Danar Sirna, Outtime Historian and one of the political peons of the Second Kalvan Study Team, listened to the rain on the roof and to the argument in the Foundry common room, wishing earnestly that one would grow loud enough to drown out the other. Sirna didn't much care which; both the argument and the rain had gone on much too long and she was growing more depressed with each passing minute.
The argument was the latest round in the endless feud between Aranth Sain, the Teams' only military specialist, on the one hand and Varnath Lala and Lathor Karv on the other, over the Study Teams' attitude toward the 'true gods' when they reached Nostor to set up a new foundry there. Varnath and Lathor saw this as the ideal opportunity to introduce rational patterns of thought into Kalvan's Time-Line, by at the very least not mentioning any of the gods as they taught the new foundry workers.
A blatant violation of the Paratime Code's anti-contamination act, thought Sirna. Too bad I'm not spying for Chief Verkan.
Aranth saw his colleagues' proposal as pointless at best, likely to expose the Study Team to a charge of heresy at worst. Both sides had long since ceased to come up with any new arguments; neither was so far gone that they carried on the argument in the presence of any Fourth Level listeners.
"The Council of Dralm hasn't developed the concept of heresy," Lathor Karv was saying in what, for him, passed for a reasonable tone of voice. "Therefore how can you argue that we'll be in danger of being charged with a crime that doesn't exist?"
"That doesn't exist now," Professor Aranth replied rather grimly, Sirna thought. She wondered if what bothered him was the strength of the opposition, possible danger to the Team, or simply that an argument he'd probably begun to cure his own boredom was now making it worse, now that the professional nit-pickers had gotten into it. "We have no idea what the highpriests of Dralm may eventually decide is appropriate, in the face of Styphon's House and what is on the verge of becoming a full-blown religious war. Kalvan can't do a Dralm-damned thing to stop them from inventing heresy if they want to, either, so don't give me your usual song-and-dance about Kalvan, Eldra."
Baltrov Eldra just sighed and looked bored.
"You're showing a typical male reversion pattern, Aranth," Varnath Lala said. "The minute men get into a patriarchal culture like this one, they seem to soak up its attitudes with the air they breathe and the water they drink. If they can't do anything else, they are rude to their female colleagues. You've gone completely out of sight on oath-bonding as well."
"You call yourself a pre-Industrial Specialist-even if it is Metallurgy, Lala, and actually have the gall to say oaths aren't taken seriously? Guilds that work metal take oath's especially strong." Aranth Saln's voice held honest incredulity, and Sirna had to admit that once again Varnath Lala had left herself wide open in an effort to ruffle a man. That wasn't the first time for that, either, or the twentieth. In part, brought on by the attempt to pass for 'free' women among Fourth Level foundry workers, who didn't believe the term free applied to women in any sense, the rest because of her irascible personality.
"I don't think it can honestly be said that we've sworn any oaths that require us to mention the 'true gods,'" Lathor Karv said, in his lecture-hall tone of voice. "Therefore I don't think we will be considered oath-breakers as long as we observe the appropriate rituals and don't break taboos or interfere with the priests."
Even over the rain and crackle of fire in the next room, Sirna heard Varnath Lala's hiss of indrawn breath, then her tight-voiced reply.
"I'm afraid I lack your enthusiasm or your talent for hypocrisy, Lathor. Kalvan himself didn't mince words calling fireseed the result of 'simple mechanic arts' any child could learn. Why shouldn't we follow in the Great King's own footsteps?"
"I, for one, lack enthusiasm for wet rugs," Baltrov Eldra said, "and in case none of you has noticed, the roof is leaking again."
Sirna listened to the names of a number of gods being taken in vain in the next room, the thump of a rug being rolled up, the clatter of a bucket being set down, and the steady plink-plink-plink of the leak dripping into it. Sirna would have invoked the weather goddess herself, except that this weather seemed more likely to have been a gift of Lyklos, god of lies and practical jokes.
To do Lyklos as much justice as the Trickster ever deserved, it wasn't entirely the fault of the rainy weather that the University Study Team hadn't long since been on its way to Nostor Town. If they'd just had to transport themselves and their personal possessions, riding horses and pack mules would have done the job well enough. Sirna's buttocks and thighs ached at the mere thought of long days in the saddle, but she had to admit that only a few of them would have taken her and her companions to Nostor.
