“True,” said Loaf. “But only in the sense that nothing we do will last for more than a few years. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight to give the people of Ramfold some hope of relief from General Citizen.”

“From Mother, you mean,” said Param.

“We don’t know how much influence your mother still has,” said Olivenko. “She might be as much a prisoner now as ever.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to imagine that she isn’t guilty of any of King Haddamander’s oppression,” said Rigg.

“We know better,” said Param. “If anything, she’s the one goading him to be more and more cruel.”

“That’s not an unreasonable guess,” said Rigg. “But the ­people Umbo met spoke only of King Haddamander, just as they spoke only of the Rebel King and Captain Toad.”

“Meaning that Mother and I have become unimportant,” said Param.

“Meaning that war is the business of men,” said Olivenko, “as it always has been, even when women fight alongside us.”

“What worries me,” said Loaf, “is that we might move in circles here. Umbo went into the future and learned that there’s a Rebel King, and a Captain Toad who leads raids all over Stashiland. But we still haven’t decided if putting Umbo forward as king is a good idea, or that our war should consist of doing a bunch of raiding. The Sessamids didn’t conquer and unite all of Stashiland—the whole of Ramfold, eventually—by raiding. Raiding is what they did when they were still a tribe of horse-riding nomads from the northwest.”

“It would be easy to take note of the decision we apparently already made, and spare ourselves the trouble of discussing it,” said Ram Odin.

“I’m not quite sure that you are part of the decision,” said Param.

“I forgot that I was speaking to a queen,” said Ram Odin.

“What you forgot,” said Param, “is that you are not part of our company. You tried to kill Rigg. He may have forgiven you, but I don’t trust you or whatever advice you give.”

“He hasn’t forgiven me,” said Ram Odin. “Because he also killed me, and whereas I have no memory of my attempt on his life, he has a very clear memory of—what did you do? Stab me? Break my neck?”

Rigg sighed. “He’s teasing us both,” said Rigg. “And we’d be fools not to listen to his counsel, because he knows far more than we do about Ramfold and all the others.”

“But he also lies, and tells the expendables to lie to us.”

“True,” said Rigg. “So let’s ask another source of information. Olivenko, what would you advise us to do, as our student of military history?”

“I came with two plans,” said Olivenko. “And the guerrilla campaign by Captain Toad was one of them, though the name isn’t one I would have chosen.”