the boy call out after him but didn’t turn round.
The first thing you see, when you approach Rasch from the east, is the spire of the Red Temple. It’s easily the tallest building in the city, and some people love it and some people think it’s an eyesore and an affront to the Deity and should be pulled down. Your first glimpse of it will probably be through the gap in the hills just past the fifth Government milestone, about halfway between the Sun in Splendour and the Grace and Austerity; you only get to see it as more than a vaguely unnatural spike when the road takes you round the lower slopes of the Four Sisters; and that was where Oida got out and began to walk.
Cavalry moving along roads in inhabited areas can be hard to track. They shouldn’t be. But it’s remarkable how, even in time of war, people can’t seem to resist the sight of steaming pyramids of horseshit on a metalled road. As soon as the soldiers disappear over the horizon, out the people come, with their buckets and pails, and before long there’s nothing left to show that the military have ever been there.
The road to Rasch, however, was no place to walk in new, expensive boots. The only consolation, from Oida’s perspective, was proof positive that Senza’s army was entirely made up of cavalry. There were no human footprints in the dung piles; which told him, among other things, that Senza wasn’t impeding his own mobility with prisoners.
Needless to say, Oida knew all the approaches to Rasch like the back of his hand. It was bizarre, therefore, to have the road entirely to himself, at noon on a bright, clear day. He passed the Five Pillars of Faith and saw that the door was shut – he hadn’t ever seen its door before, didn’t know it had one; he was tempted to sneak inside and see if there was anything left to eat, but decided against it.
Beyond the Five Pillars is salad country, the market gardens and orchards that supply the city. Being heavy loam on top of clay, the ground is firm, and Senza had let his column leave the road and spread out without fear of getting bogged down. It looked to Oida for all the world like spoiled paper, as though someone had written a landscape, thought better of it and scratched it out until the nib broke. Purely as a mental exercise he tried to calculate the cost of the damage and came up with a figure of two million angels.
The patrol captain recognised him at once, so that was all right. He quickly ran through the story he’d prepared – on his way here to do a concert, heard about the forthcoming change of management, decided to do the gig anyway (pause for laugh); the kid driving the coach got scared and refused to bring him any closer, so he’d had to footslog it all the way from the Grace, any chance of a beer and just possibly something to eat?
The captain swallowed it whole and said he’d send ahead and let the general know he was here. Please, don’t bother him, he’s got far more important things to do. No, really, he’ll want to see you, more than my commission’s worth if he finds out Oida was here and nobody told him. Oh, all right then. Easy as that.
Senza had pitched his camp on the Ascension Flats race track. It was a logical choice – flat, more than enough grazing, water from two rivers, excellent visibility, and the covered stands offered plenty of seasoned timber, just what you need when you’re about to embark on a siege. By the time Oida got there, they’d already torn up the rails and were halfway through dismantling the Imperial Stand; a pity, Oida thought, and where will the ruler of the newly united Restored Empire sit when he’s opening the End of Year Games? It was at that point that he remembered something the shopkeeper had said; it hit him like the low branch whose height you guess wrong when you’re out riding, and for quite some time he felt too stupid to think.
Someone in a gilded breastplate and a red cloak came bustling out to meet him. Fortunately
The first thing you see, when you approach Rasch from the east, is the spire of the Red Temple. It’s easily the tallest building in the city, and some people love it and some people think it’s an eyesore and an affront to the Deity and should be pulled down. Your first glimpse of it will probably be through the gap in the hills just past the fifth Government milestone, about halfway between the Sun in Splendour and the Grace and Austerity; you only get to see it as more than a vaguely unnatural spike when the road takes you round the lower slopes of the Four Sisters; and that was where Oida got out and began to walk.
Cavalry moving along roads in inhabited areas can be hard to track. They shouldn’t be. But it’s remarkable how, even in time of war, people can’t seem to resist the sight of steaming pyramids of horseshit on a metalled road. As soon as the soldiers disappear over the horizon, out the people come, with their buckets and pails, and before long there’s nothing left to show that the military have ever been there.
The road to Rasch, however, was no place to walk in new, expensive boots. The only consolation, from Oida’s perspective, was proof positive that Senza’s army was entirely made up of cavalry. There were no human footprints in the dung piles; which told him, among other things, that Senza wasn’t impeding his own mobility with prisoners.
Needless to say, Oida knew all the approaches to Rasch like the back of his hand. It was bizarre, therefore, to have the road entirely to himself, at noon on a bright, clear day. He passed the Five Pillars of Faith and saw that the door was shut – he hadn’t ever seen its door before, didn’t know it had one; he was tempted to sneak inside and see if there was anything left to eat, but decided against it.
Beyond the Five Pillars is salad country, the market gardens and orchards that supply the city. Being heavy loam on top of clay, the ground is firm, and Senza had let his column leave the road and spread out without fear of getting bogged down. It looked to Oida for all the world like spoiled paper, as though someone had written a landscape, thought better of it and scratched it out until the nib broke. Purely as a mental exercise he tried to calculate the cost of the damage and came up with a figure of two million angels.
The patrol captain recognised him at once, so that was all right. He quickly ran through the story he’d prepared – on his way here to do a concert, heard about the forthcoming change of management, decided to do the gig anyway (pause for laugh); the kid driving the coach got scared and refused to bring him any closer, so he’d had to footslog it all the way from the Grace, any chance of a beer and just possibly something to eat?
The captain swallowed it whole and said he’d send ahead and let the general know he was here. Please, don’t bother him, he’s got far more important things to do. No, really, he’ll want to see you, more than my commission’s worth if he finds out Oida was here and nobody told him. Oh, all right then. Easy as that.
Senza had pitched his camp on the Ascension Flats race track. It was a logical choice – flat, more than enough grazing, water from two rivers, excellent visibility, and the covered stands offered plenty of seasoned timber, just what you need when you’re about to embark on a siege. By the time Oida got there, they’d already torn up the rails and were halfway through dismantling the Imperial Stand; a pity, Oida thought, and where will the ruler of the newly united Restored Empire sit when he’s opening the End of Year Games? It was at that point that he remembered something the shopkeeper had said; it hit him like the low branch whose height you guess wrong when you’re out riding, and for quite some time he felt too stupid to think.
Someone in a gilded breastplate and a red cloak came bustling out to meet him. Fortunately
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