Analog SFF, April 2010 by Dell Magazine Authors Page B

him a moment to realize what she meant. “They're going to be enslaved?"
    "Made to work, yes, as long as they live. They are ours.” She must have noticed his reaction. “What is wrong, my friend?"
    He took a deep breath before speaking, wondering if the promising alliance with Astera was about to founder at the moment of its greatest success, and whether his friendship with Freya would also wither. “I have told you of the war my country fought only a few years ago. In just one battle of that war more than six thousand men died and tens of thousands more were wounded. We fought that war to save the Union, but also to eliminate the stain of slavery from our nation. Our Odwan then, a wise man named Lincoln, said ‘as I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.’ My company will not fight to enslave others, Odwan Freya. To do so would be to betray our comrades who died in that war and to betray the beliefs we hold that slavery is always an evil and a wrong."
    Freya listened without interrupting, her eyes on his, and remained silent for a long while after Benton finished. “Did you fight in that war?” she finally asked.
    "I did, Odwan Freya. So did Sergeant Tyndall and some other members of my troop."
    "It is well you survived that, too.” Turning her horse, Freya rode a short distance until she was right next to the huddled prisoners. Rising in her new stirrups, she addressed the Wikosans, using only those words of her language that she knew Benton could understand. “Choose twelve among you to return to Wikosa. You will tell Wikosa that they may buy your lives and your freedom with any Asterans they hold, and with horses, cattle, sheep, grain, gold, and other metals. What Wikosa has taken will be returned to us, and more besides if they wish you back whole."
    She rode back to Benton, ignoring surprised looks from the other Asterans. “Wikosa will pay. It will need them to defend itself when the wolves come to howl at its walls. My people will accept this when they see it profits us. Is this well?” she asked. “Would your Odwan Lincoln approve?"
    "He would. Thank you, Odwan Freya."
    "Thank you for frank words that ring true. You must tell me more of this Odwan Lincoln. I once said your civilization was backward in some ways, but it seems we can learn from yours just as you have learned from ours."
    * * * *
    It turned out that there had been one decire of mounted fighters from Lacanan among the Wikosan army, but they had been completely wiped out in the battle, with none to bring home the tale of their defeat. Freya assigned a messenger to bring the news to Lacanan, along with an offer of alliance that would have been scorned before, but in the wake of this battle would surely receive serious consideration.
    In the week after the victorious forces returned to Astera, a Telasan force seven decires strong was spotted marching north, but turned back when brought news of the Wikosan defeat. One of the wounded cavalrymen had suffered such serious injuries to one arm that Benton feared he would have to lose the limb, but the Asteran surgeons worked on it and applied their salves and treatments, afterwards declaring that both man and arm should recover fully. Private Murphy and Private Frost were buried with full military honors, the poignant notes of Taps sounding in the city for the first time for that purpose. Construction began on the powder mill, even though Astera was still trying to secure a reliable source of sulfur. Three more cavalrymen married local girls, and the grateful Asteran city council agreed to formalize the regular payment of salaries to the cavalry so Benton could once again be sure of routinely being able to pay his men. He was especially pleased that the pay rate the Asterans agreed to was equivalent to at least twenty dollars a month for the privates.
    On the seventh night after returning, Benton walked out onto the walls surrounding the city, looking west toward where the lights of Fort