Medjhah fumbled out a few clumsy phrases to the effect that they had to waitfor Nogah. She was not pleased. Like the rest of them she had had no sleep andwanted to get on and get it over.
Nogah showed a minute later. He said, "Fa'tad wants to know how much longerwe're going to stall around up here." He shoved a captured knife and sword atthe carpenter, who took them but looked at them like he had been presentedwith a fistful of snakes.
Medjhah replied, "Yon beauty is waiting for you, big brother, her little heartgoing pitty-pat."
Nogah gave him an ugly look. "Then let's move out." He communicated with thewitch using signs, though Yoseh knew he could have stumbled around and madehimself clear with his crippled ferrenghi.
Azel was talking to himself, he was so tired and hurt so much. Torgo did nothelp. The eunuch was getting as nervous as an old woman.
Time was sliding by. Whatever they were going to try out there, they weregetting close to trying it.
He could not see much because of the rain but he suspected the Dartars werebusy. Damned few were watching the citadel. Al-Akla probably had every man hecould plundering. It looked like a "grab everything quick and get out beforethe Herodians send relief forces" deal.
Fa'tad had chosen his moment well, hadn't he? The camel-loving bastard. Thecoast west of Qushmarrah in chaos because of Turok raiders. The east facingthe threat of war. Beyond Caldera the legions faced Chorhkni, Saldun ofAquira, and his allies. That standoff had persisted for years. It was sure tobe tested before summer's end. Would be tested instantly if troops werewithdrawn to deal with an uprising elsewhere.
A scuffle behind him. Torgo. Again. "Azel, I think she's coming out of thedeep sleep, into normal sleep."
Azel grunted. "Good. How soon can we wake her up?"
"She should get a normal amount of regular sleep if she can. At least. As muchas we can let her have, for sure. Her weariness has gone deeper than the fleshand the mind. The soul needs time to recover, too. Or she could stumble duringthe final rite and destroy us all."
"You know how long the resurrection rite ought to take?"
"No. A while, though. It won't be like twisting a love charm. What are theydoing out there?"
"Nothing yet. Still." Azel turned back to the window. "Wait. Here comes theirwitch."
Torgo crowded up beside him. He had to work to hide his true feelings aboutthe eunuch's proximity. Torgo said, "I thought she belonged to the Herodians."
She was surrounded by Dartars who looked ready for trouble.
"Maybe they got something she can't do without." Azel regretted the remarkinstantly but its cruelty went right past Torgo. Azel shrugged, paid attentionto what was happening down there. He laughed suddenly, a near roar of tensionflooding away.
"What?" Torgo demanded. "Why are you howling like a hyena?"
"Look! We got all the time we're ever going to need. She ain't working on thePostern of Fate, she's pecking on the fake pattern Nakar put in front of themain gate. She can mess with that forever and not get anywhere because thereain't nowhere to go."
Torgo looked. He was grinning when he pulled back.
Azel went to work. This was a good time to let Torgo get a solid idea that hemight have help if he decided it would not be a good plan for Nakar to hangaround after he kicked ass on the Herodians.
Azel chuckled. Let Torgo take care of old Nakar and set it up so the Witch sawthe eunuch do it, and who did that leave to pick up the pieces and comfort thewidow and help straighten out Qushmarrah?
It was a long chance. But it sure as hell wasn't as long as it had been whenhe'd begun playing the game.
He leaned forward again. This time he spotted the father of the chosen bratwith the sorceress and Dartars. Bastard was in for some heartbreak, wasn't he?
Azel pulled back. "Why don't we go down, get us something to eat and maybe getdrunk while those idiots are pounding their heads bald on the wrong stonewall?"
Bel-Sidek eased back from the edge of the flat roof when he heard someonecoming up. He sat up in a puddle, already wetter than a fish. Zenobel andCarza appeared. Carza was still angry. Zenobel nodded wearily. He had gottenthrough at last.
Bel-Sidek said, "We're all here now," needlessly, to the other khadifas, whohad been with him for some time, without enthusiasm. "You look like you havesomething to tell us, Zenobel."
"Just the latest. They have the whole wall except around the Gate of Autumn.
They're ignoring that. They have patrols all over the city, keeping people offthe streets. They're only looting Herodian property."
"So far," King Dabdahd grumbled.
"So far," Zenobel agreed. "They don't get into the citadel pretty soon, Ithink they'll grab whatever they can get. They'll want to be long gone whenNakar comes around."
"But Nakar isn't. We're not going to let him."
"Fa'tad doesn't know that."
"Yes, he does," bel-Sidek said. He was unsure what to think about Fa'tad'sactions. The notion that he meant to loot Qush-marrah and head for his nativemountains, where he would be safe from retribution, seemed too direct andsimple. "In the sense that he knows I'll do everything I can to stop it."
Gold, silver, and jewels were as valuable to Dartars as to anyone and Fa'tadhad said he wanted the treasures of the citadel for his people, so they couldbuy their way out of the grip of famine. But if he plundered Qushmarrah andleft an angry coast behind, where would he spend his treasure?
The others looked at bel-Sidek, less than honoring, waiting for him to dropsome pearl of wisdom they could condemn or contradict. He said nothing. Hepreferred to let someone else start the inevitable argument.
Salom Edgit obliged. "What're we going to do?" His tone implied that someonewas ducking hard choices. This Salom Edgit who, a few days ago, had had nofaith in the future or movement.
"We're not going to do anything. For now."
"What?" They looked at him with varying expressions. Carza was furious.
"Is there any sensible reason to get our men killed while Fa'tad isn'tbothering anyone but Herodians? If he turns on our people we'll respond.
Meantime, let his men take the brunt. We'll conserve strength and trickle itinto areas where concentrations will be useful if we do have to fight."
Zenobel protested. "But honor ..."
"Honor hasn't got a damned thing to do with it. And never has. All right. Saywe try to get even for Dak-es-Souetta. Our men are poorly armed and out oftraining and not all of them are anxious to fight, anyway. Win or lose, we'dsuffer badly. Say we did smash Fa'tad. Then with whatever we had left we'd hadto deal with the surviving Herodians, then with the expeditions Cado sent outwhen they return, then with whatever Herod sends to restore order."
"You have a negative outlook, bel-Sidek."
"Would you say it's unrealistic?"
"Damn it, no! I hate it, but you're right."
Carza snapped, "Yet with Nakar restored we'd suffer none of those weaknesses."
King said, "I'd sooner swear allegiance to Herod."
Carza seemed baffled.
Smugly, bel-Sidek asked, "Have you forgotten what it was like when Nakar wasalive?"
"No," Carza snapped back. "I haven't forgotten." His anger was in check by thestrength of a whisker.
Carza's family had been favored under the old order. So some there were whowould welcome a restoration, not having had to bear the weight of thesorcerer's previous incarnation.
For some reason bel-Sidek thought of the carpenter Aaron with his powerfulresentments of those who had ruled before the conquest. There were tens ofthousands of Aarons in Qushmarrah and they could well represent an additionalfactor in the already confused power equation.
Only Nakar the Abomination had been strong enough to rule without some degreeof consent from the ruled.
The argument sputtered on without bel-Sidek contributing, reason graduallyconquering passion. Carza's view won no support. Bel-Sidek watched the Dartarsmove around in front of the citadel.
Speak of the devil! There the carpenter was, right in the middle of things.