Pagonel found Brynn at her morning ritual of bi'nelle dasada, some-thing he thought quite curious, for he had not seen the woman per-forming that exercise in many weeks. She seemed very earnest about it, though, falling into the steps and movements with an intensity beyond anything he had previously witnessed from her.
He knew then that she was using the dance as a shield of some sort, bury-ing emotions behind a wall of discipline.
He found her robe nearby and took it with him, then approached her as she danced.
She looked at him curiously when she saw him, for he knew better than to disturb this ritual!
Pagonel continued his earnest approach, and tossed the robe to the nude woman.
Brynn caught it and stood there for a long while holding it and staring at Pagonel. Then, suddenly feeling very naked indeed, the woman wrapped the robe about herself and continued to stare.
"What do you know that so troubles you?" she asked.
"What I know does not trouble me," the mystic calmly replied. ?The looting of Pruda is complete, with supplies packed, treasures hidden, and one cache sent to the south with the contingent, as you ordered, to go and hire whatever mercenaries they might find, including fierce pirates. What I know tells me that the war progresses better than we could ever have hoped. It is what I do not know that troubles me."
"About Merwan Ma?"
"About Brynn Dharielle."
Brynn studied him intensely, and he moved right up to her, then began walking about her, staring hard. ?You cannot hide, you know."
"Am I trying to hide?"
Pagonel smiled at her sarcasm, but his look went serious almost immedi-ately. ?Tell me of your return to To-gai last night," the mystic bade her. found the Behrenese army chasing our own, with the cunning To-leading them far to the west," Brynn replied, with too much calm by el's estimate.
And so you hide from me, and I have no lights to reveal your shad-" the mystic said. ?But does your dance truly allow you to hide from Se Brynn snorted and waved him away. ?You speak like a fool," she said, and snorted again. gut that last chide was cut short by a sudden gulp of air, a sudden pang f overwhelming guilt. Brynn turned away quickly, trying to hide her horri-fied expression from the mystic, but Pagonel was there, right beside her, lifting her chin in his strong hand so that he could look deeply into her moistening eyes.
"What did you see?" he asked softly. Brynn tried to turn away, but he held her firmly. ?What did you do?"
"They would have caught up to our fleeing force," the woman blurted sud-denly. ?Their great army! They would have overrun Barachuk and the others in short time. I had to widen the lead until the terrain favored our forces."
"You set Agradeleous upon the Behrenese," the mystic reasoned.
"Not the army," Brynn admitted. ?They were too strong, even for the dragon. But there was a village nearby, an outposter settlement." As she fin-ished, she fell into Pagonel's arms burying her face against his strong chest.
"You set the wurm upon the village?" he asked, and he felt Brynn's nod against his chest. The mystic pushed the woman back to arm's length.
"Agradeleous burned it to the ground. None escaped, I am certain."
Pagonel nodded, both knowingly and sympathetically. ?I once asked you if the price was worth the end," he reminded. ?Are the horrors of war - of any war - worth the end result of freedom for To-gai? You believed that they were. ?
Brynn paused a moment to reflect upon that conversation, and upon the resolve that she had shown for so long, weighing against the black doubts that fluttered all about her. ?That was before I was handed the power that is Agradeleous."
There was a logic in that statement that was hard for the mystic to deny.
"Yet it was your army, and not the beast, that destroyed the Pruda garri-son utterly and overran the city," he did remark. ?Surely the destruction here was great, as was the stench of death in the air. It is not so different."
"That was honest battle, man against man," Brynn countered. ?With the village, it was... it was just slaughter. ?
"And how do you plan to prevent that in the future?" came a melodic voice to the side, and the two turned to see Juraviel and Cazzira approaching.
"Why do you not tell me?" Brynn snapped back at him, quite harshly. 'You brought this beast upon me, this scourge."
"You presume that I could have stopped Agradeleous if I had wanted," the elf calmly replied. ?When the dragon determined that it would leave its dark hole, I had no power to convince it otherwise. But I did bring it to th cause of freedom - that is something, at least."
"Is it?" Brynn asked, pulling away from Pagonel to stand before Juraviel ?In using the beast, am I - are we - any better than the Behrenese who con quered To-gai? Or are we worse, since we have loosed upon them a power that we cannot truly control?"
