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the waves rumbled and slapped the high walls of the seafront; the world
smelled of sea salt and fire. And Balasar's mind was on the other side
of the map, uneased and restless.
"Coal's a good man," Eustin said. "If anyone can do the thing, it's him."
"Six cities," he said. "I set him six cities. It's too much. And he's
got far fewer men than we do."
"We'll get finished here in time to help him with the last few," Eustin
said. "Besides, one of them's just a glorified village, and Chaburi- Tan
was likely burning before we were out of Aren. So that's only four and a
half cities left."
There was something in that. Coal's men had been on the island and in
the city and in ships off the coast, waiting for the signal that would
follow the andat's vanishing. Even now, Coal and his men-between five
thousand and six-were sailing fast to Yalakeht. A handful more waited
there in the warehouses of Galtic traders, preparing for the trip
upstream to the village of the Dai-kvo and the libraries at the heart of
the Khaiem. The other cities would have their scrolls and codices, but
only there, in the palaces carved from the living rock, were the great
secrets of the fallen Empire kept. His war turned on that fire and on
the deaths of the men who knew what those soon-burned books said.
And he wouldn't he there for it.
"'l'he southern legions are ready, sir," Eustin said. "Fight thousand
for Shosheyn-"Ian, Lachi, and Saraykeht. My legion's two thousand
strong. Should he enough for Pathai and that school out on the plains.
"That'll leave you a full half of the forces for the river cities. Udun
and Iltani and "Ian-Sadar."
Balasar struggled with the impulse to send more of the men with Eustin.
It was the illusion he always suffered when tactics required that he
split his forces. Ile would make do with less in order to keep his best
men safe. Pathai was only half the size of Nantani, but Eustin was
taking only a tenth of the men. It was unlikely that word had traveled
fast enough for the Khai Pathai to hire some fleet-footed mercenary
company out of the Westlands, but unlikely wasn't impossible. Two
thousand more men might make the difference if something went wrong.
But he had the longest journey ahead of him-Nantani to Udun, and some of
it over plains where there were no good roads and the steam wagons would
have to he pulled. On rough ground, the boilers were too likely to
explode. The journey would take time, and so Udun and Utani and
"Ian-Sadar would have the longest time to prepare. They would be the
hardest to capture or destroy. It was why he had chosen them for
himself. Except, of course, for what he had tasked to Coal. Five
thousand men to take six cities. Five cities, now. Four and a half.
"We'll get there in time to help him if he needs us, sir," Eustin said,
reading his face. "And keep in mind, there's not a fighting force
anywhere in the Khaiem. Coal's in more danger of tripping on his spear
than of facing an enemy worth sneezing at."
Balasar laughed. Two armsmen busy folding a tent looked up, saw him and
Eustin, and grinned.
"It's like me, isn't it?" Balasar said. "Here we have just made the