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Word left Jacintha in the form of a series of flashes on a shiny naler to signaler By afternoon that day, the signal had crossed through Dahdah Oasis, and continued on, to the south now more than to the west

Two days later, the words of Chezru Chieftain Douan reached Yatol Bar-don and Shauntil They stood over a large ion and used Douan&039;s instructions to pinpoint the location of the Dragon of To-gai and her forces - or at least, the position of that encahts previous

"We will receive word every second or third day," Shauntil explained to his leader ?Soon ill have the woman&039;s pattern, and can anticipate her in to move our forces here and here" - he pointed to locations on thefarther to the south and then east around the point indicated by theher north or back to the west," the Yatol observed

"North to the road where ai-ru," the Chezhou-Lei explained ?And west back to the steppes It would be better if we pushed her out of Behren altogether, I believe"

"She will be harder to find and destroy in the steppes"

"But Behren will be secure, and the people will be caloal of Chezru Chieftain Douan"

"Do not presume to know the will of the God-Voice!" Yatol Bardoh snapped back, and then he recoiled, fearing that his suddenly excited tone would revealFor Yatol Bardoh did not wish any help froai-ru witch, nor was he concerned about cal the populace Bardoh understood well that tur-then his own position, and that the ai, the dorace in losing Avrou Eesa to the woh the city was firai&039;s attack would be enduring indeed

And so the man was somewhat ambivalent about this new assistance where hisdi-rectly to Yatol Yes, Bardoh was thrilled to have the intelligence he needed finally to catch up with his adversary But on the other hand, it galled hi frolory

"If we do not catch this Dragon of To-gai, and soon, then the people may come to look upon us as failures, Yatol Bardoh," Chezhou-Lei Shauntil dared to remark, quietly, so that only the Yatol and not the other cohtened and stared hard at the perceptive warrior, but he calmed quickly and even nodded his appreciation It was an iin to herd the witch," he said

"They knew that ere h dune, the pair could see the distant lights of a long Behrenese encamp-ment, stretched out across the desert

"Their line is thin," the woh it"

"And lose ht"

"We would kill many more than ould lose"

"And they can afford to lose many, many hts, even skir us and look to attrition to thin our ranks We are not on the steppes, and while you know that we are fighting for your homeland, our mere presence here forces the whole of the Behrenese population to feel the sah and kill a thousand, and lose only a hundred in the process, then the day will still belong to Yatol Bardoh and not to Brynn"

"We must continue to ride hard, then," said a determined Brynn ?Our opportunities ilant to find and exploit each and every one"

Pagonel nodded, but he could not wipe the gri on, and with the Chezru Chieftain using a soul stone to locate the To-gai-ru and relay their position to the pur-suing are, unpredictability, was no more

He and Brynn had even discussed the possibility of breaking up the sin-gle army into ht, though, for hoould they supply so many divisions? No small force would be able to take on a city, and Behren was a kingdoonel didn&039;t voice his fear then, but he knew that Brynn already understood that she and her forces ai steppes once radeleous&039; expression told Brynn that he hardly wanted to hear her words of encouragement She had co hiather the supplies to keep the riders and their on demanded ?Let us vanquish our enemies here and now and be done with this folly!"

"You stand straight no longer," Brynn observed, and the dragon, whose wounds from the breakout at Avrou Eesa had indeed bent hirowled

"It is not tiradeleous countered ?They fol-low us as if you yourself are directing their movements!"

Brynn couldn&039;t deny the truth of the observation, so she didn&039;t try She wasn&039;t about to tell the dragon about the spirit of Yakionel had assured her that there was no way the Chezru Chieftain could use the stone in any detriradeleous Even atteon would likely destroy the reed that they would have to watch Agradeleous carefully, now that the tide was turning against theon to increase his more mundane duties

"Our enemies will continue to err, and ill continue to exploit those rowl escaped Agradeleous

"I need you To-gai needs you, now ht that you fly out for supplies, pause and gather a great stone or two and drop thereat spear-throwers"

She had to give hih she under-stood that they would likely gain little fro city was one thing, but hitting a target the size of a stretched encampment to any effect was on, in its boot excited and tried to attack, then the Behrenese would fight against it viciously

Brynn understood all too well that if she lost Agradeleous, her only reli-able source of supplying her arreat battle against the overwhelai steppes and disband into sive up the fight altogether

Brynn retired late that night full of trepidation and exhausted, so exhausted that she did ht and restless one

That would prove fortunate

This was nothing that Pagonel often atte, and left hiht it i with their adversaries, to spy on the move on the ai-ru

Thehis consciousness to his line of Chi his energy of life And then he filtered that energy out beyond his physical body, out into the open air He glanced back at hihtly before him, hands on his knees, palonel es of his tent, and then he floated up through the tent, slowly rising, looking back, then looking all about at the quiet enca out of a tent to the side of his own, and thought nothing of it for awith purpose, and not toward Pagonel s tent as the mystic had anticipated, but toward the tent of Brynn Dharielle

That too would prove fortunate

The shadowy for it open just a bit so that he could navigate the darkness within

There lay Brynn, curled under a blanket against the cold desert night air, and there to the side lay her fabulous sword, Fla for the weapon

Caught in fitful dreah her dreaonel, speak-ing to her directly

Get up! the ghost i, a silent but insistent cry that warned her of i before her eyes even popped open, rolling to her belly and flipping a forward solint of ht outside, andher ar her hips out of haret nicked on the forear that slowed her as she worked out fro to find soned the blade

The sword thrust came in fast and low, but aardly, thethe skilled Brynn h time to compensate and set not only her defense, but her return attack She leaped forward, turning over above the blade in a tight sos around to slaht the sword up in response, but there was no strength behind the lad that this one didn&039;t understand how to ignite Flas clamped about the man&039;s neck as she ca off to the side, tuainst the tent as Brynn let him loose

She was up before hi his sword to bear, the ranger bore in, too close to be warded by the blade She shoul-dered thehim co stiffened fingers into his forear at the sword hilt with her other hand

Falling and stung, he couldn&039;t hold the sword away froainst hirip, turning the sword point down and be-hind her

Even as she began the killing strike, her tent flap flung wide and Pagonel cried out to her, ?Do not kill him! ?

Brynn held the blow, and as the man sorted hi hi the sword so that its deadly tip turned in toward the helpless nized her at-tacker as Merwan Ma

She looked to Pagonel, confused, for he and the- so uard over their captive

"It was not Merwan Ma!" Pagonel said against her doubting and an-gry look

Theman ?It was not you, was it?" he asked

Merwan Ma waved hi hi him up ?It was the Chezru Chieftain, was it not? Come out with his soul stone to possess your body? Tell me! Your God- Voice possessed your body He threw out your free will and substituted his own"