They are hot and thirsty," Chezhou-Lei Shauntil reported to Yatol Bardoh, as the two of them, along with many others, J-L. looked over the destroyed remains of a supply caravan. For a month since the recapture of Avrou Eesa, they had been chasing Brynn across the desert. They knew that they could not outpace her, and so they had continued to try to outguess her.
She had doubled back behind them, somehow, and had flattened the closest supply caravan.
For the second time this week.
"She must have a smaller force operating in the area," Yatol Bardoh an-nounced, nodding with every word.
"She uses her main force to keep us moving in one direction, and has splinters hidden among the dunes to in-terrupt the supply line."
"The caravans are well-armed and guarded," Shauntil dared to reply, draw-ing a scowl from his frustrated master.
"Against the likes of a dragon?" Yatol Bardoh snapped back, and the Chezhou-Lei bowed apologetically for his obviously errant thinking.
"We must stretch our line longer as we pursue," Bardoh remarked, and it seemed to Shauntil that he was more thinking out loud than addressing the warrior. ?Yes, we will spearhead long points whenever we think we are near her, and sweep our forces in behind, a left or right flank. Or split to flank both ways, encircling her as we did in Avrou Eesa, but with no walls be-tween us!" As he finished, he looked to Shauntil for confirmation, but the Chezhou-Lei was shaking his head, not nodding.
The warrior stopped, though, and stood at attention, not about to ques-tion unless the Yatol called for his opinion.
"A bold maneuver," Bardoh insisted, but Shauntil, despite his discipline, wore an expression of disagreement.
"Speak your mind!" the Yatol scolded.
"I fear any bold movements against one who has been as cunning and as lucky as the Dragon of To-gai," the warrior admitted. ?We must be dogged and a patient in our pursuit. We must arm and train any city we pass by. If we Jose a thousand men to attrition and by moving them into city positions, then it is not so devastating to our great army, and surely we can replace them many times over if necessary. But every loss must weigh heavily on the Dragon of To-gai, for in this land that is not her home, she will find replace-ments difficult to come by."
"Her army has swelled with freed slaves," Yatol Bardoh reminded him. ?How clearly we saw that as they burst free from my city."
"Yes, but that was in the beginning, and in Dharyan and Pruda, the two cities, other than Jacintha, with the most slaves. And even those former slaves must be second-guessing their decision to join the woman, as they spend the days wandering through the desert heat. Surely their existence under Behrenese control was more comfortable than that which they now idure, even with this dragon apparently delivering supplies."
"Do you ask that the whole of Behren cower behind city walls, that this barbarian witch can run free all about our lands?" the Yatol asked with obvious skepticism and anger.
Shauntil straightened his shoulders as if he had been slapped. ?No, Ya-tol!" he answered with obedient enthusiasm. ?Never that. I wish only to en-sure that we do not err and allow the Dragon of To-gai to win any more impressive victories. Time is on our side, I believe. We have erred in under-estimating her, and she has made not a single error to date. But she will."
"And one error will be her last," Yatol Bardoh added immediately. ?But only if we are close by and prepared to seize upon her moment of vulnera-bility. I will see Behren free of her, Shauntil, and I intend to be the one who personally executes her in front of a grateful populace. And you are the one who will deliver her to me, whatever it takes. Do we have an understanding?"
"Yes, Yatol."
Bardoh nodded and looked one last time at the destroyed caravan, then waved his hand in disgust and walked away.
Shauntil relaxed immediately and blew a frustrated sigh. Bardoh was playing right into the Dragon of To-gai's hands, he knew.
But he was Chezhou-Lei, and sworn to follow the orders of the Yatols.
The Yatol and the warrior repeated the scene and the discussion while looking over the remains of yet another destroyed caravan three weeks later in the desert region east of Pruda.
Yakim Douan dropped his head into his hands and clutched tightly at his thinning hair. It took all of the discipline he could muster to not scream aloud!
Avrou Eesa. The Dragon of To-gai had taken Avrou Eesa, and had then escaped right through Yatol Bardoh's encircling line!
