The War with the Mein by Durham David Anthony

Author:Durham, David Anthony [Durham, David Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307472939
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2008-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

THIRTY-EIGHT

Rialus Neptos had once believed that his governorship of the Mein Satrapy had been the great curse of his life. He hated that frozen place, filled with rough, outcast citizens of the empire. He seethed when he thought about the dismissive air with which the Akarans treated him, so much so that he had been willing to do anything to win a better situation in life. Thus, he had called upon low elements among his acquaintances in Alecia—family members, criminals, opportunists of every stripe—to rise and cause all manner of confusion to coincide with Hanish Mein’s attack. He had watched with joy as the city spun into chaos. For a few short days he had lived in complete euphoria, seeing the old order swept away, awaiting the new reign of Hanish Mein, sure that he had earned a place of prominence within it.

How utter a betrayal, then, that Hanish had—in a maneuver that the new ruler must have thought the greatest joke on record—made Rialus personal liaison to Calrach, the headman of the thronging Numrek horde. Rialus often woke screaming from a nightmare of the moment when the chieftain had told him of the appointment. Hanish had pointed out that Rialus was one of the first Acacians the Numrek had encountered. He claimed that the Numrek still spoke warmly of the reception he had given them at Cathgergen. Rialus had demonstrated his fortitude, his skills at dealing with the rough race the Numrek were.

“You’re the man for it, Rialus,” he said. “You’ve more than earned it.”

Rialus had offered a nervous rebuttal. He knew nothing about the Numrek! He wasn’t suited to the cold portions of the country the Numrek were to settle in. He’d much prefer a post nearer the heart of the nation, in Alecia or along the coast near Manil. Perhaps he could serve Hanish as the chief magistrate of Bocoum? Some such position as that. But liaison to the Numrek? He did not even speak their language. He did not wish to seem ungrateful, Rialus had said, but perhaps Hanish could reconsider. The beasts ate human flesh, after all! Hardly the sort of company a valued ally should be keeping.

He regretted afterward that he had protested at all. Maeander was there to hear it and seemed to take pleasure out of his begging. The appointment held, and so began a new period of misery in Rialus’s life.

There was some satisfaction to be taken from the fact that the Numrek ignored Hanish’s proclamations whenever they felt like it. They did not stay in the Mein, or even in Aushenia, as they had agreed to. Instead, they spread down toward the south. Calrach himself set up his court in a seized villa along the Talayan coast. Here, at least, Rialus found the warm weather he so enjoyed. But sun on the skin proved to be scant reward for other miseries of his daily existence.

What activities served to pass the time for the Numrek? What sort of culture did they

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