Eddings, David – Tamuli – 02 – The Shining Ones

noise and confusion during the Harvest Festival.’

‘And lots of drinking,’ Itagne added. ‘The whole continent

gets roaring drunk.’

“It’s a general holiday, then?’ Bevier asked.

Itagne nodded. ‘Technically it’s a religious holiday. We’re supposed

to thank the Gods for a bountiful harvest. Most people

can get that out of the way in about a half a minute, and that

leaves them three days and nights to get into trouble. The harvest

crews are all paid off, they take their annual baths, and

then head for the nearest town in search of mischief.’

“It’s made to order for our purposes,’ Caalador added.

‘Will you be ready to move your forces against the Trolls in

three weeks, Lord Vanion?’ Sarabian asked.

‘More than ready, your Majesty. We weren’t planning to

gather them all in one place anyway. The detachments from

each garrison are only platoon-sized, and a platoon

can move faster than a battalion. they’re all moving toward staging areas

along the Atan border.’

‘Do we want to hit them all at the same time?’ ~Kalten asked.

‘We could go any one of three ways on that,’ Sparhawk said.

‘We can hit the Trolls first and pull Zalasta’s attention to northern

Atan, or we can murder the conspirators first and send him

scurrying around the continent trying to salvage what he can of

his organization, or we can do it simultaneously and see if he

can be in a hundred places all at the same time.’

‘We can decide that later,’ Sarabian said. ‘Let’s get word

to the murderers first. We know that we want them to go to

work during the Harvest Festival. The military situation’s more

fluid.’

‘Let’s make a special point of eliminating Sabre, Parok and

Rebal this time,’ Stragen said to Caalador. ‘Evidently the Atans

missed them in the last general round-up. Those Elene kingdoms

in western Tamuli are standing between Sir Tynian and

Matherion, and as long as those three trouble-makers are alive,

he’s going to have rough going. Is there any way we could get

Scarpa as well?’

Caalador shook his head. ‘He’s holed up in Natayos. He’s

turned it into a fortress and filled it with fanatics. I couldn’t pry

a murderer enough to try to kill him. The only way we’ll get

Scarpa is to mount a military expedition.’

‘That’s a shame,’ Sephrenia murmured. ‘The death of his only

son would definitely twist a knife in Zalasta’s belly.’

‘Savage,’ Vanion accused affectionately.

‘Zalasta killed my family, Vanion,’ she replied. ‘All I want to

do is return the favor.’

‘That sounds fair to me,’ he smiled.

‘i’m still dead set against it,’ Stragen said stubbornly when he,

Sparhawk and Ulath met in the hallway a bit later.

‘Be reasonable, Stragen,’ Ulath said. “It won’t hurt anything

to see what they have to say, will it? I’m not going to just turn

them loose without any restrictions at all, you know.’

‘They’ll agree to anything to get their freedom, Ulath. They

might promise to pull the Trolls out of Atan – or even to help

us deal with Zalasta and Cyrgon – but once they get back to

Thalesia, they won’t feel obligated to honor any commitments.

We’re not even members of the same species as their worshipers.

We’re just animals in their eyes. Would you feel

obliged to keep promises you made to a bear?’

‘That would depend on the bear, I suppose.’

‘The Troll-Gods might break promises they make to us,’ Sparhawk

said, ‘but they won’t break faith with Bhelliom, because

Bhelliom can re-absorb them if they try any tricks.’

‘Well,’ Stragen said doubtfully, “I want to be sure everybody

understands that I don’t like this, but I guess it won’t hurt to

hear what they have to say. I want to be present, though. I don’t

altogether trust you, Ulath, so I want to hear the promises you

give them.’

‘Do you understand Trollish?’

Stragen shuddered. ‘Of course not.’

‘You’re going to have a little difficulty following the conversation,

then, don’t you think?’

‘Sephrenia’s going along, isn’t she? She can translate for me.’

‘Are you sure you trust her?’

‘That’s a contemptible thing to say.’

“I thought I’d ask. When do you want to do this, Sparhawk?’

‘Let’s not be premature,” Sparhawk decided. “I still have to

take Caalador around to talk with his friends. Let’s get that all

set up and make sure that the Atans Vanion’s calling in are in

the staging areas before we broach the subject to the Troll-Gods.

There’s no point in getting them excited until we need them.’

