After their initial experience with the people of Nothering it came as little surprise that at every border they were expected to pay a fee to get past the guards. It was more surprising that they had not been asked to pay at the country border. Nedric surmised that the carving that the guards had taken was worth enough that it more than compensated for the bribe.
The inhabitants of Nothering were a disparate group, with a large number of extremely poor and others who were discordantly rich. Nedric knew that the merchants of Setherland were often far wealthier than most of the country but they didn’t look as different. There were few people in Setherland who looked as desperate as some of the people they met.
The differences were not as noticeable out in the country. Most of the farming communities seemed to be well off and everyone looked well fed. There was plenty of money to give to passing entertainers and the group was making money despite the high bribes at each county border.
When they reached the towns and cities the differences became more obvious. They were invited to perform at private parties given by one leading administrator or another and were paid handsomely. When they gave the odd show in the town they passed through, the takings were poorer but the excitement generated was high. The show would play to over a thousand people and sometimes much larger numbers. Nedric was beginning to feel that these people were starved of entertainment.
He was also getting the idea that quite a large number of the population were half-starved. Having passed through the farmlands and seen the abundance of crops being farmed it took him a while to understand why. Eventually it dawned on him that the numbers of people he was meeting in the towns was always high. They only came across small populations in the farmland. The population of the country was much, much higher than Setherland.
In many of the towns they passed through there was evidence of preparation for war. They stopped in one town and parked their wagons beneath a sign, which read ‘Enjoy a good meal in the army!’ The picture carried the same message and the building they had parked outside had a queue of people eager to join.
There was a clerk at the front of the queue who was taking names and addresses. He was repeating a mantra to each applicant. “Name, occupation, address, we aren’t taking people until a month after mid-winter.”
Nedric decided that the army would not want to feed the extra troops until they needed to train them and that was why there was a delay in the recruiting process. Anyone who died of starvation in the mean time would not have made a good recruit. It also meant that anyone who was in an essential job could be pre-selected or rejected. He could guess that the war with Setherland would start when winter broke.
When staying at an inn in one of the many towns they passed through, Nedric decided to talk to the locals and ask them why the country was going to war. He had already seen the notices written on the boards of each town explaining to all who could read that Setherland had invaded Nothering in the summer and that war would be declared in the spring.
There was a group of men sat at the table next to them. The men were obviously craftsmen of various types and ranged in ages from elderly to middle aged. They had been giving casual glances over towards the two rangers obviously wondering why they had shaved heads.
“We’re an entertaining troupe.” Nedric said to one of the men when he again glanced their way.
The man nodded and passed the information on to his companions.
“What do you lot do?” The man asked.
Nedric told him and moved his chair to make it easier to talk to the man. He enquired what the group did and as he had surmised was told that they were smiths, carpenters and the like.
“What do you think of the upcoming war?” Nedric steered the conversation around to the area that interested him eventually.
“Well they deserve it don’t they!”
“In what way?”
“Well they have lots of food and we have hardly any and they don’t sell it to us at a reasonable price.”
“Don’t they charge the going rate, same as the other countries?”
“Well yes, but they are all out to rob us with the price of their food.”
“Don’t forget their wanton women, running around with their heads uncovered.” One of the smiths added.
“I wouldn’t mind a wanton woman.” Another of the men added, amidst much laughter.
“The women are the same in Cantherin and Esteril, further south everyone covers up.”
“The other countries aren’t a bunch of slaves that ran away from their masters and then tried to rob them with the food prices!” The first man stated this as though it was the definitive reason for invading Setherland and from the murmurs around the table it was a general feeling. The slave who was serving them drinks at the time seemed to be in less than perfect agreement but none of the craft masters noticed him.
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It was a strange thing about Nothering that whilst the slaves were ever present and in numbers greater than the citizens, none of the citizens deigned to notice their presence other than to order them around. Nedric wondered why the slaves obeyed until the first time he saw a slave whipped by a guard for disobeying an instruction. That the instruction was issued by a drunken master who no longer wished to be supported by his slave and was disobeyed because the slave picked the master out of the gutter appeared irrelevant.
There had apparently been a change in the status of slaves after a number had escaped to Setherland but Nedric could not see that their situation was any better. Of course the fact that their masters were struggling to feed them meant that the guards were treating the slaves more harshly to maintain order. Many of the masters were prepared to lose status by offering their slaves to the army.
It was probably the number of slaves being offered to the army that had caused them to delay the recruitment of new forces. Slaves were easy to train into obeying orders completely and so made good shock troops. They had a tendency to desert if it looked like the fight was going against them and so a large number of regular troops needed to be employed behind them to ensure that they didn’t run the wrong way.
If Setherland had been prepared to accept all the troops that were likely to be sent into the country by Nothering then there would be little to fear with the invasion. In previous wars the slaves had defected readily, the promise of freedom being enough to get them to change allegiance. From the numbers looking to join the army it looked like half the population would be invading and Setherland wasn’t big enough to cope with anywhere near that number.
Nedric broached the subject later to the group.
“Why do you think the leaders of Nothering want to have a war with Setherland?”
