Nervous, unable to stand still, Shih-ka'i scanned the sky. "Nice day," he observed. It was.
"It's been nice all summer, Lord." Tasi-feng scanned the sky too. Flyers would presage the Deliverer's appearance. Their confidence had been shaken. They had begun to anticipate disaster.
One of Tasi-feng's officers appeared later. "Execution has been perfect, Lord. No sign of the doom of the Tusghus. We have a great tactical victory."
Shih-ka'i grinned into his mask, smacked a fist against the battlements. "Damn!" he said softly. "By damn! Lord Lun-yu, we'll stop him yet."
Northern Army double-timed through the gates. Their joy was contagious. "They're slipping discipline," Shih-ka'i muttered to Pan ku.
"Justifiable, wouldn't you say, Lord?"
"No doubt. No doubt." Shih-ka'i was elated himself. The battle had gone perfectly. The old confidence had returned. "We'll stop them here."
A messenger approached. "Lord Ssu-ma. Lord Lun-yu begs your presence in the command center."
"Did he say why?"
"No, Lord."
"I'll be there directly." Once the messenger departed, "Any ideas, Pan ku?"
"They've been watching the Matayangan front, Lord. Maybe something's happened there."
Something had. Lord Kuo's hidden armies had taken the offensive. But that was old news. Had Matayanga sprung a surprise of its own?
Shih-ka'i glanced at the handful of flyers circling above. The siege was about to begin.
He looked forward to it. Lioantung would be the rock against which the Deliverer would shatter himself. Or Lord Ssu-ma Shih-kaTs last battlefield. He had people developing a strategy to pursue should the city fall, but theirs was a half-hearted effort. The country west of Lioantung was dense with refugees. Populations had been compressed too much for further effective removal from the Deliverer's grasp.
The fates of himself, the Deliverer, and quite possibly the empire hung on this old fortress town.
The senior Tervola had assembled in the command center. Their soft talk faded when Shih-ka'i entered. "Politics again, Lord," Pan ku whispered.
"I suspect so."
The Tervola made room for him at the tabletop map of the empire. He and his staff had been following the Matayangan war closely of late. It might affect what they could do here.
The field situation appeared unchanged. "What is it?" he demanded.
Tasi-feng suggested, "Perhaps we could speak in private?"
Shih-ka'i peered into the jeweled eyes of Tasi-feng's mask. "The changing of the guard, eh?"
"Yes, Lord."
"What's to be discussed? Nothing's changed. We have our hands full here. The Deliverer's dragons are overhead."
"Lord... "
"Your games are your games. We have a job. Let's stick to it, eh? What's going on out there can take care of itself. If your candidate wins and doesn't like me, she can send me back to the Fourth Demonstration."
"Lord, we just wanted you to know what was happening. It's not likely to affect us."
"Then talk it out and get back to work. The Deliverer is on his way."
"As you command, Lord." Tasi-feng nodded to someone at the table. The Tervola dispersed.
"I'll be on the wall, watching him come up," Shih-ka'i said. "I don't want to hear any more politics while I'm commander. Understood?"
Tasi-feng bowed slightly. "As you command, Lord. We're perfectly satisfied."
The Deliverer's patrols were encircling the city when Shih-ka'i reached the wall. "What do you think, Pan ku? Send out skirmishers?"
Pan ku shrugged.
"No. Of course not. They're almost done. Make them come to us." The patrols looked like the dead now. "Time is on our side. Another week and he won't have anything left."
The hours rolled. The sun declined. The moon came out. Shih-ka'i remained rooted, watching besiegers who pitched no tents, who lighted no campfires, who merely stood waiting in lines surrounding the city.
"What will he try, Pan ku?"
"That sound again, Lord. Something to shake the walls."
"I'd say so, too. But we can take that away from him."
"Lord?"
"Hsu Shen... "
Pan ku pointed. "Someone coming, Lord."
A shadow flitted toward them, darting from one pool of darkness to another. Pan ku drew his longsword. Shih-ka'i let his senses reach out, felt no danger. "Easy. I think he's friendly."
Pan ku did not relax. He was not that kind of man.
The shadow moved more slowly as it came nearer. Shih-ka'i snorted in surprise. "Put that thing away, Pan ku."
His batman did as he was told. Reluctantly.
Their visitor wore Tervola garb, but no mask. The moonlight illuminated his lean, aristocratic face, exposing weariness and fear. "Lord Ssu-ma."
"Lord Kuo."
"I've suffered a turn of fortunes."
"So I've heard." Shih-ka'i examined his feelings. He wanted no part of Shinsan's tortuous politics. He simply wanted to get on with his job. Yet he owed this man. Lord Kuo had given him his chance at a major command. "We've tried to avoid getting involved."
"Your situation. Is it bad?"
"Looking better today." He explained. Lord Kuo nodded thoughtfully. "What brings you to me?" Shih-ka'i asked.
"I didn't have anywhere else to go." Kuo did not ask for help directly.
"Uhm. My officers aren't your friends."
"That's my own fault."
"The situation being what it is, there's not much I can do."
"I understand."
"There's Hsu Shen's island, Lord," Pan ku said.
"Of course. And we were about to go, weren't we? Lord, I can hide you on the Pracchia's island in the east. Pan ku. Hsu Shen hasn't been in contact, has he? He won't have heard from the plotters?"
"I think not, Lord."
Shih-ka'i had been downplaying Hsu Shen's presence on the island, hoping the Deliverer would miss it. "All right. We'll go now. Pan ku, find My Lord a mask. I saw several in the old Seventeenth museum."
Lord Kuo said, "I should shift to enlisted garb."
"Good idea. Pan ku, assemble a decurion's kit and uniform. Northern Army badges."
Later, in his quarters, Shih-ka'i studied the result. "Pan ku?"
"We need less arrogance, Lord. A soldier doesn't bear himself as if he expects Candidates to throw roses in his path."
"I see what you mean," Wen-chin said. "Drill me."
Shih-ka'i watched the time closely. The night was proceeding. Dawn would reach the island before it arrived here. He wanted to get there before sunrise. He explained, "Hsu Shen and his men should get used to you before daylight begins accenting your little lapses." He examined Lord Kuo's kit with a drillmaster's eyes. "Mask and robes on the bottom? Good. Pan ku, yours is ready?" They would all take kits to make Wen-chin's less conspicuous. His and Pan ku's would remain with Lord Kuo.
Shih-ka'i was a worried man. How long could he shelter Lord Kuo? He owed the man, but how much? Wen-chin's enemies would not see this as a private matter.
Too, Lord Kuo needed a secondary cover if he were to be long exposed to Hsu Shen. That he was Tervola could not be hidden indefinitely. Special investigator? That might do it.
"I think we're as close as we can get on short practice, Lord," Pan ku said.
"Then let's make the transfer. Lord, don't say anything unless you have to. Best they don't notice you. Pan ku, you go through first. Get their attention."
"I'll be invisible," Kuo promised, apparently amused.
Shih-ka'i supposed he was overly worried. Who would be watching for Lord Kuo? The man was believed killed during Mist's attacks on his headquarters.
The Lioantung end of the transfer went perfectly. No one seemed surprised that Shih-ka'i had gotten his man a helper. Other senior Tervola maintained retinues.
Shih-ka'i went through last. He arrived, found Hsu Shen galloping toward him, trying to put his apparel in order. "Lord," he gasped, "you should have warned us. We would've provided a more fitting reception."