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  Fyon's human lips retained their smile. He darted to the top of the roof on all fours and then faced Chelka with his wolf side.

  "The strongest of my pack know I am fighting. Dead or alive their shame will drive them to join me." He threw back his head and howled.

  Through the smoke, creatures began picking through the bodies of the fallen toward the line of defenders at the base of the hall. Was Ed still down there with Brosk? Savage cries of agony rose from the village square as charred forms that looked incapable of life surged to their feet and swarmed toward the defenders.

  Chelka gritted her teeth. This thing could drive his followers beyond death. She needed to end him at once if she could.

  Swords and shields clashed with claws once more. Fyon lowered his head. Dark eyes locked on Chelka's face.

  "Such beauty and eyes that speak of genius. Pleasure to meet you, follower of Sayl." He charged at her, weaving to avoid the anticipated bolts of fire Chelka unleashed.

  Shingles sizzled on the rooftop as Fyon bowled into her, unscathed by her attacks. Chelka fell onto her back with the wolf on top of her. She shoved her stethian between his snapping jaws and started to make the sign of the star with her off-hand.

  A pair of human arms unfolded from the wolf's back. Bending strangely, the fingers of one arm intercepted Chelka's signing hand. No fire leaped from her Stethian. Bile rose in Chelka's throat as the wolf's saliva speckled her face and tunic.

  Ninafi's cry of warning came far too late, echoing over the village. Chelka struggled to free her hand, but his grip was too strong. Her eyes narrowed along with her vision as she grimaced with anger and fear. Then something hit Fyon's flank and threw him off of Chelka. His grasping hand tugged her with him, yanking her arm painfully and turning her onto her side before his grip broke.

  Ninafi stood over Chelka, a pair of black, bony antlers emerging from her hair. She panted for breath. Fyon sailed away into the night, flapping over the village.

  Chelka grunted.

  "Thanks for the assistance.”

  "Sorry for taking so long," said Ninafi.

  "You made it. That's what counts, good Saale." Still on her side, Chelka squinted into the night. She tracked the shadowy form of Fyon retreating through the smoke. She took a deep breath and completed the sign of the star.

  A burning lance of light sliced over the village, cutting through smoke, newly sprinkling raindrops, and darkness. The bolt of light sliced through both of Fyon's wings. The grotesque wolf-man hybrid tumbled into the treetops where Chelka gratefully lost sight of him.

  She wiped Fyon's spittle from her face, then let Ninafi help her to her feet. Whether or not the monster lived, his reanimating magic did not last long. As one, the charred monsters he had returned from death crumpled to the ground before their enemies. Those few living who had pressed the attack at their master's call fled in abject defeat.

  Ninafi nodded to Chelka.

  "Remind me never to cross you, princess."

  "Never cross me, Lady Daderon."

  The night closed in thick and cloying. Smoke and rain pervaded the air, but no monstrous form returned. The following day Chelka and the other Saales led parties to scour the forests for hiding places. They found a ramshackle encampment of wood and bone, newly vacant. The foe fled inland.

  The expedition spent three days after the battle helping the villagers secure and repair their homes. Brosk took to the physical labor easy as ever alongside the strongest of the Whale Tribe mariners but matched by none of them. While Chelka helped secure defenses, Edmath joined Ninafi and did his best to assist with the fields south of the village which had been ravaged by the raiders. They posted sentries each night, but the hybrid enemies did not return.

  Edmath supposed they might be licking their wounds, possibly just a few day's travel inland. Fyon's pack may have abandoned their fortress but he doubted they had gone far. None of the scouts or hunting parties had found the leader of the beast's body so it was possible he still lived. The thought stirred fear in Edmath. Such speed as to avoid Chelka's rays made for a terrible opponent, one he did not know if he would survive fighting.

  Tending to the roots and stalks of the surviving plants, Edmath found some peace until the sun began to sink each night. They had badly beaten the enemy, though two young village warriors had died in the fray after the enemy resurged under Fyon's terrible howl.

