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‘That’s a practical sort of approach,’ Narasan replied, his sense of overwhel He stood up ‘It looks like my holiday’s over,’ he said ‘It was sort of nice to sit around doing nothing, but it’ll be good to get back into harness again’

The notion of undertaking a war somewhere beyond the boundaries of the Empire disturbed several of Narasan’s officers quite noticeably, but Narasan himself welcomed the idea The Empire contained too o abroad

Since the arical point of departure, and after Veltan had left, Narasan decided that his best course of action would be to send Gunda, whose fainated there, to that port to hire the fleet of ships the army would need to carry them to Veltan’s homeland

A few days after Narasan’s force reached Castano, Veltan ca sloop and stunned Narasan by presenting hiold in that form before, but he was forced to admit that it was very pretty

Veltan seemed to be very impatient, and he finally decided that the two of them should sail north toward the Land of Dhrall in his sloop so that Narasan and a Maag pirate by the nay for their con in the Domain of Veltan’s sister Narasan had some doubts about the wisdom of that notion He’d heard about the pirates of the Land of Maag, but he’d never actuallybarbarians’ had come up quite frequently in the descriptions of they’ seee fleet of narrow ships in the harbor of Lattash, and Narasan is would have in any encounter with the broad-bea ships were obviously built for speed, not for capacity

After Veltan beached his sloop, he led Narasan toward a doe They went on through a crudely constructed shed past a fair nu on pieces of red-hot iron and then joined some leather-clad natives at the mouth of what appeared to be the entrance to a cave

They entered a long passageway that finally opened out into a large cha in a pit near the center, ht Then Veltan introduced him to his sister Zelana, as certainly the most beautiful woirl Narasan presuhter

There were other people in the cave, but Narasan was pri called Hook-Beak

‘He should be here soon, Commander Narasan,’ Lady Zelana assured hi called Rabbit ca felloith a bent nose Narasan immediately sa the man had come by the name ‘Hook-Beak’

Veltan introduced them and, somewhat to Narasan’s surprise, Hook-Beak candidly ad as a pirate That open ade though it seemed, evidently this fellow had a sense of honor It was quite possible that they’d get along well together

‘What an unnatural sort of thing,’ Narasan reat deal of ti down to the village of Lattash, but when they’d shown it to the comical native Red-Beard, he’d dismissed it as worthless because of its lack of detail Then the sested a sculpturedNarasan was stunned by the sheer genius of that notion, and he rather painfully realized that if he’d been in possession of such a n in the southern Eht still be alive

As they came to know each other better, Narasan and Hook-Beak frequently wandered away fros in Lady Zelana’s cave to share reminiscences of past wars Narasan had observed over his years in the arether, and given the current situation, these relaxed exchanges could be even h it see to like this uncivilized pirate

The weather cleared a few days later, and aboutNarasan’s advance force sailed into the harbor Narasan went on down to the beach to speak with his men

There was a certain wariness on both sides when Narasan introduced his officers to the Maags, and Sorgan rather wisely suggested that it ht be better if their forces were separated by the river when they began their march up the ravine after the annual flood had subsided

Then on a calive the during the upcobow introduced them to an elderly native called One-Who-Heals, who immediately descended into the world of absurdity and superstition, describing their enemies as creatures ere an impossible ed to keep his coh out loud, but he was more than a little startled when Veltan confirmed the old native’s ridiculous assertions

Then the archer Longbow described a process whereby he’d been able to extract veno counterparts Sorgan found that to be aan appeared to have a rather warped sense of humor

Then, even as the natives had predicted, a very ind swept in fro thereafter, a solid wall of water burst out of the mouth of the ravine Narasan hadn’t really expected a flood of such nitude, and he was stunned by the sheer volus re for the flood to subside, but Narasan did go ashore once to take a closer look at one of the drowned enemies As it chanced to happen, the old shaman One-Who-Heals was on the bere, and he pointed out the peculiarities of a drowned enerown child, and it was garbed in sorey fabric Then the old native pried the creature’s s It was obvious that the long fangs were not the teeth of a hu the outside of the creature’s forearms were also very unusual