“To those of you who are professionals, I hereby offer employment at top wages, and, are our arms finally victorious, those of you Freefighters who chance to be noble-born might bear in mind that New Kuhmbuhluhn is just now rife with new widows and other bereaved kin of the gentry slain at the Battle of the Long Pikes. Moreover, with these lands now purged at last of those manbeasts the Ganiks, my father will be in need of loyal men to invest with new fiefs.”
Lieutenant Kahndoot contacted Bili silently, telepathically, “My lord, may I address a question to Prince Byruhn?”
While the prince paused for another draft, Bili said, “Lord prince, one of my officers, Lieutenant Kahndoot of the Moon Maidens, would have of you an answer to a question, if it be your will.”
Setting down the goblet, the royal personage showed strong, yellow teeth and nodded. “Ask away, lieutenant.”
The tall, broad-shouldered, powerful-looking young woman paced to the open space before the high table, to a creaking of leather and a clanking of armor which she alone in this hall was wearing, having but just come from wall duty to this special conference.
Having served nearly a year beside the easterners, she and most of the other Maidens had of necessity become far more adept at speaking Mehrikan of one dialect or another, so her question was only slightly stilted.
“Spoke my lord of lands which might be given to men of proven loyalty, men who had chosen to fight these Skohshuns for my lord and his royal father. What of women who so fought? Might they, too, receive lands, perhaps a large glen?”
Byruhn nodded brusquely. “If these women of whom you now speak be the justly famous and renowned Moon Maidens, lieutenant, why I say that a warrior be a warrior, to my way of reckoning, and I’d be right glad to know that you and your sisters rode under my banner. My gratitude will be equal to all my warriors, and, yes, there is a fine, large, once-rich glen in the north, needing only to be purged of trespasser Skohshuns to be once again ours to give in fief.”
The steel-clad woman nodded and bowed stiffly. “I thank my lord. I now must bear his words to my sisters.”
The prince nodded himself, then addressed his audience, “If any others of you would question, do so now.”
A tall, slender whipcord of a man took two steps forward from the knot of Bili’s officers. His eyes were the yellow-green of some great cat, and his movements no less feline, all easy grace and controlled power. Like Bili and all the other men from the Middle Kingdoms, his scalp was shaven and that scalp was furrowed with old scars. His melodious tenor voice bore the nasal accent of a native Pitzburker.
“Lord prince, Freefighter Captain Fil Tyluh respectfully prays your indulgence.”
Byruhn smiled warmly. “Now there speaks old-fashioned courtesy, personified! There’s no doubting your wellborn and noble antecedents, young sir. Say on, Captain Tyluh. What would you of me?”
“This, lord prince. As a professional, I would as lief swing steel for your gold as for Duke Bili’s, and so, I think, would most others of the Freefighters here; but I and they have a peculiar problem, to whit: Many of us wear and ride borrowed gear and horses. When we all rode west across the Ahrmehnee stahn. Duke Bili… ahhh, persuaded certain of the lowlander nobles of the Confederation to part with their fine-grade panoplies and well-trained destriers that all of his squadron might be better armed and mounted.
“Now, though I know not how the others might feel, I would consider myself less than honorable were I to take leave of Duke Bili’s service and enter into that of another while riding and wearing property not truly mine own.”
“There can be no doubting the depth and breadth of your honor, my good captain,” said Byruhn solemnly. “Indeed, it will be honor to me and to my House to number such a man as you amongst my officers. As for your mount and plate, fear not; I shall see to it that the owners receive full value in gold.”
He turned then back to the rest. “If none else has a question of me, then retire to your tower quarters and relay my recent words to your companions and troopers, for I would know who will and who will not join under my banner by the coming morn. All have my leave to now depart my presence.”
When all save Bili, Count Steev Sandee and the huge Kleesahk, Pah-Elmuh, had filed out into the frigid night, the prince said, “Cousin Bili, I have kept you from your wife and new son long enough this night, so you may retire also; the next matters 1 have to discuss are with Steev and Elmuh. On the morrow, we’ll breakfast together, eh?”
With Bili departed abovestairs, Prince Byruhn quickly closeted himself with the grizzled old count and the hirsute hominid within a small, thick-walled study, the door of which was not only closed and heavily barred, but now guarded with bared and shining blades by the two northern noblemen.
His blue-green eyes gazing fixedly at his goblet, the silver stem of which he was rolling back and forth between his thick, callused fingers, the prince said resignedly, “I had hoped, when I rode down here, that this would not again be necessary, that affairs could be handled openly, honestly, completely aboveboard, this time… but it seems that such is not to be, after all.
“I know that you don’t like it, Steev, that you didn’t like the way I… ahhh, recruited Duke Bili’s squadron last. year, that you will like even less a repetition of that delusive manner of persuasion after having campaigned with these lowlanders for so long, but, man, I have no choice.
“Every ounce of gold that his majesty and I could scrape up is in my chest. There is barely enough to pay retaining fees for the Freefighters and purchase prices for such trained destriers as I had expected to be able to buy. But if, as the captain averred, the horses and the armor of most of the Freefighters I had expected to hire on is going to have to be paid for before they can sign on with me, the situation is flatly impossible; New Kuhmbuhluhn is rich enough in land, but hard specie—gold or even silver—is something else again.
“And Steev, Elmuh, we must have the help of Duke Bili’s squadron! Even with them, there is a good chance that our arms will go down to eventual defeat. Without them, it’s a sure certainty.”
The huge, hairy Kleesahk spoke then. Gravely he spoke, but slowly, for his nonhuman vocal apparatus was ill suited to reproduce the speech sounds of mankind. “It is foreordained that victory shall be ours under the leadership of the Lord Champion, this Bili of Morguhn; such was prophesied long years before any of us was born, my lord prince, and the prophesies of the Old Wise One never have erred. This is why I have done your bidding before and will do it again—putting into the sleeping minds of these lowlanders the desire to fight for New Kuhmbuhluhn—though I like such underhandedness no better than does Count Steev, especially when it be imposed upon men and women who have already done so much for us in cleansing these lands of the detestable Ganiks.
“But if they remain not in New Kuhmbuhluhn, then our Lord Champion will not remain. Yet he is predestined to stay beside us and bring us victory at the last battle, so Fate must already have decided that I and the other Kleesahks do whatall my lord bids us do.”
Having said his say, the hominid departed for the tower, wherein he and the other Kleesahks would mesh their powerful minds and, for a second time, do the bidding of Prince Byruhn.
When he had refilled the prince’s goblet and his own, old Count Steev wrinkled up his scarred forehead and remarked, “You’ll not be getting the full squadron, you know, my lord, no matter what arcane stratagems Pah-Elmuh and his Kleesahks wreak for you this night.”