Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕

With a dismayed sigh, Captain Tousen looked stricken. “Meaning they are coming to my office?”

The general nodded.

“But General,” Capt. Tousen said, “Did we not rebuild in Wingsley and all those other posts? Didn’t they rehire at those factories? And have the raiders come back to burn again?”

That was a thought, one Gailert had not considered. “As of yet, no. Now that I think of it.”

“So then their purpose is not annihilation, but mischief.” The captain seemed comforted as he drew this conclusion.

“Their attack on me was not mischief,” Captain Lugan snapped.

Gailert nodded to him also. “And neither was that encounter in Wimanus or the break out in Calcumum. They’re planning something.”

“But what?” Captain Tousen asked. “I see no reason to attack a place once and then run off if it isn’t just for mischief. Even the burning of that city in the Herra Hills could constitute as full blown mischief.”

But as it had been said aloud, a thought occurred to Gailert that had not come to him before. It echoed in his head, asking over and over again, why they would strike a place, burn it down and never come back. It wasn’t annihilation. Tousen was right about that. But it wasn’t just mischief either. The two witnesses from Wimanus had gotten the impression that the humans were organizing into something bigger than just a band of raiders. And as he went over the reasons to strike a place and burn it to the ground, the general mentally counted the places they had burned. And though his people re-supplied the places and started over again, there was a haunting feeling that the humans had gotten away with something. Maybe there really were items of value they had taken, and then burned the place so no one would know what it was.

Gailert rose from his seat. “Captain Tousen, I have a theory, but I first need to return to the inn to gather my documents and study them. I think I may have figured out what they are after.”

“You do?” Captain Lugan rose also. “Including my assassins?”

Shaking his head at him, the general said, “I’m sorry. But I think the attack on you was an isolated incident. I believe someone hired them to kill you, perhaps one of the disenfranchised patriarchs of your city?”

Captain Lugan squared his jaw. “Ollev Tallar. Of course. Why didn’t I see that? I sold his son to the governor of Calcumum.”

Gailert froze. “You what?”

Nodding, the captain repeated, “I sold the disenfranchised patriarch’s son to Governor Shillig. Gov. Shillig wanted a boy, and the child was well bred. So I figured the match was perfect. But the father threatened me.”

Rubbing his left temple as a headache formed, Gailert said slowly and deliberately, “And you did not think to tell me when you knew the governor’s home was attacked and all his slaves were freed?”

Stepping back from him, Captain Lugan snapped in his defense, “I was shot and stabbed. It took a long time to recover this well. The wounds still hurt even after I drained a slave for recovery. Real trauma! Like I’d remember every detail!”

“It was a crucial detail,” Gailert bit back, leaning towards the blue-eye Sky Child as if to dare him to drain him also. “It gives motive for the break-in at the palace of Calcumum. Your patriarch knows a great many important people. If we find him, we will find what the insurgents are up to.”

The captain of Wendora huffed and stepped back. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Ollev Tallar vanished long before the attack. No one has seen him since.”

Gailert clenched his teeth and dropped his head. “Dammit.”

“But that means some city patriarchs are involved,” Captain Tousen muttered, casting a look as if he could see through the wall.

Nodding, Gailert lifted his head. “It does. And you can be sure these small raids are only the beginning.

*

“Can we begin?” Tiler asked with a tired look at Pattron as he leaned on the table in the kitchen. Everyone in the traveling group was together at last, including their ‘host’ who was already in his dressing gown and cap. The servants were all in their beds and the moon was near setting.

Pattron nodded, speaking in a voice just above a whisper. “This is very simple. Most of you already know your tasks here in Ladis. Those that have no immediate work ought to head on to Harmas. Mostly I only need the…sorry…Miss Loe to finish her task. I also have work for my Bekir friends, particularly my main dancer from this evening. And by the way, I was quite impressed by your performance. You are a man of many talents.”

Key grimaced. He wished Pattron would just go on with the details of what he wanted from him.

“So, if you don’t mind—”

“I do,” Tiler said, nodding over to Key. “I don’t leave him alone.”

Restraining himself from returning Tiler’s objection with a glare, Pattron spoke in his most distinguished tone possible as he said, “I’m sure you’ll be able to keep on as a tin seller somewhere in—”

“Not just somewhere,” Tiler objected again. He looked to Loid and Tered as he added, “Unless those two are planning to have Key sing every day in the market and dance with his sword, I need to be where he is. Rainold can take up the tin industry. It’s his any way.”

“But I don’t need—” Pattron was beginning to lose his temper, especially as this time Rainold interrupted him.

“As part of the agreement, I am to establish reading and writing schools in Ladis.” Rainold also glanced to Luis whose lips had remained pursed together in silence. The swordsman’s mind on something altogether different. Luis held a faraway gaze, and the way Luis crinkled his brow was as though he had received some disturbing news. Rainold looked to Key instead. “Unless you don’t want our help, I believe I ought to finish at least a good course worth so the others can teach when I am gone.”

Key nodded, agreeing.

