Pronos sat in Sheider's tavern drinking whatever was left in stock. Sheider and his family had disappeared along with nearly all of Mari's merchants during the festival of the Long Night. As Pronos drank, one of his guards came in. "Did you find Raeos?" Pronos asked.

"No. Or at least I don't think so."

"What does that mean?"

"I did find something that might be his head just outside the western passage."

"And Okuvas?"

"Neither hide nor hair."

Pronos refilled his drinking bowl. "Did you find any of the councilmen?"

"Not alive, no."

Pronos waved him away and the guard pouredhimself a drink, joining the other men holding bowls and silently leaning overhastily propped up tables. A few of their number were missing and the rest were hiding in the tavern. Pronos sat and finished his drink wondering how he could keep the city guard together if all their employers were dead.

"Pronos! Come out and bring your guard with you!"

The shout came from outside the tavern. Everyone threw questioning looks at the door. Pronos rose and poked his head out.

"Pronos! Come and bring your friends." The voice sounded like Andral's. It came from the upper market square.

Pronos left the tavern with his guard in tow.

Andral stood alone in the middle of the square, arms crossed and looking pleased with himself. "What are you doing here, Andral?"

"Giving you a choice."

"Giving me a choice?"

"Yes. You and your guard."

"And just what is this choice you are offering us?"

"To become one of my followers."

Pronos laughed. "Become one of your followers? Or what?"

"Or be consumed." Andral gestured to the surrounding rooftops

Hundreds, if not thousands of gob-bocari crouched on rooftops surrounding the square, their claws clicking against the clay tiles. They grinned, tusks gleaming in grimy faces.

Dozens of old men and women in ragged clothes filed in and stood on the square's far side. Pronos thought he recognized some of Tarakae's men among them.

Andral gestured toward them while speaking to the guard. "Come and join my followers. If not, you can try to run."

Several guardsmen started walking. One who remained behind shook his head in disbelief. "No. This is foolish."

Pronos walked up to Andral and spoke in a lowered voice. "Those are gob-bocari. Do you know what you're doing?"

Andral looked him in the eye. "Seeking justice and fairness."

"What does this have to do with justice?"

"Somewhere out there is the man who killed my Adra and a half-brother who seeks to kill me. I will kill them both."

Pronos shook his head and looked back at the rest of his guard.

"Is that all?" Andral asked the few guards who remained on the west side of the square. "Will you not join us?"

"You're mad," one of the guardsmen called out. "We'll not have anything to do with you."

Andral look up at the surrounding gob-bocari. "Go ahead."

With a scrabble of claws the gob-bocari launched themselves from the roof tops and galloped across the market place on all fours. A few men ran, a few remembered their spears and raised them, the rest cowered or simply accepted their fate. Pronos watched in horror as they were all pulled down and eaten alive.

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

"Archon, spears have been seen on the road to Kerwyn's Hill!"

Garanth looked up from the map table at the runner panting in his doorway. "How many?"

"About five hundred, we think."

Z'taes whistled.

Garanth shook his head. "Each time they come back, they bring twice as many men."

"The question remains as to whether this is the main attack or just a distraction," Anankaes tapped the map.

They had taken over the chief elder's house in Korion-Iscuron and were using it for their headquarters. When the blight had claimed their fields the majority of the villagers had gone to Har-Tor. Garanth studied the parchment on which he had copied the drawing from the map table back in Har-Tor.

"If it's a distraction," Labrose said. "It's a pretty convincing distraction."

"Still wishing you had taken them up on their offer?" Z'taes goaded. Labrose just returned a dark look.

"They've tried taking Kerwyn's Hill twice and failed twice. I don't think they're going to try a straight forward approach this time." Garanth muttered, thinking out loud.

"Is Kerwyn's Hill their real target?" Tekmos asked. "If it is, there's no reason to send men up the east side of the river. If it's not, there's no reason to send men to the hill, they'll need every one of their men to attack Har-Tor. Even so, I can't imagine they have enough to take it."

