"LLESHO!" Tayy was the first to reach him, jumping from his horse before the beast had entirely brought its headlong gallop to a halt. "What's happened here? Are you all right? I can't believe you did this after you promised . . ."

The Harnish boy had him by the shoulders, was shaking him, but his anger was a mask for the concern that sent fine tremors through him. Llesho stared into his face, wondering- "Are you a dream? Or are you real?" he asked. He looked around for Pig, but couldn't find him. Kaydu was still there, however, watching him with the beady eyes of a predator. She spread her wings as if to take flight, but settled again when he reached a hand out to her.

"I'm real," Tayy assured him, "What are you?"

"I'm a dream," he muttered, and let himself fall into the safety of the other's arms. He knew exactly when he'd started to think of the Harnish prince as a friend. Bolghai, in the shape of a stoat, had lain his head on Pig's knee and wept for a fallen son, whom Llesho'd sent to his death. You couldn't stay enemies with a people who died for you. If Prince Tayyichiut wasn't an enemy, then he could accept his friendship. The logic had clicked in place between one heartbeat and another. He would be Tayy's friend, just as the boy had asked him. And he wouldn't let that kill either of them, no matter what. Tayy didn't know that, of course, but called for Carina in a voice high with panic.

"They're dead," he muttered into the shoulder that held him up, kept him from falling. "He raised the earth itself, stone monsters that tore them to pieces, and I couldn't stop it!"

"Gods of earth and water!" Tayyichiut muttered. "Are you talking about something real, or a dream thing?"

"Both, I think. Kaydu won't turn back."

They both looked over at her. She looked back, her intelligence dimmed to the hunting instincts of a bird. She didn't seem to recognize them at all.

"Goddess, Llesho, what happened?" Thank the goddess, it was Shokar who grabbed him away from Tayyichiut. He couldn't have tolerated Lluka's touch. "You were on your horse, riding with the rest of us, and then you were gone. How did you get here?"

"Dreams." He shivered, let his brother hold him for a moment more, then pushed himself away. He needed to be a king, no matter how bad it felt.

Yesugei watched him out of wide, wary eyes. Not the dream travel, he knew-as a chieftain of the Qubal clans, he'd seen the magic of his own shaman often enough. But he'd caught sight of the battlefield over Llesho's shoulder.

"They're all dead." Six men, on a field that had risen up against them. Carina perceived that he had suffered no injuries, and followed the direction he pointed, into the broken ground where the bodies had lain. "Bolghai's son was among them. I didn't know-"

"Otchigin." Tayyichiut nodded sadly. "He was my uncle's anda, his brother by sworn bond. Mergen will mourn him."

Bixei reached him, then, and once again he had to submit to a shaking, before Stipes could pull his companion away with an admonishment, "You aren't teammates in the arena anymore. That is no way to treat your king."

"It is when that king persists in behaving like an idiot, charging off alone into danger and doing it in ways his sworn bodyguards cannot follow." Bixei gave him one last shake, but having said his piece, he stepped back, taking up a guarding position at Llesho's shoulder.

The Harnish prince gave Bixei a look frosty with disdain. "You shouldn't let your servants talk to you that way," he advised. "My father says that familiarity breeds unrest."

"He's not a servant." Llesho thought about it a moment. "I suppose he's more like your uncle's anda, sworn to me out of friendship and a debt of honor that he has assumed from another."

Tayyichiut eyed Bixei with more interest this time. "I suppose he knows lots of stories about your adventures."

"Too many," Bixei admitted. "What's happened to Kaydu?"

They didn't know. "Harlol's dead. Killed by the stone-men. We tried to fight them, but it was no use."

"They'll be gone, then." Yesugei looked out over the turned earth with the still wisdom that had drawn Llesho to trust him from the first. "When the stone men return to the earth, they take the bones with them."

The bodies had been there a few minutes earlier, when Llesho had walked among them, plucking stones from their chests. Some time during the press of greetings, they'd disappeared, leaving nothing but the print of their bones in the blood-soaked ground.

"How will we free their souls," Tayy asked, suddenly distraught as he hadn't been by the news of their deaths. "How can I return with such a failure on my back, to have given the soul of Mergen's anda to the stone-men!"

Running to the place of blood and mayhem, he kicked at the blackened turves. When he drew his sword to slash at the exposed rocks, however, Llesho grabbed his wrist and forced it down.

"He's free. They're all free."

"You don't understand. The stone-men pin their victims' souls to the ground they died on-"

"With a broken fingertip, left in the breast where their hearts used to beat." Llesho shuddered, remembering the sensation of drawing the stones from between the bones of the ravaged bodies. Three black pearls as well, though j he didn't know how they'd got there. "I know. Pig told me. I took care of it, for Bolghai."

