The Complete Empire Trilogy. Janny Wurts
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father: doubts could only cripple one’s ability to act decisively; and in the Game of the Council, to hesitate was to die.
To avoid dwelling on weakness, Mara peered through a crack in the curtains at the newly recruited Acoma retainers. Despite soiled clothing, haggard faces, arms like sticks, and eyes of frightened animals, these men were soldiers, yet now Mara recognized a quality in them she had failed to see before: these outlaws, even the roguish Lujan, had been just as frightened as she. Mara found that perplexing, until she reconsidered the ambush from their perspective. Despite being outnumbered, the Acoma warriors were all battle-tested soldiers, properly armed and fit. Some of these grey warriors hadn’t seen a decent meal in a year. And their weapons were an odd assortment of discarded, stolen, or crudely fashioned swords and knives. Only a few had anything like a shield and none wore body armour. No, thought Mara, many of those sad, desperate men must have expected some of their unfortunate brotherhood to die this day. And each would have wondered if he’d be among that number.
The men marched unaware of their mistress’s observation. Their faces revealed a play of other emotions, among them hope and the fear of false hope. Mara sank back upon the cushions, absently focusing on the colourful design of the litter’s tapestry covering. How had she suddenly come to see all these things in these men’s faces? Could her fear have triggered some perceptiveness she had not understood within herself? Then, as if her brother, Lanokota, sat beside her, memory of his presence filled her mind. If she closed her eyes she could hear him whisper, ‘You are growing up, little sister.’
Suddenly Mara could no longer contain her tears. Now her weeping did not arise from sorrow but from a jubilant upwelling similar to the joy she had known when Lano had last won the summer games in Sulan-Qu. On that day Mara and her father had cheered like peasants from the stands, for a time unconcerned with the mores of social status and decorum; only now her emotions swept her tenfold more powerfully.
She had won. She had tasted her first victory in the Game of the Council, and the experience whetted her wits, left her yearning for something more and greater. For the first time in life she understood why the great Lords strove, and even died, for the chance to gain in honour.
Smiling through the tracks of tears, she allowed the motion of the litter to relax her body. No one she faced across the invisible gaming table of Tsurani politics would know of this move, at least not directly and not for some time. But where Minwanabi treachery had reduced the Acoma home garrison to fifty soldiers, she now commanded the loyalty of better than two hundred. Since grey warriors were scattered in hideouts the breadth of the Empire, she could employ these men to recruit more. Should she gain but another week from her sending the box with the feather and cord to the Lord of the Minwanabi, then she might have five hundred or more soldiers to offset his next threat. Mara felt joyous. She knew victory! And two voices arose from memory. On one hand the teaching sister said, ‘Child, be wary of the lure of power and triumph, for all such things are transitory.’ But Lano’s impetuous voice urged her to appreciate her accomplishments. ‘Enjoy victory while you can, Mara-anni. Enjoy it while you can.’
Mara lay back, tired enough to set her mind at rest. As her slaves bore her homeward through the deepening shadows of sundown, she smiled slightly in the privacy of her litter. While she knew that her situation was still almost hopeless, she was going to take Lano’s advice. Life must be savoured while it lasted.
The wagon wheels creaked and turned and the needra snorted, while the dust of tramping men turned the air ochre and gold. Sunset faded slowly to twilight as Mara’s unlikely caravan with its ill-assorted company of men-at-arms made its way down the road to the Acoma estate.
