Clan and Crown

Gwen: a couple of the lookouts on Ben Harkon report seeing a "walking star" not long after dusk last night. From the path it's got to be a satellite. I'm going into town about the reaper. Good luck.

We'll need luck, she thought. They're up there looking for progress, and they'll find it. Then the bombs fall. Glory, why shouldn't I be afraid of the sky?

It's not the sky, it's who might be in that ship- I'm not afraid of Les.

No? Then who stuffed the transceiver into a bale of garta cloth, and what do you expect will happen when he calls and you don't answer?

I don't know. Maybe he'll go away and leave us alone.

Oh, that's what you want? I thought you wanted Les!

Sometimes.

Often.

Often, she admitted. But mostly I don't want to hurt the University. Or Caradoc- Or Rick?

Or Rick.

Because he's saving the world? Or because there's a chance, just a chance, that he might tell Tylara to go to hell and come shack up with you? Who do you want? Rick, Les, Caradoc-or all of them? At once or one at a time?

"Shut up!" Her hands found a Roman crystal pitcher. She hurled it against the desk. It caromed off a stack of papers and shattered against the wall. Then she sat still for what seemed a long time despite the work she had to do.

"My lady?"

Gwen looked up to see Marva. "Yes?"

"The Lord Campbell is here to speak with you." Marva eyed the wine spilled on the desk and the broken glass on the floor. "Shall I have that cleaned?"

"Yes, please."

Marva took a small bell from her sleeve. Two servant girls came in to mop up the floor as Marva tidied the desk and blotted wine from the papers.

"Do you like it here?" Gwen asked in English.

Marva hesitated. "Yes, my lady. It is"-she groped for the word-"useless to wish for what can not be."

Whatever that is, Gwen thought. What might you wish for? Your husband again? Ben Murphy? Fortunately for me, you can't have either one.

Lafe Reznick's second widow had become nearly indispensable, a combination of housekeeper, lady in waiting, secretary, and den mother. The students saw her as nobility, the widow of a star lord, yet someone they could speak with. Much information came to Marva, but she gave little in return, except to Gwen.

"You may bring Lord Campbell now, if you please, my lady," Gwen said.

"Yes, my lady." Marva ushered the servants out.

Gwen patted her hair into place and tried to look calm as the red-haired engineering professor came into her office. "Yes, Bill? What can I do for you?"

"Steel," Campbell said. "I need a lot more, and I don't have it."

"For the reaper?"

"Yeah."

"Larry's gone into town about that-"

"He won't get anywhere. All the locals claim they've paid their taxes. They have, too. But Lord Rick wants a goddam progress report every goddam night!' Now what am I going to do?"

"You're going to stop shouting at me and have some wine, to begin with."

Campbell started to say something, but caught himself. Then he gri

"Oh-" She pulled the bell cord. Marva came in almost instantly. She was followed by one of the girls with a new pitcher and goblets.

"Good service," Campbell said. "Thanks, Marva, I can handle things now."

"Yes, my lord-" Marva indicated a place for the tray, waited until the girl had put it down, and waved her out. "Will there be anything more, my lady?"

"Thank you, no-"

"I will wait outside."

"Cold one, that," Campbell said when Marva had gone.

"You're not polite to her."

"The hell I'm not-"

"You're not," Gwen said. "You call her by her first name-"

"Just to be friendly. She speaks English-"

"But she is not an American, Bill. You and I can talk informally, and you think because you say it in English you can talk that way to Marva, but you can't. Bill, Caradoc calls me 'my lady' most of the time. And have you noticed the way Rick speaks to Tylara?"

"Well, sure, but Tylara's one of the great ones-"

"Marva is noble," Gwen said. "To you it may seem a little silly that she's something special because your friend Lafe Reznick married her, but to her it's not." She threw up her hands. "Anyway, that's why she seems cold toward you. Call her 'my lady' once in a while. She'll warm up fast. Now what about your iron?"

"The Romans have iron."

"I'm aware of it."

"Can you get me some?"

"I'm also aware of what they'll want. Guns and gunpowder, and we don't have any to spare. But something just came in that may change things." Gwen flipped through soggy papers on her desk until she found the one she wanted. "Intelligence reports. The Romans will have a big harvest this year, and they're very low on slaves to bring it in. If you could have your reaper-"

"If I can produce something that works, the Captain will send it west. No matter how good I am, there won't be enough equipment to send to the Romans. Not this year."

Gwen shuddered.

"What's the matter?"

"I can't trade them guns, and I can't promise them a reaper. There's only one thing I can send."

"Yeah." Bill Campbell went over to the window and looked out onto the University quadrangle. He spoke without turning back toward her. "They tell me the life of a Roman slave isn't so bad. No worse than peasants in Drantos."

"I'll keep telling myself that," Gwen said. "Maybe if I tell myself often enough, I'll believe it. Meanwhile-"

"Meanwhile I'll send some troopers out into the Pirate Lands," Campbell said. "Those people will drown or starve within the year anyway. Best to do it quick, before the so-called roads are too muddy. It's starting to rain again."

"That should help the crops," Gwen said. She smiled grimly to herself. Also, the clouds will hide the sky…

Mad Bear woke to the sound of screaming horses, but he could not comprehend. Walking Eagle, chief of the Two Waters, had been generous when Mad Bear's band left him to return to their own Silver Wolves.

His farewell gifts had included a barrel of the strong water the Green Lands folk made from grapes. It made men sleep sounder than beer or fermented mare's milk ever could, and Mad Bear had sat late drinking with Hinuta.

Another horse screamed in agony. Mad Bear leaped from his pallet. Then the sky itself screamed, and then there was a great sound, much like the sound the wizard-weapons made, and there was enough light to brighten the inside of the tent although the flaps were closed against the death bird. The captured slave woman squealed like a ranwang and burrowed under the hides.

Mad Bear ignored her and grasped his weapons. He saw clearly now. The wizards were attacking the camp. Attacking at night. Walking Eagle had said the wizards controlled demons. Did they then own the demons which made the night dangerous for the Horse People? They seemed to have no fear of them.

Well, the night will not be long. Suns climb the, sky, and then we will have vengeance. He untied the, tent flaps and went outside. Tents were burning, but, the camp was lit brighter than burning tents could have made it. The sky screamed again, and there were more of the thunder sounds.

"UP! UP!" Mad Bear ran among his people. "To arms! Or will you allow the wizards to slaughter you like wolves bringing down a sick horse? Up, up!"

He was nearly trampled by a pain-maddened horse. It galloped past in panic, its mane on fire. Mad Bear leaped aside and fell, and again he heard the sky screaming. This time he saw it, a trail of fire across the night skies. It fell into the camp and there was more wizard-thunder, with flame and smoke..

The shaman Tangra'al rushed from his tent and raved at the skies. He screamed the old legends, of skyfire and folk who rode across the sky in iron chariots. They were stories from Mad Bear's childhood, and he felt a tingle at his spine as he remembered; but he dashed at the shaman and struck him so that Tangra'al fell to the ground.