"A question for each of us to ask," Juraviel replied with a shrug. ?But know this as you seek an answer. The beast is out, and not I, and not you can put it back in its dark hole. Will you now wage war against Agradeleous? How many will you lose, and how lost will be your cause?"
Brynn looked back to Pagonel, but the mystic had no answers for her.
"I could not prevent the rising of the dragon," Juraviel went on. ?But was it not better that I flew him to the south and distinguished his enemies as the Chezhou-Lei and not the Jhesta Tu? Is it not better that Agradeleous' destruction is aimed at the oppressor instead of the oppressed?"
Brynn sighed and looked at the elves and the mystic helplessly. ?I feel the weight of a responsibility too great."
"Yet because you bear that weight with compassion, the artifacts of the Library of Pruda remain intact,"
Pagonel pointed out. ?You have not indis-criminately loosed the power of Agradeleous upon the Behrenese."
"Tell that to the outposters of that village," said Brynn.
"And how many other villages did you pass on your flight west, and then back to the east?" asked the mystic. ?Were they all set ablaze?"
That did make Brynn feel a bit better, obviously, and she just nodded in reply, and said, ?I hate this war."
"I hate any war," said Pagonel. ?And so I ask you again, and you must ask yourself, every day if need be, if the price is acceptable for the outcome. Is the concept of To-gai free worth the horrors that will take her there?"
Brynn glanced over at Juraviel and gave a helpless shrug. ?I wish the wurm had stayed in its hole."
"You should wish more that the Yatols had not invaded your homeland," the elf replied.
"I could not tell you the routes if I wished to, for I am as unfamiliar with this land as are you," Merwan Ma said defiantly when Pagonel came to him in the back of a covered wagon, bounding along a dry riverbed later that day. The whole of the Pruda citizenry those who had survived the assault, had been set on the road to the east, and then Brynn had turned her own army south, leaving the emptied city to the hot winds and the carrion birds.
'The Dragon of To-gai asks nothing of you," the mystic replied, settling in beside the still-wounded man.
Pagonel reached down and pulled back Merwan Ma's shirt, then nodded hopefully at the continuing progress of his healing upon the dagger wounds.
Ma looked away, at first defiant, but then his eyes gradually low-j and a great sadness swept over him, and he began to sob.
"Why were you sent away?" Pagonel asked him. ?Why did the God-V ice of Behren think Merwan Ma such a threat? I have read much of the Thezru hierarchy in the tomes I found in Pruda, including one unfinished ference of Chezru Chieftain Yakim Douan. That tome mentioned Mer-,an Ma. Your loyalty to the God-Voice seems obvious enough."
"You would say that, yet you expect me to betray him to you?" the Shep-herd asked.
"I am voicing the questions that you are afraid to ask of yourself," paeonel explained. ?There is confusion within Merwan Ma, great and dev-astating. You are horrified to think that Chezru Douan would have you killed, and yet it is obvious that he tried to do exactly that. But you remain afraid to ask the questions, and so I have asked them for you."
"You would heal my heart as you mend my wounds?" came the sarcastic response.
"Perhaps," the mystic replied with all sincerity, and he looked at the scars crossing Merwan Ma's belly one more time, then crawled out the back of the wagon, leaving Merwan Ma alone with the unsettling thoughts.
The Shepherd tried to put his head back against the side of the bouncing coach, but his wounds would not allow such a stretch, so he scrunched over instead, folded his arms onto his bent knees, and buried his face there. He tried to deny Pagonel's words, over and over again, tried to reason that Shauntil had acted the part of a rogue, had grasped for power on his own by trying to murder the Chezru Chieftain's choice for governor of Dharyan. Yes, and if only he could get back to Chom Deiru and inform the God-Voice, Shauntil would be punished for his heinous act.
Merwan Ma told himself that over and over again. And yet he under-stood, somewhere deep in his mind, that if he returned to Chom Deiru, he would likely be summarily executed.
But why?
He scoured his memories for any offense he might have offered against the God-Voice, however unintended.
He could see nothing glaring.
But one image, that of a bloody Yakim Douan cravenly clutching a chal-ice, kept coming to mind.
