If, of course, Marge didn’t screw it up.
Marge was late, but only by a few minutes. Ruddygore had anticipated it, but also knew she could go out afterward, and that, while it took some time to walk or ride to the town, she could fly it rather quickly.
Joe was already there, looking over a map with Ruddygore and Poquah.
“I’d head north across the Plain of Shadows,” the Imir, a military advisor at this meeting, told them. “Cross into Vali-sandra, which our reports say is not under Sugasto directly but is scared enough of him that he essentially has them neutralized and in no way interfering. Trust no one, rely on your cover story. You really did fight at the Battle of Sorrow’s Gorge, and you truly do have the sort of experience you will be claiming, including a knowledge of the Dark Baron no one who hadn’t met him and been with him for a stretch would have. As a mercenary among so vast an army, there is no one who could tell that you were on the other side.”
He nodded. “I like that. I particularly like using the Dark Baron, curse his seemingly indestructible soul, as a way in. It’s justice, somehow.”
“So long as the Baron doesn’t actually show up,” Marge pointed out. “For sure, he wouldn’t know or remember you at all, and it would take him about an hour mentally to undo the disguise and finger you. And if he fingers you, we’re all undone.”
Ruddygore sighed. “I hesitate to say that the odds of you two meeting the Baron again are one in a billion because I know damned well that your destiny has been entwined with his and what the implications of that really are. The only thing I can say is, you Ve both been in his clutches before and you Ve both beaten him more than once. If it’s his destiny to find you, then it’s yours to keep screwing him up. Frankly, after all the previous adventures, if I were the Dark Baron, and J figured out who you were, I’d run like hell.”
“But he won’t,” Marge noted. “And there’s a question of how many times we can screw up that kind of power and not pay a real price for it. I know how this crazy place works now. Somewhere down the pike there’s a cashier we don’t want to meet.”
Joe looked up from the map at her. “Cold feet? Sorry you came now?”
“Cold feet, yes. Sorry, no. Not yet, anyway. Hey, what’s the fun of being in a world of swordplay and sorcery if you can’t have thrills once in a while? Besides, I really want to get this bastard. I’ve owed Sugasto a knife in the back since that first business with the Lamp. Now it turns out that the slimy, double-crossing weasel is the Master of the Dead and that he’s gonna make a grab for the whole ball of wax. Uh-uh. We Kauris make love, not war, but we Texans have a different idea!”
“Bravo! Well said,” Ruddygore approved. “Remember the Alamo and all that!”
She looked up sharply at him. “Everybody died at the Alamo and the bad guy won. No, remember San Jacinto, and Santa Ana found skulking under a bridge disguised as a peasant. Oh, no. I’d rather be a live Houston than a dead Bowie.”
“Point taken,” the sorcerer responded a bit apologetically. “I’m not totally versed in the fine details of the history of your native lands.”
“At any rate,” Poquah said with some irritation, “I’d use Valisandra to find out all you can about the conditions and situation in Hypboreya. Cross when you have to or when the door of opportunity opens, not before. Get an invitation. You might well have to prove yourself to do it, but be resourceful.”
“And the bodies?”
“Here, beyond the Golden Lakes, in this somewhat blank expanse known as the Cold Wastes,” Ruddygore answered. “It’s vast and glacial, and this region is essentially uninhabited. This area here, in the shading, was the site of a mammoth battle of ancient times, the times of heroes and legends. It’s sixty miles across and your most dangerous area, since that war threatened the very existence and stability of Husaquahr. There is a legend that the powers of Heaven and Hell convened while it raged, and decided that it was so terrible a thing and had such a disastrous potential, that they agreed to halt it, freezing the entire battle and both forces, from great sorcerers to majestic warriors and fairy kings of old. There they allegedly remain to this day, under the ice. People are scared to cross it because they believe that they’re still somehow alive down there and can influence those who come near.”
Joe looked him in the eye. “Is it true?”
Ruddygore shrugged. “I haven’t the vaguest idea, but it sounds wild enough and the story has lasted long enough to have at least a grain of truth in it. Just beyond is this area, an oddity caused by volcanic activity. It’s warm and lush and essentially inaccessible. It’s where all the royalty of Hypboreya is crowned and is their retreat and fortress. Now, if you were Sugasto, and you now ruled Hypboreya absolutely with the royals as mere puppets and virtual prisoners and you had two bodies that would be instantly recognizable throughout Husaquahr and you couldn’t blow your plot or their existence until you were ready to unveil them, where would you put them? Where would you train them? Almost any other place you can think of on this continent risks premature exposure, and then you’d have armies marching on them with religious fervor to free their captive deities from the clutches of Hell. Any other continent would remove his trump cards too far from easy access. No, they’re there.”
“You’re sure they actually exist?” Marge asked him.
“Now I am. It was hard-won information, I assure you. I actually had to free a demon who was bound to me indefinitely to get it.”
Joe frowned. “Then that means Sugasto’s probably been tipped that you know. Oh, boy!”
“We have to assume it. At least, a few days ago the word started going out to find and capture you and Tiana at any cost and offering any reward. You can see why I’m so paranoid about you avoiding all detection. The fact is, though, they’ll soon be combing every home and tree for you down here, while you’ll be up there. That is one reason I decided that it might as well be you that goes for it. That, of course, and the fact that you have the long-standing grudge and are the best qualified. And you alone really have the right to do what must be done. Remember, the Rules bind bodies, not souls, as we all know. Higher law applies in that area. Even though the souls are wrong, the bodies stolen, this is still regicide.”
He had a point. If Ti was a slave because her body said she was, and he was a warrior-mercenary for the same reason, then whoever was Tiana’s body really was a highborn, qualified to be a monarch! As was the guy wearing his old body, by right of marriage and deed.
“He’ll think of that, too,” Joe pointed out. “And he’ll know that nobody entitled to ice them is capable of it, except us.”
“Sugasto won’t think of it,” Ruddygore said. “He’s always been sloppy on that sort of detail.”
“But the Dark Baron would think of it,” Marge noted.
“Yes, he would. But, remember, the Baron betrayed him the last time they formed an alliance. I feel certain that Sugasto would never trust the Baron again. Not on equal terms, anyway. Can you imagine Esmilio willing to subordinate anything, let alone something as monumental as this, to anyone?”
“He’d be plotting to overthrow the little twerp and take over this operation himself,” Marge agreed. “Okay. Point granted. But I still don’t like him loose.”