"You are too confident. They have not yet begun to strike back at us—but what if they do, Faraataa, what if they do? I ask you to remember, Faraataa, what Lord Stiamot accomplished against us."

"Lord Stiamot needed thirty years to complete his conquest."

"Yes," said the Danipiur, "but his armies were small. Now the Unchanging Ones outnumber us greatly."

"And now we have the art of sending plagues and monsters against them, which we did not have in Lord Stiamot's time. Their very numbers will work in their disfavor, once their food supplies run out. How can they fight us for thirty days, let alone thirty years, with famine pulling their civilization apart?"

"Hungry warriors may fight much more fiercely than plump ones."

Faraataa laughed. "Warriors? What warriors? You speak absurdities, Danipiur. These people are soft."

"In Lord Stiamot's day—"

"Lord Stiamot's day was eight thousand years ago. Life has been very easy for them ever since, and they have become a race of simpletons and cowards. And the biggest simpleton of all is this Lord Valentine of theirs, this holy fool, with his pious abhorrence of violence. What do we have to fear from such a king as that, who has no stomach for slaughter?"

"Agreed: we have nothing to fear from him. But we can use him, Faraataa. And that is what I mean to do."

"In what way?"

"You know that it is his dream to come to terms with us."

"I know," said Faraataa, "that he entered Piurifayne foolishly hoping to negotiate with you in some way, and that you wisely avoided seeing him."

"He came seeking friendship, yes. And yes, I avoided him. I needed to learn more about your intentions before I could enter into any dealings with him."

"You know my intentions now."

"I do. And I ask you to cease spreading these plagues, and to give me your support when I meet with the Coronal. Your actions threaten my purposes."

"Which are?"

"Lord Valentine is different from the other Coronals I have known. As you say, he is a holy fool: a gentle man, with no stomach for slaughter. His loathing of warfare makes him pliant and manipulable. I mean to win from him such concessions as no previous Coronal would grant us. The right to settle once again in Alhanroel—possession once more of the sacred city Velalisier—a voice in the government—complete political equality, in short, within the framework of Majipoori life."

"Better to destroy the framework entirely, and settle where we choose without asking leave of anyone!"

"But you must see that that is impossible. You can neither evict twenty billion people from this planet nor exterminate them. What we can do is to make peace with them. And in Valentine lies our opportunity for peace, Faraataa."

"Peace! What a foul lying word that is! Peace! Oh, no, Danipiur, I want no peace. I am interested not in peace but in victory. And victory will be ours."

"The victory you crave will be the doom of us all," the Danipiur retorted.