Weshapar.
'Well, since their god was as jealous as he was, and as stupid as he was… like I say, we got to talking. When the time came for him to take his son down into the valley, I went along. His son didn't want me to come. He was fussing and fuming like anything. Sometimes, though you can't pay much attention to what these brats say.'
Dagref ignored him. Ferdulf stuck out his tongue at him. Van grinned. 'Miserable little excuse for a shrine this god had, toonothing but a few piled-up stones and a shabby stone table for the throat-cutting business. We got there, and the god's voice came from out of the stones. `Get on with it,' he said, and he sounded like my old grandfather about two days before he died.
'Zalmunna laid his son down on the stone table. He took out his knife. Before he used it, though, I hit his son in the side of the head with a little leather sack full of sand and pebbles. The lad went out like a torch you'd stick in a bucket of water. I'd led a sow along, too. I lifted her up onto the table instead of Zalmunna's son, and Zalmunna cut her throat.'
'What happened next?' Gerin asked. 'The god didn't strike you dead.' He took a long, careful look at the outlander. 'At least, I don't think he did.'
'Honh!' Van said. 'What happened was, that god said, `There. You see? Next time you'd better pay attention to me.' He felt Zalmunna's son stop thinking, you understand, and then there was blood all over the place. It was just like we'd hoped: he thought Zalmunna really had killed the boy. I slung Zalmunna's son over my shoulder and carried him back to the Weshapar village we'd started out from.'
'What happened when he woke up?' Gerin asked.
'To the five hells with me if I know,' Van repeated. 'I clouted him a good one; he was still quiet as a sack of mud when we got back to the village. Zalmunna started shouting up a storm about what an idiot their god was and how he'd fooled him and how they should all quit worshiping him and on and on and on. Me, I thought that looked like a pretty fair time to find somewhere else to go, so away I went.'
'And what might that ha' been, pray?' Adiatunnus asked. 'Are you after telling us you were fain to keep clear o' the quarrels 'twixt a god and his folk?'
'Now that you mention it, yes,' Van said. 'The Fox will tell you I've done a stupid thing or three in my time, but he'll also tell you I've never done anything outright daft in all my born days.'
'Oh, I will, will I?' Gerin said. 'This, I have to let you know, is news to me.'
'Go howl,' Van said. 'Anyhow, a couple of days after that, I felt myself a pretty fair earthquake-say, about like the one that turned Ikos topsy-turvy and let the monsters out, though I was right on top of that one and a ways away from the one I'm talking about now. It would have hit hardest in the Weshapar country, unless I miss my guess.'
'You think the god caused it?' Dagref said.
'Well, Zalmunna couldn't very well have done it,' Van replied, ' though he was angry enough to, if only he could. I can't tell you, even now, whether the Weshapar still follow their nasty little jealous god, or whether they've all gone over to the ones their neighbors follow.'
'I would that,' Adiatunnus said. 'If you must be worshiping gods, now, better to follow the bunch that let you have a good time, I'm thinking.'
Dagref had another question: 'If all these-Weshapar, was it?-did fall away from the jealous god, would he shrivel up and die for lack of worship?'
'It's a good question,' Van said, 'but I'd be lying if I claimed I knew the answer to it, for I don't. But if it's not what Zalmunna was hoping for, I'd be astonished.'
'It's not a good question,' Ferdulf growled. 'Not even slightly. It's a wicked question, and a wicked idea. Gods are immortal-it's one of the things that make them gods. How can an immortal die?'
Gerin asked a question of his own: 'Suppose you're a god, and no one worships you for a thousand years or so-how would you like that? Would you be hungry? If you weren't dead, wouldn't you rather be?'
Ferdulf considered that. 'It's not something my father need fear,' he said at last. 'People will always worship a god who gives them wine, a god who gives them the pleasures that go with fertility, a god who aids them in all manners of creation.'
'That's so,' Gerin said, understanding from Ferdulf's answer why the little demigod had been so upset. The Fox thought Ferdulf's father would live forever, too; Ferdulf had named good reasons he would stay popular among men. Wistfully, Gerin wished Dagref's father would live forever, too.
**
'Bronze and wood.' Van touched his sword hilt, then set his hand on the chariot rail. 'Here we have the one thing and the other. Now we have to go forth and lick the cursed imperials.'
'You make it sound so easy,' Gerin said, his voice dry.
'It was easy,' Van said. 'Twice in a row, it was easy. Why shouldn't it be once more?'
'You're forgetting something,' Gerin replied, even more dryly than before. 'The two battles we won, Aragis and I were together, and together we matched the number of imperials we were fighting. They have more men now, and they've split us in two. Attacking when you're outnumbered doesn't strike me as the best idea I've ever heard.'
'And have you got a better one?' the outlander asked.
And Gerin didn't. The imperials had not pressed the pursuit so hard as they might have. While he wasn't eager to attack them, they still weren't eager to attack him, either. Those two victories he and Aragis had won over them made them wary even with the advantage of numbers. Even so…
'We're going to get hungry pretty soon if we don't do anything but stay where we are,' Van said, driving home the point. 'It's either knock 'em back and find some new land to forage over or else fall back into the valley of Ikos-and farseeing Biton isn't going to be happy about that.'
'I know.' Now Gerin's voice was somber. 'His guardsmen couldn't have made that much plainer, could they?' He sighed. 'If it's fighting the Elabonian Empire or fighting the farseeing god, there's not much choice, is there?'
Rihwin's riders in the van, the Fox's army moved out the next day. Those of Aragis' vassals who had not gone to war along with their king held their keeps shut tight against Gerin. They were holding their keeps shut against everyone. They no doubt wished Gerin and the imperials would all go away and leave them at peace, or as close to it as they had known while living under Aragis' rule. No matter what they wished, they had not the strength to enforce their wishes.
The Fox's forward move seemed to catch the imperials by surprise. The riders drove back the scouts the forces of the Elabonian Empire had posted to keep an eye on them. They killed a few, too, and captured several more.
Maeva, beaming from ear to ear, brought one of those prisoners back to the Fox-and, not coincidentally, to her father and Dagref. 'I caught him myself,' she said, pride ringing in her voice.
The prisoner looked indignant, perhaps at being captured by a woman, perhaps at being captured at all. The latter, it proved, for he burst out, 'You cursed rebels are a tougher nut to crack than they told us you were going to be when we came over the mountains. They said some of you would want to come back under the City of Elabon, and the rest wouldn't be able to fight.'
'People say all sorts of stupid things,' Gerin answered. 'The trick is knowing whether they're stupid. For instance, I'll know if you lie, because I've already asked these questions to other prisoners. How many men have you got?…'
He got the answers he wanted. They largely agreed with the answers he'd had from other imperials his men had captured. The soldiers of the Elabonian Empire outnumbered his own men, but not overwhelmingly. He had some reason to hope he could knock them back on their heels.
'What will you do with me?' the prisoner asked.
'What will you do with me, lord king?' Dagref and Maeva spoke together, in the tones they would have used to reprove younger siblings who'd said something stupid. They looked at each other, both seeming surprised and pleased.
