One, all the realms of Grotum (except, for reasons which were at the time unclear to me, the Mutt) were utterly decrepit and must be overthrown.
Two, the Groutch were a single people and should be united (or, according to some, reunited—the intricacies of this debate completely eluded me!).
Three, neither of these tasks could be accomplished without defeating the imperialist ambitions of Ozarae, which were rapidly coming to dominate the entire sub-continent. This point, at least, I could readily understand.
It was Gwendolyn’s assessment—and I gained here the distinct impression, without her saying anything specific, that she herself was a prominent figure in the underground—that the revolution was gaining steadily in strength, while the various regimes of the sundry Groutch realms were ebbing in their ability to repress the movement. An important element in the growing strength of the revolution was the decrepitude and disarray of the ruling classes. Here, her words called to memory something my uncle Rodrigo had once said: “If the rulers of Grotum were a tenth as competent as they are vicious, we’d all be in deep shit.”
And that, she said, explained the importance of the Rap Sheet which Ozar was bringing to Grotum.
“You do know what a Rap Sheet is, don’t you?” she asked, stopping for a moment to catch her breath.
I shrugged. “Not precisely. A magic relic, supposedly, which somehow enhances the power of the police. Geographically, its powers are said to be limited, but within those limits, immense. Beyond that, I really don’t know much. To tell you the truth, I always suspected the boasts of the Senate were much exaggerated.”
“Would that they were! When the Senate of Ozarae sent a Rap Sheet into the Rellenos, the revolution which was developing there was crushed within two months.”
“Yes, I remember that, vaguely. I was only fifteen at the time.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“Not really.”
“The police and army of the Rellenos—which had been as sorry a bunch of fumble-fingers as you can imagine—suddenly rounded up every single person who was even vaguely associated with the movement. Fifteen thousand, at least. They stuffed them all into a stadium and then butchered them. Two days it took, with the Rellenos army doing the dirty work and the Ozarines directing the operation. The Cruds. In fact, it was Inkman himself who was in charge. Chief of station for the Rellenos, he was then. One of Ozar’s top hatchetmen. Now he’s here, and he’s bringing a Rap Sheet. So, do you begin to understand why I’m in such a hurry to spread the warning?”
She didn’t wait for my reply before starting off again down the trail. I thought on her words for some time before asking: “Do you think your movement can protect itself, with your advance warning?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m not very optimistic, to tell the truth. The movement in the Rellenos had advance warning, and it didn’t seem to do them much good. The problem is, the Rap Sheet’s magic. There aren’t all that many real sorcerers in Grotum, despite all the tales you may have heard. Plenty of fakes and frauds, of course, and even a fair number of witches and warlocks. But the Rap Sheet’s a Joe relic and that’s the so-called ‘Old Magic,’ whatever that means. The Arcanum, I think the scholars call it. I have a bad feeling it’ll take a sorcerer to deal with a Rap Sheet. But the few sorcerers that do exist are no friends of the common people, that’s for sure. Reactionaries through and through, the lot of them, so far as I know.”
On that gloomy note, Gwendolyn fell silent, and remained silent the rest of the day. Nor did she speak that evening, around the fire. After she finished eating, she curled up in her blanket. But this night, she did not immediately fall asleep. After a few minutes, she rolled over and looked at me.
“Why are you watching me?” she asked. It was a simple question, without unfriendliness, and I decided to answer honestly.
“I watch you every night for a few minutes, before I fall asleep.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, really. You fascinate me. I’ve never met anyone like you, and—” I took a breath. “I find I am very attracted to you.”