They crossed the hot desert sands, spear tips and armor glittering in the unrelenting sun. The mounted Chezhou-Lei led the way, with the Jacintha soldiers marching behind. An army of servants, in-cluding many To-gai-ru slaves, came behind them, bearing the armor for the elite warriors' horses, and with wagons and wagons of supplies to get the marching force from city to distant city across the empty sands. At the very head of the column rode Wan Atenn, proud and fierce and dwarfing the man, who was no warrior, riding beside him.
Merwan Ma did not really become comfortable with riding throughout all the days of that journey. He had never even been on a horse until Chezru Douan had unexpectedly ordered him to go along and bear witness to the glorious march, a command that had surely stunned him and all of the oth-ers at the great temple of Jacintha. Rarely was the Chezru Chieftain's per-sonal attendant allowed outside the temple. He wasn't to go all the way to the Mountains of Fire, though, for the Chezru Chieftain would not take such a gamble with so important a man. Rather, he was to stop at Yatol Peridan's principal city of Gortha, where Peridan's private ship would sail him back to Jacintha.
Merwan Ma tried to make the best of the tedium, attempting to engage Wan Atenn in conversation throughout the days. At first, he had been met with a polite but cold detachment, but when he had finally turned his chat-ter from exaltations of the glory of the Chezru Chieftain to honest and curi-ous questions about the Chezhou-Lei and their ancient feud with the Jhesta Tu, the proud warrior actually began to respond.
"Once, before the advent of the truth, we were of the same order," Wan Atenn explained one brutally hot day, the caravan barely inching along. ?Those who began the order of Chezhou-Lei were masters of the Jhesta Tu."
"But who were the Jhesta Tu in those ancient days?" Merwan Ma asked, for he had little knowledge of this chapter of Behrenese history.
"Priests. Defenders of the secluded villages from the bandits who arned the lawless land." Wan Atenn looked over at Merwan Ma and nod-| ?Yatol gave order to the land, as the ancestors of the Chezhou-Lei cjerstood, but most of the others of the ancient order of Jhesta Tu would not accept the truth of Yatol."
"And so began the feud," Merwan Ma reasoned.
"And so came the dominance of the Chezru and the Chezhou-Lei, with the Thesta Tu in retreat to a land even less hospitable than the sands of the desert," Wan Atenn replied, his voice the same even and confident tone ihat the Chezhou-Lei always seemed to possess. ?The truth has won out. Every now and then, we of the Chezhou-Lei must remind our foolish brethren of that."
Merwan Ma settled back in the saddle and let it all sink in. He knew that he was out of his element there, so far out, and dwarfed by the prowess of the warriors all about him, and by those they would soon engage in battle. He was excited, surely, but he was also terrified, and a big part of him wanted nothing more than to be back in the safety of Jacintha's temple, be-side his master.
When the procession crossed through each of the cities, the citizens in-undated them with new supplies, the farriers rushed to reshoe their horses, to polish armor and repair weapons. And when they left, all the air buzzed with the excited whispers of the populace, watching their greatest going to war.
The route from Jacintha to the Mountains of Fire was not straight. The army followed the coast all the way to the southern edge of the kingdom, Peridan's city of Gortha, where Merwan Ma bade the warriors farewell.
Wan Atenn then turned west, marching a zigzag from city to oasis to city, and thus, by the time the rocky black-and-gray mountains were at last in sight, spring had turned to summer.
The ground beneath their feet changed from sand to rocky ground over the next days, and the shadows stretched over them from the mountains in the west earlier each afternoon. The horses were clad in their plated armor, slowing the pace, and the Chezhou-Lei would only allow a march of a few miles each day. They had to stay fresh and ready for battle, so close to the home of the dreaded Jhesta Tu.
Outside a small village under the shadow of the northern edge of the Mountains of Fire, Belli'mar Juraviel and his two companions first over-heard word of the march of the Chezhou-Lei and the Behrenese army. The rumors surrounding that march, that a Chezhou-Lei had been slain outside of Dharyan by a Jhesta Tu warrior, brought even more hope to the elf that he might yet find his dear ranger friend still alive, and only made him more anxious than ever to find the way to this elusive place called the Walk of Clouds.
He noticed, though - as he had since he and his companions had left the rebel band on the steppes far to the north - that one of his companions didn't seem to share his enthusiasm for the journey.
Indeed, Agradeleous had come along more hesitantly each day, a pace that had slowed even more once the small cluster of towering and rocky mountains came into view.
"We must find them before this battle is joined," Juraviel remarked that night as the three settled into a camp in a rocky alcove in the foothills of the mountains. ?Perhaps in the dark of night, you can assume your natural form, Agradeleous, that we might fly about the mountainsides for sign of the hidden monastery."
"No," the dragon answered, simply and firmly, and both Juraviel and Cazzira turned curious looks his way.
"Are you too far from home?" Juraviel did ask.
Agradeleous didn't answer, other than to give him a skeptical smirk.
"Then what troubles you?" the elf pressed.
Agradeleous narrowed his reptilian eyes threateningly, and Juraviel knew that he should back off this particular subject.
