Hajjaj’s escort, a colonel named Muhassin,pointed to corpses from which vultures and ravens reluctantly flew as thecamels ambled past them. “Here, your Excellency, the Unkerlanters made a stand.They fought bravely, but that did not save them.”

“They are brave,” Hajjaj said. “Theyare mostly ignorant and ruled by a king half a madman, but they are brave.”

Muhassin adjusted his hat, which bore foursilver bars--one broad, with three narrow ones beneath it--to show his rank.Zuwayzi officers had trouble making themselves as impressive as did theircounterparts in other kingdoms, being limited to their headgear as an area fordisplay: like Hajjaj, Muhassin wore hat and sandals and nothing else coveringthe brown skin between the one and the others. “They are dead now,” Muhassinsaid, “dead or fled or captured.”

“It is good,” Hajjaj said, and the colonelnodded. The Zuwayzi foreign minister stroked his neat white beard, then wenton, “Do I understand correctly that they were not here in great strength?”

“Aye, your Excellency,” Muhassin replied. “Ofcourse, they are somewhat occupied elsewhere. Otherwise, I have no doubt, weshould not have enjoyed such an easy time of it.”

“Powers above be praised that we did catchthem unprepared to fight back hard,” Hajjaj said. “Perhaps they did not believeeverything Shaddad told them. My own secretary! Powers below eat the traitor! Ihad a scorpion in my own sandal there, and did not know it. But he did lessharm than he might have.”

“Perhaps it did not matter so much whetherthey believed him or not,” Muhassin said. Hajjaj raised an eyebrow. The broadbrim of his hat kept Muhassin from seeing that, but the colonel explainedhimself anyway: “If you were about to fight Algarve and Zuwayza at the sametime, where would you place most of your warriors?”