[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
chase them in, with a lot of yelling and shooting. If that gets the gate open,
we may be able to take the place before some fanatic blows it up. You know,
some of these under-priests and novices really believe in Styphon."
"Well, what did you get here?"
Harmakros waved a hand about him. "All this gold and fancywork. Then there's
gold and silver, specie and bullion, in the vaults, to about fifty thousand
gold ounces, I'd say."
That was a lot of money. Around a million US. dollars. He could believe it,
though; besides making fireseed, Styphon's House was in the loan-shark
business, at something like ten percent per lunar month, compound interest.
Anti-usury laws; do something about. Except for a few small-time pa@vnbro-
kers, they were the only money-lenders in Sask.
"Then '" Harmakros continued, "there's a magazine and armory. We haven't
taken inventory yet, but I'd say ten tons of fireseed, three or four hundred
stand of arquebuses and calivers, and a lot of armor. And one wing's packed
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full of general merchandise, probably taken in as offerings. We haven't even
looked at that, yet; just put it under guard. A lot of barrels that could be
wine; we don't want the troops getting at that yet."
The guns of Tarr-Sask kept on firing slowly, smashing a house now and then.
None of the roundshot came near the temple; Balthames was evidently still in
awe of Styphon's House. The main army arrived about 1630; Alkides got his
brass eighteen-pounders and three twelves in position and began shooting back.
They didn't throw the huge granite globes Baltham@s's bombards did, but they
fired every five minutes instead of every half hour, and with something
approaching accuracy. A little later, Verkan rode in to report the fireseed
mill taken intact. He didn't think much of the equipment-the mills were all
slave-powered-but there had been twenty tons of finished fireseed, and over a
hundred of sulfur and saltpeter. He had had some trouble preventing a massacre
of the priests when the slaves had been unshackled.
At 1815, in the gathering dusk, n'ders came in from Esdreth, reporting that
Sarrask had been captured, in Listra Valley, while trying to reach the Nostori
border to place himself under the questionable protection of Prince Gormoth.
"He was captured:' the sergeant in command finished, "by the Princess Rylia
and Colonel Verkan's wife, Dalia."
He and Ptosphes and Harmakros and Verkan all shouted at once. A moment later,
the roar of one of Alkides's eighteens was almost an anticlimax. Verkan was
saying, "That@ the girl who wanted me to stay out of battles!"
"But Rylia can't get out of bed:' Ptosphes argued. "I wouldn't know about
that, Prince," the sergeant said. "Maybe the Princess calls a saddle a bed,
because that's what she was in when I saw her."
"Well, did she have that cast-that leather thing-on her leg?" Kalvan asked.
"No, sir-just regular riding boots, with pistols in them."
He and Ptosphes cursed antiphonally. Well, at least they'd kept her out of
that blindfold slaughterhouse at Fyk.
"Sound Cease Fire, and then Parley," he ordered. "Send Uncle Wolf up the hill
again; tell Baltharnes we have his pa-in-law."
They got a truce arranged; Balthames sent out a group of neutrals, merchants
and envoys from other princedoms, to observe and report. Bonfire.s were lit
along the road up to the castle. It was full dark when Rylla and Dalia
arrived, with a mixed company of mounted Tarr-Hostigos garrison troops,
fugitive mercenaries rallied along the road south, and overage peasants on
overage horses. With them were nearly a hundred of Sarrask's elite guard, in
silvered harness that looked more like table-service than armor, and Sarrask
himself in gilded armor.
"Where's that lying quack of a Mytron?" Rylia demanded, as soon as she was
within hearing. "I'll doctor him when I catch him-a double orchideetomy! You
know what? Yes, of course you do; you put him up to it! Well, Dalia had a look
at my leg this morning, she's forgotten more about doctoring than Mytron ever
learned, and she said that thing ought to have been off half a moon ago' "
"Well, what's the story?" Kalvan asked. "How did you pick all this up?" He
indicated Sarrask, glowering at them from his saddle, with his silverplated
guardsmen behind him.
"Oh, this band of heroes you took to a battle you tried to keep me out of",
Rylia said bitterly. "About noon, they came clattering into Tarr-
Hostigosthat's the ones with the fastest horses and the sharpest spurs-
screarning that all was lost, the army destroyed, you Hied, father killed,
Harmakros killed, Verkan killed, Mnestros killed; why, they even had
Chartiphon, down on the Beshtan border, killed!"
"Well, I'm sorry to say that Mnestros was killed:' her father told her. "Well,
I didn't believe a tenth of it, but even at that something bad could have
happened, so I gathered up what men I could mount at the castle, appointed
Datia my lieutenant-she was the best man around-and we started south,
gathering up what we could along the way. Just this side of Darax, we ran into
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this crowd. We thought they were the cavalry screen for a Saski invasion, and
we gave them an argument. That was when Dalia captured Prince Sarrask."
"I did not," Verkan's wife denied. "I just shot his horse. Some farmers
captured him, and you owe them a lot of money, or somebody does. We rode into
this gang on the road, and there was a lot of shooting, and this big man in
gilded armor came at me swinging a sword as long as I am. I fired at him, and
as I did his horse reared and caught it in the chest and fell over backward,
and while he was trying to get clear some peasants with knives and hatchets
and things jumped on him, and he began screaming, 'I am Prince Sarrask of
Sask; my ransom is a hundred thousand ounces of silver!'Well, right away, they
lost interest in killing him." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
chase them in, with a lot of yelling and shooting. If that gets the gate open,
we may be able to take the place before some fanatic blows it up. You know,
some of these under-priests and novices really believe in Styphon."
