The Chernagor Pirates (49 page)

Hirundo, by contrast, might have been sauntering along. It wasn't that he didn't want to get to Nishevatz. Grus knew he did. But he knew he wouldn't get there right away, and showed he knew it, too. Grus preferred his attitude. It struck him as being more sensible than Vsevolod's.

And what about me?
the king asked himself. He answered with a shrug. With the Menteshe distracted down in the south, he thought he had a better chance on this campaign than on the ones of years gone by—if the nomads were distracted, the Banished One should be distracted, too. Grus hoped to bridge the gap between
should be
and
is.
If he did, he might win. If not, he'd come home disappointed again—if he came home at all.

Lanius wondered how long he would have to wait this time for Sosia to let him back into her bed. He was curious and interested for more than one reason. First and … most urgent was the interest any man would have shown about that particular question.

A more abstract curiosity, though, accompanied that … urgent interest. Sosia had to make some careful calculations of her own. If she showed she warmed to him too soon, what would he think? Why, that he could enjoy himself with a serving girl whenever he felt like it. He'd make Sosia angry for a little while, but she'd soon forgive and forget.

But if she really was furious—or wanted him to believe she was—and kept herself to herself for a long time, what would spring from that? He
was
a man, after all, with a man's desires. Wouldn't he go looking for another serving girl and slake those desires with her? She wouldn't want him doing that.

Yes, a nice calculation.

Lanius tried to think along with his wife. She'd known him for a long time now. She would know how much he heated through each day of denial. He had a pretty good notion of when he would get fed up and start smiling at the prettier maidservants if Sosia hadn't softened by then.

Two days before the time when he figured his impatience would get the better of his good sense, Sosia sighed and said, “I can't make you change very much, can I?”

“I wouldn't think so,” Lanius answered seriously. “One person usually can't change another. By the gods, not many people can change themselves.”

His wife studied him. “You know what I'm talking about, don't you?”

“I have some idea.” His voice was dry.

“Good.” The queen sounded relieved. “I wasn't sure. Sometimes you see only the questions, not what's behind them.”

That
was true enough. Lanius said, “I'm glad you're not angry at me anymore,” then quickly amended that to, “Not
too
angry at me, I mean.”

“Not
too
angry is right,” Sosia said, “and even that's just barely right. Still, you're what I've got. I can either make the best of it or else find we're in even more trouble.”

Her thinking did mirror his. He said, “I'll do my best to make you happy.”

“I know,” Sosia answered. “You always do when you're with me. It's one of the reasons I can stand having you touch me again after—after everything you've done.” She looked at him with more defiance than desire on her face. “Shall we?”

“All right.” Lanius was more worried than he wanted her to know. If she didn't want him to please her, then he wouldn't, no matter what he did. He'd seen that with her and with other women. Men were simpler there. If it felt good, they didn't worry about much else.
We're lucky,
Lanius thought; he didn't wonder if it was good luck or bad.

Physical acts counted, too. He worked especially hard to give Sosia pleasure when they lay down together. And, to his relief, he succeeded. She murmured something wordless, then stroked the back of his head. “You,” she said, and her voice sounded as much accusing as anything else.

“At your service,” he said. “And now—” He poised himself above her. He'd wondered if she would just lie there when they joined, to punish him for making love with Zenaida. But she didn't. Even as his own pleasure built, he nodded in respect. Sosia didn't stint. She deserved credit for that.

Afterward, he kissed the side of her neck. She wiggled; that was a ticklish spot for her. “You,” she said again, even more accusingly than before.

“Yes, me,” Lanius said. “You … had better believe it.” He'd almost said,
You were expecting someone else?
Considering that he'd enjoyed himself with someone else, she might have answered,
What if I was?
Better not to travel some roads than to see where they led.

“When we started,” Sosia said, “I wasn't sure I really wanted you touching me, kissing me, kissing me
there,
at all. But you know what you're doing.” In the dark stillness of the bedchamber, her eyes were enormous. “Do you study that along with everything else?”

