The dry note in Hal's voice had not been enough to hide the emotion underneath. To his annoyance once more with himself, he saw Bleys had been quick to hear it. "Torture and slaughter were involved in that earlier grief of yours, you mentioned?" "No," said Hal.
Torture had had no part in the death of James. But evoked now by Bleys' acute question, the memory of Donal's older brother Mor, dead after torture at the hands of the deranged William of Ceta, had come inevitably back to mind. It was a memory he, Donal, should have foreseen arising out of any discussion with Bleys such as he was having now. He had been too deep in the wood to watch out for all the trees. He would never be able to escape the knowledge that he had been at least partly responsible for Mor's hideous death. "In any case," he interrupted his own thoughts now, "Hawkwood wouldn't have been there in the city at that time under any circumstances." "Perhaps you'll tell me why not." Bleys smiled. "As you know, my own military education is limited." "I wouldn't have thought so," said Hal. "But, if you want me to spell out what might have happened - after months of besieging a city, after inaction and boredom, living for weeks on end in the mud and stinks of their lines, with a shortage of food and drink from a surrounding countryside, scoured clean of supplies so that they were almost as starved as the people in the city, the attitudes of the besiegers became as savage as the attitudes of wild animals toward the besieged. One hour after the city was taken, the rank and file of soldiers conquering it would have been roaring drunk and blood mad, on whatever wine or other drink they had managed to loot." "Yes." Bleys nodded. "That sounds like the human animal I know. What was there to say that their commanders weren't equally drunk and mad among them?" "The fact that when it was all over, in a day or two, those commanders would need to lead these drunken madmen again, as sober and obedient soldiers," said Hal. "But they waited until the drink was gone, the raping and looting was over, and the hangovers had taken charge, before they tried it. Raging wild in the conquered city, any of the troops, even the most loyal and trustworthy, were as likely to turn on their commander as sharks in a feeding frenzy. One of the earliest things a military leader learns, even today, is never give his subordinates an order they might not obey. So the medieval leaders stayed well outside wherever the looting and such was going on after a taking. They couldn't change what was going on in any case-"
He broke off suddenly. "So," he said. His eyes looked directly into Bleys'. "It was a possible sacking of Earth you came to talk to me about." "That's right," answered Bleys. "Don't tell me you haven't thought of that possibility, once - as it's bound to, eventually - the number of ships we can put into an attack is such they can make a simultaneous jump through the shield and smother any resistance, even that of your Dorsai. This, too, is a siege, and the same sort of attitude we've been talking about is developing on my side of the phase wall."
He paused. "I'm willing to do whatever's necessary to put the human race back where it belongs, on Old Earth, for a few thousand years until it's had time to mature properly," he said. "But I don't like blood baths either, so I thought we should talk."
And he smiled at Hal.
CHAPTER 33
Hal sat looking at Bleys for a moment. "The crew and officers on your spaceships on patrol outside the shield," he said, "don't live in trenches or dugouts. They aren't sick, or starving. In fact, I'll venture to bet they eat better than their friends back on the home worlds they came from. If they're developing a siege mentality, perhaps it's because you've fed them full on the idea that the people living on Old Earth nowadays are something subhuman, that the Final Encyclopedia is an invention of the Devil, manned by devils, and I'm the chief devil of them all. It seems to me that an effort on your part put to taking those ideas out of their minds would also prevent any chance of a blood bath." "Probably," said Bleys quietly, "but I'm not going to do that. And since I'm not - you'll admit you've considered the danger of such a blood bath?"
Before Hal could answer, he went on. "Forgive me. That was an insulting question. Of course, You've considered all the possibilities, just as I have." "Speculations waste time," said Hal. "You came here to make me some kind of offer. Make it." "I'd like to call off the war," said Bleys. "I'll be damned!" Hal said. "Will you indeed?" answered Bleys. "In that case, try to get word back to me what it's like. No one's ever been able to send any messages back so far, but you might just be able to do it."
Hal hardly heard him. He told himself no one but the Other man could have startled him to this extent. For a moment he even found himself wondering if he had been wrong all along and that Bleys was far superior even to him after all, that the Other could read minds and see around comers. How else could he explain this sudden offer that would concede defeat just as Hal was about to move closer than he ever had been to winning the contest between them? Unless Bleys had somehow sensed Hal's breakthrough of just that morning?
Amid moved a little, involuntarily, in his chair, but no sound came from Amanda, all but invisible in the shadows by the door, and Hal did not move. In the fireplace a burned through log broke and fell into two halves with a soft crash, and the flames shot up above it suddenly, sending shadows dancing on the wall beyond Hal and Bleys.
Hal pulled himself together. There was a price, of course - some impossible price. "In return for what?" demanded Hal bluntly. "Well, you'll take down the phase-shield, of course," said Bleys. "And we'd want to settle some of the Younger Worlds' people on presently unused areas of Old Earth." He sat back comfortably in his chair. "There're tundra areas at both poles and sections of desert that Old Earth's ignored ever since its population stabilized, following the wave of immigration to the Younger Worlds nearly three hundred years ago. You see, I'm willing to leave the dispute between us, you and I, to the verdict of future history, without any use of weapons." "Are you?" said Hal. "You know better than to think I don't know what kind of Younger Worlds people you'd settle there. Their colonies would he enclaves, from which your colonists could work to convert as many as could be, of Earth's own people, to your way of thinking. The end result would be an Earth torn by a division of opinion - and ultimately a worldwide civil war - as much of a blood bath as the invasion you talk about. Why do you suppose I was instrumental in having the shield wall put up in the first place?" "Instrumental's hardly the word," said Bleys. "The shield wall was all your doing. But think about it." "There's no need," said Hal. "Old Earth's awakened to its danger now. It's building ships and training crews for them, with Dorsai help, in greater numbers all the time, and potentially it's still got more resources in materials, manufacturing and people than all the Younger Worlds combined. Let alone the fact it hasn't light-years of lines of communication to maintain support for its fighting ships." "Yes," said Bleys, "what you say's all true. Earth's building faster all the time - but I think not fast enough. I think the Younger Worlds have too much of a head start. We'll be ready to come through the wall before you're ready to hold us off, let alone drive us away."