Hartor accompanied Luke on the journey to Treaty, they took four horsemen but this was not enough for the old leader.

“We’re going to have to go back to footsoldiers. They can clear the way in advance, and more importantly we can have lots of them. No one will want to ambush us.”

“I agree,” said Luke. “Elenea on one side and Gallea on the other, and meanwhile we are still running a country where people adhere strongly to the old ways. Ten in front and ten behind should do the job. We’ll take supplies, too. Less of a burden on the town if we come prepared.”

Riding at walking pace they covered the distance in half a day. The military area was more secure than they had seen it in the past, and they had to dismount before being allowed in.

“A sensible precaution,” said Hartor. “Others will have to observe it if they see their leaders doing so.”

They walked with their full guard among the huts and compounds and when they came to the one with four Elenean soldiers outside, selected four of their own men to stand guard with them. The Elenean soldiers stood stiffly as Hartor’s men shuffled into their places. Luke and Hartor had already had whispers from friendly soldiers along the way so both knew who they would be meeting.

Barah turned out to be a man of about Hartor’s age, majestically thinning grey hair above the uniform of an Elenean captain. He was sitting in a formal chair. Hartor stood straight, in front of him.

“My Lord Rah,” he said, not bowing or kneeling but giving a salute as equal. Luke followed suit, but remembering he had given allegiance to Elenea he managed as much of a bow as he could without offending his current master. He looked at Hartor quizzically as he took in the words.

“I am now Rah,” said the man in the chair, seeing Luke’s expression. His voice weighed evenly, every word forestalling argument or contradiction. He said nothing more.

“We shall have conference after the change of guard,” said Hartor. “We have not yet eaten and need briefing. We will talk about the safeguarding of our countries and the situation that is to be found in the newly created land. Talks may need to extend into tomorrow. For the first meeting I will just be bringing Luke.”

Rah nodded and after a few formalities they left the hut. “He will not be an easy negotiator,” said Hartor. “We will have to work him into shape.”

While Hartor walked around the camp talking to the various soldiers and advisers in his allegiance Luke stayed in the mess hall and soldiers and acquaintances came to make themselves known to him. He saw a familiar figure, the soldier Sen who had been on his first patrol in the Borderlands.

“What brings you out here? I would have thought Elenean soldiers are all hard at work guarding the northern border.”

“There is plenty of defence of the border, sir. I am in service of Rah, part of his protection force. He needs the best he can get.”

“He is probably safer here than in the city in that case,” said Luke. “Strange times. How is Kingston City? Was it badly affected?”

“Life in the city is much the same. The enemy did not rampage. We are going back to calling it Rakir now, Rah is not so much in favour of modernisation. Not now that we are under threat.”

Luke wondered how the citizens would take that, they were a soft lot and unused to fighting. They had relied for too much time on their permanent soldiers to keep the peace, aided by being the largest of the nations. Marcos was certainly shaking them up.

“There is someone else here you will know,” said Sen. “Over there.” He pointed to a figure standing in the open field outside the hall, talking to a pair of Elenean soldiers. Luke walked over.

“Commander,” he said, saluting. “I see all the important people are here today.”

Commander Hunt saluted back. “You are commander yourself now. I see you have taken on the ways you have been taught. I will be in conference this afternoon with you and Rah. I spend my time in the home army now, I was not in the Castle, to my regret. If I had been the invaders would have been scattered.”

“I would not like to be on the opposite side to you, “ said Luke.

“You are courteous. I would neither like to be on the opposite side to you.”

Luke smiled. “Have you eaten? We brought a load of food over, it has been added to the camp supplies so you may be able to get things you would not normally have. There are figs and olives and the khomos they make in the mountains. Come inside, we can talk about horses without giving any secrets away.”

By the time they had finished their lunch and attended to the guard changes and everything was secured the sun was three quarters of the way across and Luke gathered with Rah and Commander Hunt and Hartor in privacy. Seats had been brought in for them. He checked once more that none of the soldiers was within listening distance. Luke had been taught early on to assume that everybody was a potential spy, and he knew from his own work how far he had infiltrated into the other parts of the world. It was only fair to assume everyone else had done the same. Taking control of the meeting Rah settled them and started the proceedings.

“Three days ago Elenea was the victim of an unprovoked attack from the land to the northwest, centred on the Castle which was rushed in surprise and left with devastating damage. Many of its people were killed. The invaders were soon chased out and retreated to their own region. This follows a raid from the same country on a party travelling to the northland two months earlier, in which an Elenean commander was killed. Whose side do you take?”

Hartor sat silently for a while. Luke was used to this and waited patiently for him to start speaking.

“You know perfectly well which side we are on. But you were not so distraught to lose Commander Tivoli.”

“Killing a foreign commander is blood feud. Our thoughts on the matter are in defence of our country.”

“Have you sent missions of your own to kill foreign commanders? Let us unmind the attempts that have been made on Luke’s life, most of which have been clumsy and easily detected, and one of which was personal. Instead let us look at this. Have you made attempts to remove Marcos?”

“He was responsible for the death of Tivoli. What can he expect?”

“Prior to the death of Tivoli, Elenea sent three missions into the Hinderith at various times. They resulted in fighting and death. You can hardly expect a warrior like Marcos to take it without retribution.”

“The man is dangerous. He has extended his country into ours. We cannot live with disputed territory in our rear fields.”

“I may agree with what you say. But actions are the parents of actions. What you have done to him he has done to you. It does not matter that he started the process, for sure he is ambitious and has carved out a nation. What matters is how your actions have children of their own.”