However, the University had to transport not only their nearly complete set of blacksmithing tools, but their specialized Zygrosi foundry equipment, too. That meant a load running over a hundred tons, which in turn meant a fair-sized train of wagons and carts, since at best the Zarthani covered wagons could transport about twenty tons each. They also had food and clothing and provisions for the Foundry workers and teamsters. All that meant waiting until the roads were passable-sometime next spring. No number of draft horses and ox teams that the Great King could spare would be able to haul the foundry train to Nostor over roads knee-high in mud, and in another moon or two snow.
If the Foundry crew traveled light, they would arrive sooner but would need four to five moons to build everything from scratch. Due to massive unemployment in Nostor, Kalvan wanted the new Foundry built there, rather than expanding the old one. It was Eldra's opinion that Kalvan wanted it closer to the Harphax City, where he would need it once the city fell.
There the matter settled-and the University Kalvan Study Team as well, trapped ten miles outside Hostigos Town and trying to fight boredom and cabin fever without drinking too much or interfering with their Hostigi workers.
Sirna decided that she was in the mood for some fresh air, before anybody missed her and came looking to dragoon her into a floor-mopping brigade. She knew the fresh air would be at least half water and the ground more than half mud, but she didn't care. She slipped past the half-open door toward the wardrobe in the outer hall where the outdoor clothing hung.
The mud was even deeper than Sirna expected, and it took her nearly half an hour to make one circuit of the entrenchments around the foundry and storage buildings. By then the rain was beginning to soak through her outer clothing. Oiled leather was better than nothing, she admitted, but it was as heavy as a suit of armor, prone to crack and leak, foul-smelling wet or dry, and not really all that waterproof. If she stayed out here much longer, she'd pay for her fresh air by being soaked to the skin, and it would be just her luck for the Team leader to decide that one of the University team members should come down with a cold so as not to arouse suspicion of sorcery by undue immunity to disease!
At times like this Sirna sympathized with the idea of playing god-sent-teacher-to-the-unenlightened; at least one could wear sensible clothing and use First Level medicine.
In her half year on Kalvan's Subsector she'd reported no conditions of outtime contamination by Kalvan, yet Tharn-who sent her regular letters as Uncle T.-seemed inordinately happy with her posts. She couldn't figure out why. Most everything she'd reported could have been taken from a standard University Kalvan Study Team press release.
Why should she feel so obligated to follow Hadron's orders? True, if it hadn't been for his pull she never would have gotten such a high-prestige assignment, but he could hardly report her to the University for that. On the other hand, he could make trouble with her parents-who would certainly put politics above mere 'anarchistic familial ties'-as well as stifle her future career at Dhergabar University. Even though Hadron had been expelled after some sort of outtime fiasco involving the Paratime Police that nobody-even his supporters wanted to talk about-but his grants to the University were a major source of funding for outtime research.
And there was one more reason she would follow Tharn's orders until her assignment to Kalvan Prime was over-Hadron Tharn scared her to death. There was something in those dead eyes of his that told you he'd no more regret ending your life than that of some insect that happened to get in his way.
All her life Sirna had been dominated by men. First her father, who had really wanted a son, but lacked the will to defy her mother and who'd settled for a daughter who would follow in his footsteps. Then, when she became 'inconvenient,' dumped her into a University creche when her mother went outtime. Next, there was her husband who had wanted the appearance, but not the actuality of a wife. Now by Hadron Tharn, who wanted her to do his dirty work against Verkan Vail and the Paratime Police.
She wished she had the courage to say To Styphon with the entire lot!
Sirna had nearly completed the circuit of the foundry entrenchments when a broad figure in a woolen cloak and high-combed morion helmet loomed out of the darkness ahead of her. She froze, cursing herself for going outside without a pistol as well as her dagger.
Then, remembering the odds against a flintlock's firing in this kind of downpour, she shouted, "Who is it?"
"Master Aranth, of the Royal Hostigos Foundry," the figure answered. "Who are you?"
Sirna sighed with relief, while wondering what brought the military man out on a night like this. "Sirna, Mistress Pattern-Maker. What are you doing out here, Master Aranth?"
