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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
WAR RECALLED
The celebrations continued for days. Monks’ cells in the hollow of the walls of the great Temple lay empty as even the silent orders found release from their vows. Songs of triumph rose from the massive brooding walls to blend with the Te Deum sung in the Temple Sanctuary.
MacKi
The stars belonged to the Empire of Man, and looking up at the myriad of lights MacKi
“Sir?”
He turned at Stark’s approach. “Yes, Hal?”
“I brought the shipmaster.”
MacKi
Loholo stood respectfully and waited for MacKi
“Shipmaster, I must return to Jikar. When can we sail?” MacKi
Loholo shrugged. “She is ready now. It will be no easy journey. Much of the time the wind will be in our faces. There is better trading to the east and south … and there will be storms.”
“Aye.” MacKi
“East?” You believe the tales that Makassar is round — but you would know, star man. You would know.” Loholo shrugged, jingling the golden ornaments he wore. His curved dagger bore new jewels on the hilt, and there were new rings on his fingers. “I have known of men who believed the world round and sailed east to reach the western shores,” he said. “But I never heard of one who arrived. Trader, there are shoals west of Jikar, and there are pirates throughout the islands. Subao is faster than they, but there are many pirates. Those are the western waters I know. What else may lay between here and there—” He shrugged again to a jingle of gold. “Only God knows.”
God and the Imperial Navy, MacKi
“So soon? You will hardly have time to buy a cargo. It would be much better to wait until next season.”
“No. I must reach Jikar in two hundred days,” MacKi
Loholo chuckled. “Then you will have an uncomfortable voyage. Two thousand klamaters in two hundred days.” The sea captain laughed again. “In this season. Well, Subao can withstand that — but can you? And why leave Batav at all? You rule here. The priestly star man is Ultimate Holiness, but he came to the throne on your pikes, and did not your pikemen hold the city the old council would elect a new Holiness inside three days.”
“And that’s a fact,” Stark said. “There’s some in the new council who’d support Casteliano, but you can’t expect all them old Archdeacons to take kindly to the Imperial missionaries movin’ in on ’em like that. Mister Loholo’s right, there’d be civil war if it wasn’t that our troops hold all the strong points.”
“Which means I can’t take the whole army across the plains,” MacKi
“They’re not likely to come,” Stark observed.
“Exactly. And they won’t continue helping us if we take them as prisoners.” MacKi
“Trader?” Loholo made no move to leave.
“Yes?”
“Trader, you promised me Subao when we returned to Jikar.”
“She’ll be yours, Mister Loholo.”
“Aye. Then with your permission I’ll get back to her. There’s still work to be done. Bottom to be scraped, new water barrels, provisions — but if there’s a place by water on this world that you want to go to, I’ll take you, even if we pass every pirate in the shallows!” Loholo fingered the golden skull ornament at his left ear. “You’re the strangest man I’ve ever seen, Trader. You’ve shown us how to make ships sail better than we ever knew. You trained an army of city rabble and took them out to whip the barbarians after the Temple people gave up. Now you’re in command of the Temple and all Batav, and you want to return to Jikar! Most men would rather stay here as king — andthere’d be no nonsense about it, either. You’ve only to say the word-”
“And you could be my High Admiral, Mister Loholo?”
“No, sir. Your star man Captain MacLean would have that post, and I’m not that ambitious. Subao’s enough for me, star man. A good ship and open sea’s all my father wanted for any of his children.”
Loholo began the long descent down the stone stairway to the street below, and MacKi
And then what? “Getting control of that damned library was easier than letting loose,” MacKi
“I doubt it. Not without a good commander who knows how you fight.”
“Could Brett hold the Temple?” MacKi
Stark shrugged. “He’s maybe smart enough, but they’d never trust him. He was raised a mari, sure enough, and it shows. Nobody’s going to put him in command.
“Then who can do it?”
“You.”
“And no one else, Sergeant?”
“Not that I know of, Colonel. You built this army, and you know what it can do. The others don’t think like you.”
“And that worries you?” MacKi
“Don’t get paid to worry,” Stark said automatically. “Except-”
He’s in a strange mood, MacKi
“You know,” Stark said, “Mister Loholo’s got a point, Colonel. A year ago we was down to it, looking for a place fightin’ in some petty war on South Continent and wonderin’ how to pay the rent on a flophouse until we found something. We never expected to find anything as good as we’ve got now.”
“I gave Dougal my word, and I swore allegiance to King David,” MacKi
“After Haven used the goddam Empire to bake half our Wolves, Colonel! They’d never have took Orleans without the Imperial Marines … and then they turned you out like an old dog! What do we really owe Haven, Colonel? What do we owe anybody?”
MacKi