The Temple of Sakuyo Chapter 1, a protector of the small quartet fanfic

This is a sequel to Lady Knight Volant, my AU continuation of Lady Knight, and will make precious little sense if you haven't read its precursor; I know LKV is ridiculously long, but don't say you weren't warned! And there is a reason both for the appearance in the Prologue of the full text of Kel's 'Note on Spiritual Warfare', though it inevitably rehashes some events in LKV, and for the typographical games.

There is of course no canonical description of Yaman, which while clearly based on Heian Japan has (like everything else in the Tortallan world) any number of anachronisms. The samurai system seems to have kicked in earlier than is historical, and there is no suggestion that Yamani emperors are political puppets, mere frontmen such as the Heian emperors soon became. So while I have, for example, tried to be reasonably accurate in describing physical Heian-Kyó, using correct street names (there's a map on Wikipedia) and some other details, and have looked for appropriate Japanese vocabulary, I have felt free to adjust culture (as by adding teapots to the tea ceremony) and to invent the politics and other pickles to suit myself. Similarly, while Kiyomizu-dera is a real Buddhist temple, dating to Heian times, the present buildings I partly describe are seventeenth-century.

Aa basic fact of all AUs is that if you give canonical characters very different experiences, they have to change. My Kel has grown from canon, but by this stage is not the same, having endured all that happened to her in LKV, won a war and a peace, and embarked on noble rule as well as a family. So to anyone complaining that she's 'out of character', of course she is!

Several of Kel's haiku from LKV matter here; for your convenience, they are:

The Emperor's blades in the morning at New Hope: petals of our blessing.

Sakuyo's laughter: very many hot needles and infinite grace.

Petals in water rejoice at the thunderstorm: another fine mess !

B'Jack, August 2015

The original upload used a text in which colons and semi-colons were set off by a preceding space, and I have just discovered that FFN's [unspeakable] interface stripped every last one out, leaving some wildly ungrammatical sentences. My apologies to readers who encountered the tale in this state, and the missing marks have now been restored, though without spaces.

B'Jack, December 2015

Prologue: The Best Jests Catch the Jester

New Hope, October 463 HE

Count Domitan of New Hope — and Clanchief-Consort Hléoburh, though he used that title only when he absolutely had to — looked with some trepidation at the wooden crate that had been delivered. New Hope did not yet have a printer, though Kel had covetous plans, so the order had necessarily gone to the overworked but very well-reputed printers at the City of the Gods, and they had been kind or sensible enough to put a rush on it. Given how long it usually took to create printing-blocks for each page they had actually been remarkably swift, but he wasn't entirely looking forward to the consequences.

In his soldierly heart Dom agreed with Lord Wyldon that anyone who managed not only to resist odds of better than six-to-one but to inflict a comprehensive defeat owed fellow soldiers an explanation. And Kel's commentary on Orchan, for whom he shared her lively respect, was superb — an incisive series of dry interjections weaving into the sure grasp of stone and mageblasts an entirely terrifying explanation of how immortal aid and ruthlessly trained civilians could render the merely formidable all but impregnable. But the 'Note on Spiritual Warfare' on which Lord Wyldon had also insisted was something else again, and had left Kel as grouchy as a bear with sore teeth.

Admirable and astonishing as she was in noble command, and much as he loved and lusted for her, Kel was not always the easiest spouse. Her awakened appetites were a delight, even when they left his mutilated leg aching, and her occasional self-conscious regret about her muscular, scarred body he could kiss away. But while he'd made long strides in accepting her endlessly surprising attitudes to the divine regard that hedged her about, and she seemed resigned to the fact of it, having to write about how she'd used it, knowing anyone might read her words, had stuck in her craw.

"It's all very well Wyldon saying that military historians will analyse the siege to a fare-thee-well anyway so I might as well give them the truth to work with. He doesn't have to write the blessed thing! And if he did he'd go as po-faced as an oak beam, drat his boots!" There had been a fulminating pause. "What does he expect anyway? And how in Tortall am I supposed to explain that I guessed the griffins would countenance Quenuresh's illusion because I'd seen Junior listening hard when Kitten was telling Stanar off about the Hamrkengingsaga?"

Dom had survived the period of composition on short, soothing answers, diversionary love-making, and attentive care to the various cravings Kel's pregnancy induced, especially for Yuki's tsukemono. But it had been touch-and-go when he and others she'd asked to comment on her draft made their various suggestions for additional remarks, and she had eventually, in a magnificent fit of bad temper, ordered her clerk to produce a fair copy including them all and send the whole thing to the printers. With results that now sat in a crate before him and promised a renewed gnashing of teeth. Kel had once confided to him, eyes alight, that Cleon of Kennan had compared her teeth to wolfhounds romping in the snow, and while he'd laughed himself nearly sick at the time he found a sudden appreciation for the ridiculous metaphor. But prevaricating never did any good, and with a sigh he stood and used his belt-knife to prise open the wooden lid.

The codices were handsome enough, at any rate — bound in what the printers had called quarter-goatskin with the title beautifully stamped in gold. Gingerly Dom extracted a copy and spent a few minutes leafing though the familiar text, eyes alert for any error and for the overall feel of the thing. He thought it rather magnificent, truth to tell, but he didn't suppose that would make Kel any happier about it, and squaring his shoulders he went in search of his wife.

Kel looked at the codex in her hands and at Dom's wary expression with emotions as boiling as they were mixed. Becoming the Protector of the Small had been the elemental's fault, and becoming a Countess ruling the largest single land-grant in Tortall the King's, but this responsibility was hers, and hers alone. Wyldon had nagged, and most of her friends had chivied, but she had set pen to paper and invited the absurd interpolations by all and sundry. She scowled ferociously at the quarter-goatskin binding.

People she knew would read this — her parents and siblings, nephews and nieces; the Council of Ten and her Scanran liegers; the King and Queen, Roald and Cricket, and for all she knew Lord Mithros himself. At the time she'd been guessing, hoping, and praying in equal measure, and none of that lent itself to the properly crisp, clear, and brief prose of a report. But Wyldon and Dom were right that truth was better than unchecked speculation, and it would at least spare her direct enquiries from the curious, which was everyone. So she'd buckled down womanfully to the task, trying to make it all sound sensible, but was guiltily aware that Dom had done a lot of Yes-my-dear-ing and desperation seducing — not that he'd found that difficult — by way of enduring her moods. She'd even properly consulted other witnesses to what had happened, only to be rewarded with absurd praises heaped on her aching head like coals of fire. And they wondered why it all made her want to scream?