"The same thing you are, Mistress," he said, pointing to the Foundry quarters. "Escaping the bedlam of too much talk about too little. And call me Sain."
"Me too, Sain. I think I'd rather attend one of Xentos' prayer meetings for deliverance from Styphon's House at the Temple of Dralm than spend another five minutes in there."
Aranth Sain laughed, exposing a mouthful of well-formed and broad teeth. "Right, Xentos is back from the Council at Agrys City. No one seems too happy about it. Ranthar said it had something to do with the Council refusing to recognize the Sixth Great Kingdom and its ruler. No one at the palace is talking, but the Paratime Police have established agents at all the capitals and big cities."
Finally, Sirna had something to report and it came from a reputable source even; however, it was less than significant, but would at least show she was doing her job.
"Trader Ranthar seems like a good man, even if he is with the Paratime Police."
"They have a lot of good men, another year on this time-line and you'll lose a lot more of your University prejudices."
"It looks like the rain has stopped for a time," Aranth said. "Would you like to accompany me to Hostigos Town? I'm going to the One-Eyed Owl for some good company."
Sirna had heard Varnath Lala go on about how the One-Eyed Owl, a tavern where mercenaries and the King's regulars liked to do their drinking, was a cesspit of male supremacy; well, the company would have to be pretty bad before she'd miss the bickering and one-ups-manship here at the Foundry.
"Sure, Aranth, I'd love to go."
Sirna followed Aranth Sain to the stable where he helped her bridle and saddle a gentle bay mare. By the time they'd left the stable, a full moon was casting a silvery glow over the hills and the rain had come to a complete stop. Thank you, Lystris, she said under her breath.
As they slowly made their way through the muddy path leading to the Great King's Highway, Sirna noticed that beneath his cloak Aranth was wearing a back and breast with taces.
"Why all the steel?" she asked.
"Footpads. Even the Great King's Patrol and the weather won't convince them to keep their distance any better than tempered steel.' Despite the calm of the past few moons, there's still a war going on here and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that a few stragglers from the Battle of Phyrax are still skulking around."
"After all this time?"
"Yup. Tuad, the chief carpenter, was telling me that about a ten-day ago someone stole half a dozen chickens and a bushel of turnips from the Foundry garden."
A lone wolf howl echoed through the hills and Sirna shivered. "Are we going to have troubles with wolves, too?"
"That's the first one I've heard this fall. Kalvan had his wolf hunters stake out the battlefields this year and thin their ranks. He's kept the bounty high enough that the only wolves you're going see this winter are the two-legged variety."
Aranth slowed down his horse. "Be careful getting onto the highway. This would be a nasty place for a fall." Aranth paused and added, "Your own hands are properly dirty."
Sirna laughed and said, "You mean my shoes are muddy."
"No. I mean your hands. Student Sirna, I happen to know that you were added to the Study Team only because you are the niece of that two-faced politician Hadron Tharn."
"I'm not his niece," Sirna replied. "My parents work for him."
"No difference. You were a political appointee, a pipsqueak version of Varnath Lala, and I stay clear of such. Then came the Battle of Phyrax, and you volunteered to stay at the Foundry when Varnath and Talgran both cut and run. Spoiled brat or not, I decided you had what it really took to be an outtime researcher. We're comrades now, veterans of Phyrax together, and what say we team up for a good bar-room brawl."
Sirna was stunned by this fairly accurate capsule description of herself; she was about to pull a Varnath Lala and lose her temper, when she burst out laughing. "Am I that easy to read?"
"For someone of my age and experience, yes. I doubt most of the other Study Team members will remember your name a week after you leave."
"Praise, Dralm, then!" she cried.
A moment later, the horses were clomping along the stone roadway of the Great King's Highway.
"Dralm Bless King Kalvan!" they both said in unison and then started laughing. "And bless the Great King's Highway," Sirna added.
"Did you know, Sirna, that Kalvan had half the Royal Army prisoners-of-war and displaced peasants working on this highway during the summer. Twenty-eight miles worth. It's what they'd call on Kalvan's Europo-American time-line a two-lane highway; not too impressive there, but a major engineering feat on Kalvan Prime. From what Captain-General Harmakros was telling me, Kalvan plans to run this road from Hostigos Town north along the Listra River and then west through
Nyklos and into Ulthor City at the Saltless Sea. He's had less success with the semaphore stations, which someday will reach Beshta. It may take him a lifetime, but these innovations of Kalvan's will change trade patterns like nothing this time-line has seen since Styphon first discovered the fireseed secret."