"You're not just saying that to shut me up?"

Llesho shook his head. "I wouldn't do that. Not anymore."

"There are no souls but those of earth and air and water on this land." Carina joined them, offering comfort where she might, though what she had seen troubled her. "Evil has passed here, but it's gone now. It seems to have taken the hate with it." She passed a thoughtful gaze over Llesho, and he ducked his head, embarrassed not at the change in him, but that she had seen the hate he had carried in his heart until now.

"I saw Bolghai mourn his son and I realized how stupid I've been," he confessed. "Otchigin died in my service, just like Harlol and the Wastrels. I'd forgiven Harlol long ago for kidnapping me, and I figured it was time to stop holding a grudge against the Qubal clans, who'd done nothing to me but bear a resemblance to my enemies."

Kaydu had figured that out long ago-that's why Little Brother was peering over Tayy's shoulder now. It sometimes took him a while, Llesho figured, but he always got there in the end. Carina seemed to agree, because she gave him an absent pat and wandered off again to squat down beside the eagle that Kaydu had become.

His explanation seemed to satisfy the Harnish prince as well, though for him that just meant more questions. Tayyichiut eyed the battlefield in wary study. "Did your Tsu-tan call the stone-men from the earth? That's a very powerful magic."

"No." Llesho was sure of that. "He's a miserable sneak with a talent for hurting people. He learned that much from his master, but he doesn't have the skill or the ability to do something like this." He needed to pay a visit to the real power behind the attack, on his own terms this time.

"Don't even think it." Little Brother screeched to be let go, and Tayy let him clamber down his long, gangly arm, but he never broke eye contact with Llesho.

"What?"

"If you don't want me to know what you're thinking, you will have to go back to being enemies, because your face is clear as Lake Alta to your friends."

"He's right," Bixei agreed. "About your face, and and about not going after Markko on your own. After all we've been through to get here, don't let him goad you into doing something stupid that gets you killed this close to home." about not going after Markko on your own. After all we've been through to get here, don't let him goad you into doing something stupid that gets you killed this close to home."

Not close at all. The more li he put behind him, the farther away Thebin seemed to get. Maybe that was because of the armies that stood between, or maybe it was his own growing unease. The more he tried to think of Kungol as home, the more remote he felt. His fear of Master Markko paled beside this growing pain that Kungol was no more his home than Pearl Island had been, or Farshore Province. Perhaps he'd been wandering so long that he no longer had the power to feel at home anywhere he went.

And maybe they were right. Maybe he wanted to confront Master Markko because, when it came down to it, the battle that locked him to his enemy had become the only home he'd ever have. When had the thought of dying by a familiar hand become more comforting than that of living as a stranger everywhere? He was a fool, plain and simple.

"He's thinking again." Tayy addressed the comment to Bixei, with the question, "Does that always presage a quick leap into disaster, or does he sink into suicidal thoughts only when I'm around?"

"Master Jaks used to keep him focused." Bixei stared out over the recent battlefield, and Llesho followed him down that thought, to another field, and Master Jaks dead protecting him from the same enemy they pursued almost to the ends of the earth.

"I didn't know him for long, but his brother Adar seemed able to calm him when moods struck. And Master Den, of course, but he's with the army your father is bringing."

"Lucky for him," Llesho remarked, "I'm running through my teachers, and my brothers, like they were water in the desert."

Kaydu sat, one clawed talon curled under her and hungry eyes fixed on Little Brother.

"What happened to her?" Bixei asked. "She's never stayed in animal form this long before. Did Master Mar-kko-"

"I doubt he needed to. I think she really loved him, and she couldn't save him." "Harlol? Huh."

He'd noticed, of course, but none of them had taken it as seriously as they should have. Together, they watched as the eagle's fixed stare hypnotized the monkey. Tayy was the first to speak up. "She doesn't recognize him."

"She'll kill us if we let her eat him." Bixei started forward to rescue Little Brother, but Llesho pulled him to a halt with a firm hand on his shoulder. "Wait. If she kills him, we've lost her anyway." Tayyichiut looked at him as if he'd just confessed to eating babies for breakfast, but Bixei nodded, and held still. Magical forces gave an edge in battle, but only if you could depend on them totally. Better to know up front if they would slip control under pressure and turn against you. Even if it cost them Kaydu, they had to find out. Carina understood that as well, even as a healer. The knowledge marked her face with deep lines of sorrow, but like the rest of them, she waited.

