But as more and more tasks devolved upon his shoulders and the days lengthened into weeks, he admitted to himself the utter impossibility of essaying so many different tasks and doing them all as well as they must be done. Consequently, he one day sought out Vahrohnos Myros, finding the down-fallen nobleman earning his daily ration as did all the other citizens and refugees-laboring upon a new salient; one of a pair being constructed at a very weak point in the defenses of stones and bricks taken from demolished structures.
Drehkos himself found it hard to recognize in this gaunt, bearded, sun-darkened figure in dusty rags the effete, fashionably pale-faced, spike-bearded, masterful man who had plotted and led the rebellion in Morguhn, and he was shocked to see that the remembered raven’s-wing curls of the former Lord of Deskahti were almost uniformly dirty white. Straining to propel a granite boulder with a thick crowbar clenched in work-roughened hands, he seemed unaware of Drehkos’ presence until the vahrohneeskos spoke.
“Myros, if you please, I would have words with you.”
Slowly the hunched noble straightened his body, allowing the boulder to ease back. Then his dull black eyes briefly met Drehkos’ gaze before he dispiritedly mumbled, “I have known, my lord vahrohneeskos, that sooner or later you would come to gloat. Were our positions reversed, I would have done so much sooner.”
Drehkos shook his helmeted head. “Not so, Myros, not so. I am come to ask your help.”
Myros’ answer was a harsh cackle. “My help? You have stones to be moved at the Citadel? Or, perhaps, a privy to be cleaned?”
“You there, lordy boy!” came a hoarse shout from behind Drehkos, along with the snapping of a whip. “You ain’t here to chat with passersby. Or mayhap you wants no rations this night”
Drehkos turned his head and the stocky overseer almost dropped his whip and crimsoned under his tan, stuttering. “Y-your p-pardon, my 1-lord. I-truly-I did not kn- know who ’twas.”
Drehkos’ warm smile came with his reassurance. “Never fear, good Klawdos, you were but doing your job, and I’d not fault you for such. But you’d best find another pair of hands for this task; this gentleman will be leaving with me.”
In Drehkos’ office-sitting room, Myros’ cracked lips sipped delicately at his third brass cup of watered wine. “Let me see if I truly understand you, Drehkos. You want me, a man who foolishly did his damnedest to undermine your leadership, to help and advise in preparing this city to stand off what is coming? How could you trust me, eh? You know me well enough to be aware that my life has been but one betrayal after another.”
Drehkos’ powerful hands cracked a couple of nuts, a hel-metful of which had been the shy gift of a recently returned scouting party. Separating the shells, he pushed half the meats over to his guest, chuckling ruefully, “If we are to bring up the bones of the past, Myros, my deeds, too, will exude the stench of offal. I can take damn-all pride in most of my accomplishments. But today is not yesterday, Yawn is not Morguhn, and I, for one, mean to die more honorably than I lived.
“What you said of me in those wretched mountains, Myros, much of it was true.”
Myros colored and dropped his gaze, his hands clenching until the cracked broken nails dug into his newly callused palms. In a low voice, he husked, “I … I don’t really know why, Drehkos. Don’t know what came over me. But for some reason nothing was of more importance than discrediting you, supplanting you in those men’s eyes. And, what’s worse, I can’t say that I’d not do it again, not knowing what prompted it.”
“As I said, Myros, yesterday is not today.” Drehkos cracked two more nuts. “And again I say, much of it was fact. Prior to that march, I was unskilled in aught save folly and debauchery. I am still painfully aware of my own shortcomings, especially as regards the arts of strategy, tactics and fortification.”
“WhaaatT Myros set down his cup with a thump. “Why, Name of God, man, you’ve wrought no less than miracles along those lines. True, my station has been rather lowly of past weeks: nonetheless, I have heard and seen what you are doing, for all the city is a-babble with your exploits.”