Saltlick had understood without me needing to spell it out, though; I knew him well enough to realise that much. He'd taken so long to answer that I'd even thought he might say no.
He hadn't, of course.
That only left the question of what possible help a battalion of pacifist giants could be against the most secure and heavily defended city this side of Pasaeda — another flaw in a plan that, even as we drew close to Altapasaeda, seemed to consist of little else. What hope did we have, when our greatest weapon was no weapon at all?
On the fourth day, we broke free of Paen Acha, stepping from tree-lined gloom into bright sunlight reflected through endless-seeming seas of golden corn. There, barely visible in the distance, were the walls of Altapasaeda. They looked small at such a distance, fragile even, especially compared to the monolithic creatures marching behind me.
Nevertheless, those fortifications were ten times sturdier than those of Muena Palaiya. They'd been built by paranoid northerners to withstand siege from an entire revolting population. Alvantes had stated with absolute certainty that not even the giants could smash those defences, nor were they tall enough to climb over. Even if we could somehow lay our hands on a job lot of giant-sized hammers, the giants would be cut down from the walls before they could make a breach. Perhaps they could shrug off a few arrows, but not the volleys that would be laid down by the forces under Mounteban's command.
Yet seeing the walls like that — so distant, so frail — none of it seemed to matter. I couldn't bring myself to believe that any one of the giants couldn't snap that faraway thread of stone in two.
'That's it,' I muttered, more to myself than Alvantes riding beside me.
He started. 'What is?'
'We've been tying ourselves in knots about what the giants can or can't do. But it doesn't matter. All that matters is what Mounteban thinks they can do.'
'They can't bluff their way into Altapasaeda, Damasco.'
'Maybe they don't need to.'
'I don't understand.'
'Neither do I, just yet. Give me time, though.'
We rode on — and deep in the workings of my brain, pieces began to click into place. The giants. Alvantes's guardsmen. Mounteban. Wasn't it just like a burglary? I'd never been much of a thief, but I'd gotten by, because nine times in ten it wasn't about being a good thief. If you could find weaknesses, work out how to exploit them, then the rest took care of itself. Everyone, everything had a weakness — and I thought I was beginning to see Mounteban's.
By the time we drew close to the Suburbs, only one problem still eluded me. But it was the problem that all else hung upon.
We'd already agreed we wouldn't try to disguise the giants. Thanks to Lupa, Mounteban knew they were coming. In the short term at least, the fear their presence would generate in his ranks outweighed the risk of his trying to move against us. Still, marching them into the filthy streets of the Suburbs would have been a melodramatic, not to mention muddy, business. Instead, we left them camped on the outskirts while we continued on to seek out Navare.
We made no attempt to hide our own presence either. In fact, at Alvantes's suggestion, we rode by the most conspicuous route, even going so far as to risk the main road that ran against the edge of the city. Let Mounteban know we were here. Let him waste energy worrying over what to do about us, even as we plotted our move against him.
At least, that was the theory. In fact, my eyes stayed nervously locked upon the battlements above. Every slight noise threatened to send me tumbling from my horse. I started every time a helmeted head peeked through the crenulations.
Yet if I hadn't been staring at that impenetrable sheet of stone, I'd never have seen it. Not believing, I blinked hard, looked again, even rubbed a knuckle against my eyes.
It was still there. My missing piece.
Now I knew how a handful of guardsmen and an army of peace-loving giants could force their way into a fortified city, and how they might stand the tiniest of chances against its legion of defenders and its tyrant of a ruler.
There was only one drawback.
It meant I was breaking into Altapasaeda again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Before we hurled ourselves into untold danger, it was vital we knew what had been happening in Altapasaeda these last few days.
That meant a visit to Navare, and that meant giving away Alvantes's one and only agent in the Suburbs. I could almost feel the resistance radiating off him as he hammered the reinforced door of Navare's shack.
The resulting pause gave us ample time to imagine the worst. Then the door opened the barest crack — just enough to reveal Navare's crossbow, and the man himself just visible in the gloom behind.
'Alvantes?'
'Sub-Captain Navare.'
'I'd thought… there were rumours, and…' Abruptly, Navare's face split into a grin. 'Well, what are you standing outside for, Guard-Captain?' In a hiss, he added, 'You know they're watching, right?'
'Of course,' Alvantes whispered back as we brushed past.
Inside, Alvantes briefly summarised the events of the last few days, avoiding most of our time in Ans Pasaeda and touching only lightly on our run-in with Guiso Lupa. His impatience for news was palpable, and I could see Navare recognised it too.
'Our men haven't been discovered,' Navare said, 'though there've been a couple of close calls, all right. Three times now, Mounteban's sent men to check the barracks. Fortunately, they had scouts out, and got hidden in time. He's also had his thugs hunting through the Suburbs. He calls them 'inspections'.'
'But they haven't found anyone,' Alvantes said — more to himself than as a question.
'No. Well, not until now, anyway.'
Alvantes let the implied criticism slide. 'What about the situation inside the city? No one's tried to move against Mounteban?'
'He has things locked down tight,' Navare replied. 'He's lost ground in a few areas — some of the families, the ones who rely most on trade, are furious the gates are still closed. I think it's thrown his nerve, knowing we're out here, but not knowing where. On everything else, though, word is the families are toeing his line. Mounteban's been making all the right promises… and he's kept a fair few of them too.'
'How can he, with the city still shut off?' inserted Estrada.
'Well, there's the thing,' said Navare. 'Lupa wasn't alone. Mounteban's been sending agents out to all the towns and the larger villages. Most times it's one of his lackeys, but a couple of the families have gone over wholeheartedly to his cause now. I heard a rumour Lord Eldunzi's set himself up in Muena Delorca.'
'Eldunzi?' I laughed. 'He couldn't run a free water stand in a drought.'
Alvantes looked at me with surprise. 'You know Eldunzi?'
I realised I never had told the full story of my adventures in Altapasaeda. 'We passed a little time together,' I said. 'It didn't end well. The man has a big mouth.'
'That's one of the kinder things the Muena Delorcans have been saying,' agreed Navare.
'Whatever Mounteban might have set up elsewhere,' put in Alvantes, 'the problem stays the same. Chop off the head and kill the body. None of this will hold together with him gone.'
'You have an idea?' The hope in Navare's voice betrayed the strain he'd waited under these last days.
'Not me,' Alvantes said. 'Damasco thinks he can get us inside.'
I flushed — partly with modesty, more with a thrill of horror at the thought of what I'd somehow got myself into. 'Getting in will be the easy part,' I said.
