Wrath of Kings

by Glen Cook

  Lord Ssu-ma smiled as he leaned against the battlements. Pan ku need not have been concerned. He was, simply, tired and hobbling on an unexpected corn.

  The countryside was alive with refugees. The city’s civilians were joining them. The air quivered with panic. Shih-ka’i hoped it would not spread to the legions, yet could not banish its touch himself. The disaster on the Tusghus had been more than the loss of a line. It had introduced Shih-ka’i and his officers to real doubt about their ability to defeat the Deliverer.

  “Did I make a wise decision, Pan ku?” He stared eastward. Somewhere in those forests Northern Army was on the attack.

  “You had no choice, Lord. The men might have lost their confidence.”

  “And if it’s another disaster?”

  “Best to find out now. We have to know if it was an isolated incident.”

  Shih-ka’i did not understand what had happened on the Tusghus. That terrible sound had come thundering from the she-bear, shattering the minds and wills of his legionnaires… He’d never heard anything like it. His secret heart filled with fear when he thought of facing it again. Armed with that weapon, the Deliverer was unstoppable.

  It had to be the thing in the desert. Had to be.

  “Lord,” Pan ku said softly, “Lord Lun-yu.”

  Shih-ka’i watched Tasi-feng labor up the stair. Lord Lun-yu had less energy than he. “Catch your breath.”

  “Last civilians cleared out, Lord,” Tasi-feng reported. “May have problems later. Some prisoners escaped in the confusion.”

  “That was to be expected, I suppose. It’s the lesser risk. Any word from out there?”

  “Still early, Lord, but they seem to be doing well.”

  “No sign of the problem we had on the Tusghus?”

  “None, Lord.” Tasi-feng did not conceal his relief. “Maybe they’re saving it for Lioantung.”

  “Maybe.” Shih-ka’i had some thoughts on the subject. He meant to pursue them… Well, it had to wait. He was needed here until the Deliverer’s intentions became clear.

  Nervous, unable to stand still, Shih-ka’i scanned the sky. “Nice day,” he observed. It was.

  “It’s been nice all summer, Lord.” Tasi-feng scanned the sky too. Flyers would presage the Deliverer’s appearance. Their confidence had been shaken. They had begun to anticipate disaster.

  One of Tasi-feng’s officers appeared later. “Execution has been perfect, Lord. No sign of the doom of the Tusghus. We have a great tactical victory.”

  Shih-ka’i grinned into his mask, smacked a fist against the battlements. “Damn!” he said softly. “By damn! Lord Lun-yu, we’ll stop him yet.”

  Northern Army double-timed through the gates. Their joy was contagious. “They’re slipping discipline,” Shih-ka’i muttered to Pan ku.

  “Justifiable, wouldn’t you say, Lord?”

  “No doubt. No doubt.” Shih-ka’i was elated himself. The battle had gone perfectly. The old confidence had returned. “We’ll stop them here.”

  A messenger approached. “Lord Ssu-ma. Lord Lun-yu begs your presence in the command center.”

  “Did he say why?”

  “No, Lord.”

  “I’ll be there directly.” Once the messenger departed, “Any ideas, Pan ku?”

  “They’ve been watching the Matayangan front, Lord. Maybe something’s happened there.”

  Something had. Lord Kuo’s hidden armies had taken the offensive. But that was old news. Had Matayanga sprung a surprise of its own?

  Shih-ka’i glanced at the handful of flyers circling above. The siege was about to begin.

  He looked forward to it. Lioantung would be the rock against which the Deliverer would shatter himself. Or Lord Ssu-ma Shih-ka’i’s last battlefield. He had people developing a strategy to pursue should the city fall, but theirs was a half-hearted effort. The country west of Lioantung was dense with refugees. Populations had been compressed too much for further effective removal from the Deliverer’s grasp.

  The fates of himself, the Deliverer, and quite possibly the empire hung on this old fortress town.

  The senior Tervola had assembled in the command center. Their soft talk faded when Shih-ka’i entered. “Politics again, Lord,” Pan ku whispered.

  “I suspect so.”

  The Tervola made room for him at the tabletop map of the empire. He and his staff had been following the Matayangan war closely of late. It might affect what they could do here.

  The field situation appeared unchanged. “What is it?” he demanded.

  Tasi-feng suggested, “Perhaps we could speak in private?”

