‘It looks to me like she’s very hungry, Rabbit,’ Torl said. ‘You really ought to feed her more often, you know.’
Rabbit grinned broadly. ‘She earned her keep today,’ he said.
‘When Narasan and Cap’n Sorgan see this, they’ll know for certain that all that shiny yellow sand out there’s nothing but imitation gold. I think Longbow’s friend just won this war for us.’
It was about mid-afternoon when Longbow and his two friends came back down the steep west ridge into the grassy basin, and Zelana and Veltan were waiting for them near the geyser.
‘Well?’ Zelana asked.
Grinning broadly, Rabbit held up the pouch covered with flakes of imitation gold. ‘Does this answer that question?’ he asked. ‘It’s pretty enough, but it’s sure not gold.’
‘I think we’d better reconsider a few things, sister mine,’ Veltan said. ‘I don’t see any advantage to the Vlagh in this hoax. If we stop pestering those church soldiers and let them finish their ramp, they’ll go crazy when they see what appears to be gold stretching out as far as the eye can reach. They’ll rush on down the slope and trample the servants of the Vlagh into the ground just to get to something that isn’t really worth anything at all.’
Zelana’s expression became sort of rueful. ‘It seems that I’m trying to make a career out of jumping to conclusions,’ she admitted. ‘The Vlagh isn’t the only deceiver in the world. This “imitation gold” might just turn out to be worth more than the real thing. I think you’d better go have a talk with Narasan, baby brother. Tell him to send word to Padan. We definitely don’t want anybody to interfere with those church soldiers. We want them up here?
‘Right!’ Veltan agreed enthusiastically.
The sun had gone down - the real sun, Longbow reminded himself as Dahlaine’s toy sun grew brighter and brighter over the now glittering slope. Narasan had called them all together atop the central tower of Gunda’s wall to consider some options.
‘Are you absolutely certain sure that it’s only iron, Rabbit?’ Sorgan Hook-Beak asked in an almost plaintive tone.
‘The lodestone sort of proved that, Cap’n,’ Rabbit explained. ‘It loves iron, but gold doesn’t interest it one little bit.’
‘It looks like I’ve blundered here, Veltan,’ Narasan admitted. ‘I was so certain that those church armies had come here to punish me that the notion that they might be here to help never occurred to me.’
‘Punish?’ Sorgan asked curiously.
‘Some church armies tricked us once down in the southern part of the empire,’ Gunda explained. ‘One of the Commander’s relatives was killed, and so he was very upset. Padan and I came up with a way to even things out, though, and the church didn’t like it one little bit.’
‘Just what was it that you did to make them willing to come this far to kick you around?’
Gunda shrugged. ‘We hired several professional murderers, and they filled a few graveyards with high-ranking churchmen and assorted church army commanders.’
‘Are there really people down in the Empire who make their living by killing people?’ Sorgan seemed a bit surprised. ‘We usually do our own killing in the Land of Maag.’
‘Professionals are much neater,’ Gunda said, ‘and they’ll kill the ones you want to get rid of any way you want them to - either quick and quiet, or slow and noisy. There’s one murderer down in the Empire who’ll guarantee that it’ll take your enemy at least two days to finish dying. If the enemy dies any sooner, the murderer won’t take your money.’
‘Now that’s what I’d call a real professional, cousin,’ Torl said admiringly.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever disliked anybody quite that much,’ Sorgan said.
‘Anyway,’ Narasan continued, ‘whether they hate us or not, when they see all that imitation gold out there, that’s the only thing they’ll be able to think about.’
‘I think the key word there is “when”, Narasan,’ Sorgan added. ‘Dropping boulders on them definitely slowed them down to a crawl. It could take them months to finish that ramp, and we’ll have to hold back the bug-people until the church armies get up here to take over for us.’
‘I know,’ Narasan replied glumly. ‘I’d be more than happy to listen to any suggestions.’
‘Maybe we should help them,’ Omago the farmer said somewhat hesitantly.
‘What exactly did you have in mind?’ Veltan asked.
‘Well, they’ll need a lot of big rocks to finish that ramp, but there aren’t really all that many boulders down there at the foot of the falls, because the river’s worn most of them down over the years. If our people kept on pushing boulders off the cliff, those people down below would think that we were still trying to stop them, but what we’ll really be doing will be providing them with exactly what they need to finish the job.’
‘I like it!’ Sorgan exclaimed. ‘They don’t know it, but those people down there are really our friends, and it’s always nice to help a friend - particularly if he’s going to do all the dying for us.’
‘In line with that thought, I think we should modify Gunda’s wall here just a bit,’ Longbow added.
‘It’s a very good wall, Longbow,’ Gunda protested.
‘That’s the trouble, friend Gunda. It’s too good. When our friends from the south reach your wall, it’ll take them quite some time to get over it in enough numbers to do us very much good. I’d say that we’ll need a gap about a hundred feet wide for that many of them to charge through.’
‘Why don’t you gentlemen let me take care of that?’ Veltan suggested. ‘Leave Gunda’s wall right where it is until our newfound friends come rushing up here to grab all of that imitation gold out there. Then I’ll make a nice wide opening for them so that they can go on down and take over the dying for us.’
‘And just how did you plan to do that, Veltan?’ Gunda demanded.
‘Are you sure you really want to know, Gunda?’
‘Ah - now that you mention it, Veltan, I guess I really don’t - not too much, anyway.’
‘Are you quite certain that the bug-people will continue the foolish business of going back home every evening when the real sun goes down?’ Narasan asked Veltan and Zelana a bit later.