And then it hit him. The dragon feared, or at least held a healthy respect for, the Jhesta Tu mystics. The revelation surprised the elf, but only at first. Certainly, dragons had been slain in the past, usually by mighty gemstone-wielding Abellicans, and several of the battles against marauding dragons waged by the barbarian Alpinadorans in the frozen north were nothing less than legendary.
Agradeleous did not want to openly expose his true form before the walls of the Jhesta Tu monastery; the dragon apparently held the Jhesta Tu in equal esteem to the mightiest Abellicans. That, too, gave Juraviel some hope that Brynn had somehow managed to escape the tragedy of Dharyan alive.
Brynn brushed Runtly in a small and fairly secluded field around the rocks and through a long and boulder-strewn valley from the monastery stairs. The two had just shared a fast and furious ride from the larger fields where the rest of the wild horses roamed, to the small field near a stream so that she could cool down and brush the pony.
Those were the hours of peace for Brynn, the times of absent reflection, of memories of hopes and of her own feelings concerning this very special interlude in her extraordinary life.
She lost herself there, in the small lea, and so, oblivious to her surround-ings, she didn't take note of the movement along the rocky borders of the field and was completely surprised when a voice rang out behind her.
"Stand where you are, or die where you are!" came a rough call, in a dia-lect that Brynn knew to be Behrenese before she ever turned to regard the speaker.
A when she did turn, she paled indeed, for there stood not just one, a line of warriors - of Chezhou-Lei warriors!
"You wear no sash," the man remarked.
Brynn didn't even hear him, so caught was she by his presence here. For recognized him from the battle of Dharyan, from his leap down from thJwalls when he had killed Ashwarawu.
"Why do you wear no sash, if you are of the Jhesta Tu? ? he asked.
Brvnn understood that he did not similarly recognize her, and when she thought about it, she realized that it made sense. She was not outfitted for battle- she hadn't worn her beret or even her sword down from the monas- ery and in the fight at Dharyan, while she had seen this one so very clearly, he had likely not even noticed her, just another body in the mass of turmoil.
"I am not of the Jhesta Tu," she answered honestly, keenly aware now that other warriors were moving out of the shadows all about her.
"We watched you come down the steps," the man answered.
"I... I am visiting there, but am not of their order," Brynn stammered, hav-ing no idea of where she should try to guide this unexpected conversation.
"Take her!" the man growled suddenly. ?A prisoner to lure the birds from their aerie!"
A rush came at her from behind, and Brynn responded reflexively, with-out even thinking, dropping low and skittering underneath the pony.
She came up and around to Runtly's back hard, angling her leading arm to deflect a punch heading for her face, then stepping in closer and snap-ping her head forward, smashing her forehead against the attacking war-rior's nose. As he fell back, Brynn drew his sword from under the sash he wore, rushing past him and shoving him all the way down as she did.
She wasn't used to the curving blade, though, and as she tried to parry the slash of another warrior, she barely connected, and at the wrong angle, and his sword slid up and opened a gash between her thumb and her index finger.
Grimacing through the pain, Brynn turned her blade all the way over, forcing the Chezhou-Lei's sword down to the side. Then, instead of retreat-ing, she reached out her left hand and slapped Runtly on the rump, and the pony responded with a kick. It didn't connect fully, just enough to clip the man and send him stumbling away.
Brynn had him dead, easily so, but several others were closing fast. She started for the vulnerable warrior, and the other Chezhou-Lei moved to intercept.
Brynn threw her sword at them, pivoted about, placing her hands on Runtly's rump and, leaping up, fell into place on the pony's back.
He leaped away immediately, cutting to the side at Brynn's command. She ran a short circle, looking for an opening in the shuffling and shifting line of warriors, and then she darted straight out at the initial speaker.
An arrow just missed her head; another one hit hard in Runtly's flank.
The pony stumbled and almost went down, but Brynn tightened her Ws on his flanks and urged him on. He caught his balance in a dead gallop veering to the side, Brynn bending low over his neck, urging him on.
The Chezhou-Lei warriors blocking the way held their ground until the very last second, then two of the three dove aside. The third moved out a single step, lifting his sword, thinking to unhorse the rider as she passed but Brynn and Runtly were too in harmony for that. Even as the situation unfolded before her, even as the woman thought that she should veer the pony, Runtly was already doing just that.
The Chezhou-Lei warrior didn't even try to abandon the attack, trading the impact from the charging pony for a slash at Brynn. To his credit, he did score a hit as he went flying aside, but there was no momentum behind it, and while the fine sword did open the woman's leather tunic and put a de-cent gash across her side, as well, she held her seat and galloped away.
Arrows flew after her, another scoring hard on poor Runtly's flank, and then a third.
Tears welled in Brynn's eyes whenever her beloved pony stumbled, but the gallant pony would not stop his run, would not allow the enemy war-riors to catch her.
They went down the rocky ravine, coming out onto the stone-filled clearing at the base of the mountainside staircase. As if understanding the course, Runtly brought Brynn to the base of the stairs and pulled up short.
She leaped from the pony's back, turning to attend to him, but he jumped away before she could begin to tend the arrow wounds, running out the other end of the clearing.
Brynn took a step, as if to follow, but she heard the pursuit, coming hard. Only then did the woman appreciate her own stinging wounds. ?Run," she whispered at her fleeing pony, and she turned and scrambled up the stair-way. She paused and glanced back at Runtly several times, watching him move away, limping, and she thought of going to him.
