“I was the one, sir,” said Chupitain Stuld in a very small voice.
“Where are the other four?”
Distress had turned to fright in her, now. She moved quickly back and forth in front of the desk, moistening her lips, frantically grooming herself.
Hresh gave her just a minute jab of second sight. And felt the roiling fear within her, the shame, the contrition.
“Where are they, girl?” he asked gently. “Tell me the truth.”
“Out — on — loan—” she whispered.
“On loan? To whom?”
She stared at the floor.
“To Prince Thu-Kimnibol, sir.”
“My brother? Since when is he interested in ancient artifacts? What in the name of Nakhaba does he want with them, I wonder? How would he even have known they were here?” Hresh shook his head. “We don’t loan things, Chupitain Stuld. Especially new acquisitions that haven’t been properly studied. Even to someone like Prince Thu-Kimnibol. You know that.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you authorize this loan?”
“It was Plor Killivash, sir.” A pause. “But I knew about it.”
“And didn’t tell me.”
“I thought it was all right. Considering that Prince Thu-Kimnibol is your brother, and—”
Hresh waved her into silence. “He has them now?”
“I think so, sir.”
“Why did he want them, do you know?”
She was trembling. She tried to speak, but no words would come.
Through Hresh’s mind ran Chupitain Stuld’s description of the artifacts that remained, the ones that Thu-Kimnibol hadn’t bothered to take. This one dissolves matter … This one casts a cloak of darkness … This one cuts like a knife, and its beam goes so deep we couldn’t measure it …
Gods! These were the devices that Thu-Kimnibol had chosen to leave behind. What sort of destruction were the other ones capable of working?
At this moment, he knew, Thu-Kimnibol was out drilling his army on the stadium grounds, getting ready for his war against the hjjks. It had taken him only a few days to assemble his troops.
And now he had his weapons, too.
Taniane said, “It’s not Thu-Kimnibol’s army, Hresh. It’s our army. The army of the City of Dawinno.”
“But Husathirn Mueri—”
“The gods confound Husathirn Mueri! He’s going to oppose us every step of the way, that’s obvious. But war is coming, beyond any question. And therefore I authorized Thu-Kimnibol to begin organizing an armed force.”
“Wait a minute,” Hresh said. He looked at Taniane as though she were some stranger, and not his mate of forty years. “ Youauthorized him? Not the Presidium?”
“I’m the chieftain, Hresh. We’re facing a crisis. It’s no time for long-winded debate.”
“I see.” He stared at her, scarcely believing what he heard. “And this war? Why are you so sure it’s on the way? You and Thu-Kimnibol and Husathirn Mueri too, for that matter. Is it all agreed? Has some kind of secret resolution to start a war been passed?”
Taniane was slow to reply. Hresh, waiting, sensed the same evasiveness coming from her that had emanated earlier from Husathirn Mueri, and even from Chupitain Stuld. They were all trying to hide things from him. A web of deception had been woven here while he slept, and they were desperately eager to keep him from penetrating it now.
She said finally, “Thu-Kimnibol obtained proof, while he was in Yissou, that the hjjks intend to launch an attack against King Salaman in the very near future.”
“Proof? What sort of proof?”
The evasiveness deepened. “He said something about having gone riding out into hjjk territory with Salaman, and coming upon a party of hjjks, and forcing them to surrender secret military plans. Or something like that.”
“Which they were conveniently carrying in little baskets around their necks. Personally signed by the Queen, with the royal hjjk seal stamped on them.”
“Please, Hresh.”
“You believe this? That the invasion of Yissou that Salaman’s been fretting about since the beginning of time is actually going to happen the day after tomorrow?”
“I do, yes.”
“What proof is there?”
“Thu-Kimnibol knows what it is.”
“Ah. I see. All right, let’s say the hjjks finally are going to invade. How timely for Salaman that this is going to happen right after he and my brother have concluded a treaty of mutual defense between Dawinno and Yissou, eh?”
“You sound so angry, Hresh! I’ve never heard you this way.”
“And I’ve never heard you this way, either. Dancing around my questions, talking about proof but not producing any, letting Thu-Kimnibol set up an army right here in the city without taking the trouble even to discuss it in the Presidium—”
Now she was staring at him as if he were a stranger. Her eyes were hooded, her expression was cold.
He couldn’t bear it, this wall of suspicion that had arisen between them suddenly, rearing as high as Salaman’s lunatic rampart. The urge came to him to ask her to twine with him, to join him in the communion that admits of no suspicion, of no mistrust. Then all would be made known between them; then once again they would be Hresh and Taniane, Taniane and Hresh, and not the strangers they had become to each other.
But he knew that she’d refuse. She’d plead weariness, or an urgent meeting an hour from now, or some other such thing. For if she twined with him she would have no secrets from him; and Hresh saw that she was full of secrets that she was determined not to share with him. He felt a great sadness. He could always find out everything he wanted to know by taking recourse to the Barak Dayir, he knew. The powers of the Wonderstone would carry him anywhere, even into the guarded recesses of Taniane’s mind. But the idea was repugnant to him. Spy on my own mate? he thought. No. No, I’ll let the city be destroyed and everyone in it, before I do that.
After a long silence Taniane said, “I’ve taken such actions as I deem necessary for the security of the city, Hresh. If you disagree, you have the right to state your objections in the Presidium. All right?” Her stony glare was awful to behold. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
“Do you know, Taniane, that Thu-Kimnibol has gone behind my back to remove newly discovered Great World artifacts from the House of Knowledge for use as weapons?”
“If there’s a war, Hresh, weapons will be necessary. And there’s going to be a war.”
“But to take them from the House of Knowledge, without even telling—”
“I authorized Thu-Kimnibol to see to it that the army was properly equipped.”
“You authorized him to steal Great World things from the House of Knowledge?”
She eyed him steadily and unflinchingly. “I seem to remember that you used Great World weapons against the hjjks at the battle of Yissou.”
“But that was different! That was—”
“Different, Hresh?” Taniane laughed. “Was it? How?”
For Salaman it was a bad day atop the wall. Everything was unclear. A hash of harsh chattering nonsense clogged the channels of his mind. Vague cloudy images drifted to him now and then. A lofty tower which might signify Thu-Kimnibol. A flash of luminescent flame which perhaps stood for Hresh. A tough weatherbeaten tree, whipping about in a storm, which he thought might represent Taniane. And some other image, that of someone or something serpentine and slippery, impossible for Salaman to interpret at all. Things were happening in Dawinno today. But what? What? Nothing that he was picking up made sense. He tuned his second sight as keenly as he could. But either his perceptions were weak today or the transmissions from his spies were muddled beyond his ability to decode them.