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themselves and threw their troops to the front. But they have done badly. They have failed so far. Cities
have not been taken, siege engines and cannon have been lost. Their progress has been halted by every
stream, every hill, every damn hedge and flower. I am simply asking why? Why are they doing so badly?
What can be the explanation, if it is not deliberate? Might it not be some conspiracy? Might there not be
some collusion between the two sides of the war, to drag us and our men in deeper and tempt the
Protector himself forward to take part, and then kill him?'
RuLeuin glanced at ZeSpiole again. `No,' he told YetAmidous. `I think that is not the case, and nothing
is accomplished by talking like that. Give me some wine,' he said to Herae.
ZeSpiole grinned at YetAmidous. `I must say, Yet,' he said. 'Your talent for suspicion is almost on a par
with DeWar's.'
'DeWar!' YetAmidous snorted. `I've never trusted him, either.'
`Oh, this is getting preposterous!' RuLeuin said. He drained his goblet and sank under the water,
resurfacing to shake his head and blow out his cheeks.
`What can DeWar be up to, do you think, Yet?' ZeSpiole asked, with a smile. `He certainly cannot wish
our Protector dead, for he has saved him from almost certain death on several occasions, the last time
being when each of us came closer to sending the Protector into the arms of Providence than any
assassin ever has. You yourself came within a knuckle of sticking a quarrel straight through UrLeyn's
head.'
`I was aiming for that ort,' YetAmidous said, scowling. `And I almost got the thing, too.' He thrust his
goblet out to Yalde again.
`I'm sure you were,' ZeSpiole said. `My own shot was more off target. But you have not said what you
suspect DeWar of.'
`I just don't trust him, that's all,' YetAmidous said, sounding surly now.
`I would be more concerned that he does not trust you, Yet, old friend,' ZeSpiole said, staring into
YetAmidous' eyes.
`What?' YetAmidous spluttered.
`Well, he may have the feeling that you were trying to kill the Protector that day, on the hunt, by the
stream,'
ZeSpiole said in a quiet, concerned voice. `He might be watching you, you know. I would worry about
that if I were in your position. He is a sly, cunning hound, that one. His approach is silent and his teeth are
sharp as razors. I should not care to be the subject of his suspicions, I'll tell you that. Why, I'd be sorely
frightened that I might wake up dead one morning.'
`What?' YetAmidous roared. He threw down the goblet. It splashed into the milky water. He stood up,
shaking with fury.
ZeSpiole looked over at RuLeuin, whose expression was anxious. ZeSpiole put his head back and burst
out laughing. `Oh, Yet! You are so easy to rile! I'm jesting with you, man. You could have killed UrLeyn
a hundred times by now. I know DeWar. He doesn't think you're an assassin, you big oaf! Here. Have a
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fruit.' ZeSpiole lifted a buncher and threw it across the bath at the other man, who caught it and then,
after a moment's confusion, laughed too, sinking back into the swirling water and laughing uproariously.
`Ha! Of course! Ah, you tease me like a hussy, ZeSpiole. Yalde!' he said. `This water's freezing. Get the
servants to bring some more hot. And bring more wine! Where's my goblet? What have you done with
it?'
The goblet, sunk in the bath in front of YetAmidous, had left a red stain in the milky water, like blood.
19. THE DOCTOR
The summer passed. It was a relatively mild season throughout the land, but especially so in the Yvenir
hills, where the breezes were either pleasantly cool or tolerably warm. Much of the time passed with
Seigen joining Xamis below the horizon each night, trailing after it at first, while we performed the first
part of the Circuition, dancing almost in step with its senior during those eventful and perplexing early
moons at Yvenir, then preceding it by gradually greater and greater increments for the rest of our stay,
which, happily, was devoid of significant incident.
When time came to pack up what needed to be packed up and store what required storing, Seigen was
anticipating the rise of the greater sun by a good bell or so, providing the hills with a long leading-dawn
full of sharp, extended shadows when the day seemed only half begun and birds chorused and some
birds did not and the tiny points that were the wandering stars could sometimes still be seen in the violet
sky if the moons were absent or low.
Our return to Haspide was accomplished with all the usual pomp and ceremony. There were feasts and
ceremonies and investitures and triumphal parades through newly built gates and dignified processions
under specially commissioned arches and long speeches by self-important officials and elaborate
gift-givings and formal conferments of old and new awards and titles and decorations and any manner of
other business, all of it wearying but all of it, I was assured by the Doctor (somewhat to my surprise),
necessary in the sense that this sort of participatory ritual and use of shared symbols helped to cement
our society together. If anything, the Doctor said, Drezen could have done with more of this sort of thing.
En route back to Haspide, in the midst of all this ceremonial -much of it, I'd still insist, mere flummery -
the King set up numerous city councils, instituted more craft and professional guilds and granted various
counties and towns the privileged status of burgh. This did not meet with the universal approval of the
Dukes and other nobles of the provinces concerned, but the King seemed more energetic in finding ways
to sweeten the medicine for those who might lose out in this reshuffling of responsibilities and control than
he had on the way to Yvenir, and no less cheerfully determined to have his way, not just because he was
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