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A sure skittered onto a rotted cedar stump directly in front of Quick Ben, awith an acorn head
The wizard nodded ’Tala to the White Faces’
’And so I did, Mage, thanks solely to your cleverness’
’You’ve an odd way of showing your gratitude, Old One’ Quick Ben looked around ’Where are we?’
’The First Landing Here wait the warriors who did not survive the journey’s end Our fleet was vast, Mage, yet when the voyage was done, fully half of the canoes held only corpses We had crossed an ocean in ceaseless battle’
’And where do the Barghast dead go now?’
’Nowhere, and everywhere They are lost Wizard, your challenger has slain Humbrall Taur’s champion The spirits have drawn breath and hold it still, for the man may yet die’
Quick Ben flinched He was silent for a moment, then he said, ’And if he does?’
’Your soldiers will die Humbrall Taur has no choice He will face civil war The spirits thereat a distraction, a source of greater divisiveness But this is not why I have had you, brought here’ The s silent behind him ’These are the warriors The ar Spirits were lost long ago Mage, a child of Humbrall Taur has found them Found them!’
’But there’s a problem’
Talamandas seemed to slump ’There is They are trapped … within the city of Capustan’
The ied into place in the wizard’s mind ’Does Humbrall Taur know?’
’He does not I was driven away by his shouldermen Theones are allowed to be present, for they have little power Their gift is co the Barghast It was not always so You see before you a pantheon divided, and the vast schism between us is tiers to our children; they will not listen to our wisdom and they fear our potential power’
’Was it Humbrall Taur’s hope that his child would find these Founding Spirits?’
’He erave risk, yet he knows the White Face clans are vulnerable The young spirits are too weak to resist the Pannion Domin They will be enslaved or destroyed When comfort is torn away, all that will be revealed is a weakness of faith, an absence of strength The clans will be crushed by the Doropes blindly’
’And when I tell him that the ancient spirits have been found … will he believe me?’