Read Book 2 - An Ill Fate Marshalling for Free Online Page B

documents."
    „Shinsaner or Throyen?"
    „Does it matter?"
    „It matters a whole hell of a lot. I don't trust snakes, and I don't trust anybody from the other side of the Pillars of Heaven."
    „Shinsaner. But he's trustworthy."
    „Why? They don't commit treason."
    „Not against the empire. They'll betray leaders they don't like. We came up with proof that he was trying to set Mist up for a comeback. He'd be dead in a minute if we let Hsung have it. Hsung is Kuo's brother-in-law."
    „Blackmail?" Ragnarson studied Michael. „Nu Li Hsi and Yo Hsi were brothers. They spent four hundred years trying to kill each other. How do you know the man is feeding you good information?"
    „He's right every time."
    „You've got checks on him, then."
    „No." Michael stared at the leafy earth like a school kid getting it from his teacher.
    „Has he told you anything important? Anything we wouldn't have found out anyway? You going to recognize it when he feeds you the big lie they want you to believe?"
    „Yeah. He told me
why
they're giving Prataxis what he wants."
    „Well?"
    „They expect war with Matayanga this summer. The Matayangans have been getting ready since Escalon fell. They're as strong as they're going to get, and the legions are still weak. They're going to have to fight someday, so why not get in the first punch? They've got the Tervola worried. They don't want trouble anywhere else, so Hsung is going to be the best friend you've got outside of Kavelin. He had to give up his reserve legion to the Southern Army. Kuo is stripping the whole damned empire so he can stiffen his southern posture. The only army he didn't hit is the Eastern Army. Nobody can figure that because there isn't anything east of them."
    „That's more like what I want, Michael. Why couldn't you tell me before? Why do I have to get you mad to pry anything out of you?"
    Trebilcock did not respond.
    „How far can we push Hsung?"
    „He has orders to get along, but they're filled with ifs, ands, and buts. Don't push him. He has the proconsular power. He just can't invade Kavelin without Kuo's okay."
    „Meaning he can stir up all the trouble he wants if he doesn't use his own troops, eh?"
    „Meaning exactly that."
    „Sounds like your friend is sending a message saying leave us alone and we'll leave you alone."
    „You could look at it that way."
    „And you're still provoking the Throyen partisans."
    „No. I'm maintaining contact. And that's all. We might need them someday. They give me information because they hope we'll support them. They set up my inside man for me. Whatever else they do, they do on their own."
    There was the slightest of tremors in Michael's voice. Ragnarson did not think it was anger. Trebilcock was holding back.
    He shifted tacks. „What's this about Mist?"
    Trebilcock sensed that his interest was not casual. „It won't amount to anything. That sort of thing's gone on since she got here. There'll always be cliques that want her for a figurehead."
    „Wanting and getting aren't the same thing. She'd never settle for anything less than the imperial power. What did you think of the wizard today? Behaving a little strange?"
    Trebilcock stared at the woods. „When isn't he strange?"
    „Out of character. Throwing scowls around at people. Like trying to intimidate. Like saying if you open your mouth I'm going to give you a case of the miseries to last you the rest of your life."
    „You'd have to ask him about it. I did catch something between him and Mist."
    „I talked. He didn't have anything to say."
    Michael shrugged.
    „Reason suggests a problem would not be political. Varthlokkur doesn't get into those games. It would be something personal. And with him personal means Nepanthe. His great obsession."
    Centuries ago the child who would become Varthlokkur had watched his mother burn at the command of the wizards of Ilkazar. The child fled into the Dread Empire and learned sorcery at the knees of Shinsan's then tyrants, Yo Hsi