But then she heard the shouts as the warriors came on in pursuit. Brynn recognized her responsibility here, to the Jhesta Tu, if not to herself, and so she turned and charged up the stairs, driving on, step after step.
Weariness overcame her soon after, along with a deep burn in her side. She reached over and brought her hand back covered in bright blood.
She growled away the pain and shook the weariness from her head and drove on, step after step, pressing onward and upward.
She lost all sense of time, and though she heard no pursuit on the stairs behind her, she wouldn't stop, not even to rest. For she felt that if she sat down to rest, she would not find the strength to get back up and go on again. Growling with every step, the young ranger determinedly and edly continued, even going down to all fours and crawling up the steep When she thought that she would have to just lie down and let a 1 iarkness overcome her, Brynn came over the lip of the ascent, to the nding to the side of the arching stone bridge. 3 She called out, or tried to, then went down to the stone.
She heard the voices all about her in moments, then felt herself lifted into strong and caring arms.
When the world stopped spinning, Brynn found herself lying on a cot in the main house of the monastery.
She opened her eyes to see Pagonel and several other Jhesta Tu looking down at her.
"Chezhou-Lei warriors," she said, gasping. ?Many of them. In the valley below."
Pagonel's features crinkled up at that, and he slowly turned to regard the old Jhesta Tu master at his side.
"I have brought the blood of war upon us," he said.
"The Chezhou-Lei should not have come," Master Cheyes replied.
"They march to avenge their dead," Pagonel explained, and Cheyes nodded.
"They will not gain the Walk of Clouds," the old master assured Pagonel. ?Not if all of Behren marches behind them. No army can overcome our position."
Pagonel didn't disagree, but his expression remained quite troubled none-theless. He looked back at Brynn.
"Rest easy," he said. ?We are in no danger up here."
The two masters motioned to the other Jhesta Tu mystics in the room, then walked out side by side.
"They will issue a challenge," Master Cheyes reasoned. ?They count upon your pride to force you down there, that they might avenge their fallen."
Pagonel looked at the old man hard, recognizing the critique hidden within his reasoning. Pagonel had gone out, ill-advised, it would seem, and now that same recklessness could lead him down those stairs and into the jaws of the Chezhou-Lei.
"They will appeal to your, to our, honor," Master Cheyes explained. ?But there is no honor in useless battle.
There is no honor in dying for no cause other than honor."
I will not succumb to the temptations of pride," Pagonel assured him. Let the Chezhou-Lei sit out the season, or all of the year, in the dust below."
Master Cheyes nodded, seemingly satisfied, then walked away.
leaving Pagonel to ponder again the wisdom of his decision to leave the 'k of Clouds and ride along with Ashwarawu. Indeed there was a part of "Jim which felt as if he had betrayed his order by joining in the distant bat- - e. But when he thought of the wonderful young woman lying in the other room, the mystic found his feelings far more ambiguous. If he had not joined with Ashwarawu, then Brynn would undoubtedly have died on th field outside of Dharyan, and then, Pagonel knew, the world would be darker place.
He looked up to see Master Cheyes walking easily along a row of red and pink flowers, pausing to pick one, then to move around the corner to offer it, with a smile, to Mistress Dasa. It all seemed so ordinary and so normal for the Walk of Clouds.
Pagonel looked down at the Belt of All Colors that he wore about his waist, a reminder to him that he was without superiors in his order, that his decisions could not be questioned - by anyone but him.
And when he looked back to the door of the room where lay Brynn Dharielle, Pagonel knew that he had chosen correctly.
Two days later, a lone figure stalked up the five-thousand-step approach to the Walk of Clouds. He wore the helm of a Chezhou-Lei warrior, though he had left his other gear far behind, carrying only a waterskin and the white flag of truce.
"I would speak with the Jhesta Tu who fought at Dharyan, if he is here," the man announced. ?And with the master of this den if he is not."
Master Cheyes and Matron Dasa stood beside Pagonel on the bridge, looking down at the lone warrior. ?I believe he is referring to you," Cheyes said, offering a hint of a smile.
Pagonel, his expression grim, stepped forward. ?You will speak with both," he told the man. ?For I am just that, a master of the Walk of Clouds and he who rode with Ashwarawu against Dharyan."
"Was that your place, mystic?" the warrior spat with obvious derision.
"Is this a debate you wish to hold openly, here and now?"
That seemed to catch the man off guard a bit, reminding him of his posi-tion here as an emissary. ?No debate," he stammered after a moment. ?Your actions cannot be excused or explained. You did battle against Chezhou-Lei, unprovoked and without reason. My master, Wan Atenn, demands re-tribution, and so it will be gotten."
"Indeed," said Pagonel. ?And so you name the protection of my friend from a murderous Chezhou-Lei as unwarranted?" He paused and let that sink in, though he understood that the reasoning would hold no weight with the vicious Chezhou-Lei. Their journey there had been more based on the excuse of Pagonel's fight outside Dharyan than in any true retribution for a wrong committed, the mystic understood. Likely, the leaders of the Chezhou-Lei order had been thrilled to find this reason to go into battle against their hated ancient enemies, especially since the situation in To-gai had so calmed.
"Does your master wish to do battle with me, then?" the mystic calmly asked.
