"Certainly." Hasos hesitated. "But the pursuers know not to go too deep into enemy territory. They can't risk blundering into a trap or leaving our own fields unprotected for too long."

Aoth closed his eyes for a moment. "With all respect, milord, you'll never gain the upper hand playing such a passive game. When Threskel commits an outrage, you need to punish them. They have to finish worse off than they started."

Hasos laughed a joyless little laugh. "That sounds sensible. But have you ever been inside Threskel?"

"Once, briefly."

"Apparently so briefly that you didn't pick up on what a dangerous place it is."

"I lived and fought in Thay, milord. I doubt I'll be impressed."

"How many dragons did you kill in Thay?"

Aoth smiled. "That's a fair hit. Not many, I admit-and like any sane man, I have a healthy respect for them. Still, we need to retaliate."

"It's possible the raids are just the precursor to an actual invasion."

"More than possible. The war hero and Lord Nicos think it's very likely."

"That means we should conserve our strength for the siege to come."

"No, it gives us even more reason to strike first. We can gather intelligence. Steal or destroy supplies and kill soldiers before the Great Bone Wyrm has a chance to use them against us."

"You do what you like," Hasos said. "But I won't lend any of my troops to such a mission."

Aoth swallowed a bitter retort. "I understand. You have to do what you think prudent. Can you at least lend me a couple of horses?"

F.

I.

V.

E.

1928 TARSAKH.

THE YEAR OF THE AGELESS ONE (1479 DR).

Gaedynn disliked riding horses. He liked the animals themselves well enough, but he preferred to refrain from an activity unless he did it well. And he'd never learned to sit a horse with exceptional grace or skill. His elf captors hadn't kept such animals, and after his release he'd generally ridden griffons.

But a griffon would have been far too conspicuous a mount for a spy, especially since griffon riders were about to start raiding Threskel. Gaedynn's black mare and Jhesrhi's paint gelding were the next best thing. Even in an impoverished, sparsely settled land, horsemen weren't rare enough to attract a great deal of curiosity, and the animals would help them complete their fool's errand and escape back across the border quickly.

He studied the terrain ahead, rolling scrub dotted with the occasional stand of trees. A cold wind out of the north made him squint and drove stinging rain into his face. Bunched, gray-black clouds and flickers of lightning suggested it was raining harder in the direction they were traveling.

He glanced over at Jhesrhi. Wrapped in a drab hooded cloak that did a fair job of hiding her shining hair, amber eyes, and the other aspects of her exotic comeliness, she could have been any commoner traveling for any mundane reason. Bundled in cloth, her staff might have been the central support of a wayfarer's tent or even a fishing pole.

"I wouldn't be averse to more cover," Gaedynn said.

Jhesrhi didn't answer. He wasn't surprised. She hadn't said a word since they'd set forth from Soolabax. But he was getting tired of journeying with a mute.

"Do you think we've crossed the border yet?" he asked, and then waited for her reply.

Which didn't come.

"Good point," he said, just as though it had. "There probably isn't a clearly defined boundary. Who would bother to survey this dreary kingdom? And where would you find a Chessentan with the requisite knowledge? If they're ignorant enough to fear magic, they're likely deathly afraid of mathematics as well."

He paused. She didn't answer. He started to feel genuinely annoyed. Or perhaps concerned.

Either way, it tempted him to provoke her just to elicit some sort of reaction, even if the words picked at his own scabs too. "You know, I've been pondering what possessed Aoth to send the two of us on this mission. Of course, I remember what he said. I know how to uncover secrets in the wilderness and civilization alike. You're a wizard. Together we, and only we, have the necessary skills.

"Still," he continued, "with Khouryn headed south, this leaves the old man without any senior officers at all. In normal circumstances he would have balked at that, no matter what the object. I think sweet Lady Firehair came down from the moon and whispered in his ear. She heard you say it would never work for us to run away together, and she decided to prove you wrong."

Jhesrhi still didn't answer.

Now Gaedynn knew he was more worried than otherwise. He erased the grin from his face and the teasing edge from his voice. "What's wrong, buttercup? I thought I understood why Luthcheq bothered you. By the Black Bow, I'm not even a wizard, and it bothered me too. But we're out of there now, and you're still upset. If anything I'd say you're feeling worse."

"I'm all right," Jhesrhi muttered.

"The statue speaks! Astounding! But plainly you're not all right. Tell me what the problem is."

"No. You just want me to break down because you think that while I'm weak, you can take advantage of me."

Stung, he smirked. "Can you think of a better reason?"