The codex was fine-looking, she had to admit, and the embossed lettering a pleasure to run thumbs over. On her insistence the front and spine bore only Orchan's name and original title, but it was what was inside that mattered and she braced herself as she opened the volume.

ThePrinciples of Defensive Fortification

Orchan of Eridui

with

a Commentary on Immortal Aid

and

a Note on 'Spiritual Warfare'

Countess Keladry of New Hope, Clanchief Hléoburh

Grimly Kel turned pages. She wasn't displeased with the commentary, and liked the clear layout, with Orchan's excellent text and her remarks conveniently aligned on facing pages. But even now she had no idea how the Note would be received, and like a tongue compulsively probing a sore tooth began once more to read it, half-reassured and half-appalled by the authority the printed characters seemed to lend her words.

A Note on 'Spiritual Warfare'

Prefatory Remarks

My Lord of Cavall insists that I add to my commentary some account of the 'spiritual warfare' practiced against King Maggur's forces during the siege of New Hope in February 463 HE. I have been reluctant, because the matter is distinct from Master Orchan's and defies ready narrative, let alone reduction to his admirable clarity; but I have the deepest respect for my Lord's representations, and have so often already been asked to explain the matter that a published version seems a necessary self-preservation.

Two cautions are necessary.

The first is that far more than in my commentary I write here as a commander for commanders. Few of lesser rank will ever determine the disposition of fixed defences, but all soldiers should understand the fortifications they man, with their proper uses. 'Spiritual warfare', however, is in a distinct way a preserve of command, and while in my own view it is desirable that one's own rank-and-file appreciate any such strategy, its efficacy depends in large part on misunderstanding by the enemy's rank-and-file.

The second is that I acted at New Hope with the co-operation or benign regard of several kinds of immortals and the attentive goodwill of many gods. Both will grant leeway to mortals they trust or favour, and deny it to those they do not: what follows is intended exclusively for those who are sure they enjoy such status. Any who are not would best leave well alone.

Although the relevant events at New Hope took place within some twelve hours they depended on prior events dating back to the rescue mission of June 461, when the refugees of Haven were seized by Stenmun Kinslayer on behalf of the necromancer Blayce Younger, and the stolen children freed from Castle Rathhausak by night assault. What follows is therefore divided into sections – Prior Facts, Intermediate Developments, The Siege of New Hope, and Observations.

Prior Facts

1. I became aware of 'spiritual warfare' during the rescue mission. The idea had rich soil, including my experience of stormwings (to whom it comes naturally) and encounters with killing devices (agents of terror as much as slaughter) — but it was the elemental of the Chamber of the Ordeal and Irnai of Rathhausak who brought it into focus for me.

2. My own recklessness in riding into Scanra came from my duty to the kidnapped refugees and knowledge of the quest laid on me by the elemental, but neither could at first aid those who rode with me. They had no duty of care in command, and knights familiar with the elemental by Ordeal were inhibited by received beliefs about its nature and powers, while to others it had no personal significance.

3. This changed when they heard the elemental speak prophetically through Irnai of Rathhausak. That experience, and the aid of Scanran civilians that came with it, does much to explain the wild courage shown by all under my command in the face of very long odds, and so the success of the night attack on the castle. Twenty-nine assailants were able to overcome one-hundred-and-forty-nine defenders only because Scanrans moved by spiritual concerns showed us a secret way in, and the twenty-nine knew they had preternatural blessing.

4. Once the children had been rescued, and Stenmun and Blayce slain, it was imperative to destroy Blayce's workshops and study, and fire the only practicable method. Departing Tortall I had not known where the children were being taken, but realising the destination to be King Maggur's clanhome realised also that its necessary destruction would be a blow against Scanran morale and a partial challenge under blódbeallár, the law of blood and fire that governs clanchief-to-clanchief challenge. Being then no clanchief, and lacking any as audience, the declaration that would complete the challenge was beyond me, but I believed the partial challenge might be effective, especially if King Maggur's murder of his own liegers' children to build killing devices could be made known to his subjects. The arson was therefore made as complete as possible, with hall, stables, and every building inside the walls fired, not only the keep where Blayce had his rooms.

5. It will be observed that I could not have realised even the partial challenge without being aware of blódbeallár. I had been preparing to fight Scanrans for some years, and doing so for one; believing all soldiers should know their enemy as well as possible, I studied their language, culture, and politics intensively, and continued to do so throughout the war, utilising every possible resource, including prisoners' cultural (as distinct from military) knowledge. 'Spiritual warfare' can be practiced on no other basis — and nothing will ensure its failure more completely than contemptuous ignorance of the enemy.

6. Sir Nealan of Queenscove, healer on the rescue mission, adds:

"Countess Keladry omits to mention her own inspiring leadership, evident from her first year as a page and in full flower at Haven. Those who followed her into Scanra did so in love and friendship as much as duty, but not at first with any realistic hope of success, for the odds seemed overwhelming though honour demanded an attempt be made. The revelation of the quest the elemental of the Chamber had laid on her was as much a puzzle as an astonishment: no knight believed she would speak any untruth, but the idea of conversing with the elemental was beyond belief until it spoke through Irnai. Things thereafter were rushed and I can speak properly only for myself, but I agree with the Countess that the elemental's aural manifestation, use through Irnai of prophecy, and effective provision of aid from Scanran civilians — implying, for those willing to think about it, the interest of Lady Shakith in the affair — were critical to victory in the assault on the castle."

7. Count Domitan of New Hope, also a veteran of the rescue mission, adds:

"Seconded, with two additional observations. First, that the squad of Ownsmen I then commanded, like others in the Own and Army, were aware that Lady Keladry had proven exceptional as page, squire, and subsequently commander of Haven. We already believed her both superbly capable and favoured by fortune, and the elemental's manifestation came as confirmation as well as revelation. And second, that discovering the fate of Rathhausak's children, and the intended fate of Haven's, raised in all an immediate revulsion of heart, mind, and gut. Our horror at it melded swiftly with our wonder at Lady Keladry, inducing a strong belief that we acted with the gods' and other powers' blessings."

