Conrad grunted agreement. Sandra raised one elegant brow; her brown eyes were a little surprised. ? Et tu, Tiphaine?? ?I?ve had too much contact with the CUT to doubt that something very strange is going on out there in the Valley of Paradise,? she said.?Strange and… unpleasant. You taught me to evaluate the evidence, my lady, not reject it because it conflicted with my assumptions. And you heard about Lady Astrid?s headache??
Sandra?s brow went up.?That was supernatural?? she said.
Conrad snorted.?Damned straight it was. I?ve seen Tiph draw, spin a hundred and eighty degrees, cut a dragonfly in half on the wing, sheath the blade and be back where she started in about a second,? he said.?Astrid?s just as good.? ?Just as fast, certainly,? Tiphaine said with hard-won professional detachment.
The Hiril Dunedain had killed her lover Katrina during the Protector?s War in the course of the botched first attempt to get Mathilda back from the Mackenzies. Tiphaine didn?t dwell on the memory; it was too stressful. ?Stress? is mostly the result of not being allowed to kill some asshole you really want to slice and dice. ? Something is going on,? Conrad said grimly.?And I lost my belief in the absolute reign of impersonal natural laws about twenty-four years ago. There?s something else at work in the universe. And it doesn?t seem to like us much.? ?A point,? Sandra said reluctantly.
She was that rarity these days, an atheist to the core, a complete materialist and rationalist. Tiphaine had been one herself, until recently, though they were both pious enough in public. As Sandra said, God was a myth but religion was as real as rocks and far more useful to rulers.
Now I?m… not sure anymore, Tiphaine thought. I?m still not sure about God, that is, but the devil is starting to look awfully convincing. I?m going to have to have a talk with Delia about aligning with some protective spook or other. Even if I?d rather pull out my own toenails with my teeth.
She went on aloud, her voice coolly neutraclass="underline" ?And Thurston is just too smart for comfort. He is having riverboats built in Pendleton, with the locals and the CUT supplying materials. Sethaz lets him do that-the Cutters have those religious taboos about machinery. But as long as we hold the castles and walled cities along the Columbia we can strike north or south at the flank of any invader and we have superior water transport for our logistics.? ?Clear enough, then. Let?s not get bogged down in military details at this point,? Sandra said.?I leave that to you, my lady Grand Constable, and to the Chancellor. What?s the state of morale, Conrad?? she went on.
The thick-bodied man looked at the wineglass in his hand and said grudgingly:?Uneven. The older nobles are being effusively loyal-and will stay that way as long as we keep the enemy outside our boundaries. If they get inside and it looks profitable to start cutting deals…?
He shrugged, and Tiphaine mentally followed suit. Norman Arminger had built a feudal kingdom, albeit a strong one; his personal obsession had been the eleventh-century Norman duchy and its offshoots. Homegrown varieties of neo-feudalism without the PPA?s elaborate organization and terminology…
Or our spiffy boots and radical-cool costumes, she thought.
… were certainly common in other areas of the continent, and evidently overseas as well. But.
But while loyalty is the great feudal virtue, unfortunately treachery is the corresponding vice, Tiphaine thought; history had been a compulsory subject in Sandra?s Household. And the older generation had to learn about loyalty, while treachery was something they already knew very, very well indeed. All those gangers…
Sandra had never pretended to be any sort of soldier, and generally didn?t try to joggle her subordinate?s elbows-unlike her husband?s practice. At politics, however… ?I?ve looked over the list of tenants-in-chief you want to summon to the muster,? the Lady Regent went on.?It?s approved, with the following modifications.?
She reached into an attache case on the ground beside her and slid the typewritten schedules to them. Tiphaine took hers and her eyebrows went up. Tenants-in-chief held their land directly from the Throne on payment of mesne tithes-a share of their income-and service of knights, men-at-arms and foot soldiers of set number and equipment on demand. Part of the Grand Constable?s job was to see the troops were ready and call them up at need. The total numbers here were the same as her recommendations for the opening stages of the campaigning season, but some of those summoned were awkwardly placed.
Then she smiled thinly as the reasoning sprang out at her. The initial levies of House Stavarov, the Counts of Chehalis up near Puget Sound, were summoned for the war in the east and the rally point at Walla Walla-the Counts themselves, their menie of household knights and paid men-at-arms, spearmen and crossbowmen, their castle garrisons, their subinfeudiated vassals and their menies. The third string, the peasant militia and town levies, were detached for service under the Warden of the Coast March against the nuisance-verging-on-threat of Haida raiders. Which meant…
Conrad spoke first.?Ah… Uriah the Hittite, my lady??
If there?s anyone who would change sides when a Cutter army arrived in front of his castle gates, it?s Count Piotr Alexevitch Stavarov. ?I?ve nearly killed Piotr at least three times,? Tiphaine said meditatively.?Isn?t there a saying that it?s the things you didn?t do that you regret at the end of your life??
And Conrad?s not looking too upset. He had that run-in with Piotr during the Protector?s War, when the idiot got half his command killed trying to rush a bunch of Mackenzies head-on. There?s still bad blood there. ?No, no,? Sandra said.?I?m not telling you to get them killed. We need every man, from what you and Lady d?Ath say. But if men must die, why not men from the menie of County Chehalis? They do their duty, and the Stavarovs are weakened.?
She held two small, beautifully manicured hands out palm up and mimicked a balance, raising first one and then the other. The Grand Constable nodded. ?I can make the adjustments easily enough, my lady,? she said. ?The logistics are a little more difficult, but not enough to matter.? ?The younger nobles are eager for a fight,? Conrad went on, and Tiphaine nodded silent agreement. ?Ordinary people are… frightened, my lady Regent,? Delia said, a frown on her oval face as she joined the conversation.
She?d been a miller?s daughter here in Montinore village before she met Tiphaine. When it came to how the commons thought, she had a better instinctive grasp than any of them, despite all the Regent?s spies. Sandra and Conrad Renfrew had been founders of the Association, of course, and Tiphaine had been raised as an Associate. Delia went on: ?They?re nearly as frightened of having the Throne weakened and the nobles unrestrained if we lose as they are of Boise and the CUT. What?s helping a lot is the stories and songs about Princess Mathilda and Rudi and the rest, particularly with the younger people.?
She was near-as-no-matter a Changeling, too, which helped. Tiphaine had noticed that the older generation tended to miss things, and she did too, albeit less often. ?Ah, yes,? Sandra murmured, with a secret smile.?How helpful of dear Juniper to compose and spread them. Between her and the Church preaching a holy war, we?re well covered on the propaganda front.?
I?ve never seen you so openly furious as you were when you found out Mathilda had scooted off east with Rudi, Tiphaine thought. I actually had to talk you out of sending the army haring off eastward to drag her back. But trust the Spider of the Silver Tower to adjust and see the advantages! ?My lady, I think you?re underestimating the impact of these… songs… that are going the rounds,? Tiphaine warned.?As Delia said, the same technique is more effective nowadays, since so manymore are Changelings. Yes, it?s convenient right now-but it will have political consequences after the war too, provided we win, that is. Ignoring Mackenzie propaganda hurt us badly in the Protector?s War.?