Into The Darkness

What he hears, the redheads win hear." He pointed to Sidroc. "We have suffered enough already. Whatever you think of this new language master, keep it locked in your head. Never let him suspect it, or we WA all pay."

"I don't mind him so much," Sidroc said with a shrug. "And Alga looks to be a lot easier than classical Kaunian ever was."

That wasn't what Hengist had meant. Ealstan understood as much, even if Sidroc didn't. Understanding such things went with being occupied, too. If Sidroc didn't figure them out pretty soon, he would be sorry, and so would everyone around him.

Ealstan's mother understood. "Take care, all of you," Elfryth said, and that was also good advice.

The next morning, Odda was not in the Algarvian class. He was not in any of his classes that day. He did not return to school the next day, either. Ealstan and Sidroc never saw him again. Ealstan understood the lesson. He hoped his cousin did, too.

King Shazli nibbled at a cake rich with raisins and pistachios. He licked his fingers clean, then glanced at Hajaj from lowered eyelids. "It would seem King Swemmel did not purpose attacking us after all," he said.

When his sovereign decided to talk business, Hajaj could with propriety do the same, even if his cake lay on the tray before him only half eaten. "Say rather, your Majesty, that King Swemmel did not yet purpose attacking us," he replied.

"You say this even after Unkerlant and Algarve have split Forthweg between them, as a man will tear a peeled tangerine in half that he might share it with his friend?"

"Your Majesty, I do," the foreign minister said. "If King Swemmel intended to leave Zuwayza alone, we would not see these continual proddings along the border. Nor would we see his envoy in Bishah lyingly denying that any fault attaches to Unkerlant. When Swemmel is ready, he will do what he will do."

Shazli started to reach for his teacup. At the last moment, his hand swerved and seized the goblet that held wine. After drinking, he said, "I confess I am not sorry that King Penda chose to flee south instead of coming here." Hajaj drank wine, too. Thinking of the King of Forthweg as an exile in Bishah was enough to make any Zuwayzi turn to wine, or perhaps to hashish. "We could not very well have turned him away, your Majesty, not if we cared to hold our heads up afterwards," he said, and then, before Shazli could speak, he went on, "We could not very well have kept him here, not if we cared to hold our heads on our shoulders."

"You speak nothing but the truth there." Shazli gulped the goblet dry.

"Well, now he is Yanina's worry. I tell you frankly, I am more glad than I can say that King Tsavellas has to explain to [..Mant..] how Penda came to go into exile in Patras. Better him than me. Better Yanina than Zuwayza, too."

"Indeed." Hajaj tried to make his long, thin, IMI ly face look wide and dour, as if he were an Unkerlanter. "First, King Swemmel will demand that Tsavellas turn King Penda over to him. When Tsavellas tells him no, he'll start massing troops on the border [..vioh..] Yanina. After that" - the Zuwayzi foreign minister shrugged - "he'll - probably invade."

"If I were Tsavellas, I'd put Penda on a ship of a dragon bound for Sibiu or Valmiera or Lagoas," Shazli said. "I might forgive him for harboring Penda just long enough to palm 11im off on someone else."

"Your Majesty, King Swemmel never forgives Aiyone for anything," Hajaj said. "He proved that after the Twinkings Vlar - and those were his own countrymen."

King Shazli grunted. "There, I judge, you speak nothing but the truth.

Everything he has done since seating himself [..ITIMPOly..] on the throne of Unkerlant goes toward confirming it." He [..i*T91M..] for his wine goblet again, so abruptly that a couple of his gold [..iisoll-ts..] clashed together.

Discovering the goblet was empty, he called for servant. A woman came in with a jar and refilled the goblet. "Ali, Rkank you, my dear," Shazli said. He watched her sway out of the [...-mmMinber..], then turned his attention back to Hajaj: Zuwayzin saw too much flesh to let it unduly stir them. "If, as you seem to think, we are next on Swemmel's list, what can we do to forestall him?"

"Dropping an egg on his palace in Cottbus off have some effect," Hajaj said dryly. "Past that, we are, as your Majesty must know, in some thing less than the best position."

"As I must know. Aye, so I must." Shazli's [..weit-th..] twisted. "Finding allies would be easier if we were of the same [..] as most of the other folk of Derlavai. If you were a tow-headed, [..Pir-skinned Ka'Umaj H aj aj..] "