‘What did you have in mind, Narasan?’
‘Something sort of slow - and extremely painful.’
‘Why don’t we let the servants of the Vlagh have him, Narasan?’ Veltan suggested. ‘They have ways of inflicting pain that go far, far beyond anything you could possibly dream up.’ Veltan paused. ‘This is suddenly turning into a very unusual sort of war, wouldn’t you say? We’re just standing off to one side cheering enthusiastically while two of our deadliest enemies exterminate each other.’
‘I have it on the very best authority that wars like that are the very, very best that any army ever has,’ Narasan replied.
2
Red-Beard was quite pleased with the way things were going here in the Domain of Zelana’s brother. He’d rather hoped that things might move more slowly, but winning was the goal, after all, and fast or slow was secondary. As soon as this war ended, it was almost certain that a new one would begin, and, of course, he’d be obliged to take part in that one as well. Out beyond that one, there’d be yet another. Red-Beard was almost positive that these wars would plod on along until the people of his tribe decided that somebody else might be more suitable to take up the burden of being the chief, and right now that was Red-Beard’s main goal in life.
When Padan pulled his men back away from the Falls of Vash after the church armies had completed the bridge that linked their ramp to the rim of the basin, Red-Beard had decided to stay behind. Things were more interesting here in the grassy basin, and friend Longbow might need some help.
The two of them joined up with Sorgan Hook-Beak as the Maags pulled back from the series of barricades on the west side of the upper River Vash.
‘Veltan seems quite happy about the way things are going,’ Sorgan told them as they went upstream toward that colossal geyser that was the source of the River Vash.
‘We haven’t made too many mistakes yet,’ Longbow observed.
‘Do you always have to look on the dark side, Longbow?’ Sorgan demanded.
Longbow shrugged. ‘Habit, I suppose,’ he said. ‘If you expect the worst, anything that’s not terrible comes as a pleasant surprise.’
‘I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Longbow,’ Sorgan said. ‘As far as I can tell, you haven’t had the time to train Rabbit with that bow of his, but suddenly he’s an archer who’s almost as good as you are. How did you manage that?’
‘I didn’t,’ Longbow replied. ‘Apparently, he picked it up on his own.’
‘Rabbit’s clever enough, I suppose,’ Sorgan said sceptically, ‘but doesn’t it take a lot of training and years of practice to get that good with a bow?’
Longbow squinted at the horizon. ‘When he was spending most of his time hammering out those iron arrowheads for me, he and I talked about putting arrows where you want them to go. I suppose it’s possible that he remembered some of the things I told him.’
‘All that mysticism about “unification”?’ Red-Beard asked. ‘I never did get your point when you told me about it.’
‘I don’t really think it’s all that complicated, Red-Beard,’ Longbow said. ‘I’ve given it some thought, and I’m almost sure that the idea of being unified with the target has to be there when the bowman unlooses his first arrow. If it’s there right then, it’ll always be there. If it isn’t, it’ll never show up.’
‘Thanks a lot, Longbow,’ Red-Beard said sarcastically.
‘I wasn’t trying to offend you, friend Red-Beard,’ Longbow said. ‘I was probably just lucky the first time I drew my bow. Our shaman, One-Who-Heals, used to talk about the unification of the bowman, his arrow, and the target quite often when the boys of our tribe began practicing with their bows, and some of us tried it to see if it worked the way he’d told us it would. As it turned out, it did, and the other boys got all sulky about it, because they’d never be able to do it after they’d shot off their first arrow. If Rabbit just happened to be thinking along those lines when he tried his bow the first time, it’s there, and he’ll never lose it.’
‘That sounds just a bit far-fetched to me, Longbow,’ Sorgan said. ‘The thing that puzzles me even more, though, is what was it that got Rabbit all steamed up about that fellow called Konag? He went wild about that fellow for some reason.’
‘I’m not really sure, Sorgan,’ Longbow said. ‘It might just have been a decision by that unknown lady who’s helping us. If Konag was disrupting her plan, she needed to get rid of him. Since Rabbit was right there, she used him to dispose of an inconvenience.’
Then, even as they marched north toward the geyser, Red-Beard heard a deep rumble coming up from far below, and he looked around with a certain apprehension as he vividly remembered the twin fire-mountains that had ultimately destroyed the village of Lattash and clamped the unwanted chieftainship around his neck.
Red-Beard and Longbow were somewhat behind Sorgan’s men as they moved quite rapidly up the west side of the River Vash toward the geyser. The church soldiers had moved north rather cautiously at first, but when they realized that the trenches were no longer filled with poisoned stakes, they began to move more rapidly, tearing down the barricades as they came.
‘How much farther north do Sorgan’s men have to go to reach the geyser?’ Red-Beard asked his friend.
‘A couple of miles is about all,’ Longbow replied.
‘Maybe we should tell them to hustle right along,’ Red-Beard suggested. ‘Those red-suited soldiers will be climbing up their backs if they just dawdle along.’
‘Sorgan’s going to turn toward the east after he passes the geyser,’ Longbow said. ‘He’s far enough ahead of those Trogites to get clear before they catch up with him.’
Then there came another of those rumbles from deep below, and the ground trembled under their feet.
‘That’s starting to make me just a bit edgy,’ Red-Beard said. ‘It’s not a good sign when the earth starts to wobble like that.’
‘You could ask it to quit, I suppose,’ Longbow replied. ‘I don’t know if it’ll listen, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.’
‘Very funny, Longbow,’ Red-Beard said.
Then there came a sudden flash of light, a sharp crack of thunder, and grey-bearded Dahlaine was there. ‘You’d better tell sister Zelana’s Maags to get out of this basin as fast as they can,’ he said. ‘Ashad just had another one of those dreams, and I’m almost certain that something fairly awful is about to happen in this area.’