And now Bardoh and Shauntil were wandering the open desert with more than twenty-five thousand soldiers, trying to catch this woman, \vh remained as elusive as a ghost. The Behrenese legions were taxing the store of every city and every oasis they neared, hauling out supplies by th wagon-load.
Douan understood the dangers of this game. For the To-gai-ru, every day spent ahead of the pursuit pleased them and made them bolder, whil each passing day in the brutal heat no doubt wore at the resolve of his great army.
"I will send them all back into To-gai, to scorch the land as they pass," he said aloud, addressing his newest attendant, the eleventh since the depar-ture of Merwan Ma. The thin young man didn't nod and didn't say any-thing, as he had been instructed. He was there to listen and nothing more! ?Yes, that will force the Dragon of To-gai back onto the steppes in a des-perate attempt to salvage some homeland to free!"
Even as he finished, the Chezru Chieftain shook his head and growled. He had already tried that with Shauntil, and the man had found very little to burn, and very few To-gai-ru to punish.
" Yatol damn it!" he swore, standing up fast, and his attendant, eyes wide, backpedaled. Douan looked at him with obvious disgust and said, ?Get out, you idiot," and waved him away, and the young man nearly fell over himself with his repeated bows as he exited.
He returned shortly afterward, though, with a group of emissaries from various Behrenese districts, mostly the south and the west. One from Yatol De Hamman complained of increasing pirate activities, and pointedly blamed Yatol Peridan for tolerating the criminals. One from Peridan spoke of mercenaries raiding his smaller outlying towns - mercenaries hired by the Dragon of To-gai, and possibly supported, his message hinted, by Yatol De Hamman.
Yakim Douan understood the significance of having all of these emis-saries come in together; this was akin to a unified protest, one on the border of revolt and one struggling against itself, from the outlying and vulnerable provinces.
"All of you return to your Yatols, and at once," he bade them after hear-ing them out in full. ?Bid your Yatols to travel with all speed to Jacintha, that I might tell them of my plans to be rid of the Dragon of To-gai. Assure them that I have heard their words and fears completely, and that when we turn the tide against the To-gai-ru - an imminent event, I assure you - they will get their revenge on all who wronged them. And you two," he warned the emissaries of De Hamman and Peridan, ?advise your masters that their words do not please me, and do not please Yatol. If we are to fight among ourselves, then the Dragon of To-gai becomes a greater foe by far!"
As all of the emissaries filed out, talking excitedly among themselves, it occurred to Yakim Douan that he had better come up with the promised plan to be rid of the Dragon of To-gai rather quickly.
With reverence and fear, trembling ringers and dry lips, Yakim Douan lifted the sacred chalice in the ceremonial room in Chom Deiru. He looked around many times, remembering the unfortunate discovery that had cost him his valuable servant and friend, Merwan Ma.
After the emissaries of the various Yatols had departed the city, Douan had spent many days sitting in the dark, meditating upon the great problem that was the Dragon of To-gai. He held little fear that she would overrun Behren, or even Jacintha. Yatol Bardoh's reports put her army at around ten thousand, at the most; in a crisis, Jacintha alone could muster five times that number. But this rebel had indeed become a great concern to the Chezru Chieftain. Her antics were fraying the always fragile alliances between Douan's Yatols, and in conquering three Behrenese cities, the woman had put tens of thousands of refugees on the road.
And she had cost him Merwan Ma, and Yatol Grysh, and the Kaliit of the Chezhou-Lei, and many of his warriors.
It was bad enough that Yakim Douan could not even begin to consider Transcendence any longer, but now he was beginning to see real reason to fear a general revolt among his own subjects!
He looked at the chalice as he considered that awful thought, for he knew that he was taking a great chance here. For months he had been using the hematite to help keep his aged body strong, and even those minor trances brought him fear of discovery. This scheme absolutely terrified him.
But Master Mackaront had arrived from Entel that day, and had con-firmed what Yakim Douan had suspected: that Abellican monks had some-times used hematite, the soul stone, to fly free of their bodies and traverse great distances with their disembodied spirits. Father Abbot Markwart had been especially deft at such tactics, Mackaront had said.