Intermediate Developments

8. I assume the major events of the last year of the Scanran War to be familiar to readers. The gods know there are already enough ballads and sagas telling of them, and the official history of the war commissioned by King Jonathan IV and the Council of Ten will eventually provide a more objective and detailed account. The developments that matter here, however, were largely personal; some ballads do touch on them but at best incoherently — which as they involve immortals and gods is no surprise.

9. By Lord Sakuyo's written testimony (in a note accompanying his wedding gift of the paintings of the siege) I was before my Ordeal as free of any god's touch as everyone believed. My efforts certainly felt like my own, and however they may have pleased or amused any god were without divine aid or sanction. But when the elemental of the chamber chose me for the quest to curtail Blayce's necromancy, it acted in concert with Lord Gainel and Lady Shakith, and thereafter I found myself subject to divine scrutiny of palpable weight.

10. Under varying circumstances arising from my command at New Hope during 461 I met and spoke with Lord Weiryn, the Green Lady, the Black God, the Graveyard Hag, and the Great Goddess; and with many at New Hope became one of Lord Sakuyo's Blessed, having heard his laugh among other High voices when shrines were dedicated. The circumstances prompting all this divine concern were (in so far as I understand them) specific to that time, and to Chaotic remnants of the Immortals War; what has general relevance is my growing awareness of having a degree of leeway the gods would respect.

11. By 'leeway' I do not mean indulgence. Had I done anything abhorrent to or in defiance of divine conscience my punishment would have been condign. What I do mean is that, with all due care for that conscience and my own honour, I might at need and to proper ends seek to cast the shadow of the gods upon the enemy without fear of being denied.

12. I take leave here to remark that the many gods' various senses of humour are typically taken into far too little consideration, and piety cannot in itself substitute for appreciation.

13. In the matter of immortals I have come to believe that (with one exception) the particular kinds of whom I acquired experience and friendship in building and commanding New Hope matter less than the principle of co-operation between kinds. For the record, the kinds whose aid I obtained were dragons, basilisks, spidrens, ogres, griffins, centaurs, stormwings, and darkings, and what I did depended both on their innate powers and on the particular skills of individuals among them. But anyone else at another time will necessarily have a quite different range of kinds and individuals available. What matters is the willingness and ability to piece together whatever co-operation can achieve.

14. The building of New Hope by mages, basilisks, and mortals, on the basis of a survey using dragon magic, and according to principles codified by Master Orchan three centuries ago, is a prime example. It could not have been done as it was, nor anything so swiftly, by any kind acting alone. Similarly, my analysis of the enemy forces during the siege depended on a combination of knowledge about King Maggur's methods, stormwing ability to read mortal emotions, and darking contact. Only in their concert could the potency of information available from experience and briefings be realised.

15. The resources available to me were exceptional. Quenuresh is the oldest living spidren and among the greatest illusion mages on record. Queen Barzha Razorwing, likewise, is the oldest living stormwing and a great power among her kind. But I repeat: without co-operation what was achieved could not have been, and the merged powers were substantially greater than the sum of parts.

16. That one exception is dragons. Like many living in the Royal Palace during the 450s I made the acquaintance of Lady Skysong, the Godborn's ward who bids fair to become a dragon of remarkable powers, yet is only in her first decades and in unfledged form and young strength significantly unlike an adult of her kind. But in 461, though then ignorant of it, through Lady Skysong, Lady Kawit Pearlscales, and my treaties with basilisks and other immortals, I acquired the dragons' attention with the gods', and was eventually to play an inadvertent and uncertain part in the resolution of some old business between them. Its details (of which I have in any case only the haziest half-understanding) are irrelevant here, but meant that my first contact with an adult winged dragon was with Lord Diamondflame.

17. Lord Diamondflame is by no means the largest dragon, but he is (saving only Lord Rainbow Windheart, as Convenor of the Dragonmeet and Eldest) magically and politically dominant. To deal with him is not only to deal with the deep knowledge of more than ninety centuries, but with what is in effect the executive power among dragonkind, and gave me assurance that if he were satisfied with my actions (and motives) no other dragon would take offence.

18. I add the obvious, that no mortal (save a Black Robe mage) can hope to fight any adult dragon. All are mages and impossible to resist by force, so should you stand in the least danger of falling foul of one the only sensible thing to do is to stop at once and open negotiations. The nearest representative of the Craftsbeings' Guild can establish contact with Lords Diamondflame or Rainbow; and thereafter matters may be resolved by polite and reasonable conference, provided the mortal party recognises and respects dragon concerns.

19. Beyond this, the chance to observe the interaction, at New Hope, of Lady Skysong and Lady Kawit with the Scanran prisoners taken at the Battle of Scything Wheat (in June 462), had alerted me to the particular attitudes of Scanrans towards both draca and wyrm (flying and opal dragons). In a fashion scholars observe but cannot explain, Scanran sagas, with which all adults are familiar, preserve memories of dragons as they were in the Godwars — beings of surpassing power capable of visiting fiery destruction as they willed. The pre-eminent power of dragons among immortals has naturally resulted in widespread awe of them, reflected in the cultures and stories of many lands, and in the Scanran case that spiritual susceptibility is for whatever reasons exceptionally pronounced.

20. The outcome of these intermediate developments was that at the commencement of the siege in February 463 I was aware of the following:

(a) that Quenuresh was a serious mistress of illusion;

(b) that griffins might be persuaded to countenance an illusion if it served both jest and justice while respecting divine powers and the regard of dragons;

(d) that the composition of the enemy forces on which I had been briefed — loyalists, coerced (through hostages from their clanchief's families or their own), and conscripted — was confirmed (by stormwings, via darkings) as an organisational principle informing their disposition in the field;

(e) that Quenuresh's and darkings' abilities to communicate across space and kinds would enable me, as commander, to consult my allies closely, taking careful soundings in evolving any plan or strategem; and

(f) that I had both the leeway and ample strategic inducement to deploy a fear of dragons against my enemy.

