The Tyrant by Eric Flint and David Drake

“They’ll all be sitting pretty,” said Demansk. “Good glass in the windows—and houses a lot bigger than this.” He almost added: with slaves to keep them clean, but didn’t. If Demansk’s plans worked out, there wouldn’t be any slaves left in the first place.

Whatever happened, Demansk had already decided, he would remain honest with this man. Partly because it would be foolish not to, but mostly because stubbornness did not allow it. His grandfather, full of the virtues of the Vanbert of old, would not have lied to his First Spear. Demansk, even as he destroyed that old regime, would retain at least that much.

The First Spear was silent, for a moment. He worked his jaws slightly, as his eyes moved slowly across his farmland. The crops were filling out well, now. It would be a good season.

“And who knows about the next?” he murmured. His thick chest swelled with another deep breath. Then: “What the hell. ‘Interesting times’ it is. No way around it, so far as I can see. May as well try to ride a wave as duck from it, since there’s nowhere to hide anyway.”

He gave Demansk a shrewd look. “Is there, sir?”

The Justiciar shrugged. “Not that I can see.”

The First Spear nodded. “You’d make a better new Marcomann than anyone else, that I know of. That is what we’re talking about.”

The last sentence came as a flat statement, not a question. Demansk was reassured. He found himself also reassessing his plans for the man. He hadn’t expected such political acumen from a former First Spear. After this initial assignment was done . . .

“Can you read?” he asked abruptly. “Well, I mean.”

The First Spear shrugged. “Enough to get by, sir. I wouldn’t call it ‘well.’ I’m no scholar, that’s for sure.”

“I’ll have you taught. By Helga herself, at first. She’ll have plenty of time on your voyage.”

The First Spear’s eyed widened. Demansk chuckled.

“Yes, that’s your first assignment. I’ll have others for you when it’s done, First Spear. But, first, you’ve got to see to it that my daughter gets to Marange safely.” His own jaws tightened. “I’ll not see her fall into the hands of pirates again, and I’ve got no way to get her there except by sea.”

The First Spear’s jaws were working again. Demansk remembered the habit, from old campaigns. The man was chewing on a problem.

“I’m no seaman myself, sir. But you can hire such, easily enough. The trick is having the right escort.”

His head swiveled, looking north. Demansk’s gaze followed, and he felt his own eyes widen.

I hadn’t considered—

The First Spear verbalized the notion. “Why not use my kinfolk, sir? All of them. It’d cost you some, sure, buying out all the farms. But you’d have to pay loose mercenaries near as much, if you wanted to have good men you can trust. And you still couldn’t be sure there weren’t any traitors in the bunch. My clansmen, now, them I can vouch for.”

Demansk was already captivated by the idea. “How many fighting men, First Spear? And how many people, in total?”

The First Spear rasped a little laugh. “They’re all soldiers, sir. Or, if they’re too young, training for it already. Nothing else for a freeman to do, in the east. Can’t make a go of farming without a retirement bonus to get you started.” The heavy jaws worked some more, as he did his calculations. “Thirty-two men with experience, another dozen or so good lads ready to learn. Two first spears and seven file closers amongst ’em. Eight of the men are too old or crippled to fight in the ranks—me being one of them. But there’s always other jobs need to be done, anyway. Quarter-mastering and such.”

The jaws worked back and forth. “Say, give me a few weeks to organize ’em, and you’ve got a third of a hundred from my own kin. All fighters, I’m counting, complete with gear and kit. They can make the core, if you need a full hundred. We can get the rest, easily enough. There’s plenty of retired and out-of-regiment men hereabouts, most of whom aren’t finding that it’s all that easy to work a farm. If you let me and my kinfolk pick them, we can get ones to be trusted.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *