"Wise man, " Oreb muttered, and took wing, soaring over pasture and wood.

I said, "Then my first piece of advice is that you resist the temptation to ask the advice of those less familiar with the situation than yourself."

"Good advice." Inclito clucked to his horses and made a little show of looking thoughtful. "I can't ask your advice about the war in the south? You don't know nothing about that?"

"Much less than you do, I'm sure." Nearly a week had passed since I had heard any news.

"If I was to tell you what worries me… " He paused as the carriage jolted along a particularly bad stretch. "If I was to tell you, maybe I could think better. It's this Silk. Not in the book, a real man."

I agreed.

"He's been hiring troopers to help fight. I said that? He has."

"Mercenaries."

"I knew there was a word. You know something about them, I can see that. He'll win, this real man they call Silk. His town'll win. These mercenaries he hires will have to look for somebody new to collect from. Will he let them keep the slug guns he gives them? He does this in the book, Incanto. You think maybe he'll do it again?"

I said, "I would imagine that most of them have slug guns already. As for those who don't and may be given them, I simply have no idea." It would be Hari Mau's decision.

"They're risky either way, these mercenaries, " Inclito mused, "whether they got slug guns or not. You'll say hire them yourself, but they're risky to the one that hires them, too, and we can't. We're not rich."

"Is Duko Rigoglio?"

"Pretty rich." Inclito cracked his whip. "He gets it from his people."

I recalled Councilor Loris's scheme, although I said nothing about it then. "If you can't hire the mercenaries yourself, I doubt that it will prove possible to prevent the Duko's hiring them."

Inclito nodded gloomily.

"You may, however, be able to postpone the fighting until he is no longer able to pay them." With more optimism than I felt, I continued, "As soon as they're in his service, time will be on your side. You said he had enlisted the help of other towns against yours?"