The Serpentwar Saga

As it was. Calis attempted to memorize every detail before him, drinking in the conflicting images and trying to record them in his mind without passing judgment on their significance, so as not to neglect an important detail through an error in judgment.

After a half hour, several human prisoners were brought into the hall. Most had the vacant-eyed look of those in shock or under some sort of spell or the effect of drugs, but one woman struggled against her chains. The priests ranged themselves in a line across the lowest step on the dais, and the centermost spread his hands, holding in one an emerald-topped staff.

He spoke in a hissing language unlike anything Calis had heard in his travels, and motioned to guards to take the prisoners and move them to another place. Calis wished for his bow, that he might kill this priest; then he wondered where such a violent rage came from.

Then the priest motioned for the first prisoner to be brought before the throne, and two guards moved to carry out the command. A series of ritual passes of the staff was punctuated by guttural croaks and deep hisses, and the emerald at the top of the staff began to glow brightly.

Death magic surged in the room as one of the guards held the first prisoner’s head back, while another quickly struck with a long knife, cutting the head completely from the body. Calis held himself motionless, despite strong anger surging up within. The guard threw the head into a corner, and Calis followed its flight, watching as it landed with a wet thud among a pile of heads, some rotting, others now skulls, that sat behind the throne.

The two serpents holding the man’s body lifted it, carried it to a recessed chamber, and tossed it down out of sight. The screeches of hunger that answered caused Calis to swallow hard.

The woman who seemed unfazed by the drugs started screaming, and Calis felt his nerves grow taut. He clutched his sword hilt and ached to charge this den of monsters. One by one the drugged prisoners were slaughtered, their heads tossed to the pile after dark magics seized their life energy, and the bodies were fed to the Pantathian young.

The woman screamed continuously as she crouched on the floor, her terror outracing her fatigue. At last she remained alone before the priests. The priest with the emerald-topped staff motioned for the guards to take the woman next and they lifted her up, ripping her tunic free, so she stood naked in front of the priest, who ignored the warm sticky puddle he stepped in as he walked through the pooling blood of the victims.

Calis saw the priest motion the guards to hold the woman fast, and he saw them force her to lie back, holding her down while the priest began to make more motions with the staff and prod her with the butt end while singing in his alien tongue.

Calis felt his throat tighten. He had encountered the Pantathians’ evil sorcery before. They were able to use humans to create Pantathians who looked like humans. Calis had seen the results before and knew it was a powerful, black art being practiced below.

Calis was no student of magic, but he had some knowledge of it, and this next act was too vile for him to begin to understand. As the priest removed a long dagger from his robe and advanced upon the now shrieking woman, Calis looked away.

He judged himself too close to this place of dark magic for too long and moved backwards, slowly, into the gloom. A few paces up the passage, he turned, and hurried up the long tunnel. He quickly slipped through the door, closing it behind him, and paused a moment to let his senses start to adjust to the gloom.

As he paused, he considered what he had just seen. It was impossible to imagine what the Pantathians gained from the priest’s slow torture of a human woman. He had no doubt that eventually the priest would kill the woman, and her head would join the others on the pile as her body went to nourish the young.

He wished for a moment that Nakor had been along, for the strange little man who claimed not to believe in magic seemed to know more about it than just about anyone Calis had met. He might make some sense of how this ritual torture and slaughter tied into what he feared might be occurring with the Emerald Queen and the Valheru artifacts of power.

Calis hurried through the darkness.

Without conscious thought, he started counting steps and measuring distances with his hearing, and he hoped that he’d find his company where he had left it.

De Loungville almost leaped when Calis touched his arm. He spun around to hear a familiar voice ask, ‘Where is everyone else?’

‘Captain!’ de Loungville said. ‘I was about to say a brief prayer to Ruthia and a small testimonial to Lims-Kragma on your behalf, then get the hell out of here.

‘Now I can sit down and die of a burst heart!’

‘Sorry I startled you, but I couldn’t tell who it was here in the dark, and it smelled like you but I wanted to be sure.’

‘Smelled like me …?’

‘It’s been a while since you’ve had a bath, Bobby.’

‘You’re no bunch of roses either. Calis.’

‘Have you a torch?’

To answer, De Loungville struck steel to flint and set a hot spark into the treated cotton wadding wrapped on a stick. The flame started modestly but spread quickly, and by the time de Loungville held it up, they were bathed in a pool of light.

