"Ah?" Grus said. "How were you saved?"
"Well, the rowers pulled like madmen, and the log swung little right at the last instant, so it smacked into the very back of the boat — "
"You mean the stern," Grus said, thinking, Landlubber.
"Whatever you call it." Collurio wasn't inclined to be fussy; "Anyhow, the log just glanced off, you might say, and swung us around, but it didn't tip us over."
He'd had no reason ever to learn the word capsize. Grus didn't suppose he would want a vocabulary lesson now. The king didn't think that log had come sliding down the Stura by accident. He hoped it hadn't swerved at the last instant by accident, either. "What happened next?" he asked.
Collurio nudged his son. "You tell it, Crinitus."
"All right," the younger man said. "That was when the wagon had to run for a fort about half a bounce ahead of the Menteshe."
"That was the first time, you mean," Collurio said.
"Well, yes." Crinitus nodded. "The first time. But a few lancers rode out from the fort, and for some reason the nomad didn't keep coming after us. They must have thought the soldiers were going to pitch into them. It didn't look to me like there were enough Avornans for that, but I'm not going to complain, believe me."
"Neither will I," Collurio said. He looked at Grus. "I thought the same thing my son did. It was nothing but Queen Quelea's mercy that saved us."
I hope you're right, Grus thought. What he said was, "I gather you had some other narrow escapes?"
"A wagonload of 'em," Collurio said, and laughed at his own wit. "Some of the riders and drivers we talked to said those kinds of things happen all the time. If they do, though, I don't see how anything ever gets here, and that's the truth."
"Sometimes things don't," Grus said. "I'm glad the two of you did. And, meaning no offense to you, I'm even gladder the moncat did."
Collurio scratched his plowshare of a nose. "King Lanius kept going on and on about how the beast was more important than I understood. I would have told him he was daft if he wasn't the king — I probably shouldn't say that to you, should I, eh, Your Majesty?"
"I've had the same thought about King Lanius now and again," Grus replied, "but I have to admit I've been wrong more than I've been right."
"It could be. Yes, it could be," Collurio replied, pouring more wine for himself and Crinitus. He and his son would be drunk in short order if they kept that up. He went on, "Other thing besides him being king that made me keep my fool mouth shut was those dreams. You know about those dreams, Your Majesty? King Lanius said you did."
"Oh, yes." Grus raised his own winecup in salute to the animal trainer. "I do know about those dreams, and I know who sends them, too. Welcome to the club. There aren't very many of us. We're the people who worry him." He looked south, toward the Argolid Mountains.
Collurio shuddered. "His Majesty — His other Majesty, I mean — told me the same thing. I'll tell you what I told him — I could do without the honor."
"I wish I had one of those dreams." Crinitus sounded resentful at being left out.
"Don't." Grus and Collurio said the same word at the same time. Grus went on, "With a little luck — and I think with only a little luck now, not the great slabs of it we would have needed a while ago — with a little luck, I say, he won't have much chance to trouble us like that anymore."
"How's that, Your Majesty?" Collurio sounded like a sorely perplexed man. "I've tried and I've tried, but I just can't cipher it out. Why did we fetch the moncat down to the walls of Yozgat?"
If Collurio couldn't see it, then — with that little bit of luck — the Banished One wouldn't see it, either. Pterocles had been taken by surprise when Grus explained it. Pterocles, in fact, had been completely astonished. "Why?" the king said. "I'll tell you why."
"Please!" This time, Collurio and Crinitus spoke together.
"To take the Scepter of Mercy, that's why," Grus said.
The two animal trainers, middle-aged and young, looked at him with identical expressions. Their faces both said, Your Majesty, you're out of your mind. Grus' biggest worry was that they were liable — indeed, were much too likely — to be absolutely right.
Again, Lanius waited anxiously for word from the south. He wanted to be sure that Pouncer (and, not quite incidentally, Collurio and Crinitus) had reached the Avornan works surrounding Yozgat. Unless he was wrong, and unless the Banished One and the Menteshe were better fooled than he thought, they would do everything they could to stop the moncat and its trainers. If they did…
If they do, I'll start over with a different beast — and with different trainers, the king thought. No, I'll start over with several moncats, and send them down separately.
That was a good idea. The more he looked at it, the more he wished he would have done it this time instead of letting everything rest on Pouncer's furry shoulders. But Pouncer had advantages over all the others. They would have taken longer to learn what they needed to know — what he hoped they needed to know.
If something went wrong this campaigning season, though, would he ever have the chance to send more moncats south of the Stura? Would Grus be able to lay siege to Yozgat again? Lanius couldn't be sure. All the same, he had the feeling this was Avornis' best chance, maybe Avornis' only chance.
Having that feeling only left him more anxious to learn what was going on down there in the south.
Even if Pouncer had gotten to Yozgat safely, that was no guarantee the moncat would succeed. Lanius was acutely conscious of how old the descriptions of the city he'd used were. He couldn't do anything about that; they were the newest ones he had. If not for the archives, he wouldn't have had any. Street plans changed little, even after the Menteshe held a town for many years. He'd seen that proved after the siege of Trabzun. He had to believe it held true for Yozgat as well.
Lanius tried his best not to show his excitement whenever a courier came into the palace, and not to show his disappointment when the couriers would hand him messages that had nothing to do with what was going on around Yozgat. It wasn't easy, and got harder as day followed day with no news from the south.
Whatever I hear doesn't really matter, he told himself. It will only be word of what's already happened, and I won't be able to do anything about it one way or the other. That was true, but it was cold consolation. He wanted to feel, he wanted to know, that what he'd done made a difference.
If it made a difference. That was the other side of the coin, the side he didn't want to think about. One way or the other, he'd find out.
When Grus finally did send a letter, it told him less than he wished it would have. Grus gave a good reason for that, but still left Lanius frustrated. After the usual greetings, the other king wrote, You will be pleased to hear that your two intrepid animal trainers and the animal they trained have gotten here safely. This is after adventures that put to shame those of your recent letter and sketch. He described some of them, then went on, However dangerous the journey, they did arrive safely, which I take as a good sign. Maybe the gods in the heavens are paying a little attention, a very little, to the material world after all. I dare hope.
We now wait for a moonless night. Once we have it, we will find out if we are smarter than we think or only better at fooling ourselves — or letting ourselves befooled. His signature followed.
Looking at the date on the letter, Lanius saw Grus had written it two weeks earlier. Then, the moon had been swelling toward full. Now it was shrinking toward new. Grus had his moonless nights, if he wanted them.
Maybe Grus had already done what needed doing. Maybe word was on the way. Lanius hoped it was. He also hoped Olor and Quelea and the rest were paying attention to what went on down here, as the other king suggested. The Banished One pretty plainly hadn't wanted Lanius' letter and sketch or Collurio, Crinitus, and Pouncer to make it to Yozgat. Just as plainly, they had made it. If the gods in the heavens hadn't helped them, who had? No one at all? Lanius couldn't believe that, not with the Banished One trying to stop them.