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The long-caravan snaked its way across the broken brown clay It appeared like a giant centipede, its torso a long line of ca soldiers riding tall horses In the est and most lavish coach, Yatol Grysh sat back in his cushy seat, coh he had several attendants, all beautiful young wo his broith moistened towels
"I do so hate this," the Yatol said repeatedly ?With the To-gai dogs, there is never any rest from my duties"
The two of his four attendants ere of obvious To-gai-ru descent, with their softer and straighter hair and al long ago gotten used to Grysh&039;s de manner
"It will calm the outposters," said Carwan Pestle, Grysh&039;s advisor Shep-herd, and the sixth and final person in the wide coach ?They fear that the thieves grow bolder by the day"
The caravan had been barely out of Jacintha,the southern shadows of the Belt-and-Buckle toward Dharyan, the town con-trolled by Yatol Grysh, the seat of his power in northwestern Behren, when couriers fro the ruling Yatol that the thieves of the Corcorca region of To-gai, just west and south of Yaminos, always a thorn, had become even more active That, of course, had unsettled the outposters, the Behrenese eai border
Yatol Grysh had caned for those settle that his job would becoan to civilize the wild To-gai-ru But the early transition was proving to be so of a trial for the lazy man
Thus, Grysh had diverted his caravan to the south and ridden right past Jharyan, deter sol-diers, a contingent that included a score of fierce Chezhou-Lei warriors
He&039;d teach the dogs Though there weren&039;t all that ion, it was a difficult trek, with the wagons bouncing along a narrow, rocky, steeply ascending trail, up to the higher elevations of the To-gai plateau Yatol Grysh did not enjoy the several days of discomfort
Grysh leaned back and looked out hisat the wide and barren landscape In the distance to the north, he could see the towering peaks of the e that had been a backdrop to his home for his entire life He wanted to be back under their cooling shadow, in the temple that was his palace, full of luxuries and sweet foods, of clean baths and beautiful and dutiful women
But Yatol Grysh understood that the only way to ensure the continuation and safety of his precious palace was to rule these eastern stretches of To-gai with an iron hand He hated the To-gai-ru, with their barbaric, nomadic ways He hardly considered theai-ru attendants and sh
"The people of Douan Cal near completion of their wall?" he asked Car-wan Douan Cal, naest and most important of the Behrenese settleai-ru bandits
"They work tirelessly, Yatol," Carwan replied ?But their life is difficult Water must be carried far and crops constantly tended Their hunters have not learned the way of the local game yet, and thus often return without food They are not many, but still, they work as they can, whenever they can, at cutting the blocks for their encircling wall"
"Have they not enough To-gai-ru servants to coai-ru traditionally wander to the foothills in the summer season"
"And many, it seems, have wandered to the nearby desert, to come forth whenever it is convenient to steal from our people"
Carwan nodded ?Life is difficult," he said somberly
Grysh sat back and stared out the , considering the new responsi-bilities that had befallen him since Chezru Chieftain Yakim Douan had de-cided that the time had coai True, the subjugation of the To-gai-ru had provided ly endless supply of the wonderful and valuable ponies so prized by the men of Honce-the-Bear But Grysh, itnessed the hardships of controlling the wild folk of the steppes on a nearly daily basis, still wondered about the wisdom of the conquest, still wondered if the bother orth the gain
For Yatol Grysh ise enough to recognize that his people, the Behre-nese, were not well suited for the trials of the cold wind and grassy steppes of brutal To-gai How many years would it take the outposters to adapt?
The seasons would it take for thee hares and spry deer, the giant and powerful that was his charge fro farther and farther to the west, a supply line of srassland that separated the heart of ?ai froai-ru could be-&039; earjiest
Yatol Grysh was ious one, ?t both sides of that conflict saw prudence in following the Chezru Chief-tain&039;s edicts to the letter And so he had turned south and continued west, to the call or his people I ate that afternoon, as the suan its descent behind the line of mountains, the call came back that the eastern wall of Douan Cal had been spotted by the point scouts
"Continue on through the darkness, then," Yatol Grysh instructed ?Have a rider go ahead fast to instruct the outposters to light guiding signal fires atop the highest point of their eastern wall"
"It erous to travel after dark," Carwan pointed out, but Grysh silenced hions into three side-by-side columns," he instructed He turned to his military commander, Chezhou-Lei Wan Atenn, who had personally delivered the news of the sighting ?You will protect us froai-ru bandits, will you not?"