Of course Douan knew of spirit-walking. He had used it against his ene-mies within Jacintha and to spy upon visiting Yatols on occasion. He had used it to trick Yatol Thei'a'hu into betraying Yatol Bohl. But this was something beyond that.
That night, he intended to fly far, far from Jacintha, out into the open desert where he might locate the Dragon of To-gai and her elusive army. He had already ordered his newest attendant - he could never remember the man's name! - to set up a line of signalers to Yatol Bardoh and Shauntil, ex-plaining that he would seek divine guidance to help them with their quest.
Now all he had to do was find the Dragon of To-gai.
In his private room, the door securely bolted, Yakim Douan took his first tentative steps into the swirling depths of the hematite gemstone, using the magic within to separate his spirit from his body. His incorporeal spirit went out across the city easily, moving to the western gates.
And there he paused. Never before had he gone out from Jacintha in this form.
Before he could second-guess himself, the Chezru Chieftain sailed out across the open desert, his spirit flying free and fast. He sped to the west past Dahdah Oasis, then turned south, for the latest reports from Yatol Bar' doh had the Dragon of To-gai somewhere to the east of Pruda.
He could not believe the amount of ground he covered that night, run ning a line from Dallabad to Pruda, and then back to the northeast, back to Jacintha. But he saw no sign of the woman and her army. His relief was pro-found when he returned to his own body to discover that nothing was amiss, that none in Chom Deiru apparently had any idea that anything un-savory had occurred that night.
And so he went out again the next night, this time moving more to the south and less to the west.
He knew at first, distant sight, that the encampment he spotted was that of the To-gai-ru and not of Yatol Bardoh.
"Pruda has been garrisoned once more, and no doubt with many spear-throwing ballistae in case our dragon should make an appearance," a scout reported to Brynn that same night.
The woman nodded, hardly surprised. The pursuing Behrenese were having little luck in catching her, but Yatol Bardoh was doing well to outfit every nearby city against possible attacks.
"No doubt they have been told of our typical tactics, as well," Pagonel said to her when the scout left them alone. ?What new tricks will we find to shape the upcoming battlefields to our liking? ?
Brynn shrugged, having few answers. ?Agradeleous grows impatient once again," she noted, for she had been speaking with the dragon nearly every night. ?How many weeks has it been since he has seen any large battles?"
"You give him free rein to destroy the caravans."
"But that is hardly the adventure he so craves."
Pagonel looked at her intently. ?Hold the course," he advised. ?As mis-erable and hot as we are, our pursuers are even more so. Let us run Yatol Bardoh all across the hot sands of Behren, finding opportunity to sting where we may."
It was true enough, Brynn realized. There was no way they could turn about and do battle with the pursuing Behrenese army, even with a dragon at their disposal. Agradeleous had been fairly injured at the escape from Bardoh, and to Brynn's surprise, she had learned that dragon wounds were cumulative, that they really didn't heal very quickly. As much as the dragon desired battle, Brynn knew that she had to take great care, using him only when he was most needed.
"Your guidance keeps me strong," she said to Pagonel, stroking the side of his head and neck gently, ?We will hold our course and run Yatol Bardoh into the hot sands. And when winter comes, we will return to the steppes, quietly, and next spring wage war against every outposter settlement."
"And when the Behrenese army charges into To-gai to stop us?"
"We will turn again upon Behren," said Brynn. ?We will sting them over over again - it is all we can do - and hope that the Chezru Chieftain come to see his expansion onto the steppes as a fool's - She stopped suddenly, her face locked in a strange and confused manner, and she blinked her eyes repeatedly.
"Brynn?" Pagonel asked, moving toward her.
She lashed out suddenly, her fist speeding for his chest, but the supremely trained Jhesta Tu snapped his hand up to deflect the blow gently.
She punched out again, and again, and then began to thrash about, and it became apparent to Pagonel that she wasn't attacking him, but was strug-gling against some unseen enemy, some demon within herself!
"Brynn!" he cried repeatedly and he finally found an opening to grab the woman and bring her down to the ground. ?Brynn! What is it? Tell me!"
Undecipherable, almost feral, sounds escaped the woman's lips and she shuddered violently, nearly tossing the Jhesta Tu off her.