21. I take further leave to observe that the relations of the verbs to command and to appeal (in all senses) deserves sustained consideration by any who would attempt either.

22. Lord Diamondflame adds:

As our contact with the mortal realms is being renewed through our embassy to New Hope, clarity seems wise. We may indeed be contacted by darkings of the Craftsbeings' Guild, and will negotiate in good faith a resolution to any conflict of our own interests with those of mortals, should one arise. But beware — we will be almost as unamused by needless enquiry as by heedless conduct, and the Dragonlands remain as closed to mortals as any Divine Realm, save by specific invitation and countenance. I would observe also that the debt every dragon owes the Protector for her part in the creation of Drachifethe is not one that can ever be owed to another, and that while mortals acting lawfully and in honour may safely presume our neutrality towards them, that is all they may so presume.

23. Sir Nealan of Queenscove adds:

"Countess Keladry again omits to mention her cumulative effect as commander on the morale and efficiency of New Hope. Besides being trained in every contingency to within an inch of our lives, all under her command there had seen her forge treaties and bonds of friendship with immortals of many kinds, including Lord Diamondflame; we dwelt in a strongplace of unique, profoundly impressive design that we knew to be her doing; and we had seen her devotion to our safety repeatedly demonstrated under the cruellest circumstances. King Maggur and others believed a woman's command would be easy pickings; we knew it would be the nut to break his teeth. The strength of the forces eventually deployed against us was dismaying, yet both rational and less rational confidence remained extremely high throughout hostilities. Countess Keladry's obdurate and devastatingly effective defence during the first days of the siege, which set up the spiritual strategem she employed, rested on the morale she had created, and of which she was the lynchpin."

24. Count Domitan of New Hope adds:

"I came late to New Hope, in mid-462, as a wounded and discharged veteran, and fell into an astonishment from which I have yet to recover. The best fixed defences (and New Hope's are outstanding) are worthless unless properly manned, and the combined efficiency and morale Lady Keladry sustained were no less critical than glacis or palisades — the more so as we were until reinforcement in January 463 badly understrength for the size of the command. It is not easy to speak of such things, but any soldier who has been in a general combat will be aware of the way confidence can crumple or surge in many individuals at once, without obvious local cause — and as reciprocals, one's own confidence reflected in the enemy's despair, or vice versa. Whatever confidence the Scanrans brought to the Greenwoods Valley must have begun to ebb with their first sight of New Hope, and to have run out like water thereafter, so that by the time of the spiritual strategem all but the most hardened of King Maggur's loyalists were dubious of victory and primed to desert should (honourable) opportunity arise."

The Siege of New Hope

25. For obvious reasons the siege inseparably combined political and military considerations, and both dictated (beyond effective defence) the need to bleed the enemy as heavily as possible. Only by eliminating King Maggur's hardcore loyalists could the trap set for him by King Jonathan be made into a complete victory.

26. It is a maxim of Lord Raoul of Goldenlake that if you don't like the odds against you, you should change them, which in practice usually means a flexible strategy affording multiple defeats of the enemy in detail. The trick was to manage this against an encamped besieging force.

27. Besieging forces always need to supplement their food by hunting, and to gather firewood. I had therefore long planned a strike by concealed rockfalls against the Scanran commissariat as it arrived, with the intent of increasing their need to hunt, and had arranged with spidren and centaur allies resident in New Hope's woods that entering them would be hazardous in the extreme. In consequence, besides casualties sustained in the rockfalls, there was from the first day a steady attrition suffered by Scanran hunting and wood-gathering parties which ate at their morale.

28. The effects of this were amplified by the composition of the Scanran forces, and that factor was always in my mind. The particular mix of loyalist (dependable, eager), coerced (competent, willing), and conscripted (half-trained, reluctant) forces that were at King Maggur's disposal arose from Scanran culture and his chosen methods of rule, and was the greatest weakness available to me to exploit.

29. The position of King Maggur's loyalists was affected by the consideration that if they failed at New Hope they had nowhere else to go. Do-or-die despair made them more dangerous, but for King Maggur set up a conflict between his need to use them to crack open New Hope and to have them available thereafter.

30. The position of coerced troops was the most complex. Willingly loyal to their clanchiefs and obedient to command, but unwillingly loyal to King Maggur, to whom they were expendable but not lightly; bound and counterbound by oath, blódbeallár, and soldierly pride. How to disturb them spiritually was the most urgent unresolved strategy as the siege began.

31. The conscripted were in essence civilians, and little trained. King Maggur, plainly, would use them recklessly to draw the teeth of fixed defences, and they were the most likely to desert him given opportunity. This conviction was reinforced by the organisation of the Scanran encampment, with a cordon of loyalist companies that seemed designed to forestall others' night-time flight.

32. I was aware of that organisation because the Stone Tree Nation emotionally mapped the arriving Scanran column and establishment of a camp for me. The aid of stormwing allies as sources of intelligence beyond mortal observation was critical.

33. The Tortallan traitors who allowed themselves on the day of their arrival to be recklessly used against the fixed defences, before even the conscripted, were less of a bonus for King Maggur than I believe he (or Sven Bjornsson, commanding under him) supposed. Their slaughter in the killing field of the roadway, though exposing and using some of the bombs covering it, provided an object lesson for the coerced and conscripted — that to be in the van of any assault on New Hope was to die, swiftly and in great numbers.

34. As much might be said of the assault by giants at dawn on the second day, who must in the way of immortal allies have had substantial spritual value for all Scanran forces. Moreover, the manner of the giants' final defeat in that assault — the petrification by Var'istaan of the foremost, standing on the outer parapet, and its toppling outwards (to shatter explosively on the glacis) by Master Numair Salmalín — established an ascendancy of Tortallan immortals and magery that played a major part in the success of the spiritual strategem. I will add that the only ballad arising from the siege I am happy to recommend is that in Old Ogric known among immortals by its short title, the Song of the Surprise of the Petrified Giant who fell from the Outer Wall of the Citadel of Lord Sakuyo's Blessed known among Mortals as New Hope and so Proving during the Great Spiral of the Timeway that Concluded the Feud of Gods and Dragons concerning the Godslain of the Godwars.