“So it becomes like a game, with a series of moves and countermoves. How this develops and finishes cannot yet be divined.”

Hartor paused for a long time. Eventually he breathed deeply. “It is indeed as you say, a series of moves and countermoves. I have thought long and deeply about this, trying out in my mind all variations. I have a long way to go. But one thing I am sure of, we will only keep him away with strong alliances. We cannot fight each other and fight him. He wants you to attack him through Athelea so the division of the world will work against all of us leaving him powerful.”

“That is the natural thing to want to do, attack him on two fronts.”

“Athelea is divided. Those who would declare for Marcos, those who want an independent country. Force from Elenea will certainly weigh the issue in support of Marcos, all will see their country being overrun and they would much rather it be done by someone who is a son of their own land.”

“And you will stand by and let that happen.”

“The ways of the lowlands are of concern to us but we first have to protect our mountains. For all the generations we have let the countries fight and adapt and we have allied with the stronger nation. In recent generations this has been Elenea. If a new power emerges we will have to consider our ways.”

Luke knew perfectly well Hartor was not minded to give support to Marcos, so he could only be trying to gain force against Rah. He could see the new king was not willing to give ground easily, and admired the way to the old warrior could move people to his purpose as if it were Rah himself making the decisions.

There was a lot of talk about numbers of soldiers, availability of food, the willingness of various parties to fight, and the status of the Borderlands, but in the end it was Commander Hunt who put the matter into context.

“Luke and I have known each other a long time,” he said. “Luke owes a lot to me and I to him. That is true for our countries too. We are not going to move against each other. Whatever happened in the past, when Tivoli was alive, this is not going along the same trail. It is obvious the alliance that has existed over generations is not going to break now, these events make it stronger and more vital for all of us.”

“Then it is just down to details,” said Rah. “We will have another conference tomorrow but we can do some preliminary discussion now.”

“We need to know the measures of support for each other,” said Hartor. “Sharing of knowledge will be helpful. It does not have to extend to military secrets. We will have to know the status of individuals,” he glanced slightly in Luke’s direction, “and we will have to agree on the movements of soldiers. The people will have to be kept informed, so they do not rise up in misguided self defence. Procedure foretells that we will campaign once winter is over, maybe very early in the season. Until then we will all be on our guard.”

Luke looked at Rah. “Do I get to live in freedom again?”

“We will not send anyone after you. That is over. You are under Hartor’s protection and that is enough. But expect our country to be suspicious of foreigners. I cannot help that, it is in our nature and in our people.”

Luke nodded.

“You have some of our men,” said Rah. “They are exiled and under decree.”

“We will have to think about this and come to agreement,” said Hartor.

“You have an experienced soldier, Peter.”

“Peter lives as a farmer. He is no longer a soldier. He will not take a combatant role. He works from time to time as translator. But he is important, he is very capable and he knows how to build. I want to keep him.”

“Elenea will not pursue him while he lives in peace,” promised Rah. “But do not let him wear a uniform, that would cause us anxiety.”

“You mentioned transfer of knowledge,” said Luke glancing at Hartor while he addressed Rah.

“What did you have in mind?”

“There are many things but one is strong. When I lived in Elenea you had carts, later I saw them pulled by a horse. I was never allowed to examine them. We could use carts, they have limited military purpose but are good for trade. We would like to acquire them and our craftsmen will have ideas to develop them further and share the progress.”

“I think that may be allowable,” said Rah. “What do you offer in exchange?”

Luke looked at Hartor, seeking permission to continue. Hartor shrugged minutely.

“We have been examining the writing scripts of the Old Ones. You may have done this already. We are developing a written language which we think may be useful across the world.”

“We have plenty of books of the Old Ones. They are fragile and worthless. What would it be useful for? We can already make symbols and they serve us well enough.”

“The ancient symbol script can be used to represent words, so that a person can read a message very easily. They do not need a separate symbol for each person or each thing. They can simply recreate the words we speak sound by sound.”

“It sounds vague but you obviously have a purpose.”

“It can be used to store records of transactions, to help the men who keep track of obligations. Although the tally system is quite good. But also it can be used for messages, we think messengers would be able to take many at once without having to remember them, and would easily pass them on in relay. And like the Old Ones obviously did, we will be able to store ideas and stories for others to read and pass down the generations.”

“We will talk about these things tomorrow. There will be others we think about in the meantime so I suggest we meet at sunset and we will have food ready and there will be entertainment. We will split now and confer with our own parties.”

Luke left with Hartor. “How did I do?”

“You gave him some things to think about.”

He looked at the older man, still unsure of his mind. “You do not want to share this knowledge?”

“It is your decision. I think the things you do will work out well enough.”

They moved off uphill, out of the camp. Hartor stopped to examine a tall thistle. He rubbed the seeds, scattered them to the wind. Luke was used to his ways, knew he was about to say something.

“Rah did a clever thing bringing Commander Hunt.”

“You think I have been outmanoeuvred?” Luke worried he was being scolded.

“No. I think he has treated you as a man to be handled with due care. He has thought about this. He respects you. Not least the fact that despite his best efforts you are still alive. A survivor.”

He relaxed. “How will it go tomorrow?”

“It will all be done. We are travelling an easy slope with Elenea. We will work out a way to flush Marcos from his mountain hide and we will do battle with him. Peace will come to the world.”

Luke looked back at the detachment following them. “Doesn’t seem like it right now. I seem to be surrounded by soldiers wherever I go.”

“You need protection, Luke. You will need it on all your travels. Get used to being followed, it will be all the time from now and will never be otherwise.”