They eyed him for a moment before going out. Count Perivos cleared his throat.

"I will be honest with you, Olin Eddon, because I believe you are an honorable man. It is not so much loyalty to Ludis that keeps me here, al¬though the man did pull the country back into stability after a long civil war, but loyalty to my city and nation. I am a Hierosol man, through and through."

"But you are of high blood yourself. Why is it that you yourself did not try to take the throne, or support someone more to your liking?"

"Because I knew with things being as they are I could do more good this way. I am not a king or even a king's counselor. I am a soldier, and of a particular kind at that. My science is siege war, which I learned from Petris Kopayis, the best of this age. I knew I had no choice but to use that knowledge to try to save my city and its people from the bloody-handed autarchs of Xis. Thus, I could not afford to take sides in the last throes of the civil war."

"I remember Kopayis-I met him when we fought the Xandian Fed¬eration here twenty years ago. Gods, he was a clever man!" Olin smiled a little. "And everything I have heard suggests you are his true successor. So you do not bear a grudge against Ludis, you say-and he bears none against you?"

Perivos frowned. "Never underestimate him, King Olin. He is a rough man, and his personal habits are… are disturbing. But he is no fool. He will employ any man who can help him, whether that man admires him or not, whether that man fought for him or not. He has servants of all shapes and re¬ligions and histories. Two of his advisers fought against him in the civil war, and came to their new positions straight from the gallows-cells, and one of his chiefest envoys is a black man out of Xand-from Tuan, to be precise."

Olin raised his eyebrow in amusement. "An unusual choice, but not un¬heard of."

"Ah, that is right you had a Tuani lord as your retainer too, did you not? But things have not gone so well with him, I hear."

The March King's face twitched with pain-it was almost shocking to see in a man so controlled. "Do not remind me, I pray you. I have been told he murdered my son, although I can scarcely believe it, and now there is talk he has taken my daughter as well. It is… agony to hear such things and be able to do nothing-you are a father, Akuanis, you can imagine! Agony beyond words." Olin rose and paced for a moment, then returned to take a long swallow of his wine. When he lowered the cup his face was precisely expressionless again. "Well," he said at last, "we obviously have some measure of each other, Count Perivos. If for no other reason, I would give you whatever assistance I honorably can because of the kindness your daughter has shown me. So what do you wish?"

Akuanis nodded. "It is about Sulepis of Xis. You have fought against one of the autarchs before, and you have warned about the Xixian menace for a long time. Your suggestions were canny and I am skilled enough at what I do that I have no shame in asking others for help. What else can you sug¬gest that will help me save this city? You must know that the strait is full of his warships, and that already he has made two different landings on Hi-erosoline soil."

"Two?" Olin looked puzzled. "I had heard about his assault on the Fin¬ger forts-the guards were full of talk about it this morning. But what else?"

Count Perivos looked to the door, then back to Olin, his thin face with its two-day growth of beard pale and troubled. "You must speak of this to no one, King Olin. The autarch, although only the gods of war know how, has managed to land a sizable force at the northern mouth of the strait, near Lake Strivothos. King Enander of Syan sent a force of twenty pentecounts led by his son Eneas to reinforce the garrison on the fort at Temple Island north of the city, and on their way they met a Xixian army on the Kracian side of the strait. The Xixians fired on them, but luckily for the Syannese the autarch's men had not set their cannon yet and were able to use only muskets. Some of the Syannese escaped and were able to send us the news."

"And grim news it is," said Olin. "How could the Xixians have got there? Did they slip unnoticed up the strait?"

"I am cursed if I can tell you." Akuanis scowled. "But you can see my desperation. If they conquer our forts on the Finger we cannot keep more of their ships from sailing up the western side and reaching the great lake.

They will be able to seal in our allies there, especially the Syannese, We will face this siege entirely alone."

Olin shook his head. "I would not dare to tell you your craft, Count Perivos. Your reputation has traveled where you have not, and 1 knew your name before I began my… visit here in Hierosol. I have studied this autarch a little but not fought him, of course-the southerners I fought here twenty years ago were a loose collection of Tuani and others, and al¬though Parnad's troops fought with them, it was a very different sort of bat¬tle." He raised his hands. "So you see…"

"But you have been studying him a long time-is there anything you can tell me about this Sulepis, any weakness my spies have missed I might exploit? It goes without saying I will honor my end of the bargain with any news of your family and home I can discover."

"To be honest, I bargained only when I did not know you and feared you would not trust me otherwise-I would not knowingly aid the autarch and will do anything I can do to help." He frowned. "But I am certain a man like yourself has explored every angle." Nevertheless, Olin spent much of the next hour describing what he remembered of the Xixian military at war and everything he had heard about this young autarch, Sulepis.

When he had finished the count sat silent for a while, then put down his wine cup and smacked his hands on his thighs in frustration. "It is this news about Xixian marines in Krace that frights me most. He has ten or twenty times our numbers, and if we cannot be reinforced except over land, up the steep, steep valley roads, I fear that Hierosol will fall at last, if only from star¬vation."

"That will take months," Olin said. "Many things may change in that time, Count Perivos. Other ideas will come, or even new allies." He looked at him keenly. "If I were free, it is possible I could bring a northern army to help break the siege."

Perivos Akuanis laughed without anger. "And if I could persuade Ludis Drakava to do something he so profoundly does not wish to do, / would be a god and could save the city by myself." He reached down for his cup and finished it with a swallow. "I am sorry, King Olin. Even with our ene¬mies all around us, the lord protector still has hopes for using you to make some useful bargain-if not for your daughter, the gods protect her, then for something else. I cannot imagine any trade the autarch would make that Drakava would agree to, despite his strange offer for you. Whatever the

case, our lord protector is not done with you yet. Apologies, your Highness, and thank you for your time. Now 1 have work to do."

Before he could reach the door, Olin had sprung from his bench and grabbed the count's arm. "Hold! Hold, damn you!"

Akuanis had his knife out in a moment and pressed it against Olin's throat. "I will not call the guards because I still believe you a gentleman, but you abuse our hospitality, King Olin."

"I… I am sorry…" Olin let go and took a clumsy step backward. "Truly. It is just… you said something about the autarch trying to bar¬gain… for me…?"

"Hah!" Count Perivos stared at him carefully. "I assumed your sources had told you already. Sulepis offered the lord protector some piddling promises in exchange for you. Drakava was not interested."

"But that makes no sense!" Olin held up his fists before him, not as someone who planned to use them, but as a man searching for something to grasp to keep himself from falling. "Why would the autarch be interested in the king of a small northern federation who has never even met him? I am no threat to him."