It was only after the words left his mouth that it even occurred to him that he could have responded differently, with something other than a jeer. But by then she'd already sunk back into stony silence.

He told himself it was for the best. For after all, he didn't much care what she was feeling or why. Why should he? Keen-Eye knew, nobody, Jhesrhi included, had ever been all that interested in easing his distress.

The rain fell harder, and the sky darkened. Gaedynn judged it was around midday, but it looked like dusk. That was why he didn't spot the guard outpost until he and Jhesrhi were nearly on top of it. That and the fact that there was no watchtower or bastion there, just a barricade of tangled brambles across the trail and a hole in one of the hillsides it ran between.

Gaedynn reined in the black mare. "Shouldn't your damned wind have warned you we were coming up on that?"

"This is new country," Jhesrhi said. "I'm still making friends with it. But I don't see anyone. Maybe it's abandoned."

As if to mock her hope, two dwarf-sized figures with reptilian heads emerged from the opening. They were kobolds, specimens of one of the barbaric races often found in service to dragons.

Gaedynn grimaced. Had they detected the outpost in time, he and Jhesrhi could have ridden around it. But they couldn't do that now without arousing suspicion.

Oh well. Like his companion, he'd disguised himself as a shabby drifter in search of nothing more than the chance to shoot, forage, filch, or-if absolutely necessary-earn his next meal. He expected to put the deception to the test many times before his mission was through, and he supposed this might as well be the first.

He kept one hand on the reins and raised the other to show that it was empty. Then he walked his horse forward. Jhesrhi did the same, except that she lifted both hands and guided the gelding with her knees. Show-off.

They halted their mounts in front of the barricade. For an instant Gaedynn wondered how the hunched, stunted kobolds with their oversized skulls, long lashing tails, and musky stink could simultaneously be so like and unlike the dragonborn he and his comrades had come to know over the course of the past few tendays.

"Names," rasped the kobold on the left. Like his comrade, he wore the crossed-scepter-and-wand emblem of Kassur Jedea. Kassur was the nominal king of Threskel, although it was common knowledge he took his orders from Alasklerbanbastos just like everybody else.

"I'm Azzedar," Gaedynn replied, "and this is Ilzza." They were common Untheric names, and many Threskelan families descended from Untheric stock.

Two more kobolds wandered out into the rain. They must have had a sizable warren under the hill.

The black mare wasn't a war-horse. Possession of such a valuable mount would have immediately discredited Gaedynn's disguise. She was just a nag, and she tried to shy away from the reptiles. He drew back on the reins to steady her.

"Coming from Chessenta?" asked the kobold who'd spoken before. The glint in his narrowed eyes belied his casual tone.

"Abyss, no," Gaedynn said. "Or mostly no. I may have done some hunting on the other side of the line, but not lately. Too many patrols. Mainly I've been camped just a little south of here."

"Where are you headed?"

"My brother's farm. His bitch of a wife wouldn't let Ilzza and me winter there, but they'll need help with the spring planting."

"Well," said the kobold, "maybe they'll get it. If you can pay the toll."

"Toll?" Gaedynn asked.

"Maybe you haven't heard, wandering around in the wild, but we're going to war. And the Bone Wyrm needs coin to fight it."

Gaedynn was reasonably certain that no copper collected at this remote outpost would ever find its way to Alasklerbanbastos's coffers. But from his perspective, that was hardly the point.

"I don't have any coin," he said.

"You've got horses," the kobold answered. "True, they don't look like much, but they're something. How do you feel about walking the rest of the way to your brother's place?"

"Wait." Gaedynn rummaged in a saddlebag. "I have a little dreammist." He pulled out a bundle wrapped in a rag and leaned down to proffer it.

The kobold slipped around the end of the barricade, opened the packet, and sniffed the few bits of brown crushed leaf inside. "You don't have much."

"Enough for you and your friends to have some fun," Gaedynn said.

"Oh, take it and let them go on," a different kobold said. "We're getting soaked."

"All right," said the first kobold, evidently a sergeant or something comparable. It waved a clawed hand, and its fellows started to drag the mass of brambles aside.

"Stop," a new voice rumbled. Less sibilant and two octaves deeper than the kobolds' voices, it spoke Chessentan more clearly. Perhaps because it issued from a throat and mouth better shaped for human speech.

Gaedynn turned. Something more or less man-shaped, but as tall on its own two feet as he was on horseback, peered back at him from the darkness inside the burrow.

The big creature yawned. "What do we have here?"

"Nobody," said the sergeant. "Just vagabonds."

