He was not sure what he was giving his wife-queen. Something, to be sure. She seemed satisfied most of the time.
He stood there a long time, remembering his years with Elana, and the friends who had given their days that special touch.
All that was gone. He had come to the grey days, the soft, colorless days, to which his acquaintances contributed little.
Maybe he was aging. Maybe, as you grew older, the highs and lows and color faded away, and it all got so oatmealy you just decided it was time to lay down and die.
He glanced at the sun. Time had stolen away while he stretched himself on the rack of his yesterdays. Best quit fooling around, he thought. Wouldn't do for the King to be late for his game of Captures.
He encountered the Panthers on the road. Had he been anyone else, they would have ragged him mercilessly about the Guards' chances. The Panthers were young and exciting and on a hot streak. They were the darlings of the sweet young things who devoured winners and scorned losers. They expected to be on top for years.
One bold lad suggested as much.
Ragnarson grinned. „And you might be in for a surprise, boy. Us old dogs know a few tricks."
Youth received his assertion with its usual disdain.
Was there ever a time when I was that young, that self-certain, that positive about my world arid my answers? he wondered. He did not remember being that way.
They parted to go to their respective castles.
The opening minutes of the game would be free of irregularities. The judges assembled the teams at their castles. They counted heads and took names. They sounded horns when the teams were ready, and winded them again to signal the opening of play.
The stretching of rules generally began after the teams spread out to defend and attack.
Bragi's team had cheated ahead of time. It brought to Captures some of his tricks of government. In preparation for the Panthers, a hot-blooded, round-heeled spy had been deployed.
Bragi was late. He gave the judges his name and joined Trebilcock, who clung to the edge of the gang. The youth wore a hangdog look. The others were intent on their spy's boyfriend.
„They're gonna bull it. They're gonna punch up the middle with everybody," the man said. He was team captain. His friends called him Slugbait. „They're gonna hold a deep defense of like six guys two hundred yards from their castle. The rest are gonna swamp us, then just march back with our balls. They figure they gonna hoo-miliate us on account of we're a bunch of old buzzards and we won't be able to keep up. We got a couple ways to go. I figure the best is we go them one better. We don't guard our castle. We all of us go over there, swamp their defensemen, grab their balls. We have five guys sneak their balls around the flanks. All the rest of us jump them while they're coming back. Pile on and take our balls back away. Snakeman? What you jumping about?"
„They're going to know they been taken when they don't find nobody in our castle, Slug. So all we're going to do is turn the field around. Then they start running us. They'll wear us down. Then it's good-bye ballgame."
Ragnarson said, „Slug's on the right track. But so is Snake. I say play the turnaround. Only all the way. I'm thinking we could use a variation on a Marena Dimura trick to shift the odds. When we come to their defensemen, we pick them up and carry them over to the castle judge and fling them out of bounds. That puts them six players short. Then we take their balls into the woods and bury them someplace. Then we play the strong defense on their castle. It'll confuse hell out of them. Whenever any of their people get through, the deep line can grab them and throw them out of bounds too. We just put a few strikers out to watch our balls till we get a whole bunch of them out of the game."
„You're talking too much running," Michael grumbled. „I won't get out of bed for a week."
„You're younger than me."
The men liked Ragnarson's suggestion. It was a different angle. It would put the Panthers off balance.
A judge demanded, „You people going to piddle around all day? Let's play Captures. We want this over by sun down."
„Go ahead and blow them horns," Slugbait cried. „We try it the King's way to start," he told his team.
Michael groaned.
Bragi told him, „I'm not so fond of it either. I counted on sitting most of this one out."
The horns honked and snorted like drowning geese.
„Out to the sides!" Slugbait growled. „We don't want them to see us."
A half hour later Ragnarson and Trebilcock had estab lished their defensive position. Their backs were toward the Panther castle. „Guess they got a little cold-footed," Bragi gasped. His lungs ached. They had pushed hard. The Panther defenders had struggled valiantly while being thrown off the field. „Leaving ten men instead of six."
Trebilcock was sour. „They suckered you. They knew that girl was a plant. They sent five people to your castle. The rest were out in the rocks and trees seeing where their own balls were hidden. They'll snatch them and hide them somewhere else."
A grin spread across Ragnarson's face. „You'd do that, Michael. But these are kids. They don't think they have to be sneaky." He looked around, making sure they were free of unwanted eyes and ears. „Give me a rundown on what you're doing and what you know. And I want more than generalities."
Michael's expression soured even more.
„Mike, you're a good man. One of my best. But things can't go on this way. I can't go to Hsung and make promises when my people won't do what I want. I can't make plans if you won't tell me what the hell is going on. I didn't give you the job so you could play hide and seek. Here's the word. Either you play with the team, or you're off it."
Trebilcock stared at Ragnarson. He seemed startled.
„I mean it. Suppose you tell me about Hsung's plans. You know what's going on in the east. And tell me how you know."
„How?"
„I don't just judge information. I judge the source, too, Michael."
Trebilcock sighed. He appeared upset. „Part of the deal is, I can't expose him. He's on Hsung's staff. He has access to conferences and documents."
„Shinsaner or Throyen?"
„Does it matter?"
„It matters a whole hell of a lot. I don't trust snakes, and I don't trust anybody from the other side of the Pillars of Heaven."
„Shinsaner. But he's trustworthy."
„Why? They don't commit treason."
„Not against the empire. They'll betray leaders they don't like. We came up with proof that he was trying to set Mist up for a comeback. He'd be dead in a minute if we let Hsung have it. Hsung is Kuo's brother-in-law."
„Blackmail?" Ragnarson studied Michael. „Nu Li Hsi and Yo Hsi were brothers. They spent four hundred years trying to kill each other. How do you know the man is feeding you good information?"
„He's right every time."
„You've got checks on him, then."
„No." Michael stared at the leafy earth like a school kid getting it from his teacher.
„Has he told you anything important? Anything we wouldn't have found out anyway? You going to recognize it when he feeds you the big lie they want you to believe?"
„Yeah. He told me why they're giving Prataxis what he wants."
„Well?"
„They expect war with Matayanga this summer. The Matayangans have been getting ready since Escalon fell. They're as strong as they're going to get, and the legions are still weak. They're going to have to fight someday, so why not get in the first punch? They've got the Tervola worried. They don't want trouble anywhere else, so Hsung is going to be the best friend you've got outside of Kavelin. He had to give up his reserve legion to the Southern Army. Kuo is stripping the whole damned empire so he can stiffen his southern posture. The only army he didn't hit is the Eastern Army. Nobody can figure that because there isn't anything east of them."