Exodus from the Long Sun

“The sun.” Siyuf pointed up without looking upward. “This begin at the east and end at the west. That is only because we say it so, I know. Here you may speak different. But from East Pole to West Pole or West Pole to East. Your day in Viron is soon our day in Trivigaunte. Is that true?”

“Yes,” Silk said. “Of course.”

“Then what do you do to make your day so cold?”

Saba laughed, and Silk and Oosik joined her.

Quetzal seemed not to have heard, contemplating the ranked women passing before him through half-closed eyes. Studying him sidelong, Silk sensed a need, a longing, that he himself did not feel, and puzzled over it until he recalled that Saba had said that sacrifices were not offered in her city. The Chapter would be different there, quite possibly known by another name; each of the marching women was, in that case, a potential convert to Viron’s more dignified mode of worship. No wonder then that Quetzal eyed them so hungrily. To amend the religious thinking of even a few would be a signal accomplishment and a glorious conclusion to his long, meritorious career. Furthermore, there were thousands and thousands of them, the vast majority still young, still malleable, as Saba for example was not.

As if the comparison had stirred her to speech, Saba asked, “What do you think, Generalissimo? A fine body of women?”

Oosik declared that he had been favorably impressed.

“How old are they?” Silk inquired suddenly; he had not intended to speak.

“We take them at seventeen,” Saba told him. “There’s a year of training before they’re assigned to permanent units. After that we keep them four years.”

“Do you mean that they have to become troopers? What if one doesn’t want to?”

Saba pointed. “See that one with the big feet? And her over there, the tall one with a stripe?”

“At the end of the line? Yes, I see her.”

Saba pointed again. “There, that little fat one. None of them wanted to.”

“I see. I’m surprised you know these troopers so well, General. Is this group a part of your airship’s crew?”

“No, Calde.” Saba glanced across Siyuf’s head with the suppressed smile he had noticed earlier. “In weather like this we need everybody on board. I picked them by chance, but that’s the truth about them. Who’d want to be a trooper?”

Silk glanced at Oosik, who was looking at him; troopers in Viron served voluntarily.

Another band, then hundreds of saddleless horses herded by mounted men. Seeing Silk’s puzzled expression, Saba explained, “They’re remounts. When a trooper’s horse is shot, she has to fight on foot unless there’s a remount for her.”

Siyuf looked up at him. “Do you not have remounts for your own cavalry?” He found her steady eyes disconcerting.

Oosik said quickly, “Our practice is to issue two horses to each mounted trooper. He is responsible for their care, and is to ride them alternately unless one goes lame. In peacetime he rides one on one day and the other on the next.”

“You, Generalissimo. Were you a horse officer? We say cavalrywoman, but I do not think you will say that here. A cavalryman, I think?”

Oosik made her a small bow. “Correct, Generalissimo. No, I was not, nor are most of our officers. We have only one mounted company per brigade, though the second has two at present. My son is a cavalryman, however.”

For the first time, Siyuf smiled; seeing it, Silk could readily imagine her subordinates risking their lives to earn that smile. She said, “I hope to meet him. Tomorrow or the day after. We shall speak of horses.”

“He will be honored, Generalissimo. Unfortunately he is unwell at present.”

“I see.” She turned back to the parade, and her voice became indifferent. “It is sad that boys must fight here.”

Mules hauling ca

“Horses and camels do not make friends,” she said absently. “It is best we hold them apart. Mules are more…” She snapped her fingers.

“Easygoing,” Saba supplied. “They don’t mind camels as much as most horses do.”

“Does it really take eight to pull one of these big guns?”

“On your street of fine stones? No. But over our desert where is no road, many more sometimes. Then one must lend to another its mules and wait. I have seen sixteen unable to pull a single howitzer from the mud. That was not on this march, or we would not be here.”

Saba asked, “Didn’t you notice the mixed gun crews, Calde? I expected you to ask about them.”

Already the last ca

Silk said, “I’m accustomed to working with women, General. With Maytera Marble and Maytera Mint at my manteion, before I became calde — with Maytera Rose as well until she left us. Your mixed crews seem more normal to me than,” he groped for an inoffensive phrase, ending lamely, “than the other thing, just women or just men.”

“Men drive the mules and hump shells. They do those almost as well as women could. Women lay the guns and fire them.”

Siyuf asked, “Where is General Mint? Did you not call her Mother Mint just now? Or are there two of this name?”

“No, they’re the same person. She’s a sibyl as well as a general, just as I’m an augur as well as calde.” Silk was tempted to add that he hoped to drop the first soon.

“She marches with her troops today?”

“I’m afraid not.” A bare-faced lie would serve best, but he was unwilling to provide one. “We’re still engaged with the enemy, Generalissimo.”

If Siyuf suspected, nothing in her face revealed it. “I am sorry I do not meet her. Next you see camels.”

Silk, who had seen camels singly or in small caravans of a dozen or a score, had scarcely imagined that there were so many in the whorl — not hundreds but thousands, i

“They carried food, mostly,” Saba explained, “and oats and barley for the horses and mules. They’re lightly loaded now.”

Here was one of the most sensitive points. “You have to realize there’s very little food in Viron.” Silk picked his way among snares. “We’re delighted to have you, and we’ll do our best to feed you and your troops; but the harvest was bad, and our farmers have been hoarding food because of the fighting.”

“We know your difficulties.” Siyuf’s dust-colored cap and hunched shoulders spoke. “We will send out foraging parties.”

“Thank you,” Silk said. “That’s extremely kind of you.”

Oosik stared.

“Which reminds me,” Silk hurried on, “I’ve pla

“I must bring with me a staff officer.” Siyuf turned to face him. “This our custom demands. May I do this?”

“Of course. She will be very welcome.”

“Then I come. Saba also, if you wish it.”

“I certainly do,” Silk assured Siyuf.

Saba nodded reluctandy.

Oosik said, “You may rely upon me, Calde.”

“Thank you. And you, Your Cognizance?”

With the help of the baculus, Quetzal rose. “I’ve no food, Patera Calde. That’s what you’ll talk about, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure we will; we have that to discuss, along with many other things. You have wisdom, Your Cognizance, and we may need it more than food.”

“Then I’ll be there. I may even have suggestions.”