Little Brother sat in the trampled grass, face scrunched in confusion as he frowned at his mistress. Several paces away, Kaydu cocked her head, as though she were deciding on the most effective angle for breaking the monkey's neck.

"Ahhh," he whimpered, and stretched out a monkey paw to touch her as if he expected her to transform herself and swing him onto her shoulder the way she had so many times before.

This time, however, she snapped at him with her heavy beak and shifted her weight uneasily from foot to foot. Llesho held his breath.

Little Brother rolled forward on his butt, looking around for help from some other direction, but Llesho didn't move. Kaydu hitched her wings and took a step back without breaking the gaze she fixed on her familiar. The monkey followed with a tiny creeping step forward, and the eagle reached, faster than Llesho or his companions could act, and snatched him up by the neck.

He'd seen hunting birds, and knew what came next. A quick toss of her head and she would snap Little Brother's spine. With care she might kill him without ever drawing blood. Llesho couldn't watch her, though. Not this time. Slowly he closed his eyes.

So he missed it when she changed, only realized when Little Brother's joyous shriek told him the monkey wasn't dead after all. When he opened his eyes, his captain stood before him. The untamed hunter lurked in her eyes, but they were shifting with the human pain of memory. She hugged Little Brother close, accepted his warm arms around her neck, but said nothing. Llesho expected Carina to do something healerish, or womanly, or something, but she dusted her hands off against each other as at the end of a dirty chore and wandered off with a satisfied smile that he didn't understand at all. They needed Habiba, and anger sparked at the Lady SienMa. She might be the mortal goddess of war and his own mentor on occasion, but she didn't have a right to demand Habiba's presence so far away when his daughter needed her father.

I hope you've been scrying your daughter, magician, he thought. he thought. I hope you've got a better idea of what to do for her than I have. I hope you've got a better idea of what to do for her than I have.

But no dragon appeared in the lowering sky, and there was no Harlol to sidle up beside her and calm her as he might the hunting bird. Only her father had had the same knack of treating her like a woman and a hunting bird both at the same time and in whichever form she took.

Tayyichiut hid his surprise behind a cough. "I knew about such powers, of course, from Bolghai. But it's a shock to actually see the change in person."

Llesho gave a little shrug. "Wait 'till you meet her father."

"Dragon blood?"

"Yep."

"I think I'll wait. Forever, if possible. But you never answered my question."

"What question?"

Kaydu was paying attention, too, stealing glances at the empty battlefield but, thankfully, tracking the discussion with all her wits about her.

"You're not dream traveling to confront this Master Markko fellow on your own."

"No," Kaydu informed him, still not given to more than brief, imperative statements, but in full command mode. "He's not."

"My father is bringing an army of ten thousand," Tayyichiut reminded them. "He'd be very disappointed if you cheated him of battle." There was enough in the statement to assuage Llesho's pride and nudge him to accept how ridiculous the idea was. If he reached Master Markko and defeated him one-on-one at his own magics, he still had an army of Harnish raiders to contend with. That army hadn't needed the magician to take Kungol; they wouldn't let it go even if he did vanquish their current leader. He might even be doing them a favor by ridding them of the magician.

"First, we rescue Hmishi and Lling and Adar," he agreed.

Kaydu shifted Little Brother to her shoulder. "Tsu-tan's war party lies not more than an hour from here," she reported, and started them moving back toward where their own forces waited. Yesugei and Shokar had held their army back, giving them the small privacy of distance to come to terms with their grief and resolve their differences. Now the time had come to act. "He must have trusted to the monsters his master raised here to stop us; he's made camp by the river."

Llesho squinted into the sky, estimating the daylight that remained. The clouds that had loomed in the eastern sky now made a low ceiling almost to the western horizon, but sunlight still slipped pink and gold around the edges. He reckoned they had time, if they didn't linger. So, plan on the move, relay through his captains. And Tayy's. Yesugei would see to that.

The chieftain cut a meaningful glance at Shokar, who returned the look with confidence. Bixei paid them no attention-no one measured him against a nation he was supposed to lead. He sought out Stipes and wandered off to deliver the plan to the small band of mercenaries who had come with him from Shan. Tayy, however, gave a sigh of long-suffering irritation that found an echo in Llesho's own breast.

"Do you ever get tired of their tests?"

"All the time," the Harnish prince answered. "All the time."

"Well," Llesho decided, "now it's time we tested them." Striding over with Kaydu at his right and Tayyichiut at his left, he said, "We ride now, and fight before dusk. Kaydu knows the way."