“Not much in the archives about it,” Lanius said. A man studied such things whenever he made love with a woman, but that wasn't what Sosia had meant. He didn't think many men realized that was what they were doing.
The more fools they,
he thought.

“Archives,” Sosia muttered, so maybe she had something else in mind for the source of his research. But she didn't snipe at him. Instead, she asked, “What
am
I going to do with you?”

“Put up with me, I hope,” Lanius answered. “I'll try to do the same for you.”

“For me? Why do I need putting up with?” But then Sosia shook her head. “Never mind. Don't tell me. I'll try to put up with you, you try to put up with me, and we'll both try to get along. Bargain?”

“Bargain,” Lanius said. They clasped hands.

Up ahead of the Avornan army, Chernagor cavalry skirmished with King Grus' scouts. More Chernagor horsemen galloped off toward the north. Grus cursed, more in resignation than anything else. “So much for surprise,” he said.

“Did you really think we'd keep it?” Hirundo asked. “We can't just appear out of nowhere, like ghosts in a story to frighten children.”

“Maybe not, but we'd win a lot of battles if we could,” Grus said.

He wondered whether the men of Nishevatz would try to hold Varazdin against him, but his men found the fortress not only abandoned but destroyed, the keep wrecked and one of the outer walls pulled down. Maybe they thought he could quickly overcome whatever garrison they put into the place, or maybe they were saving everything they had to defend the walls of their city-state.

Either way, Grus thought they were making a mistake. Had he been in charge of Nishevatz, he would have defended the place as far forward as he could. If Vasilko was willing to let him get close, he would say thank you and do his best to take advantage of that. He pressed on into the land of the Chernagors.

Three days later, one of his scouts came riding back to the main body of the army, calling, “The sea! The sea!” The man pointed north.

Grus soon rode up over a low rise and spied the sea for himself. As always, he was struck by how different it was from the Azanian Sea on the east coast of Avornis. The waters there were blue and warm and inviting, the beaches made from golden sand. The beaches here were mud flats. The sea was greenish gray, a color that didn't seem quite healthy to him. The sky was gray, too, the gray of newly sheared wool before it was washed. Wisps of mist kept the king from getting as good a view of either sea or sky as he would have wanted.

“No wonder the Chernagors like to turn pirate,” Hirundo said, gazing out at the bleak landscape. “If I lived in country like this, I'd do my best to get away from it, too.”

Sandpipers scurried along at the border between sea and land, poking their beaks into the mud to look for whatever little creatures they hunted. Gulls mewed overhead, soaring along on narrow pointed wings. The air smelled of moisture and salt and seaweed and faintly nasty things Grus couldn't quite name.

Prince Vsevolod rode up to him. The Chernagor's eyes shone, though his breath smoked each time he exhaled. “Is wonderful country, yes?” he boomed.

“I'm glad it pleases you, Your Highness,” Grus answered, as diplomatically as he could.

“Wonderful country,” Vsevolod repeated. “Not too hot like Avornis, with sweat all time in summer. Not cold all through winter, either. Just right.”

“To each his own,” Grus said.

“To each his own, yes.” Vsevolod seemed to cherish the cliché. “And Nishevatz—Nishevatz is my own.”

“May we soon set you back on the throne there, then,” Grus said, thinking,
And if I never see you again, that will not disappoint you, and it will not disappoint me, either.

They'd come to the sea east of the town, and moved toward it until they made camp for the night. Grus took care to post sentries well out from the camp, to bring back warning if the Chernagors tried to strike. And, remembering the disaster that had almost befallen his army while fighting the Menteshe, he summoned Pterocles. “Be sure you drink your fill of wine this evening,” he told the wizard. “If you have to ease yourself, you'll beat any sleep spell the enemy sends your way.”

Pterocles smiled. “I will set up sorcerous wards, too, Your Majesty,” he replied. “They will not take me by surprise twice the same way.”

“Good.” Grus nodded. “Do you have any idea what new surprises they'll try to use?”