His superior emerged into the light and the rain. Perhaps it was a kind of kobold too. It had the same sort of claws, fangs, and greenish leathery hide. But sorcery, or conceivably mixed blood, had produced something more closely resembling one of the hulking giant-kin called ogres.

The big creature looked at the weapon clipped to Gaedynn's saddle. "That's a fine bow for a vagabond."

Wishing he'd made do with an inferior one, Gaedynn inclined his head. "The one fine thing I own, sir. You wouldn't take it, I hope. It's what keeps the woman and me alive when times are lean."

The leader grunted. "We'll see." It turned to the ordinary kobolds. "Search them. Persons and baggage both."

If Jhesrhi knew a spell to change the creature's mind, or to extricate herself and Gaedynn from this situation in some other way, now would be an excellent time to cast it. Before the kobolds unwrapped her staff or found the gold and silver they carried. Hoping to nudge her into action, he shot her a glance-then felt a pang of dismay.

Since they'd reached the barricade, she'd sat silently with her head bowed. She was trying to look cowed and submissive before the kobolds.

But now appearance had become reality. She was trembling.

By the Nine Hells and every flame that burned there, what was the matter with her? He'd watched her battle foes far more intimidating than kobolds and ogres without flinching.

"Get off your horses," the kobold sergeant said.

Gaedynn wished he could drive an arrow into the reptile's upraised snout. But an innocent traveler wouldn't have had his bow strung, and so his wasn't either. He yanked his sword from under the bundle intended to render it inconspicuous and cut.

The sergeant jumped back out of range. One of the other kobolds cast a javelin. It flew past the black mare's head.

Spooked, she reared. Caught by surprise, Gaedynn tumbled from the saddle and over her rump to slam down on the ground.

Kobolds rushed him. Luckily they had to maneuver around the barricade and the frightened horse to do it, in the moment before she galloped back down the trail. It gave him time to roll to his feet and meet his first attacker with a slash that split its belly.

Javelins jabbed at him, and he knocked them out of line. Back foot splashing down in a puddle, he retreated to keep the smaller reptiles from encircling him. Then, from the corner of his eye, he glimpsed something looming on his flank. He pivoted in that direction, and the big creature's long, brass-studded war club whizzed down at his head.

His warrior's instincts kept him from trying to parry, lest he break his sword and perhaps his arm with it. Instead, he sidestepped and slashed the officer's forearm. The brute snarled.

Instantly, before it could heave the club into position for another swing, he followed up with a second cut. A poorly aimed one-it missed the officer's torso but at least gashed its lead leg. The brute stumbled backward, and Gaedynn turned just in time to parry another javelin thrust from one of the lesser kobolds. As he did, he noticed more of the creatures running out of the warren.

"Jhesrhi!" he yelled. "Do something, damn it!"

But she just kept sitting on the paint that, eyes rolling, looked like he'd bolt as soon as he discerned a clear path through the combatants. She wouldn't even lift her head and look at the fight. Which likely meant Gaedynn wasn't getting out of this.

The leader dropped its war club, turned, and ran at Jhesrhi. Perhaps caught by surprise, or simply still frozen with dread, she didn't even try to resist as it grabbed her, dragged her out of the saddle, and held her up in the air like a toy.

"Drop your sword!" it bellowed. "Or I'll pull her arms off!" Apparently Gaedynn's prowess had impressed it enough that it didn't want to risk losing any more of its warriors or getting sliced up any worse itself.

It would be idiotic to surrender. By her inaction, Jhesrhi had forfeited any claim on his consideration, and yielding probably wouldn't help either of them anyway. He'd likely be trading a slim chance for none at all.

Yet he didn't know if he had it in him to ignore the threat. He was still wondering when she finally came to life.

Perhaps it was the awareness that she was actually being held, touched, that roused her. She suddenly screamed and thrashed, and though her frenzy had no art in it-no precisely articulated words of command or flowing mystic passes-magic answered her anyway. The officer's face burst into flame.

The hulking thing roared and let Jhesrhi drop so it could slap at the fire as it floundered backward. It reeled into the barricade. There was little chance of the thorns piercing its thick hide to any great effect, but Gaedynn supposed every little bit helped.

Jhesrhi rounded on her horse just as the animal lunged to follow the mare back down the trail. She rattled off a brief incantation, and the paint froze, his momentum nearly pitching him forward onto his nose. Even though Gaedynn wasn't the target of the spell, for an instant his muscles bunched and locked as well.

Jhesrhi darted to the gelding and grabbed her staff. The rawhide lashings around the wrapping unknotted themselves.