"Indeed, Your Majesty," the Seneschal agreed once again.
"In fact," Chava continued, obviously warming to his theme, "it would be appropriate, I think, for me to make that offering not simply to Dosaru, but to other gods of justice, as well. After all, that child will one day govern all of us, so surely it wouldn't be amiss to petition all of the gods whose worshipers will be his subjects."
"I would think such a gesture of largess on your part would be deeply appreciated by pious people everywhere, Your Majesty," the Seneschal said warmly.
"Well, in that case," Chava's eyes narrowed as they bored into the Seneschal's, "I imagine Bergahl's Comforters would undoubtedly receive a significant contribution at such time as that child was declared healthy and fit to rule."
The Seneschal's face was very still for a heartbeat or two. Then he nodded slowly.
"I think that would be most appropriate, Your Majesty," he said. "Most appropriate, indeed."
Chapter Sixteen
"Sit down. Sit down, Klayrman!"
Commander of One Thousand Toralk obeyed Commander of Two Thousand Harshu's ebullient invitation and seated himself across the snow-white tablecloth from him. Harshu's command tent was pitched upwind of the smoke—and smell of seared flesh—rising from what had once been Fort Brithik, but occasional tendrils of that smoke still reached it, and the silver, china, and crystal glittering on the table under the accumulator-powered light globe seemed almost ... bizarre to the Air Force officer.
"Wine?" Harshu invited, and beckoned to his orderly before Toralk could reply. The orderly poured ruby-colored wine from a bottle whose label had never been printed in Arcana into Toralk's glass, and Harshu smiled.
"Whatever else we might want to say about these people, they seem to be excellent vintners," he observed. "Try it. I think you like it."
Toralk sipped obediently, then nodded. It was excellent, rather like one of the better Hilmaran reds.
"It's good, Sir," he said, and Harshu chuckled.
""thinspace"'Good'?" The two thousand shook his head. "And here I thought all Air Force officers had an appreciation for the finer things in life! Oh, well, I suppose I can't have everything. I'll just have to settle for the frankly remarkable job you've been doing managing this advance, Klayrman."
"I'm glad you're satisfied, Sir," Toralk replied.
"I'm a lot more than just 'satisfied,'"thinspace"" Harshu told him. "So far, you've hit every objective ahead of schedule. Your SpecOps teams have done a remarkable job of cutting the Voice chain ahead of our attacks, and we haven't lost a battle dragon since the swamp portal. I'm very pleased, Klayrman.
Very pleased."
"Thank you, Sir."
Toralk started to say something else, then stopped and sipped more wine instead.
"Something troubling you, Klayrman?" Harshu asked, and the Air Force thousand looked up. He'd hoped Harshu hadn't noticed his hesitation, but he should have remembered just how sharp, how observant, the two thousand was.
"Well, as a matter of fact, Sir, there are a couple of things that ... concern me," Toralk admitted.
"Spit them out, then," Harshu invited, and snorted a chuckle. "You've got a lot of capital with me just now, Klayrman. You might as well use some of it, so trot out whatever's on your mind."
"Sir, it's just that I'm not ... entirely comfortable about some rumors I'm hearing. Rumors about POW
treatment."
Toralk met the two thousand's eyes levelly, and Harshu frowned ever so slightly.
"I assume you're referring to Five Hundred Neshok," the expeditionary force commander said after a moment.
"His name has come up in some of the rumors that concern me. On the other hand, it isn't the only name that's been mentioned to me, Sir."
"What kind of rumors are we talking about, exactly?" Harshu asked, then sipped from his own wineglass.
"From what I've been hearing, Sir, I'm afraid we're having a lot of Kerellian Accord violations. I'm hearing about prisoners who never make it back into confinement. Who 'mysteriously disappear'
between the point of their capture and the POW cage they're supposed to be marched off to. And I'm hearing about other prisoners who are badly beaten, systematically, by their guards. A lot of it, I think, is the result of the stories about what happened to Magister Halathyn. The fact that Intelligence hasn't been able to confirm or deny those stories bothers me, Sir. It bothers me a lot. And in addition to that ... inability—" Toralk met Harshu's eyes again "—there are those rumors about Five Hundred Neshok and his ... mistreatment of prisoners undergoing interrogation."
The Air Force officer sat back in his chair, waiting, and Harshu turned his wineglass under the light, gazing into its crimson heart as if it were a scrying crystal. He stayed that way for several moments, then returned his attention to Toralk.
"I've heard some of those same rumors," he said finally, his voice quieter and less ebullient than it had been. "Some of that, I imagine, is inevitable. And, to be completely honest, I'd rather see that than a reluctance to engage the enemy. But I have to agree that from what I've heard from certain sources, there have been significant violations of the Kerellian Accords."
Toralk started to say something, then made himself sit silently, waiting, and Harshu shrugged.
"I don't like the thought of casually mistreating prisoners of war, Klayrman. It's a violation of the Articles of War, it's conduct unbecoming the Arcanan armed forces, and—ultimately—it's prejudicial to good discipline. Nothing turns first-line soldiers into their own worst enemies quicker than developing a taste for atrocities.
"But we're in a peculiar position right now," the two thousand continued. "We don't really know these people, and they don't know us. We don't know what their equivalent of the Kerellian Accords may be.
And we still don't know how deep we have to go to find the sort of readily held bottleneck we need to provide defensive depth for Hell's Gate."
"But, Sir," Toralk said quietly when the two thousand paused, "if we don't know what their equivalent of the Kerellian Accords are, then wouldn't it be wiser of us to be sure that we adhere as closely as possible to our version? As you say, we don't know how deep we have to go, or how long we may end up fighting these people. In the long run, isn't it important for us to establish from the beginning that we're not going to be responsible for—or permit—any 'atrocities' from our side, if we expect to avoid any from their side?"
"There's some of this in any war, whatever we might wish, or whatever the Articles of War or some neatly sanitized history might suggest to the contrary," Harshu said. "It always happens, Klayrman, even with the best troops. And at the moment, given the fact that we've attacked them while we were still negotiating with them, I doubt very much that we're likely to find any Sharonians cherishing warm and fuzzy thoughts where we're concerned, however closely we might adhere to the Accords."
"I'm sure you're right, Sir." In fact, that had been the basis for Toralk's greatest reservation about the wisdom of this entire operation from the outset. "But eventually we're going to have to get past that, unless we're planning on remaining at war with these people forever. And, forgive me, Sir, but sooner or later they're going to have Arcanan prisoners of their own. It seems to me that the way we treat their people when we capture them is going to have a significant impact on how they treat our people."
"No doubt it will. To be honest, though, I'm inclined to cross that bridge when we reach it. At some point, this front is going to stabilize. Frankly, I intend to get quite a bit deeper into their rear areas before that happens, but it is going to happen, Klayrman. When it does, we're going to be looking at new negotiations, probably debates on prisoner exchanges, and quite probably demands—from both sides, I imagine—that those responsible for the deliberate abuse of POWs face punishment. Exactly how all of that will play out is more than I'm prepared to speculate upon at this point. One thing I do know, though, is that no matter how angry one side or the other may be, everything is going to be subject to reinterpretation and negotiation when that time comes. They may be as angry with us as they like, may distrust us as deeply as they please, but sooner or later, we're still going to have to talk to each other, and we will. Whatever's happened between us, we will."