improbability only to wake in the morning convinced once more. The
simplest answer was the best here, and he knew that, but still it was a
struggle to find the words that made his mind clear.
"On the field, we can't match them," he said. "If we stay here and face
them, we'll lose outright. There's nothing that can keep Cetani from
falling to them. But they have two weaknesses. First, the steam wagons.
They let them move faster than any group their size should be able to,
but they're dangerous. It's a price they're prepared to pay, but they
have underestimated the risks. If we start by breaking those-"
"The coal?"
Otah took a confirming pose.
"'l'hey aren't built for forge coal," he said. "And the men we're
facing? "They're soldiers, not smiths and ironmongers. "Where's no
reason for them to look too closely at what they raid out of your
stocks. Especially when they're pushing to get to Machi before the
winter comes. If we leave them mixed coal, it'll burn too hot. The seams
of their metalwork will soften, if the grates don't simply melt out from
underneath."
"And so they have to come on foot or by horse?"
Otah remembered the twisted metal from the I)ai-kvo's village and
allowed himself a smile.
"When those wagons break, it's more than only stopping. "They'll lose
men just from that, and if we play it well, we can use the confusion to
make things worse for them. And there's the other thing. They know we're
going to lose. They have the strength, and we're unprepared. The only
time we've faced them head-on, we were slaughtered. They know that we
can't effectively fight them."
""IThat's a weakness?" the Khai Cetani asked.
"l'es. It keeps them from paying attention. To them, it's already over.
Everything's certain but the details. That something else might happen
isn't likely to occur to them. Why should it?"
The Khai Cetani looked into the fire. "I'he flames seemed to glitter in
his dark eyes. When he spoke, his voice was grim.
"'They've made all the same mistakes we did."
Otah considered that for a moment before nodding.
""I'he Galts understand war," he said. "They're the best teachers I
have. And so I'll do to them what they did to us."
"And to do that, you would have rne-Khai of my own cityabandon Cetani to
follow your lead?"
"Yes," Otah said.
The Khai sat in silence for a long time, then rose. The rustle of his
robes as he walked to the window was the only sound. Otah waited as the
man looked out over the city. Over Cetani, the city for which this man
had killed his brothers, for which he had given up his name. Otah felt
the tension in his own hack and neck. Ile was asking this man to abandon
everything, to walk away from the only role he had played in his life.
Cetani would fall. It would be sacked. Even if everything went
perfectly, there might he nothing to rebuild. And what would a Khai he
if there was no city left him?