The Chezhou-Lei, proud and loyal, sat up very straight on his tall horse, staring at his Yatol with a frozen and deterht so," Yatol Grysh said, and he closed the &039;s shutter, for the sun was descending, and on the steppes, even in su to Grysh how fast the air cooled, the scorching dayti to an unco ladies then, andthe blankets
He wanted to be home, true, but Yatol Grysh was a man who kne to take his coht was not so unpleasant The stories Yatol Grysh heard within the coai raiders had struck at the town repeatedly, taking their livestock, hurling curses and hurling missiles None of the Behren settlers had been killed as yet, but several had been injured, including the sane old woman who had been hit in the head with a rock
What is your assessment of our enemy?" Yatol Grysh asked Carwan ter on when they were alone - alone concerning anyone whowenches to bother watching his words around the the question a bit of thought
"Teenagers, perhaps The older To-gai-ru would have been ht-forward and ai-ru would be righting for erly
"The older ones once caused trouble throughout To-gai, fighting fanati-cally," Carwan said ?They slaughtered entire villages without regard for the women or children"
"Because the older outlaws - and praise Yatol that few reods on their lips," Yatol Grysh explained, ?they believed that their fighting andtheir road to whatever they envision as their heaven Men who do battle in such astudent"
"Like our own Chezhou-Lei?" Carwan dared to remark
"And always the best allies," Yatol Grysh finished with a sly smile ?And tell me, what are we to do about these raiders? Do you believe that ill find them in the open desert?"
Carwan leaned back and considered the proble this area of desert, by their own boasts, but none knew the region as did the To-gai-ru There in Corcorca&039;s rugged landscape, valleys opened up unexpectedly at one&039;s feet and huge and tow-eringthe raiders about in that, their horound, seemed a fool&039;s errand indeed
"We&039;ll not catch up to them if we spend the rest of the season in pursuit," Yatol Grysh went on, for Carwan&039;s expression s on the mat-ter quite clear ?And likely, they&039;ll strike behind us at every opportunity, to embarrass us more than to cause any serious er,thieves into a band of legends," Yatol Grysh answered after only a brief pause ?And that legend will give the To-gai-ru of the region great hope that the veil of Behren will be lifted from their land"
"Then what are we to do, Yatol?"
"The nomads&039; latest encampment is not far from here," Yatol Grysh ex-plained ?We will pay them a visit on theabout the manner in which he said the words had the hairs on the back of Carwan&039;s neck standing up So about the set of his ex-pression at thatand de-termined look, told Carwan that his master meant to see to this thorny problem with all efficiency
Whatever the cost
Most of the caravan remained behind at Douan Cal the next day, with Grysh&039;s coach the only wagon riding out Surrounding the Yatol, though, the whole of hiswith a few ai-ru
" rwan Pestle rode with Grysh He tried to start a few conversations at but it becaitated and wanted be left to his own thoughts Carwan could guess what that foretold, for had seen Grysh in si a most unpleas- e�� order As Yatol of Dharyan, Grysh also served as principal istrate, d so he was the one who ordered the executions of convicted criminals It was not a duty that he seemed to enjoy, but neither was it one fro out of the coach , peering ahead intently, for the call had coht Carwan Pestle had never seen a To-gai-ru settlee noround falling away gradually beyond, down to a wide and shallow river that er flora of the desert springing to life about its inevitably temporary banks A cluster of tents was set near one bend, the thin gray s into the pale blue sky No horses were tethered within the camp that Carwan could see, but there was a fair-sized herd ai-ru were faine that this seely wild herd was far froai-ru rider
The lead riders fanned out left and right, for right into the river With perfect disci-pline, the second line of twenty warriors, led by Wan Atenn, kicked their e of the ca perimeter
Many cries of alarm came out to Carwan Pestle&039;s ears, and he noted that all of the children
A e was secure, and the driver cracked the whip on the draft horses and Yatol Grysh&039;s coach ram-bled down to the encampment
Carwan Pestle peered intently all the way, as the small forms took onupon hearing the cries was correct There seemed to be no adult men in the encampment
Wan Atenn rode up beside the?It is safe, Yatol," he reported