Page 8 of Into the West

“What the Dolls graciously do for us now derives from my promise to free them, once we know how. Assault any Doll, and you assault a friend of mine. Remember that. One day, sooner than you might imagine, they will be gone from our lives. What they do for us now, we will entirely have to do for ourselves. In my opinion, we should all thank the Dolls, for while we rescued them, they continue to rescue us. To torture one is—unforgivable.”

Kordas let the silence go on two beats too long. It was clear that he meant the pause to be uncomfortable, for his next words were harsh and uncompromising. The muscles of his jaw tightened, and his eyes grew hard.

“To that end, the penalty for serious lawbreaking will now be exile. A fortnight of provisions, a knife, and through a Gate you go, and may any god who will still claim you have pity on you. The trip is one-way. The exit is random. If you’re lucky, you’ll arrive where you can find shelter and live as a scavenger—briefly. If you are not lucky, you’ll be conscripted into the front lines of whichever conflict you stagger in on. If you are very unlucky, your last few breaths may be in the smoldering ruins of the Capital. Further, if you are guilty of High Violation, I’ll send you through bleeding, on a raft made of scrap, without a boat or goods. Those exiled will be drugged hard, and should you wake, you won’t remember us, your crimes, or even who you are for quite some time. If ever. You will no longer be our problem.”

Even from the shore, Delia could hear intakes of breath around the flotilla. I guess that’s the sound of thousands of people suddenly evaluating themselves. And in the Empire, a noble would pretend nothing bad had happened, not make a point of it.

“I’m going to say this now, because the assault I judged today sharpened the need for it. Could any who meet us ever trust us, if they saw what Donat Benin did? No, and rightly so. This new land is only new to us. To the people already here when the first barges came through, we are likely the largest population they have ever heard of, with strange magic, fierce weapons, and incomprehensible language. We must look like an endless, invading army. We are not an army! We’re not going to conquer anything by force of arms. We will defend ourselves from raids, wildlife, and magical attacks, and we will not act like the ruined Empire would, training and traditions be damned, by clearing our path via slaughter and annexation. Friends, it is a fool’s mistake to turn away from the truth. What we do, how we actually live away from the negotiating table, is who we really are. Whatever the worst of us does, though it may be one in a thousand of us, is an undeniable part of who we are as a people. To speak of trade, peace, and discovery to the locals’ faces yet commit crimes upon our own is something we should be damned for. We can not puff up and assume that ‘if our side did it, it must be right.’

“I say that the best way to appear trustworthy, likable, and respectable is to be those things. Not a veneer glued over a cracked, crumbling foundation, but rather, all of us actually being as strong and adaptable as we could be. If one of us is cruel, hateful, or criminal, that one not only harms us directly, they harm us indirectly, because we never know who is watching us at the time. In military terms, there is great wisdom in the saying, Don’t provoke the natives. They already surround you.”

The smattering of grunts and chuckles were all, no doubt, from campaign survivors.

He paused for effect, and then held his hands palm out and upward. “My people. My brave people. Many of you are still in shock over the loss of our old homes and ways. Many are anxious about our future. I understand. We were raised on tales of great deeds, and we can exemplify what we admire in songs and stories. I say that the best heroes are those who show that what they dared can be done. They aren’t to be looked at from a distance as a novelty, they are inspirations. We can be heroes up close, in our own ways.

“I say to you, plainly, it is better to live with a measure of danger than a certainty of mediocrity. We have to be a band of brothers and sisters. This is an expedition with laws, but more than that, we must regulate our behavior in day-to-day life. From that, we build a reputation. Think on tolerance. Work out how to swap, buy, and bargain for peace. When you can tell that a fight is building, back off. Disengage. Take some time. Let someone negotiate for you, call a truce, or work on solving whatever upset you. Don’t let it fester like a boil. Lance it, and heal up.”

Delia nodded. I bet beating and sentencing Donat Benin today felt like lancing a boil.

“The malignancy of divisiveness, given the chance to creep deeper, would rot us. You need to truly consider that your neighbor’s beliefs are as valid as yours, and not disparage or impair those beliefs. Even if your beliefs dictate that you must evangelize, or fight others—not here, and not now. The expedition comes first. The whole of us comes first.

“If you find in your heart that you cannot face your gods with that compromise, we will not judge you as lesser, and we will help you pack. The return Gate to Valdemar will be opened one more time so you may be faithful to your beliefs.

“About your beliefs. If you want to make a nod to a god when it occurs to you, or wear your faith’s symbols and colors, or wear a sieve on your head and chant at a chicken if you feel like it, go ahead. Just support each other. I don’t ask you to like everyone you encounter on this journey, but I demand that you treat them with respect. Anyone who disparages you for following this rule is going to answer to me.” He made a fist with his right hand, and Delia wondered if that was the same fist that he beat the criminal with. “I hope that’s clear.”

Kordas paused a moment, then resumed with a tone of annoyance, “And I don’t want to hear some pedant whine, ‘But what if they’re a cannibal? Do they get to do what they want?’ or other nonsense to complicate the matter. I don’t have time for hypothetical but whatabouts, nor do I want any of you to think this is an excuse for bad behavior. Work specifics out with your home-group, your headmen, and your adjudicators.”

