The Totem-Maker (part ninety-four)

The Totem-Maker

Chapter Nine

The Recalcitrant One

(part ninety-four)

“And because you are persuasive, he will surrender his city to the Emperor. We avoid bloody war.”

“Why, I ask you back…Why war at all? Let me answer. I can live peacefully with my tollhouse and my sheep, making and selling. I can live prosperously, may I know, at whatever time it pleases Lord Ei to tell me, whether I am a tenant, or an inheritor, or occupy my house by virtue of my totem-raising, wherefore I claim all fortunetelling alms as mine by rights.”

“No one, I will end the mystery for you, knows what you are.”

“Then I appoint myself your heri, your small demon. I am against you. No one else you speak to will condemn your plan; they are all party to it. Name any trade other than that of soldier for which there is no need, no place, no duties, no… In fact, all these you’ve mustered for your invasion of the Citadel have trades of their own, and you’ve harmed everyone by taking them, leaving their work undone. Regard how the Emperor, in his endless wars, has enlarged his standing army. We have not the case of our fortress guards, our city guards, the household knights of Decima and Vei…”

“Not true, I think. You are saying these guards keep order, defend their master’s lands, obey him. And the soldiers…”

“The Emperor’s soldiers,” I interrupted. “Is your life so rarefied you have never heard the people’s complaint? Everyone despises the mercenaries. They seize the farmers’ harvests and their good animals. Daughters become second or third wives of men who, yes, have the wealth to keep a guard of their own. Young men without fortunes cannot marry their loves. The soldiers steal the wine, though they call this tribute. A bribe to prevent them breaking and burning. Our peasants flee to the hills when wine fuels the army’s rampages. There is no portion for taxes, the poor farmer can’t be held to it, and if there were, that tenth of his grain and grape must go to feed the army. The Emperor wants to be rid of them, and to fill again his coffers…then, you know very well the sequel. You are living it.”

“Share with me what you know to be better than conquest.”

“Peace?”

“Have you ever lived in a time of peace?”

To his mind he had the better of me, but his argument was no argument at all. “Elder,” I said. “You ply a trade, and war suits it. It does not suit most.” With an upraised hand I quieted his wish to cut me off. If he were entertained by my choice of insult, if I kept that bemusement, that half-smile on his face…

“You understood me to say that I would go. I, travel to the Citadel. Find the Peddler, if you will, and ask him to be my guide. Your soldiers may be forced to linger here another few months, but you have some way of explaining that to Lord Ei…nothing so footling, I doubt, as words of persuasion. Let us suppose the hosting of a foreign army delights the Balbaecans.”

98

The Recalcitrant One

The Totem-Maker (part one)

(2018, Stephanie Foster)