  Edmath and the others had joined the villagers for the funeral rites and then watched the two names, the names of boys more than men, inscribed on the high white ghost stone in the center of the village.

  As gloom gathered over the fields with their tall stalks of wheat, corn, and what remained of the decimated beans, Edmath felt with certainty he was being watched. He straightened his back and reached for his stethian with one dirty hand. He turned, trepidation slowing his movement.

  On a hillock with a tree just beyond the edge of the field, a blond woman with black antlers stood. Ninafi looked like a vision of a classical Elk Tribe maiden, wrapped in gray and white with a small ruby amulet on a silver chain hanging around her neck. Only the pale yellow of her hair told of her mixed Swan Tribe heritage, familiar to Edmath because it was the same shade as his own. He glanced in the direction of the descending sun, then picked up the stubby hand trowel and started toward her.

  He'd seen much of her these past few days. Almost kin to him by their shared tribe, he could admit to himself her beauty, though she was not Chelka who slept beside him each night. Ninafi smiled at him as he drew close to where she stood.

  "Edmath," she said, taking a step out from beneath the twisting branches.

  "Ninafi," he smiled. "Are the others heading back?"

  "The villagers returned some time ago." The elk woman's face glowed in the orange of the fading sun. "I was worried you'd be working even after dark."

  "I lost track of time," he said, glancing over his shoulder at the field. "This crop is a difficult problem. So much damage done, yet so much promise in what remains."

  "You tend growing things often," she said, "White Curtain Saale."

  He shrugged.

  "I'm surprised the High Emperor didn't call me the living Branch Saale or some such. I suspect I received that name for my role in protecting him the night the Worm King's insurrection began."

  "Is the High Emperor as great as they say? What is it like to serve at his court?" asked Ninafi. She flushed and spread her hands. "Excuse me. I carry on too much. I've never been to the imperial city."

  "Honestly I couldn't tell you much about the High Emperor. His Grace Vosraan Loi is an enigma to me. I didn't so much serve in his court as that of the Saale Emperor Haddishal Rumenha, a true master of growing things."

  "I've heard many great things of Rumenha. He grew up north of here, you know."

  Edmath shivered in the rising and cooling breeze.

  "He was an idol to me in learning my craft, so naturally. As for the High Emperor, I wish I could place him beyond his biography. Some men I can gauge by their humor or lack, their strength or lack, their magic or lack, but him I never seem to understand."

  They continued along the path between darkening trees toward the village in silence for a moment.

  "I hope you can forgive me this time."

  "You carry on as much as me." She smiled and touched his arm. "How could I not forgive you, as one talker to another."

  His skin warmed at her touch.

  "Of course, I see your point."

  They returned to the village where Brosk and Chelka waited with the rest of their party.

  "We leave tomorrow early," said Chelka. "We still have a mission to investigate the tear further inland."

  "Indeed," said Brosk. "Captain Onserun and Elder Jatono think they can handle the defense with their combined troops."

  "We can travel faster without scores of soldiers, regardless." Chelka turned to Kana. "I take it you and yours now understand how to fight these beasts if
we should encounter more of them?"

  "We do," said the wavy-haired Rooster Tribe woman.

  "That is well," said Brosk. "Having fought at your side I bear a new respect for your people."

  Kana's face may have reddened, or perhaps it was the last touch of the sun sinking in crimson beneath the hills and trees.

  "I'll go with you," said Ninafi. "At least for now, the villagers don't need my help."

  Chelka nodded.

  "As you like. Another Saale always proves useful."

  As the cook fires burned down, Edmath made his way to bed that night following the path Chelka and the others had taken earlier for their tiredness. He heard footsteps a short distance behind him following his way to the tavern.

  "Thank you for your blessing earlier, Prince Naopaor."

  Edmath recognized the voice as Kana.

  "Call me Brosk," Edmath's friend said. "We've fought side by side and you're not Zelian regardless, so my title should not matter."