That had been the turning point, obviously, but what crime, what sin, had he committed concerning the chalice? He knew of its unexpected content, that gemstone, but had told not a soul. Nor could he even be certain that there was anything amiss concerning that gemstone. Perhaps it was nothing more than a decorative filler block, that the great and ornate cup could be filled without draining too much blood from those offering the sacrifice.
There was nothing amiss about that, after all. Yatol did not forbid gemstones - only the use of magical gemstones, such as those of the Abelli-can heretics.
At least one of those heretics was a close personal friend of the God-Voice.
Finally, Merwan Ma tilted his head back, ignoring the stretching pu]j across his scarred tissue, too consumed by the awful possibilities that loomed all about him even to notice the discomfort.
It all made no sense, all seemed a preposterous trick of this Jhesta Tu mystic, attempting to bend the awful actions of one rogue Chezhou-Lei to some personal gain. And yet, though he denied it consciously and vocally it seemed undeniable to Merwan Ma's heart.
Chezru Chieftain Yakim Douan, his beloved God-Voice, the man to whom he had given the service of his entire adult life, had ordered him murdered.
Brynn surveyed the landscape, the flowing brown dunes sweeping like great breakers toward the one spot of varying colors, where date trees swayed in the hot wind and grasses grew thick about their trunks, border-ing a long and narrow lake. Rows of small houses lined that lake, leading up to a single brown castle, squat and thick, with weathered brown walls pierced with arrow slits and a roof that sloped in varying angles.
It had taken her three weeks to bring her army there, mostly across empty sand, for they wished to follow no course that their enemies could predict. A welcome sight indeed was this place, as any settlement would have been to the weary and battle-hungry To-gai-ru.
"Garou Oasis," Pagonel said to her, sitting astride a horse beside her and Runtly.
"A city with no walls," Brynn remarked.
"Typical for an oasis stop," the mystic explained. ?This is the waypoint for caravans, who pay a large tithe to water their animals and themselves."
"As we shall do, though we'll pay no tithe."
"The settlers of the houses will flee before us, no doubt, into their cas-tle," said Pagonel. ?From there, they will shower us with arrows."
"Then we will flatten their castle before we drink," Brynn said matter-of-factly, a coldness that was not lost on the mystic.
"Take care with this place," Pagonel warned. ?The castles of the Behren oases are the strongest fortresses in all the country. They need not house many - I would guess that fewer than five hundred live here - and yet they normally hold great storerooms of wealth, for the tithe of using an oasis is never cheap. They are built to withstand an army, and you'll not lure them out, as you did at both Dharyan and Pruda."
"We shall see," Brynn said, and she turned Runtly and walked him away.
They came in as a swarm of destruction, churning the soft and hot sands all about the oasis. Unlike her previous victories, Brynn held nothing back against Garou Oasis, charging her entire force, which now numbered closer five thousand than four, in a tightening ring. Those Behrenese in the out-I ing houses didn't even try to offer resistance against the To-gai-ru horde, 1 in" straightaway for the defensive castle.
Most got in ahead of the To-gai-ru surge, though some were trampled Hown Barely moments after the attack began, the oasis was quiet once ?nore, with Brynn's army surrounding the last bastion of Behrenese defense.
One group of Behrenese was not inside, though. A visiting caravan milled about the castle door, denied entrance, with nowhere to run or hide.
Brynn wouldn't bring her soldiers in close to the well-armed fortress, though, nor did she allow the To-gai-ru to cut down the trapped merchants with their great bows.
She walked Runtly around to that side of the castle, close enough to make eye contact with some of the frantic Behrenese - and many began pounding on the door once more at the sight of the woman given such def-erence by the other To-gai-ru as to mark her obviously as the fierce leader of this army.
Brynn lifted a hand to the Behrenese and motioned for them to approach.
They held back, some still pounding on the unyielding iron door.
"You have nowhere to turn," Brynn called out to them. ?Your surrender will be accepted, if offered. Else you will die where you stand."
Those simple words seemed to break the will of many of the merchants, and they exchanged despairing looks and threw up their hands, walking out toward Brynn and bowing repeatedly.
The first volley came forth from the castle then, a hail of arrows aimed primarily at Brynn. Most fell short, though, some even cutting into the poor merchants as they made their way out from the castle.
They all scrambled, as did Brynn, leaping Runtly aside, but not before one arrow struck the pony's foreleg, digging a deep gash and making him rear, nearly dislodging the woman.
