"You will defend it," said Pravuil. "It'll just be the usual Nithling rabble. Only more of them than usual."
"That's just it," Nage argued. "The Borderers have been reporting that something peculiar is going on in the transient region. There has been a solid landscape there for the last few months, and you can't even see the Void from the Cleargate. The last report said there are columns of Nithlings marching into that region from somewhere. Organised Nithlings."
"Organised Nithlings?" scoffed Pravuil. "The Nithlings are incapable of organisation. They appear from Nothing, they fight stupidly - with one another, if they can't get into the House proper - and they go back to Nothing when we slay them. That is how it has always been and always will be."
"Begging your pardon, Major, that's not how it is right now," said a new voice from the door. A Denizen in the sand-coloured tunic of a Borderer, his longbow slung across his back, stood at attention there. He bore the scars of several old Nothing-inflicted wounds on his face and hands, typical of the Denizens who patrolled the regions where the House bordered Nothing, not just in the Great Maze but also in other demesnes. "May I make my report, Colonel?"
"Yes, do, Corbie," said Nage. He reached under his cuirass and pulled out a pocket watch, flipping open the case one-handed. "We still have forty minutes."
Corbie stood at attention and spoke to a point somewhere slightly above Nage's head, as if there were an audience there.
"On the seventeenth instant, I left the sally port of the Cleargate with four sergeants and six ordinary Borderers. The sifters indicated a very low level of free Nothing in the region, and the Void itself lay at least fourteen miles distant, as measured by Noneset. We could not see it, nor much else, for everything immediately in front of the Cleargate was obscured by a highly unusual haze.
"We marched straight into this haze and discovered that not only was it twenty or thirty yards wide but generated by means unknown, presumed to be sorcerous. It was emanating from bronze chimneylike columns that were set at intervals in a line a mile long, opposite the Cleargate.
"Moving through the haze, we discovered that an enormous grassy plain had formed from Nothing, with a broad river close to us. On the far side of the river were thousands of tents, all of a uniform colour, arranged in rows of a hundred, with a banner at the head of each row. It was completely different from the usual rough Nithling camp, and we immediately noted that there was a very large parade ground of beaten earth beyond the tents, where a force I estimated at between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand Nithlings was parading in battle formations.
"Parading, sir! We moved closer, and through my perspective glass I was able to make out that the Nithlings were not only wearing uniforms but had remarkably regular physical attributes, with only minor variations of shape, such as a tentacle here or there, or more elongated jaws.
"At that point, a Nithling sentry hidden in the grass sounded an alarm. I must confess we were surprised by the presence of a sentry and by the swift response, as a hidden force immediately emerged from the banks of the river. We were pursued back to the Cleargate, and only just managed to get back in through the sally port without suffering casualties.
"End of report, sir!"
Nage stared at him for a moment as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Finally he blinked several times and spoke.
"This is very disturbing! And it obviously changes things. We cannot open all four gates with such a host of Nithlings waiting to attack!"
"Are you intending to disobey direct orders from Sir Thursday?" asked Pravuil lazily. He tapped the palm of his left hand with his swagger-stick, small purple sparks crawling out of the stick and spilling over his fingers. "You should know that I will have to relieve you of your command if that is the case."
"No "¦ no," said Nage. He looked at his watch. "We still have time. I will call General Lepter."
The colonel retreated to his desk and opened a drawer. There were half a dozen small lead figures inside, model soldiers, each painted in different uniforms of the Army of the Architect. Nage selected a figure wearing the long-plumed helmet and gilded cuirass of a legate of the Legion, a rank equal to general in the other commands of the Glorious Army of the Architect.
Nage put this model soldier into a small ivory stand that looked like a dry inkwell. As the figure connected with the stand, its edges blurred for a second before it became a tiny duplicate of the real living, breathing legate. This little soldier looked up at Nage and spoke, her voice sharp and penetrating, as if she were in the room and life-size, not four inches tall.
"What is it, Nage?"
Nage clashed his cuirass with his bracer before speaking.
"I have received a change to my Ephemeris from GHQ, delivered by a Major Pravuil. It calls for all four gates to be opened for twelve hours. But we have sighted an organised force of disciplined Nithlings waiting in the transient region, numbering at least two hundred thousand."
"And your question is?"
"I wish to be entirely sure that the change to my Ephemeris is authentic and not some exceptional Nithling trick."
"Major Pravuil is known to me," said Lepter. "He is one of a number of couriers delivering changes to all officer Ephemerides. Sir Thursday wishes to test the Army as it has not been tested for millennia."
"In that case, I request urgent reinforcements," said Nage. "I am not confident I can hold the fort with the current understrength garrison if the Nithling force attempts an assault."
"Don't be ridiculous, Nage," said Lepter. "Those Nithlings might look organised, but as soon as they're through the tunnel they'll go wild. A dozen tiles with abundant wildlife were moved last night opposite the Goldgate. The Nithlings will go hunting as they always do, and the tiles will move them away at nightfall and separate their forces. Tectonic strategy, Nage! I'll talk to you later."
The little legate froze and was a lead figure again. Nage plucked it out of the stand and threw it back in the drawer.
"The matter seems straightforward, Colonel," said Pravuil. "Hadn't you best issue your orders for all four gates to open?"
Nage ignored him. Going to a slender walnut-veneer cabinet that stood against the wall, he opened its glass door and slid out a shelf that had a telephone perched on it. Picking up the earpiece, he spoke into the receiver.
"Get me Thursday's Noon. Urgent military business."
There was a crackling whisper from the phone.
"Colonel Nage at the Boundary Fort."
There were more crackling whispers, then a booming voice filled the whole room.
"Marshal Noon here! Nage, is it? What do you want?"
Nage quickly repeated what he'd said to General Lepter. Before he could finish, Noon's strident voice cut him off.
"You have your orders, Nage! Follow them, and don't go outside your chain of command again! Put Pravuil on the line."
Nage stepped back, letting the earpiece of the phone hang down. Pravuil slid past him and picked it up. This time, Noon's voice did not fill the room. He spoke quietly to Pravuil for a minute. Pravuil whispered back, then there was a very loud click as the major hung up the phone.
"I am to return to the Citadel at once," said Pravuil. "You are ready to fulfil your orders, Colonel?"
"I am," confirmed Nage. He took out his watch and looked at it again. "The Nithlings will not take long to get through the tunnel, Major. You may not get clear."
"I have two mounts waiting," said Pravuil. He tapped the Ephemeris in its canvas pouch at his side. "And there is a tile six miles away that will take me halfway to the Citadel at dusk."
"Go, then," said Nage, not attempting to hide his disdain for an officer leaving imminent battle. He waited until Pravuil had left his office, then snapped a series of commands at Lieutenant Corbie and the orderly who stepped in from outside.