Brocade got to his feet with a grunt. “What I would like to know is where these gypsies came from. They must have been told the location of the trap, and if that is so, then the only treachery was Misfit-born.”
Elii stood. “I, too, should like to know the answer to this question, but I am fully mindful that Malik hates the Misfits and would like them eradicated despite their invaluable aid in putting his plan into practice. Maybe Elspeth is mistaken, and maybe not. I do not see it as out of character for Malik to have held his hand at the crucial moment, knowing he broke no sworn oath to us in doing so.”
“If you agree that I broke no oath, then why are we sitting here discussing treachery?” Malik demanded.
Dardelan stood, and the others fell silent.
“I think this is ultimately a matter of ethics, and such a debate is never out of place, especially among those who would depose an oppressive order so that they can institute a better one. If you deliberately planned harm, Malik, then treachery it was, whether or no you swore not to harm the Misfits.”
“I did not harm them,” Malik growled.
“You broke an obvious unspoken trust if you did not act as soon as they appeared in the clearing.”
“I have told you already what happened.” He sounded bored.
Dardelan looked about at the other rebels. “We have before us two conflicting stories and no way of proving which is true.”
“The word of my men should be enough,” Malik said coldly. “They will tell what happened.”
“If you betrayed the Misfits, would you not also threaten your people to keep them from bearing witness against you?” Dardelan asked. “As host of this meeting in place of Bodera, I say that there can be no fair judging at this point. But people and beasts died, and this matter is not ended. When the rebellion is over, we will investigate the incident more deeply.”
“But what of these gypsies?” Lydi demanded.
Dardelan gave me a look of inquiry, and I decided to be as truthful as I could. “I once did a favor for the gypsy leader, and when he had a true dream of my need for aid, he rode to the cul-de-sac. He has no interest at all in this rebellion.”
“Another Misfit,” Brocade sneered.
I regarded him icily, ignoring the curious look Gevan was giving me. “Many in the Land who are not called Misfits occasionally dream true.”
“Perhaps the gypsy who came to Elspeth’s aid may speak for himself of what happened when this matter is judged,” Brydda suggested from the back of the chamber, where he sat by the door. “It would be interesting to know exactly what he dreamed, would it not?”
Malik lurched to his feet and jabbed his great blunt-ended finger into the air toward Brydda. “Of course you would speak for your monstrous pets.” He swung to face Dardelan. “As for this Misfit gypsy, obviously he will side with his own kind.”
Dardelan let a silence grow before he spoke. “If I use your reasoning, Malik, then we can call no non-Misfit to vouch for you, for your own kind would not speak ill against you either.”
“I speak of Misfits, who are as amoral as beasts, not of humans,” Malik said haughtily. “A rebel would not lie in council, even to protect his leader, for true humans understand honor.”
“I think Malik’s understanding of honor was shown very clearly in the Battlegames, was it not?” Jakoby asked blandly, her slanted yellow eyes gleaming. “When it comes time to judge this matter, let all here remember how both parties behaved then and who showed the deepest morality.”
Malik looked apoplectic, but before he could speak, Dardelan held up his hands. “I know these are grave and sorely disputed matters, but right now, we must look to the west coast, for the rebellion is not yet over. Elspeth, will your people continue to aid us and allow this matter to be deferred?”
“Our people will remain with the rebels they were assigned to, but none will serve with Malik and his men,” I said.
“I desire no aid from monsters,” Malik snapped.
“If you—” Dardelan began, but there was a loud banging noise and the sound of shouts from the back of the chamber. Everyone turned to see a bloody-faced Serba enter, supported by Zarak.
“What in blazes—!” Brydda exclaimed, leaping to his feet. He helped Serba to a seat and bid someone bring water.
“What has happened?” Malik demanded.
“Treachery,” Serba gasped. “They knew all the plans. The rebellion. The Misfits helping us. Everything…”
“They? The Council?”
She seemed not to register the question. “The soldierguards burst in on a secret meeting we were holding in Port Oran. It was to be the last between the leaders of the west coast bloc. Cassell and Radek, Tilda in Yavok’s place, their seconds, and mine. All of our best fighters—trapped like rats…” She shook her head in disbelief. “They took no prisoners. They simply fired their arrows and slashed with their swords and knives. So many dead…”
“Strange that the Misfits with you failed to foresee the attack,” Malik sneered.
“No,” Serba said. “It was not possible for them to know the soldierguards were coming, for all wore strange metal headbands that prevented their minds being detected. I only escaped because the empath Blyss became agitated and claimed that we were in danger. She wanted me to tell everyone to leave. I drew her aside with me into a small tunnel leading to the roof to question her. Merret came out, too. She is a coercer, and she told Blyss she sensed no danger; the empath became weak, overwrought by whatever she sensed. Then we heard the sound of wood smashing.
“I ran back and we saw…I saw the slaughter. I heard the soldierguard captain in charge of the operation taunt Cassell with the knowledge that the Council knew the rebel plans. He knew a rebel force would be coming from this side of the Suggredoon tonight. He said there would be no rebels to meet them, because none would be left alive on the west coast by then. Soldierguards would be waiting in Port Oran. Hundreds of them, from all the other cities.
