a hand to his arm, but he caught it first in his own and, as he did, his fingers were cool again, hope draining from his face. He looked down at the assembled might of Denland, all those well-ordered men, those busy minds. Yes, he could kill Doctor Lam. Yes, he could kill a dozen of them, a hundred – but he could not make a difference.
His eyes met hers. For you, I live. She knew that, had he been alone here, then things would have gone differently.
‘I can’t believe it,’ was all he said finally. ‘It shouldn’t happen like this.’
‘What about Lascanne, Doctor?’ asked Tubal. ‘Are we slaves of Denland now? What of our homes, our families?’
A smile somewhat warmer lit up Doctor Lam’s features. ‘We keep no slaves in Denland, Captain – no more than you do in Lascanne. The Parliament will decide ultimately, but I have a voice in it and I know what must be done. The war has all but destroyed us both. So many men dead – and women too! Harvests wasted, skills lost. Any man that will go back to his home in peace and take up where he left off will be free to do so.’
‘Denlander soldiers in the marketplaces, garrisons in all the towns,’ Brocky rumbled.
‘No doubt,’ Doctor Lam agreed. ‘For we must have peace, and you Lascans are such a volatile breed that, left to yourselves, you might find a return to war easier than the effort of rebuilding. There are those, among my countrymen, who say we should just pillage from Lascanne all we need to rebuild Denland, but thus far they are a minority. Those of us with wider vision can see that our nations must rise together, live together – as we always have. To impose an iron fist on Lascanne now is merely to invite strife and rebellion in a generation’s time. This war was madness, however it started. It must never be repeated.’
Tubal glanced around at his fellows there in the cart. ‘I almost believe you, Doctor Lam.’
‘I believe him,’ said Mallen. It was the first time he had spoken since they started out for Locke, and now he had their full attention.
‘I know you keep your promises,’ he told Doctor Lam. ‘I’ve got you to thank that the indigenes weren’t dragged in; that the peace was kept with them. Clever, you Denlanders: you use anything that comes your way, but never the autochthons. I understand you: you keep your promises.’
‘I did my best,’ agreed the old man. ‘Who knows, we might have forced them to serve us, but . . . I can find it in me to be glad that our madness has not infected them. I am . . . fond of them in my way. You are the one called Mallen?’
Mallen nodded guardedly.
‘My men are terrified of you. You are the killing ghost that walks abroad on dark nights. If a man is missing, it is Mallen’s doing. But I read some of your writing, when I prepared myself for this task. So perhaps we understand each other.’
‘So do we surrender now?’ Emily asked. Scavian looked away bitterly but merely shrugged. ‘What happens?’
‘Doctor Lammegeier,’ said Tubal. ‘As acting commander of the army of Lascanne in the Levant, I hereby formally offer the surrender of my men and position, on the condition we are treated well and are not harmed.’
29
Emily studied the creased and folded sheets of paper in her hands: her abortive, undelivered words to Cristan Northway.
The thought that in two days, three, she might see him again, made her feel exceedingly strange, more ill at ease than excited. She took the sheets between both hands, ready to tear them up.
But you haven’t seen him yet. She relaxed her pressure, folded them again and slipped them into her inside jacket pocket.
The air was clouded with steam. Alongside the station at Locke, a locomotive was waiting, its carriages filling with dejected and defeated Lascanne soldiers. Still, they were going home. The enemy had provided a deliverance that their own side could not. Some still wore their red jackets, as Emily herself did. Many were down to shirtsleeves, or even civilian clothes looted from Locke. The Denlanders had confiscated all the muskets, but some officers still wore their sabres. Emily still retained her pistol, her metal companion all through this bleak war.
Denlander soldiers watched over them, ready for any kind of resistance from the fiery, violent Lascans, but there was no rebellion in