I am back, after the world's longest unannounced hiatus. I left the story dangling, just picked it up again, and I will shortly bring it to a close. If anyone is reading this, please accept my deepest apologies for leaving you hanging for over a year.
The quest continues! Enjoy.
11. Errol
The standard-issue imperial carriage rolled along – quite literally. The sitting compartment looked like an enormous grey marble with windows, weighted at the bottom by the occupants. It kept still while a huge, clear gyroscopic sphere rotated around it, jerking its cargo to whatever button was pushed on the control console. This particular ECV (Empire-Commissioned Vehicle) was battered and dented from months of abuse to rather cheap metal. Besides its designation of 0410, it sported some colorful graffiti.
Jack didn't give a damn what condition the thing was in. He was free from Tarrenko and the eyes of Yazzi Digger, at least for a little while, and that was all that mattered. And now he was on his way with Ari and Unt-Ork traveling north to the base at Jilken. It was their first stop on his "tour."
The ECV rumbled quietly through snow-covered valleys and across icy rivers. Unt-Ork was very excited to get out of Tarrenko. She stared out the window and watched the world race by. Ari and Jack were bent over a plank of wood between them, scratching on it with charcoal and talking. A plan was in motion, and they had to have it solidified quickly. Jilken was less than a day away.
The two guards Jack had been asked to take with him had been disposed of last night. Perhaps one day someone would find their decaying, trussed-up, broken bodies in the dry river bed a hundred feet below the Acra Bridge. Perhaps not. Either way, the problem of possible spies had been solved. Killing them had left a bad taste in Jack's mouth, but Ari had insisted it was the only way to plan in privacy and he was inclined to agree. So now it was just the three of them, huddled in the carriage and bouncing along.
First they talked. Unt-Ork begged Jack for a story, so he told her about his encounters with the village of O-mashen-gril-yah-weh-dega, about the ogre, and the healer woman Sankra, who had been captured by the Empire and was down in the basement with the others at Tarrenko, blind and frustrated.
"Seven?" Ari whispered. "Your Sankra is number seven?"
Jack nodded.
Midnight came and went. Unt-Ork was asleep with her head knocked against the window. Ari and Jack were both leaning back in their seats, stalemated. Stories and conversation had turned to arguing. They'd spent the past few hours discussing how to start a rebellion without getting all the rebels killed.
Ari suggested they breed revolt in the ranks of the women, who were not being brainwashed, and see if they could take the fortress. Jack thought it would be better to somehow take control of the soldiers, since they were the ones with the weapons and the training. Both ideas were equally risky, since the majority of the women didn't know how to fight and Jack had hardly any idea of how to make the soldiers sympathetic to his cause. Besides, they had to assume there were spies everywhere.
Dawn broke over a misty marshland. Jilken Fortress loomed in the distance, grey and tall. Unt-Ork sat bolt upright in her seat.
"I have an idea!" she said.
General Portkippis, who looked like an unfortunate cross between a hippopotamus and an armadillo, lounged behind his desk and took another noisy slurp of wine before digging into his chicken drumstick again. He tore off a piece of meat and chomped on it. Little flecks of chicken fat flew and landed on his big round belly. He was making a mess. The skinny servant dusting a bookshelf in the corner had stopped work a few moments ago. She was staring at this spectacle.
The General saw her. "What are you doing, you piece of garbage!" he bellowed, and flung the chicken bone in her direction. "I want this place spotless! The envoy is arriving within the hour! MOVE IT!"
The servant bowed her head, clenched her bony fists in anger and kept dusting. There were worse fates than hers and she knew it. But to go from being the respected Ashi of her village to someone's servant … it was hard to bear.
"What's your idea?" Ari asked.
Unt-Ork was shivering a little with excitement. Or perhaps she was cold. Jack blinked at her.
"You have friends, Jack," Unt-Ork said. "How many of the women do you know from O-mashi … you know, the village. How many women do you know?"
"Many," he replied. "Why?"
"I'm sure that there's at least one woman from that village at every base … someone who you've helped, who would certainly want to help you."
Jack had no idea where this was going.