"Well, what did you get here?"
Harmakros waved a hand about him. "All this gold and fancywork. Then there's
gold and silver, specie and bullion, in the vaults, to about fifty thousand
gold ounces, I'd say."
That was a lot of money. Around a million US. dollars. He could believe it,
though; besides making fireseed, Styphon's House was in the loan-shark
business, at something like ten percent per lunar month, compound interest.
Anti-usury laws; do something about. Except for a few small-time pa@vnbro-
kers, they were the only money-lenders in Sask.
"Then '" Harmakros continued, "there's a magazine and armory. We haven't
taken inventory yet, but I'd say ten tons of fireseed, three or four hundred
stand of arquebuses and calivers, and a lot of armor. And one wing's packed
Page 81
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
full of general merchandise, probably taken in as offerings. We haven't even
looked at that, yet; just put it under guard. A lot of barrels that could be
wine; we don't want the troops getting at that yet."
The guns of Tarr-Sask kept on firing slowly, smashing a house now and then.
None of the roundshot came near the temple; Balthames was evidently still in
awe of Styphon's House. The main army arrived about 1630; Alkides got his
brass eighteen-pounders and three twelves in position and began shooting back.
They didn't throw the huge granite globes Baltham@s's bombards did, but they
fired every five minutes instead of every half hour, and with something
approaching accuracy. A little later, Verkan rode in to report the fireseed
mill taken intact. He didn't think much of the equipment-the mills were all
slave-powered-but there had been twenty tons of finished fireseed, and over a
hundred of sulfur and saltpeter. He had had some trouble preventing a massacre
of the priests when the slaves had been unshackled.
At 1815, in the gathering dusk, n'ders came in from Esdreth, reporting that
Sarrask had been captured, in Listra Valley, while trying to reach the Nostori
border to place himself under the questionable protection of Prince Gormoth.
"He was captured:' the sergeant in command finished, "by the Princess Rylia
and Colonel Verkan's wife, Dalia."
He and Ptosphes and Harmakros and Verkan all shouted at once. A moment later,
the roar of one of Alkides's eighteens was almost an anticlimax. Verkan was
saying, "That@ the girl who wanted me to stay out of battles!"
"But Rylia can't get out of bed:' Ptosphes argued. "I wouldn't know about
that, Prince," the sergeant said. "Maybe the Princess calls a saddle a bed,
because that's what she was in when I saw her."
"Well, did she have that cast-that leather thing-on her leg?" Kalvan asked.
"No, sir-just regular riding boots, with pistols in them."
He and Ptosphes cursed antiphonally. Well, at least they'd kept her out of
that blindfold slaughterhouse at Fyk.
"Sound Cease Fire, and then Parley," he ordered. "Send Uncle Wolf up the hill
again; tell Baltharnes we have his pa-in-law."
They got a truce arranged; Balthames sent out a group of neutrals, merchants
and envoys from other princedoms, to observe and report. Bonfire.s were lit
along the road up to the castle. It was full dark when Rylla and Dalia
arrived, with a mixed company of mounted Tarr-Hostigos garrison troops,
fugitive mercenaries rallied along the road south, and overage peasants on
overage horses. With them were nearly a hundred of Sarrask's elite guard, in
silvered harness that looked more like table-service than armor, and Sarrask
himself in gilded armor.
"Where's that lying quack of a Mytron?" Rylia demanded, as soon as she was
within hearing. "I'll doctor him when I catch him-a double orchideetomy! You
know what? Yes, of course you do; you put him up to it! Well, Dalia had a look
at my leg this morning, she's forgotten more about doctoring than Mytron ever
learned, and she said that thing ought to have been off half a moon ago' "
"Well, what's the story?" Kalvan asked. "How did you pick all this up?" He
indicated Sarrask, glowering at them from his saddle, with his silverplated
guardsmen behind him.
"Oh, this band of heroes you took to a battle you tried to keep me out of",
Rylia said bitterly. "About noon, they came clattering into Tarr-
Hostigosthat's the ones with the fastest horses and the sharpest spurs-
screarning that all was lost, the army destroyed, you Hied, father killed,
Harmakros killed, Verkan killed, Mnestros killed; why, they even had
Chartiphon, down on the Beshtan border, killed!"
"Well, I'm sorry to say that Mnestros was killed:' her father told her. "Well,
I didn't believe a tenth of it, but even at that something bad could have
happened, so I gathered up what men I could mount at the castle, appointed
Datia my lieutenant-she was the best man around-and we started south,
gathering up what we could along the way. Just this side of Darax, we ran into
Page 82
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
this crowd. We thought they were the cavalry screen for a Saski invasion, and
we gave them an argument. That was when Dalia captured Prince Sarrask."
"I did not," Verkan's wife denied. "I just shot his horse. Some farmers
captured him, and you owe them a lot of money, or somebody does. We rode into
this gang on the road, and there was a lot of shooting, and this big man in
gilded armor came at me swinging a sword as long as I am. I fired at him, and
as I did his horse reared and caught it in the chest and fell over backward,
and while he was trying to get clear some peasants with knives and hatchets
and things jumped on him, and he began screaming, 'I am Prince Sarrask of
Sask; my ransom is a hundred thousand ounces of silver!'Well, right away, they
lost interest in killing him." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]