‘Call me mother, but you look a fright,’ said de Loungville. ‘What did you find down there?’

‘I’ll tell you when we’ve put some distance between us and it. Which way?’

‘We found a passage used by some serpent men, so I put Greylock in charge and sent the men in the other direction, to the left.’

‘Good: that should mean they’re on the surface by now. If we hurry, we can overtake them before they get too far down the hillside. We’re a lot higher up than when we came in the tunnel, Bobby.’

‘And a lot farther from where we want to be than we were when we started,’ responded de Loungville.

‘We’d better hurry. We have a long way to go.’ Softly Calis added, ‘And I fear not that much time to get there.’

• Chapter Twenty-One • Attrition

Erik ducked.

A shower of darts flew through the air and bounced off his shield as he tried to keep low to the ground. Since leaving the cavern and moving down through the hills to the grasslands, Nakor and Sho Pi had both claimed they were being observed.

When they had finally reached an area of broken rocks, islands of limestone, shale, and granite that broke up pools of tall grass, a sudden attack of the Gilani had greeted them. Six men died in the first assault, which was barely driven back by the heroic efforts of those in the forefront.

Greylock had quickly organized the defense, and the struggle had gone on for nearly a half day. Two more men had died as they retreated up the hillside, looking for this defensive position. Praji and Vaja had moved to the front, and were in council with Greylock as Erik approached.

‘I’ve got everyone situated as best I could, Owen. We’re taking a beating.’

‘I know,’ came the calm reply. He looked at Praji and said, ‘Any idea why they hit us?’

Praji shrugged. ‘We’re here and they’re Gilani. They don’t like anyone who isn’t Gilani, and we’re about to enter the grasslands. That’s their range and they’re trying to tell us to keep off.’

‘How’d the damn grass get so tall this time of year?’ asked Greylock.

Vaja said, ‘There are some that grow in the winter and others in the summer, and they are all mixed in down there, is my guess.’

Putting aside his frustration, Greylock asked, ‘Is there another way out of these mountains?’

Praji shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine. Even if I knew exactly where we were, I’ve never traveled this way. Few men from the Eastlands have.’ He looked around. ‘I’m guessing if we could get over the ridge’ – he pointed upward at the highest peaks of the mountains – ‘we might be able to make our way down to the Satpura River. Maybe make some rafts and get down to the coast near Chatisthan. Or we could move back up into the foothills, staying high enough so the Gilani don’t come after us, and could head south, see if we can find a way to the river Dee and follow that down to Ispar, but I don’t recommend that course.’

‘Why not?’

‘That would take us through the Great South Forest. Not a lot of people get through there alive. Rumor has it that’s where your Pantathians hole up, and it’s where tigers that talk like men live …’ When Greylock looked at him with disbelief written on his face, he quickly added. But that’s only rumor.’

A whizzing sound in the air warned them a scant second before another rain of darts pelted them. Erik tried to get his bulk below his shield. A shout and curse told him someone hadn’t covered up quickly enough as darts rained off shields and the surrounding rocks.

‘How bad are the wounded?’ asked Greylock.

‘The wounded aren’t too bad,’ answered Erik. ‘One of the men has a dart in the leg, but it’s down in the fleshy part of the calf – he can walk with help. A couple of broken arms, and Gregory of Tiburn dislocated his shoulder.’

Greylock said. ‘Well, we can’t outwait them here and find out how many of those damn darts they’re carrying.’ In frustration he added, ‘Hell, we don’t even know how many Gilani there are.’ The little men had swarmed over the front of the column, then vanished back into the grass when Calis’s company had turned out to be willing to stand and make a fight of it. Since then they had been launching random flights of darts.

Looking around, Greylock said, ‘Erik, try to get back to the rear and start the men heading back up toward the cavern. We’ll see if we can find another way down that won’t bring us back into this hornets’ nest.’

Erik crouched as he moved along and twice had to flatten himself against the rocks to avoid missiles. The darts were rude things, but cleverly fashioned. Long reeds, little more than heavy grass stalks, were tied together in tight bundles until they were as rigid as arrows, and fitted with tips of sharpened glass or stone. The tied reeds were surprisingly strong, and they rained down with enough impact that they could punch through any unarmored part of the body. Praji had mentioned that the Gilani used a throwing stick, called an atlatl, to propel them in a high arc over their victims’ heads, causing them to fall with great force. Erik would attest to their effectiveness.