"V nr attack was Jhesta Tu against Chezhou-Lei," the man replied, con-to Pagonel his reasoning concerning all of this. ?It is order against and not man against man. Assemble your warriors and come down valley floor, that we might engage in honorable battle, and let this be . i j i"
"We are not warriors of the heart, young Chezhou-Lei," Pagonel replied.
and tell your leader that your journey here has been in vain, for we will leave the Walk of Clouds and it would be beyond folly for you to try to 'vertake us. And think not of any siege, though it would be amusing to tch vour army sitting day after week after month down in the arid valley, for we are quite self-sufficient."
"You will come down," the Chezhou-Lei warrior retorted immediately, his sudden confidence raising the mystic's suspicions. ?Your reticence was not unanticipated. We have gathered all the To-gai-ru people of three nearby villages, and will begin their executions in the morning, one each day until you come down."
With that, the man bowed and turned about and started down the steps, leaving a very stunned and very confused Pagonel standing there on the bridge, staring.
Master Cheyes walked up and put a hand on the man's shoulder.
"How badly have I erred?" Pagonel asked.
"You followed your vision, so there can be no error. That is the edict of our understanding. You wear the Belt of All Colors, honestly earned, and so you must follow that which is in your heart, whatever the consequences."
"The consequences to me or to all of our brethren?"
"To both," Cheyes answered. ?Your vision and fate has brought this bat-tle to us, but would not the Chezhou-Lei have come anyway, once they came to understand that your heart lies with the To-gai-ru in the struggle against the Yatols? Surely the present incarnation of the Chezru Chieftain has shown a fondness for conquest, and so why would we believe that we are exempt? Perhaps this fight is a better manner of defense for us than if all the Behrenese legions had joined their elite warriors in coming against the Walk of Clouds."
"Then you believe that we are to fight."
"It would seem the proper thing to do," said Master Cheyes.
That afternoon, a Jhesta Tu mystic ran down the steps toward the valley floor, taking a measure of the gathered Chezhou-Lei, then ran back up to report their numbers. The three masters of the Walk of Clouds didn't want to send the whole of the Jhesta Tu down to do battle, though every mystic had expressed a desire to go. But the masters, who had to look ahead be-yond the immediate situation, knew that the order had to be preserved, whatever the outcome down below.
As did one other. ?This is as much my fight as it is yours," Brynn protested when she learned that she would not be included in the battle. Her wounds had healed already - a testament to the power of the powrie beret and also the fine tending of the Jhesta Tu - and she seemed more than ready to jump back into battle.
"It is not," Pagonel answered curtly.
"You were defending me!"
The mystic chuckled. ?The fight outside of Dharyan has nothing to do with this," he explained. ?It is an excuse, and nothing more, to begin a bat-tle that has been ongoing for centuries, before Brynn Dharielle ever saw her first sunrise, and one that will continue long after you have viewed your last sunset."
"I can fight as well as most..." she started to protest.
"As well as any, excepting myself, Cheyes, and Dasa," the mystic con-ceded with a smile.
But that smile did not disarm Brynn, not at that time. ?Then let me go and fight beside you," she said. ?I have studied here through the weeks."
"You are not Jhesta Tu," Pagonel replied. ?You could be - perhaps someday you will desire to be. But you are only a visitor here at this time, and so this fight is not your own. And, I fear, any engagement that you have in it will likely hamper your own goals. Have you so forgotten those that you will willingly go down against are the mightiest adversaries that the Chezru Chieftain can offer?"
Brynn stiffened her jaw, wanting so badly to defy that simple logic.
Seventy-five mystics did leave the Walk of Clouds soon after, led by Mas-ter Cheyes and Master Pagonel, with Matron Dasa looking on from the bridge, Brynn Dharielle standing beside her.
Brynn Dharielle moved off from Matron Dasa, allowing her anger and frustration, and particularly her desire to be alone, to show clearly. She understood Pagonel's reasoning for excluding her from the battle, and even agreed with it, based on that reasoning. But that gave her-little solace, watching these friends she had recently come to know walking down into severe danger...
And so the stubborn young lady, the same little girl who had so often found ways around the strict edicts of the TouePalfar, took the literal mean-ing of Pagonel's command to heart. This was not her battle, but that didn't mean that she couldn't watch it! She kept her head down, seeming dis-tressed, until the gathered mystics filtered away, then she took up her bow and her sword and gear, and rushed to the steps, running down from on high.
By the time she neared the rocky valley floor, Brynn saw the two sides squaring off - and it seemed to her as if her friends were at a sore disadvan-tage indeed! For the Jhesta Tu stood in a long line, evenly spaced and each holding a long spear, while across from them loomed the Chezhou-Lei, ar-mored as the mystics were not, and mounted! How could Pagonel offer so large an advantage to his deadly adversaries as to allow the battle to go forth with the invading warriors on horseback?
R nn started to mouth a few choice curses, but the words were lost in throat as the Chezhou-Lei warriors erupted into their thunderous a hundred strong steeds rumbling the valley floor. As one, the Ugsta Tu fell into a defensive crouch, setting their spears appropriately, 'rvnn just bit her lip and winced; any skilled rider could take his mount -ide the reach of those spears, or take the spear out wide with a feint, 'eer suddenly, and simply run over the stationary mystic.
