Immediately, Delaney wished she could take back her words. How could she let her temper get out of control at this most crucial of all moments?

A handsome man, with flashing blue eyes, a dense but neatly trimmed dark beard, a manner confident, controlled, and disciplined without being a slave to obsession, rose from behind a makeshift, paper-strewn desk in the center of the tent. A bright sun beat down on the translucent canvas, making the room uncomfortably warm. Delaney had not yet seen a smile from Stargo, commander of the Brooking forces encamped near the Ordunese border east of the forest. Thanks to her own overzealousness in selling her story and her temper upon Strago’s blunt skepticism, the odds were slim she would be treated to that vision in the foreseeable future.

Fixing her with a parental glare, he said, “Folks that come begging favors oughtn’t go flinging around names like ‘ignorant butthead’ at them that has the favors they want. I will tell you straight out, ma’m, I don’t hold with folks insulting officers in front of their men.”

“I’m sorry,” pleaded Delaney, wringing her hands. “You’re right. My bad! I screwed up totally. I don’t know what got into me.” She had expected the general to be more intimidating and sophisticated; maybe that's what was throwing her off, causing her to be too familiar. Sassy, even. Roland had told her once that the Brookings were not real big on grammar, but she had not imagined that would apply to someone in such a powerful position.

“Scolding a general in his own camp! Never heard tell of such a thing. And for my own education, what it is a `redneck’?” he asked.

“Okay, why don’t we just forget that happened? It just, you know, came out. I got a little upset, that’s all. Look, I said I’m sorry.”

Stargo remained standing, leaning on his desk. “Well, that solves everything then, don’t it! You said you''re sorry, so that grants you immunity from any consequences of your actions." He shook his head in disbelief. "Have you got any idea what kind of trouble you could get in, bad-mouthing Eldorean to his own army?”

“There’s no way to talk about him without bad-mouthing him,” snapped Delaney. “He’s a moron and a jerk and a traitor and steaming pile of rat barf.”

“Whoa now!”

“And he’s in some kind of a conspiracy with the rest of his Satan wannabes. He killed one of my friends. And he’s planning to kill Ehiloru, and take over Orduna.”

“Listen here!” said Stargo. “That’s a load of serious charges you’re throwing around. If you think I’m gonna just roll over and take your side against them what leads us--heads of state and all--on mere hearsay, you’re the one who ain’t got much between your ears.”

“You are so gullible!” scoffed Delaney. And so gorgeous! I would have to be wearing these dorky Ordunese rags, with, like, no makeup. And why did I have to shoot off my mouth like that?! ”Where do you think that lying weasel is right now? Where do you think he’s been most of the past few weeks?

“Shhh!” Stargo whispered earnestly, falling into his seat. “Pipe down, would you? You could get killed for saying less, and I could get hung just for listening to it. Eldorean is up along--oh come on, I can’t tell you where he is! That’s classified.”

“Oh, it’s `classified,’” mocked Delaney. “Pull your head out, would you! I know where he is better than you do. He’s in the Citadel right now, planning to take over Orduna.”

“Why would he want to take over Orduna?” muttered Stargo, softly. “The man can’t even govern Rushbrook.” He suddenly reddened. “Holy hills, lady! Now you got me doing it! Uttering treason. Okay, ma’am, tell me this: if he’s taking over Orduna, how’s he going to do it? We Brookings couldn’t begin to match the Ordunese army on a level field, much less try to assault them when they’re sitting behind their castle walls.”

“I don’t know and I don’t care!” snapped Delaney in a loud whisper. “Our spy in the Citadel--his name is Windglow; he’s Tishaaran--knows for a fact that Eldorean is up to his fat face in the plot to take over Orduna. He overheard him at a top level meeting taking orders from some foreigner.”

Stargo buried his face in his hands. For a moment he looked at her with wonder that turned to pity and finally bemusement. “Ma’m, could I give you some advice?” he finally said, with exaggerated calmness.

“I don’t care what you do as long as you stick Eldorean’s head in a toilet.”

“I truly don’t mean no offense by this,” he said, struggling to retain cordial manners. “If you really do got a spy in a tight spot, for the love of God, don’t go around shouting his name and address and description.”

“You mean I can’t trust you?” said Delaney. “I thought you were Ehiloru’s friend.”

A chill ran up her spine as she wondered if she had gotten it right. Is this the man I was supposed to contact? Or isn’t he? What if he is one of them? I’m as gullible as poor Hummer!

“That’s not the point,” protested Stargo. “Lady, I hate to sound disrespectful but your story about them Cold Flames and some fairy tale spirit flying in to Reef’s Island is the biggest jumble of poppycock I ever heard.

