“Word about that seems to have gotten out. Where did you hear about it?”
“It was in a town up the coast a ways. I happened to overhear a conversation between a pair who’d really wanted Kajak to succeed. They were both terribly disappointed, and more than a little afraid. The one they work for doesn’t take bad news very well.”
“What a shame,” Rabbit said with a sly grin. Then he turned and looked over his shoulder. “That’s the Seagull just ahead. Once we get on board, you’ll be able to tell your sister what’s afoot back home.”
“She lied to me, Zelana. Can you believe that?” Veltan said to his sister in the snug cabin at the aft end of the ship while Rabbit went back to his skiff to return to the little village on the beach. “Mother Sea told me that I could have come back home after just a couple months, but the moon deceived me, and I stayed there for ten eons.”
“Oh, Veltan!” Zelana exclaimed. “Everybody knows that the moon isn’t to be trusted.”
“I didn’t. Actually, though, it wasn’t really all that bad. The moon can be a delightful companion when she wants to be. Let’s get down to business here. Where’s this Sorgan that everybody keeps talking about?”
“He’s off somewhere in the harbor talking with the other ship captains. He should be back before too much longer.”
“Let’s hope so. I’ve arranged to bring a Trogite army to Dhrall. If all goes well, they’ll be landing in my Domain in late winter or early spring.”
“How big an army are we talking about here?”
“About a hundred thousand men, dear sister.”
“That should carry quite a bit of weight.”
“We can hope, I guess. Now things start to get a little interesting. When I returned home, Yaltar was wearing a beautiful fire opal as a pendant, and he told me that he’d found it lying on our doorstep one morning. Then he told me that he’d been having a recurrent nightmare. It’s fairly obvious that his opal is having the same effect as Eleria’s pearl, wouldn’t you say?”
“It’s entirely possible, I suppose, and if the pearl is the voice of Mother Sea, wouldn’t that suggest that the opal might very well be the voice of Father Earth?”
Veltan blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he admitted. “It would seem that we have some powerful friends, wouldn’t it? Anyway, Yaltar’s nightmare involved a war, and Dahlaine and I were able to pinpoint its location. It’s going to take place in your Domain, dear sister, and most of the fighting’s going to be in a river gorge that leads down to a place called Lattash.”
“How very fortunate. As it happens, I’ve already got an advance force of Maags in the harbor of Lattash.”
“You knew this was coming, didn’t you?”
“Of course I did, Veltan. I just didn’t know exactly where or when. Now that we’ve pinpointed where, all we need to know is when.”
“Spring, maybe. I questioned Yaltar, without being too obvious about it, and there wasn’t any snow in the ravine that leads down to Lattash during the battle he kept dreaming about. I wouldn’t lock ‘spring’ in stone, though. Yaltar’s dream started in the middle of the war, so we can’t be sure just when it started. The Vlagh’s keeping an eye on us, and it might just try an early strike to catch us off guard. There have been strangers wandering around in my Domain asking questions. They’re curious about how many people live in the vicinity of the Falls of Vash, and whether you and I are on speaking terms.”
“It should know that we’re close, Veltan. We are brother and sister, after all.”
“The Vlagh wouldn’t understand that, Zelana. It doesn’t have a family, so it knows nothing about love. You had a bit of excitement here recently, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes—very exciting. There was a Maag named Kajak who was very interested in the gold Sorgan was using for bait to attract other Maags to go to Dhrall and fight our war for us.”
“It went just a bit further than that, dear sister. The Vlagh has people—and things—here in Maag as well as in Dhrall, and they encouraged this Kajak to attack your Maag, Sorgan. I happened to overhear a couple of the Vlagh’s agents talking in an alley up in Weros, and they weren’t very happy about the way things turned out. The Vlagh’s agents were a very odd pair, let me tell you. One of them appeared to be an ordinary Maag, except that he was only about half as big, but the other one was a very large insect.”
“You’re not serious!”
“I’m afraid so. Dahlaine told me that the Vlagh’s been experimenting, and it’s tampering with the natural order of things by crossbreeding assorted species. The insect I saw in that alley in Weros was as tall as a man, and it could talk—and think. As I understand it, their scheme fell apart because of a Dhrall you brought with you.”
Zelana smiled. “Indeed it did, Veltan. His name is Longbow, and he never misses when he shoots an arrow at something.”
“I thought that little Maag who rowed me out to this ship was exaggerating, but he might have been actually telling me the truth.”
“That was probably Rabbit. He and Longbow are good friends. You’ve been very busy, haven’t you, Veltan?”
“I haven’t quite met myself coming around a corner yet, but that may happen in a week or so. How big an army have you managed to gather so far?”
“We’re approaching fifty thousand men. I wish I could get more, but the Maags spend most of their time at sea robbing Trogite treasure ships.”
“I’d heard about that. The Trogites dislike the Maags intensely. That could cause a few problems, but I think we’ll be able to work our way around them. When I go back to pick up my army, I think I’ll send you some help. Trogites are very good soldiers, so they might be useful.”
“What a nice person you are, Veltan,” Zelana said, smiling fondly at him.
“Family obligation, sister.” Veltan looked around. “Is Eleria anywhere nearby?” he asked quietly.
“No, she’s out on the deck playing in the rain.”
“She’s what?”
“She loves water. Longbow’s keeping an eye on her.”
“There’s something else you should know about, sister of mine,” Veltan said very quietly. “When Yaltar was telling me about his dream, I made a quick guess and suggested that the battle he’d dreamt about would take place in your Domain. Then he said, ‘That’s where Balacenia lives, isn’t it?’ I can’t for the life of me understand how, but it seems that he knows her real name.”