Bright Swords of Serena

Chapter 13

 Leaving Calvan's tent after spending the rest of the day planning and conferring and consulting, Clark offered dinner to her colleagues. During the meal, around a fire outside the tent she shared with Viendi, she saw Hollander rubbing the palm of his right hand, and observed his face pensive and his voice unusually silent. "Anders, what is it?"

"Nothing. A reminder."

"Of your blood oath at the Northcounty negotiations."

"Yah," Hollander said, and fell silent again.

Viendi snorted. He had been brooding all day, contributing little except the necessary to the military planning. Clark asked him what was wrong, and got an answer less than normally courteous. Rosslyn (which was perhaps better, her political positions almost entirely in the center) tried again.

"Daren, what's upsetting you?"

Viendi scowled. "You have to ask that? The ship, the damn ship. Been causing trouble for us ever since we first heard of it. Never should have gotten involved."

He sounded a little drunk, and he probably was, and if his difficulty was about the Maruja then Clark couldn't blame him. Rosslyn said reasonably, "Well, they did attack us first. And it's too late to worry about it anyway. What else is wrong?"

"Colony of people over on the Great Continent. Who cares? What's it matter to us? Nothing to do with campaign. Hones'ly, who gives a—"

"The colonists probably do," Hollander said, sounding exasperated. "And it has everything to do with the campaign. We thought Aethir wanted us because they needed land, but that horse won't run anymore. They've seen all this other land, they've explored it, it's there for the taking, but they still build a warship, not something for trade or fishing, out of this wood they garnered by ignoring their own colonists. Does that tell you nothing? They had an option. But they preferred war to peaceful colonization. This does not incline me to think we're making a mistake. It only makes me more sure."

"You're dreaming," Viendi said. "Fantasies 'n thin air. And remarkably paranoid fantasies, too."

"Really. Then tell me, if that land is there for the taking, why haven't they taken it?"

"No ships. They can't."

"Can't?" Hollander said.

"No ships. Can't spare 'em. And designs are cockleshells. Lucky to get across ocean once, never min' half a dozen. Pushing luck." Yes, definitely drunk.

"No ships?" Hollander said. "And the Maruja?"

Frozen silence around the fire.

"They could do it in that ship," Hollander said. "No question. The Maruja could supply a colony five times over if its innards weren't stuffed with powder and shot."

Viendi said nothing, only stared into the fire with tight lips. But Hollander wasn't done. Apparently he had finally had enough of Viendi's balking. So had Clark, but she had to live with the man, and besides, he was her friend. Hollander didn't feel the same way. So he went on.

"You see. I don't think they were incapable of the crossing. Rather I think they chose not to make it. They preferred to make war on us rather than to use their frigate for peaceful pursuits. It changes everything and it changes it in the wrong direction. It makes it worse. They aren't even after us because of simple meanspiritedness. They're after us because they're fonder of plundering and killing than of building and cultivating. They had a choice. They still chose war. And that doesn't threaten you one little bit?"

"This isn't my war," Viendi snapped. "It's yours."

"Then why did you vote for it?" Rosslyn asked quietly.