He reached the end of the line and started the men moving back up once more. In less than ten minutes, Greylock, Praji, and Vaja came into view, the last of the forward element climbing upward.

Erik looked after and saw no sign of pursuit. ‘They don’t seem anxious to come up here after us,’ he said.

Vaja said, ‘They’re not stupid. They’re little fellows. In an open fight we’d chew them up in less time than it takes to tell of it – but coming after us from tall grass, well, there’s no one who can fight out there better than the Gilani.’

Erik wouldn’t argue that. ‘What has made them so hostile?’

Praji looked back. ‘Usually, they simply don’t like strangers; they could be coming after us for the pure hell of it. Or maybe the Saaur are pushing them south and they’re just mad.’

Erik said, ‘But the Saaur who came after us couldn’t have mounted enough of a force to clear out these grass-dwellers. They’d need an army as big as the one mustering on the Vedra to do that.’

Vaja tapped Erik on the shoulder and pointed up the hill. Calis and de Loungville were hurrying downward to meet them.

When the Captain reached the men, Erik could see by more than one face in the company that many were relieved to see the Eagle of Krondor back among them. He retrieved his longbow from the man who held it for him and said, ‘Why are you climbing back up?’

Greylock quickly explained, and Calis said, ‘We can’t get over the mountains. There’s nothing like a pass up there I could see on the way down, and we can’t risk going back into the cavern to see if there is a way through.’ He thought it best not to tell anyone of what he had seen until he compared notes with Nakor.

Turning to de Loungville, he said, ‘Send Sho Pi and Jadow ahead. Tell them to find us a trail heading south. If we can move along the face of these mountains, then down behind these Gilani so we can then cut across to Maharta, we still may get through this without too much more damage.’

De Loungville nodded and went up the line to give the order to the men who would scout for them. ‘How’s our water?’ asked Calis.

‘We’re fine if we can find a source every day or two,’ answered Greylock. ‘We’ve got eight fewer men who need to drink than we did a couple of hours ago.’

Calis nodded. ‘Praji, what’s water like out there?’

‘Might as well be a desert,’ came the answer. ‘The Plain of Djams has some streams and water holes, but if you don’t know where they are you can wander by one, never see it through the grass, and die of thirst.’

‘Any birds you can follow?’

‘A few, but damn me if I know what they look like,’ admitted the old mercenary. ‘If we get far enough to the south, the foothills along the coast are kinder. Lots of springs, lakes, and creeks, from what I’ve been told.’

‘South it is,’ said Calis.

Ignoring his own fatigue, he hurried past the men in line so he could take over his position at the head of the column.

Erik trudged upward, trying to be equally stoic as his legs burned with fatigue. Each step up the slope took its toll, and he was more than grateful when Calis at last ordered a rest.

Erik waited with anticipation as the waterskin was passed his way, and drank deeply. They had passed a pool on the way down, so there was no reason to stint right now.

As he handed the skin back he looked out at the distant plain and something caught his eyes. ‘What’s that rippling movement in the distance?’ he asked no one in particular.

Praji heard him and came down to where he stood. Squinting, he said, ‘My eyes aren’t what they used to be.’ Turning to face up the slope, he called out, ‘Captain! You should take a look out there!’ He pointed at the horizon.

Calis stared for long minutes, then said, ‘Gods above! It’s the Saaur.’

‘But that’s impossible,’ said de Loungville. ‘For that many to be marching, this far south …’

‘There had to be a second army,’ finished Praji.

‘No wonder those bastards were so determined to keep us away from that entrance to the mountains,’ said Vaja.

Calis said, ‘They must have been using the lower portions of the cavern as a staging area. So that’s why our short friends in the grass are so out of sorts – they just got through having an army ride through their homes.’

De Loungville said, ‘They mean to hit Lanada from the rear!’

After another minute, in which most of the men commented or swore, Calis said, ‘No, they move southeast. They’re heading for Maharta.’

Praji said, ‘If the Raj has sent his war elephants to fight with the Priest-King’s army at Lanada, Maharta will be defended by the palace guards and mercenaries.’

De Loungville swore. ‘The bastards weren’t keen on having us serving them! They were just anxious to keep us from joining the other side.’ He almost spit.

