Page 13 of Into the West

He paused again to let them think hard about that. And look at the faces around them. There were murmurs now, but not from the delegation of the privileged. From the commoners who were muttering to each other, things like “damn right,” and “what he said.”

“Of course the Guard will come to your rescue. You weren’t guilty of a crime, just a bit of selfishness. But that rescue won’t be immediate, now, will it? Because the Guard will be strung out all up and down the line of barges. It will take time before enough of them can assemble to help you.” He nodded at their stricken expressions. “On the other hand, if you go back to your barges, and start piling up foodstuffs on the bank to be taken to the common store, well, people will only recall when times do get hard that you were generous with what you had, when times were easier. Have I made myself clear?”

Portrain swallowed visibly and audibly. “Perfectly, my Lord Baron,” he managed, after a glance at the others drew slight nods of agreement.

“Again, if you want to go back to the Duchy, Merrin will welcome you. And I truly, sincerely hope you all prosper, and the Empire remains a distant cloud on the horizon, and nothing worse than an annoyance at tax time. But remember what I have told you before this. The likeliest outcome of what happened when the Capital was flattened by that monster is that the infighting over the Imperial Crown has already taken place, and the victor is consolidating his position. He will eventually be looking to the outer reaches of the Empire to supply his needs. And those needs are likely to include men for his army. You have servants and sons you would rather not give up, most of you. And I have no doubt you have plenty of other things you’d rather not have seized. But the old Emperor didn’t ask, he took, and I doubt that the new one is going to change that policy. If you are prepared to dance the same gigue I did to preserve your wealth and your families, good luck. If you’d rather take your chances with us, then you are as welcome as you were when you first got here.” He gave a final nod, signaling that the audience was at an end, and stood up. They took the hint, and left.

He turned back to the barges to see that Isla and Delia had both been listening. Delia looked stricken. “Do you think that would really happen?” she asked in a small voice. “I mean, that’s nothing we ever talked about before.”

“We never talked about having to move on, once we got to what we presumed would be a sanctuary, either,” he pointed out. “Father and grandfather never envisioned that. So I am forced to revise the plan.”

At just that point, Ivy turned up with Arial, already saddled and bridled, as he had asked her to do through Rose this morning. “Going off to talk to the village headmen?” Isla asked.

He mounted, and nodded once he was seated, with Ivy pulled up to perch on the pillion behind him. What one Doll knows, we all know had turned out to be a godsend. Ivy would relay anything he needed Isla to know back to the camp, and Isla could tell that to the families that didn’t want to move on. “Hopefully the number of people they are willing to accept for a new lake village will not be fewer than the number of people who want to stay. If it is?” He shrugged. “I’ll think of something.”

Without a doubt, some of the more thorny souls will stay back solely so they don’t have to give up their hate and prejudices, he thought grimly. I’m optimistic, but I’d be a damned fool to think anyone was above human nature because they’re “mine.” Nor should I think their bravery is without limit. This might be as far as they will go. A great mistake that any leader could fall prey to was thinking that because anyone under their charge has done one thing successfully, they will always do it again the same way. Every effort made would lose people, due to their individual lives and crises, so efforts must be maintained with morale as much as any other resource. The nearest anyone can get with followers is to improve their likelihood of excellence, and accept when they fall short, without scolding them. Scolding them only makes followers remember the scolding—it doesn’t change their hearts enough. Only the follower can do that, and for a smart leader, that is best done by ensuring that your way is clearly an actual better way. That means anticipating problems and having solutions ready. A wise leader plans for failures—an inspired leader turns failures into new forms of success.

The Empire had made even thinking of Imperial failure a seditious act. When leaders were discouraged from even planning for accidents, then ongoing consequences from accidents were inevitable. It hurts every day, thinking of what I did. It is so hard to push back what happened, but I know, as consolation, that something else would have happened with the same results—and with far fewer people escaping. What scares me now is, did I bring everyone here to die in a new place, rather than give them the comfort of living their last days in their old homes?

Kordas had never given so many life-altering commands in such a short time, and it was already an undeniable strain upon him. As tiring as it was, he knew he had to give the mental cost its due, or he’d break unexpectedly.

Plan on exhaustion? That’s my plan?

Kordas got a consensus from the villages around the lake pretty quickly. “Forty families, at most,” was the verdict; they reckoned any more than that would mean there would not be enough fish to go around without depleting the breeding stock. In a way, that rather cheered him. These people were careful stewards of their land, and he made clear to them that they were the ones in charge—and that they had the authority to make certain any people he left here would do the same.