  Shih-ka’i peered into the jeweled eyes of Tasi-feng’s mask. “The changing of the guard, eh?”

  “Yes, Lord.”

  “What’s to be discussed? Nothing’s changed. We have our hands full here. The Deliverer’s dragons are overhead.”

  “Lord…”

  “Your games are your games. We have a job. Let’s stick to it, eh? What’s going on out there can take care of itself. If your candidate wins and doesn’t like me, she can send me back to the Fourth Demonstration.”

  “Lord, we just wanted you to know what was happening. It’s not likely to affect us.”

  “Then talk it out and get back to work. The Deliverer is on his way.”

  “As you command, Lord.” Tasi-feng nodded to someone at the table. The Tervola dispersed.

  “I’ll be on the wall, watching him come up,” Shih-ka’i said. “I don’t want to hear any more politics while I’m commander. Understood?”

  Tasi-feng bowed slightly. “As you command, Lord. We’re perfectly satisfied.”

  The Deliverer’s patrols were encircling the city when Shih-ka’i reached the wall. “What do you think, Pan ku? Send out skirmishers?”

  Pan ku shrugged.

  “No. Of course not. They’re almost done. Make them come to us.” The patrols looked like the dead now. “Time is on our side. Another week and he won’t have anything left.”

  The hours rolled. The sun declined. The moon came out. Shih-ka’i remained rooted, watching besiegers who pitched no tents, who lighted no campfires, who merely stood waiting in lines surrounding the city.

  “What will he try, Pan ku?”

  “That sound again, Lord. Something to shake the walls.”

  “I’d say so, too. But we can take that away from him.”

  “Lord?”

  “Hsu Shen…”

  Pan ku pointed. “Someone coming, Lord.”

  A shadow flitted toward them, darting from one pool of darkness to another. Pan ku drew his longsword. Shih-ka’i let his senses reach out, felt no danger. “Easy. I think he’s friendly.”

  Pan ku did not relax. He was not that kind of man.

  The shadow moved more slowly as it came nearer. Shih-ka’i snorted in surprise. “Put that thing away, Pan ku.”

  His batman did as he was told. Reluctantly.

  Their visitor wore Tervola garb, but no mask. The moonlight illuminated his lean, aristocratic face, exposing weariness and fear. “Lord Ssu-ma.”

  “Lord Kuo.”

  “I’ve suffered a turn of fortunes.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Shih-ka’i examined his feelings. He wanted no part of Shinsan’s tortuous politics. He simply wanted to get on with his job. Yet he owed this man. Lord Kuo had given him his chance at a major command. “We’ve tried to avoid getting involved.”

  “Your situation. Is it bad?”

  “Looking better today.” He explained. Lord Kuo nodded thoughtfully. “What brings you to me?” Shih-ka’i asked.

  “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.” Kuo did not ask for help directly.

  “Uhm. My officers aren’t your friends.”

  “That’s my own fault.”

  “The situation being what it is, there’s not much I can do.”

  “I understand.”

  “There’s Hsu Shen’s island, Lord,” Pan ku said.

  “Of course. And we were about to g
o, weren’t we? Lord, I can hide you on the Pracchia’s island in the east. Pan ku. Hsu Shen hasn’t been in contact, has he? He won’t have heard from the plotters?”

  “I think not, Lord.”

  Shih-ka’i had been downplaying Hsu Shen’s presence on the island, hoping the Deliverer would miss it. “All right. We’ll go now. Pan ku, find My Lord a mask. I saw several in the old Seventeenth museum.”

  Lord Kuo said, “I should shift to enlisted garb.”

  “Good idea. Pan ku, assemble a decurion’s kit and uniform. Northern Army badges.”

  Later, in his quarters, Shih-ka’i studied the result. “Pan ku?”

  “We need less arrogance, Lord. A soldier doesn’t bear himself as if he expects Candidates to throw roses in his path.”

  “I see what you mean,” Wen-chin said. “Drill me.”

  Shih-ka’i watched the time closely. The night was proceeding. Dawn would reach the island before it arrived here. He wanted to get there before sunrise. He explained, “Hsu Shen and his men should get used to you before daylight begins accenting your little lapses.” He examined Lord Kuo’s kit with a drillmaster’s eyes. “Mask and robes on the bottom? Good. Pan ku, yours is ready?” They would all take kits to make Wen-chin’s less conspicuous. His and Pan ku’s would remain with Lord Kuo.