Calis said, ‘How long before they reach the city?’

Praji said, ‘I only have a rough idea where the hell we are.’ He thought and said, ‘Maybe a week, ten days at the outside. If they don’t waste their horses, two weeks.’

‘Can we get there before them?’

‘No,’ came the flat answer. ‘If we had wings, certainly, or if we hacked our way through those Gilani and had fresh horses waiting for us on the other side, maybe, but if we keep going south, there’s no way we can reach the city within a week of those lizard men.’

‘Can the city hold out for a week?’

‘Maybe,’ answered Praji frankly. ‘It depends on how much chaos is going on due to the host that’s got to be fleeing southward. With so many people trying to get in, they may already be under siege.’

Erik said, ‘Can we get around them?’

Vaja said, ‘If we can get to Chatisthan, we might be able to find a ship that could take us up to the City of the Serpent River.’

Calis said, ‘Too many maybes. We’re going to strike for the coast, then we’ll try for the City of the Serpent River.’ He called out to Hatonis, ‘Do you want to try for Chatisthan, or head overland to home?’

Hatonis shrugged, and grinned, looking youthful despite his grey hair. ‘One fight is pretty much the same as another, and if we don’t fight the snakes at Maharta we’re certainly going to have to fight them at our own door.’

Calis nodded. ‘Let’s go.’

Erik saw the others get into line, and he slapped Roo on the shoulder as his boyhood friend walked past. Roo gave him a crooked smile that showed there was nothing to smile about, and Erik nodded in agreement. Erik waited until the last man had passed, then picked up the rear guard position. Suddenly he realized he had taken Foster’s place in line without being told. He looked ahead to see if de Loungville was signaling or if another was coming to take his place, but when no word came down to give up the corporal’s place, he continued along, returning his mind to the business at hand: staying alive.

Providence smiled upon them, as they found a southern trail. It looked to be a miners’ trail, for it was wider than any goat herder. would have needed, and at several places along the way areas of bare rock proclaimed those workers who had hacked their way through the soil and stone to make it easy to get carts up and down the road.

For Calis’s company it was as if at last they were running into some good luck. The men moved along swiftly, at a trot for a time, then a walk, the pace designed to cover the maximum distance by the end of each day.

The wounded were able to keep up, though the man with the injured leg was almost unconscious with pain and loss of blood by the end of the day. Nakor dressed his wound and told Calis that with him and Sho Pi working on it all night, the man would be slightly better each day.

They found water and were clearly able to increase their speed, as they moved quickly to a rising crest. A rumbling warned them as they climbed the rise; then as they topped the crest, in the distance they saw the falls.

De Loungville swore. They faced a gorge cut through the mountains; below them by a hundred feet a great fall of water cascaded into a small lake another two hundred feet below that. From there the river meandered southeast toward the ocean.

Ancient rocks marked where once a rope-and-wood suspension bridge had crossed the gap. Another pair of rock anchors rose up on the opposite side of the gorge.

‘The Satpura River,’ said Praji. ‘Now I know exactly where we are.’

‘Where are we?’ asked Calis.

‘Dead east across the Plain of Djams lies Maharta,’ said Praji. Turning to Calis he said, ‘I don’t know what sort of magic was in that tunnel, but we’re one hell of a lot farther away from where we entered the grasslands than I thought.’

‘What do you mean?’ said de Loungville. ‘We were fifty, sixty miles away from where we entered when we got to that big grotto.’

‘More like three hundred,’ answered Vaja. ‘It would take you a month on a good horse to get back to that mound out in the grass,’ he observed, ‘if you could get past the Gilani.’

Nakor said, ‘It was a very good trick, then, for I felt nothing of it.’ He smiled as if this was a major feat. Then he grinned. ‘Bet it was as soon as we moved from the barrow. Bet you there is no tunnel there. It must be an illusion.’ He shook his head. ‘Now I really want to go back and look.’

Calis said, ‘Some other time. How far to Maharta?’

Praji shrugged. ‘By caravan from Palamds to Port Grief, a month. No one goes from there to Maharta overland – they take a ship. But there is that old coast road, if you don’t mind the bandits and other low-lifes that haunt it.’

‘Where’s our best course?’ asked Calis.