“Not that I won’t admit as there’s some peculiar goings-on down at the island,” he added very softly. “I might even concede that folk are awful close-lipped about what is going on there. Eldorean near took my head off once just for asking. And I don’t follow why we need our strongest forces camped out along the Third Realm border. Who gives a crap about Radford, for crying out loud? We haven’t heard a word from any of the troops up that ways for months. Are they even there? What happened to them?”

He stopped and glared at her in amazement. “Oh my Lord, I just told you a state secret. What is the matter with me?”

Delaney beamed. Nothing! It’s just that you can’t resist me! “It’s okay, you know you can trust me,” she said. “You feel it in your heart.”

The invitation to examine his heart coaxed no reaction. “And the biggest puzzler of all is that I can’t for the life of me figure who you are and what you got to gain by coming to me and spilling this nonsense.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Really, do you think that anyone in a million years could make up a story like this?” asked Delaney. “I am a friend of Ehiloru. Well, a friend of a friend. Anyway, I was told you were someone he trusts. So you have to help because he is in big trouble!”

Slowly, Stargo rose from the desk again. “Now there you go again. Don’t go playing with me and my respect for Ehiloru. I’d go to the end of the world for him, that i would. Somehow you know it and that’s why you’re working on me. I’m warning you, don’t go getting me all lathered up about Ehiloru without you have proof there’s something afoot with him.”

“We don’t have time for proof!” cried Delaney. Why can’t I get that through his beautiful, thick head? “Stargo, wake up!"

She slammed her fists on his desk in frustration. The force of her blow flipped a leather-bound logbook, which sent a full inkwell spinning at Stargo. In an instant,the general's handsome features were hidden behind a dripping mask of black ink.

As he glared at her, Delaney's agitation turned to horror. Her adrenaline-fueled confidence burned away in a flash. "I am so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" Shocked and embarrassed beyond dall endurance at her failure in the most crucial of assignments, she broke down in tearss and spluttered, "I screwed up everything. We're all totally, totally screwed, all because of me. All because I'm such a klutz."

As black ink trickled off his nose, Stargo gaped at Delaney with a mixture of rage disbelief, confusion, suspicion, and sympathy for her sudden meltdom. The combination left him utterly speechless.

Delaney fell to her knees, her words spiing out in a torrent of hopelessness. "Why won't you listen to me? I can't give you any proof. These people aren’t stupid. They’ve been planning this for years and they don’t make mistakes. They stay so far back in the shadows that no one can ever see them, but they’ve taken over that island and they got Orduna in their back pocket. They’re led by this reject from hell named Radigan--his own men call him Devil-throat. Ehiloru is a prisoner in the Citadel. They plan to kill him and take over the city, and they've got, like, some big-time help from the upper realms! If you don’t do something now, they’re going to take over the whole world. And you're going to just sit there and let them do it just because I'm such a loser?"

Slowly, calmly, Stargo began to wipe the ink from his face with a pocket handkerchief, well aware that only a major cleaning effort would repair the damage. He studied his splotched white shirt and then regarded the sobbing young woman before him.

He blew out his cheeks and stared at her for a long time, probing for some clue as to what he was dealing with. “Where are you from?” he finally asked, quietly.

"What?" asked Delaney,miserably.

“Where are you from? You bear a liking to folks in the Second, but something about you don’t quite match up.”

“Yeah, like it’ll get any clearer if I go into that,” said Delaney.

“I said, `where are you from?’” demanded Stargo.

From the coldness in his eyes, Delaney could see he had reached the end of his patience. She had no clue where to go next—no strategy for salvaging this humiliating failure. She was out of ideas. She had no energy left for anything other than telling the truth, eventhought it was certain to undermine whatever shred of credibility she had left.

“I was one of those people that fell into your world from a completely different, you know, planet. Laugh all you want--I already got thrown in your dungeons for that, so this is nothing new. I so hate every one of you for what I had to go through down there. Just seeing your uniforms again makes me want to pike. I didn't come here for you; just Ehiloru.”

Stargo rubbed his chin and studied her intensely. At once, recognition burst into his eyes. “That’s it! That’s why you look familiar. I seen you before. Down in them jails last fall. I wondered what a fair young lady as you had went and done to get herself tossed in there.”

“Well, gee, thanks for the compliment, but you could have done something besides wondered, couldn’t you?” she said, bitterly.

“But I did. I’m the one what spoke to Ehiloru about it. So that was you!”

Delaney shrieked in surprise. “You’re the one who who told Ehiloru? You?! Oh my God! You got me out of there? You saved my life!” She jumped up, dashed around the desk, and threw her arms around him. “I love you! I love you!”

“What are you doing?” squawked Stargo, trying to peel her off as he backpedaled into the edge of the tent.

“What, like I’m that repulsive?” she said, her face reddening. Given her puffy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, she guessed she probably was.

“No, that’s,that’s not it at all,” stammered Stargo, matching her crimson glow shade for shade. “I’m just. . . I don’t--”

“I’m just thanking you; you don’t have to freak out."