"He chose his stopping place for convenience to water, rather than defense," she reported. "The ground dips away to the river and the rise on either side obstructs his line of sight, giving us the tactical advantage. There's plenty of scrub and small clumps of twiggy trees close to the river. If we leave the horses a little way off, we can sneak into the camp itself and attack before he knows we are there."

"The bush attack." Tayyichiut nodded, knowing the tactic. "Break your forces into small squads and send them in from random directions, so that if one is sighted, the presence of the others remains hidden. When you're in position, I will bring my warriors around in the lake attack."

"What's a 'lake attack?'" Llesho wanted to know.

Tayy cupped his hands to demonstrate the closing of a circle. "We'll form a ring around the camp and attack from above, on all sides at once."

Yesugei nodded approval, but pointed out, "To be done properly, you should withhold half your force at least, and attack in waves."

Llesho recognized the suggestion for the test that it was. So did Tayy, who answered confidently.

"If we had a hundred more warriors, and this Tsu-tan the same," he agreed, "But we don't, and neither does he. Besides, if we don't take him in the first onslaught, he'll kill the prisoners in his rage."

Llesho was thinking the same thing. "We'll only get one chance to rescue them."

"And if you can't save them?" Lluka asked. His complexion had gone ashy pale from some vision Llesho didn't want to know about.

"Then we'll have all the time in the world for revenge. But I don't accept that as the only option." If all ended in chaos, then nothing he did could make things worse. Llesho found that freeing in a way he thought would terrify his brothers, who put too much faith in Lluka's visions. He believed that Lluka saw what he said; Llesho just wasn't convinced his brother understood what he saw. That made all the difference.

"Captains, advise your troops. Kaydu-"

She gave him a flash of warning in eyes gone cold and predatory. He shivered, but accepted that she didn't want his comfort or his pity.

"We ride for our cadre," he finished. Not what he wanted to say, but it reminded her of earlier ties than the one she had lost. She didn't want any bindings on her heart right now, but he wouldn't let her think she was alone, not as long as any of them were alive. We need you, We need you, he thought. he thought. We needed Harlol, too, but fate took that decision out of our hands before we left Ahken-bad. Before we met. We needed Harlol, too, but fate took that decision out of our hands before we left Ahken-bad. Before we met. He didn't know how much of that he communicated without the words she wouldn't allow, but she held Little Brother more tightly, and mounted her horse with a lighter step. That didn't reassure him. Llesho determined to keep an eye on her during the assault. He didn't know how much of that he communicated without the words she wouldn't allow, but she held Little Brother more tightly, and mounted her horse with a lighter step. That didn't reassure him. Llesho determined to keep an eye on her during the assault.

"You're not riding anywhere." Shokar, who knew better, rested a hand on the bridle of Llesho's horse. "You're a king now. It's your job to stay alive-"

It took him precious seconds to bring himself back from the battlefield of stone monsters and dead friends, back from the anguish of his captain. When he did, he brought with him the stony darkness that had taken root in his soul.

"No." Llesho kept his voice low, which seemed to make things worse. Silence tighted around their web of whispers. Dissension among the leaders always made the troops uneasy. He had to nip this fast, before they defeated themselves in their own ranks. "I'm a soldier. My masters trained me to fight and if we don't win this war, that's the only skill I have to sell."

Bixei caught his eye and held up an arm where the thick metal wrist guard of the mercenary guild gleamed. "We will be fighters for hire together," said the challenge in his sly smile.

"That's not all they've taught you," Shokar objected, but Llesho'd had enough of listening, and he had no intention of waiting for Lluka to add more doom to the discussion.

"I'm going," he said. "We don't have time to argue, and you wouldn't win anyway."

When he slung himself into his saddle, the Harnish prince did the same. "Chimbai-Khan, my father, says that kings fight their own battles, or they soon have no battles to fight."

No more battles sounded like the best outcome he could imagine, but he figured there was more to it. Hartal's battles were over, and so were Master Jaks'. The khan was right. Kings fought their own battles, or they died anyway, like his father had.

Shokar seemed to be working toward the same conclusion. "You know, if we die, Lluka will be in charge of the next battle."

"According to his visions, it's the end of the world. How much worse can even Lluka make that?"

He hadn't spoken the thought aloud before, but it didn't rattle his brother the way he expected. Lifting onto his own horse, Shokar heaved a put-upon sigh. "I don't know which of you is more trouble."

"My way, at least there is a chance of success," Llesho pointed out. "Lluka's way will save you an hour in the saddle, but could cost the kingdom."

"Right. You've made your point. Do you treat all your brothers this way?"