35. Although I was not yet aware of its nature, the Scanran efforts to assemble what would plainly be a siege engine of great potency, evident from the second day, made it imperative for me to take as much offensive and disruptive action against the Scanran forces as rapidly as possible.

36. It was also clear that, prior to any further assault, our greatest danger came from very heavy Scanran volley fire; and the simplest analysis showed that the weight of fire was due to the use of a high percentage of the besieging forces as archers. As a volley weapon at distance the bow is the easiest of military skills to acquire, and outside cities many civilians have a basic defensive or hunting competence. Thus King Maggur was able to employ a large part of his forces to maintain what seemed a perpetual rain of arrows, and so wage a war of attrition I could not begin to afford.

37. The mere picket assigned to watch the corral showed the Scanran command to be unaware of our capacity to sally, but given the respective strengths of the forces no sally was then likely to be profitable, and very likely to prove a disastrous loss.

38. It was therefore imperative to devise a strategem that would maximally divide and weaken the besieging forces, and the obvious tools available were my immortal allies, including a great illusion mage, while the obvious Scanran weaknesses were the tripartite division of their forces and their peculiar attitude to dragons.

39. Plainly, therefore, the illusion of a dragon threatening vengeance was called for.

40. Equally plainly, the effect could be maximised if:

(a) the cordon of loyalists could be diposed of;

(b) the conscripted could be offered a flat choice between staying to swift doom and flight to safety;

(d) the illusion were enhanced as much as possible, as unexpectedly as possible, and in some fashion given the additional seeming of divine endorsement.

41. Effects on morale may be achieved at a blow, but are more often achieved incrementally. Bluntly, a one-two punch works better than a haymaker.

42. The spiritual strategem was therefore devised in what I always thought of as three acts, as in a stage play. The first was the illusion proper — by Quenuresh's grace, as large a dragon as she could manage, more closely resembling the violent dragons of Scanran saga than the reality of living dragons, enhanced in every way possible. Besides the use in seeming dragonfire of the runes ctheorh and yr, the fire-bow, associated with the vengeance and might of dragons, stormwings, griffins, and many birds took to the skies shortly before the dragon's appearance, shrieking in their own way, while every dog barked and a cat howled from the alures.

43. The participation of the People was possible because of the effect proximity to the Godborn has, and because she had gifted many at New Hope with greater wit. My sparrows were able to recruit wild cousins, and apparently spontaneous participation by animals usually unaffected by mortal illusions lent this one a spurious credibility.

44. The griffins also participated by escorting the illusory dragon. This was possible only because:

(a) the griffins (who honour dragons as senior kin) were aware I knew Lord Diamondflame, and that the defence of New Hope had received his blessing; and

(b) were further aware, through their son (whom I at one time raised, and who has since their relocation to the Greenwoods inserted himself irrepressibly in mortal affairs), that I proposed to visit on the Scanrans, in punishment for attacking a place blessed by a dragon, a reflection of their 'song-lies' about dragonkind.

45. Given griffins' innate opposition to falsehood (and the role of the Honesty Gate in detecting the coerced refugees early in 462) their presence made it particularly hard for King Maggur's mages and others who could sense the truth to proclaim it. But if all the enhancements helped, another truth is that the conscripted Scanrans at heart believed in it because they were by then strongly predisposed to believe themselves doomed and revile the king who had made them so.

46. The second act, in darkness, was a slaughter of the loyalist perimeter penning in the conscripted. It was necessary this be achieved silently, and it was undertaken by a mixed force of spidrens and centaurs, cloaked by Quenuresh, who cut open canvas and passed unseen into tents. Complete elimination of the perimeter was neither possible nor necessary — but it was sufficiently thinned and weakened that it could not resist any stampede of the conscripted.

47. The third act had to be the hammerblow, and was therefore designed to take maximal advantage of both blódbeallár and the leeway I was afforded by gods — in particular Lord Sakuyo, who likes his tricks. With the assistance of Masters Numair Salmalín and Harailt of Aili in waking the Scanran camp shortly before dawn, I was able to invoke blódbeallár by calling on Maggur Reidarsson by bare name. An extremely carefully worded gods' oath then seemed to endorse the vengeance promised by the illusion, though actually attesting to no more than the gods' detestation of necromancy and expressed care for New Hope; and was itself endorsed by chimes that were in Lord Sakuyo's amusement made especially loud, and accompanied by the hawk's scream of Lady Shakith. It only remained to inform the conscripted that the way was open for flight, and if they took it spidrens and centaurs in the woods would let them pass and supply them with rations, making survival a genuine as well as attractive possibility.

48. In the event, it worked to the very best of my hopes. The conscripted fled, almost to a man; and the coerced were sufficiently troubled by the implications of the supposed dragon and manifest chimes that after negotiations with King Maggur and Sven Bjornsson they formally withdrew from combat to await the decision of my challenge, in Maggur Reidarsson's death or my own. This was not the sensible aversion to being sacrificed of the conscripted, but proper (and under their circumstances very courageous) behaviour in accordance with blódbeallár.

49. The strategem was critical to ultimate victory, because it reduced the effective forces available to King Maggur for the assault, and ensured it would be made by his loyalists; who were slaughtered in the killing field of the roadway by blazebalm, pit-trap, dragonfire, and innumerable volleys. Only a skeleton guard was left around King Maggur and his commanders, who thus became vulnerable to a sally.

50. Although by grace of Lord Diamondflame I could use dragonfire in defence of New Hope, and had planned the illusion in full knowledge I might in a limited sense be able to make it real, I desperately hoped not to have to use that dragonfire. Any who have seen what it does to flesh and bone will know why. But in the event I had no choice, and although there was no material connection the real dragonfire seemed retrospectively to confirm the illusory dragon. This helped to make effective my call for a blódbeallár truce once my glaive was at King Maggur's throat.

51. So may my use, shortly before the assault, of a sunbird-fletched arrow to destroy the trebuchet, but I did not then relate its fire to the theme of the illusion. The gods and dragons probably had anticipated the connection, but to what end or interest I cannot say.