"Unless it really is a distraction," Anankaes said.

Garanth let his arcanths chew on their dilemma until it became clear that no new insight was forthcoming. He would have to make his best guess and act now or stand paralyzed until it was too late. "Z'taes, take a hundred men over there."

"There are only two hundred men at Kerwyn's Hill now," Labrose said. "Do you think three against five hundred will be enough?"

"We've repaired and reinforced their defenses. They should be able to hold it with the men they have now, but I'm afraid this attack isn't merely a distraction. It may be one part of a two pronged attack."

"What do you mean?" Z'taes asked.

"Consider this. Nur sends half or a little more than half of their forces to Kerwyn's Hill, forcing us to concentrate our men here. Meanwhile, it is nearly summer and our first harvest is ready. They send forces in to ravage the countryside and destroy the harvest. They wouldn't need many if we cross the river to stop the first attack at Kerwyn's."

"Forcing us to pull back spears from the hill to keep them from starving the rest of us out," Tekmos added.

"With large enough numbers and a large enough head start," Garanth continued, they could hit nearly all the koria between here and N'shia-Potoma, ford the river there and come down from the north to join their forces at Kerwyn's Hill." Garanth tapped the map. "They would then own this narrow point on the approach to Har-Tor and leave it weakened for their real attack."

Anankaes nodded. "Which would probably fall around the end of autumn and what would have been the second harvest."

"Exactly."

"So what's the plan?" Anankaes asked.

"Z'taes helps Kerwyn's Hill to hold off their attack while the rest of us move here." Garanth indicated a river on the map south of Korion-Iscuron. "It's not much more than a muddy ditch surrounded by dead trees, but we can hide our men on the north side of the river. We'll keep back a few hundred men here in Korion-Iscuron as a reserve. If the attack on this side isn't as large as we fear, our reserve can cross the river here and help free Kerwyn's Hill."

Anankaes leaned over the map. "Their forces will be between us and Kerwyn's Hill. That attack from behind may have worked last time, but they'll be prepared for it now."

"That's why I'm sending Z'taes and his men. They'll know what to do when the time comes."

"Do you want me to take some war dogs?" Z'taes asked.

Garanth smiled. He knew Z'taes was fascinated with the maccunai. "No. They won't be much good to you on the hill; they're more suited to open spaces where they can run. You'll need to take mostly light spears and, oh, fifty or so maccari to help defend the ground in case of a breech. We'll need the maccunai and the rest of the shield fighters here to help break up their forces."

Garanth paused to look at his arcanths. At least he didn't see any doubts among their concerned frowns. "Any questions? Concerns?" They shook their heads. "Very well, then. Let's get to it."

The men left and Garanth stared down at the map hoping he had guessed correctly. He wished Karux were there to at least offer advice, but he was back at Har-Tor working his students through his experiments. He thought briefly of Corha, then shook his head. He had to focus. He looked back at the map. One thousand men divided between three different locations.

When did he start thinking in such large numbers? Only merchants used those sorts of numbers. What was he trading in?

With a grim smile, he picked up his shield and spear. The question answered itself.

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

Theris was never entirely sure when he entered Drymus, the city of the Faeyn. They simply entered the forest and after some time of following winding trails, large numbers of faeyn abruptly appeared, moving talking and living among the trees. The faeyn seemed to have a way of shaping the trees to form the structures they wished. Some lived in the canopies on large platforms woven from living branches while others lived in large hollow spaces grown inside enormous trees. Most lived in subtly screened areas between the trees which would appear to open up abruptly when passing between walls of carefully tended brush. The trees' canopy served as their roofs, directing water away to scattered open spaces or into large hollow tree trunks which also served as cisterns. This was so effective that what Theris had first taken as stone pathways were actually irrigation trenches filled with porous stones, directing needed water back to the trees' roots.