“I think we’ll want to be out in the countryside when we talk

with them,’ Ulath suggested. ‘When we tell them that Cyrgon’s

stolen their worshipers, their screams of outrage might shatter

all the sea-shells off the walls of Matherion.’

‘His mind is much fogged by drink,’ Xanetia reported about

mid-morning the next day after she and Berit had returned from

the Cynesgan embassy, ‘and it is difficult to wring consistency

from it.’

‘Does he have any suspicions at all, Anarae?’ Stragen asked

with a worried expression.

‘He doth know that thou hast set thieves and beggars to watch

him in the past, Milord Stragen,’ she replied, ‘but it is his

thought that thou – or young Talen – must make these arrangements

in each city and that one of ye must go there to speak

With each chief separately.’

‘He don’t know nothin’ about the Sekert Cover-mint?’

Caalador pressed, speaking in dialect for some obscure reason.

‘His understanding of thy society is vague, Master Caalador.

Cooperation of such nature is beyond his grasp, for Krager himself

is incapable of it, being guided only by immediate self-interest.’

‘What a splendid drunkard,’ Stragen exulted. ‘Let’s all Pray

that he never sobers up!’

‘A-men.’ Caalador agreed fervently. ‘Well, Sporhawk, why

don’t yew have a talk with this yore joel o’ yourn, an me’n you’ll

go a-hippety-skippin”round about Tamuli. We got us folks t’

see an’ th’otes t’ cut.’

Xanetia’s face took on a pained expression.

Caalador was badly shaken the first few times Bhelliom whisked

him half-way across the continent, but after that he seemed to

grow numb. It took him about a half-hour each time to pass

instructions to the various criminal chiefs of Tamuli, and Sparhawk

strongly suspected that the ruddy-faced Cammorian

settled his shaken nerves with strong drink at each stop. Sparhawk

could not be sure, of course, since he was quite firmly

excluded from the discussions. ‘You don’t need to know who

these people are, Sparhawk,’ Caalador said, ‘and your presence

would just make them nervous.’

Vanion’s small Atan detachments were streaming into the

staging areas along the Atan border from all over Tamuli, and

Tikume had promised several thousand eastern Peloi in addition

to the three hundred bowmen Kring had taken with him back

to Atan. Bhelliom took Sparhawk and Vanion to the Atan capital

so that they could reassure Betuana that they were in fact

marshaling forces to come to her aid, Bud to explain why they

were holding most of that aid at the border. ‘The Trolls wouldn’t

understand the significance of those reinforcements, Betuana-Queen,’

Vanion told her, ‘but Cyrgon’s completely versed in

strategy and tactics. He’d understand what was going on

immediately. Let’s not give him any hints about what we’re

doing until we’re ready to strike.’

‘Do you really think you can spring surprises on a God,

Vanion-Preceptor?’ she asked. Betuana was dressed in what

passed for armor among the Atans, and her face clearly showed

that she had been functioning on short sleep for weeks.

‘i’m certainly going to try, Betuana-queen,’ Vanion rePlied

with a brief smile. “I think it’s fairly safe to say that Cyrgon

hasn’t had a new thought in the last twenty thousand years.

Military thinking’s changed a great deal in that time, so he probably

won’t fully understand what we’re up to.’ He made a wry

face. ‘At least that’s what I’m hoping,’ he added.

And then it reached the point where they could not put it off

any longer. None of them were really comfortable with the idea

of chatting with the Troll-Gods, but the time had come to put

Ulath’s notion to the test.

About an hour before dawn of the day none of them had

really been looking forward to, Sparhawk and Vanion went to

Sephrenia’s room to speak with Sephrenia, Xanetia and Danae.

Their discussions struck a snag almost immediately.

“I have to go along, Sparhawk,’ Danae insisted.

‘That’s out of the question,’ he told her. ‘Ulath and Stragen

are going to be there. We can’t let them find out who you really

are.’

‘They’re not going to find anything out, fatHer,’ she said

with exaggerated patience. “It won’t be Danae who’ll be going

along.’

‘Oh. That’s different, then.’

‘Exactly how are we going to work this, Sparhawk?’ Vanion

asked. ‘Won’t you have to release the Troll-Gods in order to talk

with them?’

Sparhawk shook his head. ‘Bhelliom says we won’t. The TrollGods

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