Naszifs restlessness did not help.

Aaron gave it up after a while, got up, tried to put some of his nervousenergy to work. For years he had been meaning to take the sensible precautionof installing a peephole in the door. Putting one in now seemed an appropriateact of self-flagellation. He was surprised to find that it had started gettinglight out, that the fog had begun to retreat despite continued rainfall, thatChar Street had begun to come to life.

Before he finished his chore a dozen nosy neighbors had dropped by to ask whathad happened during the night. The daily incursion of the Dartar hordeoccurred, and they proceeded with their siege of the Shu maze and the sealingof its exits as if for them there was no higher purpose. Elsewhere, he knew, soldiers and horsemen were marching out to meet the Turoks, and the Herodianwar fleet was making preparations to catch the morning tide. And ambitious andevil men were scheming schemes. As always.

He was exhausted when he finished. His eyes burned with fatigue. He lay downagain, and this time he slipped off despite the riot in his mind.

"I feel like I ought to be doing something more active," bel-Sidek toldMeryel, topping off a belly already overly stuffed. He muttered, "I've beeneating my own cooking too long," then reverted to the subject. "I've alwaysled from the front."

"Which explains why you've only got one leg that works."

"Guarantees you won't see me running from a fight."

"You done stuffing yourself?"

"Yes. Enough is more than enough."

"Good. I have news for you. Your neighbor in the Shu is home. You said youwanted to talk to him."

"I'd like to do a lot more than that. Nobody talks to a khadifa the way hetalked to me."

She laughed at him. "Politics and observation of the proprieties of socialstatus have to take precedence over stress and family and personalrelationships. Right?"

He glared. "Don't you go sensible on me. I'm in no mood for reasonable. What'sthe situation?" At that moment it occurred to him he had the solution to his command problem right there. Meryel would make a perfect khadifa of thewaterfront. He knew of no one more competent.

Be impossible to get her accepted, though. Not only was she a woman, she wasno veteran of Dak-es-Souetta.

How had that come to be so critical a qualification?

He listened with half an ear and plucked salient points out of the report shehad gotten from people who worked for her, not for the movement. "He didn'tbring his family home? He didn't go to work? That's not like him."

"He had a family disaster, dolt! You didn't work yesterday, did you?"

Only yesterday! It seemed like a year already. The General in the ground lessthan a day. And the whole movement in disarray already. "All right. Call it abasic character flaw. Go on."

"There is something going on. If I was Cado I'd have an army of spies watchingto see if somebody tried to make contact. Best my men can see, the nearestHerodian is in Government House.

I think they want you to have a clean chance at him. I think he has amessage."

Bel-Sidek felt queasy. A message? From Cado? "Send some people to round himup. Drag him up here."

"Hold your horses, Mr. Khadifa. I'm a sympathizer, not a soldier. My peopledon't give a damn one way or the other about the Living. They'll do somethings for me but they have their limits. And I have mine."

Maybe he should have gone to ground somewhere else.

"Besides," she said, "Char Street is full of Dartars again. You said Dartarsbacked him up last night. You try the usual heavy-handed Living move andthey'll eat you up. Right?"

"I suppose. Forget it, then. Let Cado go whistle."

"You've become a living exasperation, you know that? I'm beginning to wonderif the General didn't pick the wrong man to take over. You don't want to bebothered thinking, or even with doing much of anything. But you've givenorders that will start a war in about twelve hours. You need to know what's going on. You for Aram's sake need to set up a command headquarters and getlines of communication opened to your khadifas. Or your great rebellion isn'tgoing to be much more than a glorified riot."

He glared at her, unaccustomed to take that from anyone but Herodianfunctionaries on the waterfront. Taking it there was part of the holy mission.

"I'll go myself, then."

"No. You don't think those Dartars will recognize you in the daylight? I'llgo. You're going to the Hahr with a couple of my men. I own some emptybuildings there. Some of the weapons are hidden there. They'll do you for ahideout and headquarters. My men will run a few messages for you so you can get started. Then they're out of it.

Bel-Sidek sighed and rose. He wasn't going to win a point.

Meryel said, "You have to stop nursing hurt feelings because the old manpulled a fast one on you. Get up on your hind legs and let's go."

Yoseh was restless. His injuries ached mercilessly but he could not remainstill. That doorway down there ...

They had managed a few whispered words before Cado had run the Dartarcontingent out of Government House, Fa'tad and all. He never said a word abouttheir having been in the city after curfew. Nor had he asked a question aboutwhat they were up to in the Shu. Fa'tad seemed disappointed.

The Eagle walked them back to their post in Char Street. Yoseh figured he'dhad something to discuss but he'd never said a word. He'd just prowled aroundin the fog, taking in the site of the excitement, then he had gone off up thehill, still leading the mount he had ridden into the city, like an old man hadnothing to fear from the night in this nest of killers and thieves.

Maybe, if you were Fa'tad and favored of the gods, you did have nothing tofear.

Now the old man was back. He was in the alley with Nogah and some of his oldcronies, including Mo'atabar. Doing what, Yoseh did not know.

"You're going to wear your boots out, little brother," Medjhah said. "Whydon't you plant yourself and take a nap?"

He couldn't. Despite the night. He shook his head.

"You'll be sorry you didn't."

"Why? What's up?"

"I don't know. That's just the voice of experience. You skip a chance tosnooze you're always sorry."

Yoseh grunted. "I'm going up to see what's up there on top." He had not yetseen anything of the upbuild or the underneath of the Shu. The upbuild wassupposed to be a wonder if you saw it from the sea or some eminence where youcould view it as a whole. From the cobblestones of Char Street you could notsee anything more interesting looking south than you could by looking north.

He lined up behind several mason's helpers waiting to carry materials up anarrow stair built into what once had be.en a breezeway between buildings.

Traffic headed up was waiting for several helpers who were coming down. Oncehe did get up top all he saw was what looked like more of the same.

The buildings fronting on Char Street were mostly one level high, their roofsa hardened and painted whitish stucco material just like their fronts, slightly sloped and rounded so water would run off. Foot traffic mostly keptto a four-foot-wide pathway of planking. Pathways meandered here and there andmore stairways climbed in front of or between places set back about as far asthe cross alleyway in which Yoseh had met the child-stealer. Only a very fewresidents were out in the weather, watching Dartars and masonry people trudge back and forth.

Yoseh went up to the next level. It was much like the one before, except thathere and there, there were narrow ways like streets two storeys above theoriginal streets, leading not only to doorways but to some ladders andstairways going down. Some of those were being blocked by the masons, workingunder tents that kept the rain off. Most legitimate stairs and ladders wereinside, where many generations might live in the same vertical stack.