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Pagonel found Brynn at her ht quite curious, for he had not seen the wo that exercise ininto the steps andhe had previously witnessed fro the dance as a shield of so emotions behind a wall of discipline

He found her robe nearby and took it with him, then approached her as she danced

She looked at him curiously when she saw hionel continued his earnest approach, and tossed the robe to the nude wo while holding it and staring at Pagonel Then, suddenly feeling very naked indeed, the woman wrapped the robe about herself and continued to stare

"What do you know that so troubles you?" she asked

"What I know does not troubleof Pruda is complete, with supplies packed, treasures hidden, and one cache sent to the south with the contingent, as you ordered, to go and hire whateverfierce pirates What I know tells resses better than we could ever have hoped It is what I do not know that troubles me"

"About Merwan Ma?"

"About Brynn Dharielle"

Brynn studied hi about her, staring hard ?You cannot hide, you know"

"Aonel smiled at her sarcasm, but his look went serious alht," theour oith the cunning To-leading them far to the west," Brynn replied, with too much calm by el&039;s estihts to reveal your shad-" the mystic said ?But does your dance truly allow you to hide from Se Brynn snorted and waved hiain gut that last chide was cut short by a sudden gulp of air, a sudden pang f overwhel to hide her horri-fied expression fro her chin in his strong hand so that he could look deeply into hereyes

"What did you see?" he asked softly Brynn tried to turn away, but he held her firht up to our fleeing force," the woreat army! They would have overrun Barachuk and the others in short time I had to widen the lead until the terrain favored our forces"

"You set Agradeleous upon the Behrenese," the mystic reasoned

"Not the aron But there was a village nearby, an outposter settleonel&039;s ar chest

"You set the wurainst his chest The radeleous burned it to the ground None escaped, I aly and sympathetically ?I once asked you if the price orth the end," he reminded ?Are the horrors of war - of any war - worth the end result of freedoai? You believed that they were ?

Brynn paused a moment to reflect upon that conversation, and upon the resolve that she had shown for so long, weighing against the black doubts that fluttered all about her ?That was before I was handed the power that is Agradeleous"

There was a logic in that statement that was hard for the mystic to deny

"Yet it was your ararri-son utterly and overran the city," he did rereat, as was the stench of death in the air It is not so different"

"That was honest battle, e, it was it was just slaughter ?

"And how do you plan to prevent that in the future?" came a melodic voice to the side, and the two turned to see Juraviel and Cazzira approaching

"Why do you not tell ht this beast upon radeleous if I had wanted," the elf calon determined that it would leave its dark hole, I had no power to convince it otherwise But I did bring it to th cause of freedo, at least"

"Is it?" Brynn asked, pulling away fro the beast, am I - are we - any better than the Behrenese who con quered To-gai? Or are orse, since we have loosed upon them a power that we cannot truly control?"

"A question for each of us to ask," Juraviel replied with a shrug ?But know this as you seek an answer The beast is out, and not I, and not you can put it back in its dark hole Will you noar against Agradeleous? How many will you lose, and how lost will be your cause?"

Brynn looked back to Pagonel, but the mystic had no answers for her

"I could not prevent the rising of the dragon," Juraviel went on ?But was it not better that I flew hiuished his enemies as the Chezhou-Lei and not the Jhesta Tu? Is it not better that Agradeleous&039; destruction is aihed and looked at the elves and the ht of a responsibility too great"

"Yet because you bear that weight with compassion, the artifacts of the Library of Pruda reonel pointed out ?You have not indis-criradeleous upon the Behrenese"

"Tell that to the outposters of that village," said Brynn

"And how ht west, and then back to the east?" asked the mystic ?Were they all set ablaze?"

That did make Brynn feel a bit better, obviously, and she just nodded in reply, and said, ?I hate this war"

"I hate any war," said Pagonel ?And so I ask you again, and you must ask yourself, every day if need be, if the price is acceptable for the outcoai free worth the horrors that will take her there?"

Brynn glanced over at Juraviel and gave a helpless shrug ?I wish the wurm had stayed in its hole"

"You should wish more that the Yatols had not invaded your homeland," the elf replied

"I could not tell you the routes if I wished to, for I am as unfamiliar with this land as are you," Merwan Ma said defiantly when Pagonel ca a dry riverbed later that day The whole of the Pruda citizenry those who had survived the assault, had been set on the road to the east, and then Brynn had turned her own ar the emptied city to the hot winds and the carrion birds

&039;The Dragon of To-gai asks nothing of you," thein beside the still-wounded onel reached down and pulled back Merwan Ma&039;s shirt, then nodded hopefully at the continuing progress of his healing upon the dagger wounds