Praji rubbed his chin a moment. ‘I think we send Sho Pi and Jadow that way,’ he said, pointing down the slope near the gorge, ‘to see if there’s a trail down nearby. If so, we take it. If we follow the river, we should be less than a week from Palamds. We can find a caravan or buy horses, and then we ride to Port Grief. From there a ship, and we’re on our way to wherever you need to go.’

‘I need to get back to Krondor,’ said Calis, and several of the men nearby cheered when they heard that.

Nakor said, ‘No, first we must go to Maharta, then to Krondor.’

‘Why?’ asked Calis.

‘We haven’t stopped to ask why the Emerald Queen is taking the river cities.’

Vaja said, ‘Good question.’

‘Hatonis, Praji, you have any ideas?’ asked Calis.

Hatonis said, ‘Conquest for its own purposes is not unknown in this land – for booty, to enlarge one’s domain, for honor – but this simple taking of everything …’ He shrugged.

Praji said, ‘If there was something I wanted in Maharta, and I couldn’t trust to have those other cities at my back …’

Erik said, ‘Maybe it has to do with getting every sword under one banner?’

Calis looked at him for a long minute, then nodded. ‘They plan on bringing the biggest army in history against the Kingdom.’

Then Roo said, ‘How are they planning on getting there?’

Nakor slowly grinned as Calis said, ‘What!’

Roo looked embarrassed as he repeated, ‘How are they planning on getting there? You needed two ships to get us here, with stores and all. They’ve got, what? A hundred thousand, two hundred thousand soldiers? And a lot of horses and equipment. Where are they going to get the ships?’

Hatonis said, ‘The shipbuilders at Maharta are the finest in Novindus. Only the shipwrights in the Pa’j-kamaka Islands are their equal. Our clan has long purchased our ships in Maharta. It is the only shipyard that could possibly produce enough transports in a short time, perhaps in two years or so.’

Calis said, ‘Then we must make a stop there.’

Nakor said, ‘Yes. We must burn the shipyards.’

Hatonis’s eyes widened. ‘Burn … But the city will be under siege. They will have put hulks into the harbor mouth to keep the Emerald Queen’s ships from sailing in, and it will be impossible to get within twenty miles of the city for the patrols on both sides.’

‘How long will it take to rebuild those yards if they’re destroyed?’ asked Calis.

Hatonis shrugged. ‘The yards are massive, and have been built up slowly over the last few centuries. It would take years to restore them. Lumber must be harvested up here and in the Sothu and Sumanu mountains and shipped downriver or carried in wagons. The great keels take a year or more to be cut and brought down, at great expense.’

Nakor almost danced, he was so excited. ‘If we burn the yards, we get five, six, maybe as many as ten years before ships can be built here. Many, many things can happen in that time. This Emerald Queen, can she keep her host together that long? This I think unlikely.’

Calis’s eyes seem to light with the prospect. Then he fought back his enthusiasm and said, ‘Don’t sell her short, Nakor.’

Nakor nodded. The two had spoken at great length about what they had seen, and knew they were dealing with the most dangerous foe since the Tsurani invasion of the Riftwar. ‘I know, but men are men, and unless the Pantathian magic is so powerful as to make their hearts change, many of these soldiers of hers will forsake her banner without payment.’

‘Still,’ said Hatonis, ‘denying her the shipyards would be a major victory. My father ran the most successful trading consortium in the City of the Serpent River. We can send men to the Pa’jkamaka Islands and ensure they do not sell her ships. I will personally guarantee no shipwright in the City of the Serpent River will work on her behalf.’

Calis said, ‘You know that after Maharta she will march on you? It’s logical.’

‘I know we shall have to fight her. If we must, we can abandon the city and live again in the wild. We men of the clans were not always city men.’ Hatonis smiled a dark smile. ‘But many of her greenskins will die before that day comes.’

Calis said, ‘Well, first things first. Jadow, Sho Pi, see if you can find us a way down from here.’

The two men nodded and trotted back along the trail, looking for another way down.

‘As long as we wait,’ said Nakor, opening his bag, ‘anyone want an orange?’ He grinned as he pulled out a large one and stuck his thumb in, squirting juice on Praji and de Loungville.

They found a trail down, a narrow rocky pathway as treacherous as the first one had been kind. Three men fell to their deaths when a ledge of stone, seemingly solid, had collapsed under their feet. Now the remaining sixty men huddled in a narrow defile, huddled around two campfires, vainly trying to withstand the cold as a sudden change in weather sent the temperature below freezing.

