Pronos stood on a slight rise, just south of N'shia-Potoma and stared at the once-familiar docks along the riverside.

"What a dump," a nearby tacarch said.

Pronos turned and stared at the familiar face a moment before he remembered the man's name was Bania. He was one of the few of the original guard to have survived all this time. The other promising tacarch they had picked up along the way seemed to have died in the fire. "It used to be my home," Pronos said.

"I thought you came from that city back there, what was its name, Nur?"

"That's where the oracle is from."

"Our oracle?"

"He was born there." Pronos sighed. "Actually, I came from a small korion in the hills north of here. We used to come to N'shia-Potoma a couple times a year to trade. It was a nice place then."

"I wonder why the oracle told us not to burn it?"

"I wonder why you're still alive," Pronos said. "I don't think I've seen you since we left Mari."

"That's why I'm still alive," Bania grimaced. "We stay low and out of sight."

"We?"

"A few of us from the old guard, plus a couple of like-minded reavers we've picked up along the way. We've sort-of formed our own soreav."

"I haven't seen you in any of my planning sessions where we determine targets and tactics."

Bania nodded. "That's why."

Pronos looked back over empty streets littered with refuse. Despite the "no burning" rule, thick columns of smoke rose from a few buildings. "We have become locusts. We travel from korion to korion, consuming and killing everything in our path."

"Think he'll let us go once he gets his revenge?"

"If there's anyone alive to let go...who knows. I don't think he cares about us one way or another."

"Perhaps we should declare victory and take our leave?"

"I wouldn't advise it. The drwg have a habit of eating anyone out of place. No. As long as Andral lives, we are all of us bound to him. Only death will free us."

"Not all of us are quite ready to give up just yet." Bania said.

Pronos started walking toward the city. "You know he foresaw all this."

"Who?"

"Karux. The one we're trying to kill. He foresaw the angorym and the drwg and the gob-bocari. He tried to warn us and prepare us against them."

"Why did he fail?"

"Not enough people listened, too many hopeful people refused to fear the worst."

Bania snorted. "I know the type. They're still probably not listening to him, even with us on their doorstep. Still, I wish he had succeeded. If the angorym, drwg and all weren't here, neither would I be."

"Agreed."

A chorus of howling drwg rose up in the city center. Pronos hurried toward it, looking back once for Bania and not seeing him anywhere in sight. In the city center, a large crowd of people cowered together before a line of drwg. The drwg howled and pulled at their chains, dragging their angorym handlers feet forward several inches with every lunge. The snarling angorym looked like they would have preferred to let them go.

"What's going on here?" Pronos demanded of a nearby tacarch. A group of reavers stood nearby with spears, but it wasn't clear whether they were threatening the cowering citizens or protecting them from the drwg.

The tacarch glanced over his shoulder at Pronos. "The drwg smelled the short ones and grew restless. The angorym don't look too pleased about them either, but the oracle must have convinced them not to harm the people here."

"Dwerka," Pronos said, seeing them among the captives. "They're called dwerka and, no, they and angorym don't get along at all." He eyed the struggling drwg and the impatient angorym. "Bring more men just in case."

Andral grinned when he saw them. "Find a secure place to store the humans. I'll need them later. In the meantime, tie up the dwerka and drag them into that building." Andral pointed to a nearby warehouse. "I'll want to talk to them soon."

"What would you have the rest of us do?" Pronos asked.

"Gather your men and go find this Har-Tor and kill everyone."

"Easily said," Pronos muttered, then shouted to his men. "Tacarchs to me!"

He organized the hands and, with an envious glance back at the angorym and drwg who did not seem inclined to join them, marched his men to Har-Tor. The fortifications had grown since last he'd been there. The dwerka had piled smooth stone blocks into an enormous wall which encircled the buildings at the foot of Har-Tor. Armed reavers stood at the top, partially covered by a waist-high parapet which extended across a walled bridge-like structure over an enormous wooden door. Pronos' men drifted to a halt at the sight.

"What do we do against that?" one of his tacarchs asked in an awed voice.

"Bring me some men with axes," Pronos said. When his axe men came forward, he ordered them to rush the door and chop it down while the rest of his soreavs distracted the men on the wall. "They can't hit you if they're busy dodging our spears," he told the axe men. "Once you get under that bridge, you'll be safe. The rest of us will withdraw, then rush forward when you have opened the door."

When his men were ready, Pronos gave the command. His soreavs rushed forward, hurling their spears at the men on the walls, but could barely manage to reach its height. The spears slowed at the top of their flight so that the defenders could often sidestep them. The Har-Torans, however, had no problem showering them with spears and large stones from the wall.

The axe men had hardly begun chopping when more stones and spears fell on their heads through the bridge-like structure. With a horrifying jolt, Pronos realized he had sent his men into a trap. In moments, half his axe men were dead, the rest sprinting back for safety.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Pronos shouted.

His men retreated. The defenders jeered from the wall.

He was going to need the angorym.

