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darkness which had hovered in the air beneath her.
Dominic hurried over and said, “Nakor! I am glad to see you.”
“When did this happen?” asked Nakor.
“A few hours ago. One moment she was floating in the air, and the next the blackness below her vanished, as if it had been sucked down through a hole, and she gently floated back to the ground, opened her eyes, and began speaking.”
Pug and the others turned their attention to what the woman was saying, and instantly Nakor said,
“Her voice, it’s different.”
Pug had no knowledge of what the young woman had sounded like before, but he knew it could be nothing like what he heard now, for her voice was magical. It was soft, and yet easy to hear if one but took a moment to listen: a musical voice.
“What’s she saying?” asked Miranda.
“She’s been talking about the nature of good since she awoke,” said Dominic. He looked at Nakor.
“When you first began this temple, and when you told us what you would do, I was skeptical, but knew we had to try. But what we see before us now is absolute proof the power of Ishap needed to be shared with the Order of Arch-Indar, for there, before us, sits a living Avatar of the Goddess.”
Nakor laughed. “Nothing so grand as that.
Come.” He led them through the seated crowd and came to stand before the young woman. She ignored him and continued talking. Nakor knelt and looked into her eyes. “Is she repeating herself?” he asked.
Dominic said, “Why, yes, I believe so.”
“Has anyone written down what she’s said?”
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had two acolytes recording her words, Master Nakor.
This is the beginning of her third iteration of the same lesson she taught.”
“Good, because I’ll bet she’s getting hungry and tired.” He put his hand on her shoulder and she faltered in her speech.
She blinked and her eyes seemed to change focus, and she looked at Nakor and said, “What?” Her voice was different, what one might expect of a mortal woman of her age, without the magic that had made it soothing and wonderful a moment earlier.
“You’ve been asleep,” said Nakor. “Why don’t you get something to eat? We’ll talk later.”
The girl got up and said, “Oh, I’m stiff. I must have been sitting like that a while.”
Nakor said, “A couple of weeks, actually.”
“Weeks!” Aleta said. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’ll explain everything to you later. Now go get some food and then a long nap.”
After she left, Dominic said, “If she’s not an avatar, what is she?”
Nakor grinned. “She is a dream.” He looked at Pug and Miranda, and said, “A wonderful dream.”
Miranda said, “But Nakor, she’s still here. Zaltais is gone.”
Nakor nodded. “He was a thing of the mind from that other world, projected into this. Aleta is a normal woman, but something reached across worlds to touch her and used her to hold back that blackness.”
“What was that blackness?” asked Dominic.
“A very bad dream. I’ll explain over dinner. Let’s find something to eat.”
Dominic said, “Very well. We have food in the kitchen.”
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As they were walking, Nakor said, “By the way, we have to change a few things around here.”
“What?” asked Dominic.
“To begin with, you must notify the Ishapians you are no longer a member of their order.”
“What?”
Nakor put his arm around Dominic’s shoulder and said, “You look very young, but I know you’re an old man like me, Dominic. Pug told me the story of the time you and he went to the Tsurani homeworld. I know you’ve seen lots of things.
“Sho Pi over there is a perfect choice to teach the young monks how to be monks, but you are the one who must teach Aleta.”
“Teach her what?” asked Dominic.
“How to be High Priestess of the Order of Arch-Indar, of course.”
“High Priestess? That girl?”
“That girl?” repeated Nakor. “She was an Avatar of the Goddess a moment ago, wasn’t she?”
Miranda laughed, and Pug put his arm around her shoulders. It was the first time in a long while he had felt like laughing.
Erik said, “We can only assume Subai got through to the magician. By all reports they simply stopped fighting everywhere about the time all the corpses fell over.”
Earl Richard said, “Thank the Gods for that.”
“I wish we still had cavalry,” Erik said reflectively. “I have a hunch we could get men up to Ylith without much trouble.”
“Well, order up a unit on foot and see how far they get.”
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Erik smiled. “I already have. And I’m sending Akee and his Hadati through the hills toward Yabon.”
Richard said, “Do you think we’ll ever know what happened, truly?”
Erik shook his head. “Probably not. I’ve been in battles where I still don’t know what happened.
We’ll probably read more reports on this fight than we want to, and I’ll write a few of them myself, but truth to tell, I have no idea what really occurred.
“One minute we were struggling to beat back an army of dead men and crazed killers, and the next the dead men all fell over and the killers were walking around slack-jawed and apparently without minds.
I’ve never heard of a fight going from hopeless to easy in a second before.” The very tired young Captain said, “But to tell you the truth, I don’t really care now that the fighting’s stopped.”
“You’re a remarkable young man, Erik von Darkmoor. I’ll mention that in my report to the King.”
