That made sense. Aahz was quite outspoken in his low opinion of Klah and the Klahds that inhabited it, including me. That last thought made me fish for a bit more reassurance.
“Aahz?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“What’s your honest appraisal of my chances?”
There was a moment of silence before he answered.
“Kid, you know how you’re always complaining that I keep tearing down your confidence?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, for both our sakes, don’t push too hard for my honest appraisal.”
I didn’t.
Getting through the back gate proved to be no problem … mostly because there wasn’t a back gate. To my surprise and Aahz’s disgust, the wall did not extend completely around the palace. As near as I could see, only the front wall was complete. The two side walls were under construction, and the back wall was nonexistent. I should clarify that. My statement that the side walls were under construction was an assumption based on the presence of scaffolding at the end of the wall rather than by the observation of any activity going on. If there was any work being performed, it was being done carefully enough not to disturb the weeds which abounded throughout the scaffolding.
I was beginning to have grave doubts about the kingdom I was about to ally myself with.
It was difficult to tell if the court was being convened in a garden, or if this was a courtyard losing its fight with the weeds and underbrush which crowded in through the opening where the back wall should have been. (Having grown up on a farm, my basic education in plants was that if it wasn’t edible and growing in neat rows, it was a weed.)