Else, who knew, agreed. 'Their leadership is too predictable.'
'Too predictable?”
'From their point of view. Pinkus. The troop mix has been constant so far, hasn't it? One cadre foreigner for fifteen Calzirans?'
'That's what I hear. I can't get them to line up so I can…'
'Stop!' Drocker gasped. He did not like Ghort's folksy style. Ghort claimed that Drocker would die of apoplexy trying to figure out what was wrong if somebody made him laugh. 'Pay attention.' Drocker pointed. His hand shook.
Else did not expect Drocker to survive the campaign. He slipped a little every day. But an immense will drove the man onward.
A wisp of signal smoke became visible thirty degrees to the right of a line of sight to al-Khazen. It was dark. A plan had worked out.
Else learned the full story later. An unexpectedly large Calziran force had taken the bait The Pramans chased fleeing Brothen horsemen into a trap where more than four hundred of their number fell in a fierce crossfire and subsequent assault from both flanks. Eighty prisoners were taken, too, none Sha-lug or Lucidian. The action was a disaster for the Pramans.
Else repeated the tactic. The other side seemed unable to imagine their enemies using their own stratagems against them.
Principat Divino Bruglioni told Else, “The Patriarch wants an assault on al-Khazen. He's gotten behind repaying the money he borrowed to buy votes to get elected. He's talking about finding officers who are more aggressive.'
'Anyone point out that he's not in charge?'
'He wouldn't listen. It verges on heresy to say so, but we erred when we compromised on Honario Benedocto.'
The occasion was a gathering in the lookout cottage. Else and his staff spent their days there, now. Grade Drocker was a fixture. A continuously changing cast of Principatйs wandered through. Discussion concerned the feasibility of building a stockade around the city, then constructing small forts capable of laying fires on the approaches to al-Khazen's gates and sally ports.
Grade Drocker eyed Principatй Bruglioni like he was a lunatic. Ghort suggested, 'We ought to talk that over with my boss.' He indicated Bronte Doneto. Doneto stared at al-Khazen, dirty gray behind a fall of snow dust, like he wanted to smash it fast so he could get on home.
Drocker, wheezing and gasping as ever, declared, 'If the Patriarch wants those walls stormed he can drag his craven carcass down here and lead the charge.'
Ghort said, 'Of course. Time will deliver al-Khazen. The Patriarch needs money, let him borrow it again.'
He stated the plain truth about al-Khazen. The invaders' circle kept tightening. And the city's storehouses did not contain the grain shown by the records. Corrupt officials had sold it over the years.
Foraging parties had no success. Raiding parties failed to capture Chaldarean stores. In areas held by Episcopal troops, every Praman effort encountered disaster.
Drocker agreed with Ghort. 'Sublime needs money, let him borrow it from the Deves.' Then, 'Doneto will hammer some sense into his head.”
'And if he can't?'
'We ignore the ignoramus. We took no oath to commit suicide for Honario Benedocto.'
Else suspected there was a personal component to Drocker's relations with the Patriarch.
Drocker spoke in spurts punctuated by gasps for breath, but lately the spoken chunks were longer and the interruptions shorter. 'You're being too clever with your ambushes, Hecht.'
'Sir?'
'You've done well, anticipating the enemy. But he'll get the notion that he needs to try a more sinister tack.'
'Sir?' Else spoke humbly. Drocker's stumbling, halting communications lately recalled every teacher he had had. Drocker had decided to become his mentor.
Drocker said, 'You've fought them man to man and mind to mind and have had the advantage because of the Calziran Deves.' Those people would pay dearly if the Praman leadership found them out.
Drocker said, 'There are three major sorcerers in al-Khazen. Plus the Masters of Ghosts that accompany Dreangerean formations. They don't want us to know they're there. But they won't suffer many more failures.'
Else responded, 'Another outstanding reason for not attacking. They can conjure all the Instrumentalities of the Night'
'They would start small.'
Principatй Bruglioni asked, 'Is that true, Drocker? About the sorcerers?'
'It is.'
'Why wasn't the Collegium made aware?'
Drocker was blunt. 'We didn't want you people babbling the news all over Firaldia.'
Easy to see why Drocker was not beloved by the Episcopal hierarchy. He smoldered with contempt for the self-serving pettiness of Church politics. 'You'll be needed when the Unbeliever summons the Instrumentalities of the Night, however.' For Drocker there was only one worthy struggle, the war against the Night
'You need to know now,' Else told Doneto. 'Because they'll come after you first'
Drocker clarified his position. 'There will be no attack. Waiting, not wasting, let's us develop a pool of veterans for the future.'
Drocker's longer speeches left his audience impatient. But no one tried to hurry him. This was war ground, the Brotherhood's home country. Few members of that Brotherhood were more terrible than Grade Drocker.
Drocker confided, 'They think I'm hard.' He laughed. That brought on a coughing fit so violent that Else summoned the Brotherhood physician, who got Drocker inhaling exudations of herbs crushed in a leather sack. Redfearn Bechter helped Drocker with the bag. When the sorcerer recovered, he told Else, “I'm an altar boy. Wait till they meet Asher Huggin, Parthen Lorica, Alin Hamlet, or Bugo Armiene. They scare me.'
'Then I hope I never meet any of them.'
Drocker asked, 'Does that worry you?'
'Sure. It would worry anyone who isn't one of you.'
Drocker raised a questioning eyebrow.
'If you're an everyday sort who has to scratch for your next meal you find people who're that absolute in their convictions really frightening.'
Drocker seemed amused.
Outside, snow fell lightly but steadily. The weather had settled into an unchanging pattern. Would it end with Calzir under a mile of ice, the way it was in the far north?
Else shivered. Even a well-built structure like the lookout cottage could not keep the cold out. The chills, the drafts, all the talk about Praman sorcerers coagulated in Else's mind. He left Drocker, found Ghort. 'Pinkus, all the yammer has got me thinking. If those people over there send spooks to aggravate us, and we don't get ready …'
'I got ya, Pipe. What do we do to get ready?'
'The stuff every family does when they live where the Night is always at the door. Plug up all the cracks.'
'Plug up all the cracks,' was, in fact, an old saw from Duarnenia. Variants existed everywhere. Folk wisdom based on common sense. By plugging all the cracks you kept the cold out and you kept the things of the Night out in the cold.
Plug up all the cracks. 'Pipe, I've whispered that sweet nothing into every subaltern's ear starting the first night we had to make camp.'
'Then I don't need to nag.' Plug up all the cracks. Else could not imagine anyone in a strange land not doing that automatically.
Titus Consent brought a pair of local deves to Else. He whispered, 'These people have risked everything for
