"I almost left orders to have them keep you in Tar Kartos, but I'm just scared enough of what you know that I want to leave that choice up to you. I hope you decide to stay." The parchment was unsigned.
She looked up to Caradoc. "How long will it take to catch up to them?"
"They left nine days ago," he said. "And they intended hard marching. We can travel faster than they, but I doubt we will reach them in much less than a ten-day."
Just possible, she thought. Yes. I may get him to call off this war before it's too late.
I may not get there in time, either. "I will come with you as soon as I have arranged quarters here for the nursemaids and my baby," Gwen said. "We must find Rick before he battles the star men."
They reached the rear guard of Rick's force seven days later. It took another day to pass through to the front. The countryside was wooded and hilly, and the single road was clogged with baggage carts and camp followers. Toward evening they reached an area where the countryside opened out and the road ran through broad fields. The army had deployed in battle array across a front three miles wide. Before they could reach the forward edge of the front, they were stopped at a roadblock. Despite Gwen's shouts and Caradoc's rank, they were firmly escorted back to a headquarters pavilion a kilometer behind the lines.
The headquarters was occupied by orderlies and staff officers. Messengers came and went in obvious preparation for a major battle on the next day. No one seemed to know why Rick had taken the light cavalry and several heavily laden wagons three kilometers farther up the road to the only village in the area.
Just before evening, Gwen heard shouting and then saw several groups of heavy cavalrymen ride northwest up the road. The sun was setting when she heard them returning. They were followed by the mounted archers at full gallop and, a few minutes later, by Rick and his personal guardsmen.
He paused to send messengers off with orders, then came into the pavilion. Gwen would not have recognized him if she hadn't heard him talking. He was dressed in chain mail and the scarlet cloak Marselius had sent as a gift. His helmet was the typical bullet shape with nasal guard worn by heavy cavalrymen, and he wore steel shoes and greaves rather than boots. As he came in, Jamiy helped him remove his helmet and gorget, but he kept the rest of the armor on. He sat at the table across from Gwen. "They told me you were here," he said. "If you'll excuse my saying it, you couldn't have come at a worse time."
"Why?"
"Because I've a battle to plan," he said. "Before dawn tomorrow, which means there are a million details tonight. If you've got something to say, Gwen, make it quick. I want you a good way toward Tamaerthon before the fighting starts."
"Your concern touches me."
"What's that supposed to mean? You could have stayed in Tar Kartos. I wish you had. I don't intend to lose tomorrow, but if I do, I'm counting on you to start the university. I still think that's the most important thing we can do for this planet."
"The most important thing you can do is to call off this war," Gwen said.
"Are you ready to tell me the truth at last?" Rick asked. "That calls for a celebration." He turned to the door. "Jamiy, a flask of wine, please. And ask the lady Tylara to join us when she arrives."
"Sir. I think I hear her patrol coming now."
"Good. All right, Gwen, why is this so important, and why haven't you told me before?"
"It wasn't my secret," Gwen said. "Why couldn't you leave things alone? Everything was going so well. We had a perfect place to hide, and enough to eat. Parsons would grow those stupid drugs-"
"That's debatable," Rick said.
She looked up in alarm. "Why?"
"Parsons and Sarakos don't have much of a hold on this country. They'll be doing well to feed their army, much less grow a couple of thousand acres of madweed." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter anyway. With any luck, Parsons and Sarakos will both be dead by morning."
"How?"
Rick grinned without humor. "I selected this place pretty carefully. Took real timing to reach it just about the time that Parsons would. We've got a nice muddy field out there-better suited to my infantry than Sarakos's cavalry. Ideal for a battle. Of course there are other places like that, but this one has a special feature. There's only one village for thirty kilometers up the road ahead."
"I don't understand-"
"Swampy fields. One village. We held it last night and most of today, but we let Sarakos chase us out of it this afternoon. We had to run fast. Didn't get a chance to burn it down. Warner says Parsons and his people don't like sleeping in fields. Guess where they'll make their headquarters tonight-"
"What are you planning?" Gwen demanded.
Rick looked at his watch. "The hardest part was the fusing," he said. "Took me weeks to come up with a slow match that burned reliably, and I still can't time it too close. Making twelve barrels of gunpowder wasn't so difficult, and it was no trick at all to bury it in the village. An hour or so before dawn, Andrй Parsons is going to get one hell of a surprise."
"You're going to kill them all? And destroy all their equipment?"
"I certainly hope so. I wish there were another way, but I can't think of one. I can't even parley with them. If Andrй knows he's fighting me and not just locals, he'll be a lot more suspicious. Where in hell is that wine?" He shouted for his orderly.
"You don't look very pleased," he said. "I thought you lived in terror that Parsons would find us and report to the Shalnuksis. Now you won't have to worry."
"Oh, boy!" she said. "And I was trying to be careful. I didn't expect you to be able to win-"
"Thanks for the confidence."
"Rick, this isn't a game! If you win-when you win-will you be able to grow the surinomaz for the aliens?"
What is this? Rick wondered. He had noticed her alarm when he told her Parsons might not be able to grow the crops for the aliens. Now this.
Could I manage it? Probably. I've got enough allies, and I can talk Camithon and the king into it provided we can import enough grain. But I can think of at least one damn good reason not to deal with the aliens at all. Why is she worried about surinomaz? And how can I make her tell me what she knows?
He shrugged. "Without the equipment Parsons has? Not easily. Madweed isn't a popular crop here, and taking that much good land out of grain cultivation wouldn't be simple. But Gwen, I've been listening to those legends about the dangers of dealing with the sky gods."
Jamiy came in with wine and pewter cups. "The lady Tylara has returned safely," he said. "She will come when she has spoken with her brother." The orderly hesitated. "I do not think she was pleased to learn that the lady Gwen is here."
Rick laughed. "I don't expect she was," he said. "Thank you." He filled the cups. "Look, what's got you scared?"
"I don't even know where to begin."
"Maybe I can suggest something," Rick said. "I've given this a bit of thought, too. Try this. The rogue sun comes at six-hundred-year intervals, and that's the only time the Shalnuksis have any interest in Tran. That's roughly 1400 A.D., 800 A.D., 200 A.D., 200 A.D., 400 B.C., 1000 B.C., and 1600 B.C. The languages are Indo-European and you've several times mentioned similarities to Mycenae and Crete. That's 1600 B.C. or a little later; the rogue's period isn't a full six hundred years. All right so far?"
She nodded. "It's the earliest I'm sure of. Archaeologists on Earth have violent arguments about the languages of the Mediterranean in that time period-"
"They'd love to know what we know," Rick said. "All right. The 1000 B.C. expedition blends in with that. Maybe that's when they brought the Celts. Then or 400 B.c.There's no question about 200 A.D.- that's Imperial Rome about the time of Septimius Severus, and we've even got Lucius's parchments. Then about the time of Charlemagne they brought in a group, and there's plenty of evidence for that. Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in 800 AD., and they must have picked up some of his heavy cavalrymen not long before. That brings us to 1400 or so. There's not one single trace of that visit. Why not?"