Giriak stepped down from the saddle and tethered the gelding. Then he climbed the rampart steps of the north wall, where the veteran Necklen was supervising repairs. The Lord Sirano – thank the Gods – had ceased using his magic on the Eldarin Pearl, and the minor earthquakes no longer struck the city. Not that it mattered much, thought Giriak. Morgallis was pretty much deserted anyway. Of the 85,000 people who had inhabited the city four months ago, now only around 5,000 remained. The rest had fled south to Prentuis where, according to rumour, they were housed outside the city in a huge camp of canvas tents.
All across Morgallis, taverns and shops were closed and boarded up.
‘Almost there, Captain,’ said Necklen, wiping sweat from his thin face and grey beard. ‘The gap is filled, but the whole wall is riddled with cracks.’
‘There is no force to assail the city,’ said Giriak, gazing down at the work party, ferrying rubble and mortar to the wall. ‘But Sirano wants the repairs done anyway.’
‘We should be moving on,’ said Necklen, keeping his voice low. ‘This is like a city of ghosts. The men are getting anxious. Most of the whores have gone, and that takes all the fun out of a city.’
‘We’re still being paid,’ Giriak pointed out.
‘That’s true, but it doesn’t matter a damn if there’s nothing to spend it on. Some of the lads are talking of desertion.’
‘Which ones?’
Necklen gave a wry smile. ‘Now, now, Captain, you know I’m no whisperer. I’m just alerting you to the prospect. They think Karis may have made it to Prentuis. They liked her, they want to serve her again.’
Giriak sat down on the battlements. ‘I am as good as she. You know that, don’t you?’
‘You are a good man, Captain. Brave, loyal, steadfast.’
‘Why does that sound like an insult?’ asked Giriak, surprised at his own lack of anger. Of all the men who served under him, Necklen was the one he trusted most. Soft-spoken and loyal, he was an able lieutenant.
‘It wasn’t meant to be,’ said Necklen. ‘She is special, you know – got the mind for it. She could smell trouble when it was just a tiny seed. Put a halt to it before any knew there was a problem. That’s why she made it all look so smooth. You and she were a wonderful team. But face it, Captain, it is not so wonderful without her.’
Giriak sighed. ‘If any other man but you said those words, I would kill him.’
‘The truth always has a bitter taste,’ observed Necklen. ‘I was there when she first learned to command. A group of us had been assigned to reinforce a garrison town. Soon after we arrived it was besieged. That was when Beckel
was in command. He was all right, but he had one big problem; he was too intelligent.’
‘How could that be a problem?’ Giriak asked.
‘Oh, it is a killer, Captain. Believe me. A man needs to know his limitations and that requires a certain humility. Beckel could multiply numbers in his head, recite ancient writings from memory, and knew every strategy ever used. But he couldn’t lift them out of context. No imagination, you see. And that’s what wins battles and wars. Imagination.’
‘How did Karis come into the story?’
Necklen chuckled. ‘She was his whore. When the siege started she came with him one day to the battlements. The enemy were cutting down trees. Beckel told her they were building siege towers. “The ground is too uneven,” she told him, and she was right. No force on earth could have propelled towers over that landscape. “Catapults,” she said. Then she shaded her eyes and scanned the walls and the land beyond. She pointed out where she thought they would raise the catapults, and the section of wall they would aim at. We’d been amused at first, but a little irritation came in then. Like, who does she think she is? You know what I mean, Captain?’
‘Ay, I do,’ said Giriak.
‘Well, then she asks why we’re not storing enough water. “‘Cos there’s a stream flowing through the garrison,” says I, “and it has never been known to go dry.” She just looked at me for a moment. You remember that look? Kind of still, as if she were studying you? Then she says: “It will dry up fast enough if the enemy block it behind those hills.” Two days later that’s just what happened. And they placed the catapult where she said they would. Beckel used her a lot after that, and when he was killed we just sort of turned to her for leadership.’