The door responded to gently tapping knuckles. "Enter."
Chu stepped in and reported. This time he was perfection itself. He had conquered the electric excitement Lord Kuo generated wherever he appeared.
"That's better. Much better. Our first mission is to conquer ourselves, is it not? Lord Kuo, eh? What do you suppose he wants?"
"I don't know, Lord. He didn't say."
"Uhm." Shih-ka'i was not satisfied with the hand now guiding Shinsan's destiny. From afar he perceived Kuo Wen-chin as too idealistic, naive, simplistic, and uninformed. Two years ago he had been a corps commander of Shih-ka'i's own Middle Army. He was too young, too inexperienced. Still, he had momentum. He had charisma. He filled a need for new leadership, new ideals, given birth by the failure in the west. Maybe new perspectives could mend the wounds in the spirit of the legions.
"Shall I greet him, Lord Ssu-ma?" The Aspirant glowed with eagerness.
"Can you comport yourself with restraint and respect?"
"Yes, Lord."
Shih-ka'i was disgusted by the pleading note in the youth's voice. Nevertheless, "Go, then. Bring him directly to me."
"Lord." Chu whirled and surged toward the door.
"K'wang-yin. If you embarrass me, you'll do a whole year in primary."
Chu froze. When he resumed moving his face was calm and his pace sedate. His frame stood rigidly erect.
Shih-ka'i permitted himself a small smile.
Lord Kuo Wen-chin waved a thin, almost feminine hand as he stepped into Shih-ka'i's office. "Don't rise, Lord Ssu-ma." Kuo doffed his cruel silver-and-jet wolf's mask. Perforce, Shih-ka'i accepted the informality and removed his own facepiece.
This was his favorite jibe at his brethren. It mimicked a boar in a killing rage. One tusk was of quartz, the other of ruby, as if to imply that one tusk had just ripped an enemy. The mask as a whole had a carefully crafted battle-scarred look.
Tervola invested a great deal of thought and Power in their badges of station. It was said that a skilled observer could read a whole soul from a well-made mask.
"You honor us, Lord Kuo."
"Not really. I need you, so I'm here."
"Uhm?" Shih-ka'i considered his visitor. Almost feminine features. Smaller than the run of Tervola from the older lines. Attractive, but in a female sort of way. He reminded Shih-ka'i of the Demon Princess, Mist, whom he had encountered occasionally during her brief reign.
"You know what I represent. Change. New blood. A clean sweep of associations with Ko Feng's ill-starred ventures."
"Don't forget that Lord Feng's group brought us annexations of epic scale."
Kuo waved one of those delicate hands. "Nevertheless... There's Western Army. Twice defeated. Once under the Dragon Prince, again during the Pracchia gambit." In this empire, an empire unaccustomed to defeat, even an appearance of defeat was unpardonable.
"Ko Feng could have won at Palmisano. He withdrew rather than risk losses which might have damaged the stability of the legions. He was a methodical man. He would have anticipated the cost to himself. He withdrew anyway."
Kuo looked irritated. He took a moment to control himself. "We can't, of course, know what would have happened had he chosen to stand. Lord Ssu-ma, I didn't come here to argue. I don't want to exhume our yesterdays."
No, Shih-ka'i thought. You want to bury them deep, and with them everyone who made them. And with them all the good of them, lest someone remember and compare. "Tomorrows. Those interest us all, don't they? Speak to me of tomorrows, Lord Kuo."
Kuo brightened. He smiled an effeminate smile. "You mis-estimate me. I'm not here to dismiss you. I do want to rusticate you, though. To Eastern Army."
Shih-ka'i's stomach dropped a hundred feet. So. The purge had burst its political bounds. "I'm not a political creature, Lord. My business is the creation of soldiers. I do that quite well."
"I know. I did my Candidacy with the Fourth Demonstration. I'm sure you don't remember me. You were a brigade leader at the time. But I remembered you. You impressed me."
"Uhm?" Shih-ka'i kept his feelings concealed. He did not remember Candidate Kuo. Was the man about to requite some slight?
"Lord Ssu-ma, I want you to command Eastern Army."
The world fell away again. "Lord! I... I've never held a field command."
"You've directed the Fourth in field exercises. It's been at corps strength because of our replacement demands. I think you can handle it. You're the man I want. You have the stubbornness of Ko Feng without his limitations. You think on your feet. You get jobs done. More, you're an older Tervola. You have no discernible political bias. You'll fit into the gap between myself and the recidivists I rashly banished to what looked like a sessile frontier army."
Kuo's brief rule had bewitched Shinsan with its amazements and marvels and unpredictable decisions. Here was another of the same.
"But my background ... "
"Irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. You're Tervola. You're trained to command. If I set you to command, none will deny me. Lord Ssu-ma, will you accept Eastern Army?"
Outwardly, Shih-ka'i remained a man of stone. Within, he flailed about, trying to grasp something, anything, that would give him a grip on a turbulent reality. Command of an army! Even of the diminutive Eastern Army... It was an honor he never had dared hope to attain.
"When?"
"Right away. I need you out there."
"What's happened?"
"No one is quite sure. For lack of anything better to do, they're exploring the desert that stopped their advance. Patrols have vanished. They'll fill you in when you get there. Will you accept the command?"
"Lord... Yes. I will."
"Good." Kuo smiled. "I thought you would." He produced a small scarlet badge that resembled the face of a man with a beak instead of a nose. The badge of an army commander. There were just a handful in existence. It topic the convocation of the entire Council of Tervola, with mighty sorceries, to create one. Shih-ka'i accepted it humbly, wondering who had worn it before him. He would have to learn its history and honors.
"You should start east with whatever staff you need as soon as I find someone to replace you here. Your army will consist of the five legions currently posted. I had planned to withdraw two before the disappearances began. Northern Army will be available in reserve, though I'm reducing it to corps strength." Kuo went on to explain that he was stripping all the armies in favor of the southern frontier.
"But... we have twenty-six legions there already."
"The Matayangan situation is worsening. They're trying to lure us into giving provocation for a pre-emptive strike. They want to hit us while the legions are still under strength. We'll give them a surprise if they do."
Shih-ka'i nodded. Shinsan had expanded too fast recently. Civil and foreign wars had drained the legions. The army was strained, trying to hold the present frontiers. Losses denied it manpower usually devoted to assimilation and re-education of conquered peoples. The empire had become a fragile structure. "What about the west?" The Tervola feared the west more than the numerically stronger south.
"I've told Hsung to normalize. To avoid confrontation. To shift his emphasis from the military to the political. They're vulnerable in their disunity. Intrigue should be his weapon of choice. It could be decades before we avenge our dead. We have to digest what we've taken."
Lord Kuo impressed Shih-ka'i now. His inflammatory demagoguery had been, apparently, a device to push Ko Feng aside. Today he was talking a more realistic response to the empire's problems. Maybe he could reverse the trend toward chaos that had set in with the deaths of the Princes Thaumaturge.