“They’re the easiest target.” Said Daiga. “The old enemy, so there is all that built up hatred which can be called on to help make people agree to the fight.”
“So Setherland is the traditional enemy, it is also the country Nothering has never won a war against.”
“That doesn’t matter to the leaders.” Stated Rialto. “They aren’t interested in winning, in fact they might prefer to lose.”
“Why?”
“Because the problem with Nothering is that it has too many people and can’t feed them, so if the situation doesn’t change the leaders will be thrown out of power. Whoever is leading the country will have to declare war against someone because the only way to stay in power is to distract the country from its real problems. Of course if there is a war and lots of people get killed it helps to solve the population problem for a while.”
“Why doesn’t the government deal with the problem rather than go to war.” Nedric asked the question without expecting anyone to have a reasonable answer.
“Because it’s easier to distract the population,” was Rialto’s sarcastic response.
“Because the problems of the country are intensified by having a slave culture, which means that few people actually work hard and therefore there is no inclination to solve problems. The easiest situation is to let the slaves deal with it. If the problem is that there are too many people then the simplest situation is to kill off a load of slaves. It doesn’t matter to the leaders how many slaves die or escape and they might get lucky and win the war.” Scabad said more in that one statement than Nedric had heard him say in some days.
“It doesn’t solve anything though.” Bethan added. “The problem will just return after a few years and probably get worse. Why don’t they encourage people to travel over the mountains to the west and search out new places to live?”
“They’d lose control over them.” Scabad replied quietly.
“So it is all right for the slaves to escape or die but if the average person in the country leaves then they don’t want it.” Rialto summed up the situation.
“It’s because the leaders control the people who control the slaves.” Nedric felt that he needed to say something. “What I don’t understand is how they control people who are used to being in charge of others, doesn’t that make them more independent in their thinking?”
“That’s what the shadow guild is for.” Daiga explained. “The guild gets information from neighbours and friends and if it looks like someone is being too independent then the guild makes sure that they don’t survive for too long. Sometimes they will arrest someone openly and the person might even be released after a while. More often a family will just come across a corpse with the mark of the guild carved on it. No one is too outspoken in Nothering if they want to live.”
“How can people live in fear like that all the time?” Rialto asked.
“Because the people have an easy life as long as they don’t upset the leaders. Also the shadow guild don’t normally kill slaves so the slaves approve of them.” Daiga replied.
“If I was a slave I’d make up something about my master and tell the shadow guild.” Rialto stated.
“And then you might get a worse master.” Nedric chipped in. “It probably helps to keep the masters from treating the slaves too badly. It is the guards who seem to be harsh on the slaves not their actual owners.”
“That’s because the guards are only answerable to the priesthood and so they can get away with a lot as long as they don’t cause problems that mean difficulties for the senior priests.” Daiga seemed to know a lot about the internal structure of the country.
“The actual priests who conduct services and tender to the everyday needs of the communities have very little say in what happens. The cardinals however control everything and as their word is the word of the gods there can be no dissent.” Daiga continued. “There are five cardinals, one for each of the five gods. They decide everything for the country, they are all old and so they tend towards the conservative. That’s why there is hardly any change in Nothering. The country wouldn’t be in the state it is if they had adopted a few of the more modern farming practices. That and the leaders suggesting that everyone should have as many children as possible for the greater glory of the gods.” The last comment held so much sarcasm that it was very clear what Daiga thought of this approach.
“Daiga, why is it that sometimes you sound more like a tutor than a ranger?” Bethan asked.
“My secret is out!” Daiga laughed. “I spent a lot of time in one of the monasteries when I was a child and they kept insisting on forcing education on me. I told them that all I wanted to do was travel around the country but they made me learn and taught me to think. It could have been worse, I could have been the son of two priests like Scabad here.” He indicated his friend and colleague.
Scabad frowned slightly but stayed quiet.
“To get back to what we are talking about, the leaders of Nothering are not going to be deposed as long as no one can do anything to resist them without being killed and when most of the country believe that they have the backing of the gods. If they were to have a tremendous defeat and the country was invaded and the leaders all killed it still wouldn’t solve the problem. New leaders would appear out of the wreckage of the priesthood and as long as the beliefs are still in place the country will go on being a problem to everyone else.” Daiga was beginning to lecture.
“So what you’re really saying is that to defeat Nothering you need to change the way the country thinks and that isn’t going to happen.” Rialto made the comment but Nedric and Bethan both nodded to show they had been thinking it.
“Unless the slaves can be made to act against their masters or encouraged to leave the country in huge numbers and either of those situations seems unlikely.”
“Probably more likely than the priesthood changing their ways.” Nedric stated. “If anyone can think of anything to disrupt the situation we should let someone know when we get back to Setherland.”
“That’s good positive thinking.” Rialto grinned. “Here was I getting depressed about us ever seeing our homes again.”
“You’re just a natural pessimist” Bethan retorted, punching Rialto lightly on the shoulder.
“No I’m not, it’s just bad things always happen.” The smile told the opposite story to Rialto’s words.