In came the Chezhou-Lei, their fabulous swords of wrapped metal spin-ning up high.
Brynn winced so much that she nearly closed her eyes and missed the spectacle as the Jhesta Tu mystics, again moving as if of a singular mind, ex-ploded into a sudden, whirling motion, bringing their spears up, around, and over, reversing their grips as they firmly set the tips against the stone, even as the horses closed, then leaped up high, the spears bending under their weight, then straightening, lifting the mystics over the front of the charging line!
A few Chezhou-Lei managed to alter their outstretched swords to bring them to bear, mostly ineffectively. A few more reacted quickly enough to veer their mounts out of the line of the flying, kicking mystics. But most caught a Jhesta Tu in the face, literally, and in a few chaotic moments, the valley floor became littered with Jhesta Tu mystics and fallen Chezhou-Lei warriors, with riderless horses milling all about.
Then they were up, both sides, rushing about in sudden and furious battle. Brynn couldn't even keep up with it, with the flash of a hundred swords, the swing of a hundred fists and a hundred kicks, the stab of a hundred spears. She tuned her vision more narrowly, picking Pagonel out of the crowd.
He had taken his rider down cleanly and slid off the passing horse at pre-cisely the correct angle to land with his knee firmly planted into the pros-trated man's throat. And then he came up hard, swinging a kick at another Chezhou-Lei as the man tried to rise, laying him low. He sprinted away sud-denly, leaving the second fallen warrior to one of his brethren, for off to the side, another of the mystics was in dire need.
Brynn winced, as did Pagonel, as that mystic fell away beneath a crimson spray of his own blood, taken down by the sword of a rider who had not been dismounted.
Brynn knew that rider! She had seen him kill Ashwarawu!
Pagonel charged straight in, leaping high in a full forward somersault, coming around and over with both legs kicking, one to deflect the warrior's attempt to stab him, the other to kick the man hard in the side, nearly dis-lodging him. The mystic twisted as he followed through, and grabbed on, pulling himself in close to the man, too close for that sword to come to bear.
But the warrior was no novice to battle, and any advantage that Brynn believed her friend had attained was whisked away almost immediately, as a heavy gauntlet smashed into Pagonel's face.
The horse reared under the confusing commands of the struggle, and leaped away, running opposite from Brynn, down the line of continuing battle.
That melee held Brynn's attention then, and her heart leaped, for the Jhesta Tu mystics, with that brilliant initial strike, were fast gaining an advantage.
She looked back to the far end of the line, to see Pagonel and the Chezhou-Lei tumble from the mount, falling hard, out of her view behind a boulder. Despite her agreement to stay out of the fighting, Brynn sprinted away, circumventing the main battle to find her fallen friend.
They stood opposite each other atop a chest-high flat boulder, far to the side of the main fighting.
"I know you," the Chezhou-Lei warrior sneered, his eyes narrowing to threatening slits. ?We meet again, mystic."
Pagonel, his arm sorely stung from the fall to the rocks, backed away a step, then brought his hands up together before him, dipping a respectful bow. ?I am Master Pagonel," he said. ?I would have your name."
"My name before you feel the sting of my sword," his opponent prom-ised. ?I am Wan Atenn. Know that my eyes are the last thing you will ever see!" And with that, the fierce warrior came on, his sword spinning up above his head, then chopping suddenly, a shortened blow that Pagonel easily backed away from, and then a quick retraction back up, a short step forward, and a second, more deliberate strike coming in at a downward di-agonal for Pagonel's shoulder.
The mystic, moving in perfect balance, could have backed away again, but he decided against that course in the blink of an eye. He found his life energy, that potent, unstoppable line, and focused it into his left arm, then snapped his arm up above him, blocking the blow as surely-as if he had used a metal shield.
He came forward inside the blow, snapping off a right jab into Wan Atenn's chest, his fist thudding hard against the overlapping armor. But the blow didn't have any Chi behind it, for Pagonel's energy had to hold firm against the powerful sword. While Wan Atenn did stagger back a step, he wasn't really hurt.
The fierce Chezhou-Lei came on again, slashing his sword across, and Pagonel flipped a somersault right over the blade, then skittered out to the side before the warrior could reverse with a deadly backhand.
Or at least, he started to.
Wan Atenn's sword came flashing back, and Pagonel dropped suddenly, right below it, then came up fast, launching a series of punches at his adver-sary, and taking a left hook on the shoulder and a kick to the knee in re-sponse from the skilled Chezhou-Lei.
The two fell back defensively, then came on again, like powerful mountain rams crashing together, head to head. They exchanged hits and kicks, and Wan Atenn drew first real blood, scoring a minor hit across Pagonel's upper arm with his fine sword, but taking a punch to the face in return that nearly dropped him to the stone.
"You fight well," Pagonel congratulated.
"Spare me your worthless insults, dog!" the Chezhou-Lei cried, and in he crashed again.
After another vicious flurry, the two fell back, and Pagonel looked on cu-riously as a wry grin spread over Wan Atenn's dark face. The Chezhou-Lei started forward, but stopped suddenly.
Pagonel sensed the movement behind him, and knowing his terrain per-fectly, he instinctively leaped up, tucking his legs under him, spinning as he went.