52. The role of the Stone Tree Nation in King Maggur's death was part of a different pattern altogether, and I regard it as a blessing of Lord Sakuyo, and perhaps other gods, that it served to compound the spiritual strategem and helped to sustain the blódbeallár truce. I did however realise in the moment that King Maggur's death at no Tortallan's hand forestalled any direct loyalist challenge in vengeance.

53. Sir Nealan of Queenscove adds:

"The fact is, Countess Keladry played the Scanrans like a rebec, and while I devoutly believe that more gods than Lord Sakuyo assisted her, I also believe that the gods act with and on what a mortal can offer them; gods-blessed to the helm as she may have been, what happened was her doing. I claim a minor proprietary interest, as the term spiritual warfare is my coinage (in discussions during and after Rathhausak); but she is the master of its practice. Very much against her will, I take leave to add that the bitter garden in which that mastery grew was the widespread and in some cases unremitting hostility to which she was subject as page, squire, and lady knight (commander). I do so because it is connected: the besiegers of New Hope included traitorous Tortallan forces, motivated in no small measure by personal contempt and hatred, and their summary annihilation on the first day of combat was an evident and deadly justice that underpinned the (illusory) threat of righteous draconic vengeance."

54. Quenuresh adds:

"The illusion of a flying dragon generating runes of fire was the most complex I have ever undertaken. As I have often found occasion to remark, the Protector makes life unusually interesting. The griffins' participation was a significant factor in my agreement; so too (though she will not thank me for saying so) was the Protector's demeanour in the immediate aftermath of her return by the Black God and his daughter. No greater agony and dislocation can be imagined, yet the Protector's utter commitment was unchanged. I have now lived more than sixty centuries and never seen the like in any other mortal. And besides, it is always wise to heed those the gods regard."

55. Kuriaju adds:

"The Old Ogric ballad to which the Protector refers was composed by Olimiariaju, familarly known as Earfiller and much esteemed. It has been added (by order of the Ogric Council) to the compulsory teachings of our young. I also endorse the Protector's remarks about it being the idea and not the particulars of cooperation that matters: her name among us might be translated in part as the mortal woman of their younglings who sees the great truths of farming, mining, and fighting alike."

Observations

56. All that is really at stake is the truth of two simple and time-honoured maxims – know your enemy and know your own strengths. And all I did was to devise the best plan I could, given the resources I had and the opponents I faced.

57. The only assumptions I made were that my enemy was subject to mortal fears and misunderstandings, and that all gods have a sense of humour that may be hard to appreciate but is an honest guide once found.

58. King Maggur's army could not have been so divided and reduced by any strategem had divisions with wrenching internal effects not existed in the first place. I told him before he died that he had sold his nation piecemeal to the gods, and meant it.

59. In truth, for all King Maggur's brutal efficiency, energy, and innovative cunning, his rule never achieved stability. Seizing power by force and holding it by extorted oaths, he was driven to war less by Scanra's need than by his own momentum, and like a man running downhill found that to stop would be to fall. To trip him was in the end a simple thrust, the work of a moment, however complex the elements that made it possible.

60. While gods and dragons each had their reasons for withholding objection to a strategem improperly invoking both, their mutual amusement at its essential justice and mercy — exploiting false belief and true guilt to preserve lives — was (I am certain) an essential inducement. While demanding all proper respect, both in my experience have long been bored with mortal fawning or fear and prefer witting temerity, especially on others' behalves.

61. A spiritual strategem attempted to a (largely) selfish end would therefore not fare well in divine or most immortal eyes, while one maximising benefit to all — the enemy's rank-and-file as much as one's own — will far more probably do so.

62. My inspiration was the sacred Yamani practice of practical jokes in the name of Lord Sakuyo, and whatever Sir Nealan says, what happened at New Hope, strategem and all, was by his own divine testimony only one part of his greatest jest in an age, that however it may seem of my devising was played on me as much as on all Tortallans and Scanrans, and over at least two generations. Only consider — a Lady Knight running a refugee camp asked a spidren mage, a stormwing nation, three griffins, and some dogs and sparrows to help her stop the killing by frightening the enemy with an illusory dragon — and you may begin to sense its shape.

63. My being a woman was thus relevant in so far as it contributed to the mortal prejudices and misperceptions against which Lord Sakuyo's jest was (in so far as I understand it) directed. It served and amused divine purpose to have a girl win a war by stopping it, and to understand more you should study the ways of Lord Sakuyo and the Great Goddess.

64. Lady Yukimi noh Daiomoru of Queenscove, a veteran of the siege, adds:

"While I believe Countess Keladry is quite correct in her perception of a very great divine jest that turned on her identity as a lady knight (and achievement of that status and of command, despite bitter opposition and to general astonishment), the best of Lord Sakuyo's jests catch the jester even as they work their good. If the High One is himself caught up into Tortall, so the Countess has been caught into a duty of care encompassing a mighty fief, and a creation that will fill all her years and outlast her grandchildren's — a Blessed jest in very earnest, as the best must be."

65. Lady Skysong adds:

I thought it was an excellent joke when I learned of it in proper detail from Quenuresh. The Scanran king did very bad things and Scanran sagas say many ridiculous things about dragons. Scaring the men who attacked New Hope with a most improbable one was a proper response, and the tale is much laughed at in the Dragonlands and, according to my grandsire, other Divine Realms also.

66. Quenuresh adds:

"Though I doubt it was ever intended to encompass them, some wider aspects of what the Protector rightly deems a divine jest are not lost on immortals. If Tortall's present society was surprised to find its foremost young knight commander to be a heroine rather than a hero, immortals have been equally surprised that such wise power should arise in a mortal, let alone one so young. It has not happened in two eons, and all kinds known to me have been instructively amused by the ironies implicit in the Protector's still unfolding tale."

67. Ebony adds:

"Darkings approved. Funfunfun."

