"Stupid," Prince Tayyichiut insisted. "You think I know nothing of the magical world, any more than I do of battle. You don't even pretend. I thought at first we might become friends, but . . . you can treat me like an enemy if that makes you feel better, but I won't tolerate being dismissed as unworthy."

With a casual flick of his arm, Tayyichiut settled Little Brother on his back and rose effortlessly. He started off in the rolling, bow-legged gait of the Harnish riders. None of his hurt feelings showed on his face.

Llesho came to his feet but made no move to stop the prince. He knew what Tayyichiut was feeling just below the surface, had experienced it himself often enough. Honesty wouldn't help either, the way he felt.

"What do you know?" he asked.

As an apology, it sounded more like an accusation, but it stopped the Harnish prince long enough to give an answer.

"Once, when I was very young, I surprised Bolghai at his private ceremonies. He bit me on the thumb." Carelessly, Tayyichiut stuck out his hand, thumb up as if counting off on his fingers. Each sharp little stoat tooth had left the mark of its own puncture in the fleshy pad. "So, when the terrifying Captain Kaydu entrusts her animal companion to my care, and her horse goes riderless to battle, I can pretend to be a fool, so that I don't offend the officious boy king with delusions of being better than I am. Or, I can admit that I've been watching for a small creature in the grass."

"Look up."

Tayyichiut raised a sardonic eyebrow, but understanding glinted in his eyes. Neither of them could resist a quick glance at the empty sky.

"And I am am better than you." Llesho's taunt had none of the edge that would have made it impossible to say whether he'd meant it. better than you." Llesho's taunt had none of the edge that would have made it impossible to say whether he'd meant it.

Tayyichiut puffed out his chest and struck a fierce pose. "Any contest, any time." Little Brother dented the swagger of the boast when he appeared above the prince's left shoulder to rub the top of his head on the underside of the princely jaw.

"So, you're afraid of her, too." When it came to issuing challenges, Llesho clearly had the advantage.

Tayyichiut caught the "too" at the end of it, though, and disciplined his smile to a rueful seriousness only after a struggle. "I would have thought the mighty king of the Cloud Country feared no one."

Llesho nearly choked trying to stifle the snort that escaped anyway. "Oh, please! She was my combat instructor and my first captain-and that was back when I was the lowly corporal, and no king of any kind." Not quite the truth, but close enough.

"You are born a khan-or a king-my father would say. It only takes circumstances to reveal that fact to those who would elect you."

"So you won't follow your father as the khan by right of birth?"

"Not unless the chieftains choose me. Should I live long enough, I'll first stand for chieftain and if our clan elects me, I will have our vote in the ulus. Eventually, when we need a new khan, the people will perhaps select me for the honor, and perhaps someone else. Yesugei is a good man, for example. I hope to be revealed as khan, of course, as you are revealed to be the king of the Thebin people."

"That sounds like something the Lady SienMa would say," Llesho thought out loud. Thebin didn't have chieftains to elect a king like the Harn did, but Prince Tayyichiut was right. He'd been chosen out of all his brothers for some inborn trait he still didn't understand, but her ladyship had seen it all along.

"The mortal goddess of war." The prince shot him an uneasy glance. "My father is right, you do travel with wonders."

"It didn't feel much like a wonder when Kaydu was pounding the stuffing out of me every day, though."

Tayyichiut puffed out a breath, his eyes on the sky and his mind far from her ladyship. "Yeah, but she is sooo hot!" Kaydu, of course. Only Shou could think such thoughts about the Lady SienMa "Yep." And she should have been back by now. It was time to stop waiting and start looking.

"Don't do it."

"What?"

"I'm not stupid, remember. Don't go after her. Your brothers will have my head if anything happens to you."

"That won't happen."

