Free Alexander, Lloyd - Vesper Holly 01 by The Illyrian Adventure

against them."
    "And get killed?" returned Vesper. "It doesn't have to be that way."
    "How else, Lincilla?"
    "Work out some agreement that suits both of you. I'll talk with Osman. Not his vizier. Osman himself. I know he'd be willing to grant—"
    "Grant?" broke in Nilo. "Osman willing to grant?"
    Vesper had touched a sore spot. Until now, Nilo had seemed interested. Vesper had not reckoned on the Illyrian temperament.
    "Shall we beg a Zentan king to do us a favor?" Nilo angrily went on. "Graciously deign to grant what is already ours by right? We do not plead, Lincilla. We do not entreat. Our honor is worth more to us than a tyrant's charity. We beg for nothing. We take what is ours."
    Nilo's eyes blazed as he held forth about honor, justice, freedom, and shedding blood in a noble cause. The fellow did have a way about him. He impressed me—as long as I did not think about what he was actually saying. He would have been magnificent had he been living in the twelfth century, a paladin out of the Illyriad, worthy to be Vartan himself. Given the ways of modem diplomacy, I calculated he was about seven hundred years too late.
    He cooled down a bit after that. As for us, nothing could be decided at the moment. It was, Nilo explained, unlikely that Zalik would risk sending troops into the Petrosias, where he would be at a serious disadvantage, but he would harass the villagers for a while. Whatever we did, we must wait until things grew calmer.
    Nilo and Milan stalked out of the cave then, talking intently between themselves.
    "We'll have to stay here, Brinnie," said Vesper, undismayed at the prospect. "They're stuck with us."
    No, I corrected, we were stuck with them, on the wrong side of the law.
    "That depends on which side you think is right," Vesper said. "Isn't it odd— Osman says he'll bestow justice but won't let it be forced from him. Nilo's just the same. He won't accept anything that seems like a gift; he'd rather take it by force, for the sake of his honor. The more Nilo pushes, the more Osman will dig in his heels; and the more Nilo digs in his heels, the harder Osman will fight him. They're pulling at opposite ends of the same rope. What they'll end up with is a knot."
    We settled down as best we could. Over the next few days, Nilo was often absent, but his followers kept arriving at the cave, staying briefly, disappearing again. They were, in all honesty, not a bad sort. They good-naturedly shared everything with us and made sure we were comfortable— that is, no more uncomfortable than they were.
    Vesper enchanted them. She learned their names, laughed and joked with them, and plunked a dombra one of them had brought. To pass idle moments, she played dominoes or the Illyrian version of mumblety-peg, borrowing a nasty-looking blade from one of the rebels. Somebody produced a chess set, which delighted her. She took on Nilo, when he happened to be in residence, and trounced him at every match.
    "I wonder why they never let us out of the cave together?" she said to me.
    I, too, had observed that Vesper was obliged to stay behind when I strolled for air and exercise, Milan keeping a hard eye on me from the shrubbery. Silvia always accompanied Vesper.
    "Are they being careful of us?" Vesper added. "Or don't they really trust us?"
    For all that, she was not impatient to leave. One day, however, coming back from a walk, I found her sitting with the chessboard on her lap, turning the pieces around and around in her fingers.
    "It's interesting," she said. "Illyrian sets are all carved alike. It's traditional. The pawns are Zen tan and Illyrian archers. The bishops, viziers. The kings are supposed to be Vartan and Ahmad. ..."
    She put the two pieces facing each other on the board and studied them intently. "They fought each other centuries ago, and they're still at it. Osman's going to send an army against Nilo. ..."
    She stopped and looked at me most forlornly. "It isn't a game, though. Nilo could be— They could all be