“Thanks, but there are a lot of men out there deserving of praise more than I.” He sighed and looked out the tent door. “And many of them won’t be going home.”
“What should we do now?” asked Earl Richard.
“Without cavalry, I’m inclined to sit tight until we get word of the situation down in Krondor. But my instinct tells me we need to advance northward as fast as we can. Fadawah may have fled or been killed, but that doesn’t mean some other petty captain won’t try to grab power and fashion a modest little Kingdom for himself. And as far as we know, Yabon City is still under siege.”
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myself. Give the order to advance.”
Erik smiled and stood up. “My lord,” he said with a bow. He went outside and found Jadow Shati near the Crimson Eagles’ campsite. “Break camp!” he ordered. “And ready to march!”
“You, heard the man!” said the former sergeant.
“I want every man ready to march in an hour!”
Jadow turned and grinned at his old companion, and Erik found once more he couldn’t resist that man’s smile; he grinned in return.
Patrick showed every sign of being on the way to a full recovery. His color had returned to normal and he sat firmly upon his throne.
The Keshian General Asham ibin Al-tuk again stood before the throne, looking even less pleased than the last time he had appeared. Now he faced a Kingdom army reinforced by cavalry units from Port Vykor and from the North.
Pug walked in.
Patrick said, “You demanded we be here at noon, Pug. What have you to say to us?”
Pug looked at Patrick, then at the General, and said, “This war is over. General, you will refresh your soldiers outside one more day, then at
first light tomorrow you will return to the South. You will return beyond the original borders south of Land’s End. You will carry orders to all Keshian units to cease their attacks on Land’s End and you will relay the following message to your Emperor: should Kesh come north again, uninvited, no man crossing the border under arms will survive.”
The General stood ashen-faced and shaking with rage, but he nodded.
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Patrick beamed. His smile was one of victory.
“Dare to linger, Keshian, and my magician will destroy your army where it stands.”
Pug turned. “Your magician?” Pug advanced upon the young Prince and walked up the stairs to stand before him. “I am not your magician, Patrick.
I loved your grandfather and counted him among the greatest men I’ve known, and I treasured the love of your great-grandfather Borric, who gave me the name conDoin, but you don’t own my soul. There are forces loose in the universe so far beyond your petty dreams of power and wealth they are a flood to a drip of water. It is those forces who command my attention. I just refuse to sit idly by any longer and see innocent women and children slaughtered and brave men die because rulers are too foolish to see they have abundance.”
Turning to the General, Pug said, “You may also tell your Emperor that should any Kingdom soldier move south uninvited, every man under arms who crosses the border will be destroyed.”
“What?” said Patrick standing. “You dare threaten the Kingdom?”
“I make no threats,” said Pug. “I am telling you that you will not be permitted any retribution against Kesh. You will both return to your respective sides of the border and act like civilized neighbors.”
“You are a Duke of the Kingdom, a member of the royal family by adoption, and a sworn vassal to the crown! If I tell you to destroy that army outside the gate, you will do so!”
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those Keshians outside the walls dead, take a sword and go out and try to kill them.”
Patrick’s rage erupted. “You traitor!”
Pug put his hand on Patrick’s chest and shoved him back into the throne. Guards throughout the hall put hands on the hilts of swords to protect their Prince. Miranda stepped forward, hand upraised, and said, “I wouldn’t!”
Nakor stood at her side, and held up his staff.
“The boy is all right.”
Pug leaned over, almost nose to nose with Patrick, and said, “You who have never drawn a sword in a battle more serious than chasing some goblins around in the north call me ‘traitor?’ I have saved your Kingdom, you fool. I did not save it for you anymore than I saved the Empire for that man’s”—his finger shot out, pointing at the Keshian General—“master. I did it because of the countless souls that would have been lost had I not.”
Looking first at Patrick then the General, Pug said, “Take word to your father, and your master, that Stardock is free. Any attempt to force Kingdom or Empire rule on that entity will bring my intervention.
They have my word on that and I shall enforce their independence.” Pug turned and stepped away from the throne. “I care not who sits on your father’s throne, Patrick. You gather together the shards of your broken crown and rebuild your nation. I care not for your titles and rank. I am done with your Kingdom.” He put his arms out and Miranda and Nakor came to stand on either side. “I renounce my title as Duke of the Kingdom. I foreswear my oath as subject to the crown. I have larger concerns than your vanities and national agendas. I am here to pro-
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tect this world, not just one part of it.
“Let it be known that Pug of Crydee is no more.
I am now merely the Black Sorcerer. My island is no longer a hospitable place for the uninvited. Anyone sailing within sight of it is at peril, and anyone setting foot upon it without my leave will be destroyed!”