Calis and another three men had gone hunting, for the remaining rations were gone, but could only come back reporting no game was near. The company was too large, said Calis, and game was staying clear. He said he’d leave before first light and try to get as far down the trail as possible, to see if he could find a deer or other large game.

Praji said there were bison roaming the plains and many of them lived in the woodlands of the foothills. Calis said he’d keep that in mind.

Erik and Roo sat shoulder to shoulder, holding out their hands to the fire, while others huddled miserably as close together for warmth as they could.

The only exception was Calis, who stood a short distance away, unmindful of the chill.

Roo said, ‘Captain?’

Calis said, ‘Yes?’

‘Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?’

De Loungville, from near the next fire, said, ‘Keep your mouth shut, Avery!’

Roo spoke through chattering teeth. ‘Hang me now and get it over with, why don’t you? I’m too cold to mind.’ To the Captain he said, ‘You and Nakor have been thick as fleas on a beggar since you came back, sir, and, well, if we’re going to be getting killed, I’d like to know what for before I close my eyes.’

A few other men said, ‘Yes,’ and ‘That’s right,’ before de Loungville’s bellow silenced them.

‘Next man opens his gob will find my boot in it! Understood?’

Calis said, ‘No, there’s some justice in what he said.’ He looked at the men nearest him and said, ‘Many of you will not get home. You knew that when you were given reprieve from your sentence. Others of you are here because you’re loyal to the Lion Clan or because you’re old friends of Praji’s. And some of you are just in the wrong place.’ He glanced at Greylock, who smiled a little at the last.

Calis knelt and went on, ‘I’ve told you some of what we face, and I’ve warned you that should this Emerald Queen prevail, this world as we know it ends.’

The clansmen and Praji’s mercenaries hadn’t heard that, and several muttered disbelief. Hatonis silenced his own men, and Praji shouted, ‘He’s telling the truth. Shut up and listen.’

Calis said, ‘Long ago the Dragon Lords ruled this world. You may have heard legends of them, but they were not legends. They were real.

‘When the men of the Kingdom fought the Tsurani a half century ago, a door was opened, a door between the worlds. The Dragon Lords, who had left this world ages ago, tried to use that door to return. Some very brave and resourceful men stopped them.

‘But they’re still out there.’ He pointed into the night sky, and several men looked up at the distant stars. ‘And they’re still trying to get back.’

Nakor suddenly spoke. ‘This woman, the Emerald Queen, she was once someone I knew, a long time ago. She is what you would call a sorceress, a magician. She made a pact with the serpent men and they promised her eternal youth. What she didn’t know was that she would lose her soul, her spirit, and become something else.’

Nakor continued, ‘There is very bad magic under that mountain.’

Calis said, ‘You don’t believe in magic.’

Nakor smiled, but there was little humor in his expression. ‘Call it tricks, then, or spirit force or anything you like, but those serpent men, they use their powers in a very twisted way. They do evil things that no sane man would think to do, because they are not sane.

‘These are not the creatures that mothers tell children of, to make them mind. These are very bad creatures who think that one of the Dragon Lords, named Alma-Lodaka, is a goddess. More, they think she is the mother of all creation, the Green Mother, the Emerald Lady of Serpents. She created them as servants, living decoration, nothing more, but they think they are her “favorites,” like children she loves, and once they open a door for her return, she will elevate them to the status of demigods. They will never believe that if they do this terrible thing, this Alma-Lodaka will sweep them away along with everything else.’

Nakor fell silent a moment, then said, ‘Calis makes no stories. If this woman, this Emerald Queen, is behaving as I think she is, then things are very bad. Calis, tell them of your father.’

Calis nodded. ‘My father is called Tomas. He was a human boy as all here were. He came to own some artifacts of power, ancient armor and a golden sword once the property of a Valheru, by name Ashen-Shugar. My father wore that armor and carried that sword through the Riftwar, against the Tsurani, and over the years he changed.

‘My father is no longer human. He is something unique on this world, a human body changed by the spirit of the long-dead Dragon Lord who owned that armor and sword.’

‘Unique until now,’ said Nakor. ‘For this Emerald Queen may be another such as he.’

The men muttered, and Calis said, ‘For reasons I only half understand, my father’s nature is that of the human boy –’