And then she lay very still, staring at Pagonel, her face a mask of confusion.
"What was it?" he asked, recognizing that the danger had passed.
Brynn shook her head. ?It was... someone else..." She stammered and shook her head, unable to fathom what had just occurred. She finally started to better explain it when the pair heard a scream from the neighboring tent, where Pagonel had secured the captive Merwan Ma.
"Someone else?" Pagonel asked as he started to rise, pulling Brynn up beside him.
"Looking, into me... looking through my eyes!"
By the time the two got into Merwan Ma's tent, the poor Shepherd was curled up in a corner, trembling with obvious terror, and whispering ?God-Voice," over and over again.
"God-Voice?" Brynn asked Pagonel.
"The Chezru Chieftain," the mystic replied, and he turned to Merwan Ma. ?You have seen him?"
The Shepherd just continued to tremble, and shook his head repeatedly.
Brynn and Pagonel looked to each other, then back to the man.
"He has seen him," Brynn remarked. ?The Chezru Chieftain was here - in spirit, at least." She looked back to Pagonel. ?But how is that possible."
"With a gemstone," the mystic replied. ?A hematite." He watched Mer-wan Ma as he spoke, and noted that the man's eyes widened a bit more, a subtle but telling sign.
"What do you know?" the mystic asked the captive.
Merwan Ma looked away.
"The use of gemstone magic is strictly forbidden by the Chezru religion," the mystic explained to Brynn, who was nodding, already well aware of that fact. ?And yet, there is no other way that Chezru Chieftain Yakim Douan could have come to us. The Jhesta Tu know how to walk out of body, but that is a secret we guard carefully, and only our greatest mystics can achie the state.
"But Yakim Douan did come out here, did he not, Merwan Ma?" Pagon 1 went on. ?He came to Brynn and then to you, and you recognized hi clearly."
"You know nothing!" the Shepherd yelled, and he turned about, buryin his face in the tent side. ?Nothing!"
Brynn and Pagonel looked to each other.
"Leave us, I beg," the mystic whispered. ?I believe that this entire pic-ture is beginning to focus. Our friend here knows something - that is whv the Chezru Chieftain wanted him killed - and that something is perhaps linked to the surprise we have seen this night."
"The Chezru Chieftain uses a gemstone?" Brynn whispered, but she was too excited to keep her voice low enough so that Merwan Ma could not hear, and he shifted and let out a small whimper.
Pagonel shook his head, then shrugged. ?If he does, he would not want anyone to know."
"Enough of a threat for him to order this man killed?"
"Perhaps," the mystic reasoned.
Brynn left then, and Pagonel knelt beside Merwan Ma. He grabbed the man by the shoulder and began to turn him about, but Merwan Ma tugged free and turned back.
Pagonel took him more roughly by the shoulder and pulled him around. ?I have been more patient with you than you deserve," he said bluntly. ?You, we, were visited this night by a spirit, and one that you recognized as your God-Voice."
"No!"
"Yes! And now you will tell me the truth of why Chezru Yakim Douan wished you dead. Is it because you knew his secret? That he possessed a soul stone?"
The man blanched but did not answer, and Pagonel took that as an an-swer in itself, a clear indication that he had hit on something, something very important. Still, the depth of this escaped him. Yakim Douan had been in power for decades, without threat, for indeed, none of the Yatols would threaten him. The hierarchy of their religion left no room for any such dis-sension. Given that, why would Yakim Douan even need a soul stone?
Or perhaps, in desperation, he had enlisted the Abellicans to help him in his search for the To-gai-ru army.
That made some sense to Pagonel, but of-fered only a partial explanation. For if it was indeed the God-Voice who had come out to them in spirit, then the man's flirtation with such a gem-stone could not have been anything new to him. It took years of training, even with the aid of a hematite, to attempt even a small spirit-walk, let alone the near possession he had witnessed with Brynn. No, it made no sense.
