After the Downfall

“Anybody’d think you were laying her or something. If you were, you should’ve said so. The wizard would’ve snagged somebody else. But if you were, you’d better light out for the tall timber starting yesterday, on account of the goddess won’t be very happy with you.”

“Not laying her,” Hasso said. The master-at-arms was right; Velona wouldn’t be happy with him if he were, and that was putting it mildly. “Just … bad to take advantage of weak.”

“Why? What else are they there for?” No, Orosei didn’t get it. Would Hasso, had he come here flush with victory in 1940? He didn’t think so. Defeat was always so much more instructive than victory. Germany had learned a lot from World War I, France next to nothing. What would the Reich learn this time around?

Not to mess with the goddamn Russians, that’s what, he thought. Not messing with the USA looks like a pretty good idea, too. And messing with both of them at once is really, really dumb.

“Things you do, sometimes they come back and – “ Hasso mimed biting.

Orosei threw his hands in the air. “Oh, by the goddess! She’s only a Grenye. She’s not even a cute Grenye. I’m glad you’re not screwing her – I wouldn’t think much of your taste if you were. I mean, sure, pussy’s pussy, but you can do better than that. Demons! You have done better than that, way better.”

“You think Grenye don’t remember everything Lenelli do to them?” Hasso asked.

“Let ‘em remember. They can’t do anything about it. They’re – “

“Only Grenye,” Hasso finished for him. How many times had he heard that since finding himself here? The Lenelli sure believed it. Did the Grenye? If they did, how come Bucovin stayed on its feet?

“That’s right. That’s all they’ll ever be.” Orosei thumped him on the back. “Come drink some more beer. You look like you could use it. You’re kind of green around the gills. You fit in so well here, sometimes I almost forget you’re a foreigner with funny notions. Every once in a while it comes out, though – no offense.”

A foreigner with funny notions. Hasso found himself nodding. He was that, all right. Back in the Reich, he’d taken things for granted. Why not? They were what he’d grown up with. Here, unfairness struck him like a poke in the eye.

Or was it unfairness? What if the Grenye really were … only Grenye? Then wasn’t it natural for the Lenelli to ride roughshod over them? Natural or not, it was what the Lenelli were doing. And, with his plan for a striking column of lancers, it was what he was helping them to do.

He let Orosei steer him back to the buttery. A Grenye servant brought him more beer. The swarthy little curly-haired man stared at him out of eyes as big and wide and dark as a deer’s. How much of what went on out in the hallway had he heard? What kind of gossip would wildfire through the servants in Castle Drammen by this time tomorrow? How much trouble would Hasso land in because of it?

Off in the distance – but not nearly far enough off in the distance – a woman screamed, and went on screaming. Orosei pretended not to hear, the way someone who’d done a lot of interrogations might pretend not to hear a prisoner’s screams from the next room. Hasso tried pretending, too, but didn’t have much luck. Getting smashed let him forget about the noise – and, eventually, about everything else.

When he woke up, he had no idea how he’d got to his own bed. Velona made a face at him. “Was she worth it?” the goddess on earth asked, a certain malicious glee in her voice.

Things came back in a hurry in spite of Hasso’s headache. “I don’t touch her,” he said. “I don’t even know her name.”

“Her name is Zadar. And I know you didn’t touch her, or” – Velona’s eyes flashed – “you’d be roasting over a slow fire right now.” Hasso didn’t think she was using a figure of speech. She went on, “You were stupid even trying to get in Aderno’s way.”

“Aderno is a beast,” Hasso said. “He likes hurting people. He does it for fun.” He got out of bed, grabbed the chamber pot, and pissed and pissed and pissed. He didn’t bother turning his back. The gurgling stream was part of his opinion of Aderno, too.

Velona understood as much. “If he hurts our enemies, more power to him,” she said.

“If you get in his way, he hurts you, too,” Hasso said.

Those perfect blue eyes widened. Velona’s nostrils flared. Then she relaxed and started to laugh. “Oh, I see. You mean Aderno would hurt anyone who got in his way. You didn’t mean he’d hurt me.” She didn’t believe anyone – except the Grenye, who were beyond the pale of civilized behavior – would want to hurt her.

But Hasso shook his head even though it hurt. “I mean you, sweetheart. Aderno wants what Aderno wants. Anyone who wants something else? Something bad happens to him – or to her.”

“The goddess would not allow it.” Velona sounded certain.