The Stones of Nomuru

"Thank the Universal Law, my health is good. Is all well with Your Majesty's clan?"

"Thanks to our ancestral spirits, all is well ..."

The ritual exchange went on for over five minutes. Salazar muttered out of the side of his mouth: "With one of her rank, strict formality is essential." Then Salazar was nearly startled out of his skin as the Empress, in the midst of the courtly phrases, interjected in accented but understandable English:

"You are quite right, Sarasara; this is a penalty of my lofty station."

When the formalities ended, Gariko picked up one of her little glass-paned boxes with cranks for rolling the scroll within and studied the printing to refresh her memory. Then, looking at her visitors, she said in Shongo: "We are glad to see you again, honorable Sarasara. Are we correct in thinking that the female with you was formerly your mate? We find it difficult to be sure with Terrans; you all look so much alike. One cannot even rely upon your outer coverings to distinguish you, because you are ever changing them. Are we right about the female?"

"How did Your Majesty know?" said Salazar in ill-concealed amazement.

Salazar had a feeling that if Gariko had been physically capable of smiling, she would have smiled. She said: "How could we protect our realm without many sources of information at our command? Am I to believe that you twain have again become mates?"

Salazar winced at the question. Beside him, Kara whispered:

"What's she saying?"

Salazar waved her query aside. "No, Your Majesty. We are merely friends, and Miss Sheffield comes to obtain information for the newspaper on which she works."

"Send us a copy of her story when it appears. And now let us to business." Gariko called to the guards, "Go outside, all of you, and close the door."

When the guards had vanished, Gariko said in her parrotlike English: "I prefer that they do not hear me speaking Terran; they think that it violates tradition and demeans my high office. Sarasara, unless I can crack the crust of custom and precedent, which imprisons my people, I fear trouble from you aliens. But I must move cautiously, lest they accuse me of being un-Feënzish."

"Your Majesty's English astonishes me," said Salazar. "Last time you professed ignorance of the speech."

"I try to learn what I think I shall need for all contingencies. I am now working on Russian. Kak vi pozhivayetye?"

Salazar, whose Russian was rudimentary, thought furiously and stammered: "Khorosho—uh—spasibo!"

"Good! When I have mastered Russian, I shall begin on Chinese, to deal with the Terrans of Gueilin. Now to work. What is this about Hamashti's boundary markers?"

"Your Majesty, your boundary with Shongosi is menaced by a much greater threat than Miyage." Salazar told of his capture by the Choshas and of Prophet Kampai's plans for conquest and extermination. "Miyage has spurned my attempt to warn him, being under the influence of Conrad Bergen—"

"I have a file on Mr. Bergen," said Gariko. "It is reported that he intends to plow up the site of Nomuru for a construction project of his own."

Salazar opened his mouth to speak, but the Empress briskly continued: "I know something of your science of archaeology. With their reverence for tradition, perhaps my people could come to appreciate it. In fact, I wish to send a few likely youths to the Terrans to study the science, which our savants should have developed on their own long ago.

"Let us now review our respective aims, to ascertain how we can help one another. You wish to forestall Mr. Bergen, whereas my paramount duty is to safeguard my borders. The logical course for me is to strengthen the defenses, to refurbish the border fortresses and build others. My spies do not tell me that the Prophet is making cannon, without which he cannot capture the forts."

"A purely defensive strategy, Your Majesty?"

"It is the best that I can envisage. The Choshas are formidable foes, having the hardiness that nomadic life requires. Since their warriors are all mounted, they move fester than our foot soldiers. Therefore we always need an advantage of numbers at the point of contact."

"But, Your Majesty!" said Salazar. "What's to stop the Choshas from pouring into the Empire through the gaps between the forts and ravaging the country behind them?"

"As each band enters, we shall try to assemble enough troops from the fortresses and from the reserve units to outnumber them."

"Wouldn't it be better to occupy Shongosi and attack the Choshas in the Shongo lands?"

"I do not think that I could assemble a large enough force to give us an advantage in Shongosi," said Gariko. "You have not seen a mounted Chosha onset. Our musketeers can mow down the first rank of the attackers, but those behind keep coming and are upon our soldiers before they can reload."

The Feënzurin, it developed, did not have the bayonet. They were armed with long knives and tomahawks for hand-to-hand combat, but these were ineffectual against mounted Choshas.

"Affixing a knife to the end of a musket is a clever Terran idea," said Gariko. "I must command the army to investigate the matter; but that could not be done in time for this impending conflict. Some of our military people have always maintained that it was a mistake to give up the pike."