The King frowned. “Trouble? What the hell are you doing back? They didn’t throw you out already, did they?”

“No. Not yet. No. I came to beg for help. Again.”

“What for? You got what you wanted.”

“This is something a little different. I got all the troubles, too. I can’t handle this on my own.”

The King settled himself opposite her. His face became more empathetic. “Go on.”

“It’s our problem in the east. I got a close-up look. It was worse than I expected. Lord Ssu-ma thought he was on top of things, but… Bragi, he’s got his back against the wall. He’s been driven back hundreds of miles to an old fortress town called Lioantung. He can’t go any farther. He’s going to make a stand with what’s left of Northern and Eastern Armies.”

Bragi looked puzzled. “So? What does that mean to me?”

“He won’t just lose a battle if he loses Lioantung. He won’t just lose Shinsan. The man is fighting for the world. It lives or dies with him.”

“Oh, really!” Inger said. “Mist, that’s just too much to swallow.”

Mist ignored her. She did not like the woman. She spoke directly to the King, though she answered the Queen’s predictable objection. “Bragi, Lioantung is the last obstacle between the Deliverer and the heart of the empire. The last defense of regions where people are packed together several thousand to the square mile. If Lioantung goes, there’s nothing to stop the Deliverer from devouring the populations of whole provinces.”

“All right. You’ve got me curious. Start from the beginning. I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She went back and began with Lord Kuo’s intuition about the eastern desert and his having sent Lord Ssu-ma Shih-ka’i to take command. She meant to edit, but found everything gushing out, without any control. She told every detail she knew, up through her recent visit to Lioantung.

“Armies of dead men?” Bragi murmured. “Really?” He seemed unable to choose between horror and amusement. “And he can take over anyone they kill, too?”

“Exactly. He can even control the living if they’re not protected, though it’s harder. Animals, too.”

“The dead rising against the living. It’s a Trolledyngjan draug tale come true… Up where I was raised the old folks liked to scare us kids with tales about the dead coming down from the mountains or out of the sea to carry us off. Draugs, we called them. The walking dead. But those were just wintertime stories.” He closed his eyes and looked thoughtful for half a minute. “Mist?”

“Yes?”

“You haven’t said why you came to me. You’ve got the toughest army in the world.”

“It’s all tied up. And because the Deliverer is going to come after you when he’s finished with Shinsan.”

“Me? Me personally, or just the west in general?”

“You. Very personally.”

“Why? I’ve put a lot of people in the ground, but none that would want to get even so bad they’d get back up again.”