  Kana said, "I was a royal in Palatan, but I've never been a princess. You could have been a king."

  "Sadly, true." Brosk sighed. "I wish it wasn't so."

  "You weren't firstborn," Kana said softly.

  "It’s not a story for times like this. That was long ago and far away."

  Edmath reached the door of the tavern in the darkness. He pulled the handle and let out the lantern light from behind the bar, then stepped to one side.

  Brosk waved to him as he and Kana approached.

  "Ed," said Brosk. "I thought you went in with Chelka earlier."

  "I considered it, but I know she's still up planning in our room, so I'll meet her inside."

  Kana nodded to him and then the three of them went inside. Edmath could not restrain his curiosity so went ahead of the two before they could climb the stairs. Brosk was always so somber, especially about his brothers' death. Edmath did not recall his friend ever trying to dismiss the event the way he'd just done.

  Perhaps...Edmath lingered just inside the door of his and Chelka's room, holding a finger to his lips to quiet Chelka as she rose from the desk to greet him. She silently crept to his side and they listened at the door as Brosk and Kana passed in the hall beyond.

  They had returned to their earlier conversation.

  "You say it's not a story for times like this...what does that mean?"

  "It means, I'm trying to celebrate a job well done."

  "We still have a long way to go."

  "I know." Brosk sighed. "Kana, I don't know how to say this--"

  "Then don't say anything." A floorboard creaked followed by quiet. Chelka reached carefully for the edge of the door, gently opening a crack. She and Edmath peered into the dim hallway, she crouched, him frozen.

  Brosk and Kana stood intertwined, lips locked with each others' outside Brosk's room. She reached for the door and tugged its handle. Then he lifted her slightly off the floor and they disappeared inside. Chelka and Edmath closed their door and exchanged glanced of half-stifled mirth. He felt fit to laugh out loud, and Chelka's face told him she was in the same state.

  "Bless him. The girls always have looked his way," said Edmath.

  Chelka led him to their bed.

  "Bless him indeed. Just two months ago she was trying to kill him."

  "Things change." Edmath smiled.

  She sat down on the bed and pulled him to her side.

  "And much stays the same."

  They set forth the next morning taking lesser riding elk from the villagers. Edmath remembered riding alongside greater elk lancers in battle a year ago and was glad the situation had changed so much. They followed an old road paved in thrice-lain stone inland, their steeds snorting but easily keeping pace all day. They went west the next day as well.

  The three warlords had seen much construction in their time, hence the many long straight roads up and down the coast of Zel, as well as those like this one leading inland. Edmath rode near the front, talking to his steed to help the animal keep him balanced. Nearby, Chelka explained to Ninafi about Edmath's odd ability to speak to any animal.

  "And has he been able to do this since birth?" asked Ninafi in surprise.

  "As long as I've known him," said Chelka with a smile. "It's true, though, isn't it, Ed?"

  He turned in the saddle and nodded to them.

  "Of course," he said. "I don't remember it, but the monks who raised me early on told me they often found me conversing with butterflies and beetles in the courtyard. At the time, I thought it normal and it took a long time for me to understand most humans can't hear most of them."

  "Can you talk to plants as well?" asked Ninafi, motioning expansively to the trees around them.

  "Only those I made able to do so myself," said Edmath. "I don't know why precisely."

  "You are an odd royal, Edmath Benisar," she said.

  Chelka laughed and pushed her elk forward to catch up with Edmath at the very head of their main party. Two of the Rooster Tribe group, Buna and Obbin, had scouted ahead and were almost out of sight.

  "I know! He is all too strange, but oddness makes an excellent husband."

  Edmath's face flushed with heat.

  "Chelka, my dear, you're embarrassing me."

  "I can see that," she said. "Perhaps this crisp air is getting to my mood. I enjoy it. It's so different from the humidity in Sizali and the regulated currents of Naren."

  The sound of two sets of hoof beats returning from the road ahead of them drew everyone's attention. The scouts were returning. Brosk, Kana, and the other rooster mercenaries caught up with Edmath, Chelka, and Ninafi as Obbin and Buna drew closer on their elk.

