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They are hot and thirsty," Chezhou-Lei Shauntil reported to Yatol Bardoh, as the two of the with many others, J-L looked over the destroyed remains of a supply caravan For aBrynn across the desert They knew that they could not outpace her, and so they had continued to try to outguess her
She had doubled back behind them, somehow, and had flattened the closest supply caravan
For the second ti in the area," Yatol Bardoh an-nounced, nodding with every word
"She uses herin one direction, and has splinters hidden a the dunes to in-terrupt the supply line"
"The caravans are well-ar a scowl froon?" Yatol Bardoh snapped back, and the Chezhou-Lei bowed apologetically for his obviously errant thinking
"We er as we pursue," Bardoh re out loud than addressing the warrior ?Yes, ill spearhead long points whenever we think we are near her, and sweep our forces in behind, a left or right flank Or split to flank both ways, encircling her as we did in Avrou Eesa, but with no walls be-tween us!" As he finished, he looked to Shauntil for confir
The warrior stopped, though, and stood at attention, not about to ques-tion unless the Yatol called for his opinion
"A bold maneuver," Bardoh insisted, but Shauntil, despite his discipline, wore an expression of disagreement
"Speak your ainst one who has been as cunning and as lucky as the Dragon of To-gai," the warrior aded and a patient in our pursuit We must arm and train any city we pass by If we Jose a thousandthereat army, and surely we can replace theh heavily on the Dragon of To-gai, for in this land that is not her home, she will find replace-ments difficult to come by"
"Her army has swelled with freed slaves," Yatol Bardoh reminded him ?How clearlythat as they burst free fro, and in Dharyan and Pruda, the two cities, other than Jacintha, with the uessing their decision to join the woh the desert heat Surely their existence under Behrenese control was more coon apparently delivering supplies"
"Do you ask that the whole of Behren cower behind city walls, that this barbarian witch can run free all about our lands?" the Yatol asked with obvious skepticishtened his shoulders as if he had been slapped ?No, Ya-tol!" he answered with obedient enthusiasm ?Never that I wish only to en-sure that we do not err and allow the Dragon of To-gai to win any more impressive victories Time is on our side, I believe We have erred in under-estile error to date But she will"
"And one error will be her last," Yatol Bardoh added immediately ?But only if we are close by and prepared to seize upon her moment of vulnera-bility I will see Behren free of her, Shauntil, and I intend to be the one who personally executes her in front of a grateful populace And you are the one ill deliver her to ?"
"Yes, Yatol"
Bardoh nodded and looked one last tiust and walked away
Shauntil relaxed iht into the Dragon of To-gai&039;s hands, he knew
But he was Chezhou-Lei, and sworn to follow the orders of the Yatols
The Yatol and the warrior repeated the scene and the discussion while looking over the remains of yet another destroyed caravan three weeks later in the desert region east of Pruda
Yakihtly at his thinning hair It took all of the discipline he could ai had taken Avrou Eesa, and had then escaped right through Yatol Bardoh&039;s encircling line!
And now Bardoh and Shauntil andering the open desert withto catch this woions were taxing the store of every city and every oasis they neared, hauling out supplies by th wagon-load
Douan understood the dangers of this gaai-ru, every day spent ahead of the pursuit pleased the day in the brutal heat no doubt wore at the resolve of his great arai, to scorch the land as they pass," he said aloud, addressing his newest attendant, the eleventh since the depar-ture of Merwan Ma The thin young , as he had been instructed He was there to listen and nothing ai back onto the steppes in a des-perate attee some homeland to free!"
Even as he finished, the Chezru Chieftain shook his head and growled He had already tried that with Shauntil, and the ai-ru to punish
" Yatol da up fast, and his attendant, eyes wide, backpedaled Douan looked at hiust and said, ?Get out, you idiot," and waved hi man nearly fell over himself with his repeated bows as he exited
He returned shortly afterward, though, with a group of emissaries from various Behrenese districts, mostly the south and the west One fro pirate activities, and pointedly bla the cri his son of To-gai, and possibly supported, his e hinted, by Yatol De Ha all of these eether; this was akin to a unified protest, one on the border of revolt and one struggling against itself, fro and vulnerable provinces
"All of you return to your Yatols, and at once," he bade the them out in full ?Bid your Yatols to travel with all speed to Jacintha, that I ai Assure them that I have heard their words and fears coai-ru - an ie on all ronged them And you two," he warned the emissaries of De Hamman and Peridan, ?advise your masters that their words do not pleaseourselves, then the Dragon of To-gai becoreater foe by far!"