He let that sink in for a moment, looking around as if he was gazing over the entire lakeside. There was little feedback from that, but Delia counted that as good. It might mean people are actually thinking about his words, rather than only listening enough to build a rebuttal. I think he’s had enough of people who’d work out three arguments against him while he was still speaking, instead of listening to what he said.

“We are not so naive as to think ‘just be nice to each other’ can solve all problems. In brutal honesty, this isn’t even about friendliness at its core, but rather, this is for our survival. Heed this message well: strife between any of us means more risk to all of us. Inflexible thinking can kill, out here. We are new here—and we are renewed here. We are the ones who must change.”

He gestured widely, toward the sun’s remaining glow, and spoke in a lower voice. “There, further than you can yet see, the land was ravaged by our ancestors in a terrible war, fought by inconceivably powerful magicians about five hundred years ago. Proximity to that area is what shields us from being found by the remains of the Empire in the east, so obviously, we will go into the west. We will take care to find a good spot, where either the locals ask us to stay, or where the land is empty of any intelligent creature that claims it.

“I put much thought into this for years, and examined whether it was truly viable as a policy. I thought through how it could be exploited or twisted, as all things can be. There is a risk to living like this, without any doubt, but looked at from every angle, I found it more than possible. It is vital. Yet it is not something that can be made into a law without compromising the nature of law itself, and your freedom to live as you will. I call upon you to heed my wish. I call you to a Path.

“A Path is a belief embraced across all religions, toward a worthy goal. Unless we embrace this essential rationality, history has shown us that any population will factionalize beyond repair—split by region, by city, by coast or inland, by religion, or by who they love, or fear, or hate. Inflexible rulership over unhappy people shatters nations. The absence of this Path caused deep and deadly flaws in the Empire, leading to, well, what happened to it. Our Path, for the future of our expedition, for the well-being of those we befriend, for the land and spirits, is this.

“There is no one, true way.”

The silence around the lake was so deep, and so profound, that all Delia could hear were the few late frogs that were still about, trying to catch the last insects before they buried themselves in the mud for the winter.

“There are many true ways. The unspoken truth of the Empire was that we all lived in terror of being discovered as innovative and exceptional, for that would be the end for us—either taken away to some secret fate in the Capitol, or charged and punished for audacity. We dreaded even making sense in the face of the bureaucracy, and feared the abuse that would come to everyone we loved from daring it. Even inventing a new tool could draw scrutiny for treason, for it showed too much power-threatening free thinking. We lost chances at a better life by the day there. We died of diseases we had cures for, because some noble blocked the cure’s production until they could squeeze power from it. We all suffered from obeying a system that would not, and eventually, could not question itself. We all became rigid, and that became a deadly belief in there being only one ‘true way’ for everything—the Empire’s way. I say to you, this is not the Empire.

“Embrace new ways of adapting to strange things. When you find yourself thinking the Imperial way, remember the Path. We are people with a purpose. Ours is not a flood of misery, fleeing all that we knew. This is an evacuation from an empire’s collapse, which will become in time a new nation, if we stay together, yet draw the lessons of the new land into us.

“We’ll make our journey, we’ll support each other, and in the end, we will grow and prosper as the Empire would never allow us to do. Kindness will bring us allies. Tolerance will keep us together and make us stronger. All of us, helping all of us. I trust you, people of the Valdemar Expedition. I believe in this Path, I believe in our future, and I believe in you.”

That closing hit home, shattering anxieties like they were cracked pottery. Thunderous applause and foot-stamping arose from all directions. He smiled, the sort of smile that could melt ice in the midst of a blizzard and make it happy that it was a liquid now. Kordas gestured and nodded his thanks to those around him, which through the telcaster looked like he was accepting approval and praise from the whole flotilla. Below him were the words, “And I believe in you.”

Delia saw Kordas’s eyes flick to Beltran, who returned a little smile, nodded once, and readied his pen. That must be the cue he’s done.

Kordas called for quiet with one more gesture, and said, “Now. The locals made it quite clear that we were welcome as guests, but you all know the saying, fish and guests stink after three days, and we’ve been here rather more than three days. It’s time to move on.” There were chuckles from his audience, no doubt due to the break in tension that the joke provided.

“Here is Herald Beltran, with today’s news and entertainment.”

Kordas stepped out of the telcaster’s focus and went to Isla’s side, joining her and the boys. Beltran, who had made himself the daily news-teller starting with reciting his own terrifying eyewitness account of the Capital falling to the angry Earth Elemental, took his place. He beamed cheerfully around as if he could see every single person around the lake. “Good evening, friends and fellows of the Valdemar Expedition and Beyond! The first news of today is that the Gate on the other side of the marshes, on the north end of the lake, is now up and tested. That means we can begin moving at any moment, so those of you who are ready to start now are asked to unmoor your barges, requisition as many tow animals as you need, and make your way to the west horn of the lake where the exit Gate is. Some of the Guard are already in place on the other side of the marshes to protect you once you come through. Barges will be leaving in strings of eight. If you have less than that number of barges yourself, please organize with someone else to add your barges to their string. . . . ”

“That went better than I expected,” Kordas said, as Jon snuggled up against his father and promptly fell asleep. “At least no one declared me a tyrant and took a shot at me. I don’t see torches, pitchforks, and a burning effigy approaching, either.”