“The differences aren’t really all that great, my friend. I’ve been to places where you couldn’t go, and I can see things that you can’t, but I still love and serve my homeland, and that’s all that’s really relevant, Commander Narasan. I need your army, and I’ll pay gold for its services. The war will be difficult, I’m sure, but if we arrive in good time, we’ll probably win, and winning’s all that really matters, whether it’s war or dice.”

“That’s a practical sort of approach,” Narasan said. He stood up. “It looks like my holiday’s over. It was sort of nice to sit around doing nothing, but it’ll be good to get back into harness again. The army compound’s over by the west wall. Shall we go?”

“We might as well,” Veltan agreed, also rising to his feet.

The winter evening was settling over the city of Kaldacin as Veltan and Narasan walked through the shadowy streets. Workmen in shabby smocks carrying the tools of their assorted occupations hurried past in the chill air.

“The only honest men in the whole corrupt city,” Narasan noted. “It’s the same everywhere, though, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think I quite follow you,” Veltan admitted.

“I suppose you wouldn’t at that,” Narasan conceded. “You’ve got money, so you don’t really have to get your hands dirty, do you?”

Veltan laughed. “Have you ever tried farming, Narasan? Farmers get to know dirt very well. The people of my region are mostly farmers, and I’ve worked alongside them many more times than I can remember.”

“You’re a very unusual sort of fellow, then. Most landowners here in the Empire would sooner die than go out into the fields. That’s the main reason we have money. A man with money can pay people to do the hard, dirty work.”

“We don’t use money, Narasan. We have a barter economy. It works out quite well.”

“How did you plan to hire an army, then?”

“Does the word ‘gold’ have any significance here?”

“Indeed it does. Gold means money to most Trogites.”

“So I’ve noticed. When I first arrived here, I had several gold bricks, and I found a fellow who almost broke down and cried when he saw them. He gave me bags and bags of coins for them. I still haven’t quite determined the relative value of those coins. They’re made of various metals, and some of the metals must be more valuable than the others.”

Narasan laughed. “I think you might have been swindled, Veltan. If somebody gave you copper and bronze and silver for your gold bricks, he was only giving you about a tenth of the real value of your gold.”

Veltan shrugged. “It doesn’t really mean anything, Narasan. There are mountains of gold not far from where I live. I can get as much of it as I need.”

“I wouldn’t mention that here in the Empire, Veltan,” Narasan cautioned. “The word ‘gold’ tends to make Trogites come unraveled in the head.”

“I’ll bear that in mind. How much farther is it to where your army lives?”

“Not too far. We’re on the other side of the forum. It’s an old imperial barracks that our forebears commandeered after they decided to go into business for themselves.”

“Didn’t the government object?”

“Of course. It didn’t do them any good, though. They didn’t have any army to put our forebears out, remember?”

“Why didn’t those independent armies just seize power and take over the whole Empire?”

“And take on all the tedious chores involved in governing? Why bother? We’re making more money this way, and the high-ranking idiots in exalted positions get to do all the worrying. That suits us right down to the ground.”

The compound of Commander Narasan’s army was a no- nonsense sort of place where everything was laid out in straight lines. Straight lines, it appeared, were very dear to the military mind. Veltan much preferred curves himself. They were softer and less rigid. Of course, no military man had viewed Father Earth from the moon, so soldiers weren’t aware of the fact that straight lines were an unnatural imposition of a human concept upon a far more complex entity. Veltan smiled faintly. The assertion by rigid humans that the world was obliged to do what they told it to was an absolute absurdity, but Veltan had always seen a certain whimsical charm in absurdity.

Though Commander Narasan was still unshaven and dressed in his beggar’s rags, his soldiers recognized him immediately, and the very air in the compound seemed to heave a vast sigh of relief. Order had been restored, and all was right with the world again.

“I take it that this compound’s reserved for your army, Commander,” Veltan observed as the two of them entered a large stone building in the center of the enclosure.

“It works out better that way, Veltan,” the commander replied. “When you put two armies in the same compound, fighting usually breaks out after a few days. If we want to look the truth right in the eye, we’ll have to admit that wars between the various armies aren’t that uncommon. We work for pay, not for idealism, so every now and then one army’s working for one side, and another army’s working for the other. Blood gets shed, and old grudges lurk in the shadows. That’s one of the reasons our compounds are walled in. We can defend them if we need to.”

They entered a large room where a goodly number of Trogites in tight-fitting black leather clothing lounged in comfortable chairs, talking and drinking from metal tankards. There were heavy drapes at the tall windows, assorted weapons hanging on the walls, and animal skins with thick fur on the polished floor. Veltan felt a sense of ease and camaraderie in the room. Evidently, this was the place where the higher-ranking Trogite soldiers came to relax when they had nothing better to do. Everyone in the room stood up as Narasan came through the door.

“Oh, stop that,” Narasan told them irritably. “You know it’s not necessary here. That’s just for public show.”

“Did the weather finally drive you in off the streets, Narasan?” a balding man of middle years asked, grinning.

“I’ve been rained on before, Gunda,” Narasan replied. “It was opportunity that brought me home. This is Veltan of the Land of Dhrall, and he needs an army. Since we’re not doing anything else at the moment, I thought we might accommodate him. Put your tankards aside, gentlemen, and let’s go to the war room.” Then he went on through the large room where the soldiers had been lounging, and the others fell in behind him.