Bergsten shuddered and began marking off distances on the miniature continent with a long piece of string. ‘I’m up here at Pela,’ he told them, pointing at a spot in central Astel. ‘That’s almost three hundred leagues from the general vicinity of Cyrga, and I’ll have to stop to capture Cynestra along the way. The rest of you are much closer, so you’re going to have to hold off a bit if we all want to get there at approximately the same time.’
Aphrael shrugged. ‘I’ll tamper,’ she said.
Bergsten gave her a puzzled look.
‘Divine Aphrael has ways of compressing time and distance your Grace,’ Sparhawk explained. ‘She can—’
‘I don’t want to hear about it, Sparhawk!’ Bergsten said sharply, putting his hands over his ears. ‘You’ve already put my soul in danger just by bringing me here. Please don’t make it any worse by telling me things I don’t need to know about.’
‘Whatever you say, your Grace,’ Sparhawk agreed.
Emban was pacing around the cluster of up-thrusting mountains in the center of the Cynesgan Desert. ‘We’re all going to be converging on these mountains,’ he said. ‘I’m no expert, but wouldn’t our best move be to just stop in the foothills and wait until everyone’s in place before we make the final assault?’
‘No, your Grace,’ Vanion said firmly. ‘Let’s stay out a bit from the foothills—at least a day’s ride. If we run into Klael’s creatures, we’ll need room to maneuver. I want a lot of flat ground around me when that happens.’
The fat little Churchman shrugged. ‘You’re the soldier, Vanion.’ He pointed toward the south. ‘There’s our weakness,’ he said. ‘We’ve got a good concentration of forces coming out of the east, the northeast and the north, but we don’t have anybody covering the south.’
‘Or the west,’ Sarabian added.
‘I’ll cover the west, your Majesty,’ Bergsten told him. ‘I can position my knights and the Peloi to block off that entire quadrant.’
‘That still leaves the south,’ Emban mused.
‘It’s already been taken care of, Emban,’ Aphrael assured him. Stragen’s been spinning stories about a vast Church fleet off the southern coast, and I’ve been weaving illusions to back him up.’
‘How long is it going to take the Trolls to get into position north of Zhubay, Ulath?’
‘Just as long as it takes to persuade the Troll-Gods that we need their children there instead of in the Tamul mountains,’ Tynian replied. ‘A day or so, probably. Once they’re convinced, they’ll put their children into No-Time. If we didn’t have to stop now and then to feed the Trolls, we could be in Zhubay before you could even blink. If I knew where Cyrga was, I could have fifteen hundred Trolls on the doorstep by morning.’
‘There’s no need to rush.’ The Child Goddess looked around with steely eyes. ‘Nobody—and I mean nobody—is going to move on Cyrga until I know that Ehlana and Alcan are safe. If I have to, I can keep you running around in circles out there in that desert for generations, so don’t try to get creative on me.’
‘Is the Queen of Elenia so very important to you, Divine One?’ Betuana asked mildly. ‘War is hard, and we must accept our losses.’
‘It’s a personal matter, Betuana,’ Aphrael said shortly. ‘These are your positions.’ She gestured over the miniature continent. ‘Bergsten will come in from the north and west to cover that side of the city, Ulath, Tynian and Bhlokw will bring the Trolls down from Zhubay and join with Betuana’s Atans on their left flank, Vanion will come in from the east and be joined on his left by Kring and the Peloi, Stragen’s persuaded that disgusting Dacite in Beresa that there are a million or so Church Knights landing on the coast around Verel and Kaftal, and that should divert most of the armies of Cynesga. We’ll all converge on Cyrga. There are some discrepancies in the distances, but I’ll take care of those. When the time comes, you will all be in place—even if I have to pick you up one by one and carry you.’ She stopped abruptly. ‘What is your problem, Bergsten? Don’t laugh at me, or I’ll take you by the nose and shake you.’’
