Chaldez, still recovering from the shock of hearing Sigmar speak of Arwarnhi, had difficulty taking all this in, but he nodded as though he fully understood.
Sigmar went on "There are two great Murak generals, Cregitzig and Jaejisir. Cregitzig is the more dangerous and therefore I will defeat him first, when my army is fresh and at its strongest. First, though, we will harrass him and weaken him, and deny him his supplies from Kroya. This last will be your task, Zakarrah, and to prepare you I have arranged for the Lord Gemle to instruct your men in archery."
Chaldez was unable to believe what he heard. "What are those general's names?" he asked. "I must commit them to memory."
Sigmar repeated them.
Chaldez dared not comment for fear of betraying himself. "Cregitzig and Jaejisir," he said. "Thank you."
Sigmar said "Your men - they will be willing to take instruction in archery?"
Chaldez was so thoroughly bewildered by now that Sigmar might just have been proposing that they be taught to fly. All he could say was "They are horsemen . . ."
"And so they will remain," said Sigmar, "but they will carry bows and arrows with their swords; you will perfect the lightning strike, descending on his supply lines, destroying his convoys and retreating into the forest. Can you do that?
Chaldez was pulling himself together. He said "It is not a form of warfare I and my brother are accustomed to, but we are adaptable. One thing, though: Prince Feldak and I have quarrelled and I would not want him in my command."
Sigmar shrugged. "As you wish," he said. Then he spoke of the Muraks again and the extent of their conquests, but Chaldez hardly listened. His mind was still reeling from the series of shocks Sigmar had unwittingly delivered.
Sigmar at last intimated that the interview was over. Chaldez was just leaving when he called him back. "Tell me," he said, "what is your brother's name?"
Chaldez was so taken aback all he could say was "Eh?"
Sigmar repeated his question.
"My brother? Why, he is . . . Zahkahn Jeng," he said, recalling the heroic nickname given to Dan during the Karandi war.
Sigmar said "Vanchis, you will have to remember that name for me! Zahkahn Jeng, is it? Do you not know him by another name? Regdag thought you called him Dan, or some such."
Forgetting for the moment that Sigmar's own title incorporated that same word, Chaldez remained very cool; "'Dan' is not a name I know of," he said. "Is it a common name in these parts?"
Sigmar laughed. "You know, do you not, that my own title here, while I am prevented by the Muraks from occupying my throne, is Danbedekkan?"
Chaldez, for all his internal distress, kept up his act. "Of course," he said. "I assumed it was just one word."
"My scribes would tell you that it is." Sigmar had stopped laughing; there was a rather menacing look in his eye. "In my own tongue," he said, "'Dan' means 'son of.' It is quite common."
"Then perhaps your karmikval Regdad misheard me," Chaldez suggested. "To those who are familiar with him, my brother is known as Jeng."
Sigmar smiled. "I will tell Regdag," he said. "He will be amused by his mistake."
Chaldez was so distracted as he walked back to his tent past the numerous camp fires that afterwards he was unable to recall which route he had taken. His mind was in a turmoil. Sigmar, a worshipper of Arwarnhi? Was it possible? And how could Cregitzig be a Murak general? It was madness! And on top of these two implausible revelations was the tricky business of Dan's name. Chaldez wondered if he had convinced Sigmar that "Dan" might be confused for "Jeng"? Did the two words sound anything alike? The speed at which he had called up Dan's old nickname gave him the same sense of satisfaction as he had experienced after his interview with the Bezane of Ajaktut, but on that occasion he had known immediately that his bluff had worked. This time there was no telling.
In his tent he found Dan waiting for him. Before he could speak, Dan said "He doesn't suspect anything, does he?"
"I don't know,” said Chaldez. "Regdag's told him he heard me call you Dan. I said it wasn't possible. I told him I sometimes call you Jeng . . . "
"Jeng?"
"Zahkahn Jeng. The name they gave you during the war."
Dan remembered it, and smiled.
Chaldez felt reassured and sat down. "I can't believe it," he said. "Sigmar worships Arwarnhi. He said so! How can that be possible? Arwarnhi is my protector, my guardian; I am his child. You remember when he first addressed me - after my fight with Havil. He's been my guide ever since. I don't understand how Sigmar can worship him too."
Dan said "The gods are a mystery. I've always said so. It's best not to question their actions. What else did Sigmar say - you were long enough?"
Chaldez knew there was no point pursuing the question of Arwarnhi, but he knew that his news of Cregitzig would have some impact. It did.
"A Murak general!" Dan exclaimed. "You didn't miss-hear the name?"
"I made him repeat it. He definitely said Cregitzig."
They tried to fathom how a Theigan general could come to be leading the Murak barbarians; they discussed Arwarnhi some more, and whether Sigmar had believed that Dan was called Zahkahn Jeng. And then their conversation drifted to other topics; to Feldak and Valtrern the traitor, to the ambush and their captivity. As they reminisced they drank, and as they drank they recalled more and more of the past. Chaldez felt full of warmth towards this, his oldest friend, and he realised that never before had they just sat together and chatted about the things that had happened to them. Their lives had been too full of urgency, perhaps, to have let them pause and look back in the way that they were doing now.
Retrospection had the pleasant effect of allowing the two comrades to talk about things in a detached way; they laughed at themselves; Dan even admitted that until their arrival in the Empire he had never slept with a woman. Chaldez talked about Tassin and described how she had first seduced him, on that rainy day in the forest when Dan and Pau had gone off to set traps. They laughed, they drank and they talked, and the night melted away.