Then with a thunderous crash and a thick cloud of black smoke, he vanished with his companions.
* * *
Dash said, “Great-grandfather certainly twisted Patrick’s smalls, didn’t he?” Jimmy said, “I’ve had more pleasant afternoons.”
They had just retired from a council with the Prince. The withdrawal of the Keshian troops was discussed as well as what exactly Patrick would report to his father. It had lasted long past dinner and into the night.
They were walking toward Jimmy’s quarters for a quiet moment alone before retiring for the night.
“Did you talk to Francie?” asked Dash.
Jimmy said, “No. I saw her a brief second but didn’t get a chance to really speak with her.”
“She’s afraid that once she’s married to Patrick you’ll just stop talking to her. She doesn’t want to lose your friendship.”
Jimmy said, “That won’t happen. One thing about this war, it taught me what really is important and what just seems important.”
Dash said, “I know.”
There was a note in his voice Jimmy had never heard before. “What is it?”
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Dash said, “Just some people I cared about didn’t get through this.”
Jimmy stopped. “Someone special to you?”
Dash turned and said, “I don’t want to talk about it today. I’ll tell you all about it someday, just not today.”
Jimmy said, “Very well.” He was silent a minute as they continued to walk along the hallways. “I think I learned something myself, and maybe it’s important, too.”
“What?”
“Francie is . . . someone special. But I think I feel the need for something and she is the person I elected to cast in the role of the person to fulfill that need.”
“Grandfather and Grandmother?”
“Yes, what they had. I think that seeing how they felt, especially after seeing how cool Mother and Father always were to each other, it makes me want to have what Grandmother and Grandfather had.”
“Few gain that.”
They reached the door to Jimmy’s room and opened it.
Three people were sitting inside. “Come in and close that door,” said Pug.
Jimmy and Dash entered and Dash closed the door.
Pug said, “I could not leave without speaking to you two. You are the last of my line.”
Trying to lift the mood, Jimmy said, “Please don’t put it that way.”
Miranda laughed.
Dash said, “And we do have relatives in the East.”
Pug laughed. “There is so much of your grandfa-
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ther in you two.” He looked at Dash. “Upon occasion you look like him when he was a boy.” He looked at Jimmy. “And sometimes you look so much like my Gamina it haunts me.”
He opened his arms and Jimmy and Dash came and hugged him in turn. “I shall not return to the Kingdom unless it is for a reason far more important than the whims of kings,” said Pug. “But you two are my blood, and you and your children will always be welcome on my island.”
Dash said, “You have influence with the King. Do you have to make this sort of break?”
Pug said, “I knew King Lyam as a boy in Crydee.
I knew Arutha better, but both knew my heart. The King knew me from his father.”
Nakor said, “Borric knows me well, and my words might carry some weight, but what Pug is being diplomatic in avoiding is that, short of an unexpected disaster, Patrick will someday be King.”
“We are avoiding an argument o
f momentous proportion later by having it now,” said Pug. “The Kingdom is in shambles. Patrick is forced by circumstances to yield to my demands. If this confrontation occurred years from now, how many innocents would die as I enforced my will?”
“And what would that make him?” said Miranda.
“Only a different tyrant than those men of whom we just disposed.”
Dash said, “You cut yourself off from so much.”
Pug said, “I have seen worlds and traveled through time, my boy. I have so much more to see.
This Kingdom of the Isles is but one of many places that are now dear to me.”
Nakor said, “And if need be, we’ll be back.”
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Dash said, “Well, we have a lot of work to do, and if you want my opinion, you’re doing the right thing.”
Pug smiled. “Thank you for that.”
Jimmy said, “I can’t say I agree with Dash, but I know that it is your choice and I wish you well.” He smiled at Miranda. “Shall I call you Great-grand-mother?”
“Not if you value your life,” said Miranda with a smile.
Dash said, “I shall think of you a lot.”
Jimmy said, “As shall I.”
Pug stood. “Be well,” he said, holding out his hands to Nakor and Miranda, and they vanished.
Dash sat down on Jimmy’s bed, leaning back against his down pillow. “I think I’m going to sleep for a week.”
“Then make it next week, Sheriff,” said Jimmy.
“We have a lot of work to do in the morning and one hell of a mess to unravel.” He glanced over and saw his brother was already asleep. For a moment he considered waking him, then he shrugged, left, and went next door to sleep in Dash’s bed.
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DIVISION
GATHIS BOWED.
“I am pleased to see you all return and looking well,” he said.
Pug, Miranda, and Nakor had just materialized near the fountain that was the centerpiece of the garden of Pug’s estate on Sorcerer’s Island.
Pug said, “We are equally pleased to see you.
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