"Narayan, the throne I gave up was the seat of an empire so broad you couldn't have walked it east to west in a year. It spanned two thousand miles from north to south. I built it from a beginning as humble as this. I started before your grandfather's grandfather was born. And it wasn't the first empire I created."
He grinned uneasily. He thought I was lying.
"Narayan, the Shadowmasters were my slaves. Powerful as they are. They disappeared during a great battle twenty years ago. I believed them dead till we unmasked the one we killed in Dejagore.
"I'm weakened now. Two years ago there was a great battle in the northernmost region of my empire. The Captain and I put down a wakening evil left over from the first empire I created. To succeed, to prevent that evil from breaking loose, I had to allow my powers to be neutralized. Now I'm winning them back, slowly and painfully."
Narayan couldn't believe. He was the son of his culture. I was a woman. But he wanted to believe. He said, "But you're so young."
"In some ways. I never loved before the Captain. This shell is a mask, Narayan. I entered this world before the Black Company passed this way the first time. I'm old, Narayan. Old and wicked. I've done things no one would believe. I know evil, intrigue, and war like they're my children. I nurtured them for centuries.
"Even as the Captain's lover I was more than a paramour. I was the Lieutenant, his chief of staff.
"I'm the Captain now, Narayan. While I survive the Company survives. And goes on. And finds new life. I'm going to rebuild, Narayan. It may wear another name for a while but behind the domino it will be the Black Company. And it will be the instrument of my will."
Narayan grinned that grin. "You may be Her indeed."
"I may be who?"
"Soon, Mistress. Soon. It's not yet time. Suffice it to say that not everyone greeted the return of the Black Company with despair." His eyes went shifty.
"Say that, then." I decided not to press him. I needed him pliable. "For the moment. We're building an army. We're woefully beggared of an army's most precious resource, veteran sergeants. We have no one who can teach.
"Tonight, before they eat, sort the men by religion. Organize them in squads of ten, three from each cult plus one non-Taglian. Assign each squad a permanent place in the camp and the order of march. I want no intercourse between squads till each can elect a leader and his second. They'd better work out how to get along. They'll be stuck in those squads."
Another risk. The men were not in the best temper. But they were isolated from the priesthoods and culture which reinforced their prejudices. Their priests had done their thinking for them all their lives. Out here they had nobody but me to tell them what to do.
"I won't approach Ghoja before the squads pick leaders. Fighting amongst squad members should be punished. Set up whipping posts before you make the assignments. Send the squads to supper as you form them. Learning to cook together will help." I waved him away.
He rose. "If they can eat together they can do anything together, Mistress."
"I know." Each cult sustained an absurd tangle of dietary laws. Thus, this approach. It should undermine prejudice at its most basic level.
These men would not rid themselves of ingrained hatred but would set it aside around those with whom they served. It's easier to hate those you don't know than those you do. When you march with someone and have to trust him with your life it's hard to keep hating irrationally.
I tried to keep the band preoccupied with training. Those who had been through it with the hastily raised legions helped, mainly by getting the others to march in straight lines. Sometimes I despaired. There was just so much I could do. There was only one of me.
I needed a firm power base before I dared the political lists.
Fugitives joined us. Some went away again. Some didn't survive the disciplinary demands. The rest strove to become soldiers.
I was free with punishments and freer with rewards. I tried to nurture pride and, subtly, the conviction that they were better men than any who didn't belong to the band, the conviction that they could trust no one who wasn't of the band.
I didn't spare myself. I slept so little I had no time to dream, or didn't remember that I'd dreamed. Every free moment I spent nagging my talent. I'd need it soon.
It was coming back slowly. Too slowly.
It was like having to learn to walk again after a prolonged illness.
Chapter Nine
Though I wasn't trying to move quickly I outdistanced most of the survivors. For loners and small groups, foraging outweighed speed. Once I slowed to avoid reaching Ghoja, though, more and more caught up. Not many decided to enlist.
Already the band was recognizably alien. It scared outsiders.
I guessed maybe ten thousand men had escaped the debacle. How many would survive to reach Ghoja? If Taglios was fortunate, maybe half. The land had turned hostile.
Forty miles from Ghoja and the Main, just inside territory historically Taglian, I ordered a real camp built with a surrounding ditch. I chose a meadow on the north bank of a clean brook. The south bank was forested. The site was pleasant. I planned to stay, rest, train, till my foragers exhausted the countryside.
For days incoming fugitives had reported enemy light cavalry hunting behind them. An hour after we
began making camp I got a report of smoke south of the wood. I walked the mile to the far side, saw a cloud rising from a village six miles down the road. They were that close.
Trouble? It had to be considered.
An opportunity? Unlikely at this stage.
Narayan came running through the dusk. "Mistress. The Shadowmasters' men. They're making camp on the south side of the woods. They'll catch us tomorrow." His optimism had deserted him.
I thought about it. "Do the men know?"
"The news is spreading."
"Damn. All right. Station reliable men along the ditch. Kill anybody who tries to leave. Put Ram in charge, then come back."
"Yes, Mistress." Narayan scampered off. At times he seemed a mouse. He returned. "They're grumbling."
"Let them. As long as they don't run. Do the Shadowmasters' men know we're this close?"
Narayan shrugged.
"I want to know. Put out a picket line a quarter mile into the wood. Twenty good men. They're not to interfere with scouts coming north but they're to ambush them headed back." They wouldn't be expecting trouble going away. "Use men who aren't good for anything else to raise an embankment along the creek. Drive stakes into its face. Sharpen them. Find vines. Sink them in the water. There's no room to maneuver on the south bank. They'll have to come straight at us, hard. Once you've got that started, come back." Best get everybody busy and distract them from their fears. I snapped, "Narayan, wait! Find out if any of the men can handle horses."
Other than my mounts there were just a half dozen animals with the band, all strays we'd captured. I'd had to teach Ram to care for mine. Riding amongst Taglians was restricted to high-caste Gunni and rich Shadar. Bullock and buffalo were the native work animals.
It was the tenth hour when Narayan returned. In the interim I prowled. I was pleased. I saw no panic, no outright terror, just a healthy ration of fear tempered by the certainty that chances of surviving were better here than on the run. They feared my displeasure more than they feared an enemy not yet seen. Perfect.
I made a suggestion about the angle of the stakes on the face or the embankment, then went to talk with Narayan.
I told him, "We'll scout their camp now."
"Just us?" His grin was forced.
"You and me."
"Yes, Mistress. Though I'd feel more comfortable if Sindhu accompanied us."