Grus grunted. Now he had to do some studying of his own. In the end, he said, "No, I won't order you to do it. You're right – the risk that they might find a way to fight our spell is real, and we can't ignore it. For now, it's too important. But if we win this campaign, it gives us something to think about doing next, so we won't forget about it, either."
"I hadn't even begun to think about what happens next," Pterocles said.
"Neither had I, but we need to," Grus said. "Once we free the serfs, we ought to help the Menteshe build barriers against the Banished One." Maybe the Scepter of Mercy will help, he thought. But even if it doesn't, we should try. Aloud, he went on, "We'll still have trouble with them, no doubt, but it'll be trouble like we have with the Thervings – ordinary human trouble. It won't be the kind of trouble we have now."
"That would be good," Pterocles said seriously.
"It would, wouldn't it?" Grus' smile was wistful. "If I only had to worry about ordinary, human troubles… Yes, that would be wonderful. Well, here's hoping."
"Make way for His Majesty!" Lanius' guardsmen bawled as they rode into the city of Avornis. "Make way! Make way!"
People scrambled to clear the streets. Lanius wished the troopers wouldn't make such a fuss. He'd told them as much, but they refused to listen to him. Anyone who thought a king gave orders that were always instantly obeyed had never been a king.
"Look! It's the king!" People shouted and pointed, as though seeing him could somehow make a difference in their own lives. And then someone yelled, "Hurrah for King Grus! Beat those Chernagors!" In a heartbeat, everyone was cheering and applauding.
Lanius, by contrast, was fuming and steaming. Not only didn't the people know who Avornis' current foe was, they didn't even know who he was. And then, to his own surprise, he started to laugh. Like any king, he'd had wistful thoughts of living a normal life, of going through the streets of his own capital unrecognized. Well, here he was, going through the streets of his own capital, and he certainly seemed unrecognized. This was as close to anonymity as he was ever likely to come.
The palace battlements and, not far away, the heaven-leaping spire of the great cathedral dominated the city skyline. The closer Lanius came, the taller they seemed. He smiled as he got ready to fall back into the routine of palace life. The country holiday had been pleasant, but this was home.
Servants bowed and curtsied when he went up the broad stairway and into the palace. "Your Majesty!" they exclaimed. "Welcome back, Your Majesty!"
"It's good to be back," Lanius answered, over and over again. He beamed at the servants. They knew he wasn't King Grus. He'd never thought that was any special reason for which to admire them, but he did now.
"You'll want a bath, won't you, Your Majesty?" one of the servants said.
That was probably a polite way of telling him he smelled of horse. He couldn't smell it himself; he'd been too close to it for too long. But he nodded. 'Thank you very much. A bath would be wonderful."
And it was wonderful – a big copper tub to soak in, with plenty of hot water to wash away the stinks and the kinks of a journey on horseback. They brought him wine, too, and put the cup where he could reach it without getting out of the tub.
He was thinking regretfully about getting out and getting dressed when the door to the bathing chamber opened yet again. This time, though, it wasn't another servant with a pitcher of hot water. It was Sosia.
"I hope you had a nice stay in the country," she said, politely if not enthusiastically.
"Thank you – I did," Lanius answered.
"I hope it wasn't too nice." Her claws came out, just for a moment.
"Not like that," he said truthfully, though he would have said the same thing even if it hadn't been true. "It's good to see you again," he added, also truthfully. "How are you?"
"I'm going to have a baby."
"Oh," Lanius said, and then, "Oh!" That wasn't the way he'd thought she would answer his question. "I want to give you a hug," he went on, "but I'm afraid I'd soak you if I did."
"You could dry off first," Sosia suggested.
Lanius still didn't much want to come out of the tub, even though he'd been in there for a while. For a baby on the way, though, he put what Sosia wanted first. Out he came. She handed him a towel. He rubbed himself more or less dry, then took her in his arms.
She let out a small squawk. "I thought you'd put some clothes on!"
"Why?" he asked, genuinely curious. He didn't let go of her. In fact, he held her tighter. "What better way to celebrate?" Sosia squawked again. "In here?"
"It's as good a place as anywhere else," he answered, rising to the occasion. "Do you think the tub is big enough for two?"
"I think you're out of your mind," his wife said. "What if the servants walk in on us?"
"Then they'll have something brand-new to gossip about." Lanius kissed her. "The best way to keep them from walking in on us is to hurry."
"The best way to keep them from walking in is not to start in the first place." She tried to sound severe, but her mouth couldn't help turning up at the comers. "You really are out of your mind."
"I know." He kissed her again, and steered her toward the gently steaming tub.
They managed. They did hurry. It was more awkward than Lanius thought it would be, and more water slopped onto the floor than he'd expected. But they had finished and were both dressed by the time a servant did come in.
"Sorry… I was so sloppy," Lanius said. He'd almost said, Sorry we were so sloppy. That would have given the game away.
The servant only shrugged. "You put towels down, anyways," he said. "That's something. Won't be a lot of mopping to do."
"Good," Lanius said. He steered Sosia again, this time toward the door. "A baby!" he repeated.
"It does happen," she said, and then giggled. "If I'd caught this time instead of before, I might have had a mermaid." Lanius laughed, too. Sosia turned serious again. "I hope it's a boy."
"So do I." Lanius said. "If it's a girl, though, we'll just try again, that's all." Ortalis had said the same thing after Limosa had Capella. They had tried again, and now they had Marinus.
Sosia hesitated in the hallway, then asked, "You don't have any bastards I don't know about, do you?"
"No. By the gods, no!" Lanius said. "What brought that on?"
"Mother thinks Father may have another one out in the provinces somewhere," Sosia answered bleakly. "She's not sure, but some things she's heard make her think so."
"I don't know anything about that," Lanius said. Grus had kept it a secret from him as well as Estrilda – if it was true. And if it was, and if Grus could keep secrets like that… Good, Lanius thought. The way things are, good.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Quite a few Menteshe moving around in front of us, Your Majesty," a scout reported to King Grus. "Don't know what they're up to, but they aren't likely to be there because they like the weather."
"No, I wouldn't think so." Grus turned to Hirundo. "This is – what? – the fourth such report that we've gotten this morning. They're getting ready to hit us."
"Did you expect they'd just blow us a kiss and wave us on to Yozgat?" the general replied. "We both figured they had another fight left in them after we beat them the last time. Now we get to see what their great General Bori-Bars has learned – and what we've learned, too. Doesn't that sound like fun?"