The long-caravan snaked its way across the broken brown clay. It appeared like a giant centipede, its torso a long line of camels and covered coaches, its legs the flanking soldiers riding tall horses. In the middle of that center line, in the largest and most lavish coach, Yatol Grysh sat back in his cushy seat, complaining about the heat constantly, though he had several attendants, all beautiful young women, fanning him and patting his brow with moistened towels.
"I do so hate this," the Yatol said repeatedly. ?With the To-gai dogs, there is never any rest from my duties."
The two of his four attendants who were of obvious To-gai-ru descent, with their softer and straighter hair and almond-shaped eyes, didn't flinch at the remark, having long ago gotten used to Grysh's demeaning manner.
"It will calm the outposters," said Carwan Pestle, Grysh's advisor Shep-herd, and the sixth and final person in the wide coach. ?They fear that the thieves grow bolder by the day."
The caravan had been barely out of Jacintha, making its way along the southern shadows of the Belt-and-Buckle toward Dharyan, the town con-trolled by Yatol Grysh, the seat of his power in northwestern Behren, when couriers from Temple Yaminos of Dharyan had caught up to them, inform-ing the ruling Yatol that the thieves of the Corcorca region of To-gai, just west and south of Yaminos, always a thorn, had become even more active. That, of course, had unsettled the outposters, the Behrenese emigrants who had begun to settle outside the old Behren-To-gai border.
Yatol Grysh had campaigned for those settlements, to the Behrenese peo-ple and to Chezru Douan, figuring that his job would become all the easier as the Behrenese settlers gradually began to civilize the wild To-gai-ru. But the early transition was proving to be something of a trial for the lazy man.
Thus, Grysh had diverted his caravan to the south and ridden right past Jharyan, determined to enter Corcorca with his two hundred escorting sol-diers, a contingent that included a score of fierce Chezhou-Lei warriors.
He'd teach the dogs. Though there weren't all that many miles separating Dharyan from the To-gai region, it was a difficult trek, with the wagons bouncing along a narrow, rocky, steeply ascending trail, up to the higher elevations of the To-gai plateau. Yatol Grysh did not enjoy the several days of discomfort.
Grysh leaned back and looked out his window at the wide and barren landscape. In the distance to the north, he could see the towering peaks of the mountain range that had been a backdrop to his home for his entire life. He wanted to be back under their cooling shadow, in the temple that was his palace, full of luxuries and sweet foods, of clean baths and beautiful and dutiful women.
But Yatol Grysh understood that the only way to ensure the continuation and safety of his precious palace was to rule these eastern stretches of To-gai with an iron hand. He hated the To-gai-ru, with their barbaric, nomadic ways. He hardly considered them human.
Grysh looked at his To-gai-ru attendants and smiled lewdly. He did like their women, though.
"The people of Douan Cal near completion of their wall?" he asked Car-wan. Douan Cal, named after the Chezru Chieftain, was the largest and most important of the Behrenese settlements, and also the one most plagued by the rogue To-gai-ru bandits.
"They work tirelessly, Yatol," Carwan replied. ?But their life is difficult. Water must be carried far and crops constantly tended. Their hunters have not learned the way of the local game yet, and thus often return without food. They are not many, but still, they work as they can, whenever they can, at cutting the blocks for their encircling wall."
"Have they not enough To-gai-ru servants to complete the work?"
"Many have left, Yatol. The To-gai-ru traditionally wander to the foothills in the summer season."
"And many, it seems, have wandered to the nearby desert, to come forth whenever it is convenient to steal from our people."
Carwan nodded. ?Life is difficult," he said somberly.
Grysh sat back and stared out the window, considering the new responsi-bilities that had befallen him since Chezru Chieftain Yakim Douan had de-cided that the time had come for Behren to ?reclaim" its ancient province of To-gai. True, the subjugation of the To-gai-ru had provided many slaves for Behren, and a seemingly endless supply of the wonderful and valuable ponies so prized by the men of Honce-the-Bear. But Grysh, who witnessed the hardships of controlling the wild folk of the steppes on a nearly daily basis, still wondered about the wisdom of the conquest, still wondered if the bother was worth the gain.
For Yatol Grysh was wise enough to recognize that his people, the Behre-nese, were not well suited for the trials of the cold wind and grassy steppes of brutal To-gai. How many years would it take the outposters to adapt?
The seasons would it take for them to come to understand the ways - desert animals, the huge hares and spry deer, the giant and powerful that was his charge from Jacintha, to continue to build new settle-tretching farther and farther to the west, a supply line of small s'across the windblown stretch of grassland that separated the heart of ?ai from Behren, so that the assimilation of the wild To-gai-ru could be-' earjiest.
