Mom and Mish have been at it all morning."
He grunted. He had no intention of saying anything till he had relaxedhimself. In some way.
They did not exchange a word all the way to the Parrot's Beak.
The acropolis was crowded. The parade for the new governor was still breakingup, with soldiers moving back to their barracks or garrisons or duty stations.
They moved through the traffic and found a place in the shade of the Beak.
They settled. They remained silent. The breeze tugged at their hair andclothing. Clouds banking beyond the Brothers suggested some rain moving inlater.
Laella waited.
"I want to tell you about something. I don't really want to talk about it. Idon't want to answer a lot of questions." The trouble with talking with Laella was that she always asked a thousand questions that had nothing to do withanything, about half of them vaguely accusatory. Interposed would be two orthree questions that were too much to the point.
"It's about what's been bothering you?"
"Yes." That was one. "Just let me tell it."
She bit down angrily.
"This has been eating at me for six years. Last night it came to a head. Ihave to make a move. But I don't know what." Before he finished that his hand was moving. He laid a finger across her lips as she started to open her mouth.
"Six years ago one of the men in my company opened a secret postern gate andlet the Herodians into the tower we were holding at the Seven Towers. Healmost got me killed. He did get half the men in the outfit killed. He almostgot me sold across the sea as a slave. They were going to do that with all theprisoners that had trades. Till they decided that would cause more hate inQush-marrah than it was worth. He got a lot more people killed here in thecity."
He lapsed into several minutes of silence. Laella bemused him by keeping herpeace. It was not like her to recognize a time for quiet.
"Do you know that if we'd held the pass for two more days the allies and thenew levies would have had time to assemble on the Plain of Chordan?"
Laella nodded. "Everyone says."
"We could've held out for another week. We knew it and they knew it. They wereso desperate they started trying to run cavalry past us at night. Not theDartars. Fa'tad is too smart to let his men get massacred the way we massacredthem."
Laella was frowning. "Is there a point to this?"
"Maybe I'm straying. But I want you to know that the Herodians knew theycouldn't win if they didn't get to the Plain of Chordan first. Even withFa'tad to help. People who were on our side forget that part and just jabberabout Dak-es-Souetta. Maybe because everybody who ever thought they wereanybody in Qushmarrah was there and they don't want their defeat to be lessimportant than one man opening a postern gate. I mean, how could all thosetens of thousands of men getting killed be less significant?"
"You think you know who did it."
"I don't think I know. I'm not guessing. I know."
"Naszif."
He was startled into open-mouthed silence.
"It explains so much, doesn't it? Why you've always been the way you are abouthim. How he's managed to do so well without working very hard at it. Youshould hear how Reyha worries about his making so much. And you kept thisbottled up all this time."
"There's Reyha. And Zouki. And the war is over and lost."
"And no bitterness? No urge to get even?"
"Hell, yes, there is! I got a father and two brothers under the ground on the Plain of Chordan. Pop was too old to go to Dak-es-Souetta. Tuddo and Rani weretoo young ... Yeah. I'm bitter. Yeah. I hate. But what happens to Reyha andZouki if you take Naszif away? The war didn't leave them anyone else at all."
Almost shyly, like the first time they had been allowed to be together alone, she touched his hand. "You're a good man, Aaron. Thank you for telling me."
"I'm not done yet."
"There's more?" "You didn't pay a lot of attention to Naszif last night, did you?"
"I ignore him as much as I can." She smiled. "I don't like him, either. Even Reyha doesn't like him very much. But a woman has to live with what she has to live with. What about Naszif last night?" "He made me have to make my decision all over again. And it was hard enoughthe first time, and living with it."
"Why again?" Straight to the point today. None of the usual nonsense.
"Because at the end last night Naszif was practically bragging that he's a bigman in the Living."
"But what does that ...Oh."
"Yes. Maybe he's still getting Qushmarrahans killed."
Bel-Sidek waited patiently while the old man considered what he had said. When the General spoke, he observed, "I note that you haven't named a single name."
"I wasn't told any names."
"But you wouldn't be telling me if you didn't think you knew the man."
"Yes."
"So?"
"Your solutions tend to be abrupt and permanent. You see a threat, you extinguish it. But in this I see a great opportunity to stick it to Cado big. If the whole thing doesn't turn out to be somebody's pipe dream."
The General reflected. He said, "You're right on all counts, Khadifa. It is an opportunity. And rightfully yours to exploit-if, as you say, it isn't a pipe dream." Thank you, sir."
"But you have to know you have game afoot, for certain. Then you have to decide if you let him know you know or not. If you just feed him select lieshe'll continue hurting us elsewhere. If you try to turn him you run the riskof losing him if he panics. Either way, it's likely that Cado or Bruda willsense a change in the texture of the information he supplies. Unless you'revery careful."
"That much I know."
"What first?"
"Find out for sure."
"I have a suggestion. I have a man to do the finding out. He's the best the movement has. He'll do the job right."
Bel-Sidek smiled.
"True, you'd have to give me the name. But I've said he's yours. I think this is important enough to give to someone who won't screw it up. We have too many amateurs at the ground level. Or he might recognize someone." "I'll trade you a name for a name."
The old man thought about it. "No. I can't. His rules. You find out when I go." Bel-Sidek considered that and the General's previous remarks. "All right. You watch your man Naszif."
The General remained still for a long time. His pallor deepened. "You're sure?" "He's the one."
"We praise the gods, who are merciful, and smile upon us."
"Sir?"
"I was going to send Hadribel to take charge of the Hahr and add Naszif to the command staff of the Shu. Even if he did not recognize me himself chances are Cado would once he described the khadifa of the Shu." "Promote him, anyway, sir. You don't have to reveal yourself.
If he's running with the Herodian pack it'll give him something he'll want to report to his masters." "Yes. Bring writing materials."
Bel-Sidek waited a long time while the old man wrote. The General's efforts seemed weaker and more painful than they had been the evening before. Bel- Sidek worried silently. The old man wrote three notes.
"Take this one to the same place you went last night. Then take the others to Hadribel. This one is for him. He's to deliver the other to Naszif himself after he has supper. You go to your friend's house. Stay there till time for tonight's meeting."
"Yes, sir." Bel-Sidek went, his leg aching so badly he began mumbling, "I will not yield. I am not beaten. I am among the living."
Azel rambled in and dumped himself into a chair at the only open table in Muma's Place. Muma himself came right away, settled opposite him. "Bad day?" "Just rough. You got any of that Narbonian beer hidden in the cellar still? I feel like swilling a pail full."
"There's still a little down there. You can't drink it out here."
"I know." "You may not have time for it," Muma said, rising.
Azel watched Muma cross to the kitchen doorway. A limping man arrived there moments later. The limping man was deft of hand. Azel almost missed the passing of the message. Muma summoned one of his sons. The youngest went out with the crippled man.