The Behrenese merchants were in a full run, then, fleeing in terror from their own countrymen. Brynn's soldiers pulled them in roughly, herding them to a central point, while Brynn, with Runtly back under control, marched de-fiantly back to her previous position.
"Despite your insolence, I offer you a similar chance to surrender," she yelled out to the castle.
"Go away!" came a curt reply. ?You cannot defeat our thick walls, fool, and we'll not run out to do battle with you. Water your horses if you choose, for we cannot stop you, but your victory here has reached its end! Go away!"
Brynn held her sword aloft and sent a burst of fire running the length of its blade. ?I am the Dragon of To-gai!"
she cried. ?Dharyan has fallen. Pruda has fallen. There is no escape for you. I will knock the walls of your fortress down around you!"
The answer came in the form of another volley of arrows, but Brynn already moving her precious mount out of harm's way.
"Water the horses and resupply on the far side of the lake," she in structed her commanders as she crossed by them. ?But keep a perimeter of scouts up and ready. If they try to flee the castle, chase them into the open desert."
"What of them?" one tall and stern To-gai-ru warrior asked, pointing out the twenty merchant prisoners and their slaves, which included some To-gai-ru.
"Our countrymen will join with us - find them mounts from among the captured," Brynn instructed. ?Allow the Behrenese servants to go. Give them mounts and supplies enough to get them to the next town in line. And the merchants..."
Brynn paused, considering what value might be gleaned from the unex-pected prisoners. ?Send them south with the next group bearing wealth in the hopes of employing mercenaries. Tell our leaders in that action to use them for ransom."
The warrior, and many others, looked at her skeptically, an expression that Brynn returned with one of inquisition.
"We agreed long ago that we would take no prisoners," the man explained.
Brynn looked to the groveling merchants, men and women grown soft from living most of their lives in almost decadent luxury, from having oth-ers do all of their menial tasks for them.
"They will hardly hinder us," she decided. ?As we take this war more fully into Behren, employing greedy pirates and mercenaries, we will need even greater wealth, and I suspect that this group will offer anything to save their soft skins, whatever the cost to Behren."
"Yes, my Dragon," the warrior agreed with a brisk bow.
The title hit Brynn like a slap. She knew that many had taken to referring to her in that manner, but given what she knew of Agradeleous' true, destructive nature, she wasn't sure that the title was quite the compliment intended.
The warrior woman, ranger and trained in Jhesta Tu, steeled herself against those twangs of guilt. She had told the impudent Behrenese that she would topple their walls around them, and she meant to do just that.
The fortress at Garou had been built to withstand the fastest spears thrown by ballistae, the heaviest shot of catapults, and the thunder of magical gem-stones, the greatest engines of war ever devised by man.
But Brynn had a greater weapon than that at her disposal.
Juraviel and Cazzira turned their heads in unison to see the approach of Brynn, the woman walking and not astride Runtly. The elves, along with Agradeleous, had put up behind the shelter of a high dune, a half mile from the besieged oasis, and as with the victory at Pruda, and despite the night of devastation he had rained upon the outposters in To-gai, insatiable Agradeleous did not seemed pleased to be left out of the fighting.
The dragon's lip curled up over his fangs and he gave a low grumble and moved away as Brynn neared the elves.
"You did not try to lure them out," Cazzira remarked. ?I was surprised to see the whole of your force charging to battle."
"Not the whole of her force," came Agradeleous' sarcastic remark.
"Different tactics for a different battleground," Brynn explained. ?I wanted them forced within the casde, and so they are, and now I mean to tear it down."
All three heads turned on that cue, to regard the suddenly interested dragon, and Agradeleous' lip curled again, this time with apparent delight.
Brynn walked between the elves, approaching the dragon directly. ?This will be your most difficult challenge yet," she said.
The dragon scoffed, a curious sound, hissing and rumbling all at once.
"I will take you against the fortress, destroying the shell around our ene-mies that my army can swarm over them," Brynn explained.
"You should have begun the battle like that," Agradeleous growled back at her.
"I offer you this opportunity, as I did in To-gai that night three weeks ago," Brynn said, and again the dragon scoffed.
"Do you believe that you could stop me if I decided to take this opportunity?"