It's just, you're getting ink on your clothes."

Delaney jumped backward and looked at her splotched blouse in disgust. But then the realization of what Stargo just said took hold.

“So now you believe me. You know I’m not just making this up. This is awesome!We really are on the same side. Come on, we don’t have much time! If you and the Meshoma can join forces, you can take over that island and stop whatever is going on, and then get up to Orduna to help us save Ehiloru. But you have to move now!”

“Shhh! Will you pipe down!” said Stargo, irritably. “There’s a powerful jump from what I just said to me swallowing your whole story. Supposing I was to believe you. Just supposing now. That don’t mean I got to agree to your plan. I sure as blazes ain’t going to buddy up to the Meshoma. In case you didn’t know, ma’m, them savages is the lifelong enemy of the state I been sworn to protect. My men, they’re trained to kill them devils on sight. They ain’t goin’ to join hands with them just on account of I say so.”

“Why not? I thought you were in charge here!”

“Even the best troops will only follow you so far. And I ain’t sayin’ mine are the best.”

“You don’t need your men to coordinate a plan with the Meshoma. You just need you. You secretly go meet with them so they know what the deal is and how they can help. You don’t have to be gone long. Just enough to get the plan--”

“What kind of idiot do you take me for, ma’m? Ah, that’s right, you already told me I was a ‘ignorant butthead.’ Look, I’ll tell you, just between us--and I don’t want you quoting me on this--I’m not as Charlie gung-ho to stick a Meshoma as some in my camp. I listen to Ehiloru and know he’s friends with them. Far as I can tell, Meshoma ain’t so bad as folk make them out to be, providing you stay distant of ‘em. But if you think I’m going to meet them all by myself with no protection, you misfigured wrong. What do you need the Meshoma for, anyhow? Did Ehiloru ask for them?”

This verbal tug-of-war lasted until darkness, ebbing and flowing as Delaney’s desperation raised the volume of the exchange and Stargo’s survival instincts strove to reduce it. Several times, Delaney felt the argument slipping away from her. She knew only a handful of the facts of the Cold Realm conspiracy and had trouble keeping those straight. Sheer persistence keep her going. Just when Stargo thought he had wrapped things up and was ready to dismiss her, she made some bizarre comment or argument that threw him off balance. He simply could not get rid of her.

She kept hammering at him until a soldier walked in bearing sealed orders from Eldorean. He kept sneaking horrified glances at the black-stained face and clothing of his commander, who finally snapped, "Send in an orderly with some strong soap, a stiff brush, and a change of clothes."

The man saluted and spun around out the door.

Against his better judgment, Stargo tore open the letter in front of his annoying but fascinating visitor.

“Orduna?!” Stargo muttered under his breath as he read. “Why?" Something was definitely odd about what Eldorean was doing. Something nearly as odd as this woman whom Ehiloru had freed. Why would Eldorean summon the army to Orduna?

“What’s it say?” Delaney demanded.

Stargo sighed heavily and pointed to the words on the envelope. “`General Stargo Only.’ But I suppose these little words don’t mean nothin’ to such old and dear friends as you and me. I wish I could speak to Ehiloru about this," he grumbled.

“Well, duh! That’s what we all want. If we don’t get moving, he’s not going to be available for anyone to talk to,” said Delaney. For not the last time, she regretted the time her expedition had wasted, at the acid falls and bumbling around Morp, that had resulted in Ehiloru's capture and imprisonment before the Tishaaran expedition could make contact.

Stargo stared at her a long time, straight into her eyes. It was all Delaney could do to sit still during this examination. It’s not fair; I finally meet a guy like this and I haven’t even showered in three days.

Finally, he said, “Miss Delaney. I got to say your tactics are not according to the manual. Most people who want something from me come in here all meek and polite, with hat in hand. They smile and flatter and treat me with the respect deserving on my office. I can't think of a one that's ever come in here thinking the best way to persuade me was by throwing fits and calling me a butthead and pounding on my desk and flinging ink all over me and crying and scolding and hugging me like a mad squirrel.

"I want to give no misimpressions, ma'am. Just so's you know for the future, it isn't your charm or your debating skills that won the day for you here."

He rubbed his whiskers thoughfully. "Or maybe they did. Maybe you're way smarter than the rest of us, and this was all part of your plan. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

"At any rate, here's what I'm going to do. I'll send a messenger to the Meshoma. Top secret. Someone I can trust. But that's as far as I commit for now. We'll talk again i a day or so. If I smell any trick in this, or sense anything that ain't on the up-and-up, it's off. No more discussion."

Delaney grinned at him, her heart pounding happily. "You are so hot," she blurted, dreamily.

Stargo's jaw dropped again. Finally, he recovered and said, "I'll tell the missus you said so. Good day, ma'am."