'What are you suggesting?' asked Dev, sounding puzzled. The ageing general was not best pleased to be at so great a disadvantage when speaking to his people's conqueror, but he was, as Styrax had gambled, a considered and cautious leader. The Menin agents in Thotel all agreed the general was one of the few men Lord Chalat had paid any attention to at all.
Styrax leaned forward. 'It's simple. Your reputation precedes you, both as a warrior, and as a man of honour. To execute you is unneces¬sary, as well as detrimental to my position here. I have shattered the Thotel legions. Soon I will defeat those coming from the remaining free cities.' The massive white-eye held up a hand as the general began to protest. 'My intention has always been one of conquest, not slaughter. I have no desire to destroy the Chetse people – I am no Dervek Grast.'
Styrax didn't bother concealing the scorn in his voice, and he could see the effect it had on the general. Most Menin revered Grast, de¬spite the man's terrible acts – trying to wipe out the Litse hadn't been his only crime, just his most notable. History had many monsters, yet outside the Ring of Fire, where the Menin lived, few names were as reviled as Grast's.
'And so-?'
'And so I see no need to further insult the wounded pride of the Chetse by murdering the man who is the epitome of traditional val¬ues. I want your word that you will engineer no rebellion against me, that you will take no part in any such activities.'
And you will take my word?' wondered Dev, too surprised to hide his surprise. The look on the old man's face said the rest: I wouldn't trust my word in your place.
'I will. In return, you may retire to your estates outside the city in, say six months? The city needs your leadership right now.'
'You want me to rule the Chetse from your pocket?' General Dev snorted. 'I think I preferred Salen's conversation. At least he didn't offer false hopes.' The Chetse veteran looked at the Menin soldier pinned to the wall and the beheaded man on the floor.
'I will appoint a permanent governor in due course,' Styrax con¬tinued, 'but I have no desire to see the city collapse into chaos because
its leaders have been slaughtered. I must listen to someone among the Chetse, and better it be someone I respect.'
'I'll be seen as your puppet.'
'Then get something of value from it. I'm here to negotiate if you want.'
'Leave the city?' the general replied quickly, prompting a laugh from Styrax.
'Perhaps not that.'
'Well, I had to ask,' Dev said with a sigh. 'If you want me to govern this city, I need some concessions. No requisitioning of held wealth or slaves, no conscription, and a guarantee that there will be no purge of the nobility.'
'No slaves beyond what would be acceptable by normal Chetse traditions,' Styrax countered, 'no conscription – I've never taken con¬scripts. If men want to join, they can, and they'll do it with the same rights and pay as any Menin. My coffers will need some refreshment, but nothing to bankrupt families or empty Chalat's treasury; it does me no good to break you. No systematic purges, of officers or nobles. I can't expect all of your countrymen to be reasonable, however, and my agents are extremely effective people. Doubtless some will die.'
The general grunted. 'I suppose that's reasonable. What about the Lion Guard? Salen said he would disband it.'
'The Lion Guard will stay. I will, of course, take control of your armoury and disarm the men, but I realise the Lion Guard is not just a legion, to be disbanded and sent back to their homes. A Menin com¬mander will be appointed on your retirement. Someone with sense.'
'They won't stand for a Menin commander, and nor should any of the legions of the Ten Thousand have to.'
Styrax called softly, 'Gaur.' Soft footsteps entered the room and General Dev's eyes widened at the figure approaching. 'General Gaur,' said Lord Styrax, 'you have a new command: the Lion Guard of Thotel.'
'It will be an honour,' Gaur rumbled. 'They were competent, at least – one of the few we met on the field.'
'The few?' Dev spluttered. 'It was luck and bad leadership that lost that battle. A general possessed by a daemon is a poor tactician, and his lieutenants who replaced half the army commanders were just as bad. Without that, you would have been swept away by our phalanxes and died of thirst in the desert as you ran for home.'
Dev grimaced. Unable to leave his bed, he had been forced to lie there and hear of the fall of Thotel from a boy barely old enough to swing an axe. The Menin had swept across the Waste like a sudden spring storm and Lord Charr, or rather the daemon that possessed him, had rushed to meet them. In their haste the Chetse legions had been outflanked and outmanoeuvred. The core of their army, the Ten Thousand, had been severely mauled, but had managed to retreat while the rest were slaughtered on the field- and at the city gates, the Ten Thousand had found the way barred, Menin cavalry and cen¬taurs waiting to pick off any soldiers too exhausted or thirst-crazed to have the sense to surrender.
'Perhaps we would have found you a little more challenging,' Styrax agreed with a smile, 'but a man makes his own luck, and so does a general.'
General Dev gaped at Styrax. 'That really was you behind it all?'
'You find it so hard to believe? Chalat might have been limited as a ruler, but he was no fool, and he listened to men such as you. It would have been too great a risk to try to take this city with an army brought over the Waste; only a madman would divide his forces and force-march half to meet an unknown foe.'
'And in Charr you had that madman,' General Dev sighed. He looked his age now, his already withered skin pallid from the weeks of being bedridden.
'Not for certain,' said Styrax. 'Every agent said that Charr was an idiot, the sort that gives our kind a bad name; he should never have been Chosen – but it was always a risk that he might listen to his aides and not march out. A good general makes sure of victory before he offers battle.'
'But I still don't understand how you managed it.'
Styrax gave a dismissive wave. 'Some devotees of Larat playing with powers far beyond their control. A nasty business in all, but one that dropped a useful tool in my lap. The details – well, I think you would be safer not knowing. Now, time is rather against us so I must be leaving. I would appreciate it if you would accompany General Gaur to meet his new command staff. I'm certain you're not quite as ill as Salen believed. If he'd bothered to ask, he would have discovered that you were found on the Temples Plain, so clearly someone carried you here without killing you.'
'You want me to go now?'
'Certainly.' Styrax crouched down so he could speak more softly. 'Take care they are courteous. The beast is a valued advisor. Any harm coming to him would do more than have me revoke the promises I have made.' The white-eye gave a cold smile. 'Gaur is a humourless bastard most of the time, but if you want to hear him chuckle, tell him you're going to use him as a hostage when you bargain with me. Understand?'
General Dev nodded. 'I do. A lord's friendship is a fickle thing.'
'Then let us go. We will accompany you part of the way. The barracks overlook the sunken orchards, do they not?'
'They do.'
'Excellent. I might even put on a show in your honour.' Styrax stood and turned to leave, then hesitated. 'Did the guards even object when you asked for the door to be closed?'
General Dev gave a throaty chuckle. 'None that didn't fade before the face of an ill old man they wanted alive in the morning, although I can't say 1 expected you to be the one to take advantage of it!'
Styrax gave a snort and disappeared through the doorway, gesturing for Kohrad to accompany him. Gaur stepped toward the bed. With one taloned hand he gestured towards the shattered doorway. It was impossible for General Dev to make out Gaur's expression. The deep tangle of fur hid any clues.
'Come, General Dev. Our troops await us.'