Into The Darkness

Even by Unkerlanter standards, that was brusque to the point of rudeness. "Please inform King Swemmel that we shall defend our borders," Haijaj said as he rose to go. He added a parting blaze: "Our legitimate borders."

Ansovald yawned. Legitimacy did not concern him. Spitefully, Hajaj wondered if it had concerned his father.

Outside on the street, the Zuwayzi foreign minister almost stripped off his tunic right there in front of the Unkerlanter ministry. That wouldn't have shown the stolid, sweating guards anything they wanted to see, but it would have relieved his feelings. Not without regret, he restrained himself. As he rode back to the palace, he morosely watched sweat darken the cotton.

Once at the palace - a building whose thick walls of mud brick helped fight the heat - he did pull the tunic off over his head. King Shazli's guardsmen grinned sympathetically as he sighed with relief "Out of the funeral wrappings, eh, your Excellency?" one of them said, white teeth shining in his dark face.

"Even so." Hajaj rolled the tunic into a ball and stuffed it into his case.

The breeze felt sweet on his skin. He waved to one of Shazli's servitors.

"Can his Majesty see me now? I'm just back from consulting with Ansovald of Unkerlant. " Neither by word nor by expression did he imply the meeting with Ansovald had gone anything but well. That was no one's business but the sovereign's.

"Of course, your Excellency," the servant answered. "He has been awaiting your return."

Shazli received his foreign minister in a chamber off the throne room.

Haijaj bowed low to the king of Zuwayza, who, without his golden circlet of rank, might have been anyone: in the absence of clothes, status could be hard to gauge. Shazli was a medium-sized, rather pudgy man in his early thirties, a bit less than half Hajaj's age. His father had regained Zuwayza's freedom; some generations before, an Unkerlanter army that forced its way through the desert to Bishah had brought the land into the muscular embrace of its larger neighbor.

A serving woman carried in a jar of wine, a teapot, and a plate of honey cakes fragrant with cinnamon. She was comely; Hajaj admired her as he admired the elegant ivory figurines adorning the chamber, and with hardly more desire. Being habitual to Zuwayzin, nudity did not inflame them.

Drinking and eating and chatting with the king helped Hajaj relax; the thudding urgency he'd felt while meeting with the Unkerlanter minister receded, at least a little. After a while, Shazli said, "And how badly did Ansovald hurry you today? Efficiency." He rolled his eyes to show what he thought of the term, or at least of the way the Unkerlanters used it.

"Your Majesty, I have never known worse," Hajaj said with feeling.

"Never. And he rejected your protest out of hand. And he did something no Unkerlanter has ever done before: he questioned the legitimacy of the Treaty of Bludenz."

The king hissed like a sand viper. "No, Unkerlant has never presumed to do that before," he agreed. "I mislike the omen."

"As do I, your Majesty, as do I," Hajaj said. "Up till now, we have been lucky in our relations with the Unkerlanters. They suffered hideously in the Six Years' War and then, as if they were not satisfied, they warred among themselves. That gave your father of splendid memory the chance to remind them we still remembered how to be our own masters. Afterwards, they were busy picking up the pieces they themselves had dropped."

"And after that, for good measure, they marched straight into a sense less war with Gyongyos," King Shazli added. "Were King Swemmel half as efficient as he thinks he is, he would be twice as efficient as he truly is."

"Even so, your Majesty, and elegantly phrased." Hajaj smiled and sipped at his wine. "Of course, Ekrekek Arpad also took advantage of Unkerlant's internecine strife to make his own real in grow at Swemmel's expense.

"And Swemmel has spent the last several years trying to take his revenge," Shazli said. His eyes narrowed; he looked very crafty indeed.

"Now, I appreciate revenge as much as the next man - I could scarcely be a Zuwayzi did I not, eh? But a man who does not weigh what he spends against what he gets is a fool."

"Seen through King Swemmel's eyes, Gyongyos is not the only kingdom against which Unkerlant needs to be avenged," Hajaj said. "I sup pose that explains some of Ansovald's insolence." He started to take another sip of wine, but paused with the goblet halfway to his lips. "I should attune my crystal to that of the Gyongyosian minister. No. I should pay a call on Horthy myself. "

"Why say you that?" King Shazli asked.

"Because, your Majesty, if Unkerlant is seeking to patch up a truce in the far west - or if King Swemmel has already patched up such a truce - we may be next on the list for a visit from our friends," HaJjaJ replied. "I don't think even Swemmel is stupid enough to get into two wars at once."

Should he abandon one..

Shazli's eyes widened. "Will Horthy tell you?"