68. Stenmun Gunnarsson, Clan Somalkt, who was subject to the strategem and participated in the negotiations with King Maggur that led to the withdrawal of coerced troops from combat, adds:

"I can see that dragon even now, and knowing it to have been an illusion does not diminish the shock of memory. Clanchief Hléoburh is right that sagas primed us, and that immortals' and animals' reactions sowed doubt of illusion despite assertions by mages and giants that it was so. But she is also right that it was as much an excuse for honour to reassert itself among clansmen as a flail to drive conscripted civilians into flight. The runes also were superbly judged, a reminder of dire justice for dire crimes, which I believe to have happened at New Hope when the truth behind illusion was fulfilled in the fate of the beserkir and others who died assailing New Hope in defiance of fair and generous warning. I would also call justice much of what the Clanchief calls jest, but Scanra too was profoundly surprised to see our late and unlamented king fall to a woman not then of age yet also a dragonlord, and remains so at finding her now a clanchief of the nation."

69. Lord Sakuyo, deserving as often the last word, adds:

My favourite daughter is a gem, isn't she? My jest needed a puissant female warrior, and Keladry-chan was shining so brightly to hand — so great in spirit she was much in favour with a dozen of my brothers and sisters, and a marvellous jester in her own right, not that she usually realises it. Only gods, of course, may appreciate my jest (and hers within it) in its full magnificence, though that shouldn't stop mortals trying, and we laugh at them still; as you would, reader, could you see your own face at this moment, and be the better for it.

"What?" Kel sat bolt upright in her chair with indignant astonishment. "Dom! What's this last paragraph doing here?"

"Eh?" Dom looked up cautiously from his own copy. "Stenmun's stuff?"

"No, after that."

"Um, there isn't anything after that."

"There is now." Grimly Kel held out the book and he came to look.

"Oh. My." The offending paragraph was not printed but in a casually beautiful small calligraphy. Walking carefully, Dom went back to check his own copy and swallowed. "It's in mine too, which I swear it wasn't earlier."

"Wonderful. More divine humour at my expense." Kel was too shocked to be angry, staring at Dom in consternation until both of them heard the laughing voice.

Think it through, daughter,

"Gah!"

But as she did so a smile slowly glimmered onto Kel's lips. "Well, I don't suppose it'll hurt sales. We'd best warn the printers even more copies than we thought will be needed, I suppose. And get a licence to print their own to Yaman double quick." Her eyes rested on the gorgeous calligraphy and her smile sharpened. "Everyone there will want a copy, and if there's any justice His Nibs'll get writer's cramp." She couldn't stifle her laugh at Dom's shock and felt the calm of Lord Sakuyo's amused blessing well up in her breast as she contemplated Yuki's and Cricket's reactions. Not to mention that of the king. And quite a lot of other people's too.

Suppressing laughter but not her smile, Thayet reverently closed the explosive little codex and looked at her husband. "And?"

"And complete mayhem!" Jonathan was half-smiling himself, though. "The commentary is terrifying, the 'Note' is extraordinary, and Lord Sakuyo's words will have half the population raving, never mind every last divine. I can't begin to imagine what the effects will be in Yaman."

"So? That's not your problem." Thayet leaned forward. "Jon, Lord Sakuyo says we'd be the better for laughing at ourselves. I've been telling you that for years. And don't you see? His words are the purest spiritual warfare — they make Kel's book a … I don't know, a working lesson, an embodiment of the thing. It sets his cat among our pigeons as surely as Kel set her dragon among the Scanrans."

Jonathan was arrested and his face grew very thoughtful. After a moment he shook his head slowly, as if to clear it.

"That's … very sharp indeed, love. A gift to us all through her, and a diet of divine ironies. Gods!" He gave her a rueful look. "I wish I was better at them."

Thayet was still smiling. "Try asking Shinko. She's very interesting on Lord Sakuyo, and on our Kel. And remember what she said Kel said to her at Lalasa's wedding — that she thought she and Shinko were both parts of a divine joke on us all." Her tone grew thoughtful. "I bet that's what Kel means about Lord Sakuyo's jest spanning generations. The gods must work with mortal possibilities as well as realities. Maybe what the Goddess did with Alanna was the model." Clarity flashed in her mind. "No, the seed. And this is another seed, for Roald's reign as much as yours, and he has Shinko to help him with it. I bet in one part of the jest this is her dowry as well as Kel's."

Jonathan slowly nodded, more resigned than dismayed. "Wisdom, love, though not a perspective I much care for. Nor for having my reign quite so summarily redefined."

"Live with it, and cultivate your sense of humour. Try thinking of all the fun you're going to be able to have over the next few years goosing people with presentation copies." Thayet gave an urchin grin. "What do you suppose Lord Wyldon'll think when he gets his?"

Wyldon very gently closed the volume, feeling the roil of shocked emotion, and found his uppermost thought a rueful appreciation of the value of lessons from the young. He rubbed his forehead, little finger trailing down to his scars, and was arrested as so often of late by the absence of pain. When Baird had treated him after the great sally for the sword slash he'd taken that bisected his hurrok scars, the healer had at Keladry's insistence, brooking no opposition, done what he could to ease the older wounds. He'd been too shocked by all that had just happened — and, he knew, too much in awe of what Keladry had done — to protest; and what this absence of pain meant, or his prior addicted pride to enduring it without the relief available, he was still discovering. The process was properly uncomfortable, and yet beyond all doubt an extraordinary blessing on a life turned upside down.

He had thought himself an honest and conscientious man, upright in the sight of the gods, but the magnitude of his error in judging Keladry, the rolling revelations of his ignorance, and the benison beyond deserving of her friendship despite it all had collectively left him reeling. Return to Cavall and its much missed familiarities had helped, though even here the visits of Wuodan and Frige were transforming his beloved kennels. And now this! Sighing softly he steepled his fingers and considered the grey-eyed hellion intent on his daughter, who had brought him the book on Keladry's behalf and was waiting patiently, seated in the other chair.

"She's done it again, hasn't she?"

Sir Owen of Jesslaw grinned. "With Lord Sakuyo's help, my Lord. It makes my head spin, but with Kel that's usually the point. Even Quenuresh agrees."

"I beg your pardon?"

"That stuff about the Protector making life unusually interesting? For an immortal that's strong words, and they're all at it." He frowned slightly. "I must ask Kuriaju about that ballad next time I'm there. It sounds jolly."

Wyldon blinked, but the thought came that he had never actually heard an Old Ogric ballad and Jesslaw had a point. "Only you, Owen." He saw the boy's — man's — pleasure at so simple a thing as use of his name. "But tell me what else you understand of this astonishing document."