"You know Captain-General Harmakros!"
"Yes, I do. Met him at the One-Eyed Owl with Captain Ranthar. He's a quick wit and very down to earth. It's no surprise he's one of Kalvan's top generals; Harmakros would be a chief-of-staff or head constable on any time-line where talent took precedence over birth, and on quite a few where it doesn't-like this one! You may get an opportunity to meet him yourself tonight."
The horses were moving at a respectable trot now that they were on solid ground and Sirna began to see more farmhouses as they approached the outskirts of Hostigos Town. The fields were covered with small lakes of rainwater and she was surprised to see how peaceful everything looked despite the war. "It looks like the farmers managed to harvest most of the barley and corn this year."
"Again, you can thank Kalvan. He had his University artificers knocking-out primitive reapers through most of the summer. As a result, they had a bumper harvest throughout all of Hostigos and Sask, and reaped enough of a surplus to feed all of Nostor and Beshta, too."
"Why do I get the idea that you're pretty impressed with our Great King Kalvan?"
"Simple, Sirna, it's because I am. He is doing the kind of job here that I would like to think I would do under similar circumstances. He is doing a tough job and doing it well. And, he's the underdog of all underdogs."
"Most of the other Team members just think he's lucky, but you don't. Why is that?"
"Because, I am watching what Kalvan is doing, not what I think he is doing or my sociological theory tells me he is doing. And, from where I sit; he's doing a Dralm-damn good job. Look at Kalvan's army; there are more men under Hostigi colors than there are farming, smithing, and crafting. How is this possible in an agricultural pre-industrial economy? Easy. When there's work to be done, everyone pitches in-including Great King Kalvan. Did you know that Kalvan himself went into the fields this fall and helped pick corn for two solid weeks!
"The Hostigi economy, which would have been a disaster for a lesser man, became a triumph of public relations for Kalvan. You can Dralm-damned be sure that the soldiers quit their grumbling about 'serf's work' after that. I would just like to know how damn many of Styphon's House upperpriests were trampling through the ruined fields of Hos-Harphax!"
"Not a single one," Sirna responded, "nor upperpriests of Dralm either."
"Of course," Aranth said, "after all, priests have to keep their hands clean in this world as preparation for the next."
As they approached Hostigos Town, Sirna turned her horse to the side of the road to let a big canvas covered wagon go by in the opposite direction. Then they were over the slight rise and she could see Hostigos Town down a dip and spread over a series of rolling hills. Right below the Gap and Tarr-Hostigos was the Royal Army encampment, which looked to be about a quarter the size of the town.
"That's a big army camp," Sirna said. "It's more than doubled in size since last year."
"Sure it has. Kalvan had half the army working on this road, another quarter billeted all over Hos-Hostigos, and the rest drilling and marching. Now that it's almost winter he wants them where he can keep his eye on them. Other than the Army of Observation, which Captain-General Hestophes is commanding, the rest of the Royal Army is right here. Look at his defensive perimeter! He's got a series of earthworks all around with gun batteries, too."
"Hostigos Town looks to be growing as well," Sirna said, trying to divert their talk from things military, which she knew very little about, and cared even less.
"It has been growing almost weekly. When Kalvan first arrived over a year and a half ago, there were only about ten thousand people living in Hostigos Town, now the population's grown to over twenty-five thousand, not counting military personnel. It's hard to get a reliable census since there are so many transients."
"Why so fast?" Sirna found it interesting that the Team's military expert knew more about the Town of Hostigos than all the Study Team sociologists put together. Of course, the idea of mingling with actual
Hostigi was unthinkable, to the sociologists, and reeked of Outtime-Identification Syndrome. Sirna was beginning to think it was because they didn't want to confuse their theories with facts. Or, Styphon forbid, actually get to know the people they studied. Of course if they had to bug-out in a hurry, as Ranthar put it, it could hurt to have to leave friends behind. Still, she'd rather face that pain, than adopt the studied indifference of the University'professionals.'
