Page 25 (1/2)

PART F O U R THE DRAGON OF TO-GAI

When first I encountered Agradeleous in his cavern lair, I recognized, or thought I had, the power of the beast The on froze me in my tracks, for a hty rivers, wild hailstorms on the open steppes, and heard - felt! - the thunder of a buffalo herd charging through the grasses In all these things I a us in our hopes and drearadeleous He is a volcano, a flood, an earthquake, a catastrophe of the highest order, and unbelievably, his power has been given to les radeleous has coth of the steppes in but a day or two, gathering e that they will travel into coon Is any outposter settlereat a fortress for us now?

Is Dharyan? Isjacintha itself?

But there is another side to the lucky coin that is Agradeleous the dragon Is his a power truly leashed, truly under ht outmore than the reer keenly, more at the loss of our old ways than at the particular injustices they suffered At Oracle, I am convinced ai-ru must be returned to the steppes, that we cannot tolerate our subjugation to the Chezru Chieftain and his Yatols

Still, I cannot disiven, this awesoradeleous will heed to my commands, so said Belli&039;mar Juraviel But in those terrible on went in pursuit with the three of us riding, I understood that Agradeleous truly follows only the coh the ranks of the fleeing Behrenese, with his fiery breath and his raking claws, his snappingtail!

I fear what I ainst a Behrenese city Will the dragon distinguish between soldier and civilian? Between iven a choice, and it is one that surely tugs at reat strides toward ai sky atop the great beast, I can giveive them hope and a focus Who would not stand behind radeleous nleashed I can turn my head and block my ears, but not on fire immolates them I can jatch the outposter settlereat cities of Astern Behren, burn

Agradeleous is not invulnerable, by the words ofjuraviel An ar it down

There is within , after the To-gai-ru have rallied, after enough victories are secured so that the Behrenese will not return to our land For whatis ended? When and ifTo-gai is free, what aon

For his is a power, I fear, that, once unleashed, cannot be put back in its hole It is possible that I will lead an arradeleous if I somehow achieve victory over Behren, and that is not a prospect that I enjoy entertaining

Like the Touel&039;alfar as a whole, Belli&039; a path nificent weapon Many ti our journey south did Belli&039;mar Juraviel warnradeleous th

Chapter 25 The Walkaway

Baliit Tiuilt, as he had been for most days since the return of the few Chezhou-Lei who had survived the disaster at the Mountains of Fire, and the few dozen Jacintha soldiers who had escaped and who had lot subsequently deserted in the wild southland

All had spoken of a sudden turn in the battle, of the arrival of a dragon, ridden by a warrior woon! Whoever had heard of such a thing? Certainly there were tales of such creatures, the great wuron been known actually to take a side in a conflict!

It was all tooto comprehend, or to accept He was convinced that the beast had been a ic; the h never as dra Chezhou-Lei had reported that none of the ainst theeh the hated Jhesta Tu were known to possess a few of those, as well

Perhaps their greatest wizards had re reasoned, co their powers to create the beast, or the il-lusion of the beast

Whatever the case, the disaster could not be denied His vaunted order had been cut in half in one day, with scores of superbly trained warriors, the best in all of Behren, perhaps in all the world, cut down in that barren wasteland That was his burden, and ht it more than he could possibly shoulder How badly had he erred, how great a failure was his reign as the Kaliit of the elite and an-cient order

He heard the shake of the door chimes outside his chamber, but didn&039;t let it take him from his profound contemplations He heard the door open, but wouldn&039;t open his eyes and thus, did not see the light filtering into the darkened roonore, no reat his desire to be alone He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head, to see the silhouette of a fa in the doorway

"God-Voice," he welcomed

"How many more weeks will you spend in here, Kaliit?" Chezru Chief-tain Douan asked bluntly ?Hiding ahile your order tries to find some way to recover fro answered softly ?I know not where to turn uidance"

"You cower in the dark," Douan accused, and behind the Chezru Chief-tain there ca knew to be the surprise of Mer-wan Ma, Douan&039;s ever-present attendant, who had so conveniently turned away frouideanswered with as hed at him ?You would have led all of your order to complete destruction if I had not intervened and forced you to hold some of your warriors back Where would the Chezhou-Lei be now if all of you had goneto your destruction in that forsaken land of rock and fire? And for what, Kaliit Tile Chezhou-Lei, killed in open and honest battle?"

