“How long have we got?” Selva asked.
“Judging by the pace my scouts reported so far,” Lord Leon rubbed his temple as he sat on his well-worn throne. “Fifteen moonrises, maybe less.”
“About three weeks,” she said to the other expedition members. Eric’s throat tightened. It had taken him almost two to produce a single prototype crossbow.
“Then we’ve no time to lose,” Professor Temerin said. “You asked us here, so I assume you’ll be wanting our help now?”
“I still do not trust you. I wonder if perhaps I should surrender to Dulane’s forces when they arrive, hope their brutality is restrained and they do not extract too much tribute.”
“Something tells me you’d rather not do that.”
“Our ancestors first fled to Far Shore to escape Grand Arztilla as it was in the olden days. To hand over my Hold now would be to betray my landsmen and everything our people stand for. But I may have no choice.”
Selva said, “We should at least try.”
“With what?” Lord Leon asked. “Your strange, sideways bows? Impressive, yes, if they work, but not enough. What more can you offer?”
“They have told me many interesting things about tactics and history,” Wotoc said.
“Let us help set up your defenses,” Temerin said.
“Defenses?” Leon raised an eyebrow. “Against the Arztillan Legions?”
“We have plans.”
“To co-opt our entire city’s industry, if the rumors are true? My landsmen will not stand for it!”
“And what will they stand for? Slaughter by Arztillan ravagers? Fleeing, homeless, with what little they can carry? A futile defense on your own?”
“As if yours would not be? You are strangers to this land; how do we know there is any honor within you?”
“Enough!” Wotoc’s shout took the room by surprise. A servant almost dropped a platter of fruit. “Speak not of honor when in the same breath you may countenance surrender to the enemy of enemies!”
“Hold your tongue, wanderer!” Sir Gerend hissed, putting a hand to his curved sword.
“And let you eat your own words after throwing these people out not a fortnight ago? Would that you be so grateful they do not leave you to the Legions! Were I in their stead, no force in land or sky could compel me to assist a man who offended me so!”
Gerend opened his mouth again, but Lord Leon silenced him with a raised hand. “So, you trust them?”
“They give me no cause not to,” replied Wotoc. “Nor do I think you have any another choice.”
“Even though they too may scheme and plot just like Dulane?”
“It appears to me their scheme is help. If you doubt such open generosity, I dare say you ought to look into your own self.”
“You impugn my pledge-lord’s honor?” Gerend said.
“No more than he impugns it himself.” Wotoc shrugged. “What will be said, if his lands fall and later it emerges starmen offered their help and yet he did not take it? You have little choice but to try.”
Lord Leon remained quiet a while, then looked to Temerin and asked:
“What is it you desire?”
The Professor wasted no time. “Three things. First, the best maps you have of these lands and their fortifications. Second, I want to meet with the heads of every craftsmen’s organization in and near the city. Third, your full support in implementing the directives we suggest.”
“Not an apology?”
“I will forgo that in exchange for a few jugs of wine.”
Several people laughed.
Lord Leon stood. “We’ll be wanting the beastspeakers, too.”
Riding a horse was not like sitting in a car, or even on a skycycle. It used different muscles in Eric’s legs, ones which saw little use before, and as a consequence he’d suffered aches and cramps for days after reaching Highwater Mountain. He’d just been starting to feel normal again, and now they were off on another ride, among Lord Leon’s entourage as they journeyed southwest across rolling fields.
Rachel had asked why Lord Leon didn’t call up an army, to which Professor Temerin was replying:
“Because this isn’t a feudal society. It may look that way, and it certainly shares some commonalities, but it isn’t. In a feudal relationship the vassal is placed in service of the lord, but—”
“Isn’t that what’s going on?” Rachel asked.
“Not quite. I had to ask Wotoc for the details, but the crucial innovation is the service of a man-of-honor and other types of land-owner—landsmen, as we have heard—is voluntary. In this regard it is perhaps most similar to medieval Iceland on Old Terra, where free men could change allegiance between any one of multiple lords in their geographic region. The first Druza settlers fled Arztilla not long after the Fall of the Keepers, so it’s likely this system developed in reaction to hardship suffered there.”
Not that there wasn’t still plenty of hardship in the Freeholds. Eric looked out across the fields as they trotted past, spotting sun-tanned workers toiling in the fields under straw hats. “What about them?” he asked.
“Landless men appear to be bound to follow their landlord or master in allegiance.”
They rode on for some time, eventually coming to a forested area nestled between two hills. Pagodas and towers of a building complex stood near the center, and a road led down into the trees. Wind rustled leaves as they followed Lord Leon’s men; the smell reminded Eric of a park back on Jefferson. Reaching a stone-and-wood wall, they were greeted at the open gate by a man whose short, stocky appearance denoted him as a member of the same transhuman race as the gryphon-riding hunters from before. Eric could not help but feel at his throat.
“Ralbor!” Lord Leon pulled his horse to a halt. “Have you heard the news?”
“Yes, my lord,” Ralbor bowed, and frowned. “Arztilla is coming. You have asked the starmen to help defend us?”
“They already offered. I wished to show them the beastspeakers and their companions, in case there is anything they might suggest.”
“Certainly. This way, if you please.”
They entered a courtyard with open doors and windows leading into the surrounding buildings. Children scampered to and fro, before stopping to watch the starmen in awe. After tying their horses to a post, they joined Ralbor on foot; he led them over to a door and knocked. Footsteps echoed from inside, then different ones as well. A large creature walking. The door creaked open, and out burst a raptor.