<====|==|====>

The usually cavernous, dark and empty halls of Har-Tor were now crowded with people. It's like that muddy ditch, Garanth thought, remembering the opening battle with the men of Nur while pushing through the crowd toward his former room. Every room, nook and cranny were filled with people sleeping on pallets—of which half were small children—crying, running around or generally making noise.

There were not enough phosite gems to supply light for everyone, so casks of keleos oil that had started to go rancid were pulled up out of stores and used to fuel small clay lamps. They added their own sour nut-like scent to the stench of thousands of unwashed bodies and the pervasive reek of ammonia, methane and the results of other less pleasant biological processes.

Macander, reunited with his family, didn't seem to notice. Garanth enviously watched him play with his children. Will I ever be allowed to have this? he thought watching the children get to know the uncle they had never met and his strange wife. They were fascinated and a little frightened of the faeyn woman, but once they overcame their fear, they could not stay away from her.

Suddenly desiring to see Corha, Garanth made an excuse to slip away from his daikon assistant and left for Karux's suite of rooms. Neither she nor Karux were there, but Netac stood alone in a practice room, staring at a stone pillar. He flung one arm out with a twist of his wrist. Chunks of stone flew from the pillar with a loud crack leaving deep gashes behind. He repeated the gesture in rapid succession, reducing the stone pillar to rubble, then stared at it until the pillar reformed itself.

"Why aren't you working on lifting the curse?" Garanth asked.

Netac glanced over his shoulder, "Oh. It's you." He went back to staring at the pillar.

"What are you doing?"

"My own research.

"Where is Karux?'

"Lately, he's been attending meetings." Netac gave up his staring, stepped over to a jug by the wall and drank from it. "When he's not doing that, he's staring at the wall and thinking."

"Have you given up trying to lift the curse?" Garanth asked.

"We've given up on our approach. We're not going to be able to overpower it."

"So what are you going to do?"

Netac shrugged. "Have you heard Karux's idea that everything in this world is made up of combinations of four basic elements?"

"Yes. I've heard him call them by strange names which seem to mean fire, water, air and stone. These are, somehow, tied to the N'phesh."

"Well, he's begun to suspect that each element has an opposite, a dark twin that counters it."

"And he thinks the void may be an opposite of one of the main elements?" Garanth asked.

"Possibly."

"But the elements and their opposites would have existed before creation. The void came into existence during the world's creation. If anything, the void would be the opposite of everything."

Netac set his jug down and returned to staring at the pillar. "We don't know if any of his theory is true. All of the opposites may have come into existence when the world was created. If you ask me, we should throw all the elemental spirits at it at once to see which work."

"Throwing spirits into the void isn't going solve anything."

"That's what you do with a wound, don't you? Cover the hole with a bandage?"

"Yes, well, to make a bandage for the Void you'd need some sort of ordered structure and a way of attaching it to this world to keep it from falling in."

"Go talk it over with Karux. You're disturbing me." Netac made a gesture and a chunk of stone exploded from the pillar.

"Where are Harkin and Corha?"

"Harkin is amusing the orphans with toys he's created. That's how he's using the craft," Netac sneered. "Corha, whom I'm sure is the one you're really interested in, is back in the old classrooms teaching the younger students." Netac attacked his pillar again

Garanth left without replying and found Corha crouched before three young students, drawing in their sand trays and trying to explain how the shapes of the elements looked once one learned to see them. She spoke patiently and gently to the students who responded with eager attentiveness.

She would make a good mother to her children, Garanth thought. Having never had a mother, he wasn't certain, but he thought he would have liked having a mother like her. He admired her from the entryway until she happened to notice him and was pleased to see her wearing his bracelet.

Seeing the big grin on his face, she returned a blushing smile of her own. "I think that is enough for right now. I believe it is time for dinner." She rose and approached him while the children put away their trays. "Have you eaten yet?"

"No."

"Come." She led him to the women's apartments and hid him behind the corner of the wall as she peered around it. "Kala, where's Bidra Mori?"

"She's gone to dinner and left me in charge."

"Do you mind if Garanth comes in and share's a meal with me?"

Garanth leaned over her and smiled at Kala who sat in Bidra Mori's customary chair where she could watch the entrance.

"No. But if he's still here when she comes back, I didn't see him come in."

With a giggle, Corha took his hand and pulled him inside.

"I thought you weren't allowed to cook inside except in special areas," Garanth said as Corha produced a pan from a cupboard and began chopping vegetables.

"You're not allowed a flame larger than a candle," Corha said. "It fouls the air even without the smoke. Fortunately, I don't need a flame." She sat on the ground next to the make-shift fire pit and concentrated on the pan. Slowly, the food began to sizzle and soon the savory smells of cooking food rose.

They ate and chatted about life, forgetting for a moment the vast tireavs outside waiting to kill them. At some point Corha moved closer and they kissed, forgetting their food. Garanth held her just long enough to get over the surprise of her in his arms, when Corha stiffened.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Karux wants us."

Somewhere in the distance, a horn's loud blast echoed through the halls of Har-Tor.

"Something has happened."