Sosia gave him a peculiar look when he told her about the thought later that day. "You find the oddest things to worry about," she said.

"I wasn't worried. I just thought it was… interesting," Lanius said.

"Interesting!" His wife snorted. "Who in the world could care about what happens a hundred years from now?"

The Banished One could, Lanius thought. But he didn't want to be compared to the exiled god, and the Banished One wasn't in the world willingly. There was another answer he could give her, though. "I do. The dynasty reaches back further than that. I'd like to see it reach forward further than that, too." He pointed a finger at her. "Wouldn't you? You're part of the dynasty yourself, you know."

Sosia looked surprised. Then she nodded. "You're right. I am," she said, wonder in her voice.

Lanius knew why she looked surprised and sounded wondering. She thought of herself as part of Grus' family. Grus had wed her to Lanius not least so she could keep an eye on him. She would back him against Ortalis – he was sure of that. Nobody liked Ortalis, though (except Limosa, Lanius thought uneasily). But would Sosia back him against Grus?

That was the wrong question. The right question was, would it matter if she did? Lanius feared it wouldn't. A good thing, then, that he and Grus both aimed at Yozgat and not at each other.

CHAPTER NINE

Much of the dirt dug out of the tunnel approaching Trabzun went to strengthen the inner and outer fieldworks surrounding the town. That was Hirundo's idea, and King Grus liked it very much. It gave the Avornans somewhere inconspicuous to conceal the spoil from the mine. As the amount of dirt dug out grew greater and greater, that became ever more important.

After being beaten back once, the Menteshe outside Trabzun did not return for another attack on the besiegers. That relieved Grus, and also rather surprised him. One evening, he remarked, "I hope they've gone back to fighting their civil war again."

"That would be nice," Hirundo agreed. He fanned himself with the palm of his hand. "I'll tell you something else that would be nice – it would be nice if it got cooler around here."

"So it would," Grus said. The air was still and breathless. Things farther than a few hundred yards away shimmered in a heat haze. A drop of sweat tickled as it trickled through his beard. A bird called. Even the noise seemed flat and dispirited – or maybe that was Grus' imagination, as overheated as everything else that had to do with Trabzun. He went on, "Don't expect anything different, though, not till summer finally decides to let up."

"Oh, I don't. I've seen what the weather's like around here." Hirundo swatted at a bug that landed on his bare arm. He killed it, and wiped his hand on his tunic. "Knowing it doesn't mean I have to like it."

"No, I suppose not. I don't much like it myself." Grus snapped his fingers. "Did I tell you? No, of course I didn't, because it just happened today. I got a plan of the streets inside Trabzun."

"Did you, by the gods?" The general beamed. "That's good news. Where did you get it from? Did Pterocles pull a new spell out of his belt pouch?"

Grus shook his head. "No. He was just as surprised as you are. I got it from Lanius. He found it in the archives back at the palace."

Hirundo laughed so loud, several soldiers stared at him. "He's all the way back there, and we're here, and he knows more about this stinking place than we do? That's funny, is what that is." He paused. "That plan will be older than dirt, if he pulled it out of the archives. D'you think it's still good?"

"Funny you should ask. He warned me about that. He said he didn't know what the buildings were like in there, but the way the streets ran shouldn't have changed much."

"That does make sense," Hirundo allowed. "His Majesty thought of everything, didn't he?"

"So it seems. He has a way of doing that." Grus heard the edge in his own voice. He'd been happy to have Lanius excavate the archives. If the other king played with things from long-ago and far-off days, he wouldn't worry about other things – like power for himself, for instance. But Lanius, not for the first time, had found a way to make the past matter here and now. And if he could do that, then he wasn't so disconnected from the real world after all, was he? As though I need more things to worry about, Grus thought.

"He certainly does. He's a clever fellow, King Lanius is." Hirundo, by contrast, sounded enthusiastic. And why not? He would keep on being a general no matter who gave him his orders. Not only that, he'd never shown the least interest in the throne himself. That alone would have been plenty to keep him a general regardless of who wore the crown. Capable soldiers without undue ambition were worth their weight in gold.

"I'll have my secretaries copy out the street plan so our officers can use it when they break into Trabzun," Grus said. "No matter how old it is, it'll come in handy."

"Fair enough," Hirundo said. "The timing was good. The way these things usually work, we would have gotten it two days after we fired the mine."

"I know, I know." Grus nodded, and then asked, "How much longer before the diggers get under the wall?"

"Another few days," the general answered. "The engineers have some way of figuring out when they're in the right place, or maybe it's the wizards who know. I don't worry my head about that kind of thing too much. I suppose it's a little more complicated than unrolling a ball of string till you've gone far enough."

"Probably. Most of the time, things do turn out more complicated than you wish they would. If they were easy all the time, just about everybody could do just about anything. I suppose that's why people in songs and stories can do whatever they want so easily – if you're listening to that kind of thing, you think you can do anything."

Hirundo gave him a wide-eyed, innocent stare. "You mean I can't, Your Majesty?" He looked as though he were about to break into tears.

Grus laughed. "With you, nothing would surprise me."

"Me? What about you?" Hirundo pointed at him. "Am I the fellow who made Dagipert of Thervingia leave us alone? Am I the fellow who taught the Chernagors respect? Am I the fellow who took an Avornan army south of the Stura for the first time in gods only know how many years?" He paused. "Well, I suppose King Lanius would know how many years, too."

"Yes, I suppose he would." Grus was sure the other king would know not just the year but to the hour. That was Lanius' way. And if he talked about Lanius, he didn't have to talk about himself.

But his general wouldn't let him get away with modesty. "What do you aim to do when you grab the Scepter of Mercy?" Hirundo asked.

Bash you over the head with it, was the first thing that came to Grus' mind. Hirundo was a cheerful soul who didn't worry about things as much as he should. "Don't talk about that, please," Grus said. "I may not be the only one listening."

"What? There's nobody else around. Oh." Another pause from the general. "You mean the Banished One? This for the Banished One." Hirundo snapped his fingers.

He'd never had the exiled god come to him in dreams. He'd never started up in bed after one of those dreams, heart pounding, eyes staring, cold sweat and gooseflesh all over his body. He didn't know how lucky he was. "For my sake if not your own, please – please! – don't mention him again," Grus said carefully.

"Sure, Your Majesty." Hirundo was nothing if not agreeable. "How come, though?"

"Because he really might be listening," Grus answered, and let it go at that. Most of the time, a man learned only by experience. Hirundo had no experience. Grus wished he didn't, either.

A mug flew past Lanius' head and shattered against the wall behind him. "You – You slimy thing, you!" Sosia shouted, and looked for something else to throw.