As all of the e themselves, it occurred to Yakim Douan that he had better coai rather quickly
With reverence and fear, treers and dry lips, Yakim Douan lifted the sacred chalice in the ceremonial roo the unfortunate discovery that had cost him his valuable servant and friend, Merwan Ma
After the emissaries of the various Yatols had departed the city, Douan had spent reat probleai He held little fear that she would overrun Behren, or even Jacintha Yatol Bardoh&039;s reports put her army at around ten thousand, at the most; in a crisis, Jacintha alone could muster five tireat concern to the Chezru Chieftain Her antics were fraying the always fragile alliances between Douan&039;s Yatols, and in conquering three Behrenese cities, the woees on the road
And she had cost him Merwan Ma, and Yatol Grysh, and the Kaliit of the Chezhou-Lei, and h that Yakiin to consider Transcendence any longer, but noas beginning to see real reason to fear a general revolt a his own subjects!
He looked at the chalice as he considered that awful thought, for he knew that he was taking a great chance here For ed body strong, and even those ht him fear of discovery This scheme absolutely terrified him
But Master Mackaront had arrived from Entel that day, and had con-firmed what Yakim Douan had suspected: that Abellican monks had some-times used hematite, the soul stone, to fly free of their bodies and traverse great distances with their disembodied spirits Father Abbot Markwart had been especially deft at such tactics, Mackaront had said
Of course Douan knew of spirit-walking He had used it against his ene- Yatols on occasion He had used it to trick Yatol Thei&039;a&039;hu into betraying Yatol Bohl But this was soht, he intended to fly far, far froht locate the Dragon of To-gai and her elusive army He had already ordered his newest attendant - he could never renalers to Yatol Bardoh and Shauntil, ex-plaining that he would seek divine guidance to help theon of To-gai
In his private room, the door securely bolted, Yaki depths of the heic within to separate his spirit from his body His incorporeal spirit went out across the city easily, ates
And there he paused Never before had he gone out frouess himself, the Chezru Chieftain sailed out across the open desert, his spirit flying free and fast He sped to the west past Dahdah Oasis, then turned south, for the latest reports froai somewhere to the east of Pruda
He could not believe the a a line from Dallabad to Pruda, and then back to the northeast, back to Jacintha But he saw no sign of the woman and her army His relief was pro-found when he returned to his own body to discover that nothing was amiss, that none in Cho un-savory had occurred that night
And so he went out again the next night, this ti more to the south and less to the west
He knew at first, distant sight, that the encaai-ru and not of Yatol Bardoh
"Pruda has been garrisoned onceballistae in case our dragon should ht
The wo Behrenese were having little luck in catching her, but Yatol Bardoh was doing well to outfit every nearby city against possible attacks
"No doubt they have been told of our typical tactics, as well," Pagonel said to her when the scout left the battlefields to our liking? ?
Brynn shrugged, having feers ?Agradeleous grows i with the dragon nearly every night ?How e battles?"
"You give him free rein to destroy the caravans"
"But that is hardly the adventure he so craves"
Pagonel looked at her intently ?Hold the course," he advised ?As mis-erable and hot as we are, our pursuers are even more so Let us run Yatol Bardoh all across the hot sands of Behren, finding opportunity to sting where we h, Brynn realized There was no way they could turn about and do battle with the pursuing Behrenese arradeleous had been fairly injured at the escape from Bardoh, and to Brynn&039;s surprise, she had learned that dragon wounds were cumulative, that they really didn&039;t heal very quickly As on desired battle, Brynn knew that she had to take great care, using hiuidance keepsthe side of his head and neck gently, ?We will hold our course and run Yatol Bardoh into the hot sands And inter co ar against every outposter settleai to stop us?"
"We will turn again upon Behren," said Brynn ?We will sting theain - it is all we can do - and hope that the Chezru Chieftain come to see his expansion onto the steppes as a fool&039;s - She stopped suddenly, her face locked in a strange and confused onel asked,toward her
She lashed out suddenly, her fist speeding for his chest, but the supremely trained Jhesta Tu snapped his hand up to deflect the blow gently
She punched out again, and again, and then began to thrash about, and it beca hiainst some unseen enemy, some demon within herself!
"Brynn!" he cried repeatedly and he finally found an opening to grab the woround ?Brynn! What is it? Tell me!"
Undecipherable, almost feral, sounds escaped the wo the Jhesta Tu off her
And then she lay very still, staring at Pagonel, her face athat the danger had passed