"I think so, yes," the Prime said. "Let me know when you'll be ready to move."
"I can let you know right now," Cvv-panav said. "It'll be in two fullarcs."
"Really," the Prime said, somewhat taken aback. "So soon?"
"You're the one who said this should be done as quickly as possible," Cvv-panav reminded him. "I have people on hand right here who can handle my part of the operation and then disappear for a while." He smiled slyly. "Unless, of course, you're going to have trouble setting up your open Elder debate so quickly."
The Prime smiled back. "Hardly. I'll have the announcement made within the tentharc."
"Good," Cvv-panav said, nodding politely as he stood up. "Two fullarcs from now, then."
"I'll look forward to hearing how it went."
"I'll be sure to give you a proper briefing," Cvv-panav said dryly as he stepped to the door. "Good latearc, Overclan Prime."
"Good latearc, Speaker Cvv-panav."
The Speaker left, closing the door behind him, and for a few beats the room was silent. "An interesting character," the Eighteenth's voice commented into the darkness.
"Interesting is hardly the word I'd use," the Prime growled, glaring at the closed door.
"Arrogant, perhaps?" the Twenty-fifth suggested. "Or slippery?"
"Much closer," the Prime agreed. "You notice how he appeared to accept both of my conditions without actually giving in on either of them?"
"Certainly," the Eighteenth said. "Only competent warrior commanders are henceforth immune from his politics. With their competence being defined by him, of course."
"And no more demands for full briefings means he can still clamor for private briefings," the Eleventh put in.
"Or simply ignore the Overclan briefing process entirely and concentrate his investigations at Warrior Command," the Seventh added.
"That won't gain him anything," the Twenty-eighth rumbled. "Warrior Command knows as well as we do what releasing knowledge about the CIRCE weapon could do to Zhirrzh society."
"Yet they also know we can't keep it under cover forever," the Fourth said quietly. "Eventually, the truth will leak out."
"But not until we've fought the Human-Conquerors to an impasse," the Prime said firmly, cutting off the impending debate. "We need only control access to any one of the CIRCE elements to make the weapon useless to them."
"The trick being to know when we've done that," the Twenty-second muttered. "Otherwise, we risk spreading our resources so thin that they're all but useless."
"We can do only what we can," the Eighteenth said philosophically. "At any rate, this should at least eliminate the added distraction posed by Speaker Cvv-panav and his inconvenient curiosity. You can be ready in two fullarcs, Overclan Prime?"
"Easily," the Prime assured him. "The debate is already planned. All I need to do is announce the time and place. And I've already spoken to my warriors about the other part of it."
"Good," the Eighteenth said. "Then we have nothing to do except wait."
14
"Not to mention pretty exposed," Warrior Third Qlaa-nuur added.
"It is both of those," Thrr-mezaz agreed, gazing up at the cliff. "All in all, I'd prefer a more reasonable route myself. The question is, is one available?"
"One that doesn't expose us to direct view from the Human-Conqueror sentry positions?" Vstii-suuv asked. "Yes."
Vstii-suuv looked up at the cliff again, measuring it with his eyes. Thrr-mezaz watched him, wondering if he should just give up on this and get the three of them back to the village. He'd persuaded Supreme Ship Commander Dkll-kumvit to authorize this little trip up the mountain by calling it a dry run; but unless and until he could get another fsss cutting from either Warrior Command or the Prr family, this wasn't much more than a refresher course in rock climbing.
Still, right now none of them had much else to do. Between their own village encampment and the Human-Conqueror mountain stronghold, the war on Dorcas had settled into a basic halkling-nornin standoff. The Zhirrzh might as well try being the halkling half of the game for a change.
"Well, if it's a choice between climbing here or being shot at by Human-Conqueror sentries, I guess I'd go for the climb," Vstii-suuv decided, shrugging the coil of rope off his shoulder.
"Of course, once we're above the tree line, we can have both at once," Qlaa-nuur muttered.
"If the Human-Conquerors spot us, these trees aren't going to provide a lot of cover anyway," Thrr-mezaz pointed out. "Let's get to it."
"Right," Vstii-suuv said, handing Thrr-mezaz the coil of rope and checking to make sure it was secured to his climbing harness. "I'll take lead; Qlaa-nuur, you're on anchor. Let's go."
He stepped to the cliff face, dug fingers and toe-boots into small crevices, and started nimbly up. Thrr-mezaz played the rope out behind him, waiting for his own turn to start climbing and wondering for the thousandth time what in the eighteen worlds he was doing out here. Yes, he was one of exactly three Zhirrzh in the Dorcas expeditionary force who had done any rock climbing at all; and yes, the first rule of mountaineering was that three climbers was the absolute minimum for any halfway safe climb. But his limited recreational climbing hardly put him in the same class with these two members of the Aree'rr clan, who'd practically grown up scaling mountains. Inevitably, he was going to slow them down... and here, in the shadow of Human-Conqueror weapons, that kind of handicap could easily wind up raising all three of them to Eldership.
And he didn't want to become an Elder. Not yet. There were still too many things he wanted to do, places he wanted to see, experiences that would require his physical self to fully and properly appreciate. Sometime in the vague and distant future, certainly, he would be ready for that stage of life. But not now. Not yet. If he had any sense, he would abort this and head back to the relative safety of the village.
"All right," Qlaa-nuur said. "Go ahead, Commander."
"Right." Snapping Vstii-suuv's rope into the friction grab rings on his harness, Thrr-mezaz took a deep breath and started up the cliff face.
It wasn't as slow going as he had feared. Vstii-suuv had been liberal with his expansion pitons, scattering them around within easy climbing distance of each other. Three strides up, Thrr-mezaz came on one in crumbling rock that was already loosening; pulling a replacement from his harness, he slid its slender tip into a nearby crack and sliced through the protective cover with the edge of his tongue. There was a gentle hiss as the foamed-ceramic interior of the tip, exposed to air, began to swell up inside the crack, filling the empty space as it hardened. A few beats later, with the piton now a virtual extension of the rock, he locked in the rope and continued on.
"Certainly a change from the encampment, anyway," Qlaa-nuur commented from just beneath him.
Thrr-mezaz looked down. Predictably, the more experienced Aree'rr had caught up with him. "Almost like a vacation," he agreed, turning back around and concentrating on his climbing, reminding himself not to be pressured into rushing this.
Qlaa-nuur was obviously of the same opinion. "Careful and steady, Commander," he warned. "We're not in any particular hurry here."