The King began sneaking his wounded through portals reset to carry men back to Kavelin. Lord Ch'ien's people paid no attention. They had their hands full taking control of the Matayangan war.
As the wizard guided the litter cases into a heavy portal, he overheard Baron Hardle telling the King, "You're too trusting, sire. Your friend was Chatelaine of Maisak. Was. Now you're dealing with the mistress of Shinsan."
"He's right, Bragi," Varthlokkur said. "She has to live the role."
The King frowned, grumbled, "She still at her house, Baron?"
"She was when I left. Busy as a one-handed puppeteer, trying to keep hold of all the threads."
"Then her fate isn't out of our hands, is it? Varthlokkur, let's go back. Baron, you get the men home."
The wizard followed the King. He stepped up to the portal, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, stepped. He sensed nothing as he passed through. No great hungry shadow in the distance. Three times through, and not even a hint of the thing he feared. Was it gone?
He stepped into a situation room which had changed dramatically. The big map table was gone. Wounded men carpeted the floor. Half were not Kaveliners. Lord Hsung's surprise counterstroke had come near succeeding.
Mist was arguing with several Tervola. Varthlokkur recognized only the one. He eyed the man, then looked for the King.
Bragi was talking to Dahl Haas. "Go downstairs and collect up some good men. Have them slip up here a few at a time. Varthlokkur?"
"I was going to suggest that. We might need them." He watched Mist closely. The woman had just now noticed them. She appeared bewildered by their presence. "Baron Hardle was right. The Princess Mist isn't Kavelin's bosom friend."
"So I see. She looks like she's seeing a couple of ghosts. Figure we're supposed to be spooks by now?" He sent men to guard the portals. "There's a certain value to our controlling her physical whereabouts, wouldn't you say?"
Varthlokkur smiled a thin, evil smile. "Of course. Unless we hang on too long. Then some other opportunist will promote himself number one." He closed his eyes, reached out with his thoughts. He felt the thing. Come to me, Radeachar. Come to me. Unborn. It stirred, responding. It moved his way... He opened his eyes, smiled again.
Mist said something to her companions, came toward the wizard and King. "I see you're back." She extended an imperious hand toward the King, as if expecting a bow and kiss. Bragi shook.
"Not all of us, Chatelaine. A lot of good men died out there. Some were captured. Hsung set a trap. We walked in. It almost worked."
"My people were hard hit too. As you can see." Varthlokkur admired her aplomb. She'd had just the one bad moment when first she had seen them.
She added, "The trickster who did it would like to meet you."
"Hsung? He's here?"
The wizard had recognized the Tervola immediately but hadn't mentioned him. Bragi was volatile enough without knowing the man he considered his great enemy was here in the room.
"Lord Hsung." Mist's voice was snappy and cold.
"Ain't Lord Nothing to me, woman. Just another beastmask. Don't start taking yourself too seriously. Not here in my territory."
Varthlokkur considered Mist from beneath lowered brows. He couldn't stifle his smile. She saw it and realized what she was doing. She became conciliatory immediately. "Of course. I apologize. It's been an emotional day."
Lord Hsung stepped forward, inclined his head an inch. "Pardon me," he told the King. "I do not yet speak your language well. I wished to make your acquaintance, after our three years of sparring. I had pictured someone smaller and more shifty."
"I learned from a small, shifty guy. Keeping your job? Still going to be boss of the occupation?"
"Her Highness has entrusted me with our western provinces."
"Figured you'd twist her arm. Going to be the same old crap, eh?"
Lord Hsung stiffened, glanced at Mist. Varthlokkur gave the King a warning headshake. It wasn't wise to irritate a Tervola too much. He let his senses drift, thought, Where are you, Radeachar?
Here. And a window shattered behind the King. A vast chill filled the room.
The Unborn had come.
It was a thing that looked like a fetus inside a globe of crystal, but no human fetus was ever that big...
Mist squeaked, dismayed. "Do you know how much good glass costs, Varthlokkur? When you can find a decent glazier? I thought we were on the same side."
"I wasn't the first to forget." He beckoned. The Unborn drifted over and hung behind his left shoulder, its infant eyes open and wise in the ways of evil, filled with malice. "I can't prove anything, of course, but I'm morally certain that the King and I weren't supposed to return from our little jaunt into the east."
"I'll interrogate Lord Ch'ien. Perhaps he exceeded his instructions."
"Perhaps. But I doubt it."
The King said, "When people mess with me I get mean. Mist, you and your friends are going to be my guests for a while."
The Unborn stirred slightly, bobbing behind Varthlokkur's shoulder. Mist glanced at the thing and grimaced. "For how long? I'm involved in two desperate wars."
"Two?" Lord Hsung asked.
"Eastern Army was beaten. Northern Army may not hold. Lord Ssu-ma has performed brilliantly, but even genius has its limits. The eastern front is about to collapse."
Bragi smiled. "Ask me how much I care. The worse the whipping you take, the lighter the weight on my back."
Varthlokkur made another warning gesture. "Not so belligerent, my friend."
Mist said, "This threat has big dreams, Bragi. It won't be satisfied with us. It hates the world."
"Come on."
"These are armies of the dead. They have no love for the living."
Varthlokkur felt the snakes wakening in his belly, felt the color leave his face. The Unborn stirred, disturbed by his emotion. That damned mess out east... It wouldn't go away. Were the gods themselves determined to drag him in?
"Still irrelevant," Bragi said. "I want to know how to get you to deal straight."
Mist took his hand. "I made some rotten deals to put this over, Bragi. The rottenest was to try trapping you. You refuse to understand what you mean to the Tervola. They want your scalp. Bad. I made it as soft a trap as I could, trusting that you'd have your usual luck. And we all got what we wanted. So let's stay friends."
"Okay. For now."
Varthlokkur smiled again, both at Mist's relief and at this flash of the flexibility of the old Bragi. He sighed, "On your way, Radeachar." And, "Home at last. You realize I haven't seen my daughter since right after she was born?"
"I haven't seen Inger," the King said. "Let's get out of here." But before they departed they reminded their people to keep close watch on Mist and her followers.
"That was close," Mist murmured to Lord Hsung. "Why can't you people be more flexible?"
"We people, Mistress?"
"Tervola. Not one of you learned from the example of O Shing. You forced him to go after Ragnarson because of the defeat at Baxendala. So a lot of great Tervola lost their lives. Whole legions were destroyed. And the balance was not rectified. The ignominy was compounded. And now that same obsession has nearly destroyed me... "
Lord Hsung chuckled. "You forget, I was on the other side."
"You represent the sort of thinking that causes the problem. Don't forget, I've been sitting up in Maisak for three years, watching you. You've been conspiring with both sides in the fighting in Hammad al Nakir. You've been sneaking agents into Kavelin. You've been spreading threats and rumors of war just to keep the King on edge. I don't know how much of that I can tolerate. It could come bad on us like a bad spell."
"In time, you'll tolerate as much as it takes to destroy the man and his cohorts."