Free Dark Crusade by Karl Edward Wagner Page B

south, Sandotneri held the frontier behind a wall of armor and steel. Content with the slaughter of the Prophet's army, Jarvo felt no inclination to risk further punitive expeditions into the trackless forests of Shapeli. In his palace in Sandotneri, King Owrinos languished interminably upon his death bed--cancer gnawing like a worm. Court intrigue intensified as to his successor, and the hero of the marches of Shapeli cut a most impressive figure on parade. With such to concern him, Jarvo left the frontier to those of his officers who seemed least favorable to his cause, and wondered how Esketra could appear so infatuated with a shallow sycophant like Ridaze.
    With only a half-hearted watch to see that no new army marched forth from Shapeli, the frontier guard little cared who might choose to ride into Shapeli. At first only lone horsemen and small bands of riders; then--as clandestine gold filled the campaign chests of the garrison commanders--no one challenged if an army rode by night.
    Elsewhere, along Shapeli's western coast, ships crossed and recrossed the Inland Sea to the western mass of the Great Northern Continent. There, from the decadent kingdoms that had sprung up amidst the ruins of the vast Serranthonian Empire, certain men heeded the call of gold, looked to swords and battle gear, took passage for the forests of Shapeli.
    Upon the northern and eastern coasts of this peninsular subcontinent beat the rolling breakers of the Eastern Sea. A thousand leagues across its azure waves lay the continental mass of Lartroxia, where men named this same expanse of water the Western Sea. Ships could and did cross this great span of ocean, but such crossings had grown less and less common as both of the northern supercontinents lapsed into centuries of barbarism. Kane had no need to cross an ocean for the men he sought.
    Even within Shapeli, Kane found those who could be forged into the metal he required. Some among the Satakis--through native talent or rudimentary training--could handle weapons, sit a horse, and not endanger comrade more than enemy. Kane chose them front the rabble, armed them, trained them.
    A general amnesty--proclaimed by Kane over Orted's objections--lured a scattering of half-starved ex-guardsmen out of hiding.
    "They defied Sataki!" the Prophet exploded.
    "They have since repented; be magnanimous," Kane said. "I need trained men for my officers."
    A core of trained officers--professional soldiers--and about them a framework of veteran warriors. This was the key to Kane's ambitious design. From this core he could build an army, swelling its ranks from the Sataki masses--to such degree as the best of them could be trained.
    With gold and power, it was only a factor of time.
    Meanwhile the forges of Shapeli blackened the sky, as craftsmen worked day and night turning out the weapons and armor Kane demanded. Kane ransacked the whole of Shapeli to fill the stables at Ingoldi, lavished shiploads of gold to bring in the mounts he still required.
    It was a formidable task. It would have been impossible without the thousands of mercenaries who answered Kane's summons.
    To think of such men as knights or samurai would be inaccurate. While some claimed aristocratic lineage, in an age of shattered empire, and no dynasty of note in centuries--of uncounted petty kingdoms and principalities--such pretensions were a conceit. Nor were these landed gentry who owed allegiance to some feudal lord, although there were some with considerable holdings and private armies. It was an age of near anarchy, when a man might take whatever he could hold, and force of might overruled all laws temporal, spiritual, or natural. Long a bucolic backwater of city-states and agrarian villages, Shapeli had only rejoined its era.
    The arms, armor, and horse of such a soldier represented a huge investment. The skill to use them effectively demanded years of training. Yet in an age of constant warfare, such professional soldiers could grow