Brynn walked to stand directly before the wurm, who was in his lizardlike humanoid form, and she eyed him hard, unblinking. Behind her, Juraviel and Cazzira exchanged concerned looks, and both rushed up to stand be-side the brave, and apparently foolish, woman.
"I will allow you to continue to follow my army, Agradeleous," Brynn said firmly. ?But I offer this opportunity to you only with your promise that when I require it, you will return to your lair and haunt neither To-gai nor Behren any longer."
Agradeleous' wide-eyed scoffing response seemed the prelude to a sud-den and deadly attack, so much so that Juraviel pulled Brynn back a step and Cazzira leaped before the dragon, waving her arms to distract him and give him a moment, at least, to reconsider the strike.
But Brynn didn't blink.
"I could destroy you here and now, human!" the dragon roared. ?I could burn you where you stand, to ashes!
Or grab you up in my hands and tear you in half, with hardly an effort."
"With no effort at all, likely," Brynn agreed. ?But to what gain? And to what long-term detriment?"
The dragon narrowed its reptilian eyes, seeming hardly convinced.
"You will agree, or your time here is at its end," Brynn said.
Agradeleous issued a long and low rumble.
"And you will be handsomely paid for your service!" Belli'mar Juraviel said suddenly, moving before Brynn.
"For when To-gai is free, we wiU delive a line of treasure to your lair, wealth fairly earned for your services!"
Agradeleous tried to hold his angry glower, but one eye did widen tellingly, at the appeal of that offer.
Brynn, though, was much less thrilled that Juraviel had offered anything or that he had intervened at all in this necessary showdown between he' and Agradeleous. For in reflecting upon that horrible night in To-gai, Brynn Dharielle had decided that she would either assure herself control of the beast, or she would dismiss the beast. There could be no compromise.
"A treasure delivered by five hundred human slaves!" Agradeleous de-manded suddenly, eyeing Brynn with every word.
"No!" the warrior woman shot back, and there was no compromise in her tone. ?Delivered by men of free will."
"Who will entertain me with stories - and if I find those great tales of ad-venture acceptable, then perhaps I will not devour them!" Agradeleous pressed.
"No!"
The dragon roared.
"Name me as your enemy here and now, then!" Brynn demanded, push-ing past the elves to stand right before Agradeleous. ?Strike me dead with your fiery breath and know that all the peoples south of the mountains will rise against Agradeleous. And they will take you down, united, for the war between Behren and To-gai will seem inconsequential beside the true hor-ror of a wild dragon. What place will you find, mighty Agradeleous, where you might sleep well again? For I know the way to your lair, and have spread out many informants, who will deliver those directions to mighty en-emies if I am betrayed and killed by you."
The dragon's eyes narrowed to threatening slits.
"I desire to ride upon your back this night, that you and I, as allies, will topple the fortress of Garou. But I will not do that, Agradeleous, until I have your word that when I am done with you, you will return to your lair and bother the race of man no more."
"And what will I have from you, Brynn Dharielle, the Dragon of To-gai?" the wurm hissed.
"Treasure," Brynn answered, nodding deferentially toward Juraviel. ?Finely worked pieces, and delivered by To-gai-ru bards, who will sing to you and tell you great tales - proper rewrard for your service to our cause.
"But it must be to our cause, Agradeleous, and not to your own!" the woman added fiercely. ?That is the leash I demand about your neck."
"You demand?"
"I demand!" Brynn countered with striking intensity, her eyes widen-ing and sparkling with inner fires that seemed to more than match the dragon's own.
Agradeleous fell back a step, and for one horrible moment, both Brynn nd the elves expected the beast to pounce upon her and devour her. Then 0ie the dragon's laughter, grating and mighty bellows.
And then it stopped, suddenly, and Agradeleous stared back at Brynn. He moved with awesome speed toward her.
But not to throttle her or devour her. Rather, Agradeleous fell to one jcnee before her in the sand.
"Climb on my shoulders, Dragon of To-gai!" he said. ?Let us show our enemies how feeble their fortress walls are against the power of Agrad... against the power of To-gai!"
"I have your word?"
"Tell me when I may go and rest. I am growing weary of this adventure already."
Brynn looked over to Juraviel, who wore a perplexed, but ultimately pleased, expression.