The old Kaliit bowed his head again, having no resolve to fight back against the God-Voice For indeed, the guilt was there, all about his of despair There was no escape fro to rebuild that which was lost, nor in here, hiding in the darkness fro Chezhou-Lei seek answers, of course," Chezru Douan ree and hope that you will send them all off on a journey to the Moun-tains of Fire"

That last bit brought Tiain to stare at Douan Perhaps that was the course To avenge the dead by eliether! ?If you would lend reat victory," he dared to say

Again cahter ?Victory?" Douan asked incredu-lously ?Victory over whom? The Jhesta Tu? But they are not eneun a ht at Dharyan, against Yatol Grysh," said Tiaging in battle, according to those who have returned Surely that - "Means nothing to me," Chezru Douan finished ?The Jhesta Tu are better of in theirI&039;ll not awaken " dragon, Kaliit Ti squinted against the sting of those words

"Perhaps I erred in sending my twenty-square behind your warriors," rhezru Douan admitted, but he retracted the words immediately, for it uld not do for one who spoke directly to Yatol to ain, had I not sent the soldiers, then none of your Chezhou-Lei would have escaped, and common soldiers are far more easily replaced than are your elite warriors

"And so it sits fully with you, Kaliit Tih it was against that which I knew to be true, because of your insistence that honor be upheld, whatever the cost What is the honorable course for you noonder? You have failed in your capacity, of that there can be no doubt Do you believe that you should continue to lead the re Chezhou-Lei? Or are you too much a coward to take the only honorable course before you?"

Again caasp from behind him, Merwan Ma apparently as stunned by the heartless words as was the Kaliit

Chezru Douanthe door behind hi while, the God-Voice&039;s words ether taking his gaze inevitably toward the beautifully crafted curving sword that sat on a decorated stand at the side of the roo the movement, the battered old man went to the sword and stared at it hard Even in the di reached his hand up to feel the cool metal, wrapped a thousand tih the warrior generations, and so it had seenits edge even finer

Kaliit Ti the intri-cate runes carved in thethe words of the God-Voice and knowing that they rang with truth

Kaliit Ti walked back to the center of the roonificent sword on the floor, then propped the razor-sharp tip against the hollow of his breast He had failed; he could not deny it any longer, nor could he hope to redeem himself within the Chezhou-Lei order

With a nod, thes death reached Chom Deiru the next day, and did not surprise the Chezru Chieftain in the least In fact, Douan was quite pleased by the turn of events, for this suicide would allow hi&039;s shoulders

That was all that he truly cared about at that time Since the disaster the Mountains of Fire, several of the Yatols overseeing the surrounding eas had been sending screa for on came after them, and many more had taken the cry of panic

But to Douan the defeat was no tremendously important incident He h H a line of couriers spread from the Mountains of Fire all the way to Jacintha and reports came in every few days None of those, not one in the months since the disaster, spoke of any ominous activity in the land of the Jhesta Tu Certainly none had reported any dragons flying about!

The Jhesta Tu had thinned the Chezhou-Lei order considerably, and the loss of leaders to Douan s arain, it appeared, by Yatol Grysh&039;s cunning feint to defeat the rogue Ashu, and all seedoainst Behren after the ascension of the new Father Abbot, Fio Bou-raiy

Thus, Yakido inforain thoughts that his ti near

Brynn took a deep breath - several, in fact There before her lay the first village she had entered on her return to To-gai, a place whose name, Telliqik, she had only recently heard For the last few months, she and her four un-likely coth and breadth of the steppes, stop-ping at every village they could find, with Brynn then going in to spread the word about the Dragon of To-gai, about how she would lead the To-gai-ru to freedom, but only if they all joined in with her Truly it pained the anx-ious woman to spend these days in relative peace and quiet After the vic-tory at the Mountains of Fire, with the Chezhou-Lei shattered, it seemed as if Behren was ripe to be plucked

Belli&039;h, had re-h reat victory and the sheer power of the dragon, cohout the land would be slow and inexact, with the story likely changing from one town to another, even from one person to another The companions would count on that inaccuracy to work in their favor as word spread back to Behren, but they knew that it could well be a liability if it was not parsed correctly on its path through To-gai

And so they had flown out upon Agradeleous, and the dragon had even taken Runtly along, holding the pony in a harness the Jhesta Tu in the quiet resistance that would signal the start of Brynn&039;s caainst the Chezru Chieftain called Autumnal Nomaduc, the Autuai-ru history Many times before, one tribe had conquered another, the survivors of the conquered Mould si out into en steppes Never before had it been tried across all of To-gai, but before had the conqueror been the Behrenese, and never before had &039;rebellion leader been an elven-trained ranger, riding atop a dragon!

The ranger stooped over, as if weary and road-worn, and certainly less eatening, and hitched the cowl of her worn cloak up over her head She irruff peasant accent as she approached the gate, peeked out under the cowl only once, to note the strange looks coon is lost, and all ht before the two Behrenese ?You had a wagon?" one asked

"A wagon, a husband, and a few friends, I had!" Brynn snapped at hi very close She didn&039;t really recog-nize the ht know her, for she had stood tall and distinct when last she was there, that year ago, when she had killed Yatol Daek and Dee&039;dahk

"And you lost them?" the man asked with a smirk

"Killed on the road!" Brynn screeched ?By robbers so on, and killed me friends Get yer weapons, sol-diers! Protectors! Get yer weapons and go out and kill the the air to try to cal to hold back a smile Robbers were no major catastrophe in the unruly steppes, Brynn knew, except of course to those victiuards wouldn&039;t be quick to send out any patrols, certainly not on the word and plea of a lowly To-gai-ru woman ?Now tell me where this happened," the soldier bade her &039;Fifteen days o&039; walking,"

Brynn said, waggling a finger in his face ?Fifteen days?"