‘Are the quarters satisfactory?’ Betuana enquired politely.
‘Most satisfactory, your Majesty,’ he replied, settling into a chair. ‘Have you been advised of the details of our meeting with the Child Goddess?’
She nodded. ‘Itagne-Ambassador gave me a report,’ she replied. She paused. ‘One is curious to know why one was excluded,’ she added.
‘Theological considerations, your Majesty,’ Vanion explained. ‘As I understand it, the Gods have an exquisitely complex etiquette in these situations. Aphrael didn’t want to offend your God by inviting his children to her island. There were some other rather conspicuous absences as well. Emperor Sarabian was there and Ambassador Itagne, but Foreign Minister Oscagne wasn’t.’
Itagne frowned slightly. ‘The Emperor and I are skeptics—agnostics, I suppose you could call us—but Oscagne’s an out-and-out atheist. Would that account for it?’
‘It might. I’ll ask Aphrael the next time I talk with her.’
Engessa looked around. ‘I didn’t see Kring-Domi when we met you, Vanion-Preceptor,’ he noted.
‘Kring took his men and veered off toward Samar not long after you and her Majesty left us to come on ahead. He thought he’d be more useful there than he would here in Sama—and you know how the western Peloi feel about mountains and forests. Have the Cynesgans made any forays across the border as yet?’
‘No, Vanion-Preceptor,’ Engessa replied. ‘They’re massing in staging areas and bringing up supplies.’ He rose and went to the map. ‘A large force moved out of Cynestra a while back,’ he said, pointing at the Cynesgan capital. ‘They’re positioned near the border more or less opposite us here. Another force has taken up a similar position just across the line from Samar.’
Vanion nodded. ‘Cyrgon’s more like a general than a God in most ways. He’s not going to leave fortified positions to his rear. He’ll have to neutralize Samar and Sama before he can strike any deeper into Tamul Proper. I’d say that the force you’re facing here has been ordered to take Sama, seal the southern border of Atan and then swing northeast toward Tualas. I’m sure they’d rather not have the entire Atan nation come swarming down out of these mountains.’
‘There aren’t enough Cynesgans living to keep my people hemmed in,’ Betuana told him.
‘I’m sure of it, your Majesty, but there probably are enough to slow you down, and Cyrgon can recruit armies from the past to hinder you all the more.’ He studied the map, his lips pursed. ‘I think I see where he’s going,’ he said. ‘Matherion’s on a peninsula, and that narrow neck of land at Toea is the key to that. If I had to wager anything on it, I’d say that the main battle’s going to take place there. Scarpa will move north out of Natayos. Probably the southern Cynesgans are planning to capture Samar and then swing around the north shore of the Sea of Arjun to join him somewhere in the vicinity of the Tamul Mountains. From there the combined army can march up the west shore of the Gulf of Micae to Toea.’ He smiled faintly. ‘Of course, there’s a very nasty surprise waiting for them in the Tamul Mountains. I’d imagine that before this is over, Cyrgon will wish that he’d never heard of the Trolls.’
‘I will send an army out of northern Atan to Toea, Vanion-Preceptor,’ Betuana said, ‘but I’ll leave enough of my people along the southern and eastern borders to tie up half of the Cynesgans.’
‘In the meantime I think we can disrupt their preparations,’ Engessa added. ‘Raids in force across that border will delay their main attack.’
‘And that’s all we really need,’ Vanion chuckled. ‘If we can delay them long enough, Cyrgon’s going to have a hundred thousand Church Knights swarming across his western frontier. I think he’ll forget about Toea at that point.’
‘Don’t worry about him, From,’ Stragen told Sparhawk. ‘He can take care of himself.’
‘I think we sometimes forget that he’s only a boy, Vymer. He doesn’t even shave regularly yet.’
‘Reldin stopped being a boy before his voice started to change.’ Stragen leaned back on his bed reflectively. ‘Those of us in our particular line of work tend to lose our childhoods,’ he said. ‘It might have been nice to roll hoops and catch polliwogs, but...’ He shrugged.
‘What are you going to do when this is all over?’ Sparhawk asked him. ‘Assuming that we survive?’
‘There’s a certain lady of our acquaintance who proposed marriage to me a while back. It’s part of a business arrangement that’s very attractive. The notion of marriage never really appealed to me, but the business proposition’s just too good to pass up.’
‘There’s more, too, isn’t there?’
‘Yes,’ Stragen admitted. ‘After what she did back in Matherion that night, I’m not about to let her get away from me. She’s one of the coolest and most courageous people I’ve ever met.’
‘Pretty, too.’
‘You noticed.’ Stragen sighed. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to end up being at least semi-respectable, my friend.’
‘Shocking.’
‘Isn’t it? First, though, there’s this other little matter I want to deal with. I think I’ll present my beloved with the head of a certain Astellian poet of our acquaintance. If I can find a good taxidermist, I may even have it stuffed and mounted for her.’
‘It’s the kind of wedding present every girl dreams of.’
‘Maybe not every girl,’ Stragen grinned, ‘but I’m in love with a very special lady.’
‘But there are so many of them, U-lat,’ Bhlokw said plaintively. ‘They would not miss just one, would they?’
‘I am certain they would, Bhlokw,’ Ulath told the huge, brown-furred Troll. ‘The man-things are not like the deer. They pay very close attention to the other members of the herd. If you eat one of them, they will know that we are here. Catch and eat one of their dogs instead.’
‘Is dog good-to-eat?’
‘I am not sure. Eat one and tell me if it is good.’
Bhlokw grumbled and squatted down on his haunches.
The process Ghnomb had called ‘breaking the moments in two pieces’ produced some rather strange effects. The brightness of noon was dimmed to twilight, for one thing, and the citizens of Sepal seemed to walk about their town with a fast, jerky kind of movement, for another. The God of Eat had assured them that because they were present in only a small part of each instant, they had been rendered effectively invisible. Ulath could see a rather large logical flaw in the explanation, but the belief that the spell worked seemed to override logic.
Tynian came back up the street shaking his head. ‘It’s impossible to understand them,’ he reported. ‘I can pick up a word or two now and then, but the rest is pure gibberish.’
‘It is talking in bird-noises again,’ Bhlokw complained.
‘You’d better speak in Trollish, Tynian,’ Ulath said. ‘You’re making Bhlokw nervous.’
‘I forgot,’ Tynian admitted, reverting to the hideous language of the Trolls. ‘I am—’ he groped. ‘What is the word that means that you want it that you had not done something?’ he asked their shaggy companion.
‘There is no such word, Tin-in,’ Bhlokw replied.
‘Can you ask Ghnomb to make it so that we can understand what the man-things are saying?’ Ulath asked.
‘Why? What does it matter?’ Bhlokw’s face was puzzled.