Clan and Crown

It had been hard to persuade some of the veterans that there was honor in staying behind to train new troopers. They all wanted to go out with the column. Rick shook his head and turned back to watching the road.

After Caradoc and his personal guard came more troops, mostly Romans under their legate Titus Frugi. Tylara had been surprised at Caesar's choice of commanders, but Rick thought it made excellent sense. Frugi was a good general; and he couldn't possibly be tempted to revolt when at the head of a single legion stationed deep within the territory of Marselius's most powerful friends.

Finally, nearly a mile behind the column's point riders, rode Wanax Ganton with Camithon, Tylara and her children, and Lady Octavia. Perhaps because the ladies were traveling with him, it had not been dif~* ficult to persuade Ganton to take a safe place in the middle of the column rather than be at its front. "Roman generals do not risk their troops by acts of foolish bravado," Rick had said, and perhaps that had also stung the young king.

"He'll do," Rick said aloud.

Gwen had put down the binoculars now that Caradoc was out of sight. She looked very attractive in her skirt cut off just below the tops of her boots. It would have been thought scandalously short, except that she'd started a new fashion; now half the young women of Drantos had whacked off their skirts. "Who'll do?" she asked.

"Ganton."

"I think you're right," Gwen said. "He seems sensible enough." She giggled. "Handsome, too, but I feel sorry for his lady friend just now. I hope he doesn't get over-amorous for a few weeks-not until he's willing to take that pistol off! I'm sure he'd wear it to bed."

"I can't imagine that Octavia is sleeping with him," Rick said.

"Not yet," Gwen agreed. "But don't make book for the summer. She likes him. Sure, he's a good catch, and the throne of Drantos is probably safer than anything Caesar's relatives can expect just now. But Rick, she really likes him."

"Interesting. He's pretty thoroughly smitten too. Can it be we jaded old dynastic manipulators have made a love match?"

"I hope so," Gwen said seriously. She sighed. "Or do we believe in love matches any more?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. You've got Tylara-would you stay with her if she were a peasant's daughter?"

"Gwen, I hated seeing her ride off today!" And my children "That's not what I asked. You know damned well you wouldn't have married her if she hadn't been important," Gwen said. "Love and marriage. Or marriage and then love. Or just marriage. Any of those seems to work, doesn't it?"

The middle of the column vanished over the crown of a far hill. Just as they disappeared, Rick thought he made out long dark hair tossing in the wind, and a wave of her hand. He closed up the binoculars. "I thought you were in love with Caradoc."

"What's love?" she asked. "I respect him. I care for him, and he protects me. Sometimes from myself."

The shadows were getting long. Rick led the way down from the tower. It stood above his apartments. An oil lamp had been lighted at his table, and a large pitcher of wine stood next to it. "Di

"Sure."

He poured and handed her a goblet. "I really thought you were in love with Caradoc."

"Oh, let it alone, Rick. I am, I guess. But-well it's not really the same. I wouldn't-I wouldn't get on a flying saucer for Caradoc. But he isn't going to ask me, either. And what about you? Don't you sometimes get enough of your raven-haired contessa's dynastic ambitions?"

"Come on, she's wonderful! Who else could I trust to hold the strongest castle on Tran?"

"So do you keep her for love or advantage? You needn't answer. Just as I don't have to answer you." She sipped the wine. "This is quite good."

"Yeah, it turns out Sergeant Lewin used to live in the California wine country. He's been giving them tips."

She sipped again. "Rick, when will they come?"

"Who?"

"The Shainuksis."

"I've got skywatchers looking for satellites from Tamaerthon to Dravan-you've got as good an idea as I have, Gwen."

"Mostly I'm reminding you of something. Wine. Hammer mills. Printing presses. If they see real changes on Tran, they'll do a lot to wipe them out."

Rick sat heavily. "Yeah, I know. But we have to do something for these people! Gwen, I was out there in the surinomaz fields last week. Week. Hah. We don't even have weeks. But I was out there, listening politely while Apelles told me about the cavalry patrols that herd the peasants back to work-have you seen surinomaz? I'd imagine working in that stuff is as close to hell as you can get. And I'm making people do it!"

"Rick, you've no choice-"

"Like hell I don't. I could run. Vanish somewhere."

"That wouldn't be very smart," Gwen said. "In the first place, you wouldn't like it much, hiding out. But suppose you did. Are you mad enough to suppose that one of your men wouldn't try growing surinomaz? Or that any of them would be gentler than you? Do you really think anyone cares what happens to peasants?"

"You do."

"Maybe a little," she said.

"I think that's the worst of it," Rick said. "Nobody really gives a damn. Even Tylara thinks I'm crazy, worrying about people who aren't clansmen-"

"It's going to get worse, too," Gwen said. "And you're avoiding the subject, which is how far can you go in making changes before the Shalnuksis bomb you out?"

"Yeah, but look, if we disperse knowledge far enough, the Shalnuksis won't dare try to destroy everything. They'd have to drop enough bombs to make the planet uninhabitable, and that would ruin their little drug racket. They can't risk that…

"Can't they?" She shrugged. "Rick, I don't know. Les may have known, but he didn't tell me that much.

I do know the Shalnuksis are afraid of wild humans.

Another thing, suppose what we do-"

Her look of fear was contagious. Rick automatically lowered his voice. "Suppose what?"

"That what we do gets back to the Confederacy. That they find out Tran exists. Then it wouldn't be Shalnuksi businessmen we'd have to deal with. It might be somebody who thinks this whole planet is a cancer!"

"Christ almighty! But how would they know?"

She laughed. "A hundred ways. The Shalnuksis tell them. They send a human pilot and he tells them. Inspector Agzaral decides to make a new deal. Rick, I don't know, I can only make guesses from what Les told me."

"Yeah. But-Gwen, I don't know either, but I do know I've got to do something!"

"To assuage your conscience," she said. "You're forcing the peasants to work the fields, so you need a higher cause to justify it."

"I-yeah, I guess that is it," Rick said.

"So why are you ashamed of being ethical?" Gwen asked. "For that matter, you have a higher cause. The University, for example. Rick, did you ever read a book called Co

"I saw several of the TV episodes."

"Well, I wish we had that book," Gwen said. "But I can remember some of it. How glass-making led to a shortage of wood, and that made coal valuable, and coal mining needed pumps, and that resulted in the steam engine. And acetylene, and illuminating gas, and coal tar-Rick, we've already changed life on Tran, it's just that you can't see the changes from orbit. Unless you've studied Earth history, you wouldn't see them no matter how closely you looked. There are a hundred students who think now. Maybe not well, but they ask questions, they wonder why things happen, and they know the difference between chemistry and alchemy. We'll send them all over the planet."

"That's your work."

"No, it's yours," Gwen said. "I know who keeps the University going. If it survives-"

"Your University has to survive," Rick said.

"Ours. And I want it to, but we can't be sure."