The slash from the second Chezhou-Lei, standing beside the boulder be-hind Pagonel, missed cleanly, but the mystic knew that it hardly mattered, that the distraction was a fatal turn against the imposing Wan Atenn.
Indeed, as Pagonel came down, Wan Atenn leaped ahead, his sword held in two hands over his head, aimed for a strike that could not miss, that could not be blocked by the mystic, and that could not fail.
The Chezhou-Lei roared in victory, coming in strong.
And then he got hit, and hit hard, across that face, the blow stagger-ing him to the side, dropping him headlong off the boulder. He thought it was a punch, and only realized as he fell away that he had been shot with an arrow.
"Scold me not about honor!" Brynn Dharielle cried, drawing out her sword and leaping atop the boulder beside Pagonel.
"Scold you?" the mystic yelled right back, leaping down onto the newest opponent, driving the Chezhou-Lei back with a series of snap kicks and short punches. ?I was going to thank you! I will scold you for coming down here after all is through!"
The Chezhou-Lei warrior turned and ran off, and Pagonel went in fast pursuit, back toward the main fighting.
Brynn started to follow, but heard the movement behind her and realized that Wan Atenn, the man who had killed Ashwarawu, was not yet dead.
So she waited, her back to him, baiting him up onto the rock.
Then, as he leaped up at her, she spun about, Flamedancer slashing hard against his thrusting sword, turning it harmlessly aside. Brynn had to shake away her distraction, though, for her arrow remained in place, stuck through Wan Atenn's cheek, half-buried into his face!
"Do you remember me as well?" Brynn asked, falling into her proper bi'nelle dasada stance, her lead, right foot perpendicular to the anchoring left, her right arm extended, slightly bent at the elbow, and her left arm bent out and up behind her. Perfectly balanced.
"Should I?" the Chezhou-Lei replied, his voice slurred and barely deci-pherable, for he could hardly move his torn jaw. ?You are no Jhesta Tu, but merely a cowardly dog who shoots from afar!"
"And stabs from in close!" Brynn corrected, coming forward with a sud-denness that surely surprised the warrior. He spun his sword in to inter-cept, but too late, and fell back a step at the end of Brynn's vicious blade.
Wan Atenn tried to keep the growl of pain from his throat. He wanted to hurl another insult the diminutive woman's way, but he didn't dare to speak, didn't dare show her how profoundly her stinging thrust had stolen away his breath.
He found his balance, though, and his breath, and came on with sudden ferocity, his sword working marvelous circles side to side, up over his head, even around his back, working from hand to hand, stabbing out and re-tracting suddenly, only to flash back in at a different angle.
But Brynn, with her forward-and-back balance of the elven sword dance, stayed out of reach, and realized almost immediately that her style was supe-rior, that the Chezhou-Lei, for all his skill, was moving in ways that bi'nelle dasada could surely defeat. He was better than Dee'Dahk, but he fought in the exact same style.
And that style, with weapons spinning up high and to the side, had little defense against the snap thrusts of bi'nelle dasada.
The ranger held her countering thrusts, wanting to find the best opportu-nity to score a single, fatal hit.
"You would be less impressive without an arrow sticking through your jaw," she did say, if only to spur the already wild warrior on even more viciously.
Let him make one mistake...
The scene before him was surely one of misery, of men and women writhing in agony or clashing together like rabid animals, but Pagonel was neither surprised nor deterred.
He kept up the chase of the Chezhou-Lei, and when that man crossed past a comrade, who turned to engage the charging mystic, Pagonel simply leaped over the two of them, spinning as he descended to catch his primary opponent in a headlock, landing and snapping his arms down hard.
The crunch of bone in the man's neck did bring a grimace to Pagonel's face, but hardly distracted him. He stepped back suddenly, ahead of the other's thrusting blade, and that second Chezhou-Lei, knowing he was overmatched against this supreme Jhesta Tu master, backed steadily.
Pagonel did not follow. He turned and sprinted to the side, to join Mas-ter Cheyes, to anchor the Jhesta Tu line. A score of mystics were down, some obviously dead, but more than fifty were still fighting, against only around half that number of Chezhou-Lei.
The battle seemed in hand, and the Jhesta Tu masters nodded to each other grimly, with satisfaction. the teeyodel horns began to blow, and the charge of soldiers, V jg of soldiers, began - the Jacintha garrison moving hard to encircle vstics, and to cut off the escape route to the stairs.
p gonel and Cheyes saw it immediately, and called for a retreat to those with each going to a nearby wounded companion, scooping him up, and starting the retreat. But Pagonel looked all about and knew the truth: they wouldn't make it.
To an onlooker, their movements would seem nothing more than a furi- s blur of wild energy, with the Chezhou-Lei's sword spinning like the fans ,f a favored Behrenese toy, rocking back and forth in front of him, warding away the sudden, and ultimately efficient thrusts from the elven-trained varrior.
Brynn kept every strike measured, confident that she could defeat the nan, that he, with his heavier blade and more exaggerated movements, vould have to tire before she did. As soon as that magnificent curving blade his slowed, she would find her opening, thrusting her fine and slender vord through to a seam in his armor, and into his chest.