  Shih-ka’i was a worried man. How long could he shelter Lord Kuo? He owed the man, but how much? Wen-chin’s enemies would not see this as a private matter.

  Too, Lord Kuo needed a secondary cover if he were to be long exposed to Hsu Shen. That he was Tervola could not be hidden indefinitely. Special investigator? That might do it.

  “I think we’re as close as we can get on short practice, Lord,” Pan ku said.

  “Then let’s make the transfer. Lord, don’t say anything unless you have to. Best they don’t notice you. Pan ku, you go through first. Get their attention.”

  “I’ll be invisible,” Kuo promised, apparently amused.

  Shih-ka’i supposed he was overly worried. Who would be watching for Lord Kuo? The man was believed killed during Mist’s attacks on his headquarters.

  The Lioantung end of the transfer went perfectly. No one seemed surprised that Shih-ka’i had gotten his man a helper. Other senior Tervola maintained retinues.

  Shih-ka’i went through last. He arrived, found Hsu Shen galloping toward him, trying to put his apparel in order. “Lord,” he gasped, “you should have warned us. We would’ve provided a more fitting reception.”

  “Receptions are of no moment, Hsu Shen. You needn’t have interrupted your sleep.”

  “But…”

  “Never mind. It’s time to try our luck with the stone thing. They’ve reached Lioantung. We don’t want them doing what they did at the Tusghus.”

  Hsu Shen nodded. “We’ve watched as closely as we dared. There’s a great rage in the thing. Its servants betrayed it.”

  “Uhm. Could we enlist it? No. We don’t need that kind of ally. Did you find any weaknesses?”

  “Have you eaten, Lord? Can we discuss it over breakfast?”

  “Fine. We’ve been up all night, and had nothing since yesterday noon.”

  Over the meal, Hsu Shen said, “We observed what happened both before and after the battle on the Tusghus.” He explained how the woman in white had removed and returned the godling to its home.

  “Very good,” Shih-ka’i said. “I appreciate it, Hsu Shen. I’ll remember you. How dangerous is it in its current circumstances? Can it stop us?”

  “I don’t know, Lord. When the woman removed it, it seemed happy. No reason to dispute what was happening. When she returned it, it was unconscious. It awakened furious.”

  “And now?”

  “Angry somnolence? Yes. It’s in a dreaming rage. But we’re really too far away to tell anything for sure.”

  “I understand.” After a few minutes, Shih-ka’i said, “We’ll go over tonight. I’d better rest.”

  “Tonight, Lord? That’s cutting it fine. I’ll have to send someone now in order to get a portal placed in time.”

  “Right. Be careful. Don’t alert it. And wake me if it does get excited.”

  “As you command, Lord.”

  Shih-ka’i retired to quarters hastily prepared for him. Pan ku and Lord Kuo accompanied him.

  Lord Kuo took a chair. “This monster… It’s what I sensed back when?” Shih-ka’i nodded. “What’re you going to do with it once you’ve taken it out of the stone thing?”

  “I’ll consider my options when the time comes.”

  “Did they notice me? I was too nervous to tell.”

  “No. Let’s get some sleep. I’ve been too long without.”

  Hsu Shen himself wakened Shih-ka’i. “Sunset, Lord. I’ve moved a team to within a mile. Hard on the men. The heat was insufferable.”

  So are you sometimes, Shih-ka’i thought. “Let’s have supper before we go.”

  “It’s ready. I’ll have the stewards set it out.”

  “Give us time for our rituals.”

  “Of course, Lord.” Hsu Shen seemed surprised.

  “Yes. I still perform mine. We don’t outgrow the need, Hsu Shen.”

  Pan ku came striding into the apartment as Shih-ka’i completed his rituals. “Where have you been?”

  “Prowling, Lord. To see if there was any talk about our friend.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing. And they’d come to me if they had questions about my master.”

  “Good. Satisfied, Lord Kuo?”

  “Eminently.”

  “Pan ku, we may have to leave in a hurry if this raid sours. Be ready. In any case, you’ll be the last man off the island.”

  “It’s a good hiding place,” Wen-chin observed.

  “One thing, Lord. I’m not a political man. Don’t involve me.”