‘I wasn’t laughing, Divine One,’ he assured her. ‘I was only smiling in approval. Where did you learn so much about strategy and tactics?’
‘I’ve been watching you Elenes make war since shortly after you discovered fire, your Grace. I was bound to learn a few of the tricks of the trade.’ She turned suddenly on Bhlokw. ‘What?’ she asked irritably in Trollish.
‘U-lat has said to me what you have said, Child Goddess. Why are we doing this?’
‘To punish the wicked ones, Priest of the Troll-Gods.’
‘What?” Sparhawk said to Ulath in stunned amazement. ‘What did she call him?’
‘Oh?’ Ulath said mildly. ‘Didn’t you know? Our shaggy friend has a certain eminence.’
‘They actually have priests?’
‘Of course. Doesn’t everybody?’
‘It is good to punish the wicked ones who have taken Anakha’s mate away,’ Bhlokw was saying, ‘but do we need to take so many? Khwaj will punish the wicked ones. This is the season of Schlee, and we should be following the way of the hunt. The young must be fed or they will die, and that is not a good thing.’
‘Oh, dear,’ Aphrael murmured.
‘What’s happening here, Sir Ulath?’ Sarabian asked.
‘The Trolls are hunters, your Majesty,’ Ulath explained, ‘not warriors. They have no real understanding of warfare. They eat what they kill.’
Sarabian shuddered.
‘It is very moral, your Majesty,’ Ulath pointed out. ‘From a Troll’s point of view, wasting the meat is criminal.’
Aphrael was squinting at the priest of the Troll-Gods. ‘It is a good thing to do that which follows the way of the hunt and punishes the wicked ones at the same time,’ she said. ‘If we hunt this way, we will cause hurt to the wicked ones and bring much meat to the young during the season of Schlee.’
Bhlokw considered that. ‘The hunts of the man-things are not-simple,’ he said dubiously, ‘but it is my thought that the hunts of the God-things are even more not-simple.’ He reflected on it. ‘It is good, though. A hunt that gathers more than meat is a good hunt. You hunt very well, Child Goddess. Sometime we might take eat together and talk of old hunts. It is good to do this. It makes pack-mates closer so that they hunt together better.’
‘It would make me glad if we did this, Bhlokw.’
‘Then we will do it. I will kill a dog for us to eat. Dog is even more good-to-eat than pig.’
Aphrael made a slight gagging sound.
‘Will it cause anger to you if I speak to our pack-mates in bird-noises, Bhlokw?’ Sparhawk stepped in. ‘It will soon be time for the hunt to begin, and all must be made ready.’
‘It will not cause anger to me, Anakha. U-lat can say to me what you are saying.’
‘All right then,’ Sparhawk said to the rest of them. ‘We all know how we’re going to converge on Cyrga, but there are several of us who have to go in first. Please hold off on your attack until we’re in position. Don’t crowd us by trampling on our heels.’
‘Who are you taking in with you, Sparhawk?’ Vanion asked.
‘Kalten, Bevier, Talen, Xanetia and Mirtai.’
‘I don’t quite—’
Sparhawk held up one hand. ‘Aphrael made the choices, my Lord,’ he said. ‘If there are any objections, take them up with her.’
‘You have to have those people with you, Sparhawk,’ Aphrael explained patiently. ‘If you don’t, you’ll fail.’
‘Whatever you say, Divine One,’ he surrendered.
‘You’ll be out in front of Berit and me then?’ Khalad asked.
Sparhawk nodded. ‘The people on the other side will expect us to trail along behind you. If we’re in front, it might confuse them—at least that’s what we’re hoping. Aphrael will take us directly to Vigayo and we’ll nose around a bit. If the fellow with the next message is already there, Xanetia should be able to pick up your new destination. Sooner or later, somebody’s going to have to give you the key to the illusion that’s hiding Cyrga, and that’s the one piece of information we have to have. Once we’ve got that, the rest is easy.’