‘You’re young,’ Kurik shrugged, ‘and steady work might keep you out of trouble.’

The door opened, and Dolmant entered. They all rose from their seats and genuflected.

‘Please,’ Dolmant said wearily, ‘spare me. People have been doing that ever since the overclever Queen of Elenia jammed me into a seat I didn’t really want.’

‘Why, Sarathi,’ she protested, ‘what a thing to say.’

‘We have things to discuss, my friends,’ Dolmant said, ‘and decisions to make.’ He took his seat at the head of the large conference table in the centre of the room. ‘Please sit down, and let’s get to work.’

‘When would you like us to schedule your coronation, Sarathi?’ Patriarch Emban asked.

‘That can wait. Let’s push Otha off our doorstep first. I don’t think I’d care to have him attend. How do we proceed?’

King Wargun looked around. ‘I’ll throw out some ideas and see how the rest respond,’ he said. ‘The way I see it, we’ve got two options. We can march east until we run into the Zemochs and then fight them in open fields, or we can move out until we find suitable terrain and stop and wait for them. The first option would keep Otha farther away from Chyrellos, and the second would give us time to erect field fortifications. Both approaches have their advantages, and they both have their drawbacks as well.’ He looked around again. ‘What do you think?’ he asked.

‘I think we need to know what kind of a force we’re facing,’ King Dregos said.

‘There are a lot of people in Zemoch,’ old King Obler said.

‘That’s God’s own truth,’ Wargun scowled. ‘They breed like rabbits.’

‘We can expect to be outnumbered then,’ Obler continued. ‘If I remember my military strategy correctly, that would almost compel us to take up defensive positions. We’ll have to erode Otha’s forces before we can go on the offensive.’

‘Another siege,’ Komier groaned. ‘I hate sieges.’

‘We don’t always get what we want, Komier,’ Abriel told him. ‘There’s a third option, however, King Wargun. There are many fortified keeps and castles in Lamorkand. We can move out, occupy those strongholds in force and hold them. Otha won’t be able to by-pass them, because if he does, the troops inside will be able to come out and decimate his reserves and destroy his supply trains.’

‘Lord Abriel,’ Wargun said, ‘that strategy will spread us out all over central Lamorkand.’

‘I’ll admit that it has drawbacks,’ Abriel conceded, ‘but the last time Otha invaded, we met him head-on at Lake Randera. We virtually depopulated the continent in the process, and it took centuries for Eosia to recover. I’m not sure we want to repeat that.’

‘We won, didn’t we?’ Wargun said bluntly.

‘Do we really want to win that way again?’

‘There may be another alternative,’ Sparhawk said quietly.