"Because Hostigos Town-soon to-be City-is now the capital of a Great Kingdom and the headquarters for the largest standing army this time-line has ever known. It's a military boom town, engineered by King Kalvan and paid for by Styphon's House temple loot."
"What happens when Styphon's gold runs out?"
"Kalvan has a saying, which I learned from Harmakros, I will try to paraphrase, 'while gold can't always get you good soldiers, good soldiers can always get you gold.'"
"But doesn't that just make Kalvan a Great Pirate, rather than a Great King."
"Sorry, I was just being amusing at Kalvan's expense; though there is more truth to that maxim than the military layman would understand. I think if Styphon's House would just leave Kalvan alone the economy of Hos-Hostigos would take care of itself. Turn that University artificer crowd of his loose and you would see more action on the Street of Coopers than you see now on Army payday at the Street of Lamps."
Sirna was glad it was dark out so that Aranth wouldn't see her blush. There was little prostitution on Home Time-Line where Citizens had a chance to freely express their naturalistic impulses; Sirna found it a rather unseemly statement on the condition of women's rights on Kalvan's Time-Line. Not that she thought it was her duty to personally lash out at any male who appeared to disregard those rights as Varnath Lala did.
A few moments later they trotted off the Great King's Highway, which in town turned into the single lane of Tigos Road. They passed one of the new roads, Princess Demia's Street, and across Tanner's Way down into Hostigos Town proper where most of the inns and taverns were located. The One-Eyed Owl tavern was right across from the Crossed Halberds, another Royal Army favorite or so she'd heard.
Even in the rain, which had started up again, there were carts and wagons moving through the streets and a steady stream of cloaked men and armed guards. "Make way, make way," cried one group of armored men, wearing the blue capes of the Hostigos Town watch. They also carried sharp-bladed halberds and a foot long oak club at their belt securely tied by leather thongs.
As they boarded their horses at a nearby stable, Sirna said, "It's strange to think that on most every other Aryan-Transpacific, Styphon's House Subsector time-line most of these people are dead and Hostigos Town is in ruins, or a shadow of its former self. Is this right?"
"Don't know," Aranth said, "but these people are very much alive and plan to continue on so."
"I just wish there was more we could do to help them. Is it right that we keep the secret of longevity from Outtime peoples, too?"
"Don't know about that either. I'm not at all convinced it's the length of a life that counts. Look at most of that University crowd out at the Foundry. If I had my choice between a lifetime with that gang, or a much shorter lifetime here; you wouldn't need to be a gambling man to tell which side I'd pick."
"A lifetime with Varnath Lala and Lathor Karv would be torture indeed!" Sirna laughed.
"Most truly spoken, Sirna," Aranth said, as he paused to whisper something into the ear of a very young girl less than half his size. The girl was provocatively dressed and her painted mouth dropped open at Aranth's words. She ran off in haste, her clogs banging on the wet cobblestones, as he opened the door to the One-Eyed Owl.
Sirna asked, "What was that all about?"
"An under-age solicitor-actually not very common in Zarthani towns, but especially rare here. I just reminded her of Kalvan's punishment for solicitation. He's a bit of a prude on these matters."
And so am I, thought Sirna, even though she was a neophyte when it came to outtime studies. She supposed she had a lot to learn, but was sure that no degree of experience or sophistication would allow her to accept the practice of children selling themselves on the street.
Inside was a score of overburdened and undersized tables with about half of one of Kalvan's Royal regiments in attendance. There were shouts of greeting from more than a couple tables, which showed that Aranth's trade was well known here. Aranth pointed to a table where two soldiers and several-for lack of a more polite term-harlots were sitting.
With a quick side-step here and there Sirna managed to make it to the table with both dignity and skirts intact. Aranth introduced her to General Alkides and a Colonel Democriphon, a dashing young soldier with flowing golden locks and a handsome face worth writing home about. After additional chairs were obtained by the tavern keeper, she listened with more fascination than she would have ever believed possible to Democriphon's tale of King Kalvan's charge into the Styphoni right wing at Phyrax.
Maybe Aranth was right; there was more to outtime travel than University inter-disciplinary shoot-outs and inter-departmental feuding.