"We will sit here all through the night, and tomorrow as well, if that is needed," Pagonel said to Merwan Ma. ?I will know the truth of it. And why u so protect this man who would see you dead, I do not understand." ?It was the Chezhou-Lei, and not the God-Voice!" Merwan Ma screamed, but his voice lost all power and all conviction at the end of the declaration, and he melted into sobs. Pagonel sat back and let him alone for a bit, trying again to sort through all of this startling news.
With mixed feelings did Yakim Douan re-enter his corporeal body back in Jacintha. He had found her! Had found this woman - Brynn, he had heard her called - and her band of marauding rebels! Now he could direct Yatol Bardoh and destroy the Dragon of To-gai once and for all.
But he had found Merwan Ma, as well, alive and sitting in a tent right be-side the woman and her Jhesta Tu companion. Merwan Ma! Douan had thought him dead and gone, murdered, burned and buried in Dharyan!
What implications did this hold? What dangers might Merwan Ma bring to him personally, whatever the outcome of his hunt for the Dragon of To-gai?
Few or none, he decided. He would send word out among his troops that the man was a traitor and was guiding their enemies across the desert. He would offer a huge reward for Merwan Ma - no, not for Merwan Ma, but for Merwan Ma's severed head!
Yes, that was it.
Douan hustled through Chom Deiru, back to the circular room, where he replaced the chalice. Then he ran to find his attendant - how he wished he could remember the young dolt's name! - to proclaim that he had heard the word of Yatol, and that Yatol would deliver their enemies unto them.
"Your God-Voice has enlisted the aid of the Abellicans in finding us," Pagonel reasoned to Merwan Ma the next day, after spending more than half the night grilling the man.
The Shepherd shook his head.
"It is no secret that he is friends with the abbot from Entel, Abbot..."
"Abbot Olin," Merwan Ma said, the first words he had spoken in hours. ?Yes, Jhesta Tu, the God-Voice knows Abbot Olin of Entel well, but never has he shown any interest in procuring gemstones from the Abellicans. The gemstones are what separate us - "But he has a stone in his possession, a powerful one, if he can use it to spirit-walk this far from his city."
"You believe that you know so much."
"Knowledge is the way of Jhesta Tu, Merwan Ma," said Pagonel. ?We know of the To-gai-ru and the Behrenese. We understand the word of Yatol and of St. Abelle. We know of the gemstones, including their properties. I, myself, have used a hematite to walk out of body."
"They are sacrilege," the Shepherd grumbled. Pagonel laughed at him. ?To the Jhesta Tu, they are tools, my young friend. As fire is a tool. Some consider them the gift of God, others us them as proof that their religion is better since they forsake them."
Merwan Ma looked away.
"And yet, your God-Voice has one, does he not? ? Pagonel pressed and he moved around, putting his face very near the shaken young man. ?Admit it. That is why he wanted to kill you - and it was Yakim Douan who or-dered you dead, not some rogue Chezhou-Lei trying to grab for power in Dharyan. Why would a Chezhou-Lei warrior even wish for some power? They are warriors, not governors! They are - "
"He has a stone!" Merwan Ma shouted back, and fell back in horror at his own words and sat there, gasping.
"A hematite?"
The Shepherd nodded.
"You have seen it, and Yakim Douan knows that you know of it?"
Another nod.
"And that is why he wanted you dead," the mystic reasoned. ?Your knowledge of his... indiscretion, frightened him. Profoundly so, it would seem."
"It is in the chalice," Merwan Ma admitted somberly. ?A sacrilegious Abel-lican soul stone embedded in the Chezru Goblet, in the Room of Forever."
"The chalice filled with the blood of those chosen for sacrifice?" Pagonel asked.
"It is among the most important relics in Chom Deiru," Merwan Ma replied, and he held up his hands and pulled up his sleeves, showing the mystic the line of scars along his wrist.
"And you found the hematite within that chalice?"
The Shepherd nodded. ?And then I saw the God-Voice with the chal-ice," he admitted, shaking his head, his expression full of horror as he re-membered that awful moment.
"And he knew that you saw him?"
"Yes."
"And soon after, you were sent to Dharyan to serve as governor," said the mystic, and it was all beginning to come together then, even a definite feel-ing within Pagonel that this was something deeper than just the God-Voice using a soul stone.