“I wanted to go in, but one fighter would make no difference to the outcome, and if I was taken, then no rebel would remain to warn you and…and to avenge my…the others. We got away from the building by jumping from roof to roof, then losing ourselves in the crowd that had gathered to investigate the disturbance.”
I glanced at Zarak and farsent a question.
“She was alone when she came to the ferry,” he responded grimly. “She told me that she separated from Merret and Blyss when the pair insisted they ride outside the city to warn the other Misfits. I suppose they meant to farseek Orys and the teknoguilders. They were supposed to meet her afterward, but they never showed up.”
“It was not just the meeting they targeted,” Serba was saying, tears flowing unchecked down her filthy cheeks. “They attacked all our refuges and hiding places. It can only have been the same in Morganna and Halfmoon Bay. Perhaps also in Aborium and even Murmroth. I went to several safe houses, but they were all burned out and filled with dead rebels. The soldierguards caught me in one of them. They…they questioned me about the Misfits who had escaped from the meeting. They even knew their names!” She gasped and rubbed a ragged sleeve over her face. “I fought my way out. I had to. Now I must go back. There will be others like me who escaped, and I must…must find…”
She fainted dead away into Brydda’s arms.
Kella pushed through the rebels and lifted the unconscious woman’s eyelids. “She must be carried to a bed so that I can treat her.”
Malik caught at Kella’s arm. “You can’t take her away. She has information we need.”
She gave him a look of scathing distaste. “If Serba cannot speak of her own will, will you torture her to do so? I know all too well how cheap life is to you, Malik; both the lives of my people and of yours. But this woman can give you nothing until she is well.”
The gray-eyed rebel looked as if he wanted to strike her, but Brydda scooped Serba up and pushed past him. Kella followed him out.
As the doors swung shut behind
them, Elii said, “You realize that if the soldierguards made no attempt to take prisoners, it means they have no need for any information. They know everything they need to know.”
“How convenient that the Misfit warning should come too late to save hundreds of rebels, but not too late to save themselves,” Malik sneered.
Zarak took a step toward the big man, his face cold. “What advantage do you imagine would come to us in betraying you?”
“Enough,” Jakoby said. “This is not the time nor place for such squabbles. Let the boy tell his story.”
There was a mutter of agreement, and Zarak took a deep breath. “I went across the Suggredoon to the other bank so that I could make contact with the west coast Misfits. Brydda suggested I let them know how things had gone here to lift their spirits. I had barely stepped off the ferry when Serba came running out of the trees, saying all was lost. She bid me return to the other bank with her before the soldierguards came.
“At first I thought she was delirious, but there was no lie in her mind. I…I saw it all there. The slaughter and her escape with Merret and Blyss. I got the rebels looking after the ferry to help her aboard and make ready to depart; then I went away from the water and tried to scry out Merret. I couldn’t reach her. I might have tried again, but I heard the sound of horses approaching. A great horde of them. I went back aboard the ferry and ordered the men to bring it over to this side. We were only just out of reach when they arrived on the shore. Soldierguards. Over a hundred of them.”
Dardelan laid a hand on the ward’s arm. “Zarak, let us be clear on this. Were they following Serba?”
“I don’t know,” Zarak admitted. “She said they were after her, and they came. But maybe they were sent there to seize the ferry.”
“I think we can assume that if a great horde of soldierguards rode up to the ferry port openly, they know she had reached us and that we are alert to the trap that was to be sprung tonight in Port Oran,” Reuvan said.
“Why did the Misfits not foresee this in the minds they probed?” Brocade demanded.
“I don’t know,” I said evenly. “It may be that these bands Serba spoke of prevented our people from entering the traitors’ minds. Or maybe the traitor is not a rebel but someone intimately connected to a rebel, someone who would not be tested. Or perhaps the traitor simply has not submitted him or herself to be tested yet. Even on this side of the Suggredoon, we have not probed every mind.” I looked now at Malik.
“The one thing we do know is that the traitors are on the west coast, else what happened to the rebels there would have happened here,” Gevan declared.
Some of the others nodded, but Elii said sharply, “Right now, the identity of the traitors is the least of our worries. What’s more important is to know what the Council plans to do.”
“Obviously they will attack us,” Brocade said shrilly. “We must post a heavy force along the Suggredoon immediately.”
Zarak shook his head. “You forget that the ferry is on our side of the river and is the only way across. No one would dare swim with the water being so tainted.”
“Of course, by the same token, we cannot sally out and engage them since the ferry is too small to take more than a meager force,” Elii said. “I daresay that is what the soldierguards came to prevent. Of course, they will have to guard their shore constantly to prevent our sending over spies.”
“In time, they will try to send their own spies using small vessels at night,” Brydda rumbled. “They would no doubt have done so already, except for this huge trap they planned. Fortunately for us, they obviously focused on the west coast, just as we concentrated our first moves this side of the Suggredoon. If not for Serba and the Misfits with her, we would have fallen into a deadly trap.”
There was a grim silence.
