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preparations and boastings."
As always, the General was ready to reply. Skrritch waved a knife-studded green arm. The movement
was slow to her, awesomely fast to her attendants. They quieted, waited respectfully for what she might
say.
"I have not called you here to discuss timing or tactics, but to listen to a memory of a dream." She gazed
at Mordeesha. "In dreams, General, it is Eejakrat who is master. But I may want your opinion
nonetheless." Obediently the General bowed low.
"I am no jealous fool, Majesty. Now, of all times, we must put aside petty rivalries to work for the
greater glory of Cugluch. I will give my opinion if it is asked for, and I will defer to my colleague's ancient
wisdom." He nodded to Eejakrat.
"A wise one knows his own limitations," observed a satisfied Eejakrat. "Describe the dream, Majesty."
"I was resting in the bedchamber," she began slowly, "half asleep from the orgy of mating and conversing
with my most recent mate preparatory to his ritual dispatching, when I felt a great unease. It was as if
many hidden eyes were spying upon me. They were alien eyes, and they burned. Hot and horribly moist
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they felt. I believed they were seeing into my very insides.
"I gave a violent start, or so my attending mate later said, and struck violently, instinctively, at the empty
air. The cushions and pillows of my boudoir are flayed like the underbellies of a dozen slaves because I
struggled so fiercely against nothingness.
"For an instant I seemed to see my tormentors. They had shape and yet no shape, form without
substance. I screamed aloud and they vanished. Awake, I flew into a frustrated rage from which I have
only just recovered." She looked anxiously at Eejakrat.
"Sorcerer, what does this portend?"
Eejakrat located a clean place amid the royal droppings and rested on his hind legs. The tip of his
abdomen barely touched the floor. Minims, foot-long subservitors, busied themselves cleaning his chitin.
"Your Majesty worries overmuch on nothing." He shrugged and waved a thin hand. "It may only have
been a bad hallucination. You have so much on your mind these days that such upsets are surprising only
in that you have not experienced many before this. In the afterdaze of postcoital subsidence such
imaginings are only to be expected."
Skrritch nodded and began to clean her other eye, shooing away the distraught minims. "Always the soft
ones have managed to defeat us in battle." General Mordeesha shifted uncomfortably.
"They are fast and strong. Most of all, they are clever. We lose not because our troops lack strength or
courage but because we lack imagination in war. Perhaps my imagining is, after all, a good sign. Do not
look so uncomfortable, General. You are about to receive the word you have waited for for so long.
"I believe the time has come to move." Mordeesha looked excited. "Yes, General. You may inform the
rest of the staff to begin final preparations."
"Majesty," put in Eejakrat, "I would very much like another six months to study the ramifications of the
Manifestation. I do not understand it well enough yet."
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"You will have some time yet, my good advisor," she told him, "because it will take a while to get so vast
an enterprise in motion. But General Mordeesha's words concerning the morale and readiness of the
troops must be acknowledged. Without that, all your magic will do us no good."
"I will give you all the time I can, wizard," said Mordeesha. "I wish your support." His eyes glittered in
the candlelight as he rose to a walking position. He bowed once more.
"By your leave, Majesty, I will retire now and initiate preparations. There is a great deal to do."
"Stay a moment, General." She turned her attention to the sorcerer. "Eejakrat, I like not rushing the wise
ones among us who serve with you in this great undertaking. We have been defeated in the past because
we acted without patience or stealth. But I feel the time is right, and Mordeesha concurs. I want you to
understand I am not favoring his advice over yours." She looked at Kesylict.
"I am neither general nor wizard, Majesty," the Minister told her, "but my instincts say, 'act now.' It is the
mood of the workers as well."
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