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.”
Param was not surprised. “How can they block an escape into the past?” she asked.
“They dug a deep, wide pit,” said Rigg. “I can see the paths of the men who dug it out. If I jump us back into the past, it’ll either be underground, killing us instantly, or it’ll be in the midst of the men digging—who were warned, I’m sure, to watch for us to appear suddenly among them.”
“Interesting,” said Param. “And we can be sure they’ll have barriers made of stone or metal to keep me contained.”
“They promised,” said Olivenko, “to have no one carrying any kind of metal or stone larger than a single coin within a walk from the place.”
“It’ll be interesting to see what they’ve devised,” said Param. “They made their plans based on what they knew of our abilities. But those have changed. Noxon and I worked on my slicing. I can go backward, for one thing. And I can slice forward at such a pace that they could pass iron bars through me for hours without my heating up more than a degree or two.”
“And if they find some way to defeat that,” said Rigg, “remember that I have a facemask and I’m trained as a fighter now. Not just the boy they knew in Aressa Sessamo.”
“Armed only with a knife,” said Loaf.
“A knife in the hands of a masker is like a hundred arrows,” said Rigg.
“Is that a quotation from something?” asked Olivenko.
“From me,” said Rigg. “It’s a thing I said while approaching the trap laid by my mother and General Citizen.”
“I’ll write it down,” said Olivenko, “so other people can say it again, quoting you.”
“That’s assuming anybody ever reads anything you write,” said Param. “I’m sorry, Olivenko, but scholars are rarely read by anyone but other scholars.”
“But I’m a victorious general,” said Olivenko. “And Rigg is a great timeshaper. Even if they don’t read my works, they’ll want to remember him and his.”
“Enough,” said Loaf. “I think when we crest this rise, they’ll be visible to us and us to them.”
“Time for you to all drop back into the past,” said Param.
“Not yet,” said Loaf. “Not until we’ve seen the place. So Umbo can come back and hide and watch.”
They reached the crest and looked down into a narrow valley, with a deep pit in the middle. The pit was nearly filled by a large one-story house with a sturdy-looking roof.
“First time it rains,” said Rigg, “that pit’s going to fill with water.”
“Maybe they’re hoping it’ll do that, and we’ll drown while slicing,” said Param.
“Don’t point, Umbo. Just tell them where you’ll be.”
“The trees on the north end of the pit,” said Umbo. “I’ll pop in there just about two minutes from now.”
“We’ll notice the spot as we go down to the house,” said Param. “Thank you, Umbo. Thanks to all of you. Either we’ll come out of this with a treaty of surrender—their surrender—or we’ll have Umbo popping up in front of us to tell us not to do this.”
But Umbo was already gone. As were the others. Param and Rigg walked down the hill without anyone close at hand. A few witnesses had been sent ahead and were seated with a few unarmed men from Haddamander’s army on a platform overlooking the pit.
“There’s no one at all inside the house,” said Rigg. “No one in hiding places, not even in the roof.”
“I’d say Mother and Haddamander missed some opportunities there.”
“Or they’ve had good reports on Captain Toad’s ability to see where everyone is hiding.”
“You’ve never been Captain Toad, as far as they know,” said Param. “Square did the job, the only time they remember.”
“Ah, but he has a facemask, and nobody can hide from a facemask. Not if they’re breathing or their heart is beating.”
A voice came from the platform of observers. “Hagia Sessaminiak is approaching from the other side! Please wait to enter the house until she is there!”
Param and Rigg waited outside the open door. They could see right through the large room to the door on the other side as it opened and light streamed in. There stood Mother, looking as she always had, and a step or two behind her, General Haddamander Citizen, a bit more posh than in his old People’s Army uniform.
Mother and Haddamander stepped into the room. “Please come in,” Mother said.
Param stepped forward, holding tightly to Rigg’s hand. If she had to slice time, she didn’t want to have to search for his hand before disappearing.