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"No weapons shown?"

&039;Only the young and the old and the women," Wan Atenn explained

Carwan Pestle turned a curious expression on Grysh ?Perhaps the men are out on a hunt"

"Indeed," the Yatol replied slyly ?But it is well-known that the To-gai-ru hunt early in the "

"But - "

"So if they are indeed out on the hunt, then what, ?"

Carwan sat back and stared at the Yatol He was beginning to get a very bad feeling about all of this, his sto over and over The coach came to an abrupt stop and Caras quick to the door, throwing it open and leaping out, then turning about and rolling out the retracting stairs for his Yatol

Grysh ca Wan Atenn to set his warriors in defen-sive posture about the small stairway The Yatol paused on each step, his heavy head swiveling to take in all the sights: theout from under the shadows of the folds

"These people breed like hares," he snickered, and he sighed ?Find out who is in charge of this wretched camp"

Wan Atenn snapped to attention, then spun off, ether, they went tent to tent, Wan Atenn saying so it to the To-gai-ru

Always, a shake of the head came back in response, followed by a more insistent bark from Wan Atenn and a more insistent reiteration froht no apparent acceptable response, Wan Atenn stepped forward and, with a siai-ru to the ground, and the pair

"They are afraid," Yatol Grysh explained to Carwan ?They do not an-swer because they know not what to say"

"Your man, Atenn, inspires fear"

"No," Yatol Grysh replied ?They know not what to answer because the truth would damn them The fools have not properly rehearsed their lies because they did not expect that such a force would co, do you see?"

"Yes, Yatol"

"Do you?" Grysh asked again,to face Carwan ?Why are they afraid?" he asked when Carwan gave him his full attention

Carwan knew the answer, but he chewed on it for a few seconds, not even wanting to speak it aloud, fearing the consequences ?Because they are guilty," he said at last, and Yatol Grysh nodded slowly and deliberately, turning his head as he did, his eyes narrowing, to face the gathered To-gai-ru

Carwan could not deny the logic of his claie was at least aware of, if not in league with, the bandits But as he looked around at the gathering, frightened wo out frouilty" just did not seeht his attention, and he turned that way to a Behrenese warrior eai-ru man held fore him, arm wrapped painfully and effectively behind his back

"They say that their , Yatol," Wan Atenn said at i same moment, for the Cheznou-Lei warrior and the translator had con-tinued the conversation to the side

"All but one, it would seem"

The soldier with the prisoner moved before Wan Atenn and threw the man at his leader&039;s feet ?A tunnel concealed within the tent," he explained

Wan Atenn nodded to a pair of soldiers and they ran off to the tent, dis-appearing within its folds without hesitation

"Who is this?&039;V��atoTtkysh said to Wan Atenn and the interpreter, and the outposter iai-ru woand barked out a series of questions The woan screa at her, the sa back, answering with such enthusiasm that her lie was easy for all to see, even for those who didn&039;t understand the To-gai-ru language

Then it stopped, suddenly, the outposter and the defiant wo hard at each other

"Where are the others?" Yatol Grysh calmly asked, and his translator echoed the question in the same tone

"No others," the woman answered, and both Carwan and Grysh under-stood the simple phrase before their man turned to explain

"Where are the others?" Grysh asked again, in the saain, it was properly translated

The woman responded exactly the same way, and as the outposter turned to Grysh, the Yatol held up his hand and turned to Wan Atenn

"No trees to hang the prisoner properly," he said ?Stake him"

Carwan&039;s eyes widened with shock ?Yatol" he started to say, but the look Grysh shot hian barking orders, and in short order, the prisoner had been dragged to the side of the encaled, staked down by his wrists and ankles Every tile, a Behrenese soldier kicked hiai-ru screaent was more than able to hold theain nodded to Wan Atenn, and the fierce warrior, no novice to these techniques, fetched a torch fro Another soldier dutifully ran to intercept Wan Atenn, handing hi waterskin

A waterskin of lamp oil, Carwan knew Caras at a loss, hardly able to draw breath, let alone speak a word of protest A word that his unques-tionable hting hard to hide his revulsion, as Wan Atenn stuck the torch into the ground between the ht be," Grysh instructed his out-poster interpreter

The wo tih in a much more subdued tone

Grysh nodded to his fierce Chezhou-Lei warrior, who i the lamp oil all over the staked man

Then the Yatol turned to the woman, a wide smile on his face ?One last time," he said, somewhat flippantly

The woman looked away, and Caranted to as well, but found that he could not,to Wan Atenn, by the sight of Wan Atenn, showing no erabbed up the torch and touched it to the oiled prisoner

Carwan knew that the ai-ru were screa, but he didn&039;t really hear any of it He was trapped by the vision before him, locked by horror and sheer amazement

"Now," he at last heard fro for him to follow to the coach, had likely called to him sev-eral ti hisinto the coach, eager to close the door on the gruesome scene

"Do as you will," Yatol Grysh said to Wan Atenn, then ordered his driver to be off

They all left then, except for the twenty warriors and their fierce Chezhou-Lei leader For a long, long time, Carwan Pestle sat in the quiet coach, deterh, he did peek out

The encaeline, but several lines of sray s lines

Carwan shuddered and fell back into his seat, trying hard not to throw up