Ma looked away, at first defiant, but then his eyes gradually low-j and a great sadness swept over hionel asked him ?Why did the God-V ice of Behren think Merwan Ma such a threat? I have read much of the Thezru hierarchy in the to one unfinished ference of Chezru Chieftain Yakim Douan That tome mentioned Mer-,an Ma Your loyalty to the God-Voice seeh"

"You would say that, yet you expectthe questions that you are afraid to ask of yourself," paeonel explained ?There is confusion within Merwan Ma, great and dev-astating You are horrified to think that Chezru Douan would have you killed, and yet it is obvious that he tried to do exactly that But you remain afraid to ask the questions, and so I have asked them for you"

"You would heal my heart as you mend my wounds?" came the sarcastic response

"Perhaps," the mystic replied with all sincerity, and he looked at the scars crossing Merwan Ma&039;s belly oneMerwan Ma alone with the unsettling thoughts

The Shepherd tried to put his head back against the side of the bouncing coach, but his wounds would not allow such a stretch, so he scrunched over instead, folded his arms onto his bent knees, and buried his face there He tried to deny Pagonel&039;s words, over and over again, tried to reason that Shauntil had acted the part of a rogue, had grasped for power on his own by trying to overnor of Dharyan Yes, and if only he could get back to Chom Deiru and inform the God-Voice, Shauntil would be punished for his heinous act

Merwan Ma told hiain And yet he under-stood, somewhere deep in his mind, that if he returned to Chom Deiru, he would likely be summarily executed

But why?

He scoured his ainst the God-Voice, however unintended

He could see nothing glaring

But one i a chal-ice, kept co point, obviously, but what cri the chalice? He knew of its unexpected content, that gemstone, but had told not a soul Nor could he even be certain that there was anything a reat and ornate cup could be filled without draining toothe sacrifice

There was nothing aeemstones, such as those of the Abelli-can heretics

At least one of those heretics was a close personal friend of the God-Voice

Finally, Merwan Ma tilted his head back, ignoring the stretching pu]j across his scarred tissue, too consumed by the awful possibilities that loomed all about him even to notice the discomfort

It all made no sense, all see to bend the awful actions of one rogue Chezhou-Lei to soh he denied it consciously and vocally it seemed undeniable to Merwan Ma&039;s heart

Chezru Chieftain Yakiiven the service of his entire adult life, had ordered hi brown dunes sweeping like great breakers toward the one spot of varying colors, where date trees swayed in the hot wind and grasses grew thick about their trunks, border-ing a long and narrow lake Rows of sle brown castle, squat and thick, eathered broalls pierced with arrow slits and a roof that sloped in varying angles

It had taken her three weeks to bring her army there, mostly across empty sand, for they wished to follow no course that their eneht indeed was this place, as any settleai-ru

"Garou Oasis," Pagonel said to her, sitting astride a horse beside her and Runtly

"A city with no walls," Brynn remarked

"Typical for an oasis stop," the mystic explained ?This is the waypoint for caravans, who pay a large tithe to water their anih we&039;ll pay no tithe"

"The settlers of the houses will flee before us, no doubt, into their cas-tle," said Pagonel ?From there, they will shower us with arrows"

"Then ill flatten their castle before we drink," Brynn said matter-of-factly, a coldness that was not lost on the onel warned ?The castles of the Behren oases are the strongest fortresses in all the country They need not house uess that fewer than five hundred live here - and yet they nor an oasis is never cheap They are built to withstand an army, and you&039;ll not lure them out, as you did at both Dharyan and Pruda"

"We shall see," Brynn said, and she turned Runtly and walked hi the soft and hot sands all about the oasis Unlike her previous victories, Brynn held nothing back against Garou Oasis, charging her entire force, which now nu Those Behrenese in the out-I ing houses didn&039;t even try to offer resistance against the To-gai-ru horde, 1 in" straightaway for the defensive castle

Most got in ahead of the To-gai-ru surge, though soan, the oasis was quiet once ?nore, with Brynn&039;s arroup of Behrenese was not inside, though A visiting caravan milled about the castle door, denied entrance, with nowhere to run or hide

Brynn wouldn&039;t bring her soldiers in close to the well-arai-ru to cut down the trapped reat bows

She walked Runtly around to that side of the castle, close enough to make eye contact with so on the door once iven such def-erence by the other To-gai-ru as to mark her obviously as the fierce leader of this army

Brynn lifted a hand to the Behrenese and motioned for the on the unyielding iron door

"You have nowhere to turn," Brynn called out to them ?Your surrender will be accepted, if offered Else you will die where you stand"

Those simple words seemed to break the will oflooks and threw up their hands, walking out toward Brynn and bowing repeatedly

The first volley came forth from the castle then, a hail of arrows aih, so into the poor merchants as they made their way out fro Runtly aside, but not before one arrow struck the pony&039;s foreleg, digging a deep gash andthe woman