"At least, take me with you. I can fight-"

Llesho shook his head. "If I do anything that stupid, Kaydu will have my my head." He didn't say if he meant head." He didn't say if he meant going going after her or taking the prince with him when he did it, but Tayyichiut didn't ask, so he didn't have to lie. after her or taking the prince with him when he did it, but Tayyichiut didn't ask, so he didn't have to lie.

Bixei came to get them then, and they parted company with a last backward invitation- "Call me Tayy. All my friends do. Even the ones my father didn't order to like me."

Ouch. Llesho winced at his own slight. "Okay." Then, because he felt he owed him something more, he said, "Bixei and I were adversaries before we were friends." He didn't say "too" but they all heard it, even Bixei.

"You have to knock him on the head a few times, but eventually he comes around," Bixei assured the prince, then pretended to surprise. "But you already know that!"

Llesho gave him a shove, and even found a laugh to give his friend as a reward. But under the camaraderie, he was plotting his escape.

The Harnish pony he rode kept to a steady, ground-eating gait and knew the way the land fell here, so he gave her only as much attention as she needed to keep them heading west. He wasn't sure how this dream traveling worked. He knew he could reach the dream world easily enough running in a circle, but what would happen if he tried to do it while riding? For that matter, how could he transform into his spirit-being on horseback?

Whatever happened, he had to try. Yesugei would keep them on course if he succeeded, and Carina, at least, would know what he'd done and calm the others until he returned. That assumed his body didn't fall out of its saddle and break its roebuck leg when he leaped, but he had to take some risks.

If he worried about it, he'd never find his missing scouts, so he let go of every consideration but the important one-how to do this on horseback. Running was running, though. He settled deep into the saddle and caught the rhythm of his pony-her breath swelling the barrel of her chest between his legs and the beat of her hooves up through his knees, and the way her neck moved, as if she reached for each step with head and heart. When he found her stride in the rhythm of his own bones, he felt himself changing, running on four legs with the weight of a rack of antlers heavy on his head.

Kaydu, he thought, and in his dream-form, searched for her throughout all the worlds. There. There. He reached, and trod the air with his four sharp hooves, lifting toward the eagle circling low over a dark cloud rising up from the ground below. he thought, and in his dream-form, searched for her throughout all the worlds. There. There. He reached, and trod the air with his four sharp hooves, lifting toward the eagle circling low over a dark cloud rising up from the ground below.

She dived and he followed. Not a cloud, he saw, but the very earth, risen up taller than the forests in rocky pillars that walked on two legs. No more than a hand's count of creatures tore up the ground on which their prey made their stand, but each was the size of a hillock. In the unnatural chaos of churned earth and shadow below, Wastrels and Harn fought a desperate, hopeless battle against creatures who used whole uprooted trees as weapons against swords and spears. The stone-men wore earth and grass like a suit of clothes, but their gray faces flashed mica in the sun. Their shadows shed a darkness over all the ground below as they fought over their catch. Llesho watched in horror as a pair of the creatures tore a screaming Wastrel in two between them and abandoned their argument to feast on his human flesh.

The smell of death quivered in his nose, and roebuck instinct trembled in his muscles. Flee! Flee! But he'd sent these men to their deaths-Danel and Zepor, and, Goddess forgive him, Harlol, who had followed him out of Ahken-bad to his death. It was his fault, and he wouldn't leave them to the harsh mercy of these horrors. But he'd sent these men to their deaths-Danel and Zepor, and, Goddess forgive him, Harlol, who had followed him out of Ahken-bad to his death. It was his fault, and he wouldn't leave them to the harsh mercy of these horrors.

"Nooo!"

Lowering his head to attack as Kaydu pecked and gouged with talon and beak, he struck the nearest of the stone monsters with his front hooves. Raking a gouge across its middle with his antlers, he drew clear spring water like blood from the wound. Llesho had no time to contemplate what this must mean, but pressed his advantage. He turned and kicked out with his back legs, putting all his strength into the blow.

