Earlier that evening, a small boat had grounded at a well-hidden spot on the south bank and a heavily cloaked man had stepped ashore, mounted a waiting horse and spurred off into the darkness.
At the fringe of the main camp, Strahteegos Grahvos’ most trusted retainers stood guard about his pavilion, their bared steel turning away any who came near. When a horseman, both his face and body muffled in a dark cloak, rode up, he leaned from his saddle, whispered a few words to an officer, and was immediately passed through.
Within the main room of the pavilion, Grahvos and seven other thoheeksee conversed in low, guarded tones. When a ninth man entered, Grahvos hurried over to him and they exchanged a few whispered sentences. Then the newcomer laid aside his cloak and accompanied the old Strahteegos back to the table.
Grahvos tapped his knuckles on the table and the other nobles broke off their conversations to turn toward him. “Gentlemen, I declare the Council of Thoheeksee . . . what’s now left of us, at least . . . now in session. I think that most of you know Captain Vahrohnos Mahvros of Lohfospolis. It was he who had the courage to undertake the mission of which I spoke earlier. He has just returned from the camp of High-Lord Milo and King Zenos, where he spoke in my name. He … but let him tell of it.” He sat down.
Mahvros booked half again his thirty years. His darkly handsome face was drawn with fatigue and the nervous strain of the last day. But his voice was strong. “My lords, I spent most of the afternoon and early evening with High-Lord Milo, King Zenos of Karaleenos, Lord Alexandras of the Sea Isles and Thoheeks Djefree of Kumbuhluhn, though the High-Lord seemed to speak for all most of the time.
“He swears that no man or body of men marching south will be harmed or hindered; indeed, if they march along the main traderoad, they can be certain of guides to show them to unpolluted water.
“The High-Lord emphasized that he wants none of our arms or supplies or equipment. We are welcome to bear back anything we brought north. He demands only the surrender of the persons of the High King and the Queen.”
“Haarumph!” Thoheeks Mahnos of Ehpohtispolis in-terjected. “He is most welcome to that pair, say I. Good riddance to bad rubbish!”
“Yes, yes,” Grahvos agreed. “We made a serious mistake with Zastros, but none of us could have known at the time how much he had changed in his three years of exile. We now know and, hopefully, it’s not too late to save our homelands from any more of his misrule.”
Another voice entered the conversation—the gritty bass of Thoheeks Bahoa growled. “I went along with the majority—every man here knows that—but I told you then that Zastros was not Zastros. Our fathers’ duchies adjoined. I’ve known the man all his life, and the Zastros of the last year ia not the Zastros of years agone!”
“Well, be that as it may be,” Grahvos snapped. “The High-Lord Milo wants the High King and his witch-wife. Our alternatives are few: we can continue to sit here, while the men desert individually and in whole units, until starvation, or camp fever or an arrow in the night takes us; or we can try another assault on that goddamned deathtrap of a bridge … though, to my way of thinking, falling on our swords would be an easier way of suiciding.
“I say that we leave Zastros and his wife to our esteemed former foes and take our men back home; God knows, we and they have enough to do there. How says the Council?” Seven ayes answered.
“Now that that is settled,” Grahvos went hurriedly on, “let’s bring another thorny matter into the open. Who is going to rule without Zastros? Each of us has as much claim to the Dragon Throne as the next. .But can the Southern Kingdom survive another three or more years of civil war and anarchy? I think not.
“Look around this table, gentlemen. Our Council was once made up of two and thirty thoheeksee; including Zastros, there are now but nine in our camp. If young Vikos made it back safely, there are two living thoheeksee in all of the Southern Kingdom, and the late King probably died by his own hand.