He was also mindful of a frank exchange with the town’s warrior-leader. “We see what you are,” he had stated bluntly. “We know that you could remove every trace of us, if you wished to. You could take our homes, animals, crops, children, and sacred places. We would curse you and die fighting you. Even others of our kind would do so, given the chance and your forces. That you would consider our wishes honors us, and it saves many lives. You are a fact in our world now, and our future has been forever altered by your choices. May we see your face again some day, still as wise as now.”

To Kordas’s great relief, Ivy was able to report on the way back that thirty-seven families wanted to settle at the lake, seventy-two families were leaving, and everyone was pulling out personal food stores and other goods and leaving them to be collected with, if not good will, at least the understanding of his reasoning.

“Everyone,” Ivy said insistently, with an emphasis that sounded like Rose.

“Huh. I suppose word must have traveled fast, and people took that little story of mine to heart,” he said out loud over the clopping of Arial’s hooves.

“That is what your lady says. She also says that those barges that have been emptied of food while we have stayed here at the lake are now going to be full again.” Ivy’s breathy voice in his ear could not have uttered more welcome words.

Well, that’s one crisis averted. Now to go on to the next. I wonder just what kind of a tempest I am going to cause by ordering Delia to go with the scouts?

Delia stared at Kordas, her mouth falling open. “I’m—what?” Delia said, feeling stunned, even as her sister said at the same time, “She’s what?”

Kordas had gathered them both up and brought them into the barge’s tiny sitting area while Ivy took Arial back to be penned with the other horses. Now she knew why he had done that. This was not something he wanted to have an audience of strangers for.

Slowly and carefully, as little wavelets made tiny slapping sounds against the hull of the barge, Kordas laid out his reasoning, point by point.

But she couldn’t help but wonder—had he noticed her attraction to him? They’d been living practically on top of each other ever since they got here, and surely her control must have slipped now and again.

If he had—well, this didn’t hurt as much as an outright rejection would have, but it certainly made his feelings clear.

Kordas caught her eye. “Delia, you managed just fine in the mage’s camp when we were setting up the Gate,” he said. “In fact, everyone says that you were welcome, and did your share and more. You’re actually going to be with the one group that is going to find food—wild food, at least—plentiful, so you’ll eat better than we do. Hakkon says you do very well with a hand-crossbow, but you could probably knock ducks and geese out of the sky and tree-hares out of the branches with your Gift, and that will certainly be welcome.” He turned back to Isla. “There are going to be three trained soldiers from the Imperial Army with the group, as well as Hakkon and Ivar. I’m going to send Spitters and at least one Poomer with them. Delia has Fetching Gift, which means that if something needs to be brought from the main group, or sent to me, as long as it isn’t something heavy, she can do it. And that Gift can be used in a dozen other different ways that Sergeant Fairweather thought of when I suggested it. She’s good at tending the horses, and that will free up someone who is bigger and stronger for guard duty and other jobs that need more strength and muscle.” Kordas paused. “Delia, if you really loathe this idea, I won’t make you go. But you can do all of us a lot of good if you take the task on. And I am completely confident not only in your abilities, but that the group will be better off with you than without you.”

So . . . she thought about it. Really thought about it for a moment. I won’t have to watch the boys anymore. I won’t be mending, or patching, or anything nearly as tedious, except for my own things. I like Hakkon, and Jonaton is very, very funny. Ivar and Alberdina are nice, and I can learn more about healing—herbs and things—from Alberdina, and I’d like that.

Maybe it wouldn’t be all bad to be away from Kordas. When he’d been in the Capital, the constant ache of seeing him with her sister had vanished. There was still the ache of not being with him herself, but at least it had only been one source of pain rather than two. Now—oh, it was hard, so hard, when they were all living and eating together without the formality they’d had before. It gave her stabs of actual pain when they would look at each other and there was clearly much more going on between them than there had been before he’d gone to the Capital. Isla was not her rival for Kordas—she was Isla’s rival. But she was completely outclassed, and unless something awful happened to the Lady Baron—

I don’t have a chance. And I don’t want anything awful to happen to my sister!

And one more strange little thought occurred. And if it did . . . I would be completely responsible for those boys. I’m—I’m not sure having Kordas to myself would be worth that.

“Ivar has traveled all alone in the wilderness in the deep winter several times already,” Kordas was continuing, this time to Delia. “He knows what it takes to stay comfortable and healthy, and he’s making all the arrangements.” His tone turned coaxing. “I know you’ve been bored here. I can promise you absolutely will not be bored out there.”