The creature bellowed in rage. Raising a giant hand, it swung at him with the tree it used for a club. He leaped back, evading the worst of the blow. Kaydu swooped to his rescue, pecking at its flinty eyes with a beak that could snap bone but had no effect on the glassy stone. When the stone monster turned its attention to her, Llesho attacked again, but the first wound he had torn in its flesh had already healed itself. The second must surely do likewise.

As they fought, the screams and cries of their friends on the shattered earth rose up to them, urging them to greater efforts. Llesho wished his spirit-being was a dragon rather than a roebuck-a dragon might defeat the creatures who murdered his friends and allies. He didn't have that skill. But Kaydu- Maybe she could have done it if she'd come upon the scene in her human form, but the eagle's brain was smaller, the transformations more difficult. We are well and truly dead, We are well and truly dead, he thought, as a giant grassy hand reached up and grabbed him around the throat. It squeezed and he choked, feeling the air passage close tight under the powerful grip. He twisted his head, goring at its wrist with his antlers. Bleeding clear, cold water, it loosened its grasp on him, and Llesho wriggled away. Kaydu was suddenly between them. he thought, as a giant grassy hand reached up and grabbed him around the throat. It squeezed and he choked, feeling the air passage close tight under the powerful grip. He twisted his head, goring at its wrist with his antlers. Bleeding clear, cold water, it loosened its grasp on him, and Llesho wriggled away. Kaydu was suddenly between them.

"Goooo! Goooooo!" The harsh bird cry shaped the lipless word as she beat her wings in his face.

The screams from the scarred ground below had died. Llesho hesitated, searching for signs of life, but found none. Their friends lay scattered and still, their clothing torn, their bodies ravaged, their blood black upon black in the shadows cast by their rocky assailants. He faltered, remembering the Dinha's prophecy. Goddess, Goddess, Goddess, Goddess, what had he done? what had he done?

"Gooo! Goooo!"

When he did not immediately obey, Kaydu raked a talon lightly across his nose-not enough to do him any serious damage, but it jolted him out of his shock. The monsters of loam and stone were falling, melting back into the earth, but an army of crows blackened the sky, heading for the dead. Llesho threw himself among them and tossed his antlers to chase them away. There were too many. He couldn't stop them as they pecked at the flesh clinging to the gnawed bones left behind by the monsters who had disappeared into the earth again. Kaydu wheeled overhead, diving among the crows but having no more success than he at chasing the huge flock away.

Staggering with grief and the blind confusion of his animal body, Llesho drew a little apart from the feeding frenzy of the birds. Exhausted, his dream set him free and he sank to the earth as himself, with legs weak as a newborn's. His mind had grown too numb to care that the ground he lay on might rise up and rend him as it had his scouts. His dead lay picked by the crows on the field of battle, but whatever had animated the rocky plain had departed. Nothing remained but the wind in the grass and the blood soaking into the ground.

Kaydu did not settle, but landed nearby with many small hops and lifts into the air, unwilling to trust to the uneasy earth. She did not return to human form, but cocked her head and watched him out of the beady predator's eyes of her eagle shape.

Water splashed on his knee, and he looked up, but the sky was cloudless. Another drop fell and he realized, distantly, that he must be weeping, though he felt too weary even for sorrow. Kaydu inched her way nearer by small hops until she had settled in the curve of his outstretched arm. With the feathered comfort of her nearness warm against his side, he let his eyes slide closed. Impossible as he would have thought it, he slept.

Standing among the dead in the field of monsters, Pig waited for him on the other side of dreams.

"You knew this would happen!" Llesho accused the Jinn.

"So did you."

"No." Llesho shook his head, denying the accusation. "This isn't what I saw in my dream. If I'd known that Master Markko could raise monsters out of the grass itself against us, I would have stopped him before it came to this."

"Maybe." Pig shrugged, shifting his silver chains so that they clinked with the motion. "What happens when I drop this stone?" To demonstrate, he let go of the stone in his hand.

