JANISSARIES

"Are you certain nothing has changed, my husband-to-be?" Tylara asked. "The star men are divided. Sarakos has lost half his army. Is this nothing?"

"Is it enough?"

"I do not know. These are things you know," Tylara said: "But this I do know. Chelm is mine. Lamil left no other heir. You have heard how it fares with the people there. They die. There is endless war. The Time approaches.Do I not have a duty to them?

"Me? I've never been there-"

"You brought the star men here," Tylara said. "Now they are as wolves in the land. Have you no responsibility for this?" Tears welled in her eyes. "My love. My father feels as I do. If you truly believe that nothing can be done to rid the land of these evil men, then we will send Camithon on his way without aid. But I beg you, think on it."

She would have to say that. My responsibility. I brought them here. I didn't want to, and I- what the hell's the point in quibbling? I brought them. But damn it- "My university will be more important than you know," Rick said. "We can change this world. Should we risk all that merely to kill Sarakos?"

"My love, I know there is no other like you," Tylara said. There was no banter in her voice at all. "But can not the lady Gwen and the man Warner teach much of what you could?"

There went my last argument, Rick thought. Oh, damn it. "Yes. They can," he said. God help me, she's right. And nobody else can stop Parsons and Sarakos. Can I? Sarakos is no problem. His medium and heavy cavalry don't sound as effective as the Roman heavy troopers, and my pikemen have a lot more confidence now. But I still need massed formations, and Parsons has the mortar and at least a dozen riflemen-more than enough to scatter the pikes for Sarakos's heavies- Skirmishing archers could take Parsons, if we could get him on a decent killing ground. But he's too damn smart to be caught that way. He'll always have enough local cavalry with him to keep the archers at a distance. So how to get the Earth troops separated from the rest of the army- "You have a plan," she said. "I have seen that look before."

"Something Warner said. Tylara, even if everything works properly, a lot of people are going to be killed-"

"More than will die if we do nothing?"

"No. Not nearly so many." He sighed and took her in his arms. "I could have had my pick of a hundred women," he said. "I could have a hundred women. So of course I have to be in love with you." He kissed her. They stood close for a long time.

Then she pushed him gently away. "In spring," she said. "And for now-we must send food for Camithon's army before he loses more men and beasts to hunger."

"Yes." And a thousand other details. Summon the western clansmen and start drilling them in the new tactics. More pikes and arrows. Baggage and grain carts. Politics. Keeping the clans working together was hard enough; now they'd have Protector Camithon and the boy king to worry about as well.

And more details yet. Patrols to seal the passes and keep secret as long as possible the fact that Tamaerthon was arming for war. A second iron curtain so that when spies inevitably found that the clans were mobilizing they still wouldn't be able to report that they were drilling with pikes. And inside that the greatest secret of all.

"Why do you smile?" Tylara asked.

"It would take long to explain," Rick said. How could he tell her he'd thought of calling his i

They'd need a secure area to leach saltpeter from manure. His scholarship wasn't good enough to make sulfa drugs or penicillin, but something simple like that would be no problem at all. Saltpeter 75 percent, charcoal 15 percent, sulfur 10 percent: fifteen to three to two, a formula tested in war's caldron for centuries. And they'd need a gristmill with no metal parts in which to grind it.

And there'd be a thousand more details. The business of war. They sing ballads about heroes, but the details are what win campaigns.

Or lose them.

PART EIGHT:

JANISSARIES

1

Gwen's delivery had been difficult. The baby was large and she was small. She was many hours in difficult labor, and afterwards was laid up for weeks. She remembered few details. One vividly stayed in her mind: the moment when Yanulf laid her baby on her breast. That couldn't have been more than a few seconds after the boy was born.

She didn't remember telling Yanulf that the boy was to be called "Les," but she didn't regret that. Someday she'd be able to tell Les of his father and give him the message the pilot had left for his child.

It took a long time to regain strength. For weeks she could only nurse her son once a day. Fortunately two other children had been born a few days before Les, both to robust clanswomen with milk to spare. Later Gwen wondered if this had not been the origin of the ancient custom of godparents; without other women's aid, Les would have died.

Gradually she became aware of life outside her lodge. At first she took little interest beyond a feeling of bitterness that Rick and Mason had not returned from Tar Kartos and had not allowed Caradoc to return either. She had one letter from Rick, telling her that the university could begin the next summer, if the peace with Marselius held. She was delighted. Everything seemed to be going well.

Then she found that many of the young men were gone. All of the officers and noncoms of Rick's new model army had been summoned to Tar Kartos, as were the smiths. When she tried to find out why, she learned nothing. None of the women knew why their men had been sent to the western mountains. A few thought there would be another raid when the ice had melted in the lochs and passes, but no one was certain. There was no way to find out. For the first time since she'd come to Tran, Gwen was afraid that she'd lost control of the situation.

The suns stood at an angle of thirty degrees and the snows had melted in the lowe~r passes before Yanulf was allowed to visit Tar Kartos. He returned to tell her in great secrecy that Rick pla

"Aye, Lady," he said. "They tell me I will be able to return to Castle Dravan before Midsummer's Day. Even as we speak, the fiery axe runs through the Garioch."

Gwen was horrified. This was the ruin of all her plans. "But-this is madness! He makes war on the star men?"

"Aye. No one knows what the lord Rick intends, but it is said that he has a plan to destroy both the star men and Sarakos. I do know that he has every cart in the land carrying manure to a place near Tar Kartos where he has built a water mill."

Manure. "And he also gathers brimstone?"

Yanulf looked surprised. "Aye: Manure and brimstone. But I do not know what magic he can make with those."

"I do," Gwen said. Gunpowder. "Every cart in the land" was probably an exaggeration, but it still meant that Rick was making a lot of black powder. Why had he decided on war, black powder against machine guns? "Yanulf, I must speak with him," Gwen said.

"It would not be wise," the priest answered. "You have yet to regain your strength. Besides, the army marches as soon as the clans reach Tar Hastigar. You might not arrive before the war begins."

"Then it will be even more important that I speak with him."

"Your fear shows clearly," Yanulf said. "Do you not believe that the lord Rick will be able to defeat the star men? Drumold believes so-"

"I do not know," Gwen said. What can Rick be pla