"Instead of forcing everyone to rebel and take just this one fortress, why not work out a signal to take every fortress at once? We can appoint leaders at the different bases. You can point out those you recognize to us, and Ari and I will inform those I find to be trustworthy. After all, I can 'see' things."
She tapped her head and gave both Ari and Jack a triumphant smile. They both understood what she meant. Ari reached over and rubbed her friend's bald head affectionately.
"And if Jack makes some 'return trips' to check on the servants, he can teach the women to defend themselves and no one will be the wiser," she said, catching on. "Anybody ever tell you you're a damn smart little critter?"
That was when the ball stopped. It screeched to a halt two feet from the fortress gate and Jack, Ari and Unt-Ork were flung en masse into the control panel. A minute later they stumbled dizzily out of the carriage. Jack dusted himself off.
"Now remember," Ari said. "We're you're servants."
Jack nodded. They were in front of another huge wooden fence, only this one had a pull lever with a word above it in a language Jack had never seen before. He shrugged and pulled the lever. It could have been the signal to release the hounds, or the guards, or the plague. Jack didn't know. Fortunately it turned out to be the bell. An annoyingly high-pitched voice said "Yes?" through a hidden intercom.
"Kip Renakalli, envoy from Tarrenko. I am here to speak with General Portkippis."
The giant gates made a shrieking sound like metal on concrete, and slowly the huge fence began to swing open, as if on a hinge. Jack looked at Ari and Unt-Ork. They nodded at him. He took the lead and all three of them walked across the snowy courtyard to the grand entrance of the fortress.
It was a sight to see. The stone entrance was covered in relieves of warriors on the march, some of whom looked suspiciously like that Spartan army Jack had helped a while back. He steeled himself and pushed open the door. The entrance hall was even grander and more ornate than he had imagined. Every piece of furniture was covered with plush red fabric and built from some strange gleaming wood that he had never seen before. Paintings in all styles adorned the walls. There were white winter blooms sitting on a table in the corner. Ari whistled, clearly impressed. Unt-Ork didn't like the place at all. She clung to her friend's leg. They only had a moment to admire everything when there was a loud clanging and bustling noise coming from the left.
Presently the General appeared, a dinner bib still tucked into his shirt and flanked by ten servants, none of which looked nearly as hearty as he did. He slapped Jack on the shoulder with alarming force, put out his hand for a shake and said …
"Renakalli! How are you? We're all just tremendously excited to have someone coming up from Tarrenko. Nice beard. As you can see, all is well here, but I'll have one of the girls give you a tour and then you can have dinner with me!"
"Uh…" said Jack, glancing quickly at the putrid-looking stains on Portkippis's bib.
Unt-Ork kicked him.
"Yes! Yes, please. That would be … good."
Portkippis raised an eyebrow. "Not much for speaking, are you? Well, fortunately for you I hate noisy people. Give me a quiet man any day, I say!" he said, and let out a loud belly laugh, followed hard upon by a loud burp. He whirled around and pointed at Errol. "You there! Give Mr. Renakalli a tour of the grounds. He's got to see everything's in order and then report back to General Digger! Get a move on!"
A woman moved toward Jack as the general walked off. Just as the general passed her he slapped her casually on the butt, as though she were a particularly slow mule. She flushed in humiliation. Jack balled his hands into fists, but kept them behind his back. Slowly, the woman walked toward him, stood about three feet away, and did something that she was obviously resisting with every fiber of her being. She bowed.
"Follow me, please."
And they all walked off down the hall. As the servant showed them around the base, Jack found his eyes landing briefly on whatever she was pointing out at the time, only to slip back to her lean frame, her graceful walk. There was something oddly familiar about this woman, but he couldn't place it.
She had just finished their tour of the kitchens when Jack asked her what he hoped was an innocent question. He, the servant woman, Unt-Ork and Ari had stepped out into an empty hallway.
"What was your village?"
The woman stared at him. "You would not be able to pronounce it, and if you'll pardon my rudeness, Ipshen, I don't see why one of her majesty's soldiers would care."
"Please," said Jack quietly, "Humor me."
The woman leaned back against the wall, crossed her arms over her dirty apron, and regarded him. "O-mashen-gril-yah-weh-dega. Otherwise known as …"
"The village at the end of the earth," Jack replied, finishing her sentence. And suddenly her hard, striking face and work-worn hands clicked into context. "You were the second Ashi I knew there."
