Harry Turtledove (Editor) - Alternate Generals III

"Imprison them?" said Moishe. "That's tempting-dear God, yes. But we can't do that. They're guests. We have honor, whatever they may be lacking."

"Certainly we do," said the chief architect. "Keep them out of my way. Deal with any of them who tries to start a war. That's simple enough, and within your authority."

Moishe bowed. Abraham Han Li had already forgotten him: he was deep the roll of plans that had been in front of him when Moishe answered his summons.

Moishe had thinking to do. He left his master to his work, and went to do it.

It was not easy to be given what he had thought he wanted. He could act now. But how? What could he do that any number of people in the Temple had not already done? He could send the westerners away-but that would not solve anything.

In the end he made a choice, the most difficult he could have made. He chose to let be. To wait and watch. To do nothing.

The westerners seemed also to have decided that quiet was preferable to a brawl. They curbed their disapproval and refrained from provoking arguments. They also, and this Moishe made sure of, did not explore the Temple outside of those halls and courts which were both finished and safe.

Three days before Tisha B'Av , Chen was waiting in Moishe's cupboard of a room when he came late to sleep. That was unusual. Chen visited Moishe in his workroom or found him in the Temple in daylight; he never came in the middle of the night.

His impudence was untarnished. His greeting came out of the dark, startling Moishe almost into dropping the lamp he carried. "I see someone is suspicious," Chen said. "There's a guard on every rathole."

"My master noticed that too many of our guests are of fighting age and fighting fit," Moishe said as his heart slowed its hammering. He set the lamp in its niche. In the soft steady light, he saw Chen sitting on the end of his bed. He sat on the other end, yawned and stretched and said, "I hope I'll be able to sleep tonight."

"Tonight, yes," Chen said. "Maybe tomorrow. The night after… probably not."

"You found them?"

The answer was in Chen's eyes before he said the word. "Yes. They've been in the mountains. They're coming down, traveling by night. They're devilishly good at hiding-they've ridden right under the noses of the Khan's patrols."

"How many?"

"There's only one of me, and they're spread across a lot of country. I think maybe… half a thousand."

"Half a thousand? That many? How in God's name-"

"There may be more. We've seen caravans considerably bigger." Chen paused. "How sure are you that they don't know about the caverns?"

"Not sure at all," Moishe said grimly.

"I think you should let slip that they exist," Chen said.

Moishe opened his mouth to object, but for once his mind was working almost as fast as Chen's. "My master will howl."

"Which would you rather do? Lose the Temple or save the greater part of it?"

"I can't do this alone," Moishe said. "Neither can you. We need help. How well do you know the Lord Ogadai?"

"Well enough to cheer him in a procession," Chen said. "Should we be as close as brothers?"

"Find him now," Moishe said. "Bring him to my master's workroom. Make sure no one sees you."

Chen grinned. "You don't want me to have an easy night, do you?"

"When I have one, so shall you," said Moishe.

Chen was already gone. Moishe sagged where he sat. He was truly, deeply tired. He had been up since before dawn, doing things that had nothing to do with the westerners.

If he was not to sleep tonight, then so be it. He pulled himself to his feet and drew a deep breath, and went to lure the dragon out of his lair.

Abraham Han Li was awake, dressed, and scowling at the plan of the ninth court. He greeted Moishe completely without surprise. "We've done pillars of gold and pillars of marble and pillars of porphyry. We've studded them with jewels and inlaid them with fired glass and precious enamels. For the Holy of Holies, we need something else, but God help me, I can't imagine what it could be."

"Simplicity," Moishe said without stopping to think.

"Simplicity," said Abraham Han Li. His scowl deepened. "Simple-simple stone-something very pure, very clean: alabaster, or a veinless marble-everything as white as the clouds of heaven… yes… ah! Yes!" He bent over the plans, sketching feverishly.

"Master," Moishe said. Then louder. "Master!"

He had done it soon enough. Abraham Han Li looked up, more puzzled than, as yet, annoyed. "Master," Moishe said quickly, before he could fall back into the trance of creation again, "can it wait? Lord Ogadai's coming to your workroom. The rumor even I had stopped believing-it's true. There is an army of westerners. They're coming here and they're coming by night."

The chief architect sighed gustily. "You think they'll try to slip in unnoticed. You need me to tell you where."

"We need you to tell us how we can lure them to a particular place."

"Ah," said Abraham Han Li. He reached toward the rack of scrolls beside his bed and drew out one, then after a moment's hesitation, a second. He tucked them under his arm. "Lead," he said.

They did not wait long before they heard the soft scraping at the door. Moishe opened it carefully. Chen slipped through it, then the larger, bulkier shape of the lord commander. Ogadai, like the chief architect, was awake, alert, and looked as if he had not been asleep when Chen found him. Somewhat surprising, but most welcome, was the one who came in last: Buri the engineer, brightest-eyed of any, and visibly curious.

Chen looked like a cat in cream. Moishe would praise him for his initiative-later, when there was time for such amenities.

Abraham Han Li looked up from the plans that he had been examining, blinking at the newcomers. "This is where you want to go," he said, pointing with a long-nailed finger, "and this is where you should begin."

Ogadai leaned over his shoulder, with Buri close behind. Moishe had already seen; he had no arguments, though he had no few doubts. He had been living with them for too long; he could not believe that he was right after all.

Ogadai looked long at the course that Abraham Han Li showed him. Then he grunted. "We can't match their numbers-too much chance of giving the game away. It will have to be an ambush."

"Then you need to go here," said Buri, glancing at Abraham Han Li for permission. A glance granted it. Buri pointed to a slightly different place than the architect had.

"But," Moishe said, "that's-"

His master's cold eye quelled the rest of it. "Yes, it is. It makes a great deal of sense-though it tears my liver to say so." He turned to Ogadai. "You'll need to get your troops in place soon, and as secretly as you can."

"They'll be in by morning," said Ogadai, "if you'll give us a guide who knows the ways."

Moishe did not wait for them to turn to him. He said, "I'll go. I can still shoot-I hunt when I can. Can you spare me a bow and a quiver?"

Ogadai bent his head. "We'll get you a mail-coat, too. Best you come with me. I may need you to make this clear to the men."

"I'll go with you when you do it," Buri said: "I built some of those ways. But I need to run another errand first. Swear you'll wait for me."

"We'll wait," Ogadai said before Moishe could take it on himself.

"Go," Abraham Han Li said. "All of you. What I have to do here, I can do myself."

For once Moishe did as he was told. No one knew better how little time there was to waste.

The caverns were the same by night as by day-perpetual darkness, and no light but what men brought into it. The shifts of workers were gone; they had finished shoring this weakest part and gone on to another, more distant and less vulnerable. Part of Buri's errand had been to see to it that none of them came back to explore or investigate. They were well and safely out of the way.