But not yet, not until she had him worn down enough that she could be certain he would not, in the last moments of his life when her sword was in-side of him, score a wicked hit against her. She thrust in measured strikes id skittered back, always turning, turning, to keep enough of the large and flat boulder behind her for her next retreat.
She scored a stinging hit on Wan Atenn's forearm, then another into the opposite shoulder, but those strikes only seemed to spur the man on even more ferociously.
Yes, it was moving along exactly as Brynn desired.
And Wan Atenn recognized that, as well, and then he surprised the young warrior woman, for as she retracted her blade after one teasing thrust, beginning yet another short retreat, the Chezhou-Lei performed a brilliant spinning charge, his feet stepping and turning in perfect balance, his sword going around in a complete circuit along with his torso.
Brynn saw an open stab at the man's back, and knew she could inflict a serious, perhaps even fatal, wound.
But she knew, too, that Wan Atenn ac-cepted that inevitability, and that she was out of room to retreat, so sud-denly. As hard as she might stick him, that terrible Chezhou-Lei blade, worn from years of battle - and that wearing only making the remaining wrapped metal even sharper - would come around, and hard!
So Brynn stayed her hand, refusing the opening, and brought her blade in front of her vertically instead.
Around and ahead came the warrior, his rushing, horizontal sword meet-ing Brynn's weapon at midblade, forcing Brynn's sword backward, forcing Brynn to bend backward. With the new angle, Wan Atenn's blade slid up above Brynn's head, locking both swords.
But Wan Atenn, heavier than Brynn by a hundred pounds, was than willing to force the contest into a close-in battle of strength. He bulled ahead, holding back her sword with his own, his left hand coming up t launch a devastating punch.
But then Brynn's blade erupted into blazing fire, and the Chezhou-L ' warrior halted, even fell back a bit as he threw the punch.
And Brynn came forward and down, lifting her left hand up and around to grab the hilt beside her right, and to get her pulsing powrie shield up to block the punch.
The woman went forward more, pressing hard against the unyielding Chezhou-Lei blade, and then she dipped, just a bit, and her blade tip slipped free, and all the momentum from the hold shot it forward and down, creas-ing the helm of Wan Atenn, splitting the man's skull and driving down deeper. She even felt it crack through the shaft of the arrow that was still stuck in the stubborn warrior's face.
Brynn let the sword's fires flicker out, and saw the Chezhou-Lei's hateful eyes staring back at her, from either side of her blade.
The light disappeared from those dark orbs.
Before she could even consider how she might extract her blade from the split skull, Brynn heard movement behind her, and knew she was helpless.
The remaining Chezhou-Lei were more than happy to pull back from the slaughter, stumbling and scrambling to the waiting ranks of the circling Jacintha soldiers.
Pagonel and Master Cheyes worked furiously to organize their remaining fighters in defensive positions about the wounded. There was no way they could hope to get to the stairs, no way they could hope to get out of the tightening ring of spears and swords.
"And so the Chezhou-Lei refuse to do battle fairly," Master Cheyes re-marked with obvious disgust. ?And so I am not surprised! But history is written by the victors," he lamented, ?and so our fall will be spoken of as a grand Chezhou-Lei victory!
"Brynn will bear witness," Pagonel said grimly. ?She must."
Brynn yanked and spun, bringing her sword to bear, but it drooped as her jaw inevitably dropped.
"Juraviel," she gasped. ?Cazzira."
And then she nearly fell over altogether as another familiar face, this one of a terrible foe, rose up between the pair. She knew that face, unmistak-ably, though when last she had looked upon the mighty dragon, that head had been ten times as large.
"Come, and be quick!" Juraviel cried out to her. ?The Behrenese soldiers have your companions trapped!" He motioned for Brynn to move between him and Cazzira, while the dragon turned about.
Onto his shoulders," the Doc'alfar instructed, and Brynn, after a ^credulous look, lifted one leg and then the other over Agradeleous' boulders, and with pushing from both elves, fell into a seated posi-^top the humanoid creature.
"lmost immediately, Agradeleous began to change, began to grow, and h the dragon fell to all fours, Brynn did not slip lower toward the nd. Cazzira leaped atop the growing beast behind her.
ments, Brynn Dharielle found herself astride a full-sized dragon, straddling its neck!
"How are we..." Brynn stammered. ?What "There is a time for chatter, and this is not it!" Juraviel explained from the ground, and he held Brynn s bow aloft, then leaped up, his small wings bringing him to Cazzira's side behind the still-stunned ranger. ?Many sol-diers have come against your friends, and without help they are surely doomed!"
"Die bravely and try to find a Chezhou-Lei to take with you to the after-life!" Pagonel told his warriors as the ring of enemies, hundreds of skilled soldiers, closed in.
The Jacintha soldiers lifted their spears and swords and cried out to charge, but even as that communal howl began, it was drowned out by a single voice, as mighty a roar as the world of Corona had ever heard.
Agradeleous the dragon swooped past, a line of his fiery breath immolat-ing the Behrenese line that was blocking the mystics from the stairs to their mountain home.
Brynn sat astride the neck, her own fiery sword held high, while Juraviel fired off his own bow behind her, taking down yet another surprised and horrified Jacintha soldier.
Any in the Behrenese line whose legs did not freeze in sheer terror be-neath them, broke ranks and fled.
