The False Martyr (115 page)

Behind him, the crowd
mumbled their agreement, some said prayers, a woman hummed.
Inspiration struck.

“
You will not pass,” the
governor was yelling though his voice had diminished. He looked at
the men around him. Their horses shied such that they struggled to
keep them in place, and they looked nervously back and forth. They
were a dozen facing a mob of thousands. And at their lead was a
woman believed by many to be the embodiment of the Order, a woman
who performed miracles as most ate their breakfast. If things
turned that way, they knew that they wouldn’t last five
minutes.

Dasen walked forward. With
his first step, he began to sing.

The Order is my
guide.

It shows me the
way.

Bringing the
light

Into every new
day.

Those around him picked up
the simple hymn immediately, and it flowed back through the crowd
until it rose in a wave.

The Order is my
guide.

It shows me the
way.

Bringing the
light

Into every new
day.

Soldiers carrying spears
and crossbows appeared, running down the hill and forming at the
front of the riders. There were perhaps fifty, not nearly enough to
slow the mob. The song rose. The soldiers trembled, looking at each
other then toward the governor at their front. It could not be
clearer that they wanted no part in this. In a few more paces, they
would break.

We can carry the
day
, Dasen thought. He felt elation rise
with each step. The mob behind him was a living, singular creature.
Its power was palpable.
We can end this
here. We can break them.
The song reached
its end and rose again.

They were only twenty
paces from the line of soldiers. The governor retreated behind them
but was unlikely to find any protection there. Dasen expected to
see him bolt for his fortress, to admit defeat and live to fight
another day, but his eyes went not toward his fortress but toward
the west, and he smiled.

Dasen hesitated. His voice
fell off and lost the hymn. He stumbled to a halt and barely
restrained the surging mob behind him.

The soldiers appeared. A
column of cavalry rode from behind the buildings to the west and
into the intersection a few paces ahead of Dasen and his followers.
Their leader looked down the street at the crowd, eyes growing wide
with shock. He peeled off from his troop and took up a position
next to the governor. His men, however, did not stop. In a column
five horses deep, they rode through the town. They were equipped
for travel not battle – wore no armor and carried only the simplest
weapons – but there were hundreds of them, they were mounted, and
they just kept coming.

The mob nearly tumbled
collectively to the ground as they struggled to halt their momentum
in the face of the army marching before them. The song stuttered to
an awkward stop, replaced by murmurs. Certainty turned to doubt.
Unity turned to fear.

The cavalry commander
spoke with the governor. Dasen could not hope to hear their words
but the gestures toward the crowd were clear. Finally, with a look
of distaste, the commander rose in his stirrups and addressed the
mob. “People of Gorin,” he yelled, voice husky but as strong as the
governor’s. “I apologize for disturbing your Teaching Day, but we
march on order of the Chancellor and cannot be delayed. Return to
your homes and do not venture forth this day. We ask only that you
provide beds for your brothers who follow and keep the streets
clear. If you cooperate, we will cause you as little discomfort as
possible and will be quickly gone from your city. Now, in the name
of the Chancellor disperse!”

Behind him the procession
of riders had not dwindled. Even if the mob pressed on, they would
be met by hundreds of by mounted soldiers that were not their sons,
husbands, fathers. The crowd rumbled and started to collapse. Dasen
knew that he had lost.

“
Go home,” he turned and
yelled at the crowd. “The Chancellor has denied us the Order’s
lesson, but we will not see the Order defamed with blood on Its
clearest day. We have no dispute with these soldiers. They are our
husbands, sons, and brothers. Give them every comfort you can and
wish them well when they go.” Somehow, that felt like the right
thing to say – certainly, he did not want to court any trouble with
the army that would soon fill the city to bursting – but it left
the crowd mumbling and uncertain. They needed more. “Do not lose
faith!” he yelled. “The Order cannot be denied! Our day shall
come!”

Somewhere, someone took up
the call. “Our day shall come!” Other followed, chanting all the
way to their homes, carrying the slogan and resistance it embodied
to every corner of the city.

Chapter 67

The
55
^th
Day of Summer

“
Do you want to play
cards?” Dasen asked. Watching Teth pace the small room was making
his stomach hurt. They had a day to wait until everything happened.
A day of sitting in this room with nothing to do but wait – and
worry. And Teth seemed to have enough worry for both of them. He
was never much of a card player, but he would do anything at this
point to get her to sit down for a few minutes.

“
What?” she asked from the
window. She looked out and chewed the nail of her thumb.

“
Do you want to play
cards?” Dasen repeated, holding up the cards that Mrs. Tappers had
delivered with their breakfast. “We’re trapped in here. We might as
well do something to pass the time.” Dasen pulled at the collar of
his dress and fought the urge to claw off the cosmetics. It was a
stifling hot day, sunny, humid, with barely a hint of breeze. He
almost felt sorry for the soldiers marching through the city
outside.

The entire town had been
taken over the previous two days. The sum total of every soldier
south of Aylesford had marched – or was still marching – through
just as Lareno had predicted. Most of those had not even bothered
to stop. But several thousand had taken up residence last night and
the one before. They had filled every house and inn, displacing
nearly every family to their floors, eaten what little food the
people still had, harassed their daughters, bedded a few, and
marched on in the morning. And the final set were expected tonight.
Even the River Maiden’s wealthy residents had lost their rooms to
officers, had been forced to the courtyard or hallways to avoid the
soldiers as they drained the Tapper’s famous stock of whiskey, ale,
and wine. As far as Dasen knew, Lady Esther was the only resident
in the entire city who had kept her bed for the night without
sharing it with an officer. Part of that was her purported
nobility, but even more, the governor needed her contained, needed
to know where she was, needed to know she would suffer no indignity
to further the ire of the mobs.

