Keeping the reins on Qushmarrah would be hard enough without Sullointriguing and interfering. "I'll find you some volunteers. How soon do youneed them?" "Annalaya expects to start about midnight." Bruda grunted. "I'llget you started. Now. If you'll excuse me?" Sullo smirked. "Of course, Colonel. Of course." Bruda turned his back, headed for the next room, determined to find out what had happened. Bel-Abek had been in the middle ofit ...

Bel-Sidek had not yet wrung himself dry when Zenobel arrived. The man stampedin, stared at him like he did not know whether to be angry or conciliatory.

"You have a problem, Khadifa?" Bel-Sidek could not help being envious ofZenobel. The man remained untouched by the disasters of the war. He washealthy, youthful, virile, handsome, energetic, and his family fortunes hadsuffered no insurmountable setbacks.

"I may have several. I'm not sure. Is is true you have Carza under arrest?"

That was getting around? How the hell did you get people to keep their mouthsshut? "In a manner of speaking. He refuses to respond to an order so I'verelieved him of the Minisia. I'm holding him here till I get what I want."

Zenobel eyed him. He met the man's gaze. Zenobel said, "What's the problem?

Maybe I can talk to him."

"Maybe." Bel-Sidek did not think it was likely. Carza did not like Zenobel. Onthe other hand, they were the same kind of fanatic. Carza might enlist Zenobelin his scheme.

Bel-Sidek began probing Zenobel's attitude toward the dark gods. Zenobel didnot put up with it long. "What're you doing? I'm as religious as a turnip."

"Carza was involved with the citadel in a scheme that, through sorcery, would've resurrected Nakar."

Zenobel stared. And kept staring till Bel-Sidek asked, "Are you all right?"

"Why would he want that?"

"Would a resurrected Nakar not deliver Qushmarrah from the Herodian yoke?"

"Let me think for a minute. Hell. How about you fill in a little? Maybe I can get him to see straight. We talk the same language." They did that, Bel-Sidek reflected. Why not risk it? The worst would be that he would have to restrain Zenobel, too.

He told the story as he knew it.

Zenobel did not comment for a long time. Finally, he said, "I'll see what I can do with him. I like the idea of getting the Herodians and Dartars at each other's throats. That might set the fur flying all along the coast. But don't you think taking Cado out gives Fa'tad too great an advantage?" "What do you mean?"

"Ha! Don't be coy. It's all over the city. The Living have taken Cado captive.

That's the other reason I came. Bruda has put all Herodian troops on alert. He has patrols in Herodian residential areas to warn Herodian citizens that there may be trouble. The guard on the Gate of Autumn has been trebled. The Dartar compound has been warned to be prepared for civil unrest."

"That snake!" Bel-Sidek muttered. "That bloody damned snake!" Al-Akla had grabbed Cado and was handing the credit to the Living. Had to be. There was no other explanation.

Though that one did not make much sense.

"What?" "Nothing. Go see Brother Carza. I have to do some thinking."

He did a lot of thinking but did not get anywhere. He was not sure where he wanted to go now. He could make no strategic choices because he had no idea what Fa'tad or the Herodians hoped to accomplish, beyond the obvious. There were tactical steps he could take. He did so, beginning with patrols meant to sweep the neighborhood of watchers.

One possibility nagged: suppose al-Akla had not grabbed Cado? Suppose some of his own people, in sympathy with those in the citadel, had? He was a troubled and beleaguered captain, was Sisu bel-Sidek.

Aaron hunched against the wind whipping the rain in under the portico of theResidence. This was not going to work. They would just give him the runaroundand not let him see anyone. And right now he was so miserable it was hard tocare. Had the citadel not been right there, so close he could sense its evil, he would have gone home.

But it was there, a pitiless reminder that Arif was imprisoned, at the mercyof evil, and he was out here, able to do nothing but this to help.

The man he had spoken to earlier finally returned, seemed surprised to findhim still waiting. "The governor will see you, Mr. Habid." That seemed tosurprise him, too. "If you will come with me?" He led the way past blank-facedMoretians. They made Aaron's skin crawl. He had heard that they ate humanflesh.

His guide's Qushmarrahan was atrocious. Other than native staff, though, whowere part of the furniture of the place, and beneath notice by officialoccupants, he was the one man in the Residence who spoke the language at all.

The man led him to a poorly lighted room where Governor Sullo was watching hiswitch. She was seated at a table, bent over a chart, using draftsman's tools, working out something Aaron did not understand.

Governor Sullo greeted him with a limp handclasp and an insincere smile. Hejabbered at the man. Aaron caught a few words, though not enough to makesense. He waited for the translation.

Putting it more politely than the governor, the interpreter asked what hewanted.

"I went to Government House but they told me General Cado was unavailable andColonel Bruda didn't have time for me and nobody else was authorized to dealwith me, so I came here."

"But what do you want?"

"I want to visit my family. I want to take them home."

Governor Sullo was impatient with all that and barely pretended that he wasnot. "Yes. Yes. I understand. We'll take care of it. You had something to tellus about Fa'tad."

"Oh. Yes sir. I don't know if it's important or not ..."

"Will you tell it?" Exasperated.

Good. "Yes sir. Sir, all afternoon and evening Fa'tad and his captains havebeen in the Shu, especially in my part of Char Street, dashing in and out ofthe maze." It came easier than he had expected. He might get through itwithout freezing up. If the witch did not catch on. She had given him one oddglance but seemed preoccupied, uninterested. "They were excited. After a whileI overheard enough to find out why. They found out how to get into the citadelfrom the maze. When I left to come here they were talking about how they werealmost through and pretty soon it would be too late for anybody to keep themfrom grabbing the treasure. They were asking each other what they were goingto do with their shares."

Was he feeding it to the governor too fast? No. Not with the translationslowing it, keeping Sullo impatient to hear what came next.

"How long?" Sullo demanded, apparently conversant with the myth al-Akla hadbeen spreading. "How long before they penetrate the citadel basements?"

Aaron tried to look bewildered by Sullo's intensity. Never had a fish been soeager to take the hook. If only the witch didn't come out of her reverie ...

"Just before I left, one of them was talking about five more hours."

"Five hours," Sullo muttered. "Before dawn. By damn! Carpenter, how long agowas that?"

"I don't know." Aaron scratched the back of his neck. "At least two hours. I guess. I went to Government House first. Then I came here. I don't know howlong I was out in the rain, trying to get somebody to talk to me."

"Two hours? Damn! There might not be time. Thank him and get him out of here."

As the translator tried to move him out Aaron protested, "What about myfamily?" He threatened to get stubborn.

Governor Sullo cursed, snatched pen and paper from his witch. She frowned athim momentarily, faded into her thoughts again. He scrawled something, sandedthe message, thrust it at Aaron. "Go on! I'm busy." He turned his back.

Aaron placed the note inside his clothing, safe from moisture, as he allowedhimself to be steered toward an exit.

From the Residence he headed straight toward Government House. Along the way avoice from the darkness asked, "How did it go?"