Yatol Grysh was more a pragmatic man than a religious one, ?t both sides of that conflict saw prudence in following the Chezru Chief-tain's edicts to the letter And so he had turned south and continued west, to the call or his people. I ate that afternoon, as the summer sun began its descent behind the line of mountains, the call came back that the eastern wall of Douan Cal had been spotted by the point scouts.
"Continue on through the darkness, then," Yatol Grysh instructed. ?Have a rider go ahead fast to instruct the outposters to light guiding signal fires atop the highest point of their eastern wall."
"It may be dangerous to travel after dark," Carwan pointed out, but Grysh silenced him with a stern look.
"Then tighten the line and move the wagons into three side-by-side columns," he instructed. He turned to his military commander, Chezhou-Lei Wan Atenn, who had personally delivered the news of the sighting. ?You will protect us from the fierce To-gai-ru bandits, will you not?"
The Chezhou-Lei, proud and loyal, sat up very straight on his tall horse, staring at his Yatol with a frozen and determined expression.
"I thought so," Yatol Grysh said, and he closed the window's shutter, for the sun was descending, and on the steppes, even in summertime, it was amazing to Grysh how fast the air cooled, the scorching daytime heat dissi-pating to an uncomfortable chill.
Grysh slapped away the fanning ladies then, and motioned for them to huddle about his large form, using them as living blankets.
He wanted to be home, true, but Yatol Grysh was a man who knew how to take his comforts as he found them. Surely the ride that night was not so unpleasant. The stories Yatol Grysh heard within the compound of Douan Cal were predictable. Bands of To-gai raiders had struck at the town repeatedly, taking their livestock, hurling curses and hurling missiles. None of the Behren settlers had been killed as yet, but several had been injured, including the sane old woman who had been hit in the head with a rock.
What is your assessment of our enemy?" Yatol Grysh asked Carwan ter on when they were alone - alone concerning anyone who mattered, atol Grysh did not think enough of his serving wenches to bother watching his words around them.
oung men," Carwan answered after giving the question a bit of thought.
"Teenagers, perhaps. The older To-gai-ru would have been more straight-forward and more brutal in their attacks."
"Because the older To-gai-ru would be righting for more than livestock," Yatol Grysh said, and Carwan nodded eagerly.
"The older ones once caused trouble throughout To-gai, fighting fanati-cally," Carwan said. ?They slaughtered entire villages without regard for the women or children."
"Because the older outlaws - and praise Yatol that few remain alive - -fought with the names of their gods on their lips," Yatol Grysh explained, ?they believed that their fighting and murdering was paving their road to whatever they envision as their heaven. Men who do battle in such a man-ner are always the worst enemies, my young student."
"Like our own Chezhou-Lei?" Carwan dared to remark.
"And always the best allies," Yatol Grysh finished with a sly smile. ?And tell me, what are we to do about these raiders? Do you believe that we will find them in the open desert?"
Carwan leaned back and considered the problem. The outposters had be-come fairly competent at navigating this area of desert, by their own boasts, but none knew the region as did the To-gai-ru. There in Corcorca's rugged landscape, valleys opened up unexpectedly at one's feet and huge and tow-ering mesas formed dizzying arrays of interlocking channels. Chasing the raiders about in that, their home ground, seemed a fool's errand indeed.
"We'll not catch up to them if we spend the rest of the season in pursuit," Yatol Grysh went on, for Carwan's expression made his feelings on the mat-ter quite clear. ?And likely, they'll strike behind us at every opportunity, to embarrass us more than to cause any serious mischief. But in that inevitable embarrassment lies a danger, my student. Do you see it?
"We will turn a band of young thieves into a band of legends," Yatol Grysh answered after only a brief pause. ?And that legend will give the To-gai-ru of the region great hope that the veil of Behren will be lifted from their land."
"Then what are we to do, Yatol?"
"The nomads' latest encampment is not far from here," Yatol Grysh ex-plained. ?We will pay them a visit on the morrow, I think, and see what we may learn."
Something about the manner in which he said the words had the hairs on the back of Carwan's neck standing up. Something about the set of his ex-pression at that moment, a bit of a grin, perhaps, but more a smug and de-termined look, told Carwan that his master meant to see to this thorny problem with all efficiency.
Whatever the cost.
Most of the caravan remained behind at Douan Cal the next day, with Grysh's coach the only wagon riding out. Surrounding the Yatol, though, the whole of his military escort, along with a few men from Douan Cal knew some of the nearby To-gai-ru.
". rwan Pestle rode with Grysh. He tried to start a few conversations at but it became obvious to him that his master was agitated and wanted be left to his own thoughts. Carwan could guess what that foretold, for had seen Grysh in similar moods, always before issuing a most unpleas- e
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