"Give our new friend my thanks, Ox," Sorgan said with a broad grin. "Whoever he is, he's doing most of the work for us in this imitation war."
"I'll pass that on the next time he stops by, Cap'n," Ox replied.
Then Sorgan smiled. "Now that I've had enough time to think my way through this, I'd say that maybe Squint-Eye and Gimpy should be the ones who should oversee those modifications of the south wall. It'll give them something to do instead of dropping clever remarks on me every time I turn around."
"I'm sure that they'll feel honored that you suggested them to Lady Aracia, Cap'n," Ox replied with no hint of a smile.
The following morning Ox went out from the west wall of the temple to the berm where Torl and Rabbit had staged their imitation invasion. "The Cap'n wants you two to go with him to talk with Lady Aracia," he told them. "He wants you to say that you saw quite a few bug-people sneaking around toward the south wall of her temple."
"That would make a certain amount of sense," Torl agreed. "If this was really a war, that's the sort of thing the bug-people would do."
"You might be right there," Ox said, "but that's not why he's doing it. He doesn't want all those fat priests underfoot while he's setting up his deception. There'll be things going on that ain't none of their business, and he wants to make certain sure that none of them are around when him and Veltan start playing games."
"That's my cousin." Torl chuckled.
Chapter Two
Fat Bersla was nowhere in sight when they entered the throne room, and the snippy little priestess Alcevan seemed to have taken his place. She glared at Captain Hook-Beak when he led the Maags into the room.
"I'll get right to the point here, Lady Aracia," Sorgan said. "There's something we might have overlooked. It seems that the bug-people might just be getting a bit more clever. This little fellow here is known as Rabbit, the smith on the Seagull—my own ship—and Rabbit's much more clever than he lets on. When my scouts were holding back the new varieties of bug-people, Rabbit noticed that there were quite a few of the older ones who weren't trying to attack that berm. Why don't you tell her what you saw, Rabbit?"
"Aye, Cap'n," Rabbit replied. "What I saw didn't seem to make any sense, Lady," Rabbit told Zelana's sister. "Most of them were charging toward that berm we'd raised up to hold them off, but then I caught a kind of flicker back in the bushes behind where the new bugs were charging. I looked a bit closer and saw quite a few of the little ones we've seen before sneaking down through the thick bushes. They were staying low, but I was able to see that there were hundreds of them back there, and it seemed to me that they weren't the least bit interested in the war their big brothers were fighting around our berm. They were going almost due south, and that wasn't where the war was being fought. Now, the Cap'n and his men have built a fairly good fort along that west wall of your temple, but we don't have even one single soldier on that south wall, and the construction isn't really very good. Now, if those other bug-people are planning an attack on that side of your temple, they'll probably be able to walk right in without no trouble at all."
"I'm sure you can see where this is going, Lady Aracia," Sorgan said. "My people can hold the west wall of your temple without much trouble now that we've modified it. That south wall isn't very good, and I'd say that it's not really strong enough to hold back a mosquito. I thank you for your concern and your offer of help, but I'd say that beefing up that south wall's a lot more important right now. I strongly suggest that you send your priests south instead of west."
"I will do as you command, mighty Sorgan," Aracia declared, "but as soon as you and your people have beaten back the invaders, we must go forth from the temple and gather up all of my people who live beyond the temple walls and bring them here so that they'll be safe. We must not permit the servants of the Vlagh to destroy them."
The priestess Alcevan looked sharply at Aracia. "You cannot bring all those commoners here into the holy temple. They ire not sanctified, and their presence here will defile your holy temple!"
"The people—my people—are far more significant than the indigents who call themselves priests," Aracia declared. "If you should find their presence here offensive, feel free to go forth from the temple to seek out a different god to worship. If you would continue to worship me, you will do as I tell you to do, and this I say: The commons will join us here, and you and the other priests will see to their needs. You will eat only after they have eaten, and you will surrender your beds and your warm clothes to them without question or complaint. The people come first in my eyes, and you will serve them even as you would serve me—or I will send you away. You will no longer contaminate my temple."
Alcevan's face went pale, and her expression was one of chagrin.
"Well now, Cap'n," Ox said quietly. "It sort of looks like maybe Zelana's sister's starting to grow up."
"Let's not make a big issue of that just yet, Ox," Sorgan replied. "She might just change her mind again after she's gone a week or so without any adoration."
THE GIFTED STUDENT
Chapter One
Keselo had also had some problems with Lord Dahlaine's "toy sun." His education at the University of Kaldacin had taught him that a sun needed a certain volume before it qualified as a true sun. Dahlaine's little toy violated almost everything Keselo had learned or worked out for himself. He knew that most of the rules didn't apply to the members of Dahlaine's family, but still—
The toy sun stayed with them all the way to the coast.
They reached the large bay where the Trogite ships Commander Narasan had hired in Castano were anchored, and Sorgan's Maags had taken about half of that fleet and sailed on south to bamboozle Lady Zelana's sister.
"I'm glad that Sorgan's the one who'll have to deal with that crazy woman," Gunda said. "I got more than enough of her the last time we were down here."
"She set my teeth on edge just a bit, too," Andar agreed.
"All right, gentlemen," Commander Narasan, who'd just come up from the beach, said. "We're not going to board our ships for several days. Let's give Sorgan and his men a good head start. Go tell the men to set up camp and have the cooks fix something for supper."
"Beans?" Gunda asked with a definite note of distaste in his voice.
"What a marvelous idea, Gunda," Commander Narasan said with mock enthusiasm. "Beans will be just fine. I wonder why I didn't think of that."