Pattron frowned. “Reading lessons….”

“It is for the greater good, Mr. Huldred,” Rainold said.

“Well, I don’t understand this so-called greater good you speak of,” Pattron said with some bite. “All I know is that I need tunnels and weapons. You forcing this luxury of strange mark reading when the humans in this city are suffering from beatings and starvation is entirely ridiculous if not useless.”

“Luxury?” Key gave a small laugh. “I take it you don’t read.”

Pattron lifted his chin. “I read enough for business.”

Rolling his eyes, Key rose. “Look. I am demanding that every peasant, shopkeeper, farmer, and merchant learn to read. It is not a luxury, but a necessity. And I am not going to explain my reasons over again. If you want my service, this is the pay I am demanding. End of discussion. Now, what exactly are you asking that I do while I am here—and don’t you say to smith a sword for you. I’m sure Sadena would not approve. The Sky Children would hone in on my location if I started the fire for a decent sword.”

Everyone was silent. Water dripped from the spout in the sink, dropping with a faint echo against the steel tub. Someone exhaled. Another drew in a breath. The creak of a stool broke the silence as someone shifted in his seat.

At last Pattron replied, “Fine. What I need from you is to read the city maps I have for me….”

“Which you could have done for yourself if you could read,” Rainold muttered under his breath.

“…You saw the people at my dinner party, and since I hear you have a good memory, if I describe them to you, you can mark their homes on the map when I tell you their addresses. Right?” Pattron waited.

Nodding Key glanced to Lanona. “Is this for her to use?”

Pattron gave another nod. “And for my men.”

“How is it that you got into this position, anyway?” Loid asked.

“Your house is rather fancy,” Key added agreeing with glance just at the kitchen around then.

Bredin Sefesher lifted his head to hear, as did most of the others, though Luis still looked preoccupied with his own thoughts.

Straightening up, Pattron hiked on one of his smug grins and gazed over them all with a leak of triumph.

*

“Where are you going?” Captain Tousen asked as Captain Lugan marched out of the military office. Gailert followed him, though mostly to pass on to the inn for a night’s rest.

“Back to Wendora,” Capt. Lugan snapped, glaring more at the space in front of him as if his opponent were there. “I’m going find that patriarch and kill him.”

“Do you actually think that will end the problem?” Gailert asked, mostly curious.

“No, but it will end mine. This is personal.” The Wendora City captain tromped to his automobile and opened the door. He didn’t even look back.

And as he drove off, Capt. Tousen wrung his hands, glancing to Gailert. The general sighed then turned to go to the inn as he had planned. Trouble had a way of finding them. There was no need to worry. He just had to be ready.

“We’ll talk tomorrow about the preparations for an attack,” the general said and waved to Tousen as he walked off. His boy stood up from his spot on the front step and followed after him.

*

The group stayed in Ladis for a week, though a number of their men went on ahead to Harmas. It took less than a day for Key to read the maps and mark them and only three days for Lanona to complete a sufficient tunnel system for the city. But it took Rainold at least a week to establish the school with the solid reading basics. They left for Harmas the evening he was finished.

They did not stay in Harmas but passed through. However, the travelers did change clothing styles once more, so that the majority of them looked like men from the Wede Mountains rather than different western merchants. Only Loid retained his lake minstrel attire, unable to really hide his true nature. But that meant that Key and Telerd traveled with Tiler and Rainold, and Loid went alone. They reached Wendora around noon after the third day from Harmas.

“I noticed that Patriarch Tallar didn’t come south with us,” Telerd said as they entered the skirts of the small city.

“He can’t,” Luis answered, walking with Lanona on his right as he pulled the hood of his traveling cloak to cover his face more. They had entered the human markets near the outer wall. The Sky Child guards peered at their paler skin with some suspicion, though they had enough of the northern merchant appearance to them that it did not matter much.

Key leaned over. “He was overthrown.”

“Worse than that,” Luis added. He set a hand on Key’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, my friend. I thought I had killed him, but the captain here lives. I found out when we were in Ladis, but I didn’t want it to distract you from your work.”

Everyone in the group could see Key’s neck grow rigid.

“Who didn’t you kill?” Lanona asked, giving in to her curiosity as she glanced from Luis’s face to Key’s.

The others also did not know what they were talking about.

Luis whispered low. “Captain Lugan, the head of the Wendora military command.”

She drew in a breath.

So did Telerd. He grabbed Luis’s arm. “You don’t mean that captain that burned Summi down, do you?”

“Your village?” Lanona looked to Key.

Key nodded.

The others gathered close to Key and whispered, Tiler looking to Luis. “Alright then. I say we don’t stay at all in Wendora. That captain sounds dangerous, and I don’t want Key in the middle of any military entanglements.”

“Agreed.” Luis nodded.

But he saw how Keys stood, as if the man did not want to leave until the captain was found and killed.

Luis put an arm around Key’s shoulders and drew him close whispering into his ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he is dead next time.”

“Can’t we get supplies first?” one