“Which doesn’t matter!” Talamir responded triumphantly. “Not in this case. What matters are the little things that make him Karsite, not the particulars. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all averse to some inaccuracy, even a little childish fantasy; if we can make agents who aren’t Alberich but are common Karsite folk, all the better.”

Dethor brooded over the idea for a while. “I’m not sure that could be done with the Lord Marshal’s men,” he began, sounding very dubious indeed.

But Talamir shook his head. “I’m not talking about the Lord Marshal’s men,” he replied. “If this works, we can risk Heralds. And we’ll have to; I suspect it will only work with those who’ve got Mindspeech.”

“Ah, hellfires.” Dethor was clearly dismayed. After a moment, however, he scratched his head and shrugged. “I suppose you’re right. And I have to think we’ll get volunteers.”

“I’d be shocked if we didn’t.” It was a depressing thought, actually—his yearmates, students, teachers, people he knew, rushing eagerly into the worst danger. It was bad enough for the Lord Marshal to send spies, but if the Karsites found Heralds on their soil—

Yet if those Heralds could pass as common Karsites and be able to discover and pass on what the Tedrels were going to do well in advance—

The alternative, though, was not to be contemplated. Alberich was not the only one who thought that the Tedrels were engaged in a campaign to drain Valdemar until it was so weak that one tremendous push would collapse everything.

They don’t know us very well if they think we’ll just collapse, Talamir thought, grimly.

:They know us not at all,: Taver said, although Talamir had not deliberately used Mindspeech, sounding just as grim as Talamir felt. :But the cost of holding against them, never knowing when the push is coming—:

It didn’t bear thinking about. :So we must know what they are about to do before they do it, so that we can appear to weaken without actually doing so. Then we can lure them into making their final push while we are still strong.:

That, really, was the only possible option. Sendar and the Council had weighed all the others, not that there were many. By emptying the treasury and conscripting every able-bodied man and woman in the Kingdom, they might be able to mount a counter-campaign. There wasn’t enough money in the entire Kingdom to hire a force equivalent to the Tedrels…