“Perhaps for some. Not for me. You’re here because you saved my life. I owe a life for a life. So you will become a guest of the empire. With the approval of the Princess.”

Ragnarson struggled to get into a sitting position. His muscles betrayed him again. Shih-ka’i helped him sit, propped him with pillows. “Better?”

“Much better. What happened? I had Hsung nailed to the wall, I thought. He was making an ass of himself. I should have had Throyes in my pocket before he knew I was there.”

“You didn’t know? Prisoners said as much, but we didn’t believe them. Lord Hsung was removed. With extreme prejudice, as some say. I was sent to replace him, apparently after you were out of contact with Maisak. I broke off the attack on Hammad al Nakir, as the Princess instructed, then detected you moving in the north. The trap I laid almost destroyed me instead of you. I hadn’t given sufficient weight to your horsemen, not having served in the west during the war. Had we closed with you earlier in the day, our places would be reversed now. In fact, if your final charge hadn’t succumbed to panic, the situation might be reversed.”

“They ran. I vaguely remember. The finest soldiers I’d ever led, but they panicked when it counted most.”

“Perhaps if their commander hadn’t been killed at the beginning of the charge?”

“Gjerdrum? Yes. Now I remember somebody saying he was dead. Maybe so. If he’d stayed alive to show the way…. But what does it matter? It’s over. It’s lost. Kavelin is lost. I played the fool, and handed all my enemies what they wanted.”

“We all err.”

“When I do, I do it right. One thing. I’ll never understand why you didn’t use the Power. You had us surrounded and pinned down. All you had to do was hit us with a few nasty spells. We couldn’t have done a damned thing. But you used your infantry, and almost got whipped. You must have lost a lot of men, and you need every one in Matayanga.”

“Indeed.” Shih-ka’i rose, began to pace. “I didn’t use the Power because I was ordered not to. The Princess had been told not to.”

“Who gives Mist orders?”

“She wasn’t ordered. It was suggested. By your wizard friend.”

“Varthlokkur?”

“He promised to remain uninvolved as long as we didn’t call on the Power. I didn’t understand it then, and I don’t pretend to now. The man has been at your side for a decade. Why did he abandon you?”

“Personal conflict, I guess. But I don’t understand either. So. Here I am. Prisoner for life, eh?”