‘i’ve got some bad news, Divine One,’ he told her.
‘What else can go wrong? Hurry up, Vanion. I’m very busy
right now.’
‘We ran into Klael out in the desert. He had an army of giants
with him, and we got very badly mauled. Tell Sparhawk and
the others that I probably won’t be able to hold Samar if the
Cynesgans lay siege to it. I’ve lost half of the knights, and the
ones I’ve got left aren’t in any condition for a fight. Tikume’s
Peloi are brave men, but they don’t have any experience with
,gWhen did this happen?’
‘About four hours ago. Can you find Abriel and the other
preceptors? They should be in Zemoch or Western Astel by now.
They have to be warned about Klael. Tell them that under no
circumstances should they engage in any pitched battles with
Klael’s troops. We’re no match for them. If the main body of the
Church Knights gets waylaid and wiped out, we’ll lose this war.’
‘Who are these giants you’re talking about, Vanion?’
‘We didn’t have time for introductions. They’re bigger than
the Atans, though – almost as big as Trolls. They wear very
close-fitting armor and steel face-masks. Their weapons aren’t
like anything I’ve ever seen, and they’ve got yellow blood.’
‘Yellow? That’s impossible!’
‘It’s yellow all the same. You can come here and look at my
sword-blade, if you’d like. I managed to kill a couple of them
while I was covering Betuana’s retreat.’
‘Retreat? Betuana?’
‘She was carrying Engessa.’
‘What’s wrong with Engessa?’
‘He was out front a little ways, and Klael’s soldiers attacked
him. He fought well, but they swarmed him under. We charged
into them, and Betuana cut her way through to Engessa. I
ordered a retreat and covered Betuana while she carried Engessa
to the rear. We’re taking him back to Sama, but I think it’s a
waste of effort. The side of his head’s been bashed in, and I’m
afraid we’re going to lose him.’
‘Don’t say that, Vanion. Don’t ever say that. There’s always
hope.’
‘Not much this time, Divine One. When somebody breaks
into a man’s brain, about all you can do for him is dig a grave.’
‘i’m not going to lose him, Vanion. how fast can you get him
back to Sama?’
‘Two days, Aphrael. It took us two days to get here, and two
days out means two days back.’
‘Can he hold on that long?’
‘I doubt it.’
She said a short, ugly word in Styric. ‘Where are you?’
‘Twenty leagues south of Sama and about five leagues out
into the desert.’
‘Stay there. I’ll come and find you.’
‘Be a little careful when you approach Betuana. She’s behaving
very strangely.’
‘Say what you mean, Vanion. I don’t have time for riddles.’
‘i’m not sure what I mean, Aphrael. Betuana’s a soldier, and
she knows that people sometimes get killed in battle. Her reaction
to what’s happened to Engessa is – well – excessive. She’s
broken down completely.’
‘She’s an Atan, Vanion. They’re a very emotional people. Go
back and halt your column. I’ll be there in a little while.’
Vanion nodded, although there was no one there to nod to,
turned his horse and rode back to rejoin his knights. ‘Any
change?’ he asked Queen Betuana.
She lifted her tear-streaked face. ‘He opened his eyes once,
Vanion-Preceptor,’ she replied. ‘I don’t think he saw me,
though.’ She was holding Engessa’s hand.
‘I talked with Aphrael,’ he advised her. ‘She’s coming here to
have a look at him. Don’t give up hope yet, Betuana. Aphrael
cured me, and I was closer to being dead than Engessa is.’
‘He is fairly strong,’ she said. ‘if the Child Goddess can heal
his wound before it carries him off -‘ Her voice caught with an
odd little note.
‘He’ll be all right, your Majesty,’ he said, trying to sound more
certain than he really was. ‘Can you get word to your husband?
about Klael, I mean? He should know about those soldiers Klael
hides under his wings.’
‘i’ll send a runner. Should I tell Androl to come to Sama
instead of going to Toea? Klael is here now, and Scarpa’s army
won’t reach Toea for quite some time – and that’s only if they
can evade the Trolls.’
‘Let’s wait until I’ve had the chance to talk with the others
first. Is King Androl already on the march?’
‘He should be. Androl always jumps when I suggest something.