“If I did, they wouldn't be surprises, would they?” Pterocles held the cheerful expression.

“Do you sense the Banished One?” Grus asked.

Now the wizard's smile blew out like a candle flame. “So far, I have not, except in a general way. This is a land where he has an interest, but it is not a land where he is concentrating all his attention, the way he did when he laid me low.”

“He has other things on his mind right now,” Grus said, and Pterocles nodded. The king went on, “As long as Sanjar and Korkut keep whacking away at each other, the Banished One ought to worry most about the south.” Pterocles nodded again. Grus finished, “In that case, I hope they fight each other for the next ten years.”

“That would be nice,” Pterocles agreed, and some of his smile came back.

The army went on toward Nishevatz the next morning. Offshore, far out of bowshot or even catapult range, tall-masted Chernagor ships sailed along, keeping an eye on the Avornans. Grus wished he had tall ships of his own in these waters; the little flotilla Lanius sent out had come back to Avornis during the winter, having lost one ship, sunk several, and earned what the Chernagors of Durdevatz said would be their undying gratitude. Every so often here, one of these ships would sail off to Nishevatz, presumably to report on whatever its crew had seen. The rest kept on shadowing Grus' army.

After a while, he got fed up with that and called for Pterocles again. “You made a magic against the Chernagor transports,” he said. “Can you use the same spell against these snoops?”

The wizard eyed the clouds and swirling mist overhead. He spread his hands in apology—or started to. His mule chose that moment to misstep, and he had to make a hasty grab for the reins.
Some people really do ride worse than I do,
Grus thought, amused. Pterocles said, “Your Majesty, I can try that spell. But it works best with real sunshine to power it. It may well fail.” He rode on for half a minute or so before something else occurred to him. “The Chernagors may have worked out a counterspell by now, too. These things do happen. Spells are often best the first time you use them, because then you catch the other fellow by surprise.”

“I see.” Trouble was, Grus did; what Pterocles said made altogether too much sense. Now the king rode thoughtfully for a little while before saying, “Well, when you see the chance, take it.”

“I will, Your Majesty,” Pterocles said.

As though to mock Grus' hopes, a fine drizzle began sifting down out of the sky. Grumpily, he put on a broad-brimmed felt hat to keep the water off his face and to keep it from trickling down the back of his neck. “Remind the men to grease their mail well tonight,” he called to Hirundo. “Otherwise, it will rust.”

“I'll take care of it,” Hirundo promised.

But the drizzle also made it harder for the Chernagors aboard ship to watch the Avornan army. They had to come closer and closer to the shore, until finally they were almost within bowshot. Curses wafted across the water when one of them ran aground. Grus cursed, too, for he couldn't do anything about it. There was no point to assembling his catapults to pound the ships when they would be as useless with wet skeins of hair as a bow with a wet string.

Hirundo shared his frustration, but said, “They're still in trouble out there, whether we put them in trouble or not.”

“I suppose so,” Grus said. “I wish we could take better advantage of it, though.” He shrugged ruefully. “I wish for all sorts of things I won't get. Who doesn't?”

“Best way to take advantage is to take Nishevatz,” Vsevolod said. “When we take Nishevatz, we punish all traitors. Oh, yes.” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation of doing just that.

Grus wondered how much like Vsevolod his son Vasilko was. He wouldn't have been surprised if Vasilko took after his father a great deal indeed. And if Vsevolod had followed the Banished One, would Vasilko have fled to the city of Avornis and bowed down to Olor and Quelea and the rest of the gods in the heavens? Grus wouldn't have been surprised there, either. Whatever one of them chose, the other seemed to want the opposite.

That didn't mean Vsevolod was wrong here. “We'll do our best, Your Highness,” Grus said. “Then you should do your best.”

“Oh, I will,” Vsevolod said. “I will.” His tone suggested that what he meant by
best
was likely to be different from what Grus meant by the word. Whether what he thought best for him would also prove best for Nishevatz was liable to be an … interesting question.