"It will fall," Llesho answered as it fell. He wasn't in the mood for lessons, but knew he wouldn't get what he wanted until he'd given the Jinn answers to his self-evident questions.

"And how did you cause that to happen?"

"I didn't. Stones always fall when they are dropped."

"Now you begin to understand a little about the dream worlds."

So that was the point of this exercise. It wasn't his fault. If he believed the outcome would always be the same, though, he was doomed from the start. "You sound like Lluka, with all paths leading to the one end he sees in his prophecy."

"If it doesn't happen," Pig reminded him, "It isn't a prophecy. It's just another failed possibility."

In all of Lluka's visions, the world always ended in chaos and despair. The Dinha had known that when she gave him her children. In the field where her Wastrels had died, it seemed natural that he should think of her not as the young Kagar who had wanted to be a warrior, but as the Dinha, mother of her people. He wasn't the only one being jerked around by fate. Well, fate and Master Markko. He knew who had raised those monsters out of the bones of the earth. He knew what he had to do next, too. His dream-long ago, it seemed now, before Ahkenbad had died-told him that. He would have walked away and refused the task, but he reckoned Harnish warriors and Wastrels had died for this. For the sacrifice of his dead, he had to finish it.

Reality was not quite the same as the dream where he had first seen the Tashek dead on the Harnish grass. As he approached, he saw that only empty orbits remained where the eyes had been, and the birds had left little flesh on the bones.

"The pearls of the Great Goddess must be here," he said, and dropped to one knee at the side of a Wastrel he recognized only by his flowing desert coats. "Or it was all a waste, for nothing."

"Yes," Pig sighed deeply and agreed, "a waste."

He didn't want to look closely, or to touch, but he didn't have any choice. The eyes, as he had seen, were empty, and the bones of the fingers had been scattered and broken. But he remembered the story Pig had told him, of monsters who plucked out the hearts of their victims and left a bit of stone in their place. Cringing inside at what he had to do, he moved the Wastrel's torn coats a little bit and groaned, sickened by what he saw. Within the bony cage of the warrior-priest's breast, a large black pearl lay where the heart ought to have been.

"I can't," he whispered, and curled his fingers into his palm, refusing the desecration.

"You must," Pig reminded him.

"Oh, Goddess." Reaching for the pearl, he cried out against his fate. "You ask too much!"

"Not yet," Pig told him. "Soon, though."

Llesho rose, wiping the pearl on his shirt, and put it in the sack at his neck with the others he had found both in dreams and in waking. As happened when the Jinn walked beside him, the pearl wound with silver wire that usually hung from the silver chain of the dream readers was missing. It would return when the dream was done.

Now, Pig led him through the grass, from body to body. At each, Llesho stopped and bowed his knee. Lodged between the ribs of the second and the third, he found not a pearl, but a small stone which Pig instructed him to remove and fling away.

"The hearts of men are sweet to the stone monsters," ; ; Pig explained. "When they reach inside for the prize, ; they leave a piece of themselves behind, like a broken ! fingernail. It's how you know they've been here." Pig explained. "When they reach inside for the prize, ; they leave a piece of themselves behind, like a broken ! fingernail. It's how you know they've been here."

"No," Llesho corrected him. "You know it when they reach into the sky and pluck you out of it by the throat."

"That works, too," Pig agreed.

They moved on, stopping again at a body with the tatters of a long Harnish tunic clinging to the bones. It was harder for Llesho to grieve over the khan's warriors; he kind of liked Tayyichiut, but didn't trust him yet, or any of the Harnish he had met. Yesugei came closest and he thanked the goddess that the man hadn't been among the dead. Another step and he nearly tripped over a stoat gnawing on a Harnish tunic.

"Get away from there!" When the creature didn't scamper away as he'd expected, Llesho pulled his foot back to give it a kick. Pig stopped him with a forehoof on his shoulder.

"It's his son," he said.

Looking closer, Llesho saw that the creature didn't gnaw the body as he had thought, but nuzzled its fierce snout at the dead man's breast while tears rolled down his furry cheeks. "Bolghai?" he asked.