  The two arrived breathless, harried, on snorting steeds.

  "You hurries back," said Chelka. "What's wrong?"

  "We found something," said Buna.

  "It's just off the road up ahead," said Obbin, his face etched by fear. "But I think we should stay well clear of it."

  "Catch your breaths, then tell us what you saw," said Kana.

  She rode closer and offered Buna a canteen of water. The young rooster woman drank, then handed the container to Obbin who took it with a gracious nod.

  Buna's eyes met Chelka's.

  "I agree with Obbin. That place felt evil."

  "Please explain as best you can," said Edmath.

  "Indeed," said Brosk.

  "We are here to investigate a mystery," said Chelka. "We can't shy from every source of strangeness."

  Edmath glanced at Brosk at the same moment Kana turned to the Whale Prince.

  "Why are you looking at me?" Brosk said. "Chelka has the right of it. We are here to find a tear. A sense of evil should make us choose caution, but we cannot turn back altogether without seeing the source of this feeling."

  Kana bit her lip but said nothing.

  Edmath turned toward Obbin and Kana.

  "Tell us what you can and we'll approach with care."

  The party approached on foot, leaving the elk with their midday feed in the trees to one side of the thrice-lain road with instructions to follow and rejoin the humans if monsters should appear. Edmath picked his way past brambles on the edge of a clearing. They gazed upon a strange bowl-like construction. Buna stiffened beside him, murmuring unease in the tongue of Palatan.

  Kana shushed her younger comrade gently. Obbin set his jaw and followed the gaze of the Saales while the other three Rooster Tribe mercenaries kept a lookout on the sides and rear for possible danger.

  Chelka bit her lip, fingers pinching her rega at her waist. She stared long and hard at the buildings, for there could be no errors allowed in evaluating these structures.

  Stone structures of smooth white sank into the earth some dozen yards, all surrounded by a patio of smaller tiles of the same material. Here and there trees and plant life cracked through joins in the stonework, but there could be no misleading Saale sight as to what hung cloudy at the peak of the tall central tow
er of the complex.

  "It's a tear," said Edmath. "No mistake, despite the differences."

  Chelka nodded.

  The air bled light visible to trained Saale eyes from a tear at the center of the buildings, hovering just over the highest rooftop, close enough surely for a human to strike it, surrounded by self-cannibalizing greenery climbing the walls as if reaching for a second sun. Perhaps this was a human-made tear after all, especially given its presence in an abandoned settlement?

  Brosk rubbed his hand across his stubbly jaw.

  "Could this be what the Saale Hierophant detected?" he asked.

  "It seems likely," said Chelka. "But who was here to open it. This place appears forsaken."

  "For good reason," said Kana.

  Buna and Obbin turned to their leader. Brosk raised his eyebrows, gaze lingering on the tower before turning to Kana.

  "What do you mean?"

  "None of you Saales feel that?" said Kana.

  "Feel what? I see the magic, but it seems a mostly ordinary tear from here." Ninafi frowned but did not take her gaze from the tower and the tear.

  Edmath snapped his fingers.

  "Perhaps we do not feel it because we are Saales. With all out bodily gates sealed the magic does not enter us deeply as it does with other beings."

  "A good point, Ed," said Brosk. "but one we can't easily test."

  Chelka shook her head.

  "Whether we can test the idea or not, we need to get closer."

  "Lady Benisar," said Kana. "Please do not make my people follow you in."

  "You've served me well so far, Kana. Don't disappoint me now."

  Brosk scowled at Chelka.

  "What do you mean by that? They're ordinary fighters. We can go ahead without them for now."

  Chelka opened her mouth but clearly thought better of her retort.

  "Very well, Brosk."

  Edmath nodded to Brosk, then turned to Kana.

  "Keep watch over this place and see what you can from here."

  "We Saales should continue to the tower," said Chelka. "But do as my husband says and I won't penalize you."