More remarkable yet, this small man on a small horse has strangely sharpened teeth plainly visible; and yet, for all his mad peculiarities, this atrocious-smelling human never fails to get the most active behavior from his fellows, and so makes the authoritative tasks of both Visimar and the woman next to him almost unnecessary. Thus, Little Mischief feels no compunction about alighting upon the top of Visimar’s head; while Visimar, for his part, merrily calls out the starling’s name, then quickly extends his arm, seeming to know that the small bird’s companion, the enormous (and enormously proud) queen of the night, Nerthus, will soon be swooping in to clutch his wrist and fist, which, along with his other hand and forearm, Visimar has thankfully thought to encase in a pair of leather gauntlets. These leather coverings offer some relief from the talons of the great owl — even if that relief is less than complete.
“Viz-ee-mah!” the starling atop the old cripple’s head blurts out, punctuating the name with those clicks and crackles that can often make the starling such an annoying bird, especially in the early morning hours.
“My lord!” Keera says, half-delighted and half-mystified. “These are the same birds with whom I observed his lordship having most extraordinary congress during our march to Okot.”
“They have been the messengers between Lord Caliphestros and myself for years, since long before this undertaking,” Visimar answers, “although never was their service more vital than in recent weeks.” Still holding the great owl, he indicates to Keera that she should extend a pair of fingers. “All right, Little Mischief,” he says. “Leap upon the fingers of a new friend: Keera.”
The bird’s head swivels and bobs upon his ever-active body, and he soon leaps down upon Keera’s hand, his small feet creating a trembling, vital sensation throughout the forager’s hand and body. That sensation is as nothing, however, to when the starling looks up at the Bane woman with his black eyes and declares, “Kee-rah!”
“My lord—!” the tracker exclaims softly.
“Oh, it’s nothing to do with me,” Visimar replies. “One of the many successful experiments, based on previous years of the study of bird as well as other animal life besides our own, that my master conducted in the Wood and elsewhere. Little Mischief — for such is the name Lord Caliphestros gave him — will now know you forever. I cannot pretend to understand how or why; but I do know that it can be of great use …” Visimar’s eyes fix on the starling’s intently for a moment, and he says, “Little Mischief — you go with Kee-rah—just to the top of the hill. See what the men on the walls of Boh-ken are about, and in what numbers.” Visimar looks up. “Keera?”
Keera is too entranced by the magic of the moment to think of hesitating at the order. “Aye, Lord Visimar!” she replies, turning her pony to the east, and making for the crest behind which her fellow Bane have been so hard at work to create their illusion. The trip of woman and bird is a short one, however; in just a few minutes Keera races back to Visimar, enthusiasm in her features. “They do just as we hoped, my lord!” she calls. “Men line the walls between the guardhouses, and bring heavy ballistae up to assist them.”
Visimar nods knowingly. “Oxmontrot was wise, to make his walls wide enough to support such engines of war,” he says. “Although, in this case — as in so many — his descendants will, it appears, make a weakness of his wisdom.” Attempting to stare once again into the eyes of the starling that perches upon Keera’s fingers, Visimar is forced to purse his lips and whistle sharply; for the bird is still entranced by Keera’s features, just as he was in the treetops of Davon Wood.
“Hear me, now, Little Mischief!” Visimar says, with urgency; for the sound of his whistling has finally attracted the starling. “Go to Kaw-ee-fess-tross, and say this:” He uses words that Little Mischief — who richly deserves his name, Keera has decided — understands: “So-jers. So-jers, so-jers, so-jers, Boh-ken, eees!”
The repetition of the first word, Keera supposes, is intended to indicate that there are many soldiers; the last, that these soldiers have gathered at the East Gate. When she sees Visimar detect a gleam, if not of comprehension, then at least of correct memorization, in the starling’s black eyes, Keera watches the old man pull a bit of parchment from his robe, and, with his free right hand, place it upon his thigh and print a strange symbol upon it with charcoal.
Catching sight of her interested expression, Visimar explains, “It is merely a coded method that my master and I had of relating meeting places and enemy movements, when he was in the Wood and I in the city, before our communication was severed by my Denep-stahla …” Having completed the brief scratch of charcoal, Visimar holds it up to his Bane friend; but Keera must ask, “Are they wholly of your own invention, then? For they are not the same as those that appear on the ancient rocks we use for mapping trails.”
“Not wholly our own,” Visimar explains. “But this is also a runic way of writing, although one not quite dead: merely borrowed by my master from tribes to the north, so that there was little chance that the Kafran, who take little interest in those kingdoms and nations about them, would comprehend them.”
Folding the parchment carefully, Visimar produces a string, with which he clearly means to tie the simple message to the talons of the waiting Nerthus; but the great owl takes this as something of an insult, in one motion batting the string away and then using the same talon to clutch the parchment tight, as if to tell Visimar that she no more needs binding to achieve an important assignment than does the starling that is her constant source of irritating (if often affectionate) company and competition. A somewhat chastised Visimar takes the owl’s meaning perfectly:
“Very well, then, Nerthus, carry your message to Caliphestros freely, just as Little Mischief does — but hurry, great and beautiful lady. For time now presses, as the storm approaches the city …”
And so, with Heldo-Bah, Veloc, and their detachment of Bane warriors continuing to delightedly raise as much dust and noise as they can about the eastern road to Broken, the two birds take flight. Watching them go with a smile, Keera asks a final question: “One point still puzzles me, Visimar: why does Lord Caliphestros wait for the rain to begin before our main assault?”
“Because the rain will spark the fire automatos,” Visimar replies. “The most fiercely burning flame known, even in the mightiest kingdoms — and all our subsequent plans depend on that ancient fire.”
Keera grows bewildered. “Water will spark fire, my lord?”
Visimar shakes his head. “Again, I do not pretend to understand it, Keera, any more than I understand the Riddle of Water, Fire, and Stone. I can only tell you this: that my master’s science has never failed, to my knowledge. And so, yes, when the great storm begins, I will wager that we shall see a most remarkable and shocking sight …”
5
Not many moments later, at the crest of the trail that connects a patch of ground south of Broken’s walls with the larger, lower plain upon which Sentek Arnem and Yantek Ashkatar’s allied force received its final training and orders, loud sounds of amazement — some amused, some awed, but by now, all accepting — can be heard emerging from the sentek’s newly reconstructed tent. Arnem has established his main headquarters for the attack upon the city at the terminus of this trail, so that his tent, like the rest of his camp, is at least partially protected from the eyes of the sentries upon the southern walls of the city by the few stands of firs that have withstood the rocky ground and centuries of wind upon the summit of the mountain. But the sounds of consternation within that tent are not sparked by the plans for deployment of the main part of the allied force, but by the silhouettes of the two birds that can be seen flying away from just outside the shelter, to seek safety among the nearby trees. For these birds — Little Mischief and Nerthus — have brought to Lord Caliphestros what he claims is positive assurance that the deception being supervised by Visimar and Keera below the East Gate of Broken has been a wholehearted success; and that, therefore, the second stage of the allied action must commence immediately.