The Secret of the Chehirainan

When Kenotai clan troops rode into Teyoru Dohupraisé, to garrison the fort again for the first time in almost two hundred years, they had quite a job ahead of them. But even as they set to work, Harasan, their captain, rode west, and came back early. Lauras, the finest spy and ranger of the garrison, was not surprised to be called to the captain's suite the next morning.

Lauras was always happy to see princely delicacies laid out for him. He joined Captain Harasan in drinking plum wine, the drink of kings, and enjoying delicate apple pastries. The apples of their homeland were second to none.

"Even if you send me to my death," Lauras said, with an easy smile, "this was worth it. And thanks for serving these in quantity."

"I'm glad you stopped at three," Harasan said with a smile. "I hope the others I'm meeting with believe me, when I say I'm not hungry."

Lauras laughed. "If you ate four of those a day, you'd get as fat as a pig heading for slaughter. Unless you'd care to join me, out in the wind and rain?"

"You're lucky you're my cousin," Harasan said, laughing in turn. "But listen. I tried to go to their obscene border fort --" the Chehiraineh border fort to their west was named for a quite nasty ethnic slur for Karanaiyan, the race of the Kenotai and most of their allies and enemies -- "and they caught me two days east. There's something they don't want me to see."

"And you saw it by telescope?" Lauras asked. Before riding out here, they'd bought a Federation telescope from the Ikoskasé clan, the Kenotai's overlords. They'd kept it hidden in their baggage while they were on the road.

Harasan nodded. "A star fort of quarried stone, as fine as anything the empire can build. Beyond that, there's a dense hedge of junipers, planted along a ridge."

"And you need me to take a closer look?"

"No," Harasan said. "I want you to look beyond it. Find a vantage point where you can see into the Indoru."

Lauras whistled.

"The province has been closed to foreigners for three hundred years and more," Harasan said. "They talk of how ashamed they are that they're poor and backwards, but the men who stopped me had excellent horses, with steel lamellar and break-action carabines. Their officers' rank beads were rubies and sapphires."

Lauras nodded slowly.

"The hedge past the fort will be watched," Harasan said. "You won't have to set foot in the Indoru at all. Take our telescope, take a map and compass, and camp on the west face of Dorusu Askasé. Wait for a clear day, and try to sight Amucheiru or Ikusheiru. Even if you can't tell the towns from the woods, that tells us something important."

"Something reassuring, I take it."

Captain Harasan nodded. "If they're putting their best foot forward with these border guards, that's good news. But even then, it's quite a best foot."

#

Lauras took a pair of Federation binoculars; the telescope would have been too conspicuous. Knowing that arrivals and departures in Dohupraisé might be watched, he sent out a messenger to nowhere, who hid at the Hill of Sunset, a small border fort to the east. Lauras rode out the next day, as a trooper in a dragoon patrol; he changed into his usual clothing at the Hill of Sunset, gave his uniform to the messenger, and slipped away south on foot.

Two days later, he spotted the trail of a band of robbers. Lauras trailed them to their camp, and saw that they had put up screens to protect themselves from rifle fire. Peeking past a screen, he saw that they were all Chehirainan, and that they knew the trick of rifle fire. These men were either assassins or a well-trained patrol from the border fort, and they were probably looking for him. He left some conspicuous tracks pointing northwest, towards the fort and its hedge, and doubled back to the northeast, where they'd be least likely to look once they'd found the tracks.

He watched the patrol depart to the northwest the next day, then took the risk of lighting a fire to wash up. It pained him to light a new fire, and even more to extinguish it, but he at least said the prayers for an extinguished fire before he departed.

#

Two more days and he was on the mountain, going up in the early morning, amid heavy fog. The fog became rain, and he had a wretched afternoon, although he had sufficient food and medicine to keep from getting sick.

The next morning dawned bright and clear. He checked his binoculars' cowl, trained them to the west... and the sight took his breath away. The great city of Amucheiru glittered in the morning light. There were countless towering buildings, six storeys tall, built of stone or whitewashed brick, larger on each storey than a Federation skyscraper. A theater stood on the central square, larger than any building he had ever seen or heard of, with what looked like gilding on its lower exterior. He saw several other immense buildings, and even trained his binoculars on an exhibition hall. The streets were paved in stone, and bustled with activity. The northern approach was magnificently landscaped, the outlying towns and villages were stonework with slate roofs...

He gazed on, enraptured, breathless. It was like looking back into the Federation. It was finer than anything in the empire by far. He swept the countryside for more sights; he saw pruning teams at work among the chestnut trees, orchards heavy with fruit, immense kilns and furnaces putting out smoke...

And suddenly there was a hand over his binoculars. He froze with fear, and looked up... straight into the face of a Chehiraineh assassin, dressed in mottled green and gray.

"You've put us in a bind," the assassin hissed. "Killing you would mean war with the Ikoskasé, and our secret would be out. One of our men has a message for your commander. Can you swear a double oath, by your clan fire, to keep our secret?"

Lauras fell silent. He was a second cousin of the Kenotai chief; were he not, he could never live such a life of luxury, dining with commanders and playing with assassins in the woods, when most men spent their lives following a plow. Could he really betray his people? Any man currently threatening his life was an enemy; could he really give an enemy a double oath, swearing not just to keep the secret of the Indoru, but also not to reveal that there was a secret to keep?

The assassin saw his hesitation, and guessed its cause.

"You Ikoskasé would lose your next war were it not for your Chehiraineh mercenaries," he said. "And if everything you see before you turns out to fight against you -- how long do you think you would last?"

Lauras nodded. The Ikoskasé had some Federation technology in their arsenal, which bored their cannons and repaired their small arms, but nothing like this. They couldn't defeat Amucheiru alone, and this was only one of the Chehiraineh cities...

He trained his binoculars on Ikusheiru to the south, and the assassin let him. He saw similar sights. And yet, he preferred not to betray his people.

"We'll order your captain to stay under oath too," the assassin said. "We're fine supporting you and your superiors, provided our secret doesn't come out."

Lauras thought about this. "I can give you a single oath," he said at last. "And I can swear to remember that if we turn on you, we're going to need a pretty good plan."

The assassin carefully kept a smirk off his face. Chehirainan were like that, always polite, especially when they were thinking about killing you. "I accept," he said.

#

The very next morning, too quickly for word to have traveled by messenger, Captain Harasan woke to a dagger in his pillow. It bore a note with two words, in the captain's native tongue.

"Drop it," the letter said.