“Brocade is right. We ought to set up a shore watch along the Suggredoon,” Dardelan said.
Jakoby rose, saying she would post some of her people while we decided on a course of action. I caught her thought that this development could have definite consequences for her people.
“What of seagoing vessels?” Reuvan said when she had gone. “They could come straight in from the ocean and land hordes of soldierguards somewhere this side of the river. We ought to set up a shore watch everywhere a ship can anchor and let off passengers.”
“A good point,” Zamadi said. “But we need not worry about that so swiftly. Such a venture would take time to organize.”
“Of course, we could turn the tables and send our own ships out,” Dardelan said, calling all eyes in the room back to him. “The Council cannot possibly guard all of that western shoreline, for you could beach a ship almost anywhere along it without difficulty and without being seen because it is so sparsely settled.”
“Now there is a truly cheering thought, because even if we don’t do it, the Council can’t afford to overlook the possibility that we might. They will be stretched dangerously thin trying to guard that shore,” Brydda said. “But I think sending out ships of our own is a brilliant idea. Elspeth, I know your people cannot scry over the tainted waters of the river, but could a farseeker scry to land from the deck of a ship?”
“Perhaps,” I said. “If the shore has not been tainted and if the vessel was very close in to shore.”
Dardelan nodded. “We will speak further of plans to attack once we have made sure of our defenses. Brydda, you and Reuvan can look into a preliminary strategy for sea approach to the west coast. Zamadi, will you and your people take charge of patrolling the riverbanks? The Sadorians are too few to watch the whole shoreline, and I’m afraid that is what will ultimately be needed.”
“I will, but that’s a cursed lot to watch. We’ll need to have people set up right away along the bank past the Ford of Rangorn to the Blacklands,” Zamadi said.
“I’ll assign more people to you when we are organized,” Dardelan promised.
“Good enough,” Zamadi said, and sat down to mutter to a couple of his people.
Malik rose, and I half expected him to challenge Dardelan’s authority. But this time there was no talk of Dardelan being too young or being Brydda’s pawn. Instead, the gray-eyed rebel offered his force, Vos’s, and Brocade’s to arrange a watch of the vulnerable places along the sea coast. This was less of a job than it sounded, for the combination of sheer cliffs and impassible shoals meant that there were only a limited number of landing places.
“Done, then,” Dardelan said. “You should begin by setting up a watch on the wharves in the city, too. A spy could easily come in that way under the cover of dark.”
“I can organize that,” Reuvan offered.
“Very well,” Dardelan said. “I’ll assign you some of my father’s people. And, of course, aside from watching, we must devise plans in case they do attack in force either here or somewhere else on our coast.”
“Dardelan, I’d like to try getting inside the cloister as soon as possible,” Elii said. “After all, the demon bands that block the Misfits’ powers are of Herder making, and they obviously knew at least a day before what was going to happen here. Maybe they also know what happened on the west coast.”
“Truespoken,” Dardelan said. “I am not opposed to your making an attempt at getting in, if no one else objects.” He looked around but no one else spoke. “Very well. Lydi, I am afraid it lies with your group, then, to take control of watching the prisoners.”
“I assume you mean the prisoners here and elsewhere?”
“All the prisoners ought to be brought to Sutrium eventually for the trials, but let’s leave the ones outside Sutrium where they are for the time being. Have someone go up and let the rebels guarding them know what has transpired and set up watch rosters. We should know better how we stand in a few days. Besides, when we do collect them, the locals will want to know what is going on. We will have to be prepared to talk to them. I will give some thought to it.”
“What about the city?” Lydi asked. “This plague ruse won’t last forever?
??.”
Malik cut in brusquely. “We cannot spare the forces to control civil unrest nor the time to institute alternative systems right now. I will have some of my men dress as soldierguards and patrol the streets shouting that several people disobeyed Council orders and therefore plague is now rampaging through the city. That will keep them in their houses for at least another day or two.”
Dardelan looked around at the others and, seeing no dissent, nodded. “I don’t like it, but we can’t afford for anyone to get wind of what is happening on the other bank of the Suggredoon yet. There will be a panic if people fear the city is likely to become a killing ground. We must begin to take some sort of visible control of the city soon, though, or matters will slip out of our hands. That means we will have to make decisions I had hoped might be made after all the fighting was done. But let’s get moving now. We will meet here again in the morning.”
There was a general movement toward the door, but Tomash sidled through the crush to me. “Elspeth, Elii wants me and some of the others to come with him when he tries broaching the cloister walls.”
“Go, then,” I said. He departed with Wila in tow, and as other Misfits approached, I instructed most of them to remain with the groups they had been assigned to. Others, I decided, would return to Obernewtyn. There were more than enough of us to help the rebels, and given what had happened with Malik, I preferred there to be less rather than more of us working with them.
I asked Zarak to let everyone at Obernewtyn know what was happening. I suggested Dameon return as well, but he said gently but firmly that he would return when I returned, and I was selfish enough to be glad.
I told him who I wanted to return to Obernewtyn, and when Zarak heard Lina’s name, his eyes lit up. “She is here?”