“
I wish I could get out of
here and do something,” Teth said as she walked toward the writing
table where Dasen sat. “I hate being stuck here.” She turned and
walked back toward the window chewing on her fingers. She was as
agitated as a cat in a box, distracted and overwrought as Dasen
could ever remember seeing. He could certainly understand her
nerves – his heart leapt into his throat at the slightest hint of
what would happen tomorrow – but this seemed like something
more.

“
You might as well sit
down,” Dasen tried again. “We’re not getting out of here as long as
the army is out there. Watching you pace is making me
crazy.”

“
I know,” Teth moaned. “I
just need to move. I wish I could at least work with Garth or run
messages again or something.”

“
Kian said you’re supposed
to rest.”

“
Yeah, I know, but saying
it doesn’t make it happen.” She sighed. “I talked with some of the
soldiers yesterday, you know.”

“
While you were running
messages?”

“
Yeah, and I read some of
the messages.” By some twist, the governor had put Kian in charge
of communicating with the various units as they came through the
city, passing on orders, and ensuring they knew where to go. He, in
turn, had drafted Teth as one of his boys carrying messages back
and forth across the city. “They’re headed to Lianne on Alta. They
said the invaders have already crossed into Liandria. There’s going
to be a big battle there, and they’re going to have to fight with
the invaders. Can you believe that?”

“
I’d guess as much. I mean
it’s not like the invaders are going to stop with the Kingdoms, and
their army is already made up of all kinds of different people.
We’re probably just another vassal to them. Do you remember all the
different peoples we saw when we were watching the road? What was
the song those one men were singing?” Dasen tried to recall the
tune that had been stuck in their heads a seeming lifetime gone,
humming a few bars poorly.

Teth smiled and joined
him. “They were funny. And the . . . what did you call them? The
ghost battalion? By the Order that seems like a hundred years
ago.”

“
Phantom legion,” Dasen
supplied, “and it was you that came up with that.” Suddenly, he was
remembering that time, how they’d watch the army march then slept
in the grass holding each other. How they had kissed and held
hands. “It does seem like a long time. I miss it.”

Teth looked at him with a
mix of sadness and affection. “Who’d have thought we’d be thinking
back on that as something to miss?”

Dasen did not know what to
say, could almost feel the connection he’d just forged crumbling.
How could he say that he’d rather be hungry, tired, and scared with
her than warm and safe without? How could he say that he’d go back
to those terrible days in a second if only it brought her back to
him? In the end, the silence just grew between them until Teth’s
thumb returned to her mouth, her head fell, and she turned to back
toward the window.

“
Will you, please, stop
pacing and play cards with me?” Dasen begged before he had lost her
completely.

Teth looked back at him as
if it was the first time he had spoken. “Cards,” he reminded,
shaking the deck at her. “You’re making me want to jump out that
window. Please, sit down.”

Teth looked nervously
toward the window but eventually sat. “Okay, what do you want to
play?” She reached to tuck her hair behind her ear, but it wasn’t
there. What hair she had was slicked back with grease in a style
common among the wealthy. It wouldn’t have reached her ears even if
it weren’t. She looked at him for a moment then dropped her eyes to
the table.

“
Do you play King’s
Crossing?” Dasen asked, trying to lighten the
conversation

“
No.” Teth chewed her lips
and fidgeted with her fingers. She looked like she was going to
jump back out of the chair.

“
Liandrin
Flush?”

“
No.”

“
Brak Wall?”

“
Huh?”

“
Through the
Ice.”

“
I’ve never heard of
that.”

“
You don’t play cards
much, do you?”

“
Never really. We didn’t
own cards. Some of the men played in the shop, but I never took
much interest.”

“
Well, you’re going to
have to learn,” Dasen teased. “What do you think the ladies do at
all those teas you’re going to be hosting when we get to
Liandria?”

Teth laughed at that, but
her eyes grew distant. She smiled and put her hand on his. “I
almost wish that I had that to dread. I really do.” The moment
stretched between them, intimate but somehow sad. “I play Slaps,”
she broke in with a grin. “You beat me at that, and I’ll do
anything you want.”

“
Anything?” Dasen asked,
mischief entering his voice.

“
Anything,” Teth announce
with a giggle.

Dasen thought about the
reward he really wanted, wondered if he’d have the courage to ask
for it if he won.

Teth grew silent as she
seemed to follow the glint in his eyes. “Oh,” she said then seemed
to catch herself.

“
I’m sorry,” Dasen
stammered. “I was just. I wouldn’t. I mean I won’t. You don’t have
to.”

Teth smiled again. “I
wasn’t sure you even wanted that anymore. After . . . after the
past few weeks, I . . . I thought you had given up on
me.”

Dasen looked at her for a
long time, just holding the cards. “Never,” he whispered. “I will
always want you in any way I can have you.”

Teth dropped her eyes,
clasped his hand, and held it tightly in her own. Dasen felt his
anticipation rise. After all this, were they finally going to find
their way back to each other?

“
Well, deal the cards and
we’ll see.” She pulled her hand from his and held it before her
slightly above the table. Her face held an impish grin. “Do you
have any idea how good I am at this game?”

“
I thought you didn’t have
cards?” Dasen’s voice was husky, thoughts muddled.
And if I win
, he told
himself,
I will tell her what I
want.