Theris and his men lived there for months learning the ways of the faeyn, their language and the use of their bows. They were a calm, thoughtful, even peaceful people, yet they were also tenacious hunters who relished the challenge of testing their skills against the most dangerous of beasts. And people they were, despite their animal-like characteristics which Theris had grown to overlook. He would sometimes find himself staring abstractedly at one of Toeksa's pointed ears, or the vertical oval of a pupil, the surprisingly sharp curve of an eyetooth or the fine, short, fur-like hairs on an arm and realize with surprise that she was of another race. On those startling occasions however, he struggled to remember which of them were human.

Though a few faeyn might occasionally give a human a disapproving or suspicious look, most accepting Theris and his followers. The humans generally attracted nothing worse than curious stares. During this time Theris spent every moment he could with Toeksa who served as his teacher and guide.

One day as they were walking along hidden glades within the forest, holding hands and having largely forgotten the food they were supposedly gathering, Toeksa gave him a sideways look. "You know, it is the custom among my people, that if a man wishes to take a woman as his wife he must pursue her. It is considered demeaning for a woman to pursue a man."

Her direct approach startled Theris. Perhaps it was their life as hunters that made even their language subtle. "Among my people, if a son wishes to take a wife, he has his father negotiate with her father." Theris gave her a knowing smile. "How is this pursuit done among your people?"

"He chases her and tries to catch her."

"Truly? That is all."

"Some of us can run pretty fast," she smiled and let go of his hand.

Theris stopped walking and grinned, wondering if she were preparing to bolt. "And he can just do this? At any time?"

Toeksa paused and gave him a coy look. "Well, if he's smart, he'll first see how hard she will run. The race usually takes place in Verd."

"So this is a formal race?" Theris asked, feeling a little disappointed. The idea of chasing her down and claiming her at that very moment had an unexpectedly fervent appeal to him.

"Usually," she said. Though sometimes families will arrange special races."

"I see." Theris grew thoughtful. "So normally, if—for example—I were to run in such a race, I'd have to wait until next year."

"Not necessarily. They often run a second race in the autumn. This is usually for older couples," she paused to give him a cryptic look, "those who for one reason or another lost a mate and seek to marry again."

Theris nodded and squinted up at the sky though the canopy of trees covered the sun. "I think it is nearly autumn now."

Toeksa smiled. "I believe it is."

Weeks later, Theris chased and caught Toeksa. Their marriage, along with a dozen other couples, was acknowledged in a reception following the race. Theris was surprised at how hard Toeksa had run. He almost feared she didn't want to be caught by him. She just laughed and said she wanted to see how serious he was in wanting to marry her.

They lived together for a few more months in what can only be described as wedded bliss, then one day the faeyn elders called him to a council. Theris and Toeksa showed up together, hand in hand. They mounted a set of stairs, carved into the stump of a colossal tree that had fallen a thousand years before Theris had been born, and stood before a half-circle of robed elders.

"When you joined our people," the faeyn chief addressed Theris solemnly, "you agreed to help lead them against the growing evil your kind have brought against the land."

"I did."

"Our oracles tell us that the evil we have feared will soon strike out against your people."

"My people? Where?"

"The people of the mountain. The people under your oracle's guidance."

"Har-Tor."

"The time has come for you to lead our own warriors to oppose this evil."

Theris cast a reluctant look at his wife. He had hoped he was done with fighting and killing. He had to pause to remember where he now kept the sword that had once lived on his hip. "If I must."

"I'll go with you," Toeksa assured him.

"I'd rather you stayed here, safe."

Toeksa frowned, her expression threatening to grow severe. "To spoil another's hunt is a great taboo."

Theris shook his head. "This is not a hunt. This is war. This is like throwing yourself between the paws of the great black pardos with nothing but a knife and hoping you'll live."

Toeksa did not look mollified. "Never the less, you cannot deny me."

"No," Theris agreed. "I can only fear for you."

Toeksa's frown softened. "You have no reason to fear for me. No one but you has ever caught me and I let you do that."

Theris gave her a wry grin which soon faded. The faeyn had no understanding of what they were asking to do.