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Prince First-Born Splendor squared his shoulders and turned back to the tavern. “I will have my scholars draw up a treaty immediately.”
    *   *   *
    WHEN DARGER returned to the embassy tents with the treaty, Ceo Powerful Locomotive and Cao White Squall were waiting to confront him. But when he presented the parchment, their indignation turned to astonishment. The ceo snatched the document from his hands and read it through, scowling in disbelief. At times, his face looked inhuman. Then he handed it to White Squall, who was equally incredulous.
    â€œHow did you ever convince the prince of Southern Gate to see it our way?” she asked.
    â€œI lied to him,” Darger said. “Funny that it never occurred to you to do the same.”

 
    4.
    Those who never met the Dog Warrior may be scandalized that human women would be so strongly attracted to one whose genome was purely canine. Those who stood in his presence and experienced his charisma, however, understood perfectly.
    â€” EXPLOITS OF THE DOG WARRIOR
    TO A civilian, watching from a distance, a great army being marshaled is a stirring sight. It flows endlessly down the road like a dragon in its strength and energy and perseverance. For the long hours it takes to pass, always changing and ever the same, it comes to feel as substantial and enduring as a stone-walled metropolis, a state of being that must surely last forever. Nothing, it seems, could possibly resist it. But to those responsible for the operation, it is one continual catastrophe. Wagon axles break and teams of horses panic and stampede. Soldiers are crushed under the feet of colossal machines and must be treated on the fly. The reports of scouts, imperfectly phrased or inaccurately transmitted, cause battalions of men to go astray, and when those in the lead, realizing at last that there is no way forward, give the order to turn back, those in the rear continue marching, to the confusion of all. Supplies are not what their providers promised and food arrives tainted. Fords prove impassable, so bridges must be built. Oxen wander off. Nightfall forces the troops to pitch their tents prematurely, far from water and on stony ground. All these misfortunes, though regrettable, are perfectly ordinary and doubly so when the army is inexperienced and new to warfare.
    Thus it was that while the Hidden King’s armies were struggling toward Battlefield Pass, word of their progress had gone before them all the way to the ancient city of Peace, capital of the Land of the Mountain Horses. There, the ruling council had quickly abrogated their treaties with Southern Gate and, sweeping southward across its borders, seized Dynasty along with the rich basin lands surrounding it. Then, knowing that there was but one way north from the Abundant Kingdom, they sent their armies south to the city of Bronze and from there set about building fortifications in the valley through which all traffic must go. By the time the armies reached the pass, there was an earthen wall stretching across its narrowest point and the soldiers behind it were dug in strongly.
    At the king’s command, Ceo Powerful Locomotive threw his forces against the enemy’s defenses. But the mountains to either side of the pass bristled with snipers; streams had been redirected to create swamplike conditions below, limiting the land suitable for warfare, and the approach to the wall was dangerously exposed. Further, because the enemy had a great many cannons, the ceo was reluctant to hazard the weapons of the ancients, which, though puissant, were limited in number; these he initially chose to hold back for a later, needier day. Then, when he finally ventured to try them, he lost two spiders to the marshes and a crushing wheel to concentrated cannonade. Clearly, spies had been at work and the leaders of the Mountain Horses armies had devised ways of exploiting the machines’ weaknesses and neutralizing their