The torches by the main door of the estate house lit a courtyard thrown into confusion. The earlier arrival of the formerly masterless workers and farmers has busied Jican and his staff to the exclusion of all else, as meals and quarters and jobs were meted out to all. When Mara’s caravan returned on the edge of nightfall with Lujan’s ragged, underfed warriors, the hadonra threw his hands in the air and begged the gods for an end to an impossible day’s work. Hungry himself, and by now resigned to a tongue-lashing from his wife for missing his children’s bedtime, Jican dispatched word to the cooks to prepare yet another cauldron of thyza, and to cut cold meat and fruit. Then, shorter than most of his charges and having to make up the difference by being tirelessly energetic, the hadonra began the task of taking names and tallying which men needed clothing, and which sandals. While Keyoke began the task of sorting the newcomers into companies, Jican and his assistants assembled a team of slaves to sweep out an empty barracks and fetch blankets for sleeping mats. Without formal instructions from anyone, Lujan took on the role of officer, reassuring or bullying where necessary to help get his company settled.
Into this chaos of milling men and needra wagons sailed Nacoya, her hairpins askew in her agitation. She gave Lujan’s raffish company a brisk glance and homed in at once on Mara’s litter. Weaving a determined path through the press, she arrived just as Papewaio assisted his Lady from the cushions to her feet. Stiff from sitting and dazzled by the torchlight, Mara observed that silent moment when her Strike Leader surrendered her care to Nacoya. The invisible line between the domains of bodyguard and nurse lay approximately where the stone walk from the main doors of the house touched the roadway.
Nacoya accompanied her mistress back to her quarters, one step behind her shoulder as was proper. Once through the door, the old nurse gestured for the maids to withdraw. Then, her expression obscured by the wavering shadows cast by the oil lamps, she slid the screen firmly closed.
As Mara paused to remove the layers of bracelets and jewellery she had worn to seem frivolous throughout her ruse, the nurse addressed her with flint in her voice. ‘What is this sudden return? And who are all those ragged men?’
Mara tossed a brooch and jade necklace into a coffer with a rattle. After tension, and danger, and the intoxicating euphoria of success, the nurse’s peremptory manner set her teeth on edge; keeping firm rein on herself, she twisted off her rings one by one and related in detail the plan she had executed to replenish the Acoma garrison.
As the last ornament fell with a click into the pile, Nacoya’s voice rose. ‘You dared stake the future of the Acoma on so ill-conceived a plan? Girl, do you know what you risked?’ Mara turned to face Nacoya and found the nurse’s face reddened and her hands clenched. ‘Had one of those bandits struck a blow, your men would have died defending you! And for what? So that a scant dozen warriors would remain to defend the empty shell of this house when the Minwanabi came? Who would have defended the natami? Not Keyoke or Papewaio. They would have died!’ Near-hysterical with anger, the old woman shook. ‘You could have been used by every one of them! You could have been killed!’
Nacoya’s voice rose in pitch as if she was unable to contain her anger. ‘Instead of this … reckless adventure … you … you should have been deciding upon an appropriate marriage.’ Reaching out, Nacoya grabbed Mara’s arms and began to shake her, as if she were still a child. ‘If you continue in your headstrong foolishness, you’ll find your prospects limited to the son of some wealthy fertilizer merchant looking to buy a name for his family, while cut-throats and needra thieves guard your estate!’
‘Enough!’ Startled by the hardness of her own voice, Mara pushed the old woman away; and the sharpness of her manner cut through Nacoya’s tirade as a scythe cuts through grass. The old woman bit off her protests. Then, as she seemed on the verge of speaking again, Mara said, ‘Enough, Nacoya.’ Her tone was low and deadly, barely masking her anger.
Mara faced her old nurse. She stepped forward until scant inches separated them and said, ‘I am the Lady of the Acoma.’ The statement reflected little of the ire of the moment before; softening faintly, Mara studied the face of the woman who had raised her from childhood. Earnestly she said, ‘Mother of my heart, of all who serve me, you are most loved.’ Then her eyes narrowed and fire returned to her words. ‘But never forget for an instant you serve me. Touch me like that, address me in such a manner again, Nacoya – ever – and I will have you beaten like a kitchen slave. Do you understand?’
Nacoya wavered an instant and slowly bowed her ancient head. Wisps of loosened hair fluttered at the nape of her neck as she stiffly knelt before Mara until