Pagonel and Master Cheyes, not taking the moment to question the unexpected turn, gathered their warriors and collected up their wounded and rushed for the stairs. Pagonel and Master Cheyes fell behind the retreat, ready to do battle with any soldiers or Chezhou-Lei coming in pursuit.
But none were. The Behrenese fled before the wrath of the dragon, be-fore the fiery glory that was mighty Agradeleous.
The dragon banked a steep turn and came in hard again, a second fiery blast melting down more soldiers. He caught yet another man in one power-ful claw, lifting him from the ground and crushing the life from him, and swept aside several more with his crushing tail.
And so began the day of horrors for the fleeing Behrenese, pursued from on high by the mighty beast and his three riders.
jorne soldiers got out of the area, but Agradeleous came in pursuit, and when the startled villagers that had been rounded up by the fierce Chezhou-Lei spotted the confusion and the dragon, they too cried out in terror and began to flee.
"Not the villagers!" Juraviel and Cazzira, and then Brynn cried out re peatedly to the dragon, and it seemed to Brynn as if it took the mighty beast a long while to turn away from the tempting sight of the fleeing mob.
"Fly over them, but bring no harm!" Juraviel instructed, and then he yelled to Brynn, ?Tell them who you are!
Tell them to take heart, for Brynn Dharielle, the Dragon of To-gai, has come to free them!"
Thus was the legend born.
After shouting her message of freedom to the escaping villagers Brynn directed the mighty dragon to settle near a brown-and-white figure she had seen from on high. She slid down and hurried to her pony, whom she had feared mortally wounded. As she inspected Runtly, though, she breathed a profound sigh of relief, for the stings of the Chezhou-Lei arrows were not serious.
"We are not done with our work," Belli'mar Juraviel called to her, and she turned to see him and Cazzira standing beside an obviously anxious Agradeleous.
Brynn looked back to her pony. ?I will come back to you soon and clean those wounds better," she whispered to him. ?You just run to the open fields and stay far from danger!"
As if he understood her every word, the pony nickered and galloped away, and it did Brynn's heart good to see him run.
Much later on, after many, many Behrenese soldiers and Chezhou-Lei had been hunted down and killed, Agradeleous, bearing his three riders, pulled up before the bridge at the Walk of Clouds, hanging there for a mo-ment with his great wings beating, as Brynn slipped down to stand before Masters Cheyes and Pagonel, with many others standing in the back-ground, gawking.
Without any hesitation, and without a word from either of the remaining riders, Agradeleous turned and swooped down into the clouds, disappear-ing from view.
Pagonel started to say something to Brynn, but he just stopped and stood there helplessly, his arms out to the side. And what might be expected of him, after all, since he had just witnessed the arrival of three of the legendary - and, many would argue, imaginary - races of Corona, including the sheer size and power of a dragon!
"I was trained by the Touel'alfar," Brynn stated at once. She held forth her beautiful sword. ?And this is elven make, forged in the distant valley of Andur'blough Inninness, north of the great mountains. One of my compan-ions is of the Touel'alfar, another is a cousin, a Doc'alfar, and the third . ? ? well, you have seen the third."
"All in the region have seen the third, dear Brynn," said Master Cheyes, smile. ?Our gratitude is with you this day, for the treachery Giezhou-Lei would have brought even more tragedy to the Walk of rl 'uds had it not been for you and your... friends."
"N rlv a score of my brethren are dead," Pagonel added. ?And many are wounded, some badly. But all of us who went down to do honor- "bf^battle would have died this day, had it not been for the arrival of the count the Behrenese losses in the hundreds," the woman replied. ?In-luding nearly all of the Chezhou-Lei who came against you. It is a great "Victory?" Master Cheyes echoed skeptically. ?We do not view war of any kind as a victory, dear Brynn, but as a loss for all of mankind."
Brvnn steeled her jaw, not about to agree. ?Yet war lies in my path, un-doubtedly so," she declared. ?And I go with my heart full of hope that my homeland will be free once more. The arrival of the dragon, and of my other two friends, gives me the beginning I will need to drive the Behrenese from the steppes."
"Beware the power of your dragon," Master Cheyes gravely warned.
"More important than the companions are the reputation that they have allowed me this day," Brynn explained, not wavering in the least. ?All of the To-gai-ru who witnessed the flight of the Dragon of To-gai will whisper to their fellows, and so the news shall spread throughout the steppes, and so I shall find many, many warriors willing to rush to my side!"
"Many of whom will die," the pacifistic Master Cheyes pointed out.
But again, Brynn was not to be deterred, not in the least. ?Then so be it."
Master Cheyes looked to Pagonel then. The other Jhesta Tu did not re-turn the stare, but kept his eyes locked on the remarkable Brynn.
"My time here has come to an end," the woman announced.
"This stay, perhaps," said Pagonel. ?The future may hold a day when you, and I, might return to the Walk of Clouds, to study together as we try to make sense of this existence."
His words had Brynn's jaw dropping open, and had Master Cheyes clos-ing his eyes tightly, as if wanting to deny them.
"You will come with me?"
1 agonel nodded. ?This is my course, I do not doubt, though neither do I understand. But if you and your friends will have me, then yes, I will stand sside you."
"When I walk into Dharyan," said Brynn.