battering at the enemy stroke after stroke. She was aware of the man beside her, able to adjust her strokes to his so that they fought as a unit. It seemed to last forever: dust, noise, confusion, the rising and falling blades. Then the ground softened under her feet. She realized that they had advanced to the center of the field, where mud churned up instead of water.

Some time after midday, both sides withdrew a space. Paks drained her water flask and wiped sweat from her face. She had come through uninjured. Her stomach growled — a long time since breakfast. They stood quiet in formation: across the way the enemy lines shifted, milling.

"Pass your flask back," said Donag, handing her his. "They'll send water forward." Soon the dripping flasks returned, and they drank. Slabs of bread came forward, then more water. Paks ate hungrily. When she looked again, the enemy seemed a little further away. She nudged Kiri beside her.

"They're giving back," he said. "Don't look at 'em, and maybe they'll go all the way."

"But what does it mean?"

"Means they don't want to fight the rest of the day. Fine with me — it's too blazin' hot anyway."

And in fact the enemy were soon back in their own camp, and to Paks's surprise they were not sent in pursuit. In the next week, before the Duke returned, they fought several such inconclusive engagements.

"Why don't they want to fight and win?" she asked one night.

"Don't complain," said Donag. "If they wanted to win — I suppose you mean Foss Council? — it'd be our blood on the ground, and not their militia's. Think about it. They want to win, but what they want to win is whatever it is they're fighting about: where a border is, or a caravan tariff, or something like that. If they can convince Czardas to yield on that, without us having to cut our way through the entire Czardian army, so much the better."

"But — " began Arñe, now back from the surgeons.

"No buts," interrupted Donag. "Tir's guts, you idiots! You'll get all the fighting you've stomach for by the time you make corporal — if you live that long. Don't look for trouble. It's your profession — it'll come to you."

When the Duke returned, everything changed again. With Cracolnya's archers, he decided to change ground. Under cover of darkness they slipped far to the left of their previous position. This left a gap between the Duke's Company and Foss Council's troops, and confused the novices almost as much as the enemy. Paks worried about the militia, and even more about what they might think.

"Don't be silly," said Canna. She had seen this before. "They're moving too. It's a trap, if it works, and a good move even if it doesn't."

They made it to the Duke's chosen field without interference, and Stammel explained how it was better for their purposes than the other one.

"He wants to use our archers. So far the Czardians haven't shown us any, so we don't have to worry. But look — the mixed cohort will be up there — " he pointed. "They can't get to 'em on foot or horse, but they'll be in range to feel it when Cracolnya opens up. Just watch it come."

As Stammel predicted, the Czardian forces gave way once the Duke's archers opened on them. Paks, watching the enemy ranks melt away, was glad the Czardians could not counterattack in kind. The Duke ordered a pursuit, and they began several weeks of constant movement and fighting. Although they never fought the Czardians to a finish, each time they met it was on ground of the Duke's choosing, and each time the Czardians slipped away, losing ground, back toward their city. When its walls came in sight, the Duke sent two cohorts around to the south, to stop traffic on the southern caravan route, while the other cohort and the Foss Council militia harried the Czardians. A few days after that, the campaign was over. Incoming caravans paid their tolls directly to the Foss Council commander, and he had a treaty to take back to their Table of Councilors.

"You had a good campaign for your first one," Stammel told the new privates in his cohort. "Some set battles — good moving engagements — enough fighting, but nothing really hard. And we'll be doing garrison work or caravan work the rest of the season, so you'll have a chance to learn that."

"What?" Arñe sounded as surprised as Paks felt.

"Yes. Any year a campaign doesn't last the season — which is most years — we're hired as caravan guards or garrison troops for the rest of it. Foss Council wants us to garrison the border forts between them and Czardas, for instance — "

"But — when do we get to go to a city — ?"

"He means, when do we get paid?" Vik interrupted Malek.

Stammel laughed. "Ah — thinking like real mercenaries! I expect when Foss Council pays the Duke — which shouldn't be long — it'll trickle down to you. And if we're close enough to a city or town, you might have a little time to waste your pay."