  “You’ve done more than I deserved already. I won’t put you at risk.”

  “Thank you. Pan ku, suppertime.”

  Shih-ka’i went through the transfer first. One by one, Hsu Shen’s men followed him into the cooling desert. This promised to become a chilly night’s work.

  Shih-ka’i prepared protective spells, then seated himself on the crest of a dune. The stone monster loomed before him. The thing within was sleeping. The transfer had not alerted it.

  Hsu Shen settled beside him. “We go in between the forepaws. There’s a stairway to its back. Up near the shoulder there’s a plug that lifts out. I’m not sure what we’ll find inside. I couldn’t probe that closely.”

  Shih-ka’i nodded. “I want complete silence when we go in. I don’t expect it sees or hears in mortal fashion, but why take risks?” He stared at the dark bulk. “I wish we knew more about it.”

  The last men arrived. Hsu Shen spread them in a skirmish line. Shih-ka’i wondered why he wanted so much help. Numbers meant nothing tonight.

  “Let’s go.” Butterflies mated in Shih-ka’i’s gut as he stalked forward. What am I doing here? I’m an army commander. I’m supposed to have people do these things for me.

  Lord Kuo remained close, spells of his own prepared. Pan ku carried his longsword at the ready.

  Shih-ka’i laughed at himself. Arrogant, puny mortal, attacking what might be a god. Such gall!

  There was no moon yet. The desert was illuminated only by stars. They seemed more numerous here than in the skies of Shinsan. The darkness seemed more intense.

  Shih-ka’i moved into the deeper darkness between the thing’s forelegs, carefully picking his way through the rubble. He paused, knelt. Water. Here and there, plants clung desperately to life. Curious.

  He had trouble finding the stair. Its base was masked by rubble. Seconds fled. His heart hammered faster and faster. The thing had to know he was here. It must be waiting to trap him… Still, he sensed nothing but sleeping anger.

  He began the climb. Pan ku and Lord Kuo were right behind him. From behind them, Hsu Shen whispered, “Lord, must these men—”

  “Silence!” Shih-ka’i hiss
ed. He listened. The thing had not stirred. “They go.” He resumed climbing.

  From the beast’s back he could just make out the men below. Again he wondered what point there was to their presence. To comfort their commander?

  Hsu Shen eased past him, felt the stone of the thing’s battered shoulder. He lifted the plug out. Shih-ka’i felt the godling grow restless. He shook an admonitory finger at his companions.

  Pan ku and Wen-chin bore lanterns. These they now lighted. Shih-ka’i took one and started down into the stone thing’s heart. It stirred again, but did not waken.

  There was one chamber down deep inside, perhaps fifteen feet by ten. At one end stood a stone altar. Upon it rested a small black box.

  Once that chamber had been richly appointed. All that remained was dust and scraps, a few ceremonial weapons, and the altar itself. Shih-ka’i advanced carefully, stood over the altar, stared at the box. He returned the lantern to Pan ku.

  Still no more than a restlessness in the box. Shih-ka’i reached for it. His hands quivered.

  Hsu Shen sneezed. And sneezed again.

  The thing in the box stirred.

  Shih-ka’i lifted gently and turned, glided toward the stair.

  Pan ku sneezed, cursed softly. Shih-ka’i grimaced behind his mask. Carefully, carefully, he climbed the steps.

  Now Kuo was sneezing. It was catching. Shih-ka’i felt the dust in his own nose. He fought the sneeze… There was nothing he could do. He hurried to the top, spun, shoved his burden into Pan ku’s arms. Pan ku had gotten his own nose under control by grinding at it with his free hand. Shih-ka’i doffed his mask till the sneezing passed.

  The god in the box seemed to have settled back into sleep. “That was close,” Shih-ka’i muttered.

  “What now, Lord?” Hsu Shen asked.

  “Back to the island. We’ll put weights on the box, spells on one of the boats, and sail it out to sea. It’ll run into a storm and go down.”

  Hsu Shen nodded. He took Lord Kuo’s lantern, signaled his soldiers. They began withdrawing. Most of them had departed by the time Shih-ka’i reached the transfer point.

  “I’ll go last,” he said. “Just in case.” The godlet still had not wakened. “Be ready when I arrive. Hsu Shen, you go now. Prepare the boat, and begin sending your men on to Lioantung.”