Perhaps Phoenix realised this. ‘Relax,’ he advised, ‘take your time. There’s no penalty for failing.’
Kutch studied the unmoving figures, his eyes sweeping the line. He looked from one to the next, taking in everything about them. At last he said, ‘That one,’ and pointed. ‘Second from the right.’
‘You’re sure?’
The boy nodded.
Phoenix made a complex gesture. Slowly at first, but with gathering pace, the chosen figure loosened its hold on quasi-reality and flew apart, so many billion grains of golden sand. The flaming particles dissolved.
At Phoenix’s signal the remaining five guardians turned and quietly left.
‘Not conclusive, as I said, but certainly indicative. How did it feel? I mean, what was it about the decoy that made you pick it?’
Kutch frowned. ‘Nothing special really. It just seemed… obvious, I suppose. Like recognising a lame horse in a herd.’
‘This was why Domex apprenticed you,’ Karr said. ‘He saw that you had the gift. Sadly, he didn’t live long enough to help you develop it.’
‘Now we can do that,’ Phoenix promised. ‘Covenant could train you, discipline your power and teach you to hone it.’
‘And there’d be a place for you in the Resistance as well, Kutch,’ the patrician added. ‘The plan we hatched, the one your master was instrumental in drawing up; you can be a part of that, if you’d consider it.’
‘He’s only a boy,’ Caldason complained, an edge to his voice. ‘Don’t push him.’
‘There are younger in the Resistance. Anyway, the decision is his. What do you say, Kutch?’
‘Well…’
‘You should have time to think on it, like Reeth. Will you do that?’
‘Yes… yes, I will.’
‘Good. And perhaps what we have to tell you about the greater plan might help you both make up your minds.’
‘You’ll never get your precious revolution started,’ Caldason reckoned. ‘Even with the prospect of this fanciful old-time magic and child spotters.’
‘Revolution? Who said anything about a revolution? Gods, no. We have something much more creative in mind.’
19
‘It’s time you kept your half of the bargain and started being honest with
me
,’ Caldason said. ‘If not an uprising, what
is
your plan?’
Kutch, Phoenix and Disgleirio, also seated around the ancient, solid table in the abandoned warehouse, fell silent. They looked to Karr.
‘Not just my plan,’ he corrected mildly. ‘Many have contributed.’
‘Whoever dreamed it up,’ Caldason came back impatiently, ‘what is it?’
‘Let me put it this way…’ the patrician began, making Caldason sigh. ‘When one’s homeland is conquered and occupied, the first instinct is to fight, to throw the invaders out. You know that feeling, Reeth. But how do you do it when the enemy’s too powerful? And when another, equally powerful, is waiting to step in and take over? Fighting against one empire is really fighting against both, do you see? That’s why a much larger slice of the populace isn’t actively with the Resistance. They don’t see the point.’
‘The politician’s curse; long-windedness,’ Caldason grumbled. Karr took that in good part and smiled. The Qalochian added, more seriously, ‘What you’ve just said sounds like a counsel of despair.’
‘No, it’s simply expressing the problem. If giving up isn’t an option, and it isn’t with any of us here and thousands of others, then another solution has to be found.’
‘And you think you’ve found it.’
‘Yes. Many of us don’t want to be under the rule of either empire. Well, then, we won’t. We’ll take ourselves out of the picture.’
‘Life’s not a kids’ ball game. You can’t say you’re not playing anymore.’
‘We’re aware of that,’ Karr replied, adding stingingly, ‘As are the families of many who have given their lives for the cause.’
‘All right, cheap gibe. Sorry. But what
do
you intend doing?’
‘Simply put: not to stay and fight, but to go.’
‘Go?’ Kutch said, plainly confused. ‘Go where?’
‘Some place where we can concentrate our dissident forces and stand apart from the influence of both empires.’
‘That’s insane,’ Caldason reckoned. ‘Where’s the sense in making sitting ducks of yourselves?’
Karr was unruffled. ‘Remember the commune I took you to? They’re good people, but they got it wrong. You can’t be apart while surrounded by hostility. Not if you expect to prosper, anyway.’
‘Exactly my point.’
‘And you’re right. It was the lesson I hoped you’d take from the communards. Success or failure turns on location.’
‘I’d like to know how you expect to get around it.’
‘We’ve given this a lot of thought, Reeth, and while we’re not saying it would be easy, we think it can be done.’ He leaned closer, elbows on the table, hands knitted. ‘Let me explain.’
Phoenix raised a hand and stifled Karr’s flow. ‘Your pardon,’ he said. ‘But before any more talk I thought refreshments might be in order.’
Nobody objected, and he called in one of the grey-clad acolytes and instructed him. The man returned with the rest of his company, bearing platters and flasks. They laid bread, fruits and meat on the table, alongside wine, ale and water. Everybody helped themselves to food and drink. Caldason took only water.
Karr sipped his wine and resumed. ‘Our original thought was to annex a chunk of land somewhere here in Bhealfa. Something remote, maybe with a shoreline. We rejected that quite early on, for obvious reasons.’
‘At least you had that much sense,’ Caldason commented dryly.
‘Then we looked at the possibility of somewhere beyond these shores; part of another country. But of course we’d need control of the whole area we occupied. So it had to be an island.’
‘It may have escaped your attention, but we’re already on one.’
‘It can’t be Bhealfa,’ Disgleirio told him. ‘There are too many forces to be overcome here. As well as being somewhat too large for our purposes at this stage.’
‘Wherever you choose you’d still face opposition on every side. More so on an island because you’d leave yourself open to being cut off and starved out.’
‘Not if we’re totally self-sufficient,’ Karr said.
‘Do you really think the empires would leave you alone long enough to achieve that?’
‘We’re counting on them not knowing what we’re doing until it’s too late. This whole operation is being conducted in absolute secrecy.’
‘It’ll be a hard secret to keep, Patrician, given the number of people who’d have to be in on it.’
‘Just about everybody’s on a need to know basis. And the Resistance is organised on a cell system. There are plenty of cut-offs.’
‘All it takes is one captive with a vital piece of information being put to torture. Then the empires are going to piss on you from a very great height.’
Disgleirio impaled a piece of meat. ‘Aren’t they doing that now, with our tacit connivance?’
‘Your longevity’s made a pessimist of you, Reeth,’ Karr put in.
‘I prefer realist. More so than you, if you believe you can get away with a plan like this. You’re talking about nothing less than the creation of your own state.’
‘And a rallying point.’
‘Think of what a functioning state needs.’ Caldason began counting off on his fingers. ‘An army, or at least a militia, to defend it; armourers, smiths, wheelwrights, farmers, herdsmen, butchers, bakers, builders, healers, tailors, cobblers, administrators inevitably, not to mention a navy to get everybody there and -’
Karr held up his hands to quieten him. ‘Enough! You’re right, we’d need all those skills and more. Do you imagine we haven’t thought it through? This is the culmination of a lifetime’s work.’
‘Gods, man, how many people would it take to do this thing?’
‘That depends on where we do it. But many thousands, naturally. And those thousands are all about us, and willing.’
‘Perhaps Reeth’s right in doubting you can pull it off,’ Kutch said, eyes shining, ‘but I think the idea’s…
amazing
.’
‘It does have a certain fascination, doesn’t it?’ Karr allowed, grinning. ‘The sheer complexity of putting together something like this, something that’s never been done before, is intriguing. The puzzle-solving, the problems that have to be confronted; it’s all quite satisfying in its way.’