The woman looked at him then, really looked at him, and he knew that she was taking off his beard with her mind's eye. Her eyes grew very wide. "Great Gods. You … you are …"
"Shhh. Yes." Jack swept a furtive glance right and left. He leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "Where can I meet you after my dinner with the general? We must talk."
"I will take care of it," she hissed back. "Go now. The main hall is down that passageway."
Jack nodded once, and then turned to Ari and Unt-Ork. "Follow her," he said.
Ari squared herself, turned on her heel, and followed the servant away. Unt-Ork made more of a production out of it, saluting and scampering off. Having successfully dismissed his "servants," Jack left for dinner. His stomach had tied itself in a knot. Provided he was able to stomach the food, he just hoped he wouldn't say something stupid and give himself away. He was on his own, now.
Yazzi Digger was eating dinner at her desk, studying the evidence. This was the most bizarre felony she'd seen since taking command of Tarrenko. And sadly, she couldn't just shunt it to the side and ignore it. It had to be dealt with. Her men were getting nervous, and nervous soldiers were ineffective soldiers. As it stood, three were dead, each killed with one stroke, and all with the same blade. The same blade had sliced through the chains on the Wall, freeing those women sentenced to death, but their bodies had been discovered in a nearby barrack this morning; the stench had given them away.
Someone had cut them down and killed three soldiers, for no reason she could figure out. Nobody had been mutilated. Nothing had been stolen. And after some interviewing, it became apparent that her troop had little information. Two of the dead soldiers were friends and had no enemies. The third soldier wasn't especially well-liked, but as near as she could tell, nobody wanted him on ice. It was most puzzling.
Someone knocked on her door.
"Enter," she growled.
Xio stepped into the room, pale and shaking. He was holding an envelope. She took it from him and shooed him away, and he seemed very pleased to go. All the same, she waited until he slipped out the door before cracking open the imperial seal on the letter and reading it.
"Damn it!" she roared.
Another order. They were to leave in 9 days for the White Mountains – which meant she had less than that to provide some kind of answer for her men.
Dinner had been a most unpleasant experience. Fortunately, Jack had not needed to say much, but that was the only good part. He left the hall with splatters of food (not his) all over his armor, and only got away by claiming he was tired and asking to go to bed.
Fortunately, Errol was waiting on them and saw through the ruse. She immediately picked up a lantern to light their way and asked him to follow her to the guest chambers. Jack nodded, keeping his face passive and blank, and turned to Portkippis, who was still eating. He dismissed Jack with a casual wave of his hand. Jack bowed in return and set off after Errol. It was nine o'clock.
They walked in silence through stone passages for a few minutes and were just about to turn into the guest hallway when the plan changed. Errol blew out her light, grabbed Jack by the hand, and tore off towards the kitchens. They darted into the huge room and Errol closed the door behind them. She gently placed the lantern box on a counter and turned to Jack.
"Speak, Ogre-Slayer," she said firmly. "Time is short."
"I have come to help you," Jack replied. "All within the grip of this Empire are doomed unless we work as one to stop it. You and all the women around you must rise up and fight. And I can show you how."
Errol, instead of growing excited, seemed to deflate at his words. "You do not understand what you say. The men have been made senseless killing machines. If we were to rise up against Gunzai and the Empress unleashed them, they would murder us all without a second thought. You should see the way many of us cower when they get near the soldiers. We – we are afraid, warrior," she finished sadly.
Jack stood in silence for a bit. "I believe," he said finally, "That before you would conquer the Empress, you must all first conquer your fear. I must leave Jilken in the morning, but I will arrange a return trip in ten days. I ask of you one thing in the meantime: gather all those you know to be trustworthy, who you think might be able to fight, and tell them there is hope. When I return, we will begin. Can I count on you?"
It took Errol a long time to answer him. She had listened to his speech with hooded eyes and tense shoulders. But after hearing his question, she squared herself and stood straight and tall. Her last words were as firm and determined as her first ones.
"In all matters, warrior."
And they exchanged a bow. His first ally made, Jack strode quickly from the kitchen.
TBC