The air was still that night, crisp and clear and with a thousand stars twinkling above, but no moon shone over the desert sands. And so it was dark, and so none noticed that some of the stars seemed to wink out mo-mentarily, briefly blocked by a moving line of blackness.
Alone astride Agradeleous, Brynn did not light her sword. Riding her en-gine of destruction, the woman glided down quietly toward the mighty fortress, repeatedly checking the leather straps she had secured about the dragon as a makeshift saddle.
"Straight and strong," she whispered to the great wurm, though she doubted that he could hear her words against the rush of air.
The dragon folded back his wings and dropped like a gigantic spear toward the dark mound of the fortress.
Just before impact, Agradeleous swooped back up, opening wide his great leathery wings and landing hard against the side of the fortress, his huge clawed feet digging deep footholds in the soft sandstone, shaking the castle so forcefully that waves rippled across the oasis pond fifty feet away.
Cries began immediately from within the place, and when Brynn lifted her sword and set it ablaze, her soldiers ringing the fortress took up great cheers and war shouts.
Brynn held on tight as the dragon went into a frenzy, his great tail smash-ing at the walls, his forelegs and great maw tearing at the stone. An arrow came out at him from one nearby slit, bouncing harmlessly off his scaly hide, and the dragon responded by putting his mouth against the slit and breathing a burst of great fire within.
How the howls inside increased!
But the resistance from within erupted suddenly, as well, with many ar-rows coming out, buzzing in the air about Agradeleous and Brynn, clipping off the dragon's thick scales to poke and stick against his leathery wings That only increased the dragon's fury, and he leaped up from the side and dropped back down, again and again, shaking the whole of the place, Weak-ening the integrity of the thick walls. His tail continued to smash hard as well, and wherever he saw an opening, the dragon breathed his fire.
"The gate! The gate!" Brynn bade, for she had purposely brought Agradeleous in against the front side of the place, with a definite plan for opening it wide.
The dragon hopped a few more times, smashing and tearing, then finally seemed to hear the shouting woman. He snapped his snakelike neck, send-ing his maw hard into the soft stone just above the iron gate, and there he focused much of his wrath, burrowing through the soft stone, biting and gnashing until at last his teeth clamped on something more substantial.
With a great heave, Agradeleous retracted his head, pulling the slab of iron right through the soft stone, then snapping his head high and to the side, launching the great gate of Garou Castle far into the night, to splash into the oasis pond.
Agradeleous' head snapped down even lower and he filled the castle entryway with his killing fire.
And then he thrashed some more, and a great slap of his tail at last top-pled a portion of the wall, dropping great chunks of stone on the helpless defenders inside.
But the stubborn Behrenese kept up their rain of missiles, which now in-cluded great spears hurled from ballistae.
"Fly free!" Brynn ordered the dragon.
Agradeleous continued to thrash, snapping his head into the opening left by the toppled wall, grabbing one man up in his toothy maw.
Brynn winced, hearing the bones crunch under the weight of that terrible bite, and then the man was gone, just like that.
"Fly free!" she yelled again, and the dragon spun out and slammed his tail against the weakened wall once more, knocking a larger chunk free to topple inside. And then, to Brynn's great relief, Agradeleous leaped away, his great wings beating the air to lift them far away in short order.
Brynn closed her eyes and allowed herself to breathe. The dragon had obeyed.
Then the woman opened her eyes and looked back to the battered castle, to see the opened gate area and the even larger gouge in the wall to the side. Smoke was rising from both openings, and from the roof as well, from fires no doubt begun by Agradeleous' breath. Now, seeing Brynn's sword held high as she and the dragon flew away, her army began its charge.
By the time Agradeleous set Brynn down beside the elves and Runtly, and she was able to ride her pony back to the oasis, the fighting was done, the fortress taken, and the few defenders left alive had been herded together in a small circle.
Brvnn rode to that circle and dismounted. Then she walked about the ter-?fjed, overwhelmed Behrenese.
"Supply them and send them on their way," told her warriors, and then to the prisoners, she instructed, ?Go and tell , ur countrymen of the fate of Garou Oasis. Tell them of the Dragon of To-n of the fate that will befall them, all of them, unless the Chezru Chieftain declares To-gai free. There are no castle walls strong enough to defy me." And then she walked away.