Flenser's member cleared the steps, and bowed to Steel, an incomplete gesture without other members to mirror it. The member's radio cloak shone clean and dark. The army was in awe of those cloaks, and of the singletons and duos who seemed smarter than the brightest pack. Even Steel's lieutenants who understood what the cloaks really were — even Shreck -were cautious and tentative around them. And now Steel needed the Flenser Fragment more than anyone, more than anything except Starfolk gullibility. "What news?"
"Leave to sit?" Was the sardonic Flenser smile behind that request?
"Granted," snapped Steel.
The singleton eased itself onto the stones, a parody of an insolent pack. But Steel saw when the other winced; the Fragment had been dispersed across the Domain for almost twenty days now. Except for brief periods, he had been wrapped in the radio cloaks that whole time. Dark and golden torture. Steel had seen this member without its cloak, when it was bathed. Its pelt was rubbed raw at shoulder and haunch, where the weight of the radio was greatest. Bleeding sores had opened at the center of the bald spots. Alone without its cloak, the mindless singleton had blabbered its pain. Steel enjoyed those sessions, even if this one was not especially verbal. It was almost as if he, Steel, were now the One who Teaches with a Knife, and Flenser were his pupil.
The singleton was silent for a moment. Steel could hear its ill-concealed panting. "The last dayaround has gone well, My Lord."
"Not here! We've lost almost all our cannon. We're trapped inside these walls." And the starfolk may arrive too late.
"I mean out there." The singleton poked its nose toward the open spaces beyond the parapet. "Your scouts are well-trained, My Lord, and have some bright commanders. Right now, I am spread round Woodcarvers rear and flanks." The singleton made its part of a laughing gesture. "'Rear and flanks'. Funny. To me Woodcarver's entire army is like a single enemy pack. Our Attack Infantries are like tines on my own paws. We are cutting the Queen deep, My Lord. I set the fire in Bitter Gorge. Only I could see exactly where it was spreading, exactly how to kill with it. In another four dayarounds there will be nothing left of the Queen's supplies. She will be ours."
"Too long, if we're dead this afternoon."
"Yes." The singleton cocked its head at Steel. He's laughing at me. Just like all those times under Flenser's knife when a problem would be posed and death was the penalty for failure. "But Ravna and company should be back here in five hours, no?" Steel nodded. "Well, I guarantee you that will be hours ahead of Woodcarver's main assault. You have Amdijefri's confidence. It seems you need only advance and compress your previous schedule. If Ravna is sufficiently desperate — "
"The starfolk are desperate. I know that." Ravna might mask her precise motives, but her desperation was clear. "And if you can slow Woodcarver — " Steel settled all of himself down to concentrate on the scheming at hand. He was half-conscious of his fears retreating. Planning was always a comfort. "The problem is that we have to do two things now, and perfectly coordinated. Before, it was simply a matter to feign a siege and trick the starship into landing in the castle's Jaws." He turned a head in the direction of the courtyard. The stone dome over the landed starship had been in place since midspring. It showed some artillery damage now, the marble facing chipped away, but hadn't taken direct hits. Beside it lay the field of the Jaws: large enough to accept the rescue ship, but surrounded by pillars of stone, the teeth of the Jaws. With the proper use of gunpowder, the teeth would fall on the rescuers. That would be a last resort, if they didn't kill and capture the humans as they came out to meet dear Jefri. That scheme had been lovingly honed over many tendays, aided by Amdijefri's admissions about human psychology and his knowledge of how starships normally land. But now: "— now we really need their help. What I ask them must do double duty, to fool them and to destroy Woodcarver."
"Hard to do all at once," agreed the Cloak. "Why not play it in two steps, the first more or less undeceitful: Have them destroy Woodcarver, then worry about taking them over?"
Steel clicked a tine thoughtfully on stone. "Yes. Trouble is, if they see too much… They can't possibly be as naive as Jefri. He says that humankind has a history that includes castles and warfare. If they fly around too much, they'll see things that Jefri never saw, or never understood… Maybe I could get them to land inside the castle and mount weapons on the walls. We'll have them hostage the moment that they stand between our Jaws. Damn. That would take some clever work with Amdijefri." The bliss of abstract planning foundered for a moment on rage. "It's getting harder and harder for me to deal with those two."
