“As though you would dare strike at the emissary of Kala Nag!” the snakeman sneered, then deliberately turned his back on the emperor and strolled out the door.
As the guards closed it, Prester John said, “See that he is well and closely guarded until he is beyond the city's walls, but do not let your soldiers march too near. Give every man a forked stick to use should any little vipers fall from his robe.”
The guard bowed and departed.
“Good thought,” Matt said approvingly. “They probably grow fast, and a corps of snakemen inside the city could be very handy for Kala Nag.”
“They may be here already,” Prester John said grimly. “Send dogs out to hunt for snakes.”
“And mongooses,” Matt reminded him. “I know I've seen them for sale in the marketplace. Set people to breeding them. I'll give them a spell that will increase the speed of the process enormously.”
“A good thought,” Prester John agreed. “How else shall we guard against snakes?”
“I have a spell involving pigs and an Irish saint that should make the very earth anathema to them,” Matt said. “Just pass the word that it's a citizen's patriotic duty to keep a mongoose on the premises. That should take care of the fifth column.”
“Well thought again,” Prester John said. “Why do you think they have set the time as an hour after sunrise?”
“Because snakes are cold-blooded, and it takes some time in the heat of the sun before they can begin to move at full speed. If we want to fight dirty, we can just start attacking at first light.”
“Lord Wizard!” Prince Tashih gasped in shock.
“We would not fight in so dishonorable a fashion,” Prester John reproved.
“Okay.” Matt shrugged. “Kala Nag will, but don't let that stop you. Where's this Plain of Redest?”
“Ten hours' ride southeast of the city.”
“So your army will be facing east and have the sun in their eyes.”
“A good thought; I shall bid the generals circle and come from the north,” Prester John said. “What do you make of this ultimatum, Lord Wizard? Surely if Kala Nag felt able to conquer Maracanda, she would merely have marched, not issued a challenge!”
“Right—she knows she's not ready,” Matt agreed. “Besides, it's clearly a ploy to get the army away from the city, so make sure you leave a strong home guard to man the walls and a police force to deal with any hidden snakepeople already in the city. Beyond that?” He shrugged. “It's a last-ditch attempt to knock you out before you become too strong; apparently, the configuration of which Balkis is the key hasn't formed yet, but will soon. Kala Nag has to try to knock you out, do or die, before it's too late.”
“But how can she hope to triumph?” Tashih demanded.
“She obviously has some sort of secret weapon that gives her a fighting chance—probably magical.” Matt frowned. “I'd recommend leaving Balkis and Anthony for the home guard, Your Majesty, and taking the rest of your wizards with you.”
Balkis' heart soared, but she kept her tone level. “Do you think we are proof against a siege, Anthony? … Anthony?” She looked up, looked around the little room, but Anthony was gone.
“Gone?” Matt said. “What do you mean, gone? Where could he go?”
“I fear he may have gone after the snakeman to prove his worth—and the viper may slay him!” Balkis clasped her hands, tears running down her cheeks. “Lord Wizard, save him!”
“I'll run an aerial reconnaissance,” Matt promised, “but I don't think he could get near Snake-eyes, not with the kind of guard your uncle put around him. Come on, up to the ramparts—Stegoman can't land indoors.”
They went up to the rooftop, where Matt recited the spell to call up his dragon friend, hoping he wasn't interrupting a honeymoon. Then he and Balkis looked down at the army assembling before the walls of the city.
It was truly spectacular. When Prester John rode forth to war, he marched in real state, preceded not by banners but by thirteen huge and lofty crosses made of gold and ornamented with precious stones. Soldiers formed up behind each of the crosses—a thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry, not counting those who had charge of the baggage and provisions.
One of those infantrymen had blond hair, a uniform a little too small for him, and a marked southern accent. He stood out like a sore thumb among the black-haired, golden-skinned Maracandese, but he wasn't the only outlander; there were hundreds of soldiers from Prester John's tributary states.
“What manner of stones are those in the golden crosses?” he asked the soldier next to him. “They look quite ordinary tome.”
The man looked up at him in surprise, then laughed outright. “You are an outlander, and newly come! Know, then, that each of the first ten crosses holds embedded in its gold a marvelous gem that can work magic of the sort soldiers love.”
“Martial magic?” Anthony frowned—for of course it was he, determined to defend Maracanda, and the woman he loved but knew he could not have; if he died protecting her, so much the better, for without her there was no reason to live.
“The first stone can freeze the very air, and certainly enemy soldiers,” the trooper told him. “The second can heat their weapons till they are too hot to hold—or broil the soldiers themselves in an instant. If the enemy uses ice or fire as a weapon, the third stone can reduce either to an even temperature. The fourth can flood with light everything within a span of five miles; the fifth can cast darkness as far.”
“Amazing virtues,” Anthony said, eyes wide. “What can the others do?”
“The sixth and seventh are unconsecrated; the one turns water to milk and the seventh to wine, which is greatly to be valued by any soldier. The eighth, ninth, and tenth are consecrated; the eighth will cause fish to congregate, and the ninth will compel wild beasts to follow one. The tenth, when it is sprinkled with hot lion's blood, will produce a fire that can be quenched only by sprinkling it with hot dragon's blood.” He grinned. “That standard is ours.”
Anthony peered up at the huge cross, frowning. “But I see no stone there, only a gaping hole.”
CHAPTER 32
“What!” The soldier stared, horrified. “It is so! How can this be? Who can have stolen it? Why has no one seen this before?”
Good questions, Anthony thought, especially the last. More to the point, how was it he had seen it gone when no one else had? He could only think that his bath in the Fountain of Youth had given him the ability to see through glamours—either that, or Balkis' magic was rubbing off on him. He shied away from that notion; thoughts of Balkis hurt, and deeply.
“Captain!” the soldier cried. “The stone! The stone that starts and quenches fire is gone!”
The alarm went up and Matt was there to investigate within minutes. They lowered the cross. He glared at the hole a minute, then said, “Yep. It's gone, all right.”
“But who could have stolen it?”
“One of those crawlie enemies we were worried about.” Matt looked around the ranks reflectively. Anthony ducked behind another soldier and pressed his helmet down farther over his telltale hair.
Matt turned to the captain again. “While their ambassador distracted us, a fellow snake got into the treasury somehow.”
“Ridiculous!” the captain snorted. “What manner of thief would penetrate a royal treasury and steal only this one stone?”
“A snake with a mission ” Matt told him.
In fact, they later found out he'd guessed correctly—the snake had tunneled into the treasury, stolen the stone, and filled the tunnel in on the way out. The palace engineers were able to plug the hole more permanently—before any human thieves could develop ideas. Prester John also made the treasury serve double duty as his mongoose breeding pen from that time on.