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 which will reach the hearts of the Tukholians and your father and win them over to our plan.”

“Your effort will be all for naught, Boyarin. The Tukholians will never agree to such a bargain.”

“Not agree?” cried the boyar. “Why won’t they agree?”

“The Tukholians will fight to the last man before they will allow you to pass over their mountain trail. Do you think they would turn traitors to their brothers in the mountain crest and beyond the mountain communities whose villages would be destroyed like our Tukhlia?”

“But they will be destroyed anyway, foolish youth!” replied the boyar. “Your Tukholian army is far too insignificant to stop us.”

“ ‘Don’t praise the day,’ Boyarin, ‘before evening has come!’ A large army isn’t necessary here when the barriers of rocky walls and steep hillsides provide natural fortresses to hinder you.”

“Well, anyway, tell me how I should talk to your father and the Tukholians to make them listen.”

“Speak to them from the heart, sincerely, truthfully, it’s the only way to influence them.”

“But it doesn’t work that way, boy, it doesn’t!” protested the disappointed boyar. “It’s not as simple as all that in dealing with your people. Your father is an experienced old sorcerer, who knows exactly what magic words reach into every heart. He must surely also have taught you these words. For instance, without those magic words you could not possibly have persuaded my archers to fight against the Mongols as doggedly as they would not have fought for even the best pay.”

Maxim laughed. “You are a strange man, Boyarin!” he replied. “I know no such sorcery, but frankly speaking, even if I knew the magic words, I would not reveal them to you so you could not persuade the Tukholians to assent to such an uneven exchange.”