He’s a good man – and very, very brave.’ She said it
almost as if defending her husband from some unspoken criticism,
but Vanion noticed that she absently stroked Engessa’s
ashen face even as she spoke.
‘He must have been in a hurry,’ Stragen said, still puzzling over
Sparhawk’s terse note.
‘He’s never been very good at writing letters,’ Talen shrugged,
‘except for that one time when he spent days composing
lies about what we were supposedly doing on the Isle of
Tega.’
‘Maybe that took it all out of him.’ Stragen folded the note
and looked closely at it. ‘Parchment,’ he said. ‘Where did he get
his hands on parchment?’
‘Who knows? Maybe he’ll tell us when he comes back. Let’s
go take a walk on the beach. I need some exercise.’
‘All right.’ Stragen picked up his cloak, and he and the
younger thief went downstairs and out into the street.
The southern Tamul Sea was calm, and the moon-path across
its dark surface was unbroken and very bright. ‘Pretty,’ Talen
murmured when the two reached the damp sand at the edge of
the water.
‘Yes,’ Stragen agreed.
‘I think I’ve come up with something,’ Talen said.
‘So have I,’ Stragen replied.
‘Go ahead.’
‘No, let’s hear yours first.’
‘All right. The Cynesgans are massing on the border, right?
‘Yes.’
‘A good story could un-mass them.’
‘I don’t think there is such a word.’
‘Did we come here to discuss vocabulary? What will the
Cynesgans do if they hear that the Church Knights are coming?
Wouldn’t they almost have to send an army to meet them?’
‘I think Sparhawk and Vanion want to keep the fact that the
knights are coming more or less a secret.’
‘Stragen, how are you going to keep a hundred thousand men
a secret? Let’s say that I tell Valash that I’ve picked up a very
reliable report that a fleet of ships flying Church banners has
rounded the southern tip of Daconia bound for Kaftal. Wouldn’t
that cause the other side some concern? Even if they know about
the knights coming across Zemoch, they’d still have to send
troops to meet that fleet. They couldn’t ignore the possibility that
the knights are coming at them from two different directions.’
Stragen suddenly laughed.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘You and I have been running together for too long,
Talen. We’re starting to think alike. I came up with the idea of
telling Valash that the Atans are going to cross the steppes
of eastern Astel and strike down into northern Cynesga toward
the capital.’
‘Nice plan,’ Talen said.
‘So’s yours.’ Stragen squinted out across the moon-bathed
water. ‘Either story’s strategically credible,’ he mused. ‘They’re
exactly the kind of moves a military man would come up with.
What we’re really planning is a simultaneous strike from the east
and the west. If we can make Cyrgon believe that we’re going
to hit him from the north and south instead, we’ll pull him so
far out of position that he’ll never be able to get his armies back
to meet our real attacks.’
‘Not to mention the fact that we’ll cut his army in two.’
‘We’ll have to be careful though,’ Stragen cautioned. ‘I don’t
think even Valash is gullible enough to swallow these stories if
we drop them both on him at the same time. We’ll have to
spread them out and dribble them to him bit by bit. What I’d
really like to do is let the fairy-tale about the Atans come from
someone other than me.’
‘Sparhawk could probably get Aphrael to arrange that,’ Talen
suggested.
‘if he ever comes back. His note was a little vague. We can
get things rolling, though. Let’s modify your story a bit. Push
your make-believe fleet back to Valesia. Give Cyrgon some time
to worry about it before we pinpoint Kaftal as the final destination.
I’ll plant a couple of ambiguous hints about the Atans
massing up near their northwestern frontier. We’ll let things
stand that way until Sparhawk comes back.’
Talen sighed.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘This is almost legal, isn’t it?’
‘I suppose you could say so, yes. Is there some problem with
that?’
‘if it’s legal, why am I having so much fun?’
‘Nothing?’ Ulath asked, opening the neck of his red uniform
jacket.
‘Not a peep,’ Tynian replied. ‘I cast the spell four times, and I
still can’t raise her.’
‘Maybe she’s busy.’
‘It’s possible, I guess.’
Ulath rubbed at his cheek reflectively. ‘I definitely think I’ll