Pig nodded.

They had sent only seasoned veterans out as scouts, none of the boys who had followed Tayyichiut. Even men the age of Yesugei or the khan must have had a father at some time, he figured, though he'd never expected to meet one. Pig must have seen his thoughts in the look he fixed on the stoat and its warrior son, for his eyes gleamed with a dark, ironic humor. It wasn't his fault he didn't know anything about the fathers of fathers. He hadn't exactly grown up knowing much about families at all.

"What's he doing?"

"Trying to dislodge the stone," Pig eased himself down, and stroked the stoat's head with a gentle forehoof. "It pins the dead man's soul to this plane, so that he can neither enter the underworld to join with his ancestors nor return to the wheel of life to be reborn."

As if he had only then become aware of their presence, which was possible, Llesho thought, given the depth of his grief, Bolghai rested his furry head on Pig's knee. With his mouth held open for each panting breath, the stoat set up a high, keening wail that rattled Llesho's nerves and ached in his teeth. He didn't touch the animal, remembering bite marks in Tayy's thumb, but carefully eased himself to his knee.

Pig nodded, holding the stoat's attention with soft murmurs while Llesho reached into the dead breast of the shaman's son and plucked out the rock that had pinned his soul to his corpse. Llesho was beyond surprise, so it came as none that the stone was a black pearl the size of his fist. He tucked it into the sack around his neck, with the others he had collected. The act seemed to release both father and son, for Bolghai shimmered into human form, the tears still wet on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry," Llesho started to say, but Bolghai didn't seem to hear.

"Thank you," the shaman whispered as he faded into nothing on the breeze.

When the last faint glow that marked where he had stood vanished from the air, Llesho turned to Pig, who stood grieving at the side of his friend's dead son.

"I have to find Harlol."

The Jinn nodded. He seemed too caught in his own feelings to speak, but he led on, to a body with the flesh still clinging to it lying on the bloody grass. He recognized Harlol's swords, and the red sash he wore around his waist. The orbits of his eyes were empty, and Llesho fell to his knees on the bloody ground with a whimper that sounded to him like no king at all.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

It seemed as though he had said nothing else since he'd been cursed with the knowledge of his destiny. Har-lol was dead, not reaching to pluck pearls out of their sockets as he had in the dream so long ago, before the Dinha had ever given her Wastrels to his quest. That didn't mean Llesho was getting off easy.

"His hand." Pig gestured with a forehoof.

"Oh, dear Goddess, no!" In death, Harlol's hand had plunged into his own breast. Beneath the cage of bone, dead fingers clenched around a pearl that rested where his heart should be.

Llesho pulled his own hands tight to his sides and rocked on his knees like a widow. "I can't, I can't, I can't," he said, over and over again, while Pig waited patiently for him to realize that, yes, he must, and therefore could.

"Can't you do this one thing for me?" Llesho asked.

"Is that a wish?" Pig asked, and all the world stilled in the moment. Not breath or breeze or beating wing broke the silence of the waiting world.

"Not a wish," he amended, "but my heart's desire, at a higher price than I can pay." With that he reached to cover Harlol's fingers with his own, and carefully pried them one from the other, away from the pearl at their center. He didn't add any more apologies. They'd been given and heard, or not, and he had nothing more to say that wouldn't admit too much. But he thought, within himself, I will miss you. I would have learned more about you, if fate had given us more time. I will miss you. I would have learned more about you, if fate had given us more time.

He rose to his feet, his eyes to the brittle turquoise sky, and when he looked again, it was to see the last shimmering glimmer as Harlol faded and vanished. Had he been there at all? Llesho wondered. Or was this just another dream, and he would waken to discover he had hours yet to stop the deaths, to send his party round another way. But when he turned away again, he saw Kaydu, still in the form of an eagle, watching him, and in the distance, the thunder of horses.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.