The Fireseed Wars

TWENTY-NINE

On this visit, Great King Lysandros was escorted straight through the White Palace to King Theovacar's private audience room by four of the King's Companions for a private meeting. Lysandros had spent the last moon quarter in one of the Theovacar's summer palaces, an old and drafty one. He was beginning to rue the day he decided to come to the City of Wind, as it was called by the Greffans. He hadn't known the meaning of the word cold until he'd been caught in the open in the streets of Greffa after attending a local banquet. Both his ears had turned blue and he'd almost lost two toes to frostbite.

King Theovacar, his eyes bloodshot around ice-blue pupils, motioned Lysandros to a chair. There were new lines in the King's face and it appeared as though he hadn't slept in two or three nights. The King bored right in, no formalities today. "We have been giving your words a lot of consideration. It has also come to Our attention, since Our last meeting that the Usurper Kalvan has sent out a large expedition to hunt our buffalo and espy our lands. We have encouraged some of our barbarian allies to attack their expedition. When will this false king's effrontery end?"

Lysandros had to make an effort to keep the smile he felt off his lips and out of his words. "The Usurper's ambition knows no bounds, as we in Hos-Harphax learned to our dismay. I have pledged my life and all my resources to his destruction and death. No kingdom, no princedom, no fiefdom anywhere will be safe until this bandit is captured and beheaded."

"I'm beginning to agree with you, Lysandros. Kalvan is a plague on both our Houses! I will make a treaty with you, but not with the false priests of Styphon. They have cheated and defrauded us for generations; I will not give them a foothold in Grefftscharr."

"You are wise not to do so, Theovacar. The priests of Styphon's House come into a kingdom offering gold and fireseed, but in reality they are golden chains and fool's fire. Soon they are ordering you and your people around, as if they are the lords and you are but a serf. I was forced to take their gold because my older brother, Great King Kaiphranos, was a witling, who neither tilled the fields nor fed the beasts. I inherited an empty larder and his mountainous debts to Styphon's House. One day our accounts will be balanced, in blood if necessary, but I will not carry Styphon's chains forever."

Theovacar appeared surprised by his blunt words. "I suspected it was such. You don't appear to me to be the kind of ruler that dances to another's flute."

"I'm not, but until I vanquish the Usurper, I have to act as their tool. However, this tool has two blades and after the Usurper is dead, I will balance my accounts. Until then, these things are best kept between the two of us."

Lysandros knew he'd said more than was advisable, but he also knew that Theovacar was a ruler who saw things as they were, not as he wanted them to be. The only way to deal with such a man was to use the truth like a bludgeon. If Theovacar planned to make friendly overtures to Styphon's House later, Lysandros could always dissemble his words and claim that he was misquoted or maligned. He doubted that would happen. Theovacar was not the kind of man to pawn his kingdom for mere gold.

"Your words are safe with me. I have little to do with priests in any case. What do they know of war?"

Lysandros grinned. "Very little, except for the Order of Zarthani Knights. After the winter ice has thawed, I suggest we strike Thagnor hard and fast."

"Agreed. My forces will attack Thagnor from upstream. My Navy will set up a blockade and destroy their ships."

"The Grand Host will strike from downstream."

Theovacar nodded. "I will provide you with maps of Thagnor and guides to show you the best routes."

"Yes, and we can send you fireseed and those arquebuses I promised."

"We will put this Kalvan in a vise," Theovacar said with a smile. "And we'll crack the nut of Thagnor until he pops out." He brought his hands together with a loud clap. "This time there will be no escape."