The eye of Yuen not covered with an eyepatch slid toward Menelaus and narrowed dangerously. “I commend that you are so driven by righteous indignation on my behalf that you forget the proper way for a Beta to address an Alpha.”

Menelaus recovered himself and gave the stiff-armed salute. “Sorry, Proven and Loyal Sir! Request permission to kick myself sharply in the gonads with both heels until I convulse and puke.”

Daae said dryly, “Denied. While the contortion needed for the maneuver would be fascinating to see, such an act is not deemed in the best interest of the High Command at this time. Your imagery is poetically vivid enough, but possibly leaves something to be desired. Perhaps you could employ your command of language to give me a report on recruitment.”

“Sir! Preliminary situation is favorable: I have approached the Hormagaunts and the Nymphs, and elicited promises of alliance. Together with us, that makes twenty-eight, of which only seven have fighting experience, eight if we count the Alpha Lady. The rest are noncombatants, servants, or women, useful only to stop bullets, and likely to panic in combat. The Witches are still an unknown factor, but there is a highly influential one of their number, named, uh, a long sort of name that starts with an M, who says he can perhaps sway them to our cause. There are thirty-one Witches, including a dozen Demonstrators.”

“Perhaps?”

“He is too cautious to promise the result, sir.”

Daae said, “Witches are always craven, but surely will join us if we seem to be the winning side.” The word in Chimerical for craven and opportunist was the same word. “We must make them think we will win.”

“There are also three revenants from the unknown period of history after the fall of the Hormagaunts—the gray twins and the strange-eyed lady with the scars on her spine—but I have had no chance to speak with them, or discover a common language.”

Yuen said, “I have observed the gray twins in the mess tent: they are unwarlike. By how they stand and move, the way they hold their eyes, it is clear enough. The other one is a murderess with much blood on her hands, or so I suppose: the dogs fear her.”

Menelaus said, “I tried just now to enlist the Savant Ctesibius from A.D. 2525, whom Proven Yuen wounded and sent to the hospital. The man is in the grip of deep melancholia, and will neither aid us nor the enemy.”

Yeun said, “If he knows of our plan, he must die. Besides, his demeanor is arrogant, particularly for an unmodified Kine.”

“Sir, he knows nothing, and will not stir himself to speak any warning to the enemy. I suggest we not spare the time and manpower best devoted to other tasks.”

Daae said, “For now, Alpha Yuen, spare the Savant. Beta Anubis, continue the report.”

“I have had no opportunity to speak with the Giant from A.D. 3034, whom I have not seen inside the wire since the first day, nor the Scholar Rada Lwa from the Antecpyrotic world. You recall the man whom you saw hospitalized when he attempted to reenter the Tombs, sir? You told me of him.”

Daae nodded. “Of course. He is covered with luminous tattoos, and looks like an apparition. At that time you advised breaking into the Tombs rather than attacking the wire.”

“He is also from A.D. 2509, an era earlier than that of the albino Scholar: I think he is one of the Knights Hospitalier, and a vassal of the Judge of Ages. Who can say the wonders he knows?”

Daae looked thoughtful. “He surely would know the whereabouts of the Judge of Ages.” And, despite that Yuen said nothing and showed no expression, Daae turned and said to him, “The Judge is no barracks-room tale. The man is a reality.”

Yuen nodded brusquely. “Of course, sir. Just as you say, sir.” He used the same tone of voice he would have used had he been convinced.

Menelaus said, “Alpha Daae! I regret to report that I have found no sign of the other Thaw of which you spoke.”

Daae raised an eyebrow. “I spoke?”

“Sir, you said that the man able to destroy whole aeons of history, the figure against whom I seek my revenge, was thawed from the Tombs, and abroad. You said he must be here.”

Daae said, “Only the Judge of Ages has the right to condemn the ages of history, throw down kings, and vanquish empires. I know he is here, because he must arise to defend his Tombs. Otherwise, they would have all long ago been looted. That we are here proves he is among us.”

Menelaus felt a microscopic prick of disappointment. He had been hoping Daae knew something of the whereabouts of Del Azarchel.

“Sir!” said Menelaus, astonished. “You say the Judge of Ages is the one guilty of destroying our period of history?”

“Was there not corruption among the officers, vice among the ranks? Had we not betrayed our founding eugenics principles, allowed miscegenation, permitted indiscipline to spread? Had not the Genetic Republic become a Caste-based Empire? Had we not betrayed evolution itself?”

“The Judge of Ages did not do this!” said Menelaus.

“Who else?” asked Daae. “Who else controls the Cliometric art?”

“What of Del Azarchel and his Hermetic Order?”

Daae made a dismissive gesture. “Children’s tales. How could such creatures exist? Even if they did exist, how would we know of them? The Judge of Ages must be real: his Tombs are visible and solid.”

Menelaus thought the man had an odd standard for deciding what to believe.

Yuen must have felt the same way. He said sardonically. “The handprint on the Moon is visible too, Alpha Captain. On clear nights.”

Apparently Yuen believed in the Master of the World, even if he did not believe in the Judge of Ages. Surprising.

Daae’s reply was more of a surprise: “It is a natural phenomenon, one which our eyes tend to interpret as looking meaningful. There is said to be a human face on Mars. Did a ghost named Del Azarchel paint it there? And then adorn the rings of Saturn with colors gay and bright?”

“Sir! Do you think the Knight is perhaps the Judge incognito?” Menelaus asked Daae. “Then we should break him out of where the Blue Men hold him.”

Daae said, “The Judge of Ages is a Next, one of those superior beings of whom stories tell. He does not need the aid of lesser beings.”

Menelaus said, “Every huntsman needs his loyal dogs, and every knight his horse. Sir. I suspect we will all have a part to play, if the Judge of Ages shows himself. Are we willing to do what might be required of us?”

Daae turned his face away and murmured. He spoke so softly that Menelaus had to increase the rate of nerve firings in his auditory nerve to make out the words, “Even unto death. Our race was found wanting.”

Yuen’s voice was shockingly loud by contrast. “Beta Anubis! You sound as if you expect this Judge of Ages to pop out of hiding! Where is he? Maybe rolled up inside some marsupial pouch hidden in the fat Witch-man’s belly. There is room to spare. Let us attend to matters more dire. Arroglint is defiled!”

Menelaus bowed and said, “Is the Alpha Steadholder Yuen willing to forgo his rightful and due yet vain retaliation against the weapon-defiler Ull for a short space of time, in return for my promise that a more permanent and satisfying revenge awaits if you delay but a little?”

Yuen shivered, his eyes burning pinpoints. “A wise man once said, ‘They who can give up an essential retaliation to obtain a little delayed revenge, deserve neither retaliation nor revenge.’”

Menelaus said, “Aha! But didn’t an even wiser man once say, ‘War is hell, so stick to the goddam plan, or else we shall all surely hang separately’?”

Yuen’s eyes returned to a more normal level of ferocity when he blinked and looked at Menelaus in confusion. “That does not sound like a Chimerical saying. Is that in the Field Manual of Approved and Zealous Thought?”

“Hm. Must’ve been added later.”