Visitors (Pathfinder 3)

She noticed that none of her own people showed the slightest sign that they were worried she would say the wrong thing or agree to too many concessions—or, even worse, needlessly prolong the war out of some point of pride.

“Hagia Sessaminiak wishes to meet with her daughter and her son face to face to make the formal surrender,” she said. “Whether her consort, Haddamander Citizen, should be with her is a point on which she will gladly bend to your will.”

“Such a meeting will not be pleasant for anyone, but it is wise for there to be a public ritual of surrender, and for Mother to do it personally,” said Param. “I commend her courage and generosity to our people. Let the time and place be worked out with General Olivenko or someone he designates. I will attend, as will my brother. Now you must excuse me. I am visiting wounded soldiers, and must not be delayed any further.”

With that, Param swept away, leaving Olivenko to deal with the logistics of the meeting.

That evening, in the meeting of the council of war, it was Param who broached the obvious problem. “Of course it’s a trap,” she said. “I’m assuming it’s an assassination attempt, though they must know it’s impossible to kill us.”

“It is far from impossible,” said Olivenko, “and you can be sure they’ve been wracking their brains for a long time, devising a foolproof plan.”

“And they are not fools,” said Param, “so it may work. Therefore, before Rigg and I go, we will publicly invest Umbo as Sissaminkesh, heir to the Tent of Light if both Rigg and I die.”

Umbo gave a bark of laughter. “If you die,” he said, “I might as well call myself Ring-in-the-Sky for all the attention anyone will pay to me as king.”

“They aren’t going to die,” said Square. “My Masks and I will never allow it.”

“You and the Masks will not be there,” said Param. “It will be only Rigg and myself, along with a few witnesses. There will be no fighting.”

“But if it’s an assassination attempt!” Square cried.

“It is an assassination attempt,” said Param.

“Or a kidnapping,” said Rigg.

“But between us, Rigg and I can get ourselves out of anything. All that anyone else would be is a distraction, someone for them to hold hostage in order to get us not to resist them.”

“No one can stand against facemask soldiers,” said Square.

“So far, you’re right,” said Loaf. “But imagine that you fought, and were victorious. Then everyone would say it was Captain Toad and his Masks who broke the truce and slaughtered Hagia’s men.”

“There will be witnesses!”

“Their witnesses will say whatever they’ve been told to say,” said Loaf. “And their supporters will believe any lie.”

“There has been enough killing,” said Param. “They will try to kill us, and they will fail.”

“Or they’ll succeed,” said Rigg. “Either way, they’ll be the ones who betray their word, not us.”

“You speak blithely of dying,” said Loaf, “because you’ve never done it.”

“Neither have you,” said Rigg.

“But I’ve seen it more often,” said Loaf, “and I’ve never seen any of my friends who was happy to do it. Or any of my enemies, for that matter—they seemed to be quite reluctant to begin, and it took a good deal of exertion to get them to change their minds.”

“We won’t die,” said Param.

“Everyone dies,” said Loaf. “But it’s also true that there’s no escort we could give you that would improve your chances. What we will do is station Umbo in a location that you know about, but they do not—right, Umbo? You’ll go there in the past and then jump forward?”

“Will I be able to see what happens?” asked Umbo.

“If you’re close enough to see,” said Loaf, “I imagine you’ll be close enough to be seen. What matters is that they’ll know where you are. So if things go badly wrong, but one of them survives, they can go to where you are and put a message into your hands, warning you to warn them about the danger. Then either they don’t go after all, or they go in prepared.”

“Good plan,” said Umbo. “But I also want to be able to see.”

“We’ll look for a hiding place that can do that,” said Rigg. “Once we have some idea of where it will be.”

It turned out to be a place that was far from any of Hadda­mander’s army camps, far from any major cities. As they approached along a road in deep woods, Rigg looked at the ­tangle of paths up ahead. “I think they’ve prepared this place especially for us, to block our escape.”