"Of course, my Lord, but I meant what I said about my head spinning. Kel always catches us out on our silly assumptions. This is more of the same, and as best I understand Yuki's explanations that's what Lord Sakuyo likes doing too." The grey eyes became shrewd in that disconcerting way. "But I think he's learned a thing or two worth knowing from her about how to do it and the book's the result."

Long inured to Owen's grammar, Wyldon found that while his head hurt his heart didn't, and that he wouldn't be surprised if the cheerful impiety was squarely in the gold. To meditate on that would take privacy and time, but praise where praise was due.

"That's a very interesting thought, Owen. Thank you."

His smile was returned.

"You're very welcome, my Lord. And you should ask Wuodan next time he turns up. He's a friend of Dabeyoun's too, so he should get the trickster perspective as well as the divine one, and all with hound sense."

Owen nodded sagely, and Wyldon let his head rest on his hands for a moment. It was easier.

Jorvik Hamrsson looked around the Council of Ten, gauging tempers.

"So. We have all read it and shuddered. 'Played us like a rebec' is right." He sighed. "And yet, would any here willingly go back to the days of Maggur Reidarsson? Or deny that we have been done great benefit against our desires and to the humbling of our pride? Spiritual warfare indeed." He paused, then went on more briskly. "A true response will be required, but in the meantime I propose a Council order requiring every Clanchief, deputy, and chiefsman to read this. And I suggest strongly that we all make very sure our own heirs understand the principal lesson, which is that anyone in their right mind should treat Clanchief Hléoburh much as she sensibly suggests that all treat dragons."

There were rueful nods all round.

"The bards must read it too, Jorvik Hamrsson." Ragnar Ragnarsson, inevitably, grinned at his fellows on the Council. "I knew they weren't getting it right. And while you're quite right about the lesson, and about dragons, shouldn't we also hasten to thank Lord Sakuyo for his blessings?" He clasped great hands before him. "In all seriousness, that High One is already present among us, as among our new Tortallan allies, and he should not go unrespected even as he is heeded."

Hamrsson blinked. "That sounds like wisdom, however hard to swallow. What had you in mind, Ragnar Ragnarsson?"

"Proper shrines at least, here and at Somalkt if nowhere else." Blue eyes gleamed unnervingly. "And his Day of Jests in April, as they have in Yaman and at Hléoburh. There is a tradition we could profitably adopt, and enrich in our own ways. Think of it! All of Scanra jesting with the spring!"

They thought, and shuddered again.

Neal would have laughed for a week if Yuki had let him, but even she could hardly object to his joyous guffaws while they were thanking Lord Sakuyo at the shrine she maintained, nor to his happy promise to build Queenscove a proper one — a temple, even, as he more soberly suggested to his father later that evening.

Baird nodded at once. "Yes indeed, Nealan. I should have thought of it myself. It's only proper for Yukimi, and understanding more clearly how active Lord Sakuyo was at New Hope, for all of us too." He smiled at the thought. "And it's not as if there'll be any objections once this news gets about."

Neal grinned. "No. A lot of new Sakuyan shrines and temples will be dedicated, I'm sure. We should get first dibs on Master Geraint and the Guild team when they get back from Edo."

"More good thinking." Baird made himself a note. "Piers may forestall us, though. And the King."

"Second or third dibs is fine."

"Yes." Baird's voice became teasing. "I enjoyed your paragraphs, though I don't suppose Keladry thanked you for them."

"She was furious." Neal grinned unrepentantly. "Yuki agreed, though. And her paragraph just made Kel nod resigned agreement, according to Dom."

"You've corresponded about it?"

"Spellmirror, when I was in Corus. He was very wary about the whole thing at first, because Kel was so grumpy, but he agreed with Wyldon it ought to be written and finessed Kel into allowing all the comments to stand. And mine were some spiritual warfare of my own — Kel being so modest that she solicited comments meant she had to put up with those she got. Which were all true anyway."

Baird had to laugh. "I thought so, from my limited experience of her command. And I do agree that her evident modesty even when her name resounds across realms is as odd as it is astonishing. But you know, I'm back to feeling I don't understand her at all." He became reflective. "It seems to come in waves — I think I might have some grasp of who she is and then discover all over again that I don't have a clue. To walk so with gods and dragons!" He shook his head. "And yet she seems to think everything she does straightforward."

"Because it is, father." Neal's hands began to wave. "It was when she was a page, and it still is. Bullying's wrong, knights should fight wrong, pages are training to be knights, so punch the bully even if there's three of him two years senior. And New Hope was just the same. Not just that dragon and the trebuchet, but, oh, the corpses, say. You and I were flapping healers' hands with worry, Numair and Harailt were fossicking after blood magic and wondering what to do, and hundreds of people with all the relevant facts were hating hard labour under vile conditions to clear the roadway, making only the slowest progress, and dreading the morrow. And then what?" Arms waved with wild eloquence. "Kel takes one look and goes, 'Right. Sorcerer's Dance to clear and pile, raw power to cleanse, and a sunbird arrow to cremate. Chop chop.' And less than ten hours later it's all done." He scowled ferociously. "And the fact that no-one who saw it will ever forget it is to Kel merely a side-effect of self-evident necessity. She says she was simply getting on with her plain duty in the simplest available way. It's outrageous."

Suddenly he sobered and looked at his father with shadowed eyes.

"Actually, we're friends because we're opposites in most respects. Kel must have had hammering emotions after seeing her mother save those swords, but the Yamani training locked it all down tighter than a drum. And I had no emotional control at all, for reasons I'm sure you and mother understand all too well. So we complemented one another in the nature of our scars. But it took me far too long to understand … I still don't know, the steel of her goodness, maybe, which is what her directness expresses. See wrong, smite it. See the vulnerable, protect them. Now, with no excuses or expedient delay. Mortals, immortals, People, gods — it makes no odds to her. But even her mother admits she can be earnest to a fault, and what I really think about that thing" — he gestured to the book — "is that Lord Sakuyo's paying some very overdue wages. Those paintings were a first installment. This is a second."